There is one question people often ask me. “Lynne,” they say, “what are you praying about the Church?”
You might think the answer would change from month to month, or at least from year to year. But oddly enough, it doesn’t, because for many years, my prayers for the Church have revolved around one central theme. I’ve been praying about the emerging pattern of the apostolic church.
Although there are several good church patterns in the New Testament, the more I pray about it, the more certain I am that in the next few years before Jesus returns, the apostolic church is the one that will rise to the forefront of Christendom. That’s the pattern God will use to take the Gospel to every nation and bring in the last great harvest of souls.
The very idea that God might have several different patterns for the Church may sound strange to some people. “God has just one way of doing Church!” they might say. “He wants it done the way it was in the Bible. He wants our churches to be like the churches in the book of Acts.”
Certainly He does. The questions is, which church in the book of Acts does He want us to use as our pattern?
The Jerusalem Church? The church at Antioch? Or the church at Ephesus?
Each one of those churches was wonderful. Each one furthered the plan of God. But as we will see this week, it was the church at Antioch that set the standard for the end-time Church.It’s Antioch that gives us as praying Christians today a scriptural pattern to hold in faith before the Lord.
It’s the Antioch pattern that shows us what God can accomplish when the apostolic church begins to arise.
Scripture Reading: Acts 11:19 – 36
On the chilly March night in 1972 when Lynne Hammond took her first step into a life of Spirit-led prayer, she had no idea what was about to happen. All she knew was the hunger in her heart for God wouldn’t let her sleep. In the few short months she’d been born again, her desire to fellowship with Him had grown so strong she could hardly contain it. “Help me, God!” she cried. “I want to know you. I want to be able to talk to you. Please, teach me to pray!”
Suddenly, a heavenly presence flooded the room. Lynne sensed waves of spiritual fire sweeping over her and a beautiful language began to flow like a river from within her. Although she’d never heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, she knew instantly, without a doubt—this was God!
What began that night soon blossomed into a life of prayer that ultimately became a ministry of prayer when, in 1980, Lynne and her husband, Mac, founded Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Under Lynne’s leadership, the prayer ministry at Living Word has become an internationally recognized model for developing effective pray-ers in the local church.
A teacher and an author, Lynne publishes a newsletter called Prayer Notes, has written numerous books, and currently serves as the national prayer director for Daughters for Zion. Her passion for inspiring and leading others into the life of Spirit-led prayer continues to take her around the world to minister to believers whose heart cry, like hers, is “Lord, teach me to pray!”