Strategic Prayers of Preparation
“God, I believe there’s more mission that you have for me after this time. I just want to know where. I’ll go anywhere you want me to go.”
That heart-felt prayer would change the trajectory of my life in ways I couldn’t even imagine, taking me places I hadn’t ever heard of, and putting me in the center of an unfolding story of miraculous answers to prayer in a region where Jesus was unknown.
Here’s how it started. I was attending a class on faith, and the teacher had challenged us to pray about what steps of faith God might be asking us to take. I was already sensing an ongoing call to mission, but longed for more clarity. As I prayed, Central Asia immediately came to mind. Am I really hearing this?
Later that day I spent an hour up on a rooftop, praying, worshiping, asking for a sign. All of a sudden I heard that inner voice—the Holy Spirit—saying, “Turn to Matthew 16.” So I did. Well, in Matthew 16 Jesus specifically addresses demanding a sign—and it’s not a good thing. As I was reading, the Lord’s voice boomed inside of me, “My son, you don’t need to ask for a sign. I’m LITERALLY telling you Central Asia.”
As I continued to pray about Central Asia during that season, God gave me different pictures and visions and words confirming his direction, honing in on which region, and why. It was a remote, restricted-access area I’d never heard of before, predominantly Muslim, with many different people groups and languages spoken. Several of those people groups were not only unreached (having very few believers) but unengaged (no believers sharing the gospel with them in a meaningful way). As I read about the people, especially the oppression they’d gone through, my heart started growing for them as well. It all felt a bit like the Macedonian call that the Apostle Paul had in the night, telling him, “Come over here.”
It would be three long years before I’d finally be able to set foot in the region. The ways I saw God move and the favor I received from the people during my short scouting trips there were the final confirmation of God’s call to go.
Those trips also held powerful lessons for me on the impact of activating prayer in an unreached, unengaged land. My work in the region is a continual work of prayer, from prayer-walking to prayers for physical healing when I’m on location, to ongoing, faithful intercession for the people God connects me with when I return home. I’m convinced that the breakthroughs I’ve seen are a result of these fervent prayers and attention to God’s leading, before, during, and after each week-long trip.
Prayers for Healing
One important dimension of activating prayer is praying for physical healing. Every single person in this region that we’ve prayed for to be physically healed has been physically healed. I’ve never experienced that anywhere else. It doesn’t matter what background of faith people are coming from; Jesus is showing up and healing all of them, showing them his love. It’s given me great boldness to pray for people, and then follow up by asking, “Do you want to know more about who healed you?”
For example, during my last trip I met up with a Muslim guy I’ve been building relationship with since the beginning. I found out his back was hurting, so I asked, “Can we pray to see Jesus heal it?” “OK, sure,” he said. I put a hand on his back and started speaking to it to be healed in Jesus’s name. When we finished praying, he seemed shocked. “Oh my goodness! The pain’s gone!” Giving him more context about the healing was a chance to take him deeper in spiritual conversation than we had gone before. A few days later we had lunch together and followed up on our prayer time. “How’s your back?”
“The pain still hasn’t come back,” he said. “It’s completely healed. It’s a miracle! I definitely know that this is God. This can’t be anything else.”
We had one more evening together after that and I felt the Lord prompting, “You have to make the most of this opportunity.” So I asked him, “Now that you’ve seen Jesus heal you, what does that mean for your relationship with him?” We started a conversation about what it looks like to follow Jesus, and we were able to do a Discovery Bible study with him on the Beatitudes. We’re starting to see him wanting to engage more with scripture, wanting to respond and be obedient. And it’s a direct result of prayer.
Prayer-Walks and Blessing
Strategic prayer-walking has been another important piece of activating prayer in this region. I recently had one experience of prayer-walking that was a defining moment for me in understanding how powerful this form of prayer can be.
It started with another Muslim friend inviting us to visit his village. He was from an unengaged people group. To our knowledge, we were the first believers ever invited into that village region, the first believers to engage with these people and give witness to Jesus in a meaningful way. It was a pretty big deal.
When we arrived, we hiked with our Muslim host up an 8,000 ft. mountain, meeting people along the way. As we walked, I prayed and blessed the mountainside. My Muslim friend asked me what I was doing. “Oh,” I said, “I’m praying for the land and for the people. Wherever I go I like to ask God’s blessing.”
It was a very hospitable culture, so we made several stops for tea, for food, and to dance with the people. They’d always want to make toasts, so I used it as an opportunity to bless the people directly. “When I’m with new friends I like to give a blessing as a toast. Can I bless you?” I’d say. And I’d bless them in the name of Jesus. It was a unique opportunity to be bold in a place where Jesus is not known or spoken about.
The big defining moment came after we reached the summit. We’d hiked the last part with a group of guys who had a camp near the top of the mountain. When we returned to their camp, they excitedly asked, “Can we take a picture together at the Friend’s Tree?” The “Friend’s Tree” had a carving of a face on it. It was an example of the folk Islam they practiced—a blend of Islam, animism, and land worship.
Before heading to the tree, they handed me a gift, another carving that said “American Friends.” I wasn’t afraid to take the gift, but knowing that sometimes these objects can have spiritual things attached to them, I knew I wanted to take spiritual authority over the object right away.
As the guys started climbing up into the Friend Tree for our picture, I started praying over my gift: “Anything not of Jesus, you must leave this area and leave this gift. Be gone in Jesus’s name.” I finished with, “I invite the Kingdom of God and his presence into this place right now in Jesus’s name.”
As soon as the words “Amen,” left my mouth, something crazy happened. The roots of the Friend Tree came up out of the ground and it toppled, completely uprooted. The guys were flung out of the tree, laughing, hats flying, without a clue about what was going on. “God, what just happened?” I asked. I sensed the Holy Spirit saying, “I’m uprooting the old things here so my Kingdom can be planted.” What had just happened in the natural was a powerful reflection of things happening in the supernatural because of our prayers.
Before leaving, my teammate and I sat down with those guys to have tea, and of course, to give toasts. We blessed them in Jesus’s name. Then one of the guys shared this toast and blessing with us. “I couldn’t imagine that we could become friends in such a short time. But truly our spirits are lifted up today as a result of you being here with us.” Whether he realized it or not, I knew the spiritual shift he was sensing in that moment was Jesus. It was really encouraging for us. We knew that what was happening was of the Lord, not something we could have caused.
The Importance of Perpetual Prayers
Covid closing borders hasn’t stopped our ability to seek the Lord and pray strategically. My prayers for the people and the region have only increased since the shut-downs. I know God is still at work. What’s happening in the unseen is not slowing down. And while I long to be there in person, to see these friends, to see this move of God with my own eyes, witnessing the impact of my prayers, I know I’ve been given the spiritual tools to build God’s Kingdom even from afar.
The big thing is to be faithful to seek his strategies, to listen for his voice and leading, and to be faithful in prayer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
This story comes from an Ethne staff person with a call to a sensitive region of Central Asia who joined Novo in 2015 to pursue this call. They currently live in the U.S. while continually praying and waiting on God’s direction for engaging this region at a deeper level.