If you can breathe, then you can pray!

One of the reasons that many people who want to develop a powerful prayer life do not succeed, is that they simply don’t know how to, or they incorrectly believe that people who pray have a special calling.

You might be saying, “But Tommy, we have different gifts, and not everyone can do everything.” Yes, I agree. Not everyone can do everything. But everyone can eat, breathe and drink. That is not something you learn! There certainly isn’t one person who has the gift of breathing, while someone else has the give of eating, right?! That’s because these are basic functions that are in all humans and they work on their own. When a child is born, he breathes and eats without anyone teaching him to.

It is the same way with prayer. It is a basic function that everyone has. You are created to eat and to breathe, but you are also created to speak with God. That is why there is no excuse or reason for you to not start to pray. This behavior, being someone who prays, is in your genes.

But in the same way that a small child goes from drinking a bottle to eating with their fingers to then being able to feed themselves a large dinner with different kinds of foods, you may also have to start praying at a stage where half of your dinner ends up on your bib! But then after several years you will be able to sit at the fanciest of tables, no longer having to concentrate on when to use a knife or a spoon; you simply eat. It doesn’t matter whether you are on the train, in your bedroom, at work or anywhere else. You just close your eyes, and right away you are before the throne, praying and speaking with God.

"Excuse me, I have to go believe!"

I am working on my next book. Here is the intro to Chapter 4:

When Pastor Yonggi-Cho visited Sweden in the 1990’s, he suddenly interrupted one of his interviews with these words: “I have to go pray…”

The journalist who was interviewing him was quite irritated. He was sitting there with all of his important, “critical” questions, and now this “strange” preacher had the audacity to interrupt the interview with the excuse that he had to go “pray.”

Because I know Pastor Yonggi-Cho through his teaching, he could just as well have said, “Excuse me, I have to interrupt this interview so that I can go believe!”

Joshua's success had two legs to stand on

The introduction to the book of Joshua is powerful and the promises found here are fantastic. “You will succeed in everything you do,” the Lord promises, if “in all things you act on the Word.”

So why do so many Christians fail at obeying and acting on the Word? And why did Joshua succeed? The answer can be found forty years earlier in Exodus 33: “And the LORD spoke unto Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And Moses turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.”

When Moses left the tent of meeting, the place where God spoke to Moses face to face, Joshua stayed.

The foundation for the obedience that forty years later enabled Joshua to lead the people into the promised land was laid during his time of meeting with God. You are the one who makes the choice to obey God, but the power to obey comes from God!

You have two legs. With one leg you obey, and with the other you pray! Prayer is conversing with God, feeling his presence on the inside, hearing his voice and trusting that his invisible power is with you.

Everything starts in the relationship, which reveals the Word that points to Jesus and his Spirit, that gives you power to develop the obedience to stand on the Word, which in its turn causes you to succeed at everything you do!

If you want to preach to the multitudes, you can’t stay up late watching movies and then sleep in late the next morning!

When God called Abraham, he spoke in pictures: “Look at the stars,"God said to Abraham. “So shall your descendants be.” The image of the massive number of stars was etched in Abraham’s mind’s eye: he who was childless at the time! Every night as he looked up to the skies before falling asleep, he was reminded of the promise, and faith grew on the inside of him and he realized that, “what God has promised, He is able to perform.”

They all saw things in their mind’s eye: Joseph, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, the apostles and Paul: “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.”

I think that God packages the calling in pictures because pictures have an impact on us. What do you see when you close your eyes?

Every morning when I pray, I see many different things. These things help me to focus. Some of the things I see are as far in the future as 2020, four things in particular:

-We have become a large organization with an effective vision for revival
-We gather millions of people at our crusades and an enormous amount of people turn to God through our ministry
-A large number of orphaned street children have been saved and are now living in our family units in several third world countries
-On TV channels all over the world, we are broadcasting programs about Jesus and what Jesus is doing.

Faith sees! Jesus said that we are to believe. “Whatever you ask for, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” So you believe that you have it before you receive it.

There are so many things that are vying for our attention. Never in all of history have people been in such an environment where we are continually inundated with a vast amount of information. The greater the information flow, the harder it is to stay focused.

That is why it is important to know where you are going, and to see your goals fulfilled in prayer. Not shadow-boxing, but step by step, in the power of the Holy Spirit, doing work based on the calling and the mission the Lord has given each and every one of us.

It is all about prioritizing, about asking yourself the question: If I continue living and doing as I am today, where am I headed? And is that where I want to go? If you don’t want to go where you are currently headed, then you have to reprioritize your life! Ask yourself the question: Where do I want my life to take me? What is the Holy Spirit whispering on the inside? What is required, what do I have to do, how do I have to prioritize to get there? Once you have received the answers, the rest is easy. You choose your daily actions based on your priorities, and you leave all the rest behind.

Do you understand? If you want to preach for the multitudes, then you can’t stay up watching movies and then sleep in late the next morning! You can’t just decide to pray when you feel like it. You have to start now, and, even in the small things, live the life that is required to reach the goal that draws closer.

So what if other people are doing other things? What does that have to do with you?! If you fill your life with TV shows and Hollywood, your sermons are going to sound like a TV show.

Another thing – and now I might be provoking some of you, but…You have to live that same disciplined life even when you are on vacation! Your relationship with God is the prerequisite for your mission from God, and you can’t take a vacation from God! You don’t take vacation from the one you love! Your relationship with Jesus is far too valuable to take a break from. Quite the opposite, when we can take a vacation from practical work, then we want to spend even more time with Jesus.

Boring? Absolutely not. Carina and I will be spending two weeks in Malta this summer. Those two weeks will be filled with prayer, reading the Bible and Christian books, and I will be writing every day since I am working on a new book. When everyone else goes out to eat and drink, we get ready for bed. When they are on their way home from the bars, we get up. That is when he is there, my God, Jesus. That is when we plan our future crusades, orphanages and evangelization strategies. That is when he teaches us. That is vacation: being with Jesus.

“But now you’re being boring, Tommy,” you say. Then you haven’t understood what I’ve just said. You are what you live! When thousands of demons are cast out at a five day crusade in Zambia, when thousands of people gather to receive Jesus in Rwanda, when an entire community rises to its feet in Ethiopia because of the signs and wonders Jesus is doing, that is not boring!

But all of these things are treasures in jars of clay. He is the one who is doing it. He does it by grace, but the jar of clay has to be genuine. It isn’t about performance, it is faithfulness to the Lamb of God. “I have promised faithfulness to the Lamb of God, with all I am and all I can,” we sing. Faithfulness isn’t what comes forth when things are difficult and we cast ourselves on God. Faithfulness is what comes forth when we have success and life is a breeze – that is when faithfulness makes itself known.

Victory in Rwanda, stranded in Africa, urgency in my spirit

For four straight nights in Rwanda, the area in front of the stage was filled with sinners who repented and received Jesus. We also had a leadership seminar during which the Spirit fell with such power that there was hardly a dry eye in the room.

When it was time for me to leave Africa, it turned out that the flight from Addis to Frankfurt was cancelled. That meant that I couldn’t get on the flight that would take me out of Rwanda, but I didn’t know why I was stranded and was left clueless at the airport in Rwanda! I prayed quietly, “You’ll have to help me now, Jesus!” The airport in Rwanda is not much bigger than a bus station, and for awhile it seemed like there were no other alternatives for me! Finally I was able to find someone who could help me check for other flights with other airlines. There was one, a Kenya Airlines flight to Nairobi, where I am now. If things go my way, I’ll fly KLM to Amsterdam, delayed because of the ash cloud in Iceland, so in the best case scenario I’ll be home tomorrow at the earliest!

It seems like there are many volcanoes waking up these days. At the same time, I am sensing the Holy Spirit telling me to increase the frequency of our crusades, that the time has begun in which the final call is going forth to compel them in. The only thing I am thinking about these days is souls. Souls, souls, souls. With a focus on repentance and the baptism of the Spirit. New family-based homes that rescue children from the streets into a home to give them Jesus.

Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

I think that’s where we are now: a long period of time during which we are calling out this invitation. I felt very strongly in Rwanda that although there is an emphasis on praying for the sick, and of course that is a part of the ministry of Jesus, above all he came to seek and to save the lost.

The latest short film from Shashemene

Dear friends, the latest short film from Shashemene can now be seen on PTL’s webpage. As you watch it, thank Jesus for His awesome power and presence, and for what he did in so many people’s lives in Shashemene.

From Kigali, Rwanda,
Tommy

On my way to Rwanda

Preparations have been underway for several weeks for the big crusade in Rwanda. Our Africa director Pastor Shiferaw arrived a few days ago, and this weekend our Asia director Bertil Dolfén will join him. The reports so far have been positive and lots and lots of people are expected to come. There will be a record-sized choir of over one hundred singers, so we can expect plenty of energy. I know that Jesus will be there and that many people are going to be helped in different ways. We are passionate about demonstrating the kingdom of God in the power of the Holy Spirit, and there is an abundance of that power available for this crusade!