Ashamed to say, I was a spirtually arrogant 18 year old who had read just about every book on prayer available. I was quite certain I knew everything there was to know about prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was listening to a visiting young YWAMer teach on Steps to the Throne by Joy Dawson, when the beautiful conviction of the Holy Spirit overshadowed my heart and humbled me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moments later we gathered in a small circle, and we asked God what nation to pray for. We all got India. I thought to myself “What are the statistical probabilities of that?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of the group had come to Jesus just the day before. I was already to pray about India, but Kel Steiner said, “Now we need to ask Jesus, what about India?” Everyone heard children. I was astonished again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was like a race horse pawing the ground at the gate, I could hardly wait to start praying. But then Kel said, “Now we need to ask Jesus what about children in India?” Finally we began. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That meeting ruined me forever for ordinary prayer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sadly, the next 15 years were a prayer desert for me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I prayed for nations by myself, but couldn’t find a group who felt passionate about it. If I suggested we meditate on Scripture and pray what God gave us, people looked back at me blankly. It was a foreign concept. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then Tanya Geue invited me to the home of Virginia Otis, to a prayer meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I felt like a dehydrated fish put back in water, slowly coming back to life. Ah, water. Life giving water flowed around us. We were praying over Los Angeles, and I remember one person saying “Jesus, we are not afraid to feel your emotions for this city.” We were not just praying intellectually, but with our emotions open to God to feel as He feels. This profound beauty of feeling how God feels isn’t limited to a select few who hear God well. It is available to everyone, everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was almost 3 decades ago. As I have meditated on Scripture and prayed with Lydia, and now ASK, it has significantly transformed me. It has been the most formative part of my journey with Jesus. It has enlarged the borders of my being. Praying Scripture has taken me places from which I can never return. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I dream of a day when every person first coming to Jesus, is immediately taught the beauty of Biblical meditation turned into prayer for nations, communities, those they love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We love a God who speaks. We love a God who knows intimately, in real time, the needs of the world. We can echo the prayers of Jesus and travel to the remotest parts of the earth in real time, and see Jesus do what only He can do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pascal says, “God give man the dignity of causality in prayer.” God dignifies us, by giving each of us a part of working together with Him to see His kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is a peerless pleasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n