Fear Extinguishing Adventures - “You have been sent from heaven to us right now!”

I don't know how to adequately capture and express the types of reactions, incredibly powerful and positive ones, that we have experienced in the past week seeking to love the people we are encountering in this Muslim-majority country. And also at the pain and regret, I feel knowing that the vast majority of Christians living and working in this country are not reaching out, are not taking risks, and are not opening their mouths with the people they meet.  I wish I could say I was wrong, but when people are telling you, and we've heard this a number of times, "No one has ever asked me how I am doing or offered to pray for me" then my assumption is almost certainly correct.  I wish I were wrong. But the evidence is that the tens of thousands of Christians who live and work here are keeping their faith to themselves. Or in the case of one Muslim woman who asked when my wife described what we do offering to pray for people, "Who even does this?"  The answer should be...EACH AND EVERY Christian!

In this new season, a season we believe of harvest, I am continuing to ask the Lord, "HOW do you want us to proceed?" "Where do we go?" "Who do we minister to?" And perhaps most importantly, "Lord, HOW do you want us to be doing it?" I don't want to assume that the strategy He gave us 6 months ago, 6 weeks ago, or even 6 days ago is the same today. I realize what a creature of habit I am - and how I can so easily get stuck in a paradigm or an approach that I have developed over time and have become comfortable with.  

Yesterday after a pretty dismal morning of attempting to do some "Fear Extinguishing", where it seemed that not a single word of knowledge I "thought" I received was right,  the time we had in the evening was absolutely incredible.  And it wasn't dependent upon words of knowledge.  I did feel like I have become too dependent upon words of knowledge as an approach. But in contrast to the morning, last night we would just ask people, "How can I pray for you?" (or "What do you need prayer for?"  The types of ministry opportunities that the Lord opened after that were unlike anything I think we've ever seen.  People were opening up their lives, confessing their sins, sharing their pain, and in the end, were so incredibly thankful and appreciative.  Some with tears in their eyes expressing gratitude.

This morning it was much the same - another group of 3 of us went out and just offered to pray for people. We might say something like, "Since the Church isn't meeting, we are bringing the Church to you". Words of knowledge were a bit more common this morning, but our general approach was to simply approach anybody that was highlighted to us in some way and make the offer to pray for them.

The Lord opened door after door to be the Church for people who haven't been able to go themselves...to pray for families to be re-united that have been separated since before COVID and to watch again and again as the Holy Spirit would touch the lives of the people we met.

I think one of the last experiences we had had the night before was possibly the most illustrative and representative of the overall type of reaction we received. There were two Kenyan women standing together and I felt like my wife needed to simply go and offer prayer.  It was an incredible divine appointment as they were under a bunch of pressure and expressed incredible needs.  At the end of the prayer, one said to my wife, “You have been sent from heaven to us right now!”

What are we waiting for Church? When are you going to be the ones God has "sent from heaven"? Maybe you aren't accustomed to the more charismatic approach we have taken and advocate for so clearly in this blog through the years - WHO CARES!?  Simply approach people, approach anyone you can, and offer to pray for them. Ask them WHAT they need prayer for? If they need some help coming up with prayer needs, simply ask about their families, their finances, their health, or any problem they may have...And then pray for them in Jesus' Name! Make it quick, do it with your eyes open, use simple words...but JUST DO IT!

We saw the Kingdom advancing as we went. Lives were changed. And once again, numbers were exchanged for follow up to happen. And in this Muslim country, we received no push back whatsoever. Nobody told us to stop. Nobody got mad at us. Nobody cared if the words of knowledge we got for them were wrong.  They would simply ask us to pray for something else and we would.

In about 24 hours we had the opportunity to share with, pray with and encourage a couple of dozen people - and aside from those, we approached and offered to pray for even more than that.  It was entirely natural; it was simply done as we went to places we would normally go and simply sought to love the ones in front of us.

Please Church...get outside, go anywhere and everywhere people are and be to them who Jesus would be in this hour. It is unprecedented the hour in which we are living.  May we make the most of each and every opportunity.  

 ...For such a time as this!