01 February 2005 International YWAMer

YWAM's Call to Prayer

It's time to fast, time to realign, time to intercede. It's time to heed the GLT's call to 50 Days of prayer, starting this Easter. --by Lynn Green

I hope you have begun to hear about 50 Days! This edition of the International YWAMer is all about 50 Days; it is likely to be the most important thing we have done in decades. To help illustrate why it is so important, I need to tell you a couple of stories.

Though I have often asked God to speak to me in dreams, I have had just one significant dream in my life. That one dream, though, was enough. It was very important to me and to YWAM.

Lynn's Dream: The Headquarters

A couple of years ago, I had just accepted the request of the Global Leadership Team (GLT) to become the International Chairman of YWAM. I had been thinking and praying about the new role with its responsibilities and, as I opened to door to leave my room, Loren Cunningham emerged from his room on the opposite side of the corridor. Instead of the usual warm greeting, he just said, "You know this is about your dream, don't you?" His words stated exactly what I had been praying and thinking about.

The dream had occurred about ten years earlier. In it, I was with my family and we were guests at opening celebrations of the new headquarters of a Christian ministry. The buildings and their grounds were larger and grander than any I had ever seen. It seemed like all my friends, including YWAMers from all over the world, were there with their families.

The centerpiece of this magnificent campus was a set of three very large buildings. The middle one was the tallest, at about 40 or 50 stories, and was flanked by a building of about 15 stories on either side. They were due to open at dusk, with the main celebrations being held at the top of the tallest building that evening.

Throughout the day, my family and I strolled around the beautiful grounds, greeting friends, taking in concerts from Christian artists, and visiting exhibitions. At one point, as we walked alongside the buildings, a small piece of masonry (the size of a postage stamp) fell on my shoulder. At that very moment in my dream I felt God spoke to me. That still, small voice seemed to be saying, "The buildings are not safe."

I was immediately plunged into turmoil. What should I do about this "word from God?" Was it really the Lord, or just my imagination? If I went to the leaders of the organization, they would think I was crazy. What weight would my words have compared to the engineers and architects who had designed and built the facilities?

In the end, I did the cowardly thing and kept quiet. When dusk came and people began to take the large, express elevators to the top, I told my wife and children that I did not think it was safe so we would watch from a distance. We walked a couple of hundred meters away and waited to see what would happen.

As the last load of people were lifted to the top of the tallest building, it appeared to shudder, crack and then it collapsed in exactly the same way we would all watch the World Trade Center implode nearly a decade later. It was obvious that everyone had died. Then I woke up.

Within moments, I knew exactly what the dream meant: in all that we do, including Christian ministry, we tend to want to look good. The campus in my dream was supremely impressive, but the builders had scrimped on the steel in the buildings. Through the dream, God was making a powerful impression on me that I should concentrate on the hidden things that will make us strong. God will take care of what people think of us. We should build for strength and godliness. He will be in charge of our reputation.

In YWAM, our plumb-line-the steel in what we build-is the word of the Lord to us. Our foundational values represent our best attempt to recount what God has said to us through the years. Now is the time for us to stop, reconsider those values and examine whether or not we are being obedient to God's expectations.

The GLT's Prayer: The Body

You probably have heard (or read) John Dawson, Iain Muir and me (Team3) along with other YWAM leaders presenting a call to "re-alignment." This is what we mean: this is a season in which God is graciously calling us to obey His word to us. Where we have drifted from those values, we must repent, confess to God and to others, and then we must ask for His enabling as we seek to realign with His Word.

I need to tell you one more story to convey the full importance of this call to 50 Days of fasting and prayer. A year after my conversation with Loren, the GLT was meeting in Singapore. We usually set aside the first day of our meetings for worship, prayer and ministry to one another, so at one point one of our members asked for prayer for his wife who was suffering from an autoimmune/central-nervous-system disease. Then another leader said his spouse had a very similar problem. Then a third, fourth, fifth and sixth YWAMer spoke up with the same kind of prayer request.

As soon as we went to prayer, God impressed upon us that this was a picture of YWAM. We had, and still have, a sickness in our central nervous system. This kind of disease prevents the nerves from conveying messages to and from the brain. As a result the sufferer loses feeling in parts of their bodies and, no matter how hard they try, they cannot get certain muscles to respond.

The Lord was showing us that our communications within the body of YWAM have broken down in many cases. We are not aware of one another; we do not know what others are doing or when they need help. YWAM bases and staff are often unaware of what the GLT or other leadership groups are doing and those leaders often feel out of touch with others in the body.

God wants to heal us of this disease and 50 Days is one of the ways He will do that.

50 Days: Our Calling

Therefore the GLT urges all YWAM staff and students to join together to fast and pray. We will begin with Easter Sunday, March 27 and conclude with Pentecost Sunday, May 15.

This season of prayer and fasting will also be about fulfilling our calling to reach the whole world with the gospel. So there will be two themes to this prayerful fast:

1. Realignment with the Word of the Lord to us over the years.

2. Prayer for the whole world-in particular we want to pray for every 4K omega zone.

Why prayer and fasting? There are many thrilling dimensions to walking in fellowship with God through Jesus but surely one of the greatest is the invitation to be coworkers together with Him. That honor and significance is available to everyone who believes, and is best expressed when we pray in unity together and then obey the next thing He tells us to do. The most fruitful initiatives have always begun in intercessory prayer. Fasting with our prayers increases our focus and the intensity of our unity around the world.

When God spoke to the GLT about calling YWAM to fasting and prayer, we also felt that we were to prepare the way by immediately embarking on a season of fasting and prayer ourselves. We have completed our season of fasting and prayer (the 40 days immediately following our meetings in August) with a deep sense that this is the way forward for YWAM.

It is our aim to include every team, base and individual YWAMer around the world. So with 50 Days we are developing a web-based communications tool that will be available to everyone who is able to get online. We will also send out letters and a 50 Days booklet to be sure that no one is left out. We will do our best to get the information out in all the major languages spoken in YWAM. Pray for us!

Understandably, some have asked if we expect everyone to fast for the entire 50 days. No, that is not what we have in mind. We just want to be sure that there are hundreds or even thousands fasting on every one of the 50 days between Easter and Pentecost.

It will increase our unity and effectiveness if each team or base will decide to fast and pray together. They will also have the encouragement of knowing that many other teams and bases will be with them on that same day. It would be good if each YWAMer was fasting and praying at least one day a week. (Though we realize that a small percentage of people have a physical condition that prevents fasting.) We invite all YWAMers to join together in corporate fasting for three days in particular: Easter (Day 1), Ascension Day (Day 40) and Pentecost (Day 50).

There is one final big bonus to this prayer initiative. For the past four years, a businessman in South Africa has been spearheading an Africa-wide prayer focus. He has been helped by some YWAMers. In many ways it is very similar to March For Jesus, in which so many of us participated in the late 1980s and 90s. I met with this man last year and was astounded to see what God had done through the vision for transformational prayer. The Day of Prayer for Africa, May 2, 2004, marked the biggest ever gathering across Africa. 22 million people gathered in 56 countries.

After that miraculous event, they believe God has spoken to them to take the movement worldwide. They have called for a world day of prayer on Pentecost Sunday, 2005. Without any human coordination, they chose the same day we plan to culminate our 50 Days!

God is up to something big and we get a chance to participate! I urge all YWAMers everywhere to get into this opportunity with all our hearts, minds, soul and strength. Don't miss out!