Praying Through

There are several different things that God has been pressing us to pray for as a body here at Ellerslie. The commission that we were given to pray is not often spoken of by us, but boy have we been praying! The countries of Vietnam, North Korea, and Indonesia have been on our hearts, to name just a few. He has also brought almost 40 new students here for us to pray for, love on, and intercede for. He has given us so many opportunities to love them and speak truth to them, but also so many opportunities to learn from them as well. A couple weeks ago we dropped almost everything else and joined together to lift up specific students in prayer. It is the concept of “praying through”, of putting them on a stretcher and carrying them to the Lord Jesus for His healing power and forgiveness, and not giving up until we see the victory. “Praying through” is not a new concept, but rather a concept that has been around for centuries. To pray through is to grab hold of God’s promises and refuse to let go until they are brought from heaven to earth, just as Jacob refused to stop wrestling until he received the blessing. But what exactly are we praying for? Well, a lot of different things, really. The end goal is always the same though, and that is Jesus. We have been praying for students who feel as if there is some type of barrier between them and God. They have raised their hands and stated, “I need help.” It is not any single person at Ellerslie who is helping them. As stated earlier, we are merely putting them on a stretcher and carrying them to the Lord so He can give them everything they need.

One student that we prayed for was Amity, a newly married woman who was struggling with the giant of fear in her life. This fear was evident to all of us. Mere days before we were praying her through, she had stood up and confessed her fear, and the poor girl was shaking all over! So several days later she went into the back room and we prayed and prayed. God spoke, and we obeyed. Praying for at least an hour might sound like it’s easy, but it is anything but. Praying is hard work, it is exhausting, it is labor, it is battle. The exhaustion that you feel from the battle spiritually is soon found in your body physically. I never was the type of person who liked to take naps, but I discovered while praying through that a nap at 2 o’clock in the afternoon never sounded so good. Why is that? It is because there is a very real enemy and a very real fight going on.

On we prayed, and we were committed to pray through dinner, through the night if we needed to. We were committed to pray for Amity until fear had no place in her life. To our surprise, after about an hour (though we were expecting it to be longer), we heard the shout of victory erupt from the back room. Out Amity marched, head held high, steps confident, smile on her face, and there was not a single ounce of fear evident in her entire body. She grabbed the mic with a steady hand and boldly declared what the Lord had done for her. She was a different person than the shaking, trembling young woman we had seen a week before, and it was evident. I’ve seen a lot of people changed when they come out of that back room, but never before had I seen someone so obviously changed as Amity. She is just one example of the many people who have found the healing and enabling power of our Lord Jesus Christ.