On mission through life-changing prayer

Does your prayer life, right now, reveal that you are seriously on mission with God?

Anyone whom God calls to be on mission with Him becomes a person of serious prayer.

The person who walks with God is in constant fellowship with Him through prayer. This was true in biblical days, and it is true today. Let's take a look at some familiar stories:

• Noah received very specific directions from God.
  
• Abraham had constant encounters with God.
  
• Moses began a life of intimate servanthood with God, and God led him into some serious intercession (Exodus 32) which literally saved Israel's life.

Prayer is the very life of a person on mission with God. It is obviously crucial that the servant seeks God in prayer at every juncture. In the examples above, not only did the life of the servant hang in the balance, but so did the lives of those to whom God would send them, such as Jonah and the Ninevites, and the other prophets.

But the supreme model of prayer for anyone on mission with God is Jesus. God was actively pursuing salvation for the whole world through Him. And God was planning how His great salvation would be shared with the rest of the world through the disciples He gave Jesus and the instruction God gave Jesus in how to train them. Thus, we see that every major moment in Jesus' life was preceded by, or initiated in, prayer. This was when Jesus received clear directions from the Father. You can see this as He:

• began His ministry (Luke 4, 5:16)
  
• chose the disciples (Luke 6:12-16)
  
• drew from them the great confession that He was the Christ (Luke 9:18-27)
  
• prepared to go to the cross (Luke 9:28-36)
  
• approached the cross (Gethsemane, Luke 22:39-46)

Jesus' whole life was a serious prayer/fellowship with His Father, receiving from the Father clear instructions for Himself and for the disciples (see John 17).

No one can be on mission with God and not be a person of serious, deliberate, focused, life-changing prayer.

As a pastor in Saskatchewan, Canada, I discovered that as each member became a person of prayer, we became more certain about where God would have us establish churches and begin new ministries. Prayer helped to instruct us on financial commitments and many new directions small and great.

Always in the presence of prayer are the scriptures --to be read, meditated on and prayed through. It was while studying scripture that God laid on my heart that He was going to call our "laborers" when we prayed! And it was then as we prayed that He revealed to me that He would send laborers and that we had to provide specific training for them. In the context of prayer God told us what He was going to do. And because we were on mission with Him as we prayed, He gave clear directions for our response (as we saw throughout the scriptures). When He guided us, we obeyed.

Does your prayer life, right now, reveal that you are seriously on mission with God? If not, will you begin immediately a life of prayer and go on mission with Him in your world?

The author of Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby is special assistant to the president, Prayer and Spiritual Awakening, North American Mission Board.