Sitting in my very first of 5 meetings on Friday, we were talking about prayer. Prayer means what to you? Well as I have been pondering that question I went back to the day I was asked to go to Nazareth Israel. I remember thinking I do not want to miss anything that God has for me so I am going to start right now a prayer journal for this trip. I was very faithful to journaling and praying. But as I speak today of what happened while I was in Nazareth, I was remembering my main prayer was “do not let me go in with any misleading thoughts and let me have Your heart Lord”. The Lord had me in Ezekiel as I prepared. One of the very first things I read was; “ He said: “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day.” Ezekiel 2:3 “He then said to me: “Son of man, go now to the house of Israel and speak my words to them. You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language, but to the house of Israel- not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you. But the house of Israel is not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for the whole house of Israel is hardened and obstinate.” Ezekiel 3:4:7
Immediately I started with my preconceived thoughts, “Oh No Lord, not me. I am not moving to Israel. I am very happy here”. Then I remembered I had just told the Lord what I was not going to do…go to Israel, and I was booked on a plane to Nazareth within the hour. So I changed my prayer, “Lord, you tell me and I will listen and obey”.

Prayer: Do we come to God with our laundry list or do we pray for Gods heart and His desires?

Part of our trip to Nazareth was a prayer walk through the city. I had never done that before but I was willing to do what it was we were asked to do. While in Nazareth we walked the city in quiet and prayed specifically over 2 places. One was a Baptist school and the other was a Mosque that was right behind the school. An FYI… Nazareth is a Muslim country and the Christian population is about 100 people. As we prayed quietly we walked around the school touching the outer wall, praying specifically for the kids, the teachers, the administrators…well you get the picture, we prayed for anything and everything. As I was praying I had a burden for the school and started crying. After our time there we walked, as a group, to the Mosque. As I prayed over the Mosque, I felt nothing. It was just a prayer. We then walked back across the street to the school and as I prayed once again for the school I started crying, it was an uncontrollable sensation. I was puzzled by this because I thought for sure that God would want me praying for the Muslims. He does, but that was not why my heart was burdened. The Muslims do not know God. Their eyes have not been opened. They have not had their Damascus Road conversion. As I prayed for God to show me why I was crying especially over a Christian School, He reminded me that I had prayed for His heart. I could not wait to get back for quiet time so I could unpack that statement “you had prayed for My heart”
Also, a second part of the prayer walk was, we were to pray for the Presence of the Lord to be felt. As we came into contact with others, weather indirectly (walking by them on the sidewalk) or directly (by entering a store to purchase something).
Parts of the prayer walk included asking God to allow His Spirit to exude from us. That the people on the streets would feel His presence, that they would know that we were different (and I don’t mean different because we were American).

When we got back to the hotel we had a quiet time; I started pondering and asking God to show me what He meant by “I had prayed for His heart”. I realized sitting on a ledge on St Gabriel’s Hotel that my mission field is not the nation Israel, but we all have an Israel. I was relieved that He was not asking me to pack up everyone and move to Nazareth, but at the same time I was wondering why I could not get this anger that came out in the form of crying out of my spirit. As I journaled it became apparent that God’s heart was breaking for us, the Christians. During this quiet time God also showed me that we stand behind our Culture. Our culture dictates what we do and how we do it. We have become so complacent about our belief system that we allow the false gods of this world to dictate our day, not God.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago I was parking my van downtown to go pick up tickets for the Predators opening night (the Predators give us tickets to allow families that we work with the opportunity to go to a game). With the streets all closed I had to park a few blocks away. I started thinking…why do I have to go to Nazareth to pray over a city? Why can I not walk in quiet here in Nashville and pray for the city. I started praying but I felt like something was missing… when I got back to my van I realized that I had not prayed at all for God’s presence to be felt. I prayed for the homeless man. I prayed for the couple that looked to be visiting. I even prayed for the musician walking into the Symphony hall to practice…but not once did I pray for God’s presence to be felt.
My question to you and to me is this…
If you were to walk in a store would the customers or workers feel the presence of God? Or the presence of the world?
If a nonbeliever walked into our churches and he/she saw you or me would they say “I did not know you went to church?’ Or ‘I did not know you were a Christian?”

Against the Grain is going to have their very first prayer walk over Franklin. October 23rd at 9am. If you are interested in being a part of this event please let us know we would love to have you.