An invitation to gather for prayer

Breaking through the long-standing tradition of prayer requests

Photo by Kevin Schmid on Unsplash

Another friend sent a text today asking for prayer.

As grateful as I am to be thought of (and by the grace of God to have reached this place in my life, cause — you guys!!!) as one to call and ask for prayer I know that I am not called to pray in my living room, my bedroom or - my prayer closet if I had one - throughout my day alone for women. I have, I can and I will as the Lord leads, but rather God has called me to gather the women to pray. 

What does this mean? 

I believe it means that God wants to break through the long-standing tradition of prayer requests and is teaching his daughters how to pray together. It means, not will you pray FOR me but rather, will you pray WITH me?

But this is not the boring, coming together that you may have come to know.

He is asking us to become vulnerable with one another. Share our hearts. Lay down our burdens. Confess our sins. Expect Him to show up but especially, and most importantly, He desires for us to make room for His Spirit to move among us.

It means He is calling the equipped to gird up the unequipped who need to be built up in their faith. To get out of their comfort zone of being alone in prayer, to receive and HEAR the heart of God for them, to have life-giving words spoken into their being, and to call forth the vision God has laid before them. 

A time of activation for those who have been asleep, those who are struggling but hungry, and refuel for those who have become weary.

Gone are the boastful days of ministries counting prayer requests received and here are the days to teach them how to pray. The gathering of women to fuel their faith. Equip them, show them, and pass on to them the ways that bring forth the fiery flame that purifies the heart, creates miracles, and sustains them on their journey. 

This also means he is asking his daughters to humble themselves and slow down to make time to gather and receive a word. He is asking us to no longer expect others to carry our burdens to the cross when we are unwilling or have not learned how to fervently carry them there for ourselves. 

It is time to slow down and learn how to become intimate with the One who created intimacy. It is a call for his daughters to stop trading the activities of community over communion with him, and one another. We are a people that does not know how to sit at the feet of Jesus and rather than coming together, operating in our gifts to edify one another and call forth God’s vision and life to earth as it is in heaven, we have settled for the prayers of those who have paid the price but we are not willing to pay the price to gain that intimacy.

And yet, this morning, I got the privilege and honor to meet with a single mom (now remarried) who allowed herself to be inconvenienced in her day and tasks and many to-do’s that keep her busy — and did he SHOW UP!? You can't make this stuff up (when He does) and you can not explain it to others who it is not their time to understand.

Prayer births intimacy with the Father in our lives. Prayer with others teaches us how to pray. Prayer has caught me on fire. Prayer has changed the trajectory of my life.

till next time..

Struggling in your prayer life? Check out the five-day devo I wrote to help jumpstart the feisty in your faith and get you fired up (again!)