I was shouted out. Grabbed. Harassed. Chased. Flashed. I was afraid. Lina, a prostitute, was huffing a glue bag and chasing me around a pole on the side of a busy street. Just down a dark alleyway is where Lina sits every day, every night. She waits alone in the shadows with a deep, dark, and saddened gaze upon her face. She yells at people, guys or girls, trying to entice them to come back into the alley with her. Lina is simply ignored or receives stares of disgust back in return. I’m sorry for this dark image, but I need you to put yourself in my shoes for a second in order to get my point across.
My point is that through prayer and God’s grace, my team and I see Lina through the eyes of Christ. Not how the world views her or the dark circumstances surrounding her. I see beauty. Joy. Hope. Humor. Salvation. Christ died for me just as much as he died for Lina or any other addict, prostitute, or transexual. Lina’s blood has already been bought through Christ’s blood and the victory has been won. This revelation for me has only been made possible by the power of prayer. Lately, Lina has stopped huffing glue and has stopped trying to entice us with her body, but we have seen her open up and slowly start to receive the love our team has been pouring out into her. Once again, this has only been made possible by God using the prayers of our team.
When you are on the frontline of missions and constantly surrounded by darkness, prayer becomes a weapon. Truly, there is a thing called spiritual warfare, and in the middle of the war, prayer becomes a wartime walkie-talkie to call up to God to advance against the evil powers of unbelief and spiritual darkness. Back home, I treat prayer as a domestic intercom to call upstairs for blessing and comforts in my life. What a necessary and powerful weapon that we as Christians have here on the frontline of advancing Christ’s kingdom in the world, to call up to our limitless provider and ask him to come down and save us. Prayer connects us with God’s endless grace for our every need, and brings him the glory as he gives us the power to advance his mission. Realize that you too can advance God’s mission through prayer without being on the frontline.
God’s has completely transformed by broken view of prayer. I was on a fast food program with prayer. I would feel a need or desire and simply pull into the drive thru, hoping that God would give me what I wanted so that I could be on my way. I would not have any patience or persistence in my prayer life and would not give God the glory he was worthy of. I would never admit it intellectually, but my prayer life demonstrated that my view on God and prayer was that he was my genie in who I could simply rub my lamp and expect him to answer me and respond to me quickly. No patience, diligence, persistence, or discipline.
Jon Edwards has a beautiful quote that goes,
“It is apparent from the word of God that he will often try the faith and patience of his people, when crying to him for some great and important mercy. He tries their patience by withholding the mercy they seek for a season not only so, but at first he may cause an increase of dark appearances. Yet he without fail at last prospers though who continue urgently in prayer with all perseverance and will not let him go until he blesses them.”
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
What will the Son of man find in you when he comes to earth? Faith? Persistence? Power? Love?
Look at Genesis 32:22-32, Jacob wrestled with an angel of the Lord and to what end? This angel battled with Jacob for an entire night until Jacob was exhausted. Was all this necessary? Jacob needed to reach the point where he had no more strength. Only at this point did the angel dislocate Jacob’s hip. The message was clear–you have fought with all your might–yet, I could have defeated you the whole time with just one touch. Jacob began to clearly see the superiority of his opponent. Jacob knew the right words and could perform the right actions . . . but his heart still was not completely the Lord’s. Tough circumstances and difficulties force us to grapple with our true feelings and our faith. It is always easy to have a shallow or superficial faith, but God initiated this battle with Jacob to bring him to a point of genuine faith. When Jacob called out for God’s blessing, he had broken through the wall and into true faith.
God didn’t just want Jacob’s surface level worship or praise. He desired the depths of his heart and he desires the depths of our hearts. He wants for our faith to be fully devoted to him. God allows our struggles in the hope of producing true faith. The greatest problem in our lives will never be our circumstances, but the condition of our hearts. We see that even though we may resist God, he will pursue us to no end, until our faith, prayer life, and hearts are completely fixed on him.
God is honored through that kind of prayer. If you were God, wouldn’t you want the same thing? For your dearly beloved to truly seek you with all their heart and persistently cry out to you so that their faith would only be strengthened in you alone.
So, thank you Lina for showing me the importance of prayer and just how powerful and effective it can be. Lina, for now, is off the street and I believe that God has a plan for her life. She has taught me to believe that I have the same nature and authority that Elijah had when he commanded the rain to stop for 3 1/2 years (James 5:17-18). Why don’t I pray like that more? Why don’t you pray like that more?
Still don’t believe me in the power of prayer and want some more reading material. Ok,
Read Jeremiah Lanphier’s story –
http://pietist.blogspot.com/2007/05/john-piper-on-jeremiah-lanphier.html
George Muller’s Life –
http://www.realheroes.net/reformers/George_Mueller.html
Practicality:
Try fasting. Devote yourself to prayer. Pray specifically. Fervently pour yourself out on someone else’s behalf in prayer. Pray with the authority God has granted you. Expect the Living God to hear your prayer and respond. Know God wants you to come with him with your every desire.
Pray against human trafficking –
http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-human-trafficking
Pray againsty slavery, especially sex slavery –
Specifically pray for the spread of the gospel –
http://www.operationworld.org/today2
My requests:
-God will continue to increase the discipline in my life
-My power of prayer is increased and God continues to increase my faith in prayer
-For me to rely on God’s strength, not my own
-More divine appointments
-God will bless the work of our hands at the drop-in center
Thank you for your prayers! They mean so much!
