November 12, 2024 • 22 mins
Elijah Rising was founded as a prayer meeting. In this episode we share how prayer was foundational to us becoming who we are today, but also how it has helped us continue in the mission to combat human trafficking.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to the Elijah Rising podcast, where
we talk about our mission tocombat human trafficking and our
goal is to spread awareness andeducation in hopes that we can
create safer communities freefrom exploitation.
And I'm your host, david Gamboa.
Today's episode, I'm going toshare more about how Elijah
Rising was founded as a prayermeeting and why prayer remains
(00:25):
the foundation of our work today, and I think this is a very
interesting topic because that'sone of the big questions we get
asked is how does prayer combathuman trafficking?
And I think it's veryinteresting because prayer is so
multidimensional.
It impacts not just individuals, it impacts situations and
circumstances, and that's reallywhat I able to tap into during
(01:05):
difficult seasons and impartingthat into the women that we
serve, the men that we reach.
You know, prayer is soimportant.
It's healing, it's restorative,it changes us, it brings us to
a place of rest and peace.
It brings us to a place of restand peace.
(01:27):
But I really want to dig intowhat role did prayer play in
founding Elijah Rising and wherewe started?
And so we started prayermeetings back in 2011.
And that was really the onlyplan that we had.
We had no plans of becoming anonprofit organization, it was
(01:48):
very much just human traffickingis a global problem.
Around that time, a documentarycalled Nefarious came out, shout
out to Exodus Cry, and itreally impacted a lot of people
and brought a lot of attentionto human trafficking.
(02:08):
And so a lot of people saw thisdocumentary and wanted to do
something, and our response waspray.
And so Elijah Rising startedwhat was called Exodus Cry
Houston Prayer Watch.
That was the original name, andit was just meant to be a
(02:29):
prayer meeting where we'd cometogether and pray over the issue
of human trafficking.
And just in case you're new andyou don't really know what
prayer is or maybe you'relistening to this and maybe your
idea of prayer is differentfrom my idea of prayer but I'll
(02:49):
just say prayer is simply havinga conversation with God,
bringing requests to Him,praying for others, bringing
requests for other peoples tothe Lord.
It's just a conversation, it'srelating to God.
And so, you know, back then theprayer meetings just looked
like hey, let's pray over thetraffickers, let's pray over,
(03:13):
you know, women and men andchildren that are stuck in this
cycle of exploitation.
Let's pray over our government.
Let's pray over law enforcement.
Let's pray over, you know, allthe various different sectors of
society.
Let's pray for the church to beawakened and mobilized and do
something.
And that was really the focusof a lot of those prayer
(03:36):
meetings.
And the amazing thing aboutprayer is that it leads to
action, prayer leads to action,prayer leads to action.
And one of the mostfoundational prayers in the Old
Testament is called the Shema,and this is in Deuteronomy 6, 4
(03:56):
through 5.
It says and this is the Shema,this is the prayer Hear O Israel
, the Lord is our God, the Lordis one, and as for you, you
shall love the Lord, your God,with all your heart, with all
your soul and with all yourstrength.
And so that word shema, thehear O Israel, that word means
(04:18):
both to hear and obey in Hebrew.
So the idea is that theevidence that you heard
something is that you did theaction, you followed up.
So it's not just enough to hearsomething and to take that
thought into your mind and justthink about it.
(04:38):
The evidence that you heard itwas that you went out and did
something.
There was some action involved.
And this is what prayernaturally does.
You begin praying for yourcommunity and you begin to feel
compelled.
Well, hey, I need to go reachout to my neighbor or I need to
go volunteer or be a part ofthis, and prayer always leads to
(05:01):
action.
And that was what we saw.
We saw people, you know,gathering together, praying,
whether it be, you know, on thecollege campuses here in Houston
or what was HBU, and you hadpeople say, okay, we're praying,
now let's go do outreach, youknow, let's go see what the
needs are and see if we can meeta need.
(05:24):
And that's really how it starts, that's how we started.
It just was praying and thenseeing okay, what's the need,
okay, and how do we meet thatneed?
And very quickly, once youbegin to assess all the
different needs that areinvolved in a complex issue,
just like human trafficking,it's going to lead you to action
(05:45):
.
And so that's how we started.
You know, we began to dooutreach on the streets and
people are going to say, well, Ineed housing.
And so then the next step islike, okay, well, how do we
provide housing?
You start praying.
You know, god, please open doors, provide a strategy, a way for
(06:05):
us and for us, that's tappinginto faith.
It's something that we don'thave, we can't see yet, but
faith is us believing that it'sthere.
We have it before we do if thatmakes sense, and so that was
just so important to when westarted, because that ties into
(06:27):
the perseverance of humantrafficking is a complex problem
.
There's many different needs.
How do we?
Obviously we can't meet themall, but which ones can we meet?
And how are we going to do it?
You know, going before the Lordand asking Him and spending
time meditating on His Word, onHis commands, on His
(06:50):
instructions and those beingliterally like blueprints of
here's what to do.
You know, care for the poor.
Okay, god, what does caring forthe poor teach me?
What can I do?
And as you begin to pray andmeditate on those things in
Scripture, and as you begin topray, it leads to action.
(07:11):
The second point is that prayerchanges us as individuals.
When you commit time to praying, it's bringing you closer to
God because you're relating toHim, you're sharing things with
Him, you're being vulnerablewith Him.
But it also refines us.
We gain compassion, humility, adeeper understanding of God's
(07:38):
heart for justice.
And it changes us from beingsomeone who is just an observer
of something to wanting to be inmore of a supporting role and
more of taking action.
And so it changes us from, youknow, if you begin to pray for
(08:01):
the issue of human trafficking,your heart begins to break for
the issue, and so when you seesomeone who's affected by human
trafficking, you're going to bemore inclined to go out of your
way to help them.
(08:22):
And it's the difference ofpeople driving down the road and
saying, oh, that's just aprostitute, versus someone who
has prayed over this issue andhas spent time thinking about
what led people intoprostitution, because you prayed
over all the streams that leadsomeone into that lifestyle,
(08:45):
from abuse to neglect, toabandonment, to fatherlessness,
poverty.
You pray through all thosethings.
It brings you to a deeper placeof understanding of where
someone is at and why they'rethere, and so it changes you,
(09:06):
and that's really important.
It keeps us tender, it keeps usopen, doing what we do with
patience, wisdom, faith.
It brings change to us.
And you know, for me personally, I never saw myself doing this
(09:27):
type of work, marketing or beinginvolved in church ministries,
but not addressing the issue ofhuman trafficking.
That was something thathappened during prayer, where I
(09:48):
experienced just somethingchanging me, something calling
me, something, pulling metowards David.
I want you to dedicate asignificant part of your life to
this.
It changed me.
The third thing is prayer opensdoors we can't open.
You know there are some thingsthat Elijah Rising does today
(10:11):
that I could have never imaginedus being capable or having the
resource or the provision to do10 years ago.
And you know, likewise, walkingwith survivors who are coming
out of trafficking andexploitation.
You know there's a lot ofcomplex things they're trying to
navigate and, quite frankly,some situations the situations
(10:37):
they face, on paper looksimpossible.
It just looks like you knowyou're never going to be able to
get housing, you're never goingto be able to reach this level
of education that you want toreach, you're never going to be
able to overcome this certainaddiction.
(10:58):
And on paper, you know, itlooks like that.
But when we realize that Godcan do things that are
impossible, he can bring usthrough situations that are just
like we can't imagine us beingthere.
God can do it and he can opendoors that we can't, and we've
seen that happen.
We've seen God open doors likebeing able to provide housing
(11:22):
for women who need housing.
Amazing testimony that I love toshare is that when women would
graduate our program, one of thebiggest needs they immediately
had was transportation.
It's like great.
You know, you've been in thisprogram.
You've been faithful, you'vedone the work of, you know,
(11:42):
overcoming stuff and you'reready to go, move into your own
apartment, start this new job,start your life over.
And it's like, but you need acar and you know we at the time
you know we don't have fundingto buy everyone a car and you
know we at the time you know wedon't have funding to buy
everyone a car.
And so back then you know wewould just pray, god please
(12:02):
provide, and you know we'd putasks out on social media and
just this in these past coupleof years.
There is this organization thatstarted called three-in-1
Mechanical Ministries, wherethey work to just provide cars
for women who are coming out oftrafficking in many other
(12:24):
situations.
But I say all these thingsbecause that just seemed like
such an impossibility for usback then.
Like you know, who's going tostart an organization where they
just give cars away for free?
That just seems crazy.
But you began to see God opendoors that were closed or you
know situations you thought wereimpossible.
(12:45):
He just makes a way and hebrings acceleration to things
where you think, okay, someoneyou know comes into our program
with all these educationallimitations and God just
accelerates them to being wherethey need to be and we can't
(13:09):
explain why.
So prayer opens doors.
We can't.
Prayer prevents burnout and Ithink that's so important,
especially in our culture wheneverything is moving at a
million miles an hour pace andespecially when you're in this
(13:31):
type of work, where you'recombating something that's very
complex as human trafficking,it's very easy to feel
overwhelmed.
It's very easy to feel likeyou're doing as much as you can
but the needle just isn't movingforward and I'll say that's an
illusion.
We've come so far in being ableto provide so many incredible
(13:55):
services and housing andresources and all of that, but
it's very easy to get in thattrap of like I just have to do
more and more and more and more,and prayer forces us to
reorient our day to focus on theLord's strength and not
self-strength.
So this is why, elijah Rising,we spend an hour every morning
(14:19):
in prayer, because it is usresisting the hyper productivity
, the desire to controleverything, and then get
stressed and weary when whatyou're trying to control is not
controllable.
You know, there's so manythings that happen throughout
(14:41):
our life that we have no controlover.
I mean, think about this.
The things that we have controlover are limited, and so having
a daily time of prayer everymorning, dedicating that hour,
causes us to step outside ofourselves, bring others' prayer
(15:02):
needs to God, so we pray overone another, but it's also just
finding that resting place inGod and surrendering, giving up
our desire for control andtrusting the Lord and believing
in faith that God is moving andworking and he's going to give
us strength and help uspersevere.
(15:24):
I think that's so important,and prayer is a resistance to
those things that cause you torun on empty.
And if we don't have that houra day to pause and meditate on
the scriptures or pray for oneanother, or pray over our
residents, or pray over whateversituation that we're facing or
(15:46):
you know our staff is facing, orjust our community is facing,
you know this is such animportant time that we dedicate
to the Lord as a way of sayingwe trust you and we want to rest
in this place, we want to workfrom this place of rest.
And that's very hard to do andI will say it's not always easy
(16:07):
coming in to an hour of prayermeeting because you think about
okay, I have to do this, I haveto do this, I have to do this
and you really want to get goingand be productive with your day
, but prayer is one of thosethings that I find that is more
productive than me doing basictasks.
(16:30):
We have this saying, and I thinkthis is by a guy named Ian
Bounds but prayer is doing thework, service is gathering the
results, and it's in that placeof prayer we get vision.
It's in that place of prayer weare able to verbalize our
dreams of man, god.
It would be amazing if we couldprovide this, if we could
(16:51):
provide transitional housing inan apartment complex.
And you know, the dream, thevisions.
That is all part of dreamingwith God, praying with God,
coming to this place ofsurrender, saying I can't
control everything, but you do,god, and I want to be on board
with you and what you have forus.
And then, finally, you know,prayer helps us discern our role
(17:16):
, and that can be in anythingbut especially in combating
human trafficking.
A lot of times we tell ourvolunteers, you know, sign up to
volunteer, but also spend sometime praying, asking God, god,
what is my role, what is mygifting that I bring, what am I
naturally bringing to the tableand where is my place, because
(17:43):
this is so important, becauseyou could get an idea of like
well, I'm good at this, this andthis, so I'm going to go do
this.
Or you could think of well, god, you know, a person who is
pursuing God has to do this typeof ministry thing and it has to
look this way.
And sometimes it looks verydifferent than what you set out
to do.
And I love this example ofWilliam Wilberforce, who?
(18:07):
He was an English politician,he was a philanthropist, but he
was a leader of a movement toabolish the slave trade and he's
best known for his campaign toend the slave trade in the
British Empire, which culminatedin the Slave Trade Act of 1807.
Culminated in the Slave TradeAct of 1807.
(18:33):
But early in his life he hadthis spiritual awakening and he
felt a very clear call of God onhis life and he faced this
crossroads of like.
He was like I know that youknow to me, in my mind, the
right thing for me to do is togo and become a minister and to
go be a pastor at a church or apreacher, not to remain in
(18:53):
politics.
And so he was at thiscrossroads of like do I choose
ministry or do I choose politics.
And he struggled with thedecision of whether to remain in
parliament or pursue a lifededicated solely to spiritual
matters like praying andstudying the Bible and all of
those things, and so heconsulted a guy named John
(19:16):
Newton.
John Newton is famous forwriting the song Amazing Grace,
but he was also a former slaveship captain who also had a
change of heart and renouncedslavery.
Ship captain who also had achange of heart and renounced
slavery.
But Newton recognizedWilberforce's unique talents and
influence and he advised him tostay in parliament and serve
(19:37):
God through politics.
And that's just such a you know.
I think that prayer has thisprofound impact on us, on
discerning our role.
And when you look atWilberforce's life I mean, of
course anyone thinks you havethe spiritual encounter with the
Lord your immediate response islike you go start a ministry,
(19:58):
or you go be a preacher, or yougo be an evangelist, or where
you focus so much on the quoteunquote spiritual matters.
So much on the quote unquotespiritual matters.
But for Wilbur's force, thecall of God on his life, was to
remain in politics and remain inparliament and and remain in
those societies that you know,maybe were not on board with his
(20:22):
religious beliefs, but he wasthe one person that can be a
bridge and get through to them,and so this is why I say it's so
important to don't makeassumptions or presumptions.
But he was the one person thatcan be a bridge and get through
to them, and so this is why Isay it's so important to don't
make assumptions or presumptionsabout what God would have you
do.
Spend that time in prayer andask him what is your role, what
is your unique role and it mightlook different from your
(20:44):
expectation or your experienceand just be open to what God
wants to do.
And so, with all that being said, let me just recap these points
for you, and hopefully you cansee why prayer is so
instrumental to our work here atElijah Rising.
Prayer leads us to action.
Prayer changes us.
Prayer opens doors we cannot.
(21:07):
Prayer gives us perseverance,prevents burnout.
Prayer helps us discern ourrole, just like Wilberforce.
And so if this episode washelpful to you or if you have
any questions, please reach outto us.
We would love to hear from you.
I hope you have a great day.
Thanks for tuning in and spendsome extra time this week
(21:29):
praying, asking God to move inyour life, and we hope to see
you again on this next episode.
We hope this was insightful andhelped you understand more
about why prayer is sofoundational to who Elijah
Rising is and the work thatwe're trying to do.
You're listening to the Elijah Rising podcast, where
we talk about our mission tocombat human trafficking and our
goal is to spread awareness andeducation in hopes that we can
create safer communities freefrom exploitation.
And I'm your host, david Gamboa.
Today's episode, I'm going toshare more about how Elijah
Rising was founded as a prayermeeting and why prayer remains
(00:25):
the foundation of our work today, and I think this is a very
interesting topic because that'sone of the big questions we get
asked is how does prayer combathuman trafficking?
And I think it's veryinteresting because prayer is so
multidimensional.
It impacts not just individuals, it impacts situations and
circumstances, and that's reallywhat I able to tap into during
(01:05):
difficult seasons and impartingthat into the women that we
serve, the men that we reach.
You know, prayer is soimportant.
It's healing, it's restorative,it changes us, it brings us to
a place of rest and peace.
It brings us to a place of restand peace.
(01:27):
But I really want to dig intowhat role did prayer play in
founding Elijah Rising and wherewe started?
And so we started prayermeetings back in 2011.
And that was really the onlyplan that we had.
We had no plans of becoming anonprofit organization, it was
(01:48):
very much just human traffickingis a global problem.
Around that time, a documentarycalled Nefarious came out, shout
out to Exodus Cry, and itreally impacted a lot of people
and brought a lot of attentionto human trafficking.
(02:08):
And so a lot of people saw thisdocumentary and wanted to do
something, and our response waspray.
And so Elijah Rising startedwhat was called Exodus Cry
Houston Prayer Watch.
That was the original name, andit was just meant to be a
(02:29):
prayer meeting where we'd cometogether and pray over the issue
of human trafficking.
And just in case you're new andyou don't really know what
prayer is or maybe you'relistening to this and maybe your
idea of prayer is differentfrom my idea of prayer but I'll
(02:49):
just say prayer is simply havinga conversation with God,
bringing requests to Him,praying for others, bringing
requests for other peoples tothe Lord.
It's just a conversation, it'srelating to God.
And so, you know, back then theprayer meetings just looked
like hey, let's pray over thetraffickers, let's pray over,
(03:13):
you know, women and men andchildren that are stuck in this
cycle of exploitation.
Let's pray over our government.
Let's pray over law enforcement.
Let's pray over, you know, allthe various different sectors of
society.
Let's pray for the church to beawakened and mobilized and do
something.
And that was really the focusof a lot of those prayer
(03:36):
meetings.
And the amazing thing aboutprayer is that it leads to
action, prayer leads to action,prayer leads to action.
And one of the mostfoundational prayers in the Old
Testament is called the Shema,and this is in Deuteronomy 6, 4
(03:56):
through 5.
It says and this is the Shema,this is the prayer Hear O Israel
, the Lord is our God, the Lordis one, and as for you, you
shall love the Lord, your God,with all your heart, with all
your soul and with all yourstrength.
And so that word shema, thehear O Israel, that word means
(04:18):
both to hear and obey in Hebrew.
So the idea is that theevidence that you heard
something is that you did theaction, you followed up.
So it's not just enough to hearsomething and to take that
thought into your mind and justthink about it.
(04:38):
The evidence that you heard itwas that you went out and did
something.
There was some action involved.
And this is what prayernaturally does.
You begin praying for yourcommunity and you begin to feel
compelled.
Well, hey, I need to go reachout to my neighbor or I need to
go volunteer or be a part ofthis, and prayer always leads to
(05:01):
action.
And that was what we saw.
We saw people, you know,gathering together, praying,
whether it be, you know, on thecollege campuses here in Houston
or what was HBU, and you hadpeople say, okay, we're praying,
now let's go do outreach, youknow, let's go see what the
needs are and see if we can meeta need.
(05:24):
And that's really how it starts, that's how we started.
It just was praying and thenseeing okay, what's the need,
okay, and how do we meet thatneed?
And very quickly, once youbegin to assess all the
different needs that areinvolved in a complex issue,
just like human trafficking,it's going to lead you to action
(05:45):
.
And so that's how we started.
You know, we began to dooutreach on the streets and
people are going to say, well, Ineed housing.
And so then the next step islike, okay, well, how do we
provide housing?
You start praying.
You know, god, please open doors, provide a strategy, a way for
(06:05):
us and for us, that's tappinginto faith.
It's something that we don'thave, we can't see yet, but
faith is us believing that it'sthere.
We have it before we do if thatmakes sense, and so that was
just so important to when westarted, because that ties into
(06:27):
the perseverance of humantrafficking is a complex problem
.
There's many different needs.
How do we?
Obviously we can't meet themall, but which ones can we meet?
And how are we going to do it?
You know, going before the Lordand asking Him and spending
time meditating on His Word, onHis commands, on His
(06:50):
instructions and those beingliterally like blueprints of
here's what to do.
You know, care for the poor.
Okay, god, what does caring forthe poor teach me?
What can I do?
And as you begin to pray andmeditate on those things in
Scripture, and as you begin topray, it leads to action.
(07:11):
The second point is that prayerchanges us as individuals.
When you commit time to praying, it's bringing you closer to
God because you're relating toHim, you're sharing things with
Him, you're being vulnerablewith Him.
But it also refines us.
We gain compassion, humility, adeeper understanding of God's
(07:38):
heart for justice.
And it changes us from beingsomeone who is just an observer
of something to wanting to be inmore of a supporting role and
more of taking action.
And so it changes us from, youknow, if you begin to pray for
(08:01):
the issue of human trafficking,your heart begins to break for
the issue, and so when you seesomeone who's affected by human
trafficking, you're going to bemore inclined to go out of your
way to help them.
(08:22):
And it's the difference ofpeople driving down the road and
saying, oh, that's just aprostitute, versus someone who
has prayed over this issue andhas spent time thinking about
what led people intoprostitution, because you prayed
over all the streams that leadsomeone into that lifestyle,
(08:45):
from abuse to neglect, toabandonment, to fatherlessness,
poverty.
You pray through all thosethings.
It brings you to a deeper placeof understanding of where
someone is at and why they'rethere, and so it changes you,
(09:06):
and that's really important.
It keeps us tender, it keeps usopen, doing what we do with
patience, wisdom, faith.
It brings change to us.
And you know, for me personally, I never saw myself doing this
(09:27):
type of work, marketing or beinginvolved in church ministries,
but not addressing the issue ofhuman trafficking.
That was something thathappened during prayer, where I
(09:48):
experienced just somethingchanging me, something calling
me, something, pulling metowards David.
I want you to dedicate asignificant part of your life to
this.
It changed me.
The third thing is prayer opensdoors we can't open.
You know there are some thingsthat Elijah Rising does today
(10:11):
that I could have never imaginedus being capable or having the
resource or the provision to do10 years ago.
And you know, likewise, walkingwith survivors who are coming
out of trafficking andexploitation.
You know there's a lot ofcomplex things they're trying to
navigate and, quite frankly,some situations the situations
(10:37):
they face, on paper looksimpossible.
It just looks like you knowyou're never going to be able to
get housing, you're never goingto be able to reach this level
of education that you want toreach, you're never going to be
able to overcome this certainaddiction.
(10:58):
And on paper, you know, itlooks like that.
But when we realize that Godcan do things that are
impossible, he can bring usthrough situations that are just
like we can't imagine us beingthere.
God can do it and he can opendoors that we can't, and we've
seen that happen.
We've seen God open doors likebeing able to provide housing
(11:22):
for women who need housing.
Amazing testimony that I love toshare is that when women would
graduate our program, one of thebiggest needs they immediately
had was transportation.
It's like great.
You know, you've been in thisprogram.
You've been faithful, you'vedone the work of, you know,
(11:42):
overcoming stuff and you'reready to go, move into your own
apartment, start this new job,start your life over.
And it's like, but you need acar and you know we at the time
you know we don't have fundingto buy everyone a car and you
know we at the time you know wedon't have funding to buy
everyone a car.
And so back then you know wewould just pray, god please
(12:02):
provide, and you know we'd putasks out on social media and
just this in these past coupleof years.
There is this organization thatstarted called three-in-1
Mechanical Ministries, wherethey work to just provide cars
for women who are coming out oftrafficking in many other
(12:24):
situations.
But I say all these thingsbecause that just seemed like
such an impossibility for usback then.
Like you know, who's going tostart an organization where they
just give cars away for free?
That just seems crazy.
But you began to see God opendoors that were closed or you
know situations you thought wereimpossible.
(12:45):
He just makes a way and hebrings acceleration to things
where you think, okay, someoneyou know comes into our program
with all these educationallimitations and God just
accelerates them to being wherethey need to be and we can't
(13:09):
explain why.
So prayer opens doors.
We can't.
Prayer prevents burnout and Ithink that's so important,
especially in our culture wheneverything is moving at a
million miles an hour pace andespecially when you're in this
(13:31):
type of work, where you'recombating something that's very
complex as human trafficking,it's very easy to feel
overwhelmed.
It's very easy to feel likeyou're doing as much as you can
but the needle just isn't movingforward and I'll say that's an
illusion.
We've come so far in being ableto provide so many incredible
(13:55):
services and housing andresources and all of that, but
it's very easy to get in thattrap of like I just have to do
more and more and more and more,and prayer forces us to
reorient our day to focus on theLord's strength and not
self-strength.
So this is why, elijah Rising,we spend an hour every morning
(14:19):
in prayer, because it is usresisting the hyper productivity
, the desire to controleverything, and then get
stressed and weary when whatyou're trying to control is not
controllable.
You know, there's so manythings that happen throughout
(14:41):
our life that we have no controlover.
I mean, think about this.
The things that we have controlover are limited, and so having
a daily time of prayer everymorning, dedicating that hour,
causes us to step outside ofourselves, bring others' prayer
(15:02):
needs to God, so we pray overone another, but it's also just
finding that resting place inGod and surrendering, giving up
our desire for control andtrusting the Lord and believing
in faith that God is moving andworking and he's going to give
us strength and help uspersevere.
(15:24):
I think that's so important,and prayer is a resistance to
those things that cause you torun on empty.
And if we don't have that houra day to pause and meditate on
the scriptures or pray for oneanother, or pray over our
residents, or pray over whateversituation that we're facing or
(15:46):
you know our staff is facing, orjust our community is facing,
you know this is such animportant time that we dedicate
to the Lord as a way of sayingwe trust you and we want to rest
in this place, we want to workfrom this place of rest.
And that's very hard to do andI will say it's not always easy
(16:07):
coming in to an hour of prayermeeting because you think about
okay, I have to do this, I haveto do this, I have to do this
and you really want to get goingand be productive with your day
, but prayer is one of thosethings that I find that is more
productive than me doing basictasks.
(16:30):
We have this saying, and I thinkthis is by a guy named Ian
Bounds but prayer is doing thework, service is gathering the
results, and it's in that placeof prayer we get vision.
It's in that place of prayer weare able to verbalize our
dreams of man, god.
It would be amazing if we couldprovide this, if we could
(16:51):
provide transitional housing inan apartment complex.
And you know, the dream, thevisions.
That is all part of dreamingwith God, praying with God,
coming to this place ofsurrender, saying I can't
control everything, but you do,god, and I want to be on board
with you and what you have forus.
And then, finally, you know,prayer helps us discern our role
(17:16):
, and that can be in anythingbut especially in combating
human trafficking.
A lot of times we tell ourvolunteers, you know, sign up to
volunteer, but also spend sometime praying, asking God, god,
what is my role, what is mygifting that I bring, what am I
naturally bringing to the tableand where is my place, because
(17:43):
this is so important, becauseyou could get an idea of like
well, I'm good at this, this andthis, so I'm going to go do
this.
Or you could think of well, god, you know, a person who is
pursuing God has to do this typeof ministry thing and it has to
look this way.
And sometimes it looks verydifferent than what you set out
to do.
And I love this example ofWilliam Wilberforce, who?
(18:07):
He was an English politician,he was a philanthropist, but he
was a leader of a movement toabolish the slave trade and he's
best known for his campaign toend the slave trade in the
British Empire, which culminatedin the Slave Trade Act of 1807.
Culminated in the Slave TradeAct of 1807.
(18:33):
But early in his life he hadthis spiritual awakening and he
felt a very clear call of God onhis life and he faced this
crossroads of like.
He was like I know that youknow to me, in my mind, the
right thing for me to do is togo and become a minister and to
go be a pastor at a church or apreacher, not to remain in
(18:53):
politics.
And so he was at thiscrossroads of like do I choose
ministry or do I choose politics.
And he struggled with thedecision of whether to remain in
parliament or pursue a lifededicated solely to spiritual
matters like praying andstudying the Bible and all of
those things, and so heconsulted a guy named John
(19:16):
Newton.
John Newton is famous forwriting the song Amazing Grace,
but he was also a former slaveship captain who also had a
change of heart and renouncedslavery.
Ship captain who also had achange of heart and renounced
slavery.
But Newton recognizedWilberforce's unique talents and
influence and he advised him tostay in parliament and serve
(19:37):
God through politics.
And that's just such a you know.
I think that prayer has thisprofound impact on us, on
discerning our role.
And when you look atWilberforce's life I mean, of
course anyone thinks you havethe spiritual encounter with the
Lord your immediate response islike you go start a ministry,
(19:58):
or you go be a preacher, or yougo be an evangelist, or where
you focus so much on the quoteunquote spiritual matters.
So much on the quote unquotespiritual matters.
But for Wilbur's force, thecall of God on his life, was to
remain in politics and remain inparliament and and remain in
those societies that you know,maybe were not on board with his
(20:22):
religious beliefs, but he wasthe one person that can be a
bridge and get through to them,and so this is why I say it's so
important to don't makeassumptions or presumptions.
But he was the one person thatcan be a bridge and get through
to them, and so this is why Isay it's so important to don't
make assumptions or presumptionsabout what God would have you
do.
Spend that time in prayer andask him what is your role, what
is your unique role and it mightlook different from your
(20:44):
expectation or your experienceand just be open to what God
wants to do.
And so, with all that being said, let me just recap these points
for you, and hopefully you cansee why prayer is so
instrumental to our work here atElijah Rising.
Prayer leads us to action.
Prayer changes us.
Prayer opens doors we cannot.
(21:07):
Prayer gives us perseverance,prevents burnout.
Prayer helps us discern ourrole, just like Wilberforce.
And so if this episode washelpful to you or if you have
any questions, please reach outto us.
We would love to hear from you.
I hope you have a great day.
Thanks for tuning in and spendsome extra time this week
(21:29):
praying, asking God to move inyour life, and we hope to see
you again on this next episode.
We hope this was insightful andhelped you understand more
about why prayer is sofoundational to who Elijah
Rising is and the work thatwe're trying to do.
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