On Site With Insight

Prayer walking is said to be, "going on site with insight!"  Can you imagine the apostle Paul who admitted he prayed more than anyone he had every known walking and praying over a new village before he entered to share the gospel? And we have this honor too friends.

Prayer and walking are historical activities to the Christian faith it seems. We can pray in cars, planes, trains, on horseback or a roller-coaster too! Its actively petitioning God, a cry to heaven so to speak (more to come on this in future days) for His fullness to come to the lives of our neighbors, our city's and towns. Prayer walking has power to transform the spiritual landscape of your community.

Hosea had some words about prayer walking (calling on God for others) that were  life giving then and now.  He said this to Israel:

...'Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.'

"Plow up the hard ground" by seeking the Lord Hosea encouraged. The hearts of people are like parched sun-dried earth  hardened from pain, confusion, anger, un-forgiveness, religion and so many other things. The burden of sin weighs on the mind and conscious relentlessly. 

Prayer opens the door for the moving of Gods Spirit and claims the ground that darkness longs to clutch. You will see the power of God released in your community through  prayer walking. 

                                   You are praying on site with insight!

Interestingly and reciprocally I am noticing that I am transformed through this process too. God is touching people by prayer walking  and he is transforming me to through the process too. 

Our prayers are prophetic proclamations combined with imagination and faith for what will come in the future. What do you want to see in your neighborhood and streets? Do you like what you see now? What does God want to do there? 

In the next blog I will give some helpers to more effective prayer walking. May God bless you and give you some comfortable shoes for prayer walking your neighborhood and friends to do it with!

Church Planters Invade the Impossible!

It's so very important to take time to develop your prayer team. If your church is a new plant or a historic ministry in your community it needs the power of prayer to carry Gods work forward.

Prayer is as one of Pastor Jack Hayford books called it is for  Invading the Impossible! Church planting guru Tom Nebel says spiritual warfare is the most underestimated and neglected part of starting a new church.

So start (or restart) right away gathering and discipling your prayer team. You want them to be hammering the beachhead with heavy artillery prayer long before your landing team arrives!

Recently Judy and I prayer walked our neighborhood. We could really sense that God was moving as we asked God to reach into the hearts of people in the homes and free them from sin. We asked for open doors to share Gods love and truth.

We posted this on FB and in about an hour our neighbor next door said, "We love the prayers over here!" I had no idea she was following our FB!  I hope she reads this today because she made our day by encouraging us!

And guess what? Yesterday as we were out in the neighborhood we were invited into a new home to make friends. Prayer matters. Prayer changes things. Prayer is invading the impossible.

Someone reading this today needs to know not to give up on their church but to persevere in prayer and then get BUSY sharing Gods love!

Husbanding!

It all happened so fast and unexpectedly! Judy and I were seated in our favorite, "secret first class" spots on a Southwest Airlines flight. Before take off, a spry, smiling silver haired stewardess walked past us, turned and came back to our seats and stopped. She said to me, "Are you married to this woman?" gesturing toward Judy, with a fingers closed, low open wave of respect. I said, "Yes, why?" She then said, "Repeat after me!"

(BTW-If you don't fly Southwest Airlines it may be hard to understand that SW employees ENJOY their jobs, and have fun making flying more relaxed and pleasant for travelers)

So I braced myself and smiled and said, "Ok, bring it on" expecting a tongue twister or knock knock joke. Then she said "And, look into your wife's eyes!" Now I was really nervous! She said, "Repeat after me...what ever pleases you dear, makes me happy!" I repeated it and we all laughed, as well as the passengers around us preparing for four hours next to their new found flight-mates. She said, "That is all you need to know" and walked back toward the front of the plane.

I didn't give it much more though until later that day when I played the movie of my mind. You know, the rewind and replay of the days events, complete with reflections, should have saids, groans of sorrow, wishes for do-overs and proud feelings of, got that right, thank the Lord! Do you play the movie of your mind?

What the stewardess had given me was a lesson in marriage harmony (for man or wife) in seven or eight little words. What pleases you dear makes me happy; or ,your needs are first; or I am going to value you highly by sacrificing  for you; you get it. She made a difference that is still with me and a few others in earshot that day.

Some men might say that is just not manly. I beg to differ, my manliness is intact. I swim in shark filled waters, shoot, butcher and BBQ animals of all sizes, build buildings with tools using my hands and recently chased a mugger who stole a lady's purse! So I am feeling ok with manhood!

But here is the thing, I am learning to love the thrill of sacrifice for my wife. I'm not as good as I want to be. If I can say to her, while looking her in the eye, what pleases you dear makes me happy, and know I mean this with every fiber of my being (I just teared up) I think I am exercising a type of manhood that is worthwhile; and life-giving for Judy. I have MANY monuments to marriage stupidity, BTW. You?

There is an art to husbanding. Isn't it a mastery that will take a lifetime? Isn't it worth trying again and again to get this right? To go from bad to better, better to good and good to really a rippin' fun marriage? So here is a little  challenge from one poor boy (or girl)  to another. next time you are with your spouse...repeat after me...