8 lessons in love

 This week I have learned more about what it means to be the body of Christ. And it is the most extraordinary thing and such a massive blessing and privilege.  Firstly, last Sunday I was messaged by a friend to ask if I could pray for a family in need. Their son was on a life support machine and the prognosis was not great.  I said yes, of course.  I did pray, sort of.  But then the friend said that she was going to go to the hospital to pray - and I asked if she needed company.  She said yes.  So I went

Lesson number one.  Don't just sit there, do something.  The very act of moving towards something puts things in motion.

The two of us went to the hospital, found the chapel and started to pray. I would not have prayed half so well on my own, but something about the presence of my friend and the presence of Jesus where two or three are gathered galvanised me and my heart started to get behind my spirit

Lesson two - there is a real reason why Jesus says He is where there are two or three.  We need to be with others when we are praying His will into being.

Whilst we were praying in the hospital an army of warriors were amassing on the hilltops round about. People who didnt know the family were burdened by Jesus to pray hard and earnestly.  The messages started to come in thick and fast. Pictures and scriptures and songs and words of encouragement.  All of it weaved in together to make this most amazing plan of prayer.  It was awesome.  At the start we had David and Goliath coming at us from lots of sides.  So we battled.  Then later in the week there was lots about Lazarus - so we called forth.  Then on Saturday night independently of each other, several of us felt a shift and that we no longer needed to battle but we really needed to worship.  So on Sunday we gathered and pretty much just sang all day.

Lesson 3 -  God supernaturally gives His heart to people to pray in certain situations.  We need every single one of those people on the team and each and every contribution builds towards a full picture of what God is doing.  Without the confirmation of the body we can't be sure we are going in the right direction.  With the confirmation we stride forward utterly convinced of Jesus's lead

On Friday God sent a stranger into the prayer room. A stranger who had specific words of knowledge to add to the mix.  He had the gift of discernment and brought God's strategy to the proceedings.  We had already had a measure of strategy earlier in the week, but this chap brought more and some clear direction.  We had never seen him before and quite probably will never see him again but we recognised him as family straight away. As he prayed and talked I realised that God was teaching me about how to pray for dying people.  This guy had done it before.  I need to be discipled. 

Lesson 4 - be prepared for God to interrupt your schedule with unexpected people and things. God doesnt do things the way we think He ought to or will. However uncomfortable it might be, make room for the mud in the eye ( Jesus) or the punch in the guts ( Smith Wigglesworth)

Lesson 5 - the enemy has a strategy and a plan.  So does God, and we need to find out what it is and then implement it.  Jesus never does anything without revealing it to His servants the prophets

On Sunday the life support machine was due to be turned off.  Lots of us felt that for this to happen on Mother's Day would just be cruel - so we all agreed that this was not going to happen.  We didnt quite see how the plan could be changed because the doctors were really starting to put on the pressure and had given a time for the switch off.  But agreement is powerful. The time got changed and then deferred to the next day.

Lesson 6 - I think authority is like a muscle we need to use and train and develop.  If we are faithful to exercise it in small things God will let us use it for bigger things. While I dont yet have the authority to command life where there is death, I do have the authority to move appointments around on a page.  The more people who agree the greater the authority. ( I think)

Over the course of a week the family were surrounded by love and compassion.  So many people sent messages, prayers and songs. The prayer room was full of praying worshipping Christians, much to the surprise of the moslem doctors who came in to pray every so often. By the end of the week a peace and calmness descended and turned the mourning and grief into something else.  A distraught mother described her overwhelming pain being held by God so that it was contained and manageable.  An unbelieving son recognised that the love of the church for his family was so profound and real that he wanted to start coming to church to find out more about Jesus.  A friend of the family who we had never met came to join us in prayer as the life support was being switched off and there was an instant and immediate joining of spirits - complete unity among strangers - which only Jesus can manufacture. And there was joy even in the midst of tragedy and difficulty

Lesson 7 - prayer is powerful, prophetic words are helpful, worship is awesome but it is love that makes the difference. Without love all the rest is just noise.  With love all the rest is miraculous.

This week many many people prayed very hard with devotion and love for a resurrection miracle. What we meant by that was that we wanted a young man on a life support system and no discernible brain activity to sit up in bed and talk to his family and then go home and resume his earthly life.  We utterly believed that God was going to do this - He had done so many amazing things all week.  I have prayed for very sick and dying people before but I have always ' hedged my bets' in prayer .....  ' if it's Your will.... ' ' please heal so-and-so but if You choose not to....'  This time was different.  This time there was very very little room for unbelief and doubt.  We all pressed in for the prize.  And then the news came through that our young friend had died.  And there was a moment of... why?  But for me it was only a moment.  It was hardly a moment. Because I genuinely felt that I had done everything God had asked of me and so had all my friends and partners in prayer in the hospital and around the country.

Lesson 8 - prayer is not magic.  Yesterday morning I had the words ' I DO believe in fairies' going round in my head and I realised that there is a great danger in thinking that because we pray God has to do something.  As though if we repeat ' I DO believe in miracles, I DO believe I DO, I DO'  that a miracle will appear.   That is not how it works at all.   I dont think I really properly understood this before. Our praying does not bend the will of God or change His mind.  It doesnt score points in heaven.  What it does do is change US.   I've heard it said and read it many times.  But today I know it.  I am different at the end of this week than I was at the start of it.  I have learned so much.  I have soaked in the presence of God for the first time in years.  I have deepened connections with people who are significant in my walk with Jesus.  I have had the privilege and great honour to stand with people suffering the most unimaginable grief and in some small way been a comfort to them. 

God is more amazing, more lovely, more worthy and more kind today than I have ever known Him to be.  I totally trust His reasons for taking a fine 24 year old man and leaving a broken and grieving family. I know that He takes full responsibility for the decision He makes and all His ways are just and good.

What a week.  Thank you for loving me in it xx