prayer

The Punch of Prayer

/ Jana / Leave a comment

I got this great response to  yesterday’s blog. She said, “I think I’m following you, but if you’re not familiar with the kind of warfare-pray-with-authority stuff that you do, it could sound to the average Jane like, ‘See! I told you. So now we’d better just love our enemies and pray.’ That’s NOT what you’re saying…”

She is so right. That is NOT what I am saying. That article is a living, color photo of abuse.  Just like the sex trade. Just like the raid and arrest on Papermill Drive.  Just like the women I talk to whose dads or brothers or mom’s boyfriends stole their innocence and childhood.

I go through a gamut of emotions initially when I see this myself. Shock, rage, revenge, despair. But then I have to remember that God has known about this problem all along. And He has decided that it is time I know about it. It’s time that you know about it. So what do we do?

We tend to do a couple of things: Get overwhelmed and do nothing. Or, get scared and do nothing. Or, start to engage, get pushed back and then quit. This is where the despair kicks in.

But when I look at the model of Jesus, and His instruction to us, He never lost sight of the enemy, the battle and who would win. He modeled for us “praying in the Spirit” and agreeing with God’s perspective. He is a God of Justice. The God of Vengeance. He doesn’t just get even, He overcomes the evil of the world. He makes wrong things right, either in our lives or in the life to come.

My bottom line is this, pray with the power-filled name of Jesus and pray against the evil of the day.

Lord,  You see and know more than I do, the lost, hurt, abused women and children of our day. Please show them that they are not forgotten. Please bring Your supernatural help to them.  Rescue them Lord, send people to them to rescue them from the evil they are facing. Give them hope. And Lord, I pray that You would raise up warriors who would intercede. I speak the name of Jesus into this world. Your name is poured forth like ointment. To Your name be the glory. Amen.

P. S. from Jana

For another way to intercede, read Psalm 140.  It’s is a comfort, but also a great thing to pray aloud.

P. P. S. from Laura

Be sure to keep an eye out for our new look!  The updated Women Getting Real website is coming soon…

You Helped Change the World

/ laurajones / Leave a comment

Sisters – Jana and her family have headed to the beach for some much needed family time after the Zimbabwe trip!  Pray for rest and refreshment for all of them. 

Jana has asked me to give you all a recap of  last night’s Zimbabwe Celebration event, welcoming four of the Women Getting Real team members back and sharing the harvest with the rest of  you who supported us stateside. The Zimbabwe trip would not have happened without you.

For myself, it was such a great reunion – so good to see the faces of the women and men who have been praying for us and encouraging us all the way to Zimbabwe and back.  As Jana shared last night, “One of the most powerful gifts to us as a team was your prayers.  It was tangible.  I could send a text calling to rally the saints and we could just feel the breath of God move among us, an ocean away.  When someone asks you to pray for a mission trip, never think that your prayers don’t matter.”

We as a Zim team want you to know that you were as much a part of this trip as we were, and we gave each person who came last night a note to remind them – and now you:

Because of God through you. . .

Our team:

  • Cried with 14 women at a Bible study
  • Challenged more than 600 students in 3 high school assemblies
  • Equipped 80+ women at a Women’s Retreat
  • Biblically trained 8 camp counselors
  • Encouraged the dreams and purity of 50+ middle school students
  • Played, prayed with, and blessed 75 children at the local orphanage
  • Washed the feet of 25 senior citizens
  • Loved on 40 + handicapped children
  • Shared testimonies with 20 women at the Women’s Tea
  • Prayed for healing at the hospital
  • Renewed and encouraged 4 ministry leaders
  • Worshiped in song and dance
  • Invested in many one on one relationships

Thank you for being part of this journey.

More God stories from Zim coming this week….

Sticks and Stones

/ Jana / 1 Comment

I got a real wake up call this weekend.

Before, I was messing around with flower beds and laundry. Before, I was praying about my daughters’ school, and checking off the Zim trip list. Normal life things. Then I watched the movie, The Stoning of Soraya M.

This jolt of reality blew me far beyond bills and mission trips.

The movie is based on one woman’s true story of a husband who wants to discard his wife. He wants to take another wife, and is legally able to do so, but he doesn’t want to support two women. So he masterminds a false accusation of adultery against his present wife. In this case, he is the actual adulterer. But because he is a man, he can make this charge. And in the culture she lives in, she has one of two impossible tasks: if she is charged with adultery, she must prove her innocence. If she charges her husband, she must prove his guilt. Always the law works in the favor of the man. And always, in the name of Allah, the village is to be purged of sin, not of the sin of two people, but of the one woman. One innocent woman who is mother to four children.

At the end of Soraya’s life, her hands were bound behind her back, she was buried up to her waist, and the men of her village took turns throwing stones at her until she died from the wounds. Not large stones so as to quickly kill her. But smaller stones that ripped and broke and tortured her for hours. These men included her father, her husband, her own manipulated, adolescent sons, and the holy men of the village. Appalling.

I have never seen a stoning before. In my mind this is an Old Testament action that I had conveniently dismissed. My New Testament sensibilities were far too tender to dwell on such things. Or so I thought. This is not Old Testament at all, nor women alone. Stephen was stoned. Paul was stoned and left for dead, yet he survived.

I watched in horror and utter disbelief that people you know and live with in a small village could bring themselves to do this to their neighbor. Finally I had to fast forward the DVD. I couldn’t bear it, even though I knew full well this is the plight of women all over the world. Her story represents thousands of women.

There are women all over the world who barely survive under the living hell of Islam and other degrading world views. There are women all over the world, and under our noses, who suffer under the violence of men, who are victims of the sexual perversion of men. There are cultures and religions and governments that reduce women to a class of people less than animals. And what are we to do about it? 

As I wrestled all night, I kept asking God, “Where are You in all this?”

When I woke up, I went and re-read the story of the woman rescued from being stoned.  Now with the picture of the mob’s self-righteous rage in my mind, I can see the power and courage Jesus poured out in her defense. Especially since she was not innocent.  But also especially since she was a woman.

I know I have just opened up a can of worms. The issues of Islam, abuse, male dominance, victimized women. And I am glad for it. We can no longer play along or play dumb, or play dress up Barbie when our sisters are being slaughtered or enslaved. We must answer the call to shine as God’s City on a Hill.

Can we sit silently, selfishly, by and do nothing? Can you believe, like the Germans during the Holocaust, that this will never come into your own backyard? Today, begin with prayer. Not for your life, but the lives of your sisters all over the world. Pray that strongholds will be broken and the “captives set free.” Get informed. Watch the movie. Check out World Relief on human trafficking. Just shine. For heaven’s sake, literally, shine.

Impossible = Miracle

/ Jana / 1 Comment

This revelation is too big to eat in one sitting.  So today’s manna is an appetizer portion with one of those big, leafy, lettuce things under it.

Do you ever listen to your own prayers?

I need…. I need…. I need….

I want, I won’t, I don’t, I can’t…

Are You…will You… aren’t You…when, why, how are You going to….?

It really is kind of scary. Not that God doesn’t love our heart felt cries for His help. He has complete mercy and grace for His children.

But what if we are praying all — I don’t know–wrong? What if we don’t have to persuade God to action, but rather we pray to persuade ourselves to believe?

Do we want lives of ease and even boredom, or do we want to see God in action?

Too often our prayers revolve around asking God to reduce the odds in our lives. We want everything in our favor. But maybe God wants to stack the odds against us so we can experience a miracle of divine proportions. Maybe faith is trusting God no matter how impossible the odds are. Maybe our impossible situations are opportunities to experience a new dimension of God’s glory.

pg 24, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day.

I am so confronted by my desire for divine relief instead of the display of God’s glory. How bad is your situation? Pretty bad, huh? Then it is really, really important for us to know: Just how big is our God?

Main course on Monday.

Ready, Set, Pray!

/ Jana / Leave a comment

When God calls you into an adventure, how do you know when to go? How to go? Or even why to go? How do you shut up the flesh long enough to let the Spirit persuade your spirit into action?

You watch, wait and believe. I had been approached about going to Zimbabwe for years. But there was never one inkling to go. I had lots of reasons that compelled me to stay. A sick child. A conflict in schedule. But more than anything there was no “draw” to go. I would send stuff: books, CDs, T-shirts, lots of prayers. But I never had a desire to send “me.”

Then one day a letter came from across the world. A year later another letter came.  Like drops of rain begin sporadically then become a steady downpour, there was one thought then another, then it began to rain.  My friend came back from the most recent trip and said, “You have got to go.”

Before I even thought about it, I blurted out, “I know. I am going. I know I am going.”  And the rain began. Then there was meeting to hear about the youth camps, the students, the women’s events —the opportunities to build, to encourage, to influence a country torn apart — and my heart pounded in my chest. Raining down.

Then we had a prayer time and I just asked the Lord, “Tell me real plainly who is to go, and I will follow.”  As soon as I bowed my head, it was plain as day. “You and Salem.” What???

The trip was already seeming impossible, but now add my 12 year old?  Wow. That is a lot of rain…But the downpour came over the next three nights in songs and messages in my sleep. The first night was waking up to a line from the song, Healer, by Kari Jobe. “Nothing is impossible for you.” I had to decide whether this trip was too big for God.

Second was waking up to a verse God had given me as a promise long ago. He had told me that through Him, I was a tree planted by streams of water and that my fruit would prosper.  For years He has been talking  to me about trees.  But He cinched the conversation by reminding me of a verse He had spoken over me: “The tree will have healing in its leaves for the nations.”  It was time to go to the nations.

And finally, was the confirmation about Salem, that she was not a liability but a huge asset. Not an interruption but a purposeful planting.  And God said told me clearly that He had a design for Salem going at this time in her life and in mine. To drive the point home He said, “Salem is a mini-She.” I understood the power of that name. Here is why. We call the women who volunteer in WGR “The SHE” because we all work together as a Body under Christ. Salem is a mini-She. How do you argue with that?

When God speaks, how do you walk away and pretend He has not?  In all the wrestling and preparing, stripping off and surrendering, He has asked me just to pray and wait.  Pray for the people we are going to, not about my fear. Pray for the hearts to be healed, not about my needs. Pray about the power of God to change us all, not about my to do list.

Today He invites me and you.  Just rest your head on Me. I really can be trusted.

Warrior 101

/ Jana / 2 Comments

I had two different questions last week that had almost the exact same answer. One was from a friend who is experiencing a downpour from the Lord, but identified some fear lurking in the shadows. You know, the “other shoe is about to fall”  fear that the devil loves to torment us with? I hate that.  It can be paralyzing. She asked how to prepare. Was there some class in “Warrior 101?”

As an aside, what if the other shoe did fall?  Is God not the Author of that as well?  Is He not strong enough?

But the other question came from a person who is dealing with a severe illness in his family. He asked what to do. But the answer that flowed out to both of them had more to do with a Who than a What.  Here is my response as related to when my youngest daughter was critically ill for 4 years. I will fill you in on details later.

“I know how tough these days must be.  I have really had to process with the Lord how to respond to you. I learned so much about the Lord, and from the Lord, during this very hard season.

I don’t think I have actually taken the time to write the story out. So I will try to highlight the take aways from that season.

1) God alone is sovereign.  We tend to dismiss things in life: money, health, relationships, circumstances. But He holds all things together, and in Him we move and have our being. This sickness brought that reality home in a whole new way. God had the RIGHT to do whatever He wanted, and would STILL be acknowledged as Good. But also because He is sovereign, He is always working on our behalf.  He is not a distant God; but right here, right now. One of the many intercessors during this season had this word from the Lord for us, and for Charis:  “God is not doing something TO you, he is depositing something IN you.” This journey with Him would be a foundational piece of our story and HER story. That brought us great courage.

God doesn’t waste anything.

2) The doctors are not greater than God. I had to learn to listen to what GOD said rather than what they said.  They were “practicing” medicine. He was the Healer.  Many times they gave her meds for her detriment. Literally.  God would instruct what to listen to and what to ignore. Also, when the Lord told me that He was going to heal Charis, the doctors scoffed.  Literally.  I had to decide who I would stand on. God or man.  It is a tough, tough road.

Clearly, God was right. The docs had her diagnosed as lifelong meds, allergies and food restrictions. Today she walks in restored health.

3) The body is connected to the spirit.  “Confess your sins to one another that you may be healed,” James says. Chuck and I did much inventory of our lives to remove any “authority” we had given the evil one to torment us and Charis. We believe God broke strongholds during this season. I would pray for the home and marriage. That was a root issue in our case, and perhaps yours.

4) I learned how to pray in earnest. I learned out of desperation how to sing songs of deliverance, to bang on the doors of heaven for healing. I grew faith like never before to believe in the God who loved me and my daughter, even when the circumstances did not align with His voice. I was in the Word often, asking for guidance and leading.

5) I began to expect the supernatural. Before this, I heard about it, thought about it, sort of wished for it. Now I HAD to have it. She had to have it. We and the community around us have a stronger testimony that Our God Saves because of what we have seen and heard.

6) I learned to let go. Living with death as a real possibility at times, taught me more than I can write. I became a more grateful person.

7) This is an invitation to intimacy.  It is one thing to know OF God. It is radically different to KNOW Him.  I became firmly convinced that every single thing in our lives, good or bad, is His call to see Him in the middle of it. He wants to walk with us, and will do whatever it takes to get our attention. Whatever it takes. And believe me, He got our attention. Still I can tell you, I wouldn’t trade this season for anything. I am forever changed.

May the Lord Himself be your Comfort, Healer and Strength.”

A Funny Ah Haaaaaa. . .

/ Jana / Leave a comment

Okay, I have the WGR info meeting tonight and just have a minute to write.

(Not too late to check it out…7-8:30 Cedar Springs Bookstore)

But I had a hilarious holy “Ohhhhh” moment with the Lord. It goes like this.

On Monday morning, I told my friend Kate that the Lord was really challenging me. The more He revealed what He was up to this year, the less He wanted me to “do.”  He was calling forth these crazy adventures like Zimbabwe, India, many hands in WGR, a worship CD, and more. But the more I would attack my to do list, the more He would call me to prayer.  Deep prayer. Extended prayer.

Only I wasn’t going.
The math wasn’t adding up.

In my spirit, I knew He was right. The prayer WAS the Greater work. God’s kingdom is advanced by spending time in the “bedroom chamber” with our Lover.

But in my head I was fighting.  I had things to DO… durnnit.  So we parted that morning, with a playful laugh.  Kate agreed to pray for me that I would come to agree with God and do it His way. (Which is really what I want, even if I don’t do it.)

One hour later, I am laughing for real.  Without connecting the topic of our conversation, our prayers, or the Lord’s skillful hand, guess where I spent the next hour?

In a sauna. I was sweating my arse off, but I listened to worship music and just drank deeply of the affections of the One and Only.

Later that day I realized He had hemmed me. Deep prayer.  Kingdom work.  One of the best hours of my life.

“Ohhhhh, that’s what  you meant. Thank you Jesus.”

God Story: The Power of Prayer

/ Jana / Leave a comment

I have so many God stories of His supernatural provision that I could write 10 books. But Tuesday night I was basking in the beauty of one of my favorite answers to prayer.

My daughter, Salem.

We were in her room, full from birthday cake, waiting for the clock to display 8:38 pm — the time she had been born 12 years earlier. And like all kids, she was asking about who was at the hospital, what was the scoop, what was her story.

“What did Dad do when I was born?”
“He cried.”
“What were you doing?”
“Crying.”
“And Grandmaw and Grandpaw, what were they doing?”
“Waiting anxiously, then crying.”

“Salem, I don’t think you realize how many prayers were sent up for us to have a baby. There was much rejoicing when you were born,” I said.

And with that last comment came a flood of memories. Of churches, of youth groups, and women’s groups. Places where I had shared my story of abortion, heartache and healing. The outcry of these listeners had been to pray for God to bless Chuck and me with a baby.  After Salem was born, I found out that people in my church had quietly prayed that God would heal our hearts and bodies so that we would be able to have children.

Here Chuck and I were walking through the silent and grieving hell of infertility, but God was stirring His saints to pray nonetheless.

Pray they did. And He was pleased to answer.

Looking at this feisty, strong willed, solemn warrior-child before me, I was really amazed again at the mercy of God.

My thoughts turned toward heaven when I will see all those people who prayed for us, who never saw us again and never heard the rest of the story. When I see them in heaven, I can’t wait to introduce them to Salem, the answer to their prayers.

Oh pray without ceasing, believing that He hears our cries and intercessions.

“The prayers of the saints are like sweet smelling incense.”