Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

Once known as the “Pearl of the Antilles” because of its resources and natural beauty, Haiti is now noted as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. In its earliest colonial days Haiti was a leader in the production of sugar, coffee, indigo, cacao, and cotton. Haiti has also been called the land of many beautiful mountains and people. Today, Haiti is marked by political instability and corruption, civil unrest, crime, and extreme poverty. Of the 11.4 million people who live in Haiti, it is estimated that in 2019 the average Haitian lived on $2.18 per day (www.worldbank.org).

YWAM has had a presence for 34 years in Haiti. Today we have locations in Port au Prince, Saint Marc, Les Cayes, The Cap-Haitian, and Port de Paix (new next year).

Listen to the Letter

Please join us for YWAM’s prayer day called The Invitation as we pray for Haiti. If you only have a few moments to pray, ask God to redeem the people of Haiti through a moving of the Holy Spirit and through personal relationships with Christ. Pray for the removal of systemic evils holding back this nation.

Prepare to Pray:

Note what comes to mind when you think about Haiti. Jot down words that you think of.

Now think about God and the Haitian people. Refer to the quote below. Make notes about how God sees the people and how He might describe them.

Optional: Do a search for images of Haiti and scroll through the pictures before you pray. You could also find pictures of Haitian people and print them/cut them out. Make a collage to use during this time of prayer.

Enter into your time of prayer thinking about the Haitian people as you believe God would.

The landscape of Haiti is nature showing off her beauty and the people of Haiti is God showing off her beautiful image to the world.

Professor James Small of the World African Diaspora Union

Pray for Haiti:

• Ask God to redeem the people of Haiti through a moving of the Holy Spirit and through personal relationships with Christ. Pray for a revival.
• Pray for those who call themselves “Christian” to turn away from ungodly practices such as voodoo.
• Pray for the removal of systemic evils holding back this nation.
• Pray for families as they are suffering the most. Unrest keeps people from earning what little they can.
• Pray for schools as they try to open and educate through the violence.
• Pray for a light to shine in corrupt areas in the country. Haiti has been reeling from civil unrest for two years now and it has greatly impacted the average Haitian family. The unrest is primarily due to corrupt government and businesses in operation. Pray for godly leaders in government and businesses.
• Pray for wisdom for YWAMers and Haitian leaders as Haiti navigates this season of Covid. Many Haitians are unable to quarantine because of the need to work, and many don’t have a living situation that allows them to distance themselves effectively.
• Pray for political stability as Haiti has been in some sort of political unrest since 2018. There is opposition to the current president and the opposition is well funded. At its worst, the unrest caused people to be stuck in their homes, unable to travel, because paid thugs would seize control of the main highway. This has led to inability of goods to be distributed out of the capital, causing extreme price increases.
• Pray for acceptance within the church of young people. One of the focuses within YWAM is the younger generation and their desire for self-expression (clothes, hair, etc.) but the inability to be active in the church. Pray for the churches to allow the youth to be accepted as they are.
• Pray for our YWAM family as there is a great struggle financially to work through these times. No outreach teams can be received due to travel warnings. Pray for finances to meet minimum monthly operating expenses for all YWAM operations. Pray for creativity and wisdom as the YWAMers work to raise funds and for God to bring people who are willing to be active partners with the YWAM workers in the country.
• The YWAM locations have had to be flexible as a result of Covid. Pray for wisdom and creativity as the leaders strategize. Pray for unity and lasting friendships between the people at the various locations. Pray for effective ramp-ups as new ministries and strategies are implemented. Pray for patience.
• Pray for strong foundations for the YWAM locations and ministries so that they will last for many, many years into the future. Pray for strong relationships among the staff that will lead to strong culture at each YWAM location.

Take Action

• Contact a YWAM location in Haiti and ask them how you/your location can support them.
• Seek God to give you an amount that He wants you to provide to a YWAM location/worker in Haiti. Pray for God to provide that amount. Pray for that amount until it is provided. Ask others to do the same.
• Check out YWAM Kona’s new recording “The Commission.” Share it with others so that the sound of “GO” is sung around the world:  https://YWAM.lnk.to/TheCommissionWe won’t stop til the whole world knows!
• Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
• Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed – October 2020 – YWAM’s 60th

• YWAM Worcester, South Africa told us they prayed for YWAM’s 60th anniversary.

Future Topics:

• December 10: Care for Creation
• January 14: Buddhism

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
• Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

This year is YWAM’s 60th year and we are celebrating! Please join us this month for YWAM’s prayer day, called The Invitation, on Thursday, October 8.

Listen to the letter

Our story started when God spoke to Loren Cunningham, YWAM Co-Founder, through a vision of waves of young people going to the nations. We are some of those young people. Our lives have been changed because of how God met Loren in the late 1950s and then led Loren and Darlene Cunningham to start YWAM. As we reflect back on God speaking to Loren as He did, we realize that moment has significant parallels to other moments throughout history, moments when God stepped in to share His heart and His purposes for the world. Indeed, we have come to realize that the vision Loren saw, this unexpected encounter, was a God-initiated, destiny-defining, foundational covenant from God to birth a new missions movement.

If you only have a few moments to pray thank God for His works He has done through YWAM.

And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. Mark 1: 17-18

A special note about The Invitation: This month also marks the five-year anniversary of The Invitation. We thank all who have made this possible through participating in prayer, gathering others to pray, providing prayer information, translating content, and giving leadership and administrative help. If you have any feedback or suggestions for us please send an email to prayer@ywam.org. Let us know: Do you use the “Prepare to Pray” section? What do you like best about The Invitation? What would you like to see improved?

Prepare to Pray:

As a group or individually, ask the Holy Spirit to remind you of all there is to celebrate with YWAM’s 60^th anniversary. After an appropriate time make a list of all that God revealed to you. What did He reveal? People? Ministries? Events? Nations? Redemption? Salvation? Grace? Mercy?

Take time to celebrate and be full of gratitude for what God has initiated and brought to pass over these past 60 years.

Pray for YWAM:

• Thank God for His faithful and gracious leadership during these 60 years of YWAM.
• Thank God also for sustaining Loren and Darlene Cunningham and other leaders who have stepped out in obedience and been faithful to God’s vision.
• Thank God for those who have faithfully prayed, supported, and invested financially in YWAM and YWAMers in any way through these 60 years. Pray that they would be blessed, encouraged, and strengthened in their faith.
• Thank God that within a generation millions of young people have had their lives touched by God because of this vision of the waves.
• Express gratitude to God for each of the ways He has blessed you personally through YWAM.
• Pray for God to speak to young people all over the world like He spoke to Loren about going into all the world.
• Pray that YWAM would continue to be a bridge for millions of young people to be involved as missionaries.
• Pray for YWAMers all over the world to continue to be faithful to God and to walk in obedience, faith, humility, and courage in this decade ahead.

Take Action

• Contact those who have invested in prayer, friendship and financially supported you over the time you have been part of YWAM and encourage them and bless them in the way God shows you.
• Plan and host an online or in-person celebration for YWAM’s 60^th according to your current situation.
• Check out the newly revised YWAM.org website. On the menu, pick the “For YWAMers” option and familiarize yourself with the YWAM Vision, Values, Covenants and Legacy Words.
• Read/re-read Is That Really You, God? by Loren Cunningham with Janice Rogers, YWAM Publishing.
• Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
• Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed – September 2020 – YWAM’s Global Prayer Initiative

• As many as 4,000 YWAM leaders and locations (missionaries holding 220 different types of passports) connected face to face and online around the four themes of Remember, Repent, Realign and Release. Many fasted and prayed at different times throughout the month.
• John Dawson, one of YWAM’s elders, reflected on Psalm 81 and the story of Gideon. He also noted “There is intense groaning in the earth. In this season I am reminded that our real calling deeper than the healing of the nations. It is healing the heart of God.”
• Several young YWAM leaders have noted that coronavirus could be a defining moment for their generation. Many had expected significant breakthroughs before the pandemic but now see “breakthrough” in a different light.
• Received from the mother of a young woman that completed a YWAM DTS several years ago: “My daughter was rebelling from the truth and our family when she applied to do her DTS. Halfway through the DTS my husband received a phone call asking for forgiveness! Her chains had been broken and we see the fruits in her life now. Thank you Lord and thank you YWAM!”
• Another was given Ezra 9 to study and pray. And prayed: “Let us truly break our spiritual pride to hear what the Spirit is really saying to the churches today and resist the devil in all his various schemes at every turn.”
• And another was given 2 Corinthians 1:10-11 to share with the YWAM family.
• A YWAM leader noted that God has put it on his heart to pray for revival for Cambodia more than ever before.

Future Topics:

• November 12: Haiti
• December 10: Care for Creation
• January 14: Buddhism

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
• Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

The Founders’ Circle and other senior elders in YWAM have sensed an urgency to call YWAM to a Global Prayer Initiative for the whole month of September. This will be launched September 1-3 with YWAM elders/leaders and their networks across the world participating. Throughout September everyone in the YWAM family and friends are invited to join in unity together in this initiative.

Listen to the letter

In line with this, we would like to dedicate our regular monthly prayer, The Invitation, on September 10 to this focus.

During this time to seek God we want to pray on behalf of the nations we are in and to pray for our calling as a missionary movement in preparation for a renewed commissioning and anointing to be His agents of hope. In the days ahead we propose that we focus our prayer around four themes: Remember, Repent, Realign, and Release.

For personal preparation, pray that all of us in YWAM would remember our assignment in intercessory prayer for the nations and we would be a people who uphold God’s unchanging character. Pray also that we would examine our foundational vision, values, covenants and legacy words and realign where there has been drift, and from this time of prayer there would be a new empowering of God’s Spirit.

If you have a longer time to pray, or if you are praying with a group, please see below how you can pray deeply around these four themes.

Thank you for being part of The Invitation. We would love to receive stories from you regarding how you prayed. You can email us at prayer@ywam.org.

Prepare to Pray:

As you gather to pray, or as you prepare to pray on your own, take a moment to begin by listening to this three-minute video from one of YWAM’s elders, John Dawson, as he explains how to enter into this prayer time:

As a further exercise to help you begin this prayer time, read Daniel 9:18-23. Then listen as John Dawson draws out prayer principles about bringing to God the needs of a time and a people, asking for God’s mercy, and the power of a humble prayer (a seven-minute video):

O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolation, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy.  O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.” 

Daniel 9:18-23 (ESV)

Pray for YWAM:

We trust the Holy Spirit to lead and direct you sovereignly in your location/ministry/team/sphere. By God’s grace, we are spread throughout the nations, in every kind of context. Let us make ourselves available to see, hear and feel as God does at this time.

We expect that the themes of repent, remember, realign and release will emerge in a cyclical way as the Spirit leads.

Please don’t rush through these themes. Be prepared to set other times aside to continue as needed.

Repent

As members of the Body of Christ called to serve in a specific place (village, city, nation or sphere), listen to the heart/groans of the Spirit. Listen for an invitation to identify with the suffering and respond in lament (2 Chronicles 7:14-16, Nehemiah 1 and 9, Romans 8:15-30).

Listen for an invitation to identify with the sins of the people, repent and cry out for mercy.

We invite you to spend time throughout inviting God to reveal more of His character/heart (Exodus 34:6-7) and to teach us His ways.

Remember

Just as Paul exhorted Timothy “I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well” (1 Timothy 1:18), we invite you to remember (recall) the covenants, prophetic words and assignments God has given to your team corporately or to you personally in your journey of faith when He called you to be faithful to Him and serve Him in specific ways to fulfill His purposes on earth.

Realign

Likewise, there may be prophetic words, covenants and assignments for your people, city or nation which you remember and can realign with.

God has called YWAM as a stream within the Body of Christ and He has given us specific assignment to do our part in partnering with Jesus to fulfill His purposes. These have been recorded in our foundational vision, values (www.ywam.org/about-us/values) and legacy words (www.ywam.org/for-ywamers/documents-for-ywamers). Prayerfully read through these and as you do so:

–Listen for affirmation from the Spirit about ways you are in alignment with the foundational vision, values and legacy words. Celebrate and give thanks for the joy of loving God and serving Him in this way.

–Listen for conviction from the Spirit about ways you are falling short or drifting. Repent and realign as appropriate.

–In this broader context, be sure to remember specific prophetic words or assignments God has spoken to you. Celebrate and give thanks for what has been fulfilled. Pray into what has yet to be fulfilled. Perhaps repent if needed and consider any areas of pruning and realignment that may be needed.

Release

God is inviting us to present ourselves personally and together to receive a fresh impartation of faith, hope and anointing for this new season. Consider God’s invitation to you (team or personal). This is a time to agree with God with bold prayers and commitment to action in nations like never before.

–We invite you to ask God to affirm and expand/deepen ministries/assignments that are to continue and ask for a “double portion” of anointing along with a greater ability to do God’s work in ways that express His character.

–We invite you to ask God for a fresh assignment, something new, in light of the burden God carries for a people/nation/circumstance that has come to your attention.

–We invite you to request boldness in preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and testifying about the power of Jesus Christ (Isaiah 59:19, Acts 4:29-31).

–The Holy Spirit may want to set some ministries aside and have the people commissioned to new assignments (Acts 13:2-3).

Throughout this process, ensure there are no areas of unbelief, doubt, inferiority and fear in our lives that might hinder us from moving into a new level of faith and exploits.

Take Action

• Pray intentionally as noted by the Global Prayer Initiative.
• Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
• Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed

August 2020 – Fear of God

• Sister A. prayed to have the fear of God and that God would reveal how to fear Him to her.
• Several individuals sent personal prayer requests, many dealing with emotional challenges during this challenging time.
• An individual from outside YWAM gave glory to God when he saw this topic. This same individual prayed that YWAM would be blessed through the Holy Spirit who is guiding us with every step.

Future Topics:

• October 8: YWAM’s 60th
• November 12: Haiti
• December 10: Loneliness

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
• Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

In January we started the series Spiritual Principles from YWAM’s Early Days based on input from YWAM Leader Lynn Green and prayed about Seeking God (Loren Cunningham); Holy Living (Lynn Green), followed in February; and Lordship of Christ (Darlene Cunningham), in March. And then just days after praying about Lordship of Christ, YWAM leaders began sending students home due to the coronavirus pandemic and thus, we interrupted this series to pray for coronavirus related topics through July.

Listen to the letter

We are happy to invite you this month to pray into the final topic in our Spiritual Principles from YWAM’s Early Days series: Fear of God. Our video features Ramona Musch (YWAM Atlanta) discussing fear of the Lord with Miranda Heathcote (YWAM Spain). Ramona was associated with the first YWAM school in Switzerland over 50 years ago and says that she started to understand fear of the Lord by seeing how YWAM’s founders Loren and Darlene Cunningham were willing to follow God even if it meant being misunderstood by man. Ramona sums up fear of the Lord as being more concerned with what God thinks of you than what others think Please watch the 21:24 minute video here: https://youtu.be/2iP2AZ0hH8o. For a written summary of this video, please see below.

Please join us this month during The Invitation prayer day on Thursday, August 13 as we pray. If you only have a few moments, please pray that the Holy Spirit will touch the hearts of YWAMers as we pray and that we will better understand the Holy One and His will.

Thank you for being part of The Invitation. We would love to receive stories from you regarding how you prayed. You can email us at prayer@ywam.org.

Additionally, we will soon be celebrating YWAM’s 60^th anniversary. Drop us a note to let us know how you plan to celebrate that milestone or to tell us your favorite YWAM story.

Prepare to Pray:

Begin with a quick read of Daniel 1:1-20.

Read and discuss:

• Daniel 1:1-2
  • What emotions do you think the people of Israel had after these events took place?
• Daniel 1:3-5
  • What were the people of Israel to be taught?
  • How does this relate to the world today?
  • Why do you think they were to stand before the king at the end of three years?
• Daniel 1:6-8
  • Who was included in this group that were to be taught?
  • What did Daniel resolve? What ‘right’ did Daniel give up?
  • What might you resolve today? What ‘right’ might you give up?
• Daniel 1:9-14
  • How did God respond to Daniel taking this stand?
  • What do you think Daniel’s relationship with God was like?
  • What was the concern of the chief of the eunuchs?
  • Who did the chief of the eunuch’s fear?
  • What do you think the chief’s relationship with God was like?
  • What was Daniel’s response to that concern?
  • In whom and/or what do you think Daniel had confidence in making this statement?
  • How did the chief of the eunuchs respond?
• Daniel 1:15-16
  • What was the result?
  • Do you have any similar personal stories?
• Daniel 1:17
  • What did God provide for these youth?
  • What does God provide for us today?
• Daniel 1:18-20
  • They were now standing before the king as he had commanded 3 years ago:
  • What did the king see?
  • Do you think anyone was surprised by this? Who?
• Application:
  • What might you take from this story of Daniel and his friends?
  • How does this story relate to our topic Fear of God?
  • Can you think of any other stories in the Bible that reflect a healthy fear of God?
  • If so, what ones?

Daniel chapter three provides another story of Daniel’s friends that represents fear of God. Read it if you have time and discuss.

Resolve to be like Daniel and others who fear God, not man.

I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end.

Daniel 6:26

Pray for YWAM:

• As you pray, be aware of His presence. Ask Him to keep you in the state of being aware of His presence even after you finish this time of prayer. (Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” ESV)
• Think of five characteristics of God. Write those down and thank Him. Ask Him to reveal other characteristics to you.
• Praise God for the ways He has used YWAM leaders because they feared the Lord. Praise Him for how He has directed you in this area.
• Ask the Lord to convict you of where you are more concerned with how others view you than how the Lord views you. Ask Him to take away the fear of man and replace it with proper fear of Him.
• Thank God for the grace He has given you and for the love He has for you, in spite of Him knowing everything you do and think.
• Ask God to teach you His ways. (Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. Psalm 86:11 ESV)
• Ask God to show you how to fear Him.
• Think about a particular aspect of His creation. Ask God to show you how big He is. (For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,^[a]in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Romans 1:20 ESV)
• Pray to be in alignment with God’s Word.
• Pray for mentors who have more of a fear of God than you do.
• Ask God to show you the value of fearing of God.
• Thank God for His Son with whom you have a personal relationship. Thank Jesus, that you can trust Him with your life.

Take Action

• Train yourself to daily, even minute by minute, focus on His presence. Focus on what is going on in the spiritual world, blocking out noise from the physical world.
• Read The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.
• Think of one “right” in your life that you want to give up and take steps to make it happen.
• Put yourself in different settings: away from everyone in the woods, with very young children, large YWAM meeting, walking down the street, at a park, etc. Stop and look around you. Ask Him to show you how big He is. What characteristics do you see by observing His creation in different settings? Make a list and ponder it for several days.
• Find a mentor that displays fear of God. Be a mentor to someone else.
• Read None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different from Us (and Why That’s a Good Thing) and In His Image: 10 Ways God Calls Us to Reflect His Character, both by Jen Wilkin.

• Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
• Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed

July 2020 – Seeking God During Coronavirus

• YWAM Bangkok, Thailand – A YWAMer from Bangkok who was visiting relatives in Boston when the pandemic shut down borders shared that she is waiting to return and has heard much from the Lord. Psalm 12 and the word “crucible” was significant. She saw a vision while being still. It was the big Thai letter that means base or pedestal. She heard “Strengthen the bases you have.”
• A Korean YWAMer also heard several messages including “the blind spots of this society are visible to Christians so we can share the pain and suffering together.”
• Another woman asked for reconciliation and forgiveness during this time.
• A husband prayed that he, his wife and his family would stay focused in seeking the Lord during the pandemic.
• Another YWAMer prayed that the cross of Christ would be the center of YWAM.

Future Topics:

• September 10: YWAM’s 60^th
• October 8: Creation Care
• November 12: Haiti

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
• Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

Summary of Ramona Musch’s Video:

Miranda Heathcote, who works with YWAM in Spain, began by introducing Ramona Musch, who is located in Atlanta, USA. Ramona was part of the first YWAM school in Switzerland more than 50 years ago and has been involved in YWAM ever since. Miranda asked Ramona to explain how she understands the fear of the Lord and how she has seen this principle guiding YWAM, and why that matters.

Ramona said, when she thinks of the fear of the Lord she thinks of continual awareness of the presence of God, how majestic He is. All our thoughts, words and actions lay open before Him.

She said that it was really Loren and Darlene Cunningham who taught her about the fear of the Lord. She came from the same denomination as they did. In that denomination the fear of the Lord was sometimes legalistic. You were afraid you would be condemned for going to a movie or using makeup. In YWAM she heard Loren and Darlene tell how they went to their denominational heads and told them they would like YWAM to be part of their denomination, but they wanted to work with other missionaries and other denominations. They were not given this permission.

Ramona said this taught her what the fear of the Lord meant, because she saw Loren and Darlene willing to follow God even if it meant being misunderstood or giving up their standing with their denomination. Loren and his father were quite high up in the denomination. “They were giving up their rights to their reputation and they were saying, ‘This is more important: What does God say?’”

Later, Joy Dawson introduced YWAM to a lot of the teaching on the fear of the Lord.

Miranda clarified that what Ramona said makes a distinction between a feeling of having to live by rules and a heart response to God that says, “His opinion of us and His directing of us is more important than anything else.”

Ramona told the story of the first YWAM ship, the Maori, and the repentance that took place about the pride of not following God about the timing. She had been involved in recruiting and fund raising for the vessel. She participated in the long prayer meetings that happened after Loren decided to give up the ship.

Ramona emphasized the importance of earnest, lengthy prayer meetings like this. Part of the fear of God, Ramona said, is to allow God to convict us of sin. “That takes time,” she said. “If you’re not listening, you’re not going to really know what God is thinking.”

She said the balance in the fear of God is to understand that God is a loving God but we are to be in awe of Him because He does see everything we do and what we think. He takes note, but “he has a lot of grace and a lot of love.”

Miranda said this gives us a bigger view of God. In our culture today we are often very concerned about how we look. She asked Ramona how she would ask us to pray about a renewal of fear of God today.

Ramona gave several suggestions:

Psalm 88:11: Ask God to teach us His ways.

Romans 1:20: Ask God, show me how to fear you. Take time to look at creation. “God, show me how big you are.”

Pray to be in alignment with God’s Word. “Please get into the Word. Know what the Bible says. That’s the best way to get into the fear of the Lord.” Ramona recalled that Joy Dawson prayed with so many adjectives about God. She would pray, “God you are so…” and she would list all those characteristics of God. As an 18-year old, Ramona would hear this prayer and she thought she didn’t have these adjectives because she didn’t really know God like Joy did.

Read the laws of God. What does the Bible say? Meditate on these things.

Pray for mentors who have more of a fear of God than we do. For Ramona, being around Joy Dawson and Loren and Darlene motivates her. She wants to be like them.

Ask God to show us the value of the fear of God. YWAMers might see the fear of the Lord as something they have to give up, their pride or relationships. They don’t understand that the fear of the Lord is that personal relationship with Jesus. “We can trust Him with our lives.” That motivates us even more. It’s something that makes us want to get to know Jesus better.

“And he takes away the fear of man. That’s what’s so exciting about the fear of the Lord. We don’t have to be concerned about what other people think of us, what our peers think of us. We are just more concerned with what does God think of us. It puts everything else in a blur and makes us focus on the Lord.”

Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

We are in a season when the world is being shaken. A global pandemic, a renewed cry for racial justice, the yoke of poverty, awareness of the state of the environment and the threat of natural disasters. What is our response to all this?

Listen to the letter

We may become fearful and self-protecting. Perhaps we are confused. We may be looking for ways to add our voice to those petitioning government for change.

Yet first and foremost, will we seek God? Will we bring to Him our fear and confusion, our longing for things to be different, our desire to act wisely and lovingly toward a broken world. Could we make some space in our lives to sit with Him, to encounter and be encountered by Him?

But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deuteronomy 4:29 (ESV)

Please join YWAM’s prayer day this month, called The Invitation, as we seek God in anticipation of changes that will come out of this unique time in the world’s history, and as we bring to God our pain and confusion. You can pray with us on our prayer day, April 9, or feel free to pray at a time that works best for you.

If you have only a few moments to pray, please take some time to seek God yourself and pray that YWAMers will seek God in new ways as a result of the new realities of our world. Thank you for being part of The Invitation. We would love to receive stories from you regarding how you prayed. If you get involved in evangelistic digital media, please send us links. You can email us at  prayer@ywam.org.

Prepare to Pray (by Tonya Stanfield):

A friend has a mildly autistic son. He will try, but he can’t quite put himself into another’s shoes. He’s very good at telling you how you should feel, and not so good at accepting that you have a differing perspective or feelings. The psychological term for this is mindblindness. We’re all mind-blind until we’re about four, but it’s a forever battle for those on the autistic spectrum. This young boy has accepted the fact that another’s brain is filled with differing content, reactions, emotions, but for him to live into that reality is another thing.

We’re not so different from this boy when we approach God in prayer. Theologically, we know God is “other” from us; we know He’s got his own personality, ideas and feelings, but living into that reality of God takes practice. Like you, perhaps, too often I pray to my idea of God, my image of God, or even experience God as an extension of myself… having my same thoughts, opinions, emotions. And, then I wonder why I walk out of a prayer time untouched, unchanged, with no more clarity or peace–or worse, with little desire to return.

Take a moment to reflect by asking yourself: when you pray, are you talking to yourself or to your idea of God? Is your God a living person with thoughts and feelings of God’s own, or just an extension of your own thinking and feeling?

As you prepare to pray, ask God to help you overcome your mind-blind prayer and engage with God’s holy, unpredictable love.

How To Pray – Seeking God During Coronavirus

If you are praying in a group, set aside some unstructured time for seeking God, and ask each person to pick one of the ways noted below to seek God. Then when you come back together give opportunity for people to share if they want. If you are praying alone, ask God to guide you into one of the following ways of seeking Him.

1. Seeking God means to LISTEN

When we are listening well, by implication we are talking less. To seek God is to be willing to listen to the cries and complaints of others. It means I adopt a posture of leaning into God’s perspective, pressing into what His word has to say about the issues we face. And when it comes to the question of justice for the oppressed, there is no shortage of things God has to say.

To seek God is also to listen to those ways in which he may want to prune us – our individual lives, our ministries, or even more broadly. In what ways might God want to direct (or redirect) our energy into particular areas of growth, and what might that mean for our other activities?

First, as you pray, take time in silence to listen.

2. Seeking God means to LONG FOR

In order to seek God, we are to be in touch with the longing within us. To what extent am I aware of a deep desire for God’s redemption to be worked out in our world and our communities, and in my own heart? To seek God means to allow ourselves to deeply feel this longing, not to be afraid of it but to lean in. This is a longing that will lead us to God.

As you pray, take time to attend to your own longing for God. What shared longings are you aware of, among your family, teammates, community members and nation?

3. Seeking God means to LAMENT

At times, our longing is so deep we cannot find words to express it. The losses mount around us: people sickened, lives lost, jobs or careers never to return. Inequalities and injustices in societies only seem to increase. There is so much to cry out in prayer and intercession. As we seek God, we bring our groaning, our supplication, and our sorrowing. We add our words and our wordless groans to those of the world around us and yes, even to that of creation (as we read about in Romans chapter 8). We seek God through lament.

How long, O Lord? Where are you, Lord? We cry to you for help, O Lord!

Take time to pray with lament, leaning even more deeply into God’s loving-kindness. Pray for yourself, and for our world.

4. Seeking God means to WATCH

To what extent will we pay attention? Are we willing to look for what God might be about in the current situation, to ‘keep our eyes peeled’ and our spirits alert? To seek God is to remain wakeful and watchful. What do you see happening in the world around you? What have you noticed? What has surprised you? How might God bring His vision to us in a fresh way for this unique time in history?

Take time to ask God to help you to see things the way he does. Ask him to help you notice the ways he is at work in the world. What do you see?

5. Seeking God means to WAIT in ANTICIPATION

Finally, seeking God requires us to wait on God, who is the chief mover and shaker. In our waiting, we submit to His timing which causes us to relinquish our own need for control. We do not wait out of a lack of desire to act, but out of trust in His agency and His absolute commitment to redemptive change.

As we attune to that place within us that longs for God and His ways, we enter into a place of seeking. We find ourselves joining with the psalmist, who said: “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

May God encounter us in our places of heartfelt seeking, and in such a way that we are prepared, becoming ready for whatever lies ahead of us.

Take Action:

• In this season that contains so much desolation, what does seeking God look like for you individually? What about for your family, your team, or your community? Maybe you want to wail and weep, maybe you find yourself keeping silent vigil. Perhaps as you walk the streets of your neighbourhood, you find yourself seeking the ways God might be at work in the homes and businesses around you. It could be that your seeking finds expression in art, or song, or writing. Follow through as the Lord leads.
• While there is indeed a time for action, may we not rush into activity for the sake of making ourselves feel better. Rather, may we truly spend time in the unseen and often uncomfortable place of seeking God himself – for His perspective, His timing, His agenda and His infilling. In these ways, we will be readied by his Spirit for the season ahead.
• Lament was also part of the prayer lives of the Psalmists: David, Asaph, Ethan, Henan and others. In fact, Eugene Peterson, beloved pastor-teacher who passed away last year, wrote that perhaps up to 70% of the Psalms has some degree of lament included. To lament is to pray in ways that relate honestly to the pain and suffering around us: sometimes within, sometimes external to us in our world. It is to bring into the presence of God in worship our deepest cries, believing that we are heard. There are Psalms of lament for communities. Check out Psalm 12, 80 and 123. There are Psalms of lament for individuals. Check out 3, 53 and 142. Regularly add lament into your corporate or individual time with God.
• But we do not lament as without hope. Lament is a bridge that brings us to the reality of God’s character quality of Hesed, the Old Testament Hebrew word for loving-kindness. Some have said that loving-kindness, or loyal covenantal love, is the defining characteristic of God. When we lament, as Jeremiah did in the book of Lamentations, we are brought to a place of abandonment to the steadfast love (loving-kindness) of God, whose mercies are new every morning, great is His faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:21-23). The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. (Lamentations 3:25 ESV)
  Read the five chapters in the book of Lamentations noting verses that stir the Spirit within you.
• Do a study on Matthew 6:33 focused on these components: first, kingdom of God, His righteousness and these things. Use this in a teaching or writing.

• How is God directing you to get ready for ministry? What action do you need to take? Make plans to move forward according to His timing.
• Reach out to others. Chances are that they will be in a different state of moving forward than you are. They may face new issues for ministry such as childcare, finances and others. Engage in conversations about this. How can you support one another?
• Share on facebook.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed:

June 2020 – Using Technology for Online Evangelism

• YWAM Richmond USA and YWAM Media Village Nigeria prayed and shared the post on Facebook.

Future Topics:

• August 13: Series: Spiritual Principles from YWAM’s Early Days
  Fear of God (Ramona Musch) – 4 of 4 in the series
• September 10: YWAM’s 60^th Anniversary
• October 8: Care For Creation

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to https://ywam.org/theinvitation/. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Indonesian, French, Thai, Hindi or request other languages.)
• Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.