Random Thoughts - Prayer

God works in awesome ways. I fully believe we are in a time of spiritual renewal and I want nothing more than for the power of God to be seen in the lives of people so that God may be glorified as He alone deserves. The following is an excerpt from an email I sent to a couple of friends. These words alone cannot adequately describe everything but hopefully God will move in your hearts as you read.

"There have been some really cool things going on here with prayer lately. Every Friday and Saturday, we have a variety of worship services and music events and each week, they have been progressively getting more and more intense as far as meeting with God. Along with that, Satan has been working harder and harder on everyone involved because we have been letting God use us more. My story about last week can be found on my blog page called "God in a music stand". This week was again surrounded in prayer.

I was asked in the middle of the week to play music for our main Friday night vespers service which most of the students here attend. So Michael and I decided to do an acoustic service with just the two of us playing and a couple of singers. Prayer was very present in our practice time. Michael and I were sitting in our room getting ready to practice and I said "Let's..." and Michael quickly finished "...pray." On Thursday, I got an email from a friend asking me for prayer about a test that she had spent a lot of time studying for but still felt very unprepared. I realized that she was in the test at the time so I immediately took time to pray for her. Later that day, I saw her and said I prayed for her. She asked what time and I said about 10:40 AM. At that exact moment, the teacher came over to her and said "You look like you're having a hard time, can I help you?" So she sat down and helped her understand the questions. On Friday, we spent part of the afternoon practicing for the after vespers music program called Adoration. I could feel a lot of tension as we were practicing and I believe fully that it was Satan trying to get our attention off of God. Later that day, I randomly got a text message from a guy whom I respect as a man of God who said "i really want to pray for you tonight". Also, a little bit after that, my mom emailed me and said "I've felt really impressed to pray for you more than usual today." She said she was impressed to the point of pulling over on the side of road as she was driving and then a second time later that day as she was doing some house work. Then sound check came and historically, the program participants have not set aside a time of prayer before the service. But this time, our chaplain really emphasized how from now on he's wanting to get sound check and all of the preliminaries done so the participants can have an extended time of prayer before-hand. So we did just that and it was a really intense time with God as we prayed with and for each other and shared our thoughts on the core Bible verse of the evening. Soon after we finished praying, it was time to start the music. We started off with a modern version of the hymn, "The Solid Rock" and then moved on to "Blessed be Your Name". Both of those songs went really well but the last two were even better. We went on to "Enough", during which I substituted the bridge for a monologue about God being sufficient in different points throughout history, wrapping up with the current moment. Then we ran that song into another old song, "I have decided to follow Jesus." As soon as I started leading the first phrase, the one-thousand or so people in the room erupted with a volume I've only ever heard in auditoriums of 10 - 20 thousand. The intensity of the singing was overwhelming. The sermon went on from there and was a perfect followup. After, that service was over, Michael and I moved over to another auditorium where we were going to play for the "Adoration" service (it starts at about 9:15 PM). The seats quickly filled with probably 200 people or so. We cycled between times of fun and times of worship and then the time ended. Our song leader paused and everyone got up and started to leave because it was "officially" the end. But then, as people were stepping out, our song leader (whom I also admire as a great man of God) said quietly into the microphone "do you want to keep singing?" followed by a resounding roar of "yeah!" as people rushed back to their seats. From there, the worship took off in a way I can't describe. I can only say that it was God lead.

I look back up and see I've spent awhile writing but it is hard for me to keep silent. I hope that you are encouraged as I am to see God working in awesome ways. He is inspiring a passion in the hearts of people that moves beyond the levels of church and music and gets down to the core of our existence. All of this excitement that I have been describing is not just excitement but a movement of people for the glory of God. Lives are being changed daily because of the joy of God's people. Even today in my religion class, our teacher said that two students came to him one day last week and said they wanted to give their hearts to Jesus. Pretty cool!