This is part 2 of a series exploring Novo’s foundational influences and 40 year history. You can read part 1 here.
As we reflect on 40 years of ministry through Novo, it’s humbling to see the hand of God shaping and equipping our organization for the mission to which he has called us. One place we see evidence of this is in the strategic equipping he has given us in the five components of gospel movements.
The first of those five components is Activating Prayer, which is critical in laying the foundation and creating the conditions for a movement of the gospel to launch and thrive. This kind of prayer operates comfortably in the supernatural, harnesses the spiritual authority God has delegated to us, and exercises the power of blessing.
While researching such movements in the past, Novo-US President Sam Metcalf found consistent evidence of the necessity of this kind of prayer. He discovered that supernatural elements have been present in all the great moves of God down through history since the book of Acts. Activating prayer and the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit are not optional if we hope to see these kinds of gospel movements take place in our own day.
When Novo launched 40 years ago, we didn’t fully understand this kind of strategic prayer, nor were we completely comfortable operating in the supernatural. God graciously led us on a corporate journey, beginning in the 1970s, that grew our understanding of being a “naturally supernatural” people on mission. Now, in 2020, among the organizations utilizing a gospel movement ministry paradigm around the world, Novo is somewhat unique in our understanding and application of the supernatural prayer components involved.
The Defining Moment
In February of 1985, about forty Novo staff and potential staff gathered at Glen Eyrie, the headquarters of The Navigators in Colorado Springs, for an annual staff conference.
“What transpired over the next several days was a remarkable phenomenon that we were completely unfamiliar with,” Sam Metcalf wrote. “We had a pastor, as a guest speaker, who gently and in an understated way unwrapped a variety of topics: how Jesus ‘heard from the Father,’ how to visualize in prayer, and the reality of the supernatural in emotional and physical healing. The planned agenda went out the window as we began to experience the manifest presence of God in ways that were out of our box … There was a sense of awe and wonderment as paradigms that many of us had grown up with were shattered and the boundaries of other paradigms in how we encountered God were greatly expanded.”
This event resulted in a deeper hunger across the organization for prayer and a deeper experience of the presence and voice of God. For example, Patty Metcalf, Sam’s wife, who wasn’t in attendance at Glen Eyrie, listened to the recordings and God lit a fire in her. She started attending conferences and acquiring training on healing prayer and immersed herself in books on various aspects of prayer. She had a passion for all of Novo’s staff to go deeper with God in intercession and healing prayer. Many staff have now joined in that pursuit.
Further Influences
Since that paradigm-shifting event at Glen Eyrie, we have continued on a trajectory of normalizing the supernatural throughout our ministries. Several different people have been influential in our pursuit of that endeavor.
Dr. Charles Kraft, the retired professor of anthropology at Fuller Theological Seminary, who has done significant work around inner-healing, deliverance, and spiritual authority, took many of our staff through a four-day training seminar in 2011 where they were introduced to a practical model of healing prayer. Kraft also introduced us to the concept of blessing. “Knowing how to bless others,” Sam Metcalf writes, “and especially how to bless those far from God, has revolutionized how we relate to others, both those who know Jesus and those whom we long to introduce to him.” Kraft’s book, I Give You Authority, has been foundational reading for many Novo staff and those among whom we minister.
One foundational concept for us in becoming naturally supernatural people has been learning how to hear from God. This sensitivity to the Holy Spirit is essential when it comes to all forms of activating prayer, from prayer-walking, to spiritual warfare, to speaking insightful blessings over people and places. While the majority of Novo staff may come from church backgrounds which emphasize how God speaks through scripture, our understanding has expanded as we have learned to tune in to and appreciate many other ways that the Holy Spirit speaks and guides. Brad Jersak, who was a guest speaker at our 2014 World Wide Conference, was instrumental in helping us expand our understanding, and his book, Can You Hear Me?, has been a great resource for learning and practice.
Bill and Jill Randall, who joined Novo staff in 2014 following our World Wide Conference, have helped us grow in our understanding and practice of prayer for physical healing. Their many years of experience and theologically-balanced views on biblical healing have encouraged many of our staff to step into praying for the sick and seeing the power of God at work in tangible ways around the globe.
Bringing It All Together
We formalized our journey in activating prayer in 2018 when we formed Prime. This is an organization-wide collection of teams committed to practicing and deepening our understanding of different types of activating prayer, including strategic, prophetic, healing, and intercessory prayer.
From the earliest days of our unexpected encounter with God at Glen Eyrie, this growth as more naturally supernatural people has all been beautifully pieced together by God. As Sam Metcalf points out, “Throughout this journey into the supernatural, one characteristic has stood out above all others. As we have stepped into this stream, it has proven to be a gracious, gentle, and non-sensational journey….This means that we recognize this journey into a deeper understanding of the supernatural is really of God. It is what he does, not us. It is not forced. It is not manipulated. It does not have lots of human fingerprints all over it trying to figure out which lever to pull so the wizard behind the curtain obeys our wishes. Far from it.”
We are grateful for the intimate journey of prayer and supernatural authority that God initiated in Novo 35 years ago. It has become foundational to all of our ministries across the globe, and as we only recently came to understand, is crucial for the movements of the gospel we long to see.
Enjoying this series? Read part 3.