Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by


 

I’ve struggled off and on with verbalizing what I hear from the Lord. Not that I’m ashamed. It’s just that sometimes I feel like what I hear is too out there, too crazy. Or I think that if I tell people what I’m praying about and it doesn’t happen I’ll look like a fool. For about a week now God has been asking me to pray for something. Which in itself is funny to me. God why are you asking me to pray for something? You can do whatever you want without me praying for it…so just do it! How prideful of me! I’ve come to realize that He doesn’t ask me to pray for something so He has permission to do it. He asks me so that my faith will increase.



Before I tell you what it is I’m asking for from God, let me paint you a picture…


Bangla Road is the main street where all the bars are we go to every night. It’s crowded. Tourists, merchants, prostitutes, people shoving fliers in your face. If you’ve ever been to Vegas just picture that on steroids. People everywhere invading your personal space without apology.




So about a week ago God told me this: Erin, I want you to pray that Bangla Road be empty. Empty? What? And then He gave me a picture to describe it in more detail. When He said empty He meant empty of all the “customers.â€� In the picture He gave me all the bar girls, merchants, flier guys, and live bands were still there. Just there wasn’t anyone for these people to converse with because there were no customers. Later He told me that the emptiness wouldn’t be permanent, that it may be for just a few minutes. And also it may or may not happen while I’m physically here in Patong. But still I should pray.




I struggled with this for days. God what does it prove if the street is only empty for a few minutes? That’s when God told me this emptiness would be like the calm before a storm. That in this few minutes of emptiness He would be sweeping over the people on Bangla Road and completely turning their worlds upside down.




Simultaneously I’ve been reading through the book of Isaiah. Isaiah was a prophet and as crazy as it may sound, God is showing me more every day how much I have in common with Isaiah. So here I am struggling with what I’ve heard from God…Is this REALLY what you want me to ask for? REALLY?! Then I open my Bible to pick up where I had left off in my reading…


 


 




(These will all be paraphrased from Isaiah chapters 6 and 7)




“And Master, how long is this to go on? He said, ‘Until the cities are emptied out, not a soul left in the cities…The country will look like pine and oak forest with every tree cut down – Every tree a stump, a huge field of stumps. But there’s a holy seed in those stumps.’â€�






I’m still not 100 percent convinced. Am I taking these versed completely out of context? REALLY God? Can I honestly ask for this? The interesting part of this is that on Bangla Road there are actually tons of tree stumps. It’s part of a game that people play at all of the bars. I continue reading…




“If you don’t take your stand in faith, you won’t have a leg to stand on.â€�




Hmm…I’m starting to believe this. Maybe. Then I pick up my Bible one last time and God spells it out for me in black and white…




God spoke again. This time he said, “Ask for a sign from your God. Ask anything. Be extravagant. Ask for the moon!”






Ok. That’s it. I’ll do it. A few nights later I decide it’s time to tell my teammates what I’ve been praying for. I need their support in knowing I’m not completely out of line. And then as I begin to tell this story, faces light up and a spark shines. My friend Keet raises her hand, as if she needs to be called on to speak. She goes on to tell us all that the very first day we were here in Patong, God told her to pray for a power outage on Bangla Road that would leave the road without customers. What?! It gets better…then Ricki sits up and declares, “Today when I was prayer walking on Bangla Road God told me to pray for a power outage and He gave me a vision of the road being empty.â€� Then Lauren reminds us that this is the same vision she prayed for out loud earlier that night. Wow. That’s all I could think. If that isn’t confirmation I don’t know what is.


 



 

So here’s the deal…God may choose not to have a power outage on Bangla Road while we are here. He may do it weeks, months, or years from now. He may be giving us all the same vision just so we will pray hard and believe. And He may give us all these confirmations and not have the power go out just so we can proclaim Daniel 3 – that the God we serve is able to and will do this, but even if he chooses not to we will still praise him!




But maybe, just maybe, we are in the midst of something great here. And as a team we are choosing to confidently believe in what God is telling us. So mark your calendars because we’re expecting something big! We’re praying for a Bangla Road blackout. I’m a strong believer in the fact that you, yes YOU, reading this blog are just as vital to the ministry here as me and my team are. Your prayers are just as powerful. I’m asking that you join us in praying for a blackout on Bangla Road. We’re only here for 10 more days so I want to ask the big favor that you literally exhaust yourself in prayer for this cause. Is it a little crazy? Yes. Are we guaranteed it will happen? No. But together will our faith increase in what is possible through Christ? Undoubtedly.