Month: November 2011

Take one….She sat in an old chair within our office. Without blinking she dropped into prayer for a woman who would never know this side of heaven the words offered to the King

Take two…Laying upon the carpet I read from a book the Words of life, and listened to harmonious prayer offered to the King

Take three…She was a beautiful woman ruffled about the edges. She spoke of many things, but under the small talk I could hear her longing to be loved. She shook my hand in true affection and I knew she desired to know the King.

Final take…Lord, Your kingdom come, Your will be done…

I got there two steps ahead and grabbed my numbered ticket just before him. We chose seats separated by a room full of people. I was listening to music but looking around at the faces surrounding me. Each time I looked up, our eyes would connect. It seemed he was monitoring the room as much as I.

I began a mental inventory of the people I was sitting with. How many had any kind of hope for heaven? How many lived lives thinking about today only? I began to pray for these lives to come awake. Looking across the room once more, I saw the stranger watching too. I wondered to myself what it was he watched for; inwardly I hoped it was for good things.

The rulers of the age spoke these things…

Act 4:17-18 But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.” So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

History repeats itself in ignorance.

Leadership can be so precarious. In times past and even now, the role of the church has been to offer hope and help. This call comes with an understanding at how influential the position of leadership can be. Many have been wrongly seduced by influence. Although it is a gift from God to receive a position of influence, our enemy comes at us with temptation to overstep our roles. Satan wanted to sit on God’s throne so he alone could receive praise and worship. His downfall is a bitterness and he is ever trying to lead us all into this same trap.

We must understand how to pray in this hour for those who are in leadership roles. God desires our eyes to be upon Him alone but our enemy comes to craftily draw us aside. The enemy wants us to set our sights on our own name, the name of our church, on our own reputation, on the works of our own hands. With open eyes we can “see” this trap and pray for those who lead us. With hearts of “love” we must protect them.

We had crossed the bridge to find a place in the shade. The bench where we sat offered relative privacy. I was as still as my outer skin would let me be, but I could feel myself trying to get comfortable while squirming some. Inwardly my peace would not be moved.

Our words came and went in the hours we shared. I looked at the rushing water while I listened, wondering where exactly we were heading. The years in between began to fade. I heard words of hope come into my head once more from a night we had spent in my room long ago. It was a song being played over and over…

“Every night I say a prayer in the hope that there’s a heaven….show me the way, show me the way, take me tonight to the river, and wash my illusions away, show me the way”  *

* Lyrics Peter Frampton, Show Me The Way