And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.  James 5:15-16

This morning I fall short of prayer.  Prayer for people, prayer for the town I live, my neighbors, the Nation.  I am mediocre even in the prayer I offer up for myself.  We are told to "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." I want more than anything to be in God's will, so at a crossroad I will wait on the Lord.

God had me in a place of prayer over 15 years ago, and I wrote this song.  I still struggle to get through singing it in its entirety.  It is simple, and yet fully captures the heart of a people desperate for God to move...

We are dry Lord
and we are week
Send down your righteousness
Its living streams we seek

Waiting is so, so, so hard Lord
we're desperate to see you face to face 
the glory surrounds your thrown
We cant help but scream out
we scream out, we scream out,

Release us Lord
Release us Lord 
Release us Lord

It was a time of lonely seeking, a place of God revealing, and me responding.  It was all very overwhelming.  A shoulder brushed, an abuse taken in.  A glance understood of a fear deeper than anything human, oppression.  Eyes marked with hidden pain, others taunted with sickness, dancing on the edge of a cliff, most were deep with nothing, dead. In the desperate search for more, for light, for good... there was nothing.  Some were dead.

Every encounter of someones spirit became too overwhelming for my 21 year old heart to take in.  My lack of maturity and understanding reduced me to a sobbing mess.  I caved under the heavy weight of this gift, begging for the Lord to give it to someone else, to take it from me. My heart hardened, and I could no longer see the unending suffering around me.  No longer had His eyes, His heart for the Lost.  

For every move that happens in the unseen, there is one that happens in the seen.  Spirit, Physical.  

We are called to prayer in this day.  We are not called to instant results.  No, we stand in a fast flowing river, not overwhelmed by the current that passes by. Not dragged down by those flowing with the current.  We hold fast to the truths and promises our Jesus has given us.  The word says, "the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective".  Powerful and effective.  Stand your ground. Pray continually, allow the heavens to pour upon you the burdens of this world. Place them at the cross, where all is redeemed, being redeemed, and one day will be fully redeemed.  

Mistakes made at 21 will not be repeated.  Knowing in someones eyes what is happening in their heart is a beautiful Spirit filled mystery, a gift, a softening of the heart.  It is no longer about me...it never was, this prayer thing...

"Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”  ~Jesus