Prayer at Gold Hill
Expectant in Prayer
One of our values as a church is “Expectant in Prayer”. Prayer is integral to the life of our church and we believe we are called to be a house of prayer for all Nations. This page provides some advice and explains resources to support your prayer.
Let’s join together in prayer and worship to the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit, against the Devil, with others, for God’s glory, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)
What is Prayer?
Prayer is simply spending time with God. We can do this on our own, or we can do it with others. We can tell God what’s on our mind – both the good and the bad. We can listen to God and expect Him to speak to us. We can ask Him for the things we need and we can invite Him to intervene in situations that concern us. We believe that God changes situations and people by the power of His Holy Spirit as his people pray.
Prayer is so simple that anyone can pray anywhere and at any time. But prayer is also so deeply mysterious, that one can spend a lifetime learning more about it. At Gold Hill we believe that God wants us to pray and spend time in his presence, growing in our relationship with Him. We are aiming to become a church that is Expectant in Prayer.
Opportunities for corporate prayer
As well as encouraging you to pray on your own, we we provide regular opportunities to pray with other people. This can be an encouraging experience which builds our faith.
- 9-9:30 am Monday-Friday in the Prayer Room
- 12 noon Wednesday in the Prayer Room
- 7 am Friday and Saturday on Zoom www.goldhill.org/zoomprayer
- 9-10 am Sunday in the Prayer Room
How to grow in prayer
We encourage anyone who follows Jesus to set aside time each day specifically for prayer. Many people find it helps to start their day with prayer and it’s a good idea to build this into your daily routine. Just like all relationships, it takes time to get to know one another and prayer is one way we can grow and develop our relationship with God. Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Our Father, in heaven” in what is now known as The Lord’s Prayer, and this is a good place to start.
Jesus regularly made time to pray and would withdraw to a quiet secluded place just to spend time with his Heavenly Father. Setting aside some time each day in this way, is often referred to as “a quiet time” by Christians. Click here for a helpful guide on how to have a quiet time.
For further reading we also recommend Pete Greig’s book “How to Pray” How to Pray by Pete Greig.
The same material is also available through a series of videos You can do this course individually or you might like to do this with a small group of friends, so you can chat together about some of the ideas explored.
Daily Prayer Prompts
If you would like to receive a daily prompt for prayer directly to your phone each day we would encourage you to sign up to our daily prayer prompts. A small team at Gold Hill writes prompts for prayer each week, which are sent via Whatsapp, on weekdays, Monday to Friday at 7am. If you’d like to receive these, just sign up, by adding 07593 365431 to your phone contacts, and then send a message “Sign Up” via WhatsApp.
Lectio 365
Lectio 365 is a Christian daily devotional resource that helps you to encounter God and shape your life by praying the Bible every day. These devotions are inspired by Lectio Divina, a way of meditating on the Bible that’s been used by Christians for centuries. Each day the passage of scripture is read twice helping you to hear and encounter God speaking to you through scripture by the power of the Holy Spirit. There are morning and evening devotionals that take about 10 minutes.
Praying with others
Life Groups at Gold Hill exist to encourage, support, and strengthen relationships in community and help us to grow in our faith and get to know each other better. This is often a great place to grow your prayer life, as you will have opportunities to meet and to pray with others.
Some people have prayer partners, or are part of a prayer triplet, where just one or two close friends make time to meet together regularly, to encourage and support each other in prayer.
There are groups that gather to pray for various situations and people. These include:
- praying for our mission partners who may be working abroad sharing their faith
- Watch & Pray – a place of waiting on God and interceding which may include spiritual warfare
- prayer for all life stages including children, young people, seniors and our students
- praying for prodigals
- other prayer gatherings
If you want to find out more, please do contact our church office and someone will be happy to help you.
Walk and Pray
Some people find it really helpful to walk as they pray. It’s a super opportunity to be out in creation and pray for your neighbourhood as the Holy Spirit prompts you. We recommend partnering up with others to pray for specific needs in your local area as we seek to see His Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Upper Room – Prayer room
In the Bible Jesus encourages us to pray in our own spaces or our inner rooms – this is sometimes also called the secret place.
In Acts 2 the disciples gathered in an upper room and as they prayed, God filled the room with His presence. At Gold Hill we are so blessed to have a room specially set apart as an Upper Room where we can meet with God either alone or with others. It is a wonderfully peaceful room with lots of resources to inspire your prayers. You can book it for your own personal use or for a small number of you who may want to worship and pray together by clicking the button to the right (or below).
Prayer room etiquette is that, even if you’ve booked, if the room is occupied, please knock before entering and wait.
Our hope and prayer is that as we pray and worship God together in various places, including the Upper Room, we will catch a glimpse of an open Heaven and have a vision of the Throne Room of Heaven as described in Revelation 4:1
Monthly Day of Prayer and Fasting
The first Tuesday of each month is designated as a day of prayer and fasting for our church family. On these days, we encourage everyone to spend additional time in prayer on their own and or with others.
You might like to book a slot in the upper room on these special days of prayer. It can also be helpful to set reminders your phone, to prompt you to pray throughout the day.
There are opportunities to gather in the Hub to pray at lunchtime and in the evening on these special days of prayer and fasting.
Click here for a helpful guide on how to fast
Asking for prayer
One of the ways God ministers and transforms situations is through all kinds of healing – bringing wholeness to the whole person, whether spiritual, physical, emotional, psychological, or relational. We continue to give Jesus praise and Glory for all He has done, and is doing, whether big, or small, in the lives of people we pray for. If you would like someone to pray with you, or for you, then please ask. You can talk to any of our Hub Hosts on the reception desk or email the church office.
At each of our gatherings there will always be people available to pray with you if you would like to receive prayer. We believe that God’s Kingdom purposes and desires are to bring transformation to every persons situation and life.
The Email Prayer Chain is another point of contact if you have prayer requests. To ask this team to pray for any situation, please contact John and Sally Wallis at john.sally1@virginmedia.com
Praying on the streets
When Jesus lived on earth he would meet people on the streets, pray for them and they would be healed. A group at Gold Hill is continuing this ministry going out once a month into the streets of Chalfont St Peter and offering prayer. If you would like information about this ministry contact Steve or Lynda Ramsbottom.
PrayerMate
This app helps you to organise your prayers, so that when you get to praying you can just pray. You can make and update lists and reminders to pray for different things, and then pray for them! Click here for further details.
Praying for Revival – Circle Prayer
We are passionate about seeing renewal and revival in every area of our lives and in the people and places where we live and serve. If you would like to find out more on how to pray for personal renewal and revival we can recommend this resource on circle prayer. Information to help you to pray for revival is also available in the Upper Room at the Hub.