I had a rather surreal moment this past Sunday while announcing the 30 Day Prayer Experiment we are embarking upon during this month of April. I have been traveling and away the past two Sundays and had really been out of the Wellspring loop. Pastor Kevin asked me to highlight the 30 Day Prayer Experiment and explain some of the background behind this corporate initiative to seek the Kingdom in prayer in a very intentional way during the month of April. As I began to share the announcement, I was suddenly hit with the gravity of what I was talking about and felt the same kind of anointing when the Lord first whispered this invitation to my spirit a couple months ago: the Lord is inviting us to seek his Kingdom in this very intentional way because he wants to release it to us!

Suddenly what had begun as announcement became a whole lot more—God is up to something. Will we have ears to hear what he is calling us to? Will we be intentional in responding?

I know what it is like to make an announcement; to promote a program; to push for participation. I also know what it is like to have the privilege to be a herald of an invitation from the Lord of grace. I believe the 30 Day Prayer Experiment is an invitation from heaven to seek and to position ourselves to receive a greater release of his Kingdom.

So, let me remind you of what we are doing. We are asking each one of you to join together in praying these two prayers that come from our year verse, Matthew 6:33, which calls us to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

**Lord, please grace us with expressions and manifestations of your Kingdom and your righteousness. We want to see people encountering you deeply every time we gather; we long to see people come to know your salvation; we ask for gifts of physical healing and for deliverance; we ask for relationships to be restored and for wholeness and shalom to rest upon Wellspring and all who call this place home.

**Lord, please give us all we need to carry out your Kingdom purposes at Wellspring. We ask for laborers for the harvest; we ask for finances to do the mission; we ask for clarity of vision and direction for the work; we ask for zeal to do the work you have called us to do.

We also are encouraging each of us secure a prayer partner with whom you can pray together briefly each day to lift up two concerns or requests in your own life where you long to see God work. These prayer times can be face to face or via the phone.

Additionally, we are gathering each Wednesday evening in April for corporate times of worship, intercession and of listening prayer. We believe that the Lord may very well desire to speak some new word of vision or direction to Wellspring as we set ourselves to listen. In fact, we are inviting all of you to be open to listening to what the Lord may want to say to Wellspring. This might be a word of encouragement, or a mission directive, or a reminder of a particular Kingdom reality that he wants to highlight to us.

To facilitate the process we have established a new e-mail address: 30days@wellspring.net 

Anything which you receive from the Lord and that you weigh out as needing to be discerned as something for the Wellspring body, please send to that address, along with your name. These words will be weighed and tested as we seek to hear what the Lord may be saying to us through this month of April.

I am excited about this process. I can think of three similar seasons of seeking and listening during my time here at Kensington Baptist/Wellspring. Each time the Lord had something for us to enter into that came about through a time of seeking, listening and believing prayer. As we avail ourselves to his invitation this April, let’s see what he has in store for us in this year of seeking first his Kingdom.

Pastor Rick