Mark Dawes, Religion Editor

Under the theme 'Understanding your Assignment' thousands of Jamaicans are expected to participate in the seventh annual national prayer conference organised by Prayer 2000, which is being convened January 2-February 6.

The Rev Naila Ricketts, president of Prayer 2000, in a letter to pastors, inviting their participation, wrote: 'This conference will be different as we seek to establish prayer altars, as Abraham did, in every community in the nation, for an informed and sustained cry unto the Lord. We are on a journey into the 'Presence-Based Transforming Revival' we have been praying for and we are now at the eager anticipation and expectation phase'.

Lost grounds

'The strategy to be employed in taking back lost grounds and for a sustained corporate advance and assault against Satan will be revealed and set in motion during the conference. Please, ensure we have the fullest support of every member of your church. We need every person for the strategy to be effective. Jesus said I will build 'My Church', we need God's army, the Church, to be engaged so that the purpose of Jesus' coming is realised , that is, 'to destroy the works of the devil'.

The idea of the prayer altar, Ricketts explained, is grounded in the example of the Biblical figure Abraham. This patriarch established altars as he journeyed from Ur of the Chaldees into the land God promised him and his seed.

Ricketts explained that prayer altars are points of connection between God and mankind. The conference, he said, will establish geographical altars - i.e. locations where Christians will band together to pray for a community. Prayer altars, he further explained, are not necessarily confined to geographical places but may also represent an expression of unity to pray for a community.

Partnership

Ricketts, in a Gleaner interview in 2006, explained, "Prayer 2000 is a partnership of prayer ministries that was created to sufficiently raise the awareness, the need for, and the prayer level throughout the country in order to facilitate the revival, reformation, transformation and restoration of our nation ... The partnership includes a wide and varied cross-section of Christians that represent numerous denominations, umbrella groups, ministers fraternals, prayer groups and ministries, and churches. These Christians are driven by a passion to effect change in the society through the amazing power of intercessory prayer and fasting and to create an atmosphere that will attract the presence, the attention and the favour of God in transforming revival, nationwide. The partners have been meeting consistently since August of 1999".

The prayer conference, which started on January 1 at the Bayside New Testament Church in Portmore, will be convened at 26 locations on the island. The conference climaxes on February 6 at the Kendal Camp and Conference Centre, in Manchester.

In what is a marked departure from previous conferences, this year, the organisers, after consultation with ministers fraternals across the island, have agreed to convene additional training in the art and craft of prayer when the conference ends. The training will be known as summits and will be held fortnightly.

The training, Ricketts explained, will be geared for different levels of church and lay leadership.

Corporate cry

"In previous years," he said, "We would just finish the conference and encourage people to pray. But, we did not teach them how to maintain that corporate cry. This year, we are seeking to arm, equip the people of God, not a church, as to how they maintain that corporate cry. We are helping people to be engaged in strategic, informed and sustained intercession. Those who become part of this warring faction cannot turn back. Hence, the call is not for everyone. The clear mandate we have from the Lord, is that we must seek out those who are of like mind and passion. So, for example, we could have 10 people who band themselves together and decide to pray for a community like Cassave Piece. They cannot break that. It is a covenant with the Lord."

Ricketts said the conference will be identifying persons who will, when the conference ends, commit to pray for designated towns and nearby communities.

"We want every community to have prayer being offered up for it. We want to bring the presence of God to live among the people. We are seeking the presence of God not as visitation but as habitation. We are not asking God to kill anybody but to transform lives. This is what we call presence-based transformation. Man is involved but God is supreme. We are inviting God to come to overwhelm the hearts and spirits and to change the black atmosphere into an atmosphere where He is welcomed.

The conference, he said, would also be identifying 75 persons to expose them to the highest levels of training in prayer that is available anywhere in the world. These persons won't all be pastors but persons who are zealous about prayer. These persons will be handpicked by the organisers of the conference.

These 75 will be given special training and exposed to some of the top leaders of the modern prayer movement. These leaders, or 'God's Generals', as Ricketts calls them, will visit Jamaica to teach and train the 75 in the finer points about prayer. At some point of the training, he said, the 75 will be required to spend 10-14 days away from their families and do without cell phones in order to be undistracted in prayer and thereby better hear what God is saying.

Spirit and notebooks

"I have been in intensives like that and we don't walk with anything other than our spirit and our notebooks," said Ricketts.

At the end of the training, these 75 persons will be given 25 DVDs covering all that they have been taught and will be sent to certain communities to offer leadership on repelling spiritual bondage and ushering in God's transforming presence.

Subjects slated for prayer during the islandwide prayer conference include - the industrial sector, athletes and sports personalities, the private sector, the drug trade and gambling in the nation, children, in the nation, social well being in health, education and welfare, gangsters and criminals that prey on communities, good governance, the security forces, the Muslim community and non-Christian religions, economic growth, the J-Flag community, secular artistes, national security and justice, the media houses, witchcraft/occultism/false religions, the church and Christians in Jamaica.

2010 and beyond

Ricketts disclosed that Prayer 2000 has already made plans for 2010 and beyond.

"We are moving from a position of anticipation to a level of expectation. Anticipation is a position where you do something and say, hopefully, something will happen and, if it does not happen the way it should happen, you can even adjust to become comfortable. When you move to a level of expectation, you cannot adjust because you have journeyed to the point where the slightest thing from the Holy Spirit will now tip you over into that provision which you have been crying for. So, the journey from 2009 is to bring us into a level of expectation by 2010 and we are hoping that in 2010 into 2011 we will experience God's tipping point.

The Rev. Naila Ricketts may be reached at naila@prayer2000.org. Send feedback on Mind&Spirit to mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com

Schedule for the Seventh Annual National Prayer Conference