A beautiful night at the Austin House of Prayer

I just got home from the Austin House of Prayer and wanted to write this down so I don't forget how utterly amazing and gracious God was tonight. I fall down on my knees with love and gratitude for my King. Just when I think he couldn't be kinder or have shown me more mercy, he goes deeper, and surprises me more, loving on me more than I could ever dream possible. I was not expecting what happened tonight.

Joe Leake had invited me to the Austin House of Prayer (AHOP) b/c a few Gatewayers were going. I said I'd try but wasn't sure b/c I had the Ascending Leaders class at church til 8. I almost didn't go b/c I was a little stressed after class b/c we have homework, so I was working myself up over that wondering how I would get it all done. Kendra in my class suggested that maybe going the AHOP anyway might be just what I should do instead of stressing over the homework and making it a bigger deal than it actually is. We had just been talking in class about how when you seek intimacy with God FIRST, then all the rest is given unto you, i.e. all the other pieces fall in their rightful place. Sure, homework for the Ascending Leaders class is a good thing, but I see with clarity now that going to AHOP was God's best for me.

So I get to AHOP and there were a few dozen people there, singing, praying, praising in a concert of prayer style. Some people were standing, some sitting, some with heads bowed, some reading scripture. Kind-of like natural child birth you just do what feels natural to you personally at any given moment. It was a beautiful beautiful experience of guided and free-flowing individual and corporate prayer, with a woman playing keyboard and several singers singing and a prayer leader who leads the flow of prayer for the night.

I was so blessed to be a part of a group prayer that broke out spontaneously for the Gateway south campus launch. Someone lifted it up in prayer to the group over the microphone, so the leader asked all the Gatewayers there (about 7 of us) to join in a circle, then everyone else in the room joined around us and laid hands on us proclaiming God's favor, blessings, and protection over this fledging church-plant in south Austin. Beautiful things were said about what God is doing in people's hearts and lives through Gateway's sensitivity and graceful spirit towards seekers of all kinds. Someone prayed a beautiful prayer of protection over our pastors, specifically for strength and the number three, that perhaps there were three that unified together could not be broken. Our leadership team was lifted up in prayer, with Ecclessiastes 4:12 proclaimed on their behalf "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." This experience was so sweet and so special, to be lifted up by believers from churches all around Austin in singular faithful petition to our Father.

While it was going on a woman kept putting her hand on my head, shoulders, and back. She had such a warm, powerful touch, and was in fervent prayer behind me. I could feel her prayers going through me. The sound of her prayers was so sweet and so intimate, as if it were only her and God in the room. I sensed that she might have the gifts of knowledge and discernment, and as such that she probably sensed that God was about to use me to step out in faith, maybe even knowing I was going to the mission field. I sensed a deep connection with this sister, though I could not see her face, but could only feel her touch and hear her voice. Then she spoke a prayer asking for God's anointing over me. The last time I was at a similar style of concert of prayer was back in November praying for Muslims the last week of my Islam class, and on that night God led me to Isaiah 61:1 and Luke 4:18 where Jesus quotes Isaiah 61:1 saying "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppresed."

The issue of being anointed before one goes out to bring to the good news is one that has been on my mind a lot in these months. I wondered if that was only for "real missionaries," not someone like me who has felt unworthy and uncertain of the validity of my calling, due to old habits of self-defeating doubts and fear of others thinking I'm being foolish or even arrogant. Being anointed came to the forefront of my mind back in September when I visited my Grandma Knechtel in Chattanooga. We talked for hours and hours about her calling and her 40 years on the mission field of Brazil. She told me of her calling to international missions at age 14 (she felt called to Africa) and her subsequent crisis of consciousness (for lack of a better term) at age 19 where she dropped out of Gordon Bible college on the brink of nervous exhaustion and subsequently felt unequivocally unwaivered in her determination to enter the mission field without delay, against the "better" judgement of elders who thought she was too young, fragile, and untrained and should wait a few years. Luckily her pastor, his wife, and one elder woman thought differently and took her aside and prayed blessings over her and anointed her head with oil. They prayed that God would give them a clear sign as to whether or not she was to go to the mission field without returning to college. She went home that night feeling not much different, wondering how on earth she would recognize God's sign. She awoke the next morning early and upon looking at her hand, which had been covered in seed warts for years, and it was 100% healed, with totally clear smooth skin!!

Quickly she learned of an open position in Brazil and left for the mission field later that year. It was 1935 when she set sail on a 5-week boat trip to Brazil, where she would serve as a pioneer missionary in a territory unchartered by Evangelican Christians. She did not return home for a furlough break for 7 years. Lucky for me, she met my Grandpa Knechtel during those 7 years, so when she returned it was with a husband and two small children, my dad being one of them! I will tell you more about their ministry in Brazil on another blog entry another day.

So back to the fact that I was wondering, in my most private thoughts mind you, if God wanted me to be anointed before I went. During our prayer time we prayed in small groups for other churches around Austin. That's when I realized that the girl who had been praying for me earlier happened to be sitting next to me. I recognized her voice! What a blessing she was. So me, her and Joe prayed together. So then the prayer leader asked for those who had felt the warm tingling almost burning sensation in their palms to come up and be prayed for, because there were those in the room that were being called. I felt it but was surpised and confused and had that "who me?" feeling, but then Joe patted me on the back and led me up there.

Seriously, friends, what happened next blew me away and cannot really even be described to you here and now in writing. I just wanted to write it all down because like the Israelites I am such a creature of forgetfulness. A group of about 8 or 10 people gathered around me and laid their hands lovingly on me, and someone handed Joe a small glass bottle of oil. I couldn't believe it. God knew my heart, he answered my question before I ever verbalized it to anyone. I would not have requested anointing, because it did not seem like something someone should have to ask for. God knew that I needed it and arranged for it. He knows my every thought, he knows my every need, and he hears me when I call. Those song lyrics always make me cry when I sing them and they are so very very relevant to me right now. He hears me even before I call.

During the prayers for me someone else said they felt God giving them a message for me of His desire for intimacy with me and eternal unconditional love for me. Someone else prayed for that intimacy between God and I to be there not only for my relationship with Him but for my own protection as I set out on this journey, that I must remain in him for my own safety and for His will to be done through me. That's totally this week's verse from my Experiencing God devotions - John 15:5 "I am the vine and you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in Him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

At the very end a guy named Steve who goes to Gateway prayed at my feet, for the "feet that bring Good News". How humbling and beautiful to receive. We conversed afterward about his own calling towards missions. Go with God, Steve, wherever he leads you, and remain in Him!

Now I'm home and overwhelmed and trying to process how a fluke night of randomly getting invited to AHOP and almost not going, and even getting lost because they moved it from the last time I was there three years ago turned into 2 hours of amazing prayer with Christians from all over Austin and the anointing of my head with oil as a bringer of the Good News.

God knows what I need before I need it and provides EVERYTHING I NEED when I seek Him first. I want to remember this night forever!!!!

Psalm 37:4 - Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. (God gave me this verse on the bank of the Changuinola River in Panama in October, as I was waiting for my turn to get into a dugout canoe which would take me deep into the jungle for our church-planting mission. I had a moment to rest and marvel at the gorgeous sunset, so I popped open my Bible and this is the verse I turned to.)