Begin the Work

for Jen and Hil, we the original Cambridge Three

Get up and begin the work! May the Lord be with you!

1 Chronicles 22:16

I had longed for many years to become an intercessor. I was surrounded by mighty prayer warriors, women and men who devoted regular time to deep and persistent prayer, a level much deeper than I, as a young college student, had ever committed. I could see the fruit of their prayers, the way they persevered until breakthrough came, the patience with which they tarried before the King of kings, the One who moves mountains by His servants’ prayers of faith. 

I yearned for that depth of character and commitment in myself. I strived to be like those I admired. As a graduate student, I would wake early and sit with one mentor while she knelt and prayed at 4:00 am. As intercession flowed from her lips, her brow furrowed with sincere love and faith, I would doze off, only to be jolted awake by the silence when she finished.

My good efforts to emulate her behavior was lacking. My timing was off and it just wasn’t working for me. I was an impatient, immature student of prayer, failing to realize that listening and learning was the real gift of that season in my life. In the end, no matter how genuine my desire, I just could not seem to run with those experienced champions of prayer.

It was not until many years later, after seven years of marriage, two of them spent living in the bush of Africa, that my dream was finally realized. It was the most unlikely time for a new work to begin, at least according to my circumstances. I was in school full-time again, this time in seminary. I had just given birth to our first child. 

Like my graduate school days many years earlier, I once again found myself rising at four am, but the difference was this time I woke up to nurse a hungry baby. Sitting in a borrowed rocking chair gazing out into the night sky, I began to pray. The Spirit of the Lord overwhelmed me, grew in me, past my exhaustion, despite my circumstances, and the words of 1 Chronicles 22:16 rang in my heart:

Get up and begin the work! May the Lord be with you!

It was during that most unlikely season for beginning new ministry that I assembled the first intercessory prayer group for Lydia Fellowship in Cambridge, UK. We gathered weekly and with sincere hearts poured out our intercession to the Lord. We watched Him move mountains through our prayers. We rejoiced as His Spirit grew in our midst and our prayers grew in power and might.

And like a living metaphor of the work God was doing in me, while I prayed I held a newborn, rocked him gently, soothed him, nursed him, and he grew before our eyes.

The work begun in that unlikely season grew across North Africa in the coming years, equipping and mobilizing intercessors who spread across the globe, many of them still to this day leading groups and training new prayer warriors wherever they are.

Today as the world stands at a halt because of the Coronavirus, we find ourselves living in another unlikely season for new beginnings. Many are facing endings in the form of job loss, health loss, and social loss. Circumstances do not appear conducive for new work.

But as followers of Christ, we do not look at our circumstances alone to determine our work. We look to the Lord. He is the author and finisher of our faith, and faith, according to Hebrews 11:1 is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (NKJV).

Could it be that He is gathering us in our homes to renew our strength for the new work He has purposed through us? In and through our families? Could it be that at a time when we are in many ways immobilized we are in a perfectly engineered position for God to display His work, His power, His strength, rather than our own? 

King David thought for sure he would build God’s temple (see 1 Chronicles 22:6-10). He proclaimed it to God and man with passion and determination. But it was not to be so.

By the time David makes his declaration in 1 Chronicles 22:16, he has accepted God’s will and God’s timing, surrendering his own understanding. His son Solomon will be the one to construct the dream first planted in David’s heart. He goes on to state in verses 17-19:

“Then David ordered all the leaders of Israel to help his son Solomon. He said to them, “Is not the Lord your God with you? And has he not granted you rest on every side? …Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God. Begin to build the sanctuary of the Lord God…”

God’s timing is not always logical to us. His great works often emerge through circumstances and people we never expected. When we yield our plans and our understanding of timing to the Lord as David did, we do not lose our purpose. Rather, we become aligned with God’s timing and purpose.

Worship replaces striving as we behold God’s power and strength unfolding at exactly the right time. 

Perhaps this unlikely time in history is exactly the time to begin a new work, the work of devoting our hearts and souls to seeking the Lord our God. #Coronavirus #faith Share on X

May we begin building His sanctuary in our hearts, our homes, and our communities.

What might our great God, the Lord of heaven and earth, do in this unlikely season?

I for one am waiting with great anticipation to see His timing and purpose unfold. Join me?

Lord, I am willing. Here I am, ready to begin the work You have for me to do in this unlikely season. Amen.

@audreycfrank