Church of the Highlands is right in the middle of 21 days of prayer. An awesome occurrence that encompasses people getting to the church every morning at 0600 for an hour of prayer and worship to God. Today is the 15th day of this amazing journey and although I do not attend every morning (getting up at 0500 to get there can be a little rough), I have spent an hour a day in prayer with God. We, as members, have prayed for the harvest this fall in getting believers to the church and for the power of God to move in our state and our nation. I have also thrown in a few personal prayers and spent the time growing closer and developing a more personal relationship to God. Yesterday, though, I had a breakthrough and I cannot wait to share it with you.
Saturday, August 14th 2010... prayer starts at 0900 on Saturdays, instead of 0600 (which is awesome), but Madison and I still got up at 0630 so that we could ruck 2 miles before prayer, in order to prepare me for Air Assault School (I am crazy, I know it). After we rucked (in pretty good time I might add), we showered and got ready for an awesome time of prayer. We got to the church just as the prayer director was speaking and we found our seats. As I sat listening, my heart became troubled and I could not get into an attitude of worship or prayer. Once he got off stage, we started singing Jesus Messiah and my heart began to turn toward God and I was getting my prayer attitude back (thank God). After worship, we broke off by ourselves and had a half an hour of prayer time on our own before we came back together as a group to pray over the city. I went to my usual spot, which is up high and pretty secluded so that I can worship God, read aloud and pray aloud to my Heavenly Father without distracting anyone else. As I was pacing, I prayed for the people in my life to have boldness and courage when living a life like Christ and for my own strengths and weaknesses (praying thankfulness for my weaknesses because it makes me that much stronger in Christ) Paul talks about this same thing in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. All of a sudden God laid it on my heart to pray for the things of His heart, not mine. So I asked the Spirit of align my thoughts and prayers with that of Christ, that I may seek His plans and goals for my life. I also prayed for clarity when speaking and praying aloud to God, not to stumble over my words so that I may communicate clearly with God. I also asked the Spirit to reveal to me my prayer language (which is a special language given to each believer who has the Spirit as a way of my heart communicating with God in my own individual way). I wanted that special relationship and intimateness with my God, so I asked God to let His spirit come inside and fill me up.
Once we were finished, we gather that the front of the stage to pray over the prayer warriors there and for the city, state and nation, so that the harvest may be plenty. As I was praying with the speaker I felt overwhelmed, like I would not get my words out fast enough. I could envision what I wanted to pray, but the words were not coming out right. I stopped for a minute and thought to myself, why can I not speak clearly? So as I continued to pray in this unintelligible language, it became clear to me that it was my Spirit, my prayer language reaching out to God. Now, for all of you skeptics... a prayer language is very different from speaking in tongues. Tongues in Prophesy is the gift given to few, but everyone who is a believer has their own prayer language. Paul clearly states in 1 Corinthians 14:2 that if a person is praying in tongues, he does not speak to men, but to God... for they are mysteries from the man's spirit. Also in the Book of Acts Paul talks about receiving the Holy Spirit and what happens to a believers when he or she gets baptized with the power of the Holy Spirit. Every single person who TRULY receives the holy Spirit and earnestly seeks to become closer to God has a prayer language. It might be gibberish to others, or have an English accent or whatever, but it is your own unique connection and language with God. SO I pray that you seek out that language and connect with your Father on a whole other level, because let me tell you... it is amazing to be consumed with the power of the Holy Spirit.
Some other helpful verses for prayer:
Jude 1:20
Acts 2:1-5
Mark 14:32-38
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