I’ve never posted like this before – with a block of text written by someone else – but I felt compelled to share this story.
God has been stretching me in the area of prayer – putting books in my path that challenge my thinking, leading me through my own “silent season”, allowing me to do real life with friends in the midst of enormous pain. I’ve been on my face a lot these last several months. It’s becoming a place I crave.
But when I read this story, I see so much of me in his words – in his failure to truly intercede.
I have so much more growing to do.
“A guy named Paul with long matted hair and massive flares stood up rather hesitantly to speak. He began with a confession, but we were soon to discover he was carrying a powerful message from the Lord.
“My sister has anorexia,” he confided, brushing the hair from his face. “She’s 26 years old and weighs just seventy pounds. The anorexia is so bad that she’s now developed arthritis so she can’t even dress herself or straighten her hands. She also seems to have diabetes and is going through menopause twenty years too early. She isn’t a Christian; she just seems to have been robbed over everything; her womanhood, her future, her dignity, her life.”
The crowd had grown totally silent, hanging on every tortured word: “I’m here to confess something to you …”
Looking up at his audience, Paul paused, “I don’t even pray for her. I’ve been asking myself, ‘Why not? Don’t I care? Yes, I care! Do I believe in prayer? Yes, of course!’ The reason I don’t pray for my sister is because it’s just too painful. To pray for her is to think about her situation. It means identifying with her and feeling her pain. So I find it easier just to forget the whole thing and pretend it’s not happening.”
“But God’s been challenging me to feel my sister’s pain, because that’s actually what it means to truly intercede. I also believe God is challenging us as a movement of young people to dare to feel the pain all around us. To move from praying ‘for’ people from the comfort of our own salvation to interceding ‘with’ them from a position of need.”
He grew in confidence as he sensed the Holy Spirit putting words in his mouth: “Here’s the question: ‘Will we allow the things that break God’s heart to break ours too?’ It’ll mean more tears, more listening. It may even be the reason why so many of us struggle with our own personal burdens and heartaches – God is allowing us to feel the pain, to be weak and broken so that our prayers have power.
“Intercession means weeping for the earthquake victims in the news right now, and for the anorexics, the drug abusers, the sexually abused, the friends who don’t know Jesus. And God says that if we will stand in the gap in this way, bridging the ravine between a hurting generation and a healing God – we will see breakthrough, a new level of effectiveness in prayer. In short, there will be very great power in our pain … “
Paul scanned the crowd for a moment and noticed the way some were avoiding his gaze: “This is a tough word isn’t it? We’re so often told to trust Jesus for a problem-free existence. But what if the call to pray is a call to bleed as well as receive blessing? Maybe we’ll run out of words in the prayer room and just join the Spirit in praying with ‘groans that words cannot express.’ Maybe our passion will consume us until we actually live our payer in practical action? Will you carry this cross? Can you receive it?“
(All quoted from Red Moon Rising: How 24/7 Prayer is Awakening a Generation, page 161-162, emphasis mine)
Lord, I want more – more of you, more of your presence, more of your power. I want to participate with you: Will you show me how? Show me how to intercede for the lost, how to mourn with those who mourn, how to step toward pain in order to pray down your power, your mercy, your healing. I thirst for more, Lord. Give us more of you.
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