We all know that prayer is part of what we do as Christians, yet there are times when we struggle with the concept. While at church we join corporately in prayer, in our personal time prayer can too often get easily neglected. We caught up with Jo Moore who completed the Adventures in Prayer intensive at BST in January 2014. Jo reflects on how studying prayer has impacted her prayer life…
What was your prayer life like before doing the intensive?
Prior to doing the prayer intensive my prayer life had been inadequate. Even though I have always brought everything to the Lord in prayer, praying for family and friends when the need or opportunity arose and often speaking to God at random times during the day, I knew there had to be more to prayer.
I have beautiful praying friends who lift people and situations in intercession before God. I always felt it was just their gifting and reasoned that I just wasn’t a “prayer” and that I had other gifts.
I have since learned, however, that prayer is more than saying, “Dear Lord, please bless…..Amen.” Christians are called to “pray”, but I don’t think many Christians really know what that means or looks like. Throughout our lives we are taught many different activities and we need to be taught how to pray, because it is through prayer that we communicate and build relationship with our Heavenly Father, that is what He created us for!
At one stage of the intensive, the lecturer encouraged students to fast. What was that experience like for you? Is fasting the norm for you?
We were called to fast from food for one day and to fast from speaking on another day. On the Wednesday, we fasted from food and Johan (our lecturer) left the extent of the fast up to each individual; we could fast every meal from breakfast to the end of the day, or just morning tea and lunch, or just lunch.
I had never fasted from food for prayer before. I knew it was Biblical but I never really felt challenged to do that, or if God had challenged me, I hadn’t paid attention! I decided that if I wanted to get the full benefit of the experience that I would fast for the whole day; we were allowed hot and cold drinks. I have heard that fasting helps a person in regard to prayer, because rather than preparing or eating food, you can spend that time with God. During the lunch hour we had time to get something to drink and then we spent the rest of the hour in our groups in prayer. I felt it was a productive day; I discovered I could fast from food and still have the energy to do what was required, and it taught me to drawer nearer to God and to rely on His strength, not my own. I sought God often throughout the day, calling on Him to sustain me, and I believe He did.
On the Thursday we fasted from speaking, this commenced from the time we arrived on campus until 11am. Fasting from speech was also an amazing experience and highlighted the benefit of just listening, without interruption. It gave me time to listen and to absorb, and to appreciate time alone with God and my own thoughts. I attended a Women’s Silent Prayer Retreat last year. I came away feeling like a complete failure and with a desire never to repeat the experience, because I had been so ill-prepared and restless. Now, however, with better insight into what Christian prayer-life can be like, I believe I am equipped and would enjoy the experience, for the Lord calls us to “Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).”
Taking the prayer intensive helped me to focus on prayer in a way that I doubt it could have, had it been a course which was run through a semester. Going to college and studying prayer for five very full days, really gave me the opportunity to fast-track my prayer-life. I found myself often writing down prayers to God throughout each day and feeling much closer to Him as a result. I know I have always heard God in many different ways and Johan was able to teach us that God does indeed reveal Himself to us, but we need to be aware of the ways He does this. One way was when we went into the park and waited for God speak to us through nature, I had never done this before, but I believe God did speak and I was very blessed. We were taught other techniques when reading the Bible, how to meditate on God’s Word and how God will use Scripture to reach us.
How has the intensive impacted the way you “do” prayer from now on? Are there specific things that you learned which you feel will greatly help to encourage your prayer life?
The prayer intensive has definitely impacted the way I “do” prayer. Johan told us that when he was a college student he would get up early each morning and spend two hours in prayer before the beginning of each day, and then another hour in the evening. He told us how this changed his life by changing the person he was, into the man God intended him to be. I was greatly moved by this, and as John Wesley once said, “I felt my heart strangely warmed.” I knew I wanted this too, I knew God wanted more from me and my prayer-life than I had been giving Him. I knew I too could be changed from the person I was, into the woman God intended me to be! I was impatient to begin and couldn’t wait to go home, get to bed, arise early and begin my new life in prayer! This I have been doing and greatly enjoying; not as consistently as I would like, but I am improving! I pray, I seek God, I listen, I ask for a Scripture verse, I meditate on the verse and I journal. It is wonderful, but it cannot be rushed and be ready, because the devil will not like it and he will conspire against you, but we are aware of his schemes! This also has come into play, but God is ever-present and ever-faithful! Hallelujah!
Has your perception of prayer changed in any way?
My idea of prayer has changed greatly, it is no longer simply a list of blessings or requests. I am more aware of how I pray, what I say and what I ask for. I try to listen to the ways God speaks to me and I have learned that this can be through His creation, His Word, His Son, my own thoughts and meditations, through other Christians, my circumstances and through visions and dreams. As I am more aware of the way God may choose to speak to me, it has changed the way I listen and notice the people, happenings and things around me. My focus is changing from what I want God to do, and I am endeavouring to make my prayers no longer a one-way “short and sweet” monologue. We are told in Scripture to make our requests known to God, but now I try to focus on God as I present my requests and to seek Him and His will.
What was it like to pray with other students/complete strangers? Did it encourage you? Did it push you out of your comfort zone?
I am used to praying aloud in a group of people, so this did not bother me and it was encouraging to hear Johan tell us to get into agreement with each other in prayer, as that is what I try to always do. Johan told us that we are much too conservative in prayer and that we should be saying aloud affirmations such as: Amen! Yes! Thank you Father! Thank you Jesus! Hallelujah! I really enjoyed that! One of our final group prayer activities was to pray for each other following Paul’s example from Colossians 1:9-13. It was a wonderful experience and a blessing to both the person praying and the person being prayed for. I will use this exercise in my own prayer-life for others.
I thoroughly enjoyed the prayer intensive and believe the lessons I learned will impact my prayer-life in ever increasing measure as I put into practise the different methods and techniques which we focused on during the week. My main focus is learning how to pray from the way that Jesus prayed, He is my best example and the person I wish to imitate! Amen!
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