Prayer Walking

12 February 2012

Dear Phyllis,

Six months ago my friend, Mike, challenged me to walk with him every Wednesday night around our muban (housing area) praying for every street and house here. I don't know if it is an answer to that prayer or not, but amazing things have happened since then. Spiritually we are miles down the road from where we were a year ago. One of the first major changes was when the Lord sent in a blow torch of an evangelist to live here (Pammy). She is the most aggressive witness for Christ I have ever met. Secondly. Pastor Kickstand church has moved in, so we now have a church in this muban.

I was bitterly disappointed when Mark told me last December that he was moving to a different area of Chiang Mai, and pulling everything out of here. The first blow was that it meant that we had to pay the rent for our house. Previously, this had been his Bible warehouse, and we lived in a corner of it free. But this has become an enormous blessing. With his moving out, that meant that the entire house was ours now, which enabled us to have a proper home. The change has been radical. The biggest factor is that Pammy now has a first-class kitchen. It still isn't finished, but enough has been done to make women scream with envy when they see what she has. Hopefully, when I get it finished, she will have one of the finest kitchens in northern Thailand.

This is a duplex There has always been some single girls who lived in the other half, and more recently, Mark has used it for his Bibles. When he pulled out, that meant the other half was open for rent. Kichikun leaped at the opportunity to rent it for his church, and a place for four of his boys and an elderly lady to live. We love it. They are excellent neighbors and it has been a huge boon having more Christians in this muban.

Today was our second meeting in this new location. It was excellent. There are several young boys who have been coming to my shop for the past three or four years to make swords and guns. I have always wanted to speak to them about the Lord, but have been unable, due to my linguistic handicap. Pammy has stepped forward, and has prayed with all of them for salvation, but we have never been able to make the next step to get them in church This morning they sat beside me. I was thrilled.

Last week, as I sat in church, I thought of all the people we know here that I want to see in church. The church is here now, but how to get them past the front door is the trick. It came to me very strongly that evangelism begins in the kitchen. That is the reason I am so pushed to build a first-class kitchen for Pammy. When we get that done we plan to have stacks of neighbors in on a regular basis for meals. I am sure they would be delighted to come to eat at such a place. By establishing strong relationships with them, the next step to get them to come with us to church should not be that difficult. And with the children coming to church, there is a certain amount of pressure for their parents to come to see what is going on. I am very encouraged. This is the best shot for seeing a number of people saved of any place I have ever lived.

Pammy goes with us on our weekly prayer walking. Along with her stopping to talk to people along the way, she has asked us to pray for a number of folks. I have never done this before, and would feel odd, except, with her bold style of witnessing, it doesn't seem that much out of place to lay hands on and pray for people standing in front of their houses.

This morning Pastor Kichikun had asked me to speak. Usually the Lord gives me a message of what He wants to say to us, but this week I couldn't get a thing. As late as last night I still couldn't come up with a text of something I felt the Lord wanted to say to us. But for the last three weeks I have been feasting on John 17. There is nothing like it in the Bible; and nothing like it has ever been written in any language of men. John 17 has baffled and challenged me for years, but I have never attempted to speak on it. I am not sure if it is possible to speak on that text. When I left for church I felt like my heart was burning, but my head was like a jewelry box full of all sorts of jewels, but no order to make a message out of them at all. I told the Lord He was going to have to take the things He wanted to emphasize and sort it out as I spoke. It is possible to hold up a jewel, but how can you comment on it, or make it luster to others. It is possible to take a phrase like, “All mine are Thine and Thine are mine; and I am glorified in them”. The truth is profound, but what more can you say? When I stood up to speak, I apologized for not having a message to bring to them. But I did have a number of things about which I feel very intensely. During the song service, Col. 1:16 came to my heart, and so I began my message by reading Col. 1:15-18. The point was; all things were created by Him and for Him.

When we consider the enormity of God's creation, we are less than a grain of sand in the ocean. For millenniums man thought that the sun, moon, and stars revolved around the earth. The suggestion that they are stable and the earth revolves was a radical concept. As late at less than 600 years ago, no one was sure what the earth looked like. Half of Columbus's sailors were in fear of sailing over the edge of the earth. It wasn't until 1502 AD that Magellan proved that the earth was round by sailing around it. Today we have telescopes that peer into space to see galaxies billions of light years away. We are only beginning to understand a small portion God's creation. If we only had telescopes, it would be difficult for me to believe that a God who made all that could be interested in man. But when we go the other way and look into microscopes, we are beginning to suggest that infinity may go inward as well as outward. When I was in college, science said that the three parts of an atom were the smallest portions of matter. Today we know that there are an unknown number of sub-atomic particles. Neutrinos are so small they can pass clear through the earth without striking an atom.

Man is right in the middle of this. Where did all that come from? Who made it? God! How is it possible to know a Being like God who made everything? Jesus is the image of God. One time I was in a home meeting in Japan. A 14 year old boy asked me, “Cook san, what is God like?” In John 14:8 Phillip asked the same question. Jesus answered, “Phillip, have I been with you so long, and yet you still don't know Me? He that has seen Me has seen the Father.” Col. 1:16 tells us that Jesus made all things. More than that it also says that He made them for Himself. Man was created to have a relationship with God. To make this possible God became a man in Christ. When we look at Jesus we see what our relationship is supposed to be like with the Father.

It is only when a man is under severe pressure that you can see what is actually inside him. A man may profess to be brave, but it isn't until you put him in real danger that you see how brave he really is. By His prayers in John 12:27 and John 17, the Lord has given us a clear window to see what was in Jesus' heart when He was under the, most intense pressure. The scene in John 12 was six days before the Crucifixion. Jesus knew what He was up against in less than a week. He said, “Now is My heart troubled. What shall I say? Father save Me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father glorify Thy Name.” The prayer in John 17 came about two hours before the arrest. Again Jesus prayed, “Father the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son that Thy Son may glorify Thee.” The honor and the glory of God was the dominant factor in the heart of Christ. The only way that the Father could be glorified was that Jesus must be equipped to glorify Him. I told the believes this morning that if God was going to be glorified in their lives, the only way that was going to be possible would be if the Holy Spirit would so work in their lives to make them Christ-like. If God does not make them like Jesus, there is no way He can be properly glorified in their lives. That is the reason God has made them.

Then Jesus went on to pray, “As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.” We see an interesting glimpse into the heart of Christ in His use of pronouns in the first three verses. He didn't use the first person pronoun. Jesus thought primarily of Himself in reference to His relationship with the Father. Rather than saying “ME” He said “Thy Son”.Rather than saying “I have power to give eternal life” He said,“Thou hast given Him power ...that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.” There is nothing independent in this. He thinks only in terms of His relationship with the Father.

But the point of eternal life is that they might be brought into a relationship of knowing God. Jesus doesn't give us salvation to keep us out of hell. He doesn't give us salvation so that we can have a prosperous happy life. He doesn't give us salvation so that we might be exempt from trouble and problems. The purpose of salvation is that we might know God and Jesus Christ.

I have an unusual testimony. I was saved when I was 21 in pilot training in the Air Force. Many people think you have to have some crisis in life to get saved. I was virtually at the pinnacle of life with no problem at all. The thought of eternity or life after death never crossed my mind once. I wasn't even concerned about sin. I was rather proud of my sin. But there was something in my heart that I had a desire to know God – if such a thing was possible. A friend told me, if I would give my heart to Jesus, Jesus would change me. I couldn't believe it. But I did. And Jesus did. It was a gigantic moment in my life when the realization struck me that I knew God. And that has been the driving force of my life ever since.

At the close of His life Jesus prayed,“I have glorified Thee on earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” Can you say that? I told the folks this morning that I hoped when they came to the end of the road that they would be able to look up to the Father and say, “I have glorified You on earth; I have finished the work which You gave me to do.”And the only way that is possible is by living one day at a time doing the will of God and allowing God to be glorified in us. If we are not doing that on a daily basis now, it will be impossible to say it later on.

I sat down almost in tears. A visitor was there taking a video of the services. I hope he never shows that message to anyone. I am so frustrated. I see things in Christ and am utterly incapable of expressing them in words. I told Mike last night that I had to preach this morning, and had no idea what to say

. He said, “That shouldn't be too serious a problem for you. Just open your mouth and let it ramble.”I did. I was able to ramble on for 50 minutes, but what I said, so poorly expressed the marvel of what should be said of Jesus, that I blush to think I ever tired.

The Lord alone knows what is going on here. Maybe that prayer walking is helping. One thing is certain; we are a long ways down the road from where we were a year ago – in a very good way. It appears that we have tremendous potential to see a serious harvest of souls in this muban. If we only have the right heart attitude and allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in us, maybe some of what Jesus was praying for in John 17 might be fulfilled here in Thailand. And I am sure that is what He desires world wide.

Gambarimasho (let's give it our best shot),

bill