Call to Prayer: Praying for Direction
Without prayer, nothing happens. I need someone to show me the way. How will I minister without the Holy Spirit showing me the way?
By Yacoub Rasul (name changed)
Prayer isn’t something that I just do before I relate to people. I’m praying before, during and afterwards, because prayer means carrying something with you all the time.
Just as I don’t need someone to remind me that I’m married to my wife, prayer is a practice that I bring with me. When I have something specific such as an event, I pray specifically for that. I pray for open doors more generally, and when a door opens, I pray specifically for the people inside that particular door.
Photo: Kierston Kreider
I’m following my sense of the Holy Spirit’s direction. Sometimes I need direction from my ministry team, so I share these things so that they can offer their discernment. Before a recent Christmas event (which was an opportunity to share good news), I explained two different possible options to my ministry team. One of my teammates asked, “Do you have a sense about this?” I told them that I was waiting to hear from them. No one had a clear sense of which option we should take. After we prayed together, I felt a sense of the Holy Spirit’s direction. I shared with them where I was feeling led, and the team agreed.
In one instance before a ministry visit, members of the ministry team were each praying. We had a plan for the details: what we would do, how long we would visit. But just before we left to go on the visit, I prayed, “Holy Spirit, I need you. Give us ears to hear you in the midst of the situations we encounter today.”
We prayed and went out. We prayed with our hosts as we had planned. There was a kind of program to celebrate Christmas, and we read scripture. But I had the sense that there was something more. I felt the stress of leading the group, but I heard that there was more.
In this case, it was the first time I had met with the owner of the house, but I didn’t have his phone number. When I got home, I felt the Holy Spirit ask me the question, “Why didn’t you pray more?” The next day, the owner of the house called me, and we talked for an hour. He opened up, sharing many of his questions. We agreed to meet in person to continue the sharing.
Without prayer, nothing happens. I need someone to show me the way. How will I minister without the Holy Spirit showing me the way? Jesus said to ask him. I have to ask, and ask, and ask. And then ask some more!
I believe in what the Holy Spirit is doing, not what I’m doing. He is faithfully at work with or without me. Even when I fail, I believe that the Holy Spirit will show me the fruit that he wants me to see.
Yacoub Rasul (name changed) is a church planter serving among the Arabic-speaking community of Harrisonburg, Virginia. He serves in a partnership ministry between VMMissions and Faith Community Church, Harrisonburg, Va.