What is prayer? You would think after 20 plus years of being a professing Christian and a Christian leader you would get a easy straight forward answer. Well perhaps! This past week I journeyed to Fairfield Maine to a very small town. At the Fairfield Church of the Nazarene were leaders and laymen gathered for a 3 day prayer summit.
My role was to webcast the event. Before I arrived, I wrote the following for a blog that is now finally getting up online. My perspective up to Maine was far different from the way back.
Train to Maine.
My role was to webcast the event. Before I arrived, I wrote the following for a blog that is now finally getting up online. My perspective up to Maine was far different from the way back.
Train to Maine.
This is not my usual blog type content, but taking a train to Maine is not my usual trip either. Recently I had planned to go to Fairfield, Maine to assist a prayer Summit for web casting the weekend as well as teaching a seminar. There were several options I had for consideration. I could fly and spend half the time, or I could drive and be wiped out from the road or take a train and rest, read and enjoy the trip from a different perspective.
So I ventured for the train option having never taking that length of a trip by rail before. My train was supposed to depart at 6:07 a.m. from Lynchburg, Virginia. When I arrived early, I found out it was running late and going to depart at 7:20 a.m.At 7:20 a.m.: I was off and heading to the U.S. capital in D.C. to change trains and head to Boston. It was an enjoyable trip. I saw cities and stations I had not seen before and seaports from a rail eye view that I would not normally see from the highways. It was a great trip and I meet some interesting people along the way. I meet a contractor from Rhode Island as well as sat with a Wall Street investor from NYC. When I finally arrived in south station in Boston, it was 8:30 p.m. and a long day on the train with a 2-hour trip left to Saco, Maine where I was to spend the night with my mum! I decided to walk from South Station to north station to get some exercise after a long day sitting on the Ritz. It was a beautiful night in downtown Boston with 3 hours to kill as I dragged a suitcase and backpack through the financial district.
Needless to say my wheels squeaked more now than before the trip as I dragged the green monster over cobblestones all the way to Fanuell Hall marketplace where I enjoyed some street entertainer along the way.As I walked along the park near the north end, I saw some beggars working hard to beg a living from every by passer. I work to hard to make it myself, so I am not too much on giving to street charity people. I will admit though that I was tempted for a minute to sit down and try my hand at begging. I thought, “I wonder what it must be like and maybe I should experience it first hand and see what it feels like and how hard it might be to get a quarter by looking and being pitiful”.
I decided if I ever wanted to run for political office in the future, having that experience on my resume would probably do me in, so I kept going along dragging my squeaky box suitcase! As I continued along the small Fanuell Park I noticed a holocaust tribute area and as I went through it I thought of our own modern day abortion holocaust that nobody has been able to completely rescue this hidden class of people from the torment of death yet. As I walked through the archways underneath my feet was a grid with hot coals steaming under you like burning people I assumed. It was a very moving experience, I had not expected in downtown Boston on weeknight.
Just before crossing over to North Station, I snapped a couple pictures to prove I was there and as you could see I took a picture of one of my favorite coffee shop signs of the world. After getting to North Station I still had over 1 hour to wait and decided to change my clothes and wash up after a long trip as I prepared to roll into the next day as I finished out the DownEaster Train to Saco. As I boarded the DownEaster I finally got the opportunity to get a wireless connection to go online, only to not succeed after all. Anyway, it was a pretty long and different day and a most enjoyable experience even though it was a very long day. I went to the very end of the train to get by myself, to experience having all the young and intoxicated young people at the station jump in on my train cart. In particular one young man that spoke to me earlier reminded me of myself when I lived in Maine at age 19. I guess I can
Just before crossing over to North Station, I snapped a couple pictures to prove I was there and as you could see I took a picture of one of my favorite coffee shop signs of the world. After getting to North Station I still had over 1 hour to wait and decided to change my clothes and wash up after a long trip as I prepared to roll into the next day as I finished out the DownEaster Train to Saco. As I boarded the DownEaster I finally got the opportunity to get a wireless connection to go online, only to not succeed after all. Anyway, it was a pretty long and different day and a most enjoyable experience even though it was a very long day. I went to the very end of the train to get by myself, to experience having all the young and intoxicated young people at the station jump in on my train cart. In particular one young man that spoke to me earlier reminded me of myself when I lived in Maine at age 19. I guess I can
say thank God for trains to Maine.
Now for the Rest of the Story on prayer: I admit it! I do not pray as much as I should want too and as much as I know too. However, what is it? It is just time with the Lord Jesus Christ in Daily Communion or in a certain position for a certain duration of time? Pray does take on different aspects and some aspects help some connect better than others, but all aspects are a part of the great aspect of prayer. During the prayer summit, we are encouraged to fast, pray, and seek God for His anointing and power. This summit was blanketed in much prayer for many weeks and months prior to the gathering. It was awesome! God's Spirit poured out and fell on us all. However, the greatest element of prayer at the summit for me was CONFESSION! I blew it on the way to Maine and knew it all weekend. Therefore, when God fell and confession seemed to be the flow among several including a few leaders I knew I had to confess.
I confessed my selfish fearful act of sinful omission that I had been prompted to act upon during my train ride. You see during the Summit, Elaine Pettit poured out her heart about souls missing heaven and ending up in Hell and I knew I had blown an opportunity and a tug from God to share and build a relationship with a young lost soul on the train. I justified at the time why I did not share Christ or at least begin to engage the soul of a man verses the surface stuff of life most people spend too much idle time chatting about.
Nevertheless, in hindsight I learned that I had blown what God was speaking to me about on the train late at 1:30 a.m. in the morning. You see I realized a again that PRAYER is not just talking, but it is also listening to the Holy Spirit. I had the prompting of His Spirit drawing a young man to my attention and I was pushing it off at the time. However, at the Prayer Summit I realized I was had not been listening in prayer.
The good news is I also saw God work at the prayer summit and one man later confessed that during the day on Saturday he was able to lead his own elderly Father to the Lord. WOW, somehow I felt that my public confession of not listening in prayer to God became part of God using my failure to encourage others to go and share while they could still have the opportunity. We truly serve an amazing God. To think God even uses our confessions of sin and omission of sin to encourage others to win the lost is amazing.
I thank God for one of the boldest Women Evangelist Preachers I know. Rev. Elaine Pettit. She preachers with her Heart, Life and passion as she LISTENS in prayer to God and great things flow from her Waiting Schools and Prayer Summits. Alternatively, should I say, His Waiting Schools? One of the final instructions Jesus left the disciples before leaving earth as He ascended into the Clouds was too wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit. Those 120 disciples were listening in Prayer, waiting in Prayer and then the Holy Spirit Fell and they reacted in prayer. It is all Prayer, as we obey the Lord. The early disciples of the first century did not know what they were waiting to experience when the Holy Spirit came as promised. We should also wait and indeed many of us are starting to truly wait again in these last days, but many do now know how He will show up until he does show up in power and it is often different from previous experience to the next. Therefore, may we continue to pray and wait on the Lord in these last days.