Thursday, February 23, 2012
Day 17
On
the seventh day you are to march around the city seven times.
Joshua 6:4
Can I ask a counterfactual question:
what would have happened if the Israelites had stopped circling Jericho on day
six? The obvious answer is this: they would have forfeited the miracle right
before it happened. The wall of Jericho
would not have fallen and the promise would have remained unclaimed.
Nothing has changed.
I wonder how many of us have
forfeited promises, forfeited miracles, forfeited dreams because we quit
circling too soon. Please don't read
that and get depressed. God is the God
of second chances! It should inspire us
to pray through. Or to borrow vocabulary
from The Circle Maker: keep circling!
Let me share a prayer testimony from
someone who attended NCC for many years while they lived in DC. They just read The Circle Maker and shared a
few of the prayer circles they've drawn over the years. This one involves a piece of
legislation. See if it doesn't inspire
you to keep circling!
In
1994, I authored legislation that forced the cable industry to fully scramble
their pornography channels. In our
community, the Spice Channel was just one click away from the cartoon
channel. Congressman Duncan Hunter
allowed me to use his office as a base camp as I prepared to personally visit
all 435 Congressional offices and all 100 Senate offices. It took me a week to visit all 535 offices,
delivering the legislation and video evidence to each one. Every morning before
starting my trek I did a prayer walk around the US Capitol 7 times and prayed
for the spiritual walls of evil to come down.
And on the last day, at the end of the last circle, (a little concerned
about how the Capitol Police would respond) I shouted loudly for the walls to
come down.
A
few days earlier I was in the Longworth Congressional Building and had just
left the 220th Congressional office totally depressed. In almost every office that I visited I was
told that I was too late; Chairman Dingle had finished the Telecommunication's
Bill and there was no way that he would ever reopen it for an amendment,
because if he opened it for mine, it would open it for everyone else's, and
that wasn't going to happen. I was in the lobby on the second floor of the
Longworth, went over to a window, sat on its cold marble sill, and hung my head
in defeat. I said to myself, I should
stop wasting my time and go home to San Diego.
Never
before, and never since, has God spoken to me so clearly. While I sat there
looking down at the marble tiled floor, totally dejected, these words were
spoken to me as clear as a bell, “Who is doing this, you or Me?” I can’t
explain how I felt when I heard those words, but I straightened up and
responded, “You are Lord!” Instantly I
was filled with more excitement than when I had first begun and at each of the
following 215 offices, my presentations were given with power and faith.
I
was in the Canon Congressional Building, and had just made my last presentation
to the last Congressional office (I am not exaggerating when I tell you this);
as my leg crossed the threshold as I exited the 435th office, my pager rang. Chairman Dingle had just agreed to allow my
amendment to be added to his Telecommunication's Bill.
Maybe you've been praying for the
salvation of a loved one for what seems like an eternity. Maybe you feel like you can't handle the
financial stress or relational tension any longer. Maybe you feel like your
dream is as distant now as it was a decade ago.
My
advice? Keep circling!
What
other option do you have?
To pray or not to pray.
That
is the question, isn't it?
Don't
just pray. Keep praying. Then pray some
more!
Mark Batterson-Circle Maker
