01 October 2005 International YWAMer

Our Passion For Worship

The awesome experience of knowing God, hearing His voice, and sharing His heart comes as we worship, wait on Him, intercede and do battle in the heavenlies to see His purposes accomplished on earth.

These ways of God are absolutely central to who we are as a missions movement, and they are completely interdependent. These truths came to us in the very early days. Our foundational teachers spoke to us from the Word and shared stories from their own lives as they passionately pursued God and heard His voice in prayer. We are grateful to God for Joy Dawson, Campbell MacAlpine, Corrie Ten Boom, Duncan Campbell, and others.

YWAM was birthed during a time of renewal, and there was a tremendous passion for worship in many parts of the body of Christ. We were surfing that wave, and we helped to shape it as well. We were very involved with youth and were all over the world, so we wrote songs and put together songbooks in several languages. Worship was a huge part of who we were and what we have contributed to the body of Christ.

From the very beginning, we learned that as worship brought us into His presence, we could hear His voice and experience His heart, leading us into intercession. He would draw us to a nation in prayer, and then He would ask us to step out and be the answer to our prayers. In 1971 in Lausanne, Switzerland, Loren had us split into small groups and scatter around the building to intercede for the nations. When we returned, five of the six groups had felt prompted to pray for Egypt! We realized God was speaking to us, and as a result of that prayer time a team went on to pioneer our work in that nation.

From the beginning, all that we did came out of guidance we received during intercession and worship. This has always been the key to our mobility and pioneering. We find ourselves all over the world doing all sorts of things in direct response to having heard the word of the Lord in prayer. This is who we've always been, and it's a vital part of what God is restoring to us in this season of alignment.

It is so right that we've had 50 Days of fasting and prayer this year to begin to renew us in this area. He's given us 4K as a new tool to complete the task, to bring the kingdom of God into every omega zone on the globe. If we needed worship, intercession and spiritual warfare to go to the nations, we desperately need to live these in new measure as we go to over 4,000 4K zones! Programs and technology alone cannot bring the kingdom of God, but as we worship and intercede to the living God, we will see His plans for the nations fulfilled. --Iain Muir is YWAM's International Director