Restoration Prayer Ministry is a passion to know the
heart of God and His purposes for a person,
knowing that the secret of healing is to do whatever our
loving Father says to do. It is a compassion for people
that constrains us to say "Yes" when Jesus decides to
set the captive free, even if He does it in ways that we
have never heard of before. It is destroying the works
of the devil so that people can be filled with the Holy
Spirit in every area of their life. 1 John 3:8b,
Ephesians 5:18
It is not
"behavior modification" or just learning to "act more
like Jesus." It
is coming against "religious counterfeit spirits" that
have replaced their "first love" and true worship in
spirit and truth, with "performance for the approval of
God by works." It is receiving the righteousness that
Jesus gave us as a gift (Romans 5) and believing Him
when He says that we are made holy, blameless and
righteous by His work on the cross. (Ephesians 1) It is
demonstrating how to allow Jesus to live a holy life in
our bodies. (Galatians 2:20)
It is not
only intercessory prayer but actually helping to carry
the burden,
spending time with the rebellious, hugging the leper,
letting the prostitute wash our feet, believing in the
most unlikely, going into the houses of "gentiles,"
feeding the hungry, teaching those in prison, praising
the Centurion for his faith and suffering from false
accusation for being friends with the heathen.
For me,
it included making the commitment to be trained up in
the
Elijah House School of Prayer Counseling Ministry
so that I would have
more of a diagnostic knowledge to balance my intuitive
and prophetic insights. It was studying to show myself
approved for months and becoming a healed person who
could partner with God in healing people.
Sometimes, it is going into places that are against the
"religious rules,"
like finding that one lost
sheep in a bar, skid row, a casino, a cult or across the
tracks. It can be following God's call when you have not
been to seminary, you are a woman, or were an addict,
murderer or thief. It may look like breaking the "rules"
but it is not rebellion against God. It is a holy war
against "religious legalism;" a defiance against a
spirit of control that says only perfect performers can
be transformed into prayer ministers.
I like to introduce
myself as the former woman at the well because
I am smacking "religious legalism" in the face.
She was a woman that
was rejected by Jews on account of her race, rejected by
religious leaders because of sexism, rejected by
neighbors on account of her serial marriages and for
being a failure at love! But the woman at the well
became the first missionary, appointed by Jesus himself
and she reached her town the same day! Jesus said, "If
they are not against us, they are for us."
The most
powerful thing Restoration Prayer Ministers do is to let
someone know that God believes in them,
right now, with unconditional love, before any one else
has any hope for them. Restoration Prayer Ministers
have to see
people as God sees them and loved their slumbering
spirits to life. Maybe they are captives who act like
alcoholics, crack heads, adulterers or murderers today
but they may be called to be raised up as missionaries
tomorrow. We have to be able to say to them what no one
else will say, in truth and in love.
Restoration Prayer Ministers have to lay down every
talent and knowledge
they think they have on the
altar daily, in deference to depending on the Anointing
to break every yoke. God may want to heal as they kneel,
sing, dance like David danced, use mud and spit or
absolute silence. I prayed for a young man to have an
open vision of Jesus without him even knowing I was
praying for him. He has been having open visions of
Jesus ever since. Jesus is coming in unconventional
ways. He even asked his disciples to lay down protocol.
We have to know Him and His voice.
The
secret agenda of Restoration Prayer Ministers is to
bring every selfish fleshly structure to death on the
cross. We,
ourselves, might not have come to Jesus, if we had known
that God wanted to kill our pride, wreck our schedules,
take away every crutch, our self-centered ways and give
us His broken heart for others instead. We have to learn
to rest His opinion of us, in His ability to live His
life through us and to be satisfied with Jesus as our
source. As we used to say in Campus Crusade, "From the
most sophisticated heathen to the most ignorant college
professor, everyone is hungry for Jesus."
Who is a
Restoration Prayer Minister? a soul liberator?
It may not be the one
with the great business card, videos or church growth.
The prayer ministers of tomorrow may be the ones with
tattoos, piercings, crazy hair and dress. They are not
afraid of sinners, they know their language and they
will do whatever it takes to destroy the works of
darkness. They are willing to admit their own need for
ministry and receive a new heart. They know demons are
real, that deliverance is for today and they pray a
little differently, but demons are afraid of them and
bow their knees to the Name of Jesus.
Nothing will be impossible to those that believe,
because Jesus will do anything for radical lovers.
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