Wanting His Presence More Than Anything

Last Monday at noon I met with the Highland prayer team, who meets at lunch time on Mondays. What a wonderful and encouraging group of prayer warriors. They really blessed me at the end of the session when they laid hands on me and prayed -- asking the Lord to bless the class on prayer that I'll be giving at Lectureship next month.

Carolyn Dycus, the leader of Highland's prayer ministry, encouraged me to hear a couple tapes and CD's from a prayer conference that she and some others from Highland attended last month in Phoenix. Last Saturday when I heard one of the tapes I was blown away.

I spent Saturday afternoon by myself painting our living room while hearing a message by a riveting preacher named Jackson Senyinga from Uganda. His message was on prayer and the transformation of a community. Jackson is a leader in a church that grew by about 1,000 members in a few weeks. He told the story of how Uganda was devastated by AIDS and the evil reign of Idi Amin. Amidst all this devastation, the people of Uganda began crying out to God to deliver them. Then some amazing, supernatural things happened. Some people came to his church saying they couldn't sleep and felt they needed to come to his church and give their lives to Jesus. Lost people who had been under the influence of witch doctors came to his church because they heard they could get new clothing. He told them, "Yes, but it is spiritual clothing. You can be clothed with Christ's righteousness."

God was using the Christians in in Uganda in such a powerful way that when the ebola plague struck this country, the president called Jackson and asked him and his people to pray for those sick with ebola. They began to pray fervently and in a quick, dramatic way people were healed, released from the hospital and the plague stopped.

As I heard this tape while running a paint roller up and down our living room walls, I thought, "My view of God and life of prayer is so miniscule compared to what this man is teaching...and experiencing!" Besides being impacted by these amazing stories of how the Lord is working in these Ugandan believers, I was hit by this statement Jackson made: "We spend so much time asking God for Him to do this or do that. As if He is our errand boy. What we need more than His help to fix all our problems is His presence. " We need Him!

After the tape ended and I was cleaning up all the paint brushes and rollers, I kept thinking about what this man said. And I realized that so much of my prayer life consists of asking God to do this or that and not about just knowing Him more. And yet I know in my heart of hearts that knowing Jesus in a deeper, more real way is what I need more than anything. I want to want that more -- to long for His presence more than anything, even the answer to all my requests.

And I realize that the Lord is honored when we want Him and His presence more than anyone or any answered prayer. As John Piper says, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."

Jim