| Some more thoughts on prayer... |
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The most amazing moments of my life have been moments of intense prayer. Or rather, some of the most intense moments of my life have been moments of amazing prayer... Oh, I don't know, either one sounds about right. True prayer that connects your mind and your heart with the Father is the most startlingly brilliant, life-giving, darkness shattering, soul-stretching experience in life.
Ok, I know I might sound like I'm trying too hard to evoke something, to spin words, but this is the truth.
The first time this happened to me was at a Baptist young adult retreat at a Catholic church. (Yeah, that sounds weird, but our association in Miami had planned a retreat on the Gulf Coast and the Protestant churches were too expensive, so the girl organizing the event had the brilliant idea of asking the local Catholic church if we could meet there. They agreed, and if I'm not mistaken, they didn't charge us anything,)
Well, back to my story. I had just finished leading worship and slipped away from the service to get some water when I ran into a lady who worked at the church (I'm not sure what her job was, but every day she opened the doors for us and was there till we left.) We started talking about God, miracles, and healing, and before you know it, she was praying for me. I'll never forget that moment. She prayed that God would hear the cry of my heart and use my hands to bring healing to others. It felt surreal for me, a young Southern Baptist kid praying with a Catholic woman about stuff only Pentecostals were interested in (yeah, right), but I knew that God was there because He was illuminating her mind and revealing my heart to her. Amazing!
Another time was when my associate pastor Alex and I were leading a retreat for another church. We had been praying very intensely for a breakthrough that week that would reach that group of young people and soften their hearts towards the Father, and it was Alex's turn to bring the teaching. I started off the time with a song at the piano, and God's presence just seemed to fill the room. I felt like I needed to say something, but I didn't want to do the senior pastor thing, pull rank and take over, so I stayed quiet and prayed silently. Alex stepped to the podium, placed his Bible on it and stood there ready to start his message. Then he let his head hang down, kind of cocked to the side, as if he were listening to something. The he looked back at me, smiled, and took a few steps back.
I laughed quietly to myself, rejoicing in the knowledge that the Spirit of the Lord was telling my brother the same thing He was telling me. I spoke words that day that I had not prepared to say. It was so amazing to hear these words from heaven flowing from my lips, divinely timed to open up His children's hearts to Him. The response to that ministry time was overwhelming.
God says that we will seek Him and find Him when we seek him with all our hearts (Jeremiah 29:13). I think that's what happened on those occasions. We sought Him and found Him. A Catholic woman and a young Baptist man, total strangers before, pray as if they know each other's hearts; two men with a common goal sense God saying the same thing at the same time and wordlessly act in step with each other and with the Spirit to accomplish God's purposes. And in those moments, Jesus' prayer is answered and we become one, as He and the Father are one.
17:20 Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word; 17:21 that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, `art' in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me. 17:22 And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we `are' one; 17:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that thou didst send me, and lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me.
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