This is an article from the January-February 2016 issue: Women Engaged in Church-Planting Movements Among UPGs

Worship

Fuel for Extraordinary Prayer

Worship

For many years I didn’t think of “Worship” as being a part of “Extraordinary Prayer,” but then the Lord brought me a fresh insight. I first experienced this different perspective on the last day of a prayer walk among a hostile people group in Southeast Asia. We had walked and prayed and walked and prayed. We gathered the last night in the home of the long-term workers who were struggling. We had prayed through the whole house…over computer connections, the baby’s bed, the various rooms and so on.

Then we gathered back together to worship. It was August, the season of “hot and hotter” in this climate. I was playing my guitar, softly listening for God’s instructions. I sensed he wanted me to sing “Joy to the World,” and I thought I must have misheard His instructions. After hearing it three times I obeyed. But in this staunchly Muslim context, that I didn’t want to offend, so I sang the song very slowly:

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come.
Let earth receive Her King.
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing.”

In the middle of the song, I got it; I understood! So I asked my team to stand and turn the circle outward. Then I asked them to sing this song over the house, the neighborhood, this unreached and resistant people group…to prophesy or sing it as if it were true.

Intangibles in the Move of the Unseen Realms

It is hard to document the result of something so intangible. But the long-term couple saw a distinct difference in the spiritual atmosphere. This one worship time wasn’t the only element in bringing breakthrough. But what if we consistently worshiped in a way that demonstrated faith for God to visit UPGs in such moments?

Since that time we have seen the beginning of a movement among that people group! And since that experience I have paid more attention to God’s nudging, both as an individual and as a worship leader among people passionate to reach the unreached. Worship allows us to proclaim Kingdom realities in the darkest places of this world. By savoring God’s presence in the midst of worship, we can speak back to him the promises to be fulfilled in and through the bride of Christ. As Ephesians 3:10 says, “…so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.” The goal of missions is worship to our God. It may also be a means the Lord uses to break through the darkness and bring in his light. Worship is one delight-filled kind of prayer; it can become the extraordinary kind that opens the door for church planting movements.

Comments

Betsy, great article .....proud to know you and have been with you several times as you taught these principles…so true how worship changes things!  love, Beverly

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