Anyways, what I really wanna blog about tonight is the crazy insane thing that we learned about in class this morning. This word called "intercession," defined by "holy, believing, perservering prayer whereby someone pleads with God on behalf of another who desperately needs God's intervention." I've heard that word before, and always assumed it was a fancy theological word for prayer. Well maybe for some people it is, but apparently not for YWAM! Nope, the concept we learned today was absolutely new to me. I've never thought of it like how they described it. Basically that you don't pray about what you think you should pray about. You give that to God and wait for Him to show you things to pray about, and pray back to Him what He's given you. Since I suck at explaining stuff, here's the 10 kinda "steps" of intercession that we went through. Not steps really, but more of a guideline or way of understanding. Oh, here's the headline: "Principles for Effective Intercession":
1. Praise God for who He is, and for the privilege of engaging in the same wonderful ministry as the Lord Jesus. Praise God for the privilege of co-operating with Him in the affairs of mankind through prayer.
2. Make sure your heart is clean before God by having given the holy spirit time to convict, should there be any unconfessed sin.
3. Acknowledge that you cannot fully pray without the direction and energy of the holy spirit, ask God to utterly control you by his spirit, receive by faith the reality that he does, and thank him.
4. Deal aggressively with the enemy. Come against him in the all powerful name of the Lord Jesus Christ and with the sword of the spirit (the word of God)
5. Die to your own imaginations, desires and burdens for what you feel you should pray about.
6. Praise God now in faith for the remarkable prayer meeting you're going to have. He is a remarkable God, and we should do something consistent with His character.
7. Wait before God in silent expectancy, listening for His direction.
8. In obedience and faith, utter what God brings to your mind, believing. Keep asking God for direction, expecting Him to give it to you. He will. Make sure you don't move to the next subject until you've given God time to discharge all He wants to say regarding this burden, especially when praying in a group. Be encouraged by the lives of Moses, Daniel, Paul and Anna, knowing that God gives revelation to those who make intercession a way of life.
9. If possible, have your bible with you should God want to give you direction or confirmation from it.
10. When God ceases to bring things to your mind for which to pray, finish by praising and thanking Him for what He has done, reminding yourself of Romans 11:36: "For through Him and from Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen."
Honestly, to me this was just class. Until they said we were gonna split up into 4 groups and go do it. We were randomly numbered off and my group decided to go sit on a concrete walkway in a park across the street. We went through the first few steps, praying prayers of adoration and asking the holy spirit to come join us and convict us and prepare our hearts. Then we were silent for a good while. When Apps randomly said "Guys, this is gonna sound weird, but I see a fireman with a helmet on. He's looking at the ark of the covenant, I think. His eyes are fixed on it and they're looking nowhere else even though there's flames all around him." I honestly was looking at him a bit weird right then. Like seriously Apps? fireman? we're supposed to be having intercession. praying. we don't pray about firemen.
Apparently, we do. Almost immediately, we heard a fire truck. It was silent again for a bit as we the group started praying into that. Courtney said after a bit that she felt confirmation that it's a warning. that we as christians need to keep our eyes really fixed on God, and take them off everything else, especially during these 5 months of our dts. So we spent time in prayer for that. Josh heard just one word in his mind: "Listen." Then Jordan jumped in and said "I see a brick wall. I think it means that me, or someone else, has some kind of wall in their life that needs to come down for God to really work. Also in front of the brick wall I saw a bible in a glass case. It was open to a page but I couldn't see what page." That was when I said "Jordan, I think God wants you to know and to share with us what that verse was. some things God means to be unknown, but not this" so we were all quiet again. After a few minutes Jordan said "Psalms." Apps asked "where?" and Jordan said "i dont know what this says, but Psalm 108:7" He looked it up and started reading. The first part said "God has spoken in His sanctuary". Right when he read that, we heard a firetruck again. Let me just tell you, we went beserk. It was insane. We spent time in prayer for those things. Then Alex said "I'm the person behind the brick wall. There's something coming inbetween me andGod, I know what it is, I just really don't want to do it" We prayed for her, and God has already given her the courage to break that wall down. I'm so proud of her and i love her so much already!! Anyway, that was intercession. So crazy, we took 15 minutes longer than we were supposed to to get back to class, and everyone was waiting for us. but we didn't care, we could not stop smiling. When the other groups shared what had come to their minds, there were connections that could be made even inbetween what each individual group had experienced. It was amazing! I know my group was so pumped, we wanted to do this every day.
Other stuff happened in today's schedule, but we also had ministry group meetings this afternoon. Basically all the DTS students are split up into 2 groups which stay the same for the 3 months. There's a cafe pretty much right on base, my group gets it on saturday night. Pretty much as a group we decide what to do with it. We can go out on teh streets, talk to people, bring people into the cafe, do prayer tables, music, poster boards, whatever we come up with and want to do. and this part of town where the base is, is ideal for street ministry. like let me tell you, it is party central here on the weekends. Mainly because the beach is literally a 2 second walk from the base, all you see around here is surf shops and people in bathing suits with surfboards and on bikes. Lots of bars around here, lots of homeless people. Especially on the weekends, people wander around on the streets alot. So yeah, I'm excited for that. We didn't really figure out too much today but hopefully we'll get a feel for it and also for each other and different talents and abilities that we could work together to use to do that in the most effective way.
Oooooh! Last thing I wanna blog about before I stop annoying my roomates at this time of night with my clicking keyboard. I had a ridiculously awesome night tonight! I went on a 4 hour adventure with the most unique dude you will ever meet, pretty much guaranteed. His name is Apps, yes he even has a unique name. We walked down the beach a looooong ways, talking about and processing stuff that happened today. Then he started telling me his life story and I couldn't believe the similarities to mine. We were going to walk down the pier, but it cost money, which is dumb. so then we kept walking along the beach, when we saw in the sunset light this awesome-looking cross on top of a church. We were like "do you wanna go look at it?" and so we ran up there and we heard music, so we walked inside (still with bare feet covered in sand). They were having a worship practice, so we sat down and sang along with them for awhile. And wouldn't you believe the verse hanging on the wall! Romans 8:38-39. Of course. After awhile we left there and decided to walk back to the base on teh streets instead of the beach. So we're walking down the streets barefoot and still talking. He finished his life story so I started mine. From meeting him you would have no idea how much in common we actually have! It was incredible to just talk about life and spiritual warfare and so many so awesome important things. I am just so inspired by the amount of passion and joy that just flows right out of him all the time. I think all of us love it, and also the way he most commonly calls God "Daddy" when he's praying. It's so cool. It's a really vulnerable thing to call God. Anyway, we got distracted and realized we'd walked too far and were past the base. So we turned around, and as we're talking these 2 guys are walking past us, and one of them is like "hey dude, you gonna drink all night?" Apps was like "nah man, i don't drink." so he was like "who're you lying to, you gonna smoke then?" and Apps was like "no, i don't smoke either" and so they were like "so what you guys doing then?" and we're like "we're just talking" and they're like "ohhh..." so we told them a bit about ywam and the cafe stuff and had a bit of a conversation. When they were about to leave Apps asked if we could pray for them, and they were like "yeah, sure" and knelt right down on the street. So we did too, and we just prayed for them. After we left I turned to him and said "there was definitely a reason we walked too far". So then we went back to the base, got money, walked to a dairy queen, kept talking, and got icecream. While Apps struck up a conversation with the cashier about beavers. Not surprising. Anyway, it was the randomest combination of things I have probably ever done. but it was so fun! And so cool to see God even in the little things.
Oops, I said that was the last thing. I lied. TOMORROW! we have to know where we're going on outreach by tomorrow lunch. for anyone who actually reads this far down in this stupid post, pray for us as students. For guidance for those who don't yet have a clue, for conviction for those who do, and just that God would guide every student to make the right decision on where He wants us to go. I'm pretty sure I know where I'm supposed to be going, but it's not the easy choice for me. In alot of ways I want to go to the other place, but I really want it to be only God's leading. But if I had my choice we would NOT split up for outreach. like that would just be the ultimate awesomeness, if we didnt have to choose and if we didn't have to leave some people that we're really going to be connecting with and growing to love over the next 3 months behind. So yeah, just pray for God to release everything involved with that.
So yeah, I'm going to bed now. PS Being a canadian in america KINDA SUCKS sometimes. ha.
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