Journey into the Unknown
How God Challenged Me to Lead Others in Prayer
In early 2022, the Lord began challenging me in my PRAYER life. I've been a follower of Jesus for a long time. I've had ups and downs like most. But I've always struggled with prayer. More accurately, I've struggled with feeling extremely inadequate and distracted. There have been times I've questioned how the Lord could call and use me as a Pastor with how weak and surface some of my prayer life was.
It wasn't that I didn't WANT a healthier and more thriving prayer life; it's just that I didn't know what it would take to experience one for myself truly.. So that began to bother me. But not like the shame and condemnation way, like the convicted and challenged kind of way.
There's a lot to this journey over the past 15 months that I'm looking forward to unpacking more in the weeks and months to come.. In the meantime, I recently recorded an almost 2-hour podcast conversation with my friend Jordan Abina and talked in a lot of depth about more specific details and significant moments! You can watch that episode of the podcast right here. But for now, I'll bring you up to speed with what the Lord has been speaking to me recently.
Change of place, Change of perspective.
My wife Holly and our kids got some time away in February of this year. During that time, God began to whisper a specific challenge to my heart. He called us to return home after our mini-sabbatical and lead our church into a deeper place of prayer and pursuit of His presence. To cultivate an environment where our people would become familiar with His presence, led by His Spirit, and comfortable and confident in prayer. Not just a prayer ministry or event or group. He was calling us to take our church on a journey of becoming PEOPLE of prayer. A people who pray.
Although I had grown a lot over the past year in my experience and confidence in prayer, I still felt like there was a MASSIVE gap between where I was and what God was calling me to lead our church into. My response was, "Ok, God, give me a few months to get the hang of this and know and experience it for myself. That way, I can lead people where I've been before." I've always adopted and embraced that leadership principle.
"You can't lead people to where you've never been."
I'd heard it a hundred times. Mainly in leadership circles and with the subsequent challenge to make sure I was walking the walk and not just talking the talk. All of which is solid wisdom and sound philosophy. But God was challenging me in a way I hadn't experienced before. He brought me to Genesis 12. It's that moment when God calls Abram out to a new land and unfamiliar territory.
Genesis 12:1-5 (ESV)
"Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan."
This passage has had a massive impact on my life. I've always read it through the lens of Abram's faith and obedience to God's voice being supreme to his need to KNOW exactly where he was going or how he would get there.. Honestly, so powerful. And if you've never read this part of the story or taken a deeper look at it recently, I'd encourage you to do so. It's nuts. Such incredible faith. And so challenging for many of us in our lives when we want to know all the details and plans before we say "yes" to something God is saying.
Sometimes, God gives us just enough to go in a general direction. Then, as we step out in obedience and faith, he reveals more along the way. It's like a progressive revelation. The more significant point is trusting Him and His voice above our need or desire to know all the details. Direction > details... Or even better? Director > details.
But back to what I was saying.. I'd seen all this before. But I hadn't seen what God would show me this time through. Something that would challenge my fundamental belief in a leadership principle I had been trying to embody and perfect for years. Here it is...
Abram wasn't alone.
When God called him out into a land that he did not know, it was a call that would require him to lead and take other people with him into that unknown land. His wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and other servants they had acquired. And maybe even more! Abram was leaving his father's house, but it wasn't a solo mission!
God had called Abram to a place he'd never been before, and he was responsible for taking and leading people there as he discovered it for himself. Like "live-time." He was drawing the map as they walked. As I began to see what the Lord was speaking more clearly at that moment, I paused. If you were to have been in the room (or my heart and mind) for our conversation, here's how it went.
Me: "But God, I don't feel like I've had enough time to prove myself in this area. Like, I'll get up there on Sunday and call people to go into a place I'm really not sure how to get to. I don't want to be fake. I don't want to be a fraud."
I felt the Lord gently but firmly respond to my spirit.
God: "Chase, do you know me? Do you love me? Do you trust me?"
Me: "Absolutely, Lord.
God: "Do you love the people in your church and want them to know, love, and trust me more?"
Me: "Yes, Lord, 100% that's why I'm in this!"
God: "Then don't get in the way of what I want to do in them. Inadequacy and inexperience have never kept me from pouring out my Spirit and power.. I am attracted to the ill-equipped. They are more prepared to depend on Me. But you know what repels me? Pride and disobedience."
"Who do you think is "there" when you arrive at the destination? I Am. I'm also there along the way in the journey. I am with you. If you have ever known, loved, and trusted Me, you have experienced all you need to take people on a journey I am calling you to take them on.
"The point is not "experience"; the point is obedience. Will you trust my voice and obey? Will you keep depending on me along the way? I will guide you and the people to Myself."
Although the voice was not audible, there was not a shadow of a doubt the Spirit of God had just spoken to me. As long as I stayed tethered to Him, I could lead people there even if I hadn't been "there" before.
So what now?
As I began to pray and process what to do practically, the Lord also made it clear that whatever it was, I was to include the "Capital C" CHURCH of Thurston County. This wasn't a "Chase" or a "Living Water" thing. It was supposed to bring together the collective body of believers in Thurston County. So here is the idea that began formulating and lighting up my heart.
PRAY THURSTON
Pray Thurston is a movement of prayer for spiritual awakening in Thurston County. Unified, an interdenominational and inter-generational space for men and women, young and old, to come together in this season and unify around a greater need and pursuit of prayer in our county.
This is not a NEW THING. Several incredible churches, ministries, groups, and individuals have been and are already making the pursuit of God in prayer and worship a consistent and high priority. We want to champion them, support the work they are already doing, and come alongside to help even more people jump in and engage! We also want to help start, support, motivate, and champion NEW & MORE PRAYER rooms, ministries, and gatherings around Thurston County to begin and grow!
Our MISSION is to unify a movement of prayer for spiritual awakening in Thurston County.
Our VISION is to see a culture of prayer grow and develop in our LIVES, ministries, churches, and communities.
Our DREAM is to one day experience a move of unifying prayer that s into a non-stop, 24/7/365 coverage of prayer going for Thurston County.
Why do we exist?
We exist to champion current and established local prayer rooms/gatherings/ministries while simultaneously advocating for and helping start and develop new ones.
We exist to help create a space and place where the BIG "C" Church of Thurston County can come together under the NAME ABOVE every name, Jesus—laying aside the "non-essentials" and standing firm on united on the "essentials: of our faith and belief in Jesus Christ.
We exist to help start county-wide, Church-wide (capital "C") unified gatherings of prayer and worship in Thurston County.
It's a big dream. But one that I've felt the Lord stirring in me for over a year now. And I know it only happens when the men and women of God in Thurston County begin to unite with a greater level of pursuing God and unifying to PRAY.
HERE WE GO!
Pray Thurston Details
Our first 24-hour prayer gathering is this Friday night, March 31st, @ 6 pm. To get more information on how you can be a part visit us at www.praythurston.com
Although this specific gathering is hosted at our church in Lacey, it is open to the entire church of Thurston County. If you have or know of other prayer groups, gatherings, meetings, events, etc. Let us know on the website so we can promote and share with the wider Christian community in Thurston County.