The opening session at the labs at Catalyst Dallas included a message from Mark Batterson, the pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C. and the author of In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Wild Goose Chase, Primal, and his latest The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears.
Prayer can change anything, and prayer can change everything.
Acts 10 – Cornelius demonstrates what God do when we pray.
When we pray regularly, irregular things happen on a regular basis.
Pray like it depends on God!
God invited Cornelius to travel well beyond the normal distance people would travel in those days and to meet a person he had never met, and he did it.
God wants me to get where He wants me to go more than I want to get to where I want to go.
Fully surrender yourself to God even when it is not logical.
We want God to do something new even though we keep doing the same things. When we humble ourselves before God, we get out of the way of what He wants to do.
“Surely not, Lord.” – Peter in Acts 10:14. There will be moments when God will ask us to do things we have never done before. When we do, we are on the verge of a breakthrough.
If you have an argument with God and win, then you lose. If we lose, then you will win.
As Peter entered the house of Cornelius, everything changed. All non-Jews who are following Jesus today can point back to the moment when Peter and Cornelius met. They would have never met had we not been praying.
Meet with God, and He will make sure you meet the right people.
Mark prays every day when he writes that what he writes gets into the right hands at the right times.
Check out a video conference call we did with Mark a few week ago here.
