pray with me

Dear Marketplace Friends,

As you and I take our place as ministers and agents of transformation - prayer will and must be an essential. Below is a 'helps'. Sometimes we just need a jump start and then everything starts to flow from there. May the prayer below be that for you.

Blessings,

Patrick



Heavenly Father,

I come before you and praise Your holy name! Praise the Lord! I recognize who you are and magnify your name! I ask that you would glorify yourself throughout the earth today. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Everything I have comes from You. Everything I am is because of You. I invite You in to my life today to take full control and jurisdiction. You are Lord.
I receive Your forgiveness anew today. Cleanse me Lord! Purify my heart. Heal me with Your very presence, grace and mercy.
Your purposes for my life are redemptive. Thank you for redeeming me. Crown me with Love and Compassion as I walk before men as Your redemptive ambassador.

You said, ‘to ask and it would be given to me, so Lord I ask for - ______________. You said, ‘Seek and you will find.’ So Lord, I’m seeking an answer in this area of my life _________, today. You said, ‘knock and the door would be opened.’ Lord I need a door to open for ____________________. And Lord, in all of these areas that you have promised answers, I renounce any preconceived ideas as to how you are going to bring about the results. I trust you and believe You have my best in mind. So Lord, not my will be done, but Thy will be done, right here, as it already is in Heaven.
My desire is to be in fellowship with you and to intimately know you as I am known by You. In this I will bear fruit that will glorify Your name. Outside of this and apart from You - I can do nothing. With You all things are possible.

Lord, increase faith in me today. Increase my confidence in Your abilities, Your love, Your power and purposes. Give me the ability to persevere, so that when Your will is done, I will receive what You have promised. Teach me to live by faith in ways I’ve never done before.

Lord, You are my shepherd. I want for nothing. Cause me to rest in pleasant places and lead me in ways that not only bring restoration to me, but those around me. Guide me today on the right path. I will follow. Even if there is a valley experience or shadow of uncertainty – I will have no fear – because You are with me. If I get off course, bring alignment and get me corrected quickly. Even if I find myself in the enemies camp – prepare a table for me there. Lord, I receive the anointing upon my head today of Your rich presence. May I overflow with You in everyplace and with every person I meet. Goodness and Love will follow me as I go in Your name, and the reality of Your life in me and my life in You will be evident. Forever.

Forever, that’s who You are God. Everlasting. You don’t get tired and weary like I do. You don’t get anxious when You can’t figure something out, because all wisdom and understanding belongs to You. So Lord, when I stumble and fall, bring hope to me like water from a fountain. Renew my strength and help me to soar far above the ordinary. Help me to run this race with a supernatural pace that only comes from You.

Lord, I love You and have been called by You for Your purposes. Cause all things to come together in accordance with you plans. Conform me into the likeness of Your Son Jesus. God, You are for me. So, what could come against that? You are not stingy or one that withholds, but You give and give and give again. You are not a condemner – You are a justifier. You – Jesus, sit and pray for me daily. You tell Father how You see me. Not as sinner or unworthy, but as one who is loved completely. What can separate me from that kind of love? Therefore I am thrust from places of trouble, hardship and persecution to places of peace, victory and abundance in Christ Jesus.

Lord, you don’t ask for much, just faith, trust and obedience. Help me in this way. Increase this faith, even if it is the size of a mustard seed. Allow me to seek you and to seek you with all of my heart. Draw near to me, even now.

Finally Lord, let this day bring Glory and Honor and PRAISE to You and You alone.

In Jesus name!

A sweeping move

The picture I got was of a heavenly broom and a heavenly dust pan in the hands of the Lord.



He was sweeping things together. He was sweeping things into place. His sweeping wind of change was blowing across the lives of people who were desirous of Him. His sweeping hand was gentle yet purposeful. The sweeping was a gathering together of hearts who have been and will continue to seek after Him and position themselves as set apart for Him.



The broom quickly changed into a winnowing fork and the Lord began to lift and sift that which was gathered.



Separate unto Me, consecrate unto Me, get ready, get ready, get ready. For this is the 'Day of the Lord'. For a day is like a thousand years - and a thousand years is like a day. The culmination of years is being formed into One Day. This is not a day as we know it, but a day in God's economy where many things that have been on hold will begin to release. It will be a day when those things which were held back will be ushered quickly into existence. It will be a day of mercy, grace, direction and positioning. Watch, says the Lord. Watch as I lift many of you out of what was insignificant and restraining and place you into position for such a time as this. The waiting - the wandering - the wondering is coming to an end, and the beginning is like that of a new day in His presence with great clarity, confirmation and calling being fulfilled. Bless His Holy Name!

New Year Manifesto

With a brand New Year upon us I wanted to share this New Year Manifesto that I will attempt to embrace for the coming year. It's from an article by Mark Batterson called Chase the Lion.



"Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention.

Keep asking questions.
Keep making mistakes.
Keep seeking God.

Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Enjoy the journey.
Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and the last day of your life. Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshiping what's right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don't try to be who you're not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quite running away. And remember: If God is for us, who can be against us?"

Happy New Year! And may the God who created you in His image and designed you to fulfill a significant purpose - equip you with His grace and truth - so that you might know Him better and serve Him longer.

Patrick McBane

Marketplace Solutions in motion!

So what is happening in the Marketplace?



A while back the Lord gave me a picture of a switch being turned on in the hearts of people all across our communities that would allow for a flood of transformation light to burst into the marketplace.

As Ed Silvoso states,
"To change the City you must first change the Marketplace.
To change the marketplace, marketplace ministers must be recognized.
To recognize marketplace ministers, pulpit ministers must partner with them.
Pulpit ministers and Marketplace ministers must partner in unity (as peers), to establish the Kingdom of God in the marketplace by synergizing the spiritual wealth that is resident in the synagogue with the strategic placement of believers in the marketplace."

This past week Marketplace Solutions moved very intentionally toward those steps and met with the executive leaders of GBS Corp. of Youngstown, Ohio, including the CEO and President, Eugene Calabria, along with their priests and pastors. It was our intent to not only have these pulpit ministers recognize these marketplace ministers, but to cast a collective vision for how we might change the City together.


This is CEO - Pres., Eugene Calabria receiving a prayer of blessing and commissioning from his pastor - Brent Allen. Each of the men received similar prayers of blessing and commissioning from their pastors as well.



Along with the incredible dialogue and vision casting that took place we had the priviledge to pray with and for one of the employees sisters who is battling cancer. This expression of faith in the marketplace is not happening everywhere, but it is the goal of Marketplace Solutions to release it in as many places as possible in the weeks and months to come.

God never asks us to do anything first, that He hasn't already done. If you're hearing the word 'go' in your spirit, that means there's a sending happening first. God doesn't give us community so we can nest, He gives us community so we can go.

Gods design was for the Church to be the counter-culture to produce transformation, rather than the sub-culture satisfied with survival.

You will disciple nations.

"8 But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Acts 1:8

Come and join the party!

marketplace power

"The (Early) Church was not an organization merely, not a movement, but a walking incarnation of spiritual energy. The Church began in power, moved in power and moved just as long as she had power. When she no longer had power she dug in for safety and sought to conserve her gains. But her blessings were like the manna when they tried to keep it overnight it bred worms and stank. So we have had monasticism, scholasticism, institutionalism; and they have all been indicative of the same thing: absence of spiritual power. In Church history every return to New Testament power has marked a new advance somewhere, and every diminution of power has seen the rise of some new mechanism for conservation and defence. If this analysis is reasonably correct, then we are today in a state of very low spiritual energy"

Tozer - "Paths To Power"

This A.W. Tozer quote is amazingly accurate. So often I have found myself trying to perpetuate something with raw energy and found myself drained and deflated. However, the way of God in relation to abundant and vibrant living is different. God lives to display is power and He loves to display it in and through us. Yet it seems that those moments are few and far between. Like much of the word of God there are unique ironies throughout that in our human intellect contradict the very thing we're trying to understand.

In the case of spirit filled, abundant life living power it takes more unusual postures on our behalf to realize. It takes risks in trusting like we've never trusted before.

God lives to reveal His heart toward each one of us who know Him now and whom He still longs to know.

Obedient faith and trusting love is what brings us into the place where we know Him and He knows us and we are changed into His likeness.

15"If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." John 14:15-21

To move toward our Heavenly Father in such a way releases everything we need for this life. God is not a withholder – He is a gracious giver. So, believing that He not only has our best in mind but our future in check allows us to live freely. It allows us to live without a preoccupation with a huge list of 'what if's', or 'if only's'. It also allows us to rest. If we will trust Him completely He will allow us to enter into that perfect rest. That rest for you and I in the marketplace and beyond is best described as working with God rather than working for God. Which would you rather do?

The tendency is to work. Americans are some of the hardest working people in the world. The mindset is - unless we work we will not accomplish anything. There is truth in that statement. However, the focus of that statement still revolves around us. God is trying to get us to revolve around Him. Here's His mindset - Unless the LORD builds the house, the efforts are pure vanity. Nothing is accomplished. Oh, we can build big houses, with our big money and buy big cars from our big jobs, but the question still remains... is this for you and your glory or for Him and His Kingdom?

Our work is comprised with bringing glory to God, trusting completely, surrendering unconditionally, loving daily and resting supremely. That's more than enough work for this guy. 1 Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain. 2 It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep. Psalm 127:1,2

Do you love God and trust Him enough to believe and ask Him to speak to you daily in your marketplace? Are you living with the confidence of a Son or the fear of an orphan? Whose your daddy? The one I know says that you will do even greater things than this. The Spirit is bent on revealing the Father through the Son in order that you and I might be formed daily in His image.

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." John 14:12-14

Take some steps in the course of the next few days and weeks ahead and ask the Holy Spirit to show you what He's doing. Once He shows you, ask Him how He wants you to participate in this divine work with Him. The process alone should produce some interesting results.

if you pray...

“12'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:12,13

This morning I was waiting upon the Lord and heard three phrases that I felt pertained to the prayer mandate before us as God’s people. The three phrases are not new, but they are of particular importance as it pertains to the transformation process we are asking for. They came to me as:

If you pray…, When you pray…, and Let us pray…

The prevailing struggles both personally and corporately for those of us who call Jesus our Lord and Savior never seem to change. If anything, they just get worse. Why? Shouldn’t we, who have the source of life, be able to move past certain issues and see a shift in both our spiritual and natural surroundings?

Well, not only do I think we can see a shift, but I believe we will see a shift. Below is a partial picture of just how that might formulate.

If you pray…

“14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chron. 7:14

Contingency prayer has long been the clog in the drain of heavenly outpouring. When we see the word if, we understand that the following statement associated with that word is contingent upon other factors. So, if – something doesn’t happen the way we thought, it’s because such and such didn’t take place. Webster defines contingency as – “something liable to happen as an adjunct to or result of something else.”

The other day I had a pretty slow drain in the shower. I have this really powerful stuff that I put into the drain that actually burns away the gunk. I read the instructions, poured out the cleanser, and allowed it to do its work. I’ve used this product before and it really works. However, later that night when my wife used the shower – not only did the drain not work, but the clog was worse than before I used the drain cleaner. As a matter of fact, I now went from a slow drain to a shower with standing water in it. This can only mean that the stuff I thought would work, really didn’t work.
The problem with that assumption is that it leaves room for me to stop participating in the solution to a real problem. Trust me my wife won’t take too many showers with water up to her ankles for very long.
This is where shift number one takes place. Just because there’s water backed up doesn’t mean there isn’t an opening in our future. We do not serve a microwave God who moves at the snap of our prayerful fingers. Yet, if we pray once and feel like we mean it, we think that should move God to unclog our spiritual drains. Well the drain didn’t get clogged with one shower and the free flow of water back through it may take more than dumping some product down the drain.
Spiritually speaking, we often stop just short of our breakthrough when one more step, or one more effort toward the desired end is all we need.


When you pray…

“ 2And He said to them, "When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
3'Give us each day our daily bread.
4'And forgive us our sins,
For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.'"
5Then He said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; 6for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; 7and from inside he answers and says, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.'” Luke 11:2-7
I have to admit, I’m the lover of the quick fix. I hate having to have to deal with the small yet aggravating issues in my life. Hey, I’ve got plenty of other things to do, don’t you? I don’t want to be bothered. So, when I walked upstairs having dealt with the problem that morning and now the problem in my drain was even worse… well I wasn’t a happy camper.
You see – the implication with the verse from 2 Chronicles 7:14, is that the result is possible, but uncertain. However, the uncertainty isn’t because God is unable but because we ‘as the if people’ are unwilling to participate. Now for shift number two.
Jesus went from a contingency mindset to a juncture attitude.
The shift was a distinct as the difference between “if you pray” to “when you pray”. The word juncture is defined as an instance of joining, both the union of what we ask for and the connecting of where it fits. It’s this level of participation that I believe will bring the breakthrough all of us desire.
The juncture - joining is with God. It is an aligning ourselves to a heavenly vision as well as a earthly mandate. The reason I included verses 5 through 7 in the section from Luke 11 is because of the picture being communicated by the Lord. We’re not just joining the Lord in a type of prayer, we’re joining the Lord in a type of living. The moment we separate the spiritual from the natural is the moment the drain builds up a residue of gunk that leads to a hypocrisy and compromise clog. Jesus took things to another level when He not only showed them how to pray but also showed them how the results of prayer would touch their lives and the lives of others.
Here’s what the clog in our spiritual drains looks like –
We gather together in churches, at services and pray ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’. We ask for His Kingdom to come. We ask for our sins to be forgiven. We ask for our daily bread. Yet, the inconvenience of an untimely visit or a call just when I’ve sat down for a moment is like the friend described above who knocks on our door at midnight. It’s when we’re asked to open up of our lives and impart or share what we’ve just asked for ourselves; this is where the clog turns into ankle deep water.
I’ll be honest with you, I really wasn’t in the mood to find a tube to stick down that drain and poke and prod until it loosened up. I had just put in a decent days work. I wanted my own shower now. However, it was time to finish what I started. I went downstairs and brought up my trusty plunger and began to force air through that nasty drain. I pumped and pumped and pumped, until eventually the water receded and my drain was open once again.

Let us pray…

You see, Jesus didn’t just teach us to pray, He taught us that as we pray, as we align ourselves with His Kingdom, as we step in between Heaven and humanity that we too will be uniquely involved in the lives of others to the point of sacrifice and blessing. This is prayer. Prayer isn’t a cloistered holy huddle. Prayer is a life lived. Prayer is an application of what we believe and what we hope for and what we know and desire. Heaven and humanity needs a clean conduit in order for lives to be touched and ultimately transformed.


Blessings,

Patrick

You are invited to Join Us for the Mahoning Valley Marketplace Ministry Launch!

On Saturday, January 28th, at Poland United Methodist Church,
Rt. 224 in Poland, Ohio from 8:00am to 9:30am

You are Anointed for Business!

Highlights
The Mahoning Valley is in the midst of transformation.
In order to fulfill that transformation process we must equip and release marketplace ministers all over the valley.
Marketplace Ministry is not an event, it is a prototype that will help facilitate the transformation process.
We will gather once a month, the last Saturday of each month, to equip—encourage—and pray for the transformation process in us and through us as ministers in the marketplace.
We will utilize the resource material—Anointed for Business, by Ed Silvoso and Harvest Evangelism, Inc.

What if…God began to open doors of confirmation concerning the calling on your life? What if you were equipped to fulfill that calling?
What if you could join others in the marketplace with the same passion to minister in this way?
What if you could be a part of a network of Christian business men and women that will build relationships?

Our desire in hosting these Marketplace Transformation seminars is to help equip and release marketplace ministers to transform lives all over the community and draw all people unto the Lord. You are a minister and you have a ministry.

To change the city, the Marketplace must be changed.
To change the Marketplace, Marketplace ministers must be recognized.

For preparation and planning please RSVP to Patrick@ 330-360-5167 or
mcbane@sbcglobal.net

The leadership team helping to coordinate this effort is a combination of pulpit and marketplace leaders from around the valley:
Tom Duncan (Bus. Owner), Jeff Hedrich (Bus. Owner—Media Advertising), Reid Lamport (Teacher, Coach, Pastor),
Patrick McBane (Sales Consultant & Mktpl. Minister), Ralph Polehonki (Delphi), Rusty Wills (Pastor),
Tom Nelson & Dr. Kathie Nelson (Financial planner & Doctor), Dan Yargo (Pastor).

Can God use me?

Can God use me?

Today, my wife Leslie and I had the privilege to anoint and commission another marketplace minister who was recently promoted to President at National City Bank with jurisdiction over some 1200 employees and gobs of financial assets and responsibility. As we prayed in his new offices in Akron he made it abundantly clear that without the Lord there was no way he could step into this new role. So, he simply made himself available, invited the Lord to take His rightful place over him and in the functions he would have. We anointed his office and made several declarations of being available for the fact that God was going to use him in wonderful ways in the days to come.

Well...God is going to use you in a wonderful way. Get ready. There is a unique, powerful, and essential calling upon you and your ministry. You have a ministry and God wants to use you. God is initiating a final thrust of grace and mercy toward each of us as we look for His return and Kingdom fulfillment here on earth.

I have long shared that the keys to fulfillment in Christ boil down to Identity, knowing who you are - Lordship, knowing whose in charge; and purpose, fulfilling God’s calling upon my life.

The keys always point back to the King and the Kingdom.

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matt.6:33

The way of the Lord is the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is revealed in us. The will of God must be done on earth, so that The Kingdom of God will come, be released and demonstrated everywhere. The Lord isn’t building the church – local, He is building the Church that will receive the keys to the Kingdom. And so, our view, our perspective must change and we must see ourselves as a part of this great Transformation process. When this happens, we won’t have to worry about protecting against (since the Lord said, the gates of Hell shall not prevail here), but partnering with each other and with what the Lord is already at work doing. Isn't that essentially what the Lord did in Luke 10 when He sent out the 70?

God the Father has always wanted to establish a Kingdom of Priests and Kings to rule and reign with the same heart as He has. With great compassion, serving others, building them up and establishing them in relationship with the Father and each other.

As the Lord continues to establish you and show you the simplicity of serving Him in the marketplace hold on to these promises;

1. Remember, you didn’t choose God – God choose you. (John 15:16)
2. Engage with the Lord daily. (Matt. 7:7-11, Ps. 105:4)
3. Invite Him, As you do – He will establish His presence in your midst, wherever that might be.
4. Ask Him, As you do – He will do anything according to His will as asked in His name. (John 14:13, Matt. 18:19)
5. Call upon Him, As you do – He will tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. He will speak to you and you will hear His voice. (Jer. 33:2,3)
6. Acknowledge the fact that you don’t have what it takes to accomplish all this for the Lord. Remember, Jesus said – ‘Apart from Me, you can do nothing.’


Let me close this Marketplace focus by sharing a quote from Oswald Chambers,

“The Spiritual manifests itself in the life that knows no division between sacred and secular.”

May it be in all of our lives - that we would have no seperation except unto the Lord.

Welcome to Marketplace Transformation

Welcome to Marketplace Transformation - Mahoning Valley.

Over the course of the last few years the Lord has been doing a unique work in people all across the world. We’ve heard the words of transition and shifting that have been brought forth, but there’s a sense that the defining of this shift is yet to be fully revealed. What has been revealed is that to change the city, the marketplace must be changed. To change the marketplace, Marketplace Ministers must be recognized, equipped and released.

The picture that I saw was of a still body of water that began to ripple bit by bit as the drops of restoration and redemption were raining down upon it. Each drop had a ripple effect that began to meet with other drops. As one overlapped the other a great sense of ‘synergy’ was created and the ripples quickly became a wave. This wave was a transformation wave that effected every strata in it’s wake.

Here in the Mahoning Valley there is a sense that much of this is beginning to happen in part already. We haven’t synergized to the point of a wave yet, but the drops are falling in unique places. As I’ve spoken with Pastors, Marketplace ministers and many others who are sensing this I asked myself, is it time for a synergistic work here? Yes, and the work must be that of the Holy Spirit. For ultimately the first step is personal heart transformation. Without this, we simply engage in another program or organization that lacks the influence and power of God’s presence.

“I simply argue that the cross be raised again
at the center of the market-place -
as well as on the steeple of the church,
I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not
Crucified in a cathedral between two candles:
But on a cross between two thieves;
On a town garbage heap;
At a crossroad of politics so cosmopolitan
That they had to write His title
In Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek…
And at the kind of place where cynics talk smut,
And thieves curse and soldiers gamble.
Because that is where He died,
And that is what he died about.
And that is where Christ’s men ought to be,
And what church people ought to be about.”

- George MacLeod

So, over the course of the next months and years a combination of information, testimonies and encouragements will be set forth from this site to contribute to the work we desire to join the Lord in now.

Blessings in the Harvest!

Patrick