When God Spoke To Me
I was on phone with my parents a few nights ago! As I was telling them some stories from the past month, my dad said you should write a blog about that! So here it is. It’s been hard for me to balance doing ministry, building relations, spending time with God, and spending time in community, while also finding time to blog. So I apologize for the few blogs recently. But the Lord is gracious and gave me a rainy day with some time play my ukulele, talk with my friends, nap and to write this!
In my last week in Kyrgyzstan, there were two different times the Lord spoke to me to start praying for someone. One time was for a teammate, I didn’t know why I was supposed to pray for her but I did anyways. The second time was for a man, that the gospel would be shared with him, more on that later.
The first time that week that the Lord spoke to me to start praying and interceding was for my friend. My team was at an English club where we had opportunities to teach English and create spaces for conversation with students and young professionals. The people who came were eager to learn and although they knew and understood English well, they often couldn’t speak as well. So they wanted to practice with native English speakers, which was me and my team! That night one of my friends gave a presentation and then afterwards my friends and I played games with the students while continuing to talk. Okay, back up to when my friend was giving her presentation, I felt an urge to start praying for her. And although I didn’t know why, I began interceding on her behalf. Then my other friend and I were playing games with some girls, and we heard, “do you know who Jesus is?” from the corner of the room where my friend and a student were sitting and talking. At that moment the room was quiet enough for us to hear that and then they moved outside. But immediately we all looked at each other and knew we needed to pray for both of them, she was going to share the gospel with her! Later, we reconvened and my friend told us the whole story and said it was the first time that when she shared the gospel and she felt the Lord with her. The Lord had used me to start praying for her to have peace and know the Lord was with her in that. I was blown away and honored that the Lord used me for that.
The second time, my whole squad was together at Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan staying at a yurt camp. We were at this yurt camp almost completely alone. One man hosted us, and there were two Russian travelers there for two days. We went for a few days and had a “burn!” Which was spending 72 hours in constant prayer and worship to the Lord. Not any praying for self or needs but just praise and giving glory to the Lord for who He is and what He’s done. We worshipped altogether and individually. We prayed altogether and individually. We had devotionals altogether and individually. We fasted, some the whole time, some for portions of the time. We had time in the Lord’s beautiful creation, as we were near the lake, mountains all around us, trees and rocks and sand and just open space. And we each spent time in our “prayer yurt,” that was dedicated for prayer and giving God glory at every moment for that 72 hours. We took turns spending an hour in the yurt, all through the day and night. My shifts that week started at 5am and finished at 6am. Normally after my shift I would head back to bed and sleep for another hour or two. But our last morning, as I was exiting the yurt, after a friend traded off with me, the sun was just beginning to rise. So I wandered over to a bench that over looked the lake with red and orange starting to spread through the sky around the mountains that stood before me. As I sat there I noticed our host beginning to get up for the day and starting to boil hot water for coffee and tea. He would sleep every night on a thin mat in the main yurt and was so kind. I wondered if he had ever heard about Jesus. Obviously he had been around us all week and sat in our worship sessions and would even video us, which he posted on their Instagram. But he didn’t understand English. Our main way to communicate with him was through google translate as he spoke Kyrgyz and Russian, with only a few words in English. That early morning as I watched he get up so early to serve us, I wanted him to know about our God, who is a mighty King and humble Servant. But as a woman in a Muslim culture, it would have been highly inappropriate for me to approach him and talk to him without the company of anyone else. So I started praying for someone to have the opportunity and courage to share with this man and that his heart would be softened and open to receiving it. Eventually, I went back to bed for an hour until our breakfast before we left. Then as my friend and I were talking after breakfast, he told me he started talking to the man that morning over coffee just after I had stopped praying and got to shared the gospel with him! God is so cool! Again, I’m so honored to be apart of building His Kingdom even if it’s from “behind the scenes.”
Prayer is so important. If our aim is to love people, then we need to pray for them (1 Timothy 2:1-2). It seems like sometimes it’s a last resort or the least you could do for someone. But ultimately, it’s the best thing you can do for someone. Prayer should be our first response not our last resort. God not only wants us to go to Him like a friend and ask for things (refer to my previous blog, Ask and you shall receive). But to go to Him to glorify Him for who He is and what He’s done and what He can do. We need to pray on the behalf of our friends, family, country, neighbors, etc. And not only praying but interceding for others. To intercede for someone is to mediate for them, so intercession is similar to praying, but it’s being a mediator for another person with God. Also God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit all intercede for believers (Hebrews 7:25, Romans 8:34 & Romans 8:26). How incredible and humbling is it that the Lord of the universe is interceding on our behalf, let us also intercede on others’ behalf.
Prayer requests/points for interceding:
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My team, we’re now in India! Serving alongside a mission society whose tribe was reached about a hundred years ago and now, with God’s power and authority, they are transforming their whole state and the surrounding states, and countries including Bangladesh and Myranmar. We are serving alongside them at their churches, schools, seminary/bible school, hospital and rehab center for a month.
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Again me and my team, it’s our last month out on the field. Crazy how fast this year has gone. Many of us are praying and searching for what is next. But prayer for us as we process through the year and return back so different than we once were to a place that is so different than when we left it a year ago. It will be probably more of a culture shock coming back than it was leaving. Some of us will go back to jobs and schools, some will need a period of rest, some will return to the mission field, some don’t know yet.
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For your own friends and family. For their salvation and faith. For their health and protection. For their jobs, schooling, etc. nothing is to small or too big to pray for.
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For your country. I have been so convicted of this. I’ve been in many countries where they pray so intently for their homeland. I think America needs a lot of prayer and intercession. Also for our leaders and government.
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For the world. There are so many wars and conflicts in the world right now. It almost seems like they’re following us as we travel but I believe I know of them just because I’ve been near to them and know people involved. Russia and Ukraine, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Turkey and Greece, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Iran and the people, and the list goes on and on.
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For the mission field. For missionaries. For people to go and share the gospel, whether it’s to a remote village in Thailand or a big city in Turkey or on the reservations in South Dakota or to your coffee shop barista or maybe even a friend or family member, etc.!
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Who or what else is the Lord revealing to you that needs to be prayed/interceded for?
Thank you for reading! Your support and encouragement is so appreciated! I’m excited to get to share more with you (hopefully) soon!
Love you all, Clara Grace
