And then there was *Prayer School*...

"No one is a firmer believer in the power of prayer than the devil; not that he practices it, but he suffers from it." ~ Guy H. King

One of the things I have been enjoying most about school is a peculiar little non~subject called *Prayer School*.  Strictly speaking it's not a subject.  Strictly speaking it is for practising different aspects of prayer.  That alone had my interest.  I am always interested in the different ways people like to connect with God ~ though I rarely run into people as odd as we are.  I say we because Dearest is part of the church prayer team & as such was included in a special prayer meeting on Saturday.  I'll get there but first things first.

Over the years God has gone to great pains to teach me about different sorts of prayer.  I practised first & learnt about them later ~ including the use of tongues, which for me was always done very quietly in my own prayer closet & never for public consumption, partly because it was something first imparted from the Lord Himself & not something I got from the laying on of anybody's hands.  Dearest is even weirder because for years he swore black & blue he did not speak in tongues.  He would not speak in tongues.  And he was never about to speak in tongues.  Then one night I found him deep in prayer muttering away to himself ~ & yep, he was praying in tongues.  It took him quite a while to accept it but I wasn't the only one to hear him so eventually he had to admit he too prays in tongues.

Anyway some stuff I have always gravitated to naturally ~ such as praying the scriptures, which just makes sense to me.  After all, these are words straight from the Holy Spirit himself.  And silence.  I learnt the art of Listening for God ~ something I believe more Christians need to learn instead of doing all the talking themselves!  I understand the importance of praise but I am a quiet person & exuberant worship does not come naturally to me & it is an area I have struggled in, just as I have disliked getting instructions to do this that or the other just as I'm sinking deep into prayer!  Hmmm.....I still generally find myself slightly left of centre.

Anyway our church is quite some distance away & it's not cheap to travel constantly so Dearest has never gone over for the regular prayer meetings.  Now Rhema was not discouraged by this.  They collated a blank calender & at the end of every month Dearest sends this in with me with everything he's received from the Lord in prayer marked down. The prayer leader keeps in contact via e~mail & she uses Dearest a lot because he gets revelation & insight.  He also has plenty of alone time to get deep in prayer!  We are not the only ones.  Many people travel quite big distances to attend this church [yes, it's that good!] so the church decided to organise a special day & see if they couldn't pull most of the prayer team together.  Dearest, Dino & I all went over for it.

The theme for the day was finding your place along the wall in one of the watch towers.  I firmly believe that every Christian needs to be doing this.  That way everything gets covered & no~one need feel overwhelmed because the need is so great, the prayer warriors so few.  The theme followed through for this week's *Prayer School*.  We were asked to identify anything we carry constantly in prayer.  For me this is easy.  I have such a sense of the nearness of Christ's return & the need for His people to prepare, to be ready, to bring in the harvest that it is never very far from my thoughts.  And I am aware that even in many Christian circles this makes me more than a little weird.

However today we teamed up in groups with like minded individuals to pray out the heart of God.  To my great amusement I was lobbed in with the evangelical crowd ~ which ironically does make sense; after all, they too have a sense of the impending arrival of Christ, & thus a heart for the harvest.  And it was super.  Liddy, my Liddy, towards the end the Holy Spirit led us to pray particularly for the labourers already in the field & you came very strongly on my heart.  It was really impressed on me that the Lord is with you, strengthening you for the work.  He is pleased with you.  So you go, girl.

Now I just have to figure out what the prayer of tears is all about & why I keep landing in that particular prayer spot.  I am over it ~ particularly in public venues! Hmmm...