I live in one of the most unreached and unchurched regions of Thailand. Thousands of Buddhist temples line the streets. I can feel darkness and oppression like a weight on my spirit. When I drive through the city, only one word comes to mind: defeat.
But God has seen Klaeng Rayong, Thailand in her defeat. He has seen, and He is coming to bring deliverance. King Jesus has deployed 6 white girls to be warriors for souls in this place. I am ready to fight. But our fight isn’t with flesh and blood. It is with rulers and spirits of wickedness in the heavenly places. And there is only one weapon strong enough to win that sort of war.
I have realized that I am completely incapable of impacting this area in any meaningful way. But Spirit has quietly assured me. “That’s right. Now abide with Me. I have the only weapon that will win this war.” But the weapon He gave me wasn’t what I expected. He handed me a burden to pray. Jesus is revolutionizing my view of prayer. My last blog talked about how God was teaching me to practice His Presence every moment of the day. Now, the Spirit is taking me to a place of communion with Him like I have never known before.
I have been learning that prayer isn’t a nice, soothing little time of rest and refocus in the morning. It’s desperate. It’s unrelenting. It’s agonizing. It’s war. “Prayer isn’t preparation for the battle. Prayer is the battle.” [Leonard Ravenhill] I have begun to plead for the Spirit to move, and I refuse to budge until He does.
Then one day, it happened. I found myself surrounded by murderers, rapists, and thieves. The Spirit finally moved, but He made me move with Him.
We were joining a coalition of a few local pastors in their monthly trip to the local prison. After walking through a couple rounds of security, a temple with Buddhist chanting drifting out, and rows of chained prisoners squatting on the ground, we made it to our destination. The room was full of barefoot men covered in tattoos, dressed all in blue, with completely shaved heads. We sat down and Thai pastors began to lead the men in some songs. After a short sermon, three members of my team walked to the front of the room to give their testimonies. I sat in my chair thanking God for my sisters who had the courage to step out and share their stories. I was praying for the Spirit to descend on these men’s hearts. But as I was praying, something happened that I didn’t expect. The Spirit descended on me.
A message popped into my mind like I had been working on it for weeks. I sat there in awe of what the Spirit of giving me when suddenly this feeling grew in the pit of my stomach. It was as if a mighty fire was blazing in my soul. I knew that the Spirit was driving me to stand up and deliver what He had given me. So I did.
I walked to the front of the room in between testimonies and everyone laughed. After the last testimony was finished, the Pastor handed me a microphone and words from the Spirit began to flow from my mouth. I told them that God sees them just like He sees every other sinner in the world. Broken. Dirty. Stuck. I told them that the mercy of God would not only forgive them of their sins, but drown them in the depths of the sea never to be seen again. The mercy and grace of God was waiting to cover their past, if only they would repent. I assured those who were already saved that God now sees them like He sees Christ Jesus. Perfectly righteous. After I finished speaking, we sat down and I watched as a Thai pastor led the inmates to kneel before God Almighty. I got down on the ground next to them and wept over the mercy, the faithfulness, the goodness, and the grace of my Father.
Even the prison guard in the back fell to His knees as tears washed down His face. It was all the Spirit of the Living God. I am so thankful to have been used by God to accomplish His will on this earth. What a beautiful life the Spirit is leading me in. A life of rest in His faithfulness knowing that I have nothing to offer the world but the Word of God and prayer.
“Only God is able to do the work of God. And it is His will that when God has something very great to accomplish for His Church, it will be preceded by the extraordinary prayers of His people.” Jonathan Edwards
