Is asking the Lord really effective? I can remember thinking about this concept before I started this trip. I don’t think God speaks to me like that! I know he gives me guidance on the big decisions but does He have input on my day to day? If I approach the day without a plan will He really give me one? YES!!!! I realize now why I didn’t ever experience this before. It wasn’t because He didn’t care out my regular life outside of missions. It wasn’t because I have free will. It was because I never asked!!! So often prayer in my life was a one way street. I talked, and God was supposed to listen and answer (answer with actions not words). Prayer is a two way conversation!! Yes God wants you to talk to Him, yes He wants to listen, yes He will answer, BUT He has things to say too!!! Jeremiah 33:3 Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. Will you give Him a chance to speak? I hope you do cause it’s ALWAYS soooooooo good!!!
Still not convinced? Let me tell you a story. As a team we tend to go out 2×2 for ministry sometimes there is a group of 3since we have an odd number. This particular day I was in a group of 3, myself, Alyssa, and Ariel. We did some listening prayer and wrote down everything we heard. We shared our lists and it was a random list!!! The color green (possibly a woman’s dress), shops, pray without ceasing, a woman with a gold necklace, and a museum. Ok Lord, what do we do with this?!?!?
We headed out and decided a good place to start was the museum. We started walking, it was a really hot day, following our good friend maps.me. Thus far it has always gotten us where we needed to go. Today however we reached a dead end and had to walk around a bit till we were rerouted, as this was happening Alyssa said I want to stop in this shop and check it out. We did, it was a floral shop. We talked a short while to the worker and before we left she gifted us with a single red rose. As we exited the shop we quickly decided to give the rose away to someone we met that day. Walking a ways, now sweating quite a bit we finally reached the museum! Right in front was a sign, “closed on Tuesdays and holidays.” Bet you can guess what day it was… haha yep it was Tuesday!! Doubt crept in, did we not hear Him right?
There were some cool looking SHOPS across the street from the MUSEUM that I suggested we check out. We were quickly approached by a man inviting us to a meditation session. We asked him what he believes in, stating that we believe in Jesus. He said us too, Jesus is part of it. We began asking a lot of questions and he said come meet the couple leading the class they are from New Jersey (born in Sri Lanka but living in NJ). He introduced us to a man and his wife. We all looked at her and each other. She was wearing a GREEN DRESS, and a GOLD NECKLACE!!!!! In the words of my beloved squad leader, “Yay Jesus!!!”
This is it, this is the woman He wants us to talk to today. We sat there for the next hour sharing Jesus and quoting scripture. They had confined Jesus to one of 7steps in obtaining peace. We shared that Jesus is peace, and he freely gives it. We shared that prayer and Jesus is all they need to obtain the peace they were searching for. Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God which transcend all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. At the end we got to PRAY over them. We then shared the story of how we prayed that morning and God told us about a woman with a green dress and a gold necklace and we believe he sent us here to talk to you. We gave her the rose and told her that’s how much he loves you and He wants you to know. The cool thing is we got to have this conversation and hopefully have in impact on this couple but at the same time our faith and excitement was strengthened exponentially.
Have I mastered listening prayer? No. Are there times I ask Him a question and don’t hear anything? Yes. Do I always get it right? No. Will I keep trying? Most definitely! I hope you will join me. God wants to use us all and speak to us all, will you let Him?
Here are some more highlights from our time in Jaffna
We had a passover dinner together
I washed the feet of my teammates and had team worship
We did a skit/dance at church for Easter Sunday
We got to meet lots of amazing people and build relationships
