A few days before we made our way to Uganda, our team was notified that the ministry host we had set up in Uganda could no longer host us due to the location. We knew about a recent Ebola case near the border of the Congo which was near where we were supposed to stay for the month. So in that case, as safety is a big concern for World racers we were relocated and left with an amazing opportunity. Our month became an ATL month!! I was super super excited when I found out!
I will explain.
This is called “Ask the Lord.” ATL is something we World racers have been cultivating into not only our person prayer but also into our ministry, whether it is for a day, listening prayer for others, or can even be useful for evangelism.
We spend time in quiet prayer asking the Lord in the expectation to hearing Him answer. It is not every time we get a word from the Lord, but when we do it can look like getting a clear word in mind, a picture or a vision. Sometimes the way He speaks are like hints or clues into who or what we are looking for.
In Colombia I tried it for the first time ever right before we went out into a street to evangelize. I asked the Lord to give me a simple hint such as a word or picture that would lead me to the person He needed me to talk to. I wasn’t quite sure if yellow was the word He had given me. But don’t you know, there was a woman in yellow walking straight toward me in a large crowd as if it was tunnel vision to me. I wrote about this experience in a previous blog called “Worth it.”
We have been growing in this form of prayer. It has been useful and fruitful. A key to discerning if it’s God’s voice or ours is through obedience. Discerning becomes easier, obedience becomes more fearless and confidence becomes stronger.
I’ve learned that if I think I heard something from the Lord through ATL in listening prayer, I try to look for what God gave me. I also try to share with someone what I think I heard from the Lord for that person. That’s obedience.
God loves his people so much. He is our Heavenly Father who delights in his loved ones. What he wants is a father-child relationship with people. God is love and He has a purpose to show love to people through other people. When we believers are daily renewing our minds and being transformed into the image of Christ, we have God’s heart of love within us. We can better love people when we are intentional with our time in prayer and in the Word.
Doing listening prayer for others is a way to bring the heart of God through us to other people. This love encourages and reminds them who God says they are, brings them higher, and closer to His heart. This love helps bring people into a deeper relationship with Him.
And so we had a wonderful opportunity to work on asking the Lord this month to share His love the way He wanted us to. I loved being able to be obedient to the Lord and seeing the fruit from it! In my next blog, I am sharing with you my daily journal entries of how I saw Jesus move through out this month.
And tomorrow we are heading off to Kenya!! Read my next blog “I saw Jesus.”
