Drawn to our Knees

    This
quote struck my heart over three years ago, as I was preparing to leave for the
World Race. I began to ask the Lord to make me into a woman of prayer
for whom God is everything and God is enough. The Lord began to teach me so
much about prayer during my time on the World Race (To read a few of these blogs, read Light in the Dark Corners– Vietnam, Witchdoctors & the Church– Mozambique, and Stories of Restoration– Malawi).
He began to spark a passion in my heart for intercession and a fire in my
prayers. I saw the Lord move as I stepped out in greater and greater faith in
my prayers (pictured above right praying for an end to prostitution and for freedom for the captives in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam).

   When
I first arrived in Candelaria, I was diving into intercession for our youth,
the community, and the mission. There were a few of us who would meet together
in the mornings over coffee and intercede. As my fellow interceders left
Nicaragua and moved on to other things that the Lord was calling them to do, my
intercession times began to dwindle.

   Now
the Lord is calling me back. He is drawing me to my knees once again to be a
woman of prayer. Whitney wanted to start a weekly time of prayer and worship
for the youth. Immediately I knew this was something I needed to be a part of.

   Our kids have always had a heart for prayer and for worship. Even from my first time in Nicaragua in August ’08, when we began to teach on the importance of praying over one another, the kids were hungry to dive into prayer (pictured left praying over Marlon after his baptism- August ’08). They are already worshippers and pray-ers, but I long to see them grow in those things. I long to see them not only praying for their own lives and needs, but really interceding for their community and for our mission.

   We
had our first prayer time together on Saturday afternoon. We had five of our youth
(Gema, Teresa, Paula, Elisa, and Cristopher) who came to worship and to pray with us. It was a beautiful time of seeking the Lord together. We began worshiping the Lord and then each started praying over the mission and over our youth asking the Lord to move among us. They are still very timid in their prayers. I want to see them grow in boldness. I want to see them learn to intercede for their community. I want to see things changed in Candelaria through the power of their prayers.

   I also had an opportunity to pray over each of the youth individually. It has been awhile since I have just gone from person to person praying and asking the Lord to speak to me for them. It’s something that was such a regular part of my life on the Race, but has become more and more an occasional activity. I need to get back to doing this regularly. This time was such a blessing to me. The Lord spoke to me for each of the teenagers that were present. The things that He was speaking to me, were not things that I knew about their lives or their hearts from conversations that we had. They were things that the Lord spoke directly to my heart about their hearts. It was amazing to see as I spoke truth, the Lord’s love, and challenges over each of these youth how accurate the words were. I could see it on their faces as their mouths dropped open or as tears spilled down their cheeks. Lord I love it when You speak!!

   I really believe that one of our youth, Gema (pictured below left), has an ability to see into people’s hearts and speak truth over them. I have seen her do this several times. During my time praying over her, I began to call her to step out in this ability. She talked to me after our time of prayer telling me that the Lord speaks to her often about things that are happening in other people’s lives. I told her that when the Lord speaks to you in that way, He is giving you an opportunity to be used by Him to really speak truth into other people’s lives. I told her that I want to help her to develop this desire and gift. Next week during our prayer time, I want to walk with her as she prays and asks to Lord to speak to her for other people. I want to give her the opportunity to speak truth that He reveals and to pray over the other youth. It will be something really new for her to actually put this into practice, but something that the Lord is already doing in her heart. I long to see the youth stepping out in their giftings and using those to build up the church and the Kingdom. I cannot wait to see what will happen as we become people of prayer.