Prayer Week... a.k.a WOW week

This past week was a mind blower
This past week was prayer week. It was a lot less structured then other weeks, but we still had a lot going on. The leaders kept talking like this is one of the most amazing weeks and i truly wanted to get everything out of it as I could so at the start of the week i decided i was going to give up food and fast for the week. One of the major things we had going on was 24 hour prayer. Throughout the day our class was split up into groups of 4 and we would switch 2 hour shifts in the prayer room. This would go on the whole week.
During this Blog entry it might seem like I'm going kind of off topic at times but God did so so much this week and I'm trying to give away as much details as possible without telling the stuff that I feel isnt to be shared. So bear with me and we will try this out.
Monday morning we woke up and I was hungry but i kept just praying it away and praying that God teach me how to really fast and how to go about it. Once we got to the base we met a New Zealander named Leon. Leon was a big rugby player with a huge heart for prayer. Once he started speaking honestly all i was doing was being pitiful in my head and wanting food but then Leon said some thing, "This week God is going to break us down and ask us to give stuff up. But, God will take care of what you give up". After that I realized that God knows what I'm doing and he'll take care of me and i need to man up and stop complaining if I want God to work through me.
God calls us to an intimate relationship with him, most everyone wants that but with the stories Im about to tell you, you will understand what God taught me and that; in order to have an intimate relationship with him we have to be obedient.
Throughout the whole week we met everyday and Leon would open up the microphone and do harp and bowl type services. This is where we do worship and if someone feels lead to come up and share they can. We did this for hours everyday. People came up who laid down the last of what the enemy was holding against them, and some came up to give words of encouragement. My first shift in the prayer room was on Monday night. When i was in there I started praying for God to bless me and for me to show me things. This prayer didn't last long because i heard God tell me after a while "Bless others and you will see me". Once i heard this i decided to try praying for others. God started putting people from home and people here on my heart. God started giving me words and scriptures for these people that these people needed at that time in their life. God was working in me and i was in awe. This started me being obedient to him during the week.
One story from the week was this: We were in the prayer room and at the base where the room is there was an auto-diesel class taking place in the building next door and the kids were taking a smoke break and could see us praying through a window. When they did they started being disruptive and poking fun at us for being in a room praying. we shrugged it off. But then i felt God tugging on my heart to invite them in if they wanted. I thought that this was ridiculous but God really started pounding my heart so i became obedient and went to ask. around 6 of them came in and i told them we were people who loved the Lord and wanted to just hang out with them. After this they started opening up saying things such as: I'm agnostic, I hate God, God killed my best friend, and not one of them had a good thing to say about God. After this we just started talking in love and the Holy Spirit began to speak to these guys. After a while all of them left except for two guys and one of the two left was on my heart big time. I went up to him and he began to tell me his past and it was a rough one, this guy had been through a lot. God began to break my heart for him and before i knew it this tough tattooed automotive student had tears rolling down his face, and i began to get real emotional. God began to speak through me and say things i didn't even know i knew, but i just told him of how God loves him so much and doesn't care what has happened to him or what hes involved with in his life he wants to meet him where hes at. I felt so convinced that this guy was going to be able to have influence on so many guys that are going through or have gone through what he went through, so i told him that and that I'm 100 percent positive that God wants to use him. I prayed for him and then he went back to class. That night i had 2am-4am prayer session. During this time i prayed with all my might that God would be speaking to him wherever he his right at that moment. The next day we ate lunch and the guys were having their smoke break, so i went to chat with them. They began to grill me with tough questions and i let the spirit do the talking and humbled myself. They eventually had to go into class and i went into the prayer room. About 10 minutes later i heard God say go outside to the water fountain. I did and it wasn't even working so i brushed it off. As i walked back i heard someone say my name. It was the guy from the day before, he began to tell me how the night before he came up with the idea to write a book about what all he had been through and get others to write their stories as well and publish it as a book of testimonies. I have never had a bigger smile in my life so we talked for a bit and i prayed for him on his way back to class. God did this and i went and began to thank him for using a sinner like me to help someone in there life.
As the week progressed we began to see God clearer and clearer and God was speaking to everyone differently but the spirit of God was in full force. Two of my friends here were in a place of doubt with God at the start of the week. You could tell by just looking at them that they were in a frustrating spot with God. One of them was having a rough day and took the day off of lectures. He took a long walk on the beach crying out to God for some sort of sign that he was even real. At that moment there was a dog passing by and he prayed that if God was real he would accept even a dog coming up and showing affection toward him as a sign that God is there. Nothing happened and he was in even more frustration. Meanwhile my other friend had just left lectures and was frustrated as well so she went to the beach for a walk. While she was on her walk she was praying for some sort of sign and out of nowhere a dog came up. She and the dog played with each other for a long while and she said as she played with him she could feel Gods presence and felt like the way the dog was pursuing her is how God is pursuing her. After a while she walked home and the dog followed her all the way home then went on its way. The next day she shared this and my other friend who had no sign the day before began to break down because he realized something that God had been teaching us all week. "When you bless others is when you truly see Christ". His sign he was praying for went to someone else. And when he heard about the story it was a sign to him as well. I began to call God "Jehovah Sneaky" due to his sneaky ways of moving in peoples lives.
I can honestly say that God has spoken to me and moved in my life more this week then any other week of my life. Anyone can feel and see exactly what i experienced this week but you have to surrender, humble yourself, be honest, be wholehearted, and be obedient to his call. Once you began to lay down all of your pride God we will move in ways you have never seen before. So my prayer to anyone reading this is that you lay down your pride and begin to bless others constantly and in doing that God will begin to reveal himself to you.
Here are some things God taught me this week:
- God calls us to surrender so that we may have a full life.
- God will take care of what you give up.
- An honest heart is a humble heart.
- The first step to humility is a humble heart.
- Intimacy calls us to obedience and obedience drives us into intimacy.

I hope you find this blog to be uplifting and confirming that God is real. I also hope that it challenges you in your walk. I hope this challenges you to laid down things in your life and give them to God, and i encourage you to fast from things that is a top priority in your life and let God take care of them for a while because if you do i promise God will move in your life. But most importantly laid down your pride, there is nothing good that comes from pride and there is no room from it in anyones life so lay it down at the cross.
Anyway if there anything you need as far as prayer or anything you want to say, ask, or send to me my email is thetfordaw@mail.lipsocmb.edu and I'm always up to hear from anyone. And if possible i would love to have prayer for the guy in the first story because that story is just beginning and God is still putting him in my life. Also prayer for my upcoming trip to India and Nepal and pray for our teams unity and our time while we are there. Thank you so much for everything. I can still feel your prayers halfway around the world.
In christ,
Andrew Thetford