For four years now, Scott Evelyn and I have taken a team to minister in the Nevada desert at one of the largest pagan events in the United States. Every year, attendance at the event is high, with nearly 47,000 in attendance this year. Also every year, our team has doubled; we had 50 members this time around.
Also every year, we are gaining key insights into Kingdom dynamics. I would like to share what we learned this year about prayer and intercession.
While organizing and putting together this year’s team, I began to realize that this team was going to be our largest. Previously, I had known everyone personally, but this year, we would have people Scott and I didn’t know personally. This meant that we would potentially have more issues come up because we literally had people from all over the States, from different denominations, backgrounds, theologies and beliefs. Our challenge was to be unified in a hostile spiritual climate with one goal and one voice: to see Jesus glorified and the Holy Spirit’s purpose not restricted in our midst.
So, I asked one of our previous team members, Janie Wisdom, if she would organize a team of intercessors. After several e-mails, we had an intercessory team of 178 people. Because of e-mail, we had almost daily communication between the intercessors and the desert team. We were literally going into the enemy camp on a rescue mission. All 50 team members had prayer covering from back home.
The early Church carried on Christ’s commitment to continual, unceasing prayer. They “with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:14, NASB). When the apostles were led to structure the church so that ministry could be accomplished effectively, they said, “We will devote ourselves to prayer” (from Acts 2:42).
Because of our team’s unity and the unity of our intercessors back home, this was by far the best event out of the four years we have been going. The team’s unity, as well as the servant heart of each team member, made the set up of our camp the smoothest in years.
Because of prayer, people waiting for ministry at our tent broke down in tears. They would say, “I have never felt more love than what’s in this tent.” People commented on how much we loved one another and worked well with one another. Jesus said, “‘All men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another’” (John 13:35, NASB). I can honestly say that 99 percent of the people who left our tent left in tears. Prayer coverage is so important.
I know that we would not have had such tremendous success at this event if it had not been for the prayer covering. We know that “the pay is the same” whether you are at home praying or in the desert.
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