Ask for the Nations

By Sandra Higley

Note: This Bible study is formatted for small group open discussion. If you use this study by yourself, we suggest you journal your answers to the discussion questions. Also, please use suggested translations where indicated. Biblegateway.com is an excellent source for translations you may not have on hand.

I have a friend at church who has a grasp of the Father’s heart for Egypt. She ministered there many times and financially supports missions projects. But her current health problems and other issues have kept her from returning. In a recent discussion I encouraged her to see how her compassion for the Egyptian people, combined with firsthand experiences of being “in country,” have uniquely positioned her as an intercessor who can pack a wallop with prayer power for that region.

Too frequently we view our intercessory position as a second-best “I’ll-pray-because-I-can’t-go” circumstance. When we do that, we’re not seeing prayer as God sees it.

Discussion Questions

Dan Crawford reminds us of a quote by S.D. Gordon: “A man may go aside today and shut the door, and as really spend a half-hour of his life in India for God as though he were there in person.” Share your thoughts on this idea. Is it a new one for you?  ______________________________

What do Psalm 2:8 and Luke 10:2 tell you about God’s position on prayer and missions? ______________________________

Read the following passages and discuss the correlation between prayer and the growth of the early Church (Acts 1:14, NASB; 2:41–42, 47; 4:4, 31–33; 5:14, NASB).  ______________________________

Bob Fetherlin tells of C&MA missionaries who were forced to exit Vietnam in 1975, leaving behind 60,000 Vietnamese followers of Jesus. Distressed at having to leave these believers to fend for themselves, they put together a worldwide prayer initiative to pray for Vietnam. After 25 years, C&MA leaders were allowed to return for a visit. They discovered that prayer had “grown” the 60,000 Vietnamese Christians into a staggering one million believers.

Share similar stories you may have heard regarding prayer for missions. (If your group is unaware of such testimonies, try doing an online search for inspiration—for instance, blog.godreports.com.) How does hearing inspiring prayer/missions stories stimulate your missions-focused prayers?______________________________

Lack of inspiration was a key factor in Steve Hawthorne’s feelings about praying for missions as he grew up. He says that endless generic prayers for protection and supply reduce prayer for missions to a dreary but necessary duty. But Hawthorne shares about the super-synergy of praying with missionaries instead of merely praying for them. By praying for the mission itself and not just missionary needs, a co-worker status emerges. “By praying the very prayers that the missionaries themselves were probably praying, we gained a tangible sense of expectancy. We were playing a part in what the living God was enacting on the other side of the planet.”

Explain the difference between praying for missionaries and praying with missionaries.  ______________________________

How does Paul’s request in 2 Corinthians 1:10–11 indicate that he was urging believers into this synergistic “load-bearing, effectual labor”?   ______________________________

Another prayer-for-missions inhibitor is having a horizontal focus on the immensity of the task. Dave Butts writes, “Billions do not know Jesus . . . even using the word billions can cause us to want to curl up and watch TV instead of giving ourselves to a calling that seems impossible.” The solution is to focus on our vertical relationship with God to accomplish what He calls us to do horizontally.

Read Exodus 33:12–17. How does this passage show that Moses understood this principle?______________________________

What do the following passages say about focusing vertically in order to be successful horizontally? (John 15:4–5; Heb. 3:1) ______________________________

Action Steps

Stevanie Wilkos talks about being a “dangerous” pray-er, an intercessor who—like Jesus—is seen by the enemy as incredibly dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. On a scale of one to ten (ten being dangerous intercession), how would you rank your current involvement in prayer for missions? Why do you see yourself that way?  ______________________________

Wilkos lists five prayers that can launch us into the dangerous category. Look up each associated passage and turn it into your own petition.

1. Pray we will be people of prayer (Eph. 6:18).____________________________

2. Pray we will listen intently and follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:26–27; 1 Thess. 1:4–6)._____________________________

3. Pray we will see the work of God in our daily settings and join Him in that work (John 5:19)._____________________________

4. Pray we will love and move in unity with other believers, even those who are different from us (John 13:34, 17:20–23)._____________________________

5. Pray that in difficult surroundings we will give praise to God (2 Chron. 20:22)._____________________________

Pick a country and take a virtual, dangerous, super-synergistic prayer journey there this week through prayer with the missionaries of that area. Become part of what God is doing to expand His Kingdom!