I’ve never used the word “connoisseur” in any context besides food, but I feel like I’m becoming a connoisseur of testimonies.  I’m loving the stories I’m hearing from readers of The Circle Maker!  My faith is on fire!

I’m always praying that God would get my books in the right hands at the right time.  I heard today from a pastor in Tampa who was reading The Circle Maker and when he got to the paragraph where I wrote about praying circles around our children he stopped reading and started praying.  At that very moment, his son was in a car accident. He swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle and his car flipped over several times and landed upside down. He and two passengers walked out with one scrape! That’s it.  That’s no coincidence. That’s providence.  God didn’t just put the book in the right hands at the right time. It was the right paragraph.  That was the Holy Spirit prompting him to pray!

I love stories like this. I need stories like this.

Sharing testimonies is a lost art form.  Have we forgotten our doubled-edged sword? Revelation 12:11 says: And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.

Testimonies are the way we give God glory.  But there is a side benefit: hearing a testimony is like borrowing faith from someone else.  If God did it for them He can do it for me!  If we fail to share testimonies, we don’t know how God is moving.  In fact, we’re tempted to think God isn’t moving at all. I promise you, He is.  Aslan is on the move!  And if we all shared our testimonies, it would lift us off our feet.  We would realize that the quantity and quality of miracles happening today is way beyond what we read about in the Bible.  Greater things!

We need to be testimony collectors, testimony tellers, testimony connoisseurs.

Last week I was in a symposium on human trafficking at the National Prayer Breakfast and one of the speakers was Bob Goff.  I’ve wanted to meet Bob for quite some time. In fact, we’re inviting him to speak at National Community Church this year.  His life is a prayer, an art form, an example to follow!

One thing he said got in my spirit and I can’t get it out: pick a fight.  That’s his motto or mantra and that’s what you’re doing if you’re going after human traffickers! Isn’t that what Jesus did when he threw down in the temple and drove out the money changers?  He knew how and when to pick a fight.  For what it’s worth, it was typically with self-righteous religious types!

I was thinking about this motto, pick a fight, and it dawned on me: prayer is picking a fight with the enemy.  It’s the way we engage, the way we advance.  Prayer is the way we draw battle lines.  Prayer puts us on the front lines. It’s the way we go from defense to offense. And when we get on our knees, the Lord starts fighting our battles for us!

There are some battlefields I’m not called to die on.  And you have to discern which fight is your fight and which fight isn’t.  But at some point, you need to pick a fight. And the moment you drop to your knees you will be transported to the frontlines of spiritual warfare.  And that’s where the battle is won or lost.

One of my prayers for The Circle Maker is that people would NOT read it by themselves!  It’s best read in community as prayer partners, small groups or book clubs.  The ultimate goal is for readers to form prayer circles and one of the best ways to do that is to leverage the DVD and participant’s guide for small groups. Both are included in The Curriculum Kit.

Check out session 1 of the curriculum here.

We’ll launch 30+ Circle Maker groups this week at National Community Church.  And that comes on the heels of The Circle Maker sermon series and 21-Day Prayer Challenge.  We’re going all out and all in.

Jesus talked about the power of spiritual synergy when he said: “If two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.” Obviously, it needs to meet the two-fold litmus test for any and every prayer. It has to be in the will of God and for the glory of God. But if it meets that two-fold test, then all it takes is two!  When two people agree in prayer, they have formed a prayer circle.

What would happen if two or twenty or two hundred people formed prayer circles?  I’ll tell you what would happen: we’d storm the gates of hell and they would not prevail against us!  I’m amazed at the miracles God has done at National Community Church in the last few years.  His blessings have blown us away!  But I feel like God has done that despite our lack of corporate prayer.  I can’t help but wonder what would happen if we genuinely, humbly, fervently started praying like it depends on God?  I intend to find out.

It’s the beginning of a prayer movement at NCC.  The Circle Maker has given people a common vocabulary and a common challenge to take their prayer lives to the next level. It’s a new day. It’s a new normal.

I know that tsunami has a negative connotation because it brings destruction, but it’s the image that comes to mind when I think of a prayer movement. Every prayer starts a ripple.  The ripple becomes a wave.  The wave becomes an unstoppable force. Ultimately, our prayer waves catch up and overtake us with the power of a tsunami.

A tsunami consists of longer waves that form a wave train.  The genesis is often a shifting of tectonic plates deep beneath the surface of the ocean. That subterranean shifting sends shock waves to the surface.  Pray long enough. Pray hard enough.  The tectonic plates will shift.  The tsunami will start.

When you are living in prayer mode–an open mind, open heart, open spirit–it’s amazing how much you can hear.  All I know is that Spirit is speaking all the time.  But only he who has the ear of Samuel can hear the still, small voice. During our 21-Day Prayer Challenge, I filled an entire prayer journal with promptings, impressions, thoughts and ideas.  The flow of revelation went from a trickle to a fire hydrant. I’d be talking to people and God would start talking to me.  There was a heightened sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and His prayer promptings.  Appointments turned into divine appointments.  That’s the new normal.

The outer courts are filled with distraction.  It’s hard to hear.  The holy place is still.  And when you get into the inner courts, all the other voices vying for our attention are silenced.  I’m afraid that most of us live most of our lives in the outer courts.  We’re too Christian to enjoy sin, but we’re too sinful to enjoy Christ.  It’s time to press in.  It’s time to press on.  And it’s as simple as humility.  How do you get further into the presence of God?  Humble yourselves more.

You must become less.  He must become more.

“Be still and know that I am God.”

Psalm 46:10

Please hear me pastors and leaders.

Your job as a leader is to delegate everything you possibly can, but there is one thing you cannot delegate. Please, don’t delegate prayer.  In fact, delegate everything else so you can pray!  Isn’t that the pattern established in Acts 6:4.

It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.  Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.  We will turn this responsibly over to them and will give our attention to prayer.

Let me make a confession.  For fifteen years, I feel like I’ve failed in leading our church in corporate prayer.  I was guilty of gross negligence. But it’s a new day, a new normal at NCC. This 21-Day prayer challenge has been the greatest three week period in NCC history.  Something broke in me, in us during this 21-Day prayer challenge.  Honestly, I think the key was fasting.  I’m never been more empty, more full. I’ve never been weaker, stronger.   I’ve never been more broken, more whole. I can’t even describe it.

Yes, some miracles happened during this 21-Day Prayer Challenge.  A church gave us their church building worth well north of $1 million dollars to NCC.  Ridiculous!  A staff member had a dream that a large check would be written to NCC and that dream was fulfilled right down the penny within 24 hours. Unbelievable!  But the thing that gets me the most excited?  We’ve never praised God like we did last night.  The intensity was off the chart.  There is a raw hungry for God coupled with disciplined desire.  We “gained a position” during these 21 days and we’re not turning back.  It’s our new normal.

I’m so glad Lent follows so quickly.  I’m praying that God gives us marching orders so we know how to leverage the forty days leading up to Easter. I already have a holy hunch.  I’m circling II Chronicles 7:14.  All I can think about is 7:14.

I’m also circling I Corinthians 3:6.  We have planted and watered with our prayers.  God is going to hold up His end of the bargain and “give the increase.”  This is God’s time. We’re going to see a harvest way beyond anything that can be manufactured with the emphasis on the “man” in man-u-factured.

Buckle your seat belts. Keep your arms inside the ride at all times! And hang on for dear life because this prayer roller coaster is headed toward the loop de loop.

We had a great day hosting Dave Kinnaman, President of the Barna Group and author of You Lost Me.  So many amazing insights yesterday, but one statement rocked me to the core.  “We’ve given people just enough of Jesus to be bored, but not enough to be transformed.”  Wow.  There no place for pick-and-choose or cut-and-paste Christianity. It’s all-or-nothing.  Jesus said, “You are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other.”  I think it was Peter Marshall who said we’re “too Christian” to really enjoy sin and “too sinful” to really enjoy Christ.” A full surrender of your life to Jesus Christ is the only way to find joy, find peace.

By the way, I’ve always been fascinated by something Soren Kierkegaard said: “Boredom is the root of all evil.”  I don’t think I’ve fully grasped that, but I do know that it’s not possible to be bored when you are in the presence of God or the will of God.

In his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, Daniel knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.

Daniel 6:10

Congratulations! You made it to day 21.  But this isn’t the end. It’s a new beginning!  The goal wasn’t praying for twenty-one days. The goal was establishing a daily habit. Why? If you don’t establish a prayer habit you’ll never break the sin habit.  It’s one or the other.  The choice is yours.

During this 21-day prayer challenge, I did a Daniel fast and I’ll be honest: it was hard.  I can’t wait to eat meat!  But by definition, praying hard is hard.  I experienced some spiritual attacks.  I had a few bad days along the way.  But I also feel like God broke me down so He could build me back up.  He emptied me so He would fill me.  He stretched me so He could strengthen me. And I don’t want it to stop. It’s my new normal. The 21-day prayer challenged raised the ceiling, but that ceiling is the new foundation.  I’m going to press in and press on. God has given me a greater hunger for His presence.  Nothing else will satisfy!

The book of Daniel is one of the most amazing biographies in the Bible, one of the most amazing biographies in history.  His ascendancy to a position of power in the Persian Empire defies political science, but it defines the power of prayer circles.  Prayer invites God into the equation, and when that happens, all bets are off.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s the locker room, the boardroom, or the classroom.  It doesn’t matter whether you practice law or medicine or music.  It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do.  If you stop, drop, and pray, then you never know where you’ll go, what you’ll do, or who you’ll meet. The irony is that it was prayer that got Daniel into trouble and it was prayer that got Daniel out of trouble.

Destiny is not a mystery. It’s the byproduct of daily decisions and daily habits.  If you don’t cultivate a prayer habit you’ll miss out on countless God-ordained opportunities.  You’ll never get where God wants you to go. You’ll never become the person He destined you to be.  But if you get into God’s presence via prayer and fasting then nothing will be able to thwart God’s plans and purposes! Even if you’re a political prisoner in Babylon! Prayer defies time, defies space, defies odds!

So we end where we began.

Find a time. Find a place. Then stop, drop, and pray!

Thanks for taking the challenge!

For additional resources, visit www.thecirclemaker.com.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.

I Corinthians 3:6

Toward the end of his life, Honi the Circle Maker was walking down a dirt road when he saw a man planting a carob tree.  Always the inquisitive sage, Honi questioned him, “How long will it take this tree to bear fruit?”  The man replied, “Seventy years.”  Honi said, “Are you quite sure you will live another seventy years to eat its fruit?”  The man replied, “Perhaps not.  However, when I was born into this world, I found many carob trees planted by my father and grandfather. Just as they planted trees for me, I am planting trees for my children and grandchildren so they will be able to eat the fruit of these trees.”

This incident led to an insight that changed the way Honi prayed.  In a moment of revelation, the Circle Maker realized that praying is planting.  Each prayer is like a seed that goes in the ground.  It disappears for a season, but it eventually bears fruit that blesses future generations.  In fact, our prayers bear fruit forever. No expiration date!  Even when we die, our prayers don’t.  Each prayer takes on a life, an eternal life, of its own.  I know this because of the moments in my life when the Holy Spirit has reminded me: the prayers of your grandfather are being answered in your life right now.  My grandfather died when I was six!  His prayers did not!  Like a carob tree planted in the ground, our prayer seeds will bear fruit long after we are long gone!

The Circle Maker revolves around 3 mantras: Dream Big, Pray Hard and Think Long.  It’s the last one that is so tough in our quick-fix culture. Almost every prayer we pray has an ASAP attached to it.  Let me introduce a new acronym: ALAT.  Quit praying as soon as possible prayers and start praying as long as it takes prayers! We tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in two years, but we underestimate what we can accomplish in ten years!  If you dream big without thinking long you’re headed for a head-on collision with disappointment.  For the record, it is prayer that helps us both dream big and think long!
Drawing prayer circles often feels like a long and boring process. It’s frustrating when you feel like you’ve been circling forever.  You start to wonder if God really hears, if God really cares.  Sometimes His silence is deafening.  We circle the cancer. We circle our children.  We circle the dream.  We circle the sin.  But it doesn’t seem to be making a difference.  What do you do?  My advice: think long.

Circle for seventy years if you have to!  What else are you going to do? Where else are you going to turn?  What other options do you have?  Pray through.

We live in a culture that overvalues fifteen minutes of fame and undervalues lifelong faithfulness.  Maybe we have it backwards?  Just as our greatest successes often come on the heels of our greatest failures, our greatest answers to prayer often come on the heels of our longest prayers.  But if you pray those long and boring prayers, your life will be anything but boring.  The seeds will bear fruit.  God will give the increase.

For free resources or discounted copies of The Circle Maker, visit www.thecirclemaker.com.

You will see even greater things than these.

John 1:50

Billy Graham once leveled an indictment against the church in America.  He said, “95% of today’s church activities would continue if the Holy Spirit were removed from us.  In the early Church, 95% of all her activities would have stopped if the Holy Spirit were removed.”

Are we in the 5% or the 95%?

I can’t help but wonder what would happen if we read the Bible and actually believed it. I can’t help but wonder what would happen if we read the bible and actually obeyed it.  Here’s my conviction: if we did what they did in the Bible, we’d experience what they experienced.  Why? Because God is still seated on His throne!  But here is the choice we face: either our experience will conform to Scripture or we’re tempted to make Scripture conform to our experience.

Thomas Jefferson loved the teachings of Jesus.  In fact, he said they were “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.” But Thomas Jefferson was a child of the Enlightenment.  He didn’t have a cognitive category for miracles so he literally took a pair of scissors and cut them out of his King James Bible.  It took him two or three nights.  And by the time he was done he cut out the virgin birth, cut out the angels, cut out the resurrection.  Jefferson extracted every miracle and the end result was a book titled the Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth or what is commonly referred to as the Jefferson Bible.

Here’s the deal. You can’t pick-and-choose.  You can’t cut-and-paste.  And while most of us would never take a pair of scissors and physically cut verses out of our Bibles, we do what Jefferson did.  We ignore certain verses.  We avoid certain verses.  And we may not cut them out with scissors, but our god gets smaller and smaller and smaller.  We practice cut-and-paste Christianity.  We only believe what we can comprehend with our cerebral cortex and we only embrace what we can control.

Aren’t you hungry for more? More grace? More power? More miracles?

I wonder if our faith is so subnormal that the normal of the Bible seems abnormal.  We need a new normal.  Prayer meetings should be normal.  Miracles that are the byproduct of prayer should be normal.  Radical conversions should be the normal.  But there is a price to be paid.  The price is prayer.

Are you willing to pray the price?

For free resources or discounted copies of The Circle Maker, visit www.thecirclemaker.com.