In our previous post, we covered a simple definition of spiritual gifts and some key points about gifts. In this post, we’ll explore why using spiritual gifts is critical on the missions field.

As we’ve mentioned in our spiritual warfare posts, our encounters with spiritual warfare during our first short-term trip to Thailand opened our eyes to spiritual realities. It also made us begin to seek out the Holy Spirit and learn about spiritual gifts. As we discerned our calling to go and sought out development and preparation before launching, this category of the Holy Spirit (listening prayer, spiritual gifts, spiritual warfare) was a blind spot for us. As we heard stories from movement practitioners on the field, they shared about healings, demons being cast out, Muslims having dreams of Jesus, and supernatural usage of spiritual gifts. We studied Acts and saw miraculous signs and wonders accompanying the proclamation of the gospel.

It made us ask the question – how come these supernatural acts seem so prevalent on the mission field but feel so rare in our home context? And, if these things are happening and are critical to the work, what can we do to learn about the gifts and access them?

Part of the answer has to do with our own cultural and theological perspectives about the spiritual world, what Paul Hiebert calls The Excluded Middle. Another reason is that we simply are more self-reliant on our ‘natural’ skills and giftings rather than the Spirit’s power when we are in our own comfortable culture. Laboring cross-culturally can humble you quickly and turn you towards looking for power beyond yourself.

The truth is that we need the Spirit’s power for supernatural impact just as much at home as we do on the mission field – it just isn’t as apparent to us. But the field has a unique way to draw out the reality of our need for the Spirit’s power.

The Missions Field is a Pioneering Environment.

Floyd McClung coined the term ‘apostolic passion,’ which he defines as “a deliberate, intentional choice to live for the worship of Jesus in the nations.” It’s drawn from Paul’s ‘ambition’ in Romans 15:

“And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”

– Romans 15:20-21

I think many, if not most, cross-cultural workers have this apostolic passion. We not only desire to see Jesus worshipped among the nations, but have what McClung calls the apostolic abandonment and focus to give our lives and time and efforts towards making disciples among the unreached.

Those with apostolic passion will go to start new work among people and places where Jesus is not yet known. These missions fields are what I would call pioneering environments, where the methods, systems, structures, institutions, and the sufficient number of disciple-makers needed to reach a people or place do not yet exist. As such, pursuing disciple-making and church planting in a pioneering environment requires different approaches than in reached areas, including increased innovation, more flexible methodology, a higher rate of experimentation and failing forward, and more agile teams that can adjust quickly to change.

But above everything, pioneering environments require spiritual breakthrough.

The Pioneering Environment Requires Spiritual Breakthrough, Including Spiritual Gifts.

And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

– Mark 16:20

As much as I believe that strategic and innovative approaches can be helpful in starting movements, too often we see cross-cultural workers put their hope in their strategies and tools rather than in the Spirit’s power. These unreached communities have been resistant to the gospel for potentially hundreds of years, and there are too many cultural, religious, historical, and most of all spiritual barriers to the gospel in these pioneering environments for human ability to make a dent. Even the perfect persuasive evangelism tool has no power to change the heart of someone who lives in darkness. Seeing people among the unreached repent and believe the gospel requires the Spirit to move in power!

Paul tells us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12), and that “the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4). Throughout the New Testament, we see signs, wonders, gifts, and power coincide with the proclamation of the gospel in the mission field, whether through Jesus himself (Matthew 9:35), in the disciples (Luke 10:19), or through the early believers in Acts (Acts 14:3).

These spiritual realities of warfare that faced the early church should inform how we approach the pioneering environments that we are in! For every hour of planning, how many do we give to prayer? For every resource we develop, how much do we focus on receiving and using the Spirit’s power and gifts? Do our approaches even allow for “divine power to destroy strongholds,” or are they weapons of the flesh and human wisdom? These are questions that I need to ask myself often!

If we can see the battle is spiritual, just as Elisha’s servant had his eyes opened (2 Kings 6:17), the good news is that the “weapons of our warfare” are already promised and given. I love that in every one of the Great Commission passages, power is promised to accompany the commission to make disciples and preach the gospel. One significant aspect of this power is through the spiritual gifts that each believer is given.

We should expect, depend on, and regularly use the gifts of the Spirit in the work of pioneering movements.

Our Thai partners greatly outpace us in this category. Their primary method of entering new communities is by praying for needs. We train and practice praying for people with a simple prayer, and then see if God moves and opens their hearts to hear more about Jesus. Often, people request prayer for physical ailments and illnesses.

Early on in our partnership with Mint, we went with her to visit one new believer’s house that was 40 minutes down a dirt road. After going through a new believer lesson with the new believer Sarah, she introduced us to her mom. Sarah told us that her mom hadn’t been able to stand or walk for several months, and a doctor told them that she would likely never walk again because of severe osteoporosis. Together with Mint, we gathered to pray for Sarah’s mom. Nothing happened. We said our goodbyes and Mint told Sarah that she would come back next week to go through more discipleship lessons.

A week later, Mint and her team went back to Sarah’s house. And they prayed again for Sarah’s mom.

And Sarah’s mom stood up and walked down the stairs for the first time in months.

The next week, she walked into the nearby creek to be baptized by her daughter.

As more and more disciple-makers were trained to engage the harvest, reports of healings, miracles, and salvations began coming in weekly. 

• One new believer was beaten by her husband so severely that her right eye swelled and she was blinded in that eye. She came to the local house church and had the believers pray for her. The next day, she woke up, and the swollenness was gone and she could see! 
• In another province, a new believer discovered he had the gift of healing and met a sick woman while selling bus tickets. After praying for her, she invited him to her nearby village where he healed an entire group of elderly ladies and started a new group! 
• Another new believer was in the hospital and prayed for a person in the bed next to them that had stopped breathing and was declared dead – and they came back to life! 
• At one training, we heard one leader yelling “Go out! Go out!” into the phone which is the same word in Thai as the go in “go and make disciples” from Matthew 28, so we thought he was training. But one new believer was working on a rubber farm and a coworker put on an amulet and became possessed by an evil spirit. She didn’t know how to cast it out so she called this leader to cast it out over the phone!

Over the past 7 years of partnering with this network of church planters, we’ve heard dozens, if not hundreds, of answered prayer stories like these, and probably have missed hundreds more. We start almost every meeting or training with the question – is there anything you would like to praise God for? And stories begin flowing out. One of my favorites is where one new believer prayed for rain on their farm, and the storm poured out rain just on their land and stopped exactly at the border between their farm and their neighbor’s!

These types of supernatural breakthroughs are common and normative in movements, like those in the book of Acts. When normal, faithful disciples (and almost all of the above stories are from new believers) are released to operate in power, God shows up! Are we expectant of these things? Are we asking the Spirit for them?

Though All Gifts Are Useful, Certain Gifts Are Particularly Helpful in the Pioneering Environment.

Certain spiritual gifts are particularly useful in pioneering ministry work, and others are more useful for building up the body in the context of a local church or mission team.

To give some examples:

• Healing and Miracles – We see this as a standard aspect of bringing the Kingdom of God to the world. Accompanied with the proclamation of the gospel are signs and wonders like healing and miracles. The several stories from the previous section are examples of what it can look like!
  
• Evangelism – Obviously, evangelism gifts are valuable to pioneering environments! All believers should share the gospel regularly regardless of gifting, and, those gifted in evangelism should use it frequently! People with an evangelistic gift just seem to very easily connect with people, and can have more effectiveness in sharing the gospel and winning people to Christ.
  
  Before we launched as a team to Thailand, we tried to live out disciple-making rhythms in preparation for overseas work. Out of our team of 12, one teammate who was evangelism gifted had led more people to Christ than the rest of our team combined! We will talk more about Ephesians 4 later, but evangelism-gifted leaders shouldn’t only exercise their gift in sharing the gospel, but need to use their gift to equip others to share.

• Teaching / Training – At first glance, it’d seem that teaching would be a gift more appropriate for within the local church. But for teams trying to start movements with a ‘Be Barnabas’ approach, catalyzing near culture believers to share the gospel means there’s a lot of training! It means that those with a teaching gift who are able to handle the Word simply and equip near or in-culture believers to share the gospel, make disciples, and multiply churches is extremely valuable! Also, teaching gifts can be crucial in developing simple, reproducible, biblical curriculum that can be used in new multiplying works.

• Helps – Another gift that seems like it would be more suited to within the local church is helps. But a Be Barnabas approach means that the National Apostolic Visionary (NAV) leader is the “Paul” that God has chosen to pioneer new ministry among their people, and our role as outsider is to serve and support that leader. If we want to Be Barnabas, it requires a humbling of ourselves to serve that leader, and those with the gift of helps will be particularly suited to caring for, supporting, and providing whatever is needed for that NAV leader to thrive and multiply.
  
  One of our teammates gifted in helps walked alongside a local believer who was going through burnout. That believer wasn’t implementing movement practice or actively making disciples, so Jenn and I questioned if that was really the best use of that teammate’s time. But after helping this Thai friend take a sabbatical, this local believer came back and said – I want to devote my time to multiplying disciples! – and has recently started a number of new groups! As people not gifted in helps, we saw that time investment as questionable, but to our teammate, she was drawn to serve through her gifting. That’s why it’s critical that all the gifts have an opportunity to participate in the Great Commission! Side note – this is why we love the Be Barnabas approach! The apostolic and evangelist will clearly have value in supporting the NAV’s ministry, but so do the teachers, shepherds, and helpers in a very different and much needed way!

We Should Have the Ability to Identify and Develop Spiritual Gifts In Our National Partners.

Lastly, it’s critical that we have studied, practiced, and developed our own gifts and gifts in others so that we can identify and develop spiritual giftings in our national partners. When we’re looking for a “Paul”-type national partner who can catalyze movements, part of that is looking for a specific type of gifting. It’s in the name – a National Apostolic Visionary leader. We break down some of that in our article about what a NAV is. We’ll also have a future post further exploring the word “apostolic” including the apostolic gifting.

Although we have a certain eye out for apostolic leaders, we should also partner with local believers that have other giftings. Anyone who is ready to be obedient to the Great Commission to share the gospel and make disciples is worth investing in! At the end of the day, the goal is to multiply healthy churches, and that requires all of the gifts, though different gifts might be emphasized at different phases of ministry. For example, apostolic and evangelistic gifts might be most helpful in pioneering in a new area to win people to faith. But as churches grow, gifts like pastor/shepherding and teaching will need to be emphasized. As issues needing correction come up in the church, giftings like exhortation and prophecy will need to be elevated.

Do we know what the Word says about each of these giftings? Are we able to identify them in emerging leaders? Do we know how to develop these giftings and encourage local partners to use them to advance the work of multiplying churches?

In our next post, we’ll explore how different spiritual gifts can help edify the body, either in the local church context or on missions teams. Below are some questions for reflection about spiritual gifts and the missions field.

Reflection Questions

• Are you expectant for the power of the Holy Spirit to work in you and in your ministry? Why or why not?
• Have you seen the Holy Spirit’s power working actively in your ministry? In what situations, experiences, or people have you seen this most clearly?
• Are you, your teammates, and your national partners regularly using spiritual gifts in ministry? Why or why not? Where do you, your teammates, or national partners need greater development in this topic?
• How could God specifically use your spiritual gifts to move your ministry forward?

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The Weightiness of Listening Prayer

Like we said in the last post, learning to increase our awareness of God with us and becoming more confident in hearing the Holy Spirit is a process. But as we grow in these things, we can be so confident in Him speaking to us that we can make weighty decisions based on what He is saying.

Last week I was talking to a worker on the field, who shared that as they were praying, they heard God tell them, “I want you to actually go apply for a visa to a country that has already rejected you.” And they knew that if they got rejected again they wouldn’t be able to get back in for the next 10 years. And they said, “OK God.” 

It’s a big risk! It’s gonna be a problem if they get rejected. But they get the visa! And the immigration officers tell them that they need to write down a local person’s name that is their host in the country. But if they write a local believer’s name on the visa, they might compromise the whole movement.

So they pray, and the whole team prays and listens and they all come up with the same name. And they call that woman, this local believer, and they say, “hey we were told to apply for a visa and they asked us to write down a name. Can we use your name?”

And she says, “Let me go ask the Lord.” She goes and listens and she says, “Yes, you can use my name. God told me to say yes.”

That’s weighty. Because that woman could end up in jail. Because you know what? Paul ends up in jail too. But God spoke – to that team, to that woman, and it’s OK because it’s on Him. And it doesn’t mean that because He responded that it’s going to be safe the whole way through. But if God is speaking to you, it means He is speaking to be with you and He will be with you the whole way through.

Ways to Practice Listening

So we already talked about the different ways that God can speak. When we are praying and receive thoughts, words, Scripture, emotions, images, memories, songs, etc., pay attention because it could be God speaking! Here’s some different practices you can try to increase in your listening prayer.

1. Finding a Place to Meet with God

One thing I’ve noticed, especially with Westerners, is that if we do silent prayer then it’s really easy for us to get distracted. Like your phone could buzz, you’re thinking about other stuff, there’s so much coming in. The world is coming in, your thoughts are coming in, and we’re not even very self aware in general. It’s almost like we don’t even know which ones are our own thoughts and which aren’t.

Here are some ideas about how to focus a little bit. This is what I did with my friend from the Middle East – I said, “what I want you to do first is to ask God for Him to show you a place to meet with Him.” This is a mental place – it could be a physical place God has shown you before, or maybe He hasn’t shown you it before.

It’s going to be a mental place that represents that you are entering into that space in your mind and you’re meeting with Jesus. So take a few minutes to ask God to show you a place to meet with you.

Ask Him for a place to meet with you and just listen. As you go into that spot, we know that God wants to meet with you. And He loves us and wants us to be focused to meet with Him, so that we can be present and encounter Him in our own mind.

I want you to remember that place. Anytime you’re in prayer, go back to that place He’s shown you. Even if I’m meeting with someone and I’m praying for them, I’ll go to that place and meet with Jesus and ask him, “what do you want me to say to them or pray for them?”

One fun thing for me is that when I meet with Jesus, I have a greeting that I do. Not everyone has these things but sometimes it’s helpful to hear someone else’s. After I connect with Jesus and we greet each other, we do an Egyptian-style hug. I learned it when I was on a trip to Egypt. It’s really neat! It’s changed from what I used to do before, which was more like a bro hug. But now it’s a little more intimate.

Sometimes he actually just grabs my shoulders and just looks at me for a bit, which means a lot to me. Then I usually bow and I’m going to receive either of two things. He gives me a ball which is the Holy Spirit, or a sword. Which is the Spirit of God and the Word of God. And I turn towards whoever I’m praying for, and I don’t try to think about what’s going to happen. Just start praying. And that’s my interaction with God.

Other people don’t have all those things, that’s just how God decided to communicate with me to let me know He’s giving something for that other person.

If you were just now listening and asked God for a place, it’s OK if that’s not what God gave you. It could even be that He wants it to just be everywhere for you and you don’t need that. Having that place is a good idea and helpful for some people, but doesn’t mean that is necessarily something for you. He has a relationship with you – so walk in confidence and oneness and boldness that Jesus loves you.

2. Soaking and Waiting

A lot of times when we are praying, we are asking God for something or interceding for someone. So we’re bringing our requests to the Lord, and that’s good – He tells us to do that.

But if you’re new to listening prayer, it can be rare for you to just come to God with no agenda and just wait and see what He wants to say. Soaking is just a term for sitting and taking in God’s presence and waiting for Him to speak. We are soaking in God’s presence like a sponge soaks in water.

First, get rid of any other distractions – put your phone on silent, go to a quiet space for prayer. If God gave you a place for you to meet in your mind, go and meet him in that place.

For some people, it can be helpful to put on some acoustic or mellow worship music, or even these compilations of ambient worship music specifically made for soaking prayer. This instrumental version is one of my favorites.

Get into a comfortable position, and just wait. Try to clear your mind of distractions. Sometimes holding your hands open as a posture of surrender and receiving can be helpful. To begin, you can just try 10 minutes, or go as long as you like. If the Lord brings to mind a verse, a person, a word, an emotion, an image, a vision, or anything that you might think is from Him, try to remember it or just quickly jot it down into a notebook.

After you get that initial thing from the Lord, feel free to ask follow up questions. “God, what do you want me to know about this? Is there someone I should share this with? Is there Scripture that goes along with this?”

Soaking can be a good way for us to get used to entering into God’s presence. The more we do it and the more we’re used to noticing when God speaks, the quicker and more confident we’ll become as we grow.

For soaking, it’s best to go in with no agenda and just wait for God’s presence. But as you learn what it feels like when He is drawing near and speaking, you can ask questions and get answers from Him quicker as well. Questions can be as simple as, “God what do you want me to do in this situation?”

But also ask Him questions like, “God, how do you see me? God, what hurts your heart right now? What are you really proud of right now?”

In relationship, don’t just ask for things that you need! We want to know God more!

3. Folding Paper Activity

I think one of the best things that comes out of growing in listening prayer is hearing what the Lord wants to communicate for someone else when you’re praying for them.

One of the things we do is to have a group of 3-4 and take turns all praying for one person. When we do group prayer and pray for a person, it’s usually to encourage them. And it’s things that God wants to say to them about their situation now, who they are. And when you have 3 or 4 people doing that, it’s fun because you can be affirmed in your ability to listen when there is a similar theme with someone else because we all have the same Holy Spirit!

But if you’re not confident yet in listening to the Spirit and praying that over someone, one of the activities you can do to grow in listening for a person is the Folding Paper Activity. You start by writing a name on the top of a piece of paper and we fold it back so nobody can see it. Because sometimes when you know someone, you start projecting what you want to pray into them. But you fold it over so you can’t see the name, and you pass it out randomly. You don’t know the name on the paper you have but you start listening to God for about 5 minutes and write down whatever you get. Then fold it over so that your words are covered and everyone passes it to the person on their right and listen again.

After you’ve gone enough times that everyone in the group has prayed over one person’s paper (e.g. 6 times if you have a group of 6), unfold the top to see the name and hand the paper back to that person. After everyone has had a chance to read through the words, you can let people share with the group something that stood out to them, that encouraged them, or a theme that they noticed.

And yes, you will have listened for yourself on your own paper without knowing it. Sometimes that’s the most interesting one, because the Lord speaks something to you and you don’t know who it’s for, but it ends up being a word for you! We had one person say – “I feel like I heard this encouragement when I was praying and wrote it down, not knowing it was my piece of paper. I have a hard time believing these words for myself but when hearing it from God for someone else I believed it! So I should believe it for myself as well!”

It would get to a place in our group that when I was handed the piece of paper and couldn’t see the name, I would start listening and God would show me the same thing about that person and I would know who it is. He showed Ellie flying, or he showed Stephanie in a garden, or he would always say about Julian, ‘this is my friend.’

It’s really affirming to get that because I’m hearing God! It’s not that I’m the one giving them some Word but God is. Because I want to be like Philip when he gets close to the Ethiopian eunuch, recognizing God’s voice and having the boldness to say it. So you’re building that when you practice in a group and it’s a safe place to build that.

In general for an activity like this or as you’re learning how to listen for other people, it’s better to keep things more towards encouragement than towards exhorting or rebuking. If you have a strong sense that a word of exhortation is from the Lord, you might make a note of it and bring it up to a person privately, or to your leader and ask them to give their discernment about if and how to share it.

How Do I Know If It’s God Speaking?

On a trip to the Middle East, we were trying to meet new people on campus and talked about listening to God with a Muslim girl. She asked, “How do I know it’s from God?” That’s a great question – many times that can be our biggest fear when it comes to listening prayer. How do we know it’s from God? This is where discernment comes in. 

• Test the spirits: 1 John 4:1 tells us to “not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” John goes on to give us a clear parameter in verses 2 and 3. “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” In discerning listening prayer, John highlights that things that affirm the Lordship of Jesus are from the Spirit. Anything that disagrees with that is not from God.

• Consistent with Scripture: I’ll reemphasize that these posts are not trying to change anyone’s theology. But I think any theological background would agree that whatever we receive through listening prayer should be consistent with Scripture. If you hear anything that explicitly contradicts Scripture, that should be disregarded. Additionally, even if something you hear is consistent with Scripture, no word that we get from listening should be elevated on the same level as or above Scripture. Many times, if you hear something in listening prayer, we’d encourage people to find 2 or 3 verses that support that word or at least speak on that topic, and interpret the word they hear together with Scripture.

• Fruit of the Spirit: Another passage that comes to mind when discerning if the Spirit is speaking is Galatians 5. Paul outlines desires of the flesh that are against the Spirit, and fruits of the Spirit that are borne out of walking with the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22). Does this word I’m hearing from the Spirit produce peace or dissension? Is it a gentle word or a harsh word? Is my motivation to share this out of love or out of being judgemental?

• Against Shame, Guilt, and Fear: In the opposite direction, if a word in listening prayer produces shame, guilt, or fear, we can be confident it’s not from the Lord. 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us that “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self control.” Shame, guilt, and fear keep us in a cycle of being afraid of God or against God. God speaks through the Spirit to draw us nearer to him. That is not to say that the Holy Spirit won’t convict of sin (John 16:8), and there may be things that you hear in prayer that lead to genuine conviction of sin and a desire for repentance. But that is different from guilt, shame, and fear.

• Encouraging towards Others: As a general rule, if you’re newer to listening prayer, we’d again say a good guideline is to keep towards things that are encouraging and uplifting. 1 Corinthians 14:3 says, “the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.” If there’s words that you think might be for someone towards exhortation, write it down, pray about it and check it, run it by other community or leaders, and plan to share it carefully. With encouragement, it’s much easier and safer to go ahead and share it for someone else’s edification!

• Affirmed in Community: Paul in Ephesians 4:4 tells us that we have one Spirit – meaning that when we hear things in listening prayer, hopefully the Spirit is saying those same things to others as well! This is not to say that every time you do listening prayer in a group, everyone will agree. But if there is disagreement, or other people hear what you share and there isn’t peace, it’s worth figuring out what exactly is happening underneath. That’s why we encourage people to practice listening prayer in a safe space with trusted community. When we start to do listening prayer exclusively on our own, and tell other people that “God told me this” and won’t take feedback or disagreement from community, we run the risk of falling into pride.
• Glorifying God and Advancing His Kingdom: Lastly, words from God will bring glory to God and help to advance His Kingdom. So much of the book of Acts contains examples of the disciples hearing from the Lord in prayer and being filled with boldness to share the gospel even in the midst of persecution. The Lord will bring to mind people and places that you are meant to show love to and share the gospel with!

Conclusion

We (Steven and Jenn) want to thank Steve Dekkers so much for contributing his wisdom and insight in these posts on listening prayer! We hope these guidelines and activities will be helpful to you as you continue learning how to hear from the Spirit.

Lastly, we wanted to leave you all with one more exhortation and encouragement.

In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul leaves some final thoughts with the church in Thessalonica, including to pray without ceasing. In verse 20, he gives a short but direct command: “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.”

Some might think, “I don’t need listening prayer since I have the Bible.” But so many of the examples in the Bible show a rich, two-way communication between God and His people. And Paul explicitly tells us to not quench the Spirit by throwing away anything that might come from prophecy or listening. It comes with the caution to test those prophecies and hold fast to what is good. But we are commanded to not quench what the Spirit is trying to tell us. Listening prayer is one of those ways that the Lord might be trying to speak with you, in order to increase the intimacy of your relationship with Him! Will you respond to Him?

And our encouragement is this – when you begin to familiarize yourself with His voice, your abiding and fruitfulness will surely increase! Steve has mentioned a few examples of why it’s so important to learn to hear God’s voice as workers on the field out of necessity. But listening prayer can also become one of your most powerful tools to see the gospel multiply among the unreached.

Some of our friends have helped to catalyze one of the biggest movements in the world with hundreds of thousands of churches planted, and their case study is called the Listening movement. One of their main tools when hitting roadblocks or setting goals is simply, with their partners, to stop, ask the Lord, and listen.

“Prayer is the work. Listening is an important part of prayer. There have been so many changes along the way and so many questions: What’s next? Should we work with this person? What should we train? Is this a dead end? We’ve had so many questions and we’ve learned to sit and wait for God’s answer. Usually he gives the expat team and our national partners the same answers, and we don’t even know it until our next biweekly meeting.”

– Listening Movement Leader

It’s a humbling reminder to us that the work belongs completely to the Lord. He knows our steps, and He is the one who has prepared good works for us to step into. How limited are we if we aren’t listening to what He wants for us, in every moment of every day? And if we would stop and humble ourselves to hear from Him, how much more fruitful and abiding could we become?

Prayer is first of all listening to God. It’s openness. God is always speaking; he’s always doing something. Prayer is to enter into that activity…Convert your thoughts into prayer. As we are involved in unceasing thinking, so we are called to unceasing prayer. The difference is not that prayer is thinking about other things, but that prayer is thinking in dialogue…a conversation with God.

– Henri Nouwen

Guest Contributor: Steve Dekkers

For cross-cultural workers, the sentence “I don’t know what to do!” can come up every hour! Away from familiar resources, cultural understandings, and support structures, serving in ministry overseas is a challenge and an opportunity to depend on God. Learning to hear God’s voice is a critical component for thriving and in pioneering ministry. However, many of us feel under-experienced or confused with the topic of listening prayer.

Our guest contributor Steve Dekkers is a missions mobilizer and trainer based in Texas, who is someone we (Steven and Jenn) have greatly benefitted from in learning about prayer and the Holy Spirit. These posts are adapted from a training that Steve has given on listening prayer that is our favorite!

These posts on listening prayer will provide some biblical foundations around the topic of listening prayer, give some different activities to engage in listening, and help you know how to discern God’s voice in your listening.

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Disclaimers

First, I want to start with a disclaimer that there are many different theologies, church backgrounds, and personal experiences. Listening prayer might be a topic that is familiar for some or can range from confusing to unsettling for others. This post is simply an introduction, so my encouragement is to keep pressing in and learning and following up as the Lord leads. Curiosity about this topic has helped drive many people to learn more about listening prayer, and that’s been my journey as well.

This training isn’t meant to try to change your theology. I’ll try to share as much as I can about where I see this in Scripture, but I also acknowledge that a lot of peoples’ perspectives about listening prayer are heavily influenced by their own personal experience, mine included.

If you read this and don’t agree with what is shared, that is OK! My suggestion is to read this with an open mind and allow the Lord to search your heart and see if there’s anything here that will be beneficial to your relationship with Him. Seek out others that practice listening prayer and ask them questions.

Secondly, for those that want to learn more about listening prayer and how God speaks, this is a process. I want to make it very, very safe, especially if you try some of these activities and don’t have a strong sense that you’re hearing anything or get something specific! 

It’s completely safe and OK to feel like you didn’t hear something. It takes a lot of faith and boldness to try and listen. But it also takes boldness to say, I didn’t get something even though it kind of feels like you’re supposed to. There’s no shame there because you’ve tried and that’s OK.

Also, it might not be your role for a certain time. Your role might be to receive from someone else that has heard something and shares it with you. That doesn’t mean you don’t have God or you’re not saved. It actually means that God is probably communicating to you in lots of other ways. In listening prayer, it’s OK not to get something.

In our training group where we practice listening prayer, we had a guy named Joe who embraced that. He wasn’t resistant to listening prayer, but He would listen and a lot of times just think of Scripture. And that is also from the Lord!

It’s important to continue seeking and engaging, preferably in a safe place with your community. As you pursue God in this process, I’m confident you will grow in hearing His voice!

The God of the Bible is a God who Speaks

The God of the Bible is a God who speaks.

Before we talk about how to engage in listening prayer, this is something we need to be confident in from Scripture. In Genesis 1, God introduces Himself to all the world as the God who speaks creation into existence. And He continues speaking in all of the pages of the Bible to the very end.

God is a communicating God. There’s some examples like Esther and Ruth where they are just trying to be obedient in the situations they are in and see God at work through that. But there are even more examples like Jonah, Moses, Samuel, David, Philip, Paul, Peter, and many more where they communicate with God pretty directly, through prayer and through the word of the Lord coming through other people. We’ll give a few examples here that include different ways that God communicated to His people.

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

In Acts 8, we see God communicating with Philip to evangelize to the Ethiopian eunuch. In verse 26, “an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’” Philip doesn’t even know the purpose of this instruction, he just hears from an angel messenger to go and he obeys.

When he gets to that area on the road to Gaza where the Ethiopian eunuch is traveling, “the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over and join this chariot.’ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’”

Philip’s there by the side of the road, and sees the Ethiopian eunuch who he knows is royalty. Philip hears the Spirit tell him to go near the chariot, and he runs towards it! From anyone’s point of view, Philip looks like a robber. There’s no reason for him to run towards a chariot!

But Philip obeys and RUNS immediately upon hearing the Spirit’s voice. He doesn’t say, “What’s that voice? Was that God? I don’t know if I’ve heard God speak before.” Philips hears and runs to the chariot. He shares the gospel with the eunuch and baptizes him immediately by the side of the road. Church tradition says that this Ethiopian eunuch may have been one of the first to bring the gospel into Africa.

When we are in an unreached place and out on the road and the Spirit tells us to go towards a person that He has prepared to hear the gospel, will we RUN forward in obedience? Will we be able to recognize His voice?

Samuel

We see another example of God communicating clearly with Samuel. At this time, they already have the Torah from Moses. But the early Jews knew that they were supposed to continue to receive the word of the Lord – not to just get the Torah and be done. After Moses, God spoke through prophets to the people of Israel. But 1 Samuel 3:1 says “the word of the Lord was rare in those days, there was no frequent vision,” which must have been really concerning.

Eli is the priest and Samuel is serving as a boy. In this story, the Lord calls out to Samuel but Samuel gets confused and thinks it is Eli calling him. Eli perceives that it’s God calling out to Samuel and encourages him to answer, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.”

God gives Samuel a prophecy about Israel. God begins communicating with Samuel directly and “Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground… and the word of Samuel came to all Israel.”

Even when it feels like we haven’t heard God’s voice for a long time, or maybe if we feel like we have never heard God’s voice, He can still start communicating with us at any moment! Can we posture our hearts like Samuel to say – “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.”

David

Next you have David. Saul is a king that prophesied a few times but he has Samuel as his main connection to hearing the Lord. But David actually starts to operate as a prophet, a priest, and a king!

9 times in 1^st and 2^nd Samuel it says that David inquires of the LORD. When David inquires, he is specific, and he is obedient. He asks specifically of God, what do you want me to do? Should we go here? Will we have victory? He waits for God’s response and obeys.

The best example of this is in 1 Samuel 30, where David and his men go to battle but return to their city to see that the Amalekites have raided their city and kidnapped all the women and children. David and his men “wept until they had no more strength to weep” and “the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord” (1 Samuel 30:4, 6).

This is probably one of the hardest points in David’s leadership. But he does something unbelievable here, with his people ready to stone him. 

He inquires of the Lord. 

Should I pursue, will I overtake them? And God says yes and that he will rescue them.

What else is David supposed to do here except pursue?! The people would’ve certainly stoned him. But David doesn’t do what is obvious, doesn’t do what his followers expect, doesn’t do what he thinks is right – he obeys the Lord after he inquires of the Lord. David is a man after God’s own heart, and he knows God’s heart by communicating with Him.

Cornelius and Peter

In the book of Acts, we see some types of communication from God that are more apostolic in nature. And what I mean by that is the Holy Spirit is guiding the Apostles and disciples to bring the gospel to places it has never gone, because the church is just beginning and spreading.

But later in the Epistles you see words that are more about sanctification in nature. These words are bringing us to look more like Christ, focusing on our union with Christ and oneness with Him.

In Acts 10, we also see a few different ways that God communicates. Cornelius gets a message from an angel to find Peter and tells him exactly where to find him. So he sends three men to find Peter.

At the same time, Peter goes into a trance while he’s really hungry and praying. So that’s maybe how you know you’re doing fasting and prayer well – you’re so hungry that you go into a trance and have a vision!

Peter gets a vision three times about supposedly unclean animals that God says that he can kill and eat. But God says it’s OK. And as Peter is thinking about this vision, the three men are at the gate, and the Holy Spirit tells Peter, “Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.”

So there’s three types of communication just in this short passage – the angel giving a message to Cornelius, Peter receiving the vision from God, and the Holy Spirit literally saying to Peter what he’s supposed to do, to go with the three men. And the rest of the book of Acts is completely transformed by this moment because it opens the door for Gentiles to come into the Kingdom.

Ways that God Speaks

Now we’ve seen several different people in different times hear from God in different ways – visions, angels, prayer, hearing the Spirit’s voice directly, and through prophets and leaders.

In John 10, Jesus says that the sheep hear the Shepherd’s voice and “the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”

The sheep know the Shepherd’s voice.

So that’s just my word of encouragement to you as you begin to hear God speak. You know your Shepherd’s voice. God is already communicating with you!

The sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

John 10:4

This was my “ah-ha” moment as someone taught me about listening prayer. When you’re praying and certain thoughts, words, Scripture passages, images, songs, visions, impressions, and even emotions enter your mind and heart, that is the Holy Spirit speaking! It really is!

Sometimes when the Spirit is speaking, it might be accompanied by certain emotions like peace or love or joy, or even physical expressions like warmth, waves of tingling moving down your body, goosebumps, or feelings of electricity.

As you hear those things, write them down even if it feels like it’s from left field. Obviously the random distracting thoughts like “what am I going to eat for lunch” or “what’s the score of the game” are probably just your own mind. In part 2 we will talk about a way to quiet your mind to remove distractions and find a place to meet Jesus and hear from him. We’ll also address the more difficult part in discerning whether some things you hear are from your own mind or are from God. 

But I want to help you grow to be confident in knowing that it was God who spoke. The more you know and recognize God’s voice, the more you’re going to stand on that rock until He gives you a new word, and continues to communicate with you more and more.

God Speaks to Be With Us

In many of these biblical examples, there’s a lot of instruction from God about what people should do. And that can be a strong motivation for cross-cultural workers as well when they are seeking God’s voice through Scripture and prayer – what am I supposed to do?

It can be really great when God tells you to go do something, and you go do it and it feels like it was exactly right. But a lot of what God tells you in listening prayer will be about your identity because he wants you to be loved and to be in him. He tells you about identity so you can be one with him.

If we read and study Scripture to increase our knowledge but miss out on loving Jesus more, we have missed the point. Jesus says to the Jews in John 5 that “you search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”

In a similar way, if our only motivation to increase in listening prayer is to receive guidance in what to do or receive just what we need but not to enter into deeper relationship with Jesus, we may also be missing the point.

Throughout his time with the disciples, there is plenty of instruction from Jesus to the disciples about what they are supposed to do. But in Jesus’ final words to the disciples, he says that he no longer calls them servants but friends. In his final prayer for the disciples in John 17, he prays for our unity, our joy, our sanctification, our perseverance, and ultimately that we would know Jesus in the Father. “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

It was a journey for the disciples to grow in their relationship with Jesus, and it’s a journey for each of us to grow in further maturity in our relationship with Jesus and that’s OK. Our prayer lives start with being like toddlers – “Look at me!” And we’re the ones talking and talking and talking at Jesus. Then it goes to being like a teenager believer, who is like, “I need this, I need that.” Eventually we get to the point of more maturity where we are experiencing oneness with Jesus. Where we’re in tune with him, we’re interacting and communicating with him. We don’t only ask for things or even ask what we’re supposed to do, but we ask him about his heart, about his desires, about what he wants us to know about ourselves.

For sure, it pleases God when we hear and obey his voice. But let our motivations to hear his voice mirror his heart, “that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Questions for Reflection

1. What hesitations or doubts do you have about listening prayer? Offer those to God and ask Him to speak to you.
2. What are other stories in the Bible where God communicates? Do you believe He could communicate with you in those ways? Why or why not?
3. Have you ever felt like the Holy Spirit was speaking? What method did it come by (image, emotion, words)? What happened after hearing from God?
4. What is your motivation for increasing in listening prayer? Ask God to help you align your heart to His in seeking His voice.

Read Listening Prayer (Part 2).

10 years on the field – in ministry leadership and through a pandemic, cancer, and role transitions – has felt like the equivalent of 20 years in comparison to what life was like back in the States before we launched. As many have said, life overseas consists of high-highs and low-lows. Those events and the ways we’ve been impacted by them have changed us significantly.

We had the privilege to take our first sabbatical this past year to reflect on the past 10 years and look forward to the next season. I ended up timelining personal, team, and ministry events over the past 10 years and drawing key themes and lessons from each year and each term.

In the last 10 years, we have…

Personal

• Moved to 8 different apartments
• Taken over 400 flights, traveling for 50%+ of the year for 4 of the 10 years
• Fought each other every day for our first year in Thailand
• Missed 20 weddings our first year in Thailand, including 3 weddings of our teammates
• Missed the births of nephews and nieces, and the funerals of grandparents
• Lived through a pandemic lockdown overseas (with Animal Crossing)
• Were repatriated for a medical emergency
• Endured 18 months of cancer treatment including surgery, radiation, and chemo
• Burned out and were ready to quit ministry
• Fostered 2 sassy bunnies
• Served for 6 years on our organization’s executive leadership team
• Transitioned out of our original sending organization to start our own new ministry
• Took 6 years to finish a 2 year seminary degree

Team

• Onboarded or helped our team leaders onboard 22 teammates (and counting!)
• Seen 8 teammates leave the field
• Expanded our original team to 3 new teams

Ministry

• Seen our teams train over 1000 Thai believers in disciple-making and church-planting
• Helped train and oversee 30+ Thai church planting teams throughout Thailand
• Seen God begin to multiply our Thai partners’ ministry in disciples and churches, including 1000+ professions of faith
• Developed, with teammates and Thai partners, a training handbook for planting multiplying churches in Thai

The category of items that were uncountable:

• Hours sitting in traffic
• Roaches and vermin killed or chased away (or that we ran away from)
• Hours waiting at immigration
• Intolerably spicy Thai meals, and related trips to the bathroom
• Misspelled and mispronounced Thai words
• Exhaustion naps
• Video calls around the world
• Team meetings, corporate prayer times, and worship sessions
• Times crying out to God in weakness and desperation
• Discernment, peace, blessing, and power given by the Holy Spirit in response
• Difficult conversations
• Hours spent walking with teammates through major health, sin, and life issues
• Minor and major health issues endured by us, our team, and our partners
• Stories of answered prayer, healings, deliverance, and salvation
• People around the world, especially and including teammates and Thai friends, who prayed for us, encouraged us, and supported us

I’ve looked over this list a few times, and even in bullet form, it is difficult not to feel the flood of emotions, the weightiness, the intensity of what this list represents. It has been a story of our weakness, self-dependence, and shortcomings coming to the surface in the midst of difficulties, challenges, and conflict, and the Lord meeting us in faithfulness, intimacy, and power. The last 10 years have been so much fuller, more joyful, and more rewarding than I could’ve ever thought possible. And it has been so much more difficult, painful, and crushing than I could’ve imagined before we launched.

For the sake of posterity, I’ll write down a favorite ministry memory and a favorite team memory. In another post, I’ll share a few of the lessons and themes that came out of my sabbatical reflection.

I thought about writing out some of the most difficult memories, including the day of Jenn’s seizure or finding out about a teammate’s moral failure, but it is heavy enough looking at that list above without going deep into the really tough stuff. And I’ll also save the numerous funny and outrageous ‘life in Thailand’ memories for another time, including the pregnant rat mother or the cheez-it dust story.

Favorite Ministry Memory

There’s probably two dozen that could go in this spot, including:

• Our very first training in Mint’s province where their family made Khao Laam for us afterwards, one of my favorite Thai foods – a coconut milk and sticky rice with red beans dessert stuffed into a piece of bamboo and roasted over an open fire. Or whenever Mint’s mom made us dinner!
• The first house church training we did with Mint’s new believers when we asked, what can we use for communion, and an old grandpa in the back said, ‘I brought ginger juice and sticky rice for my snack – can we use this?’ It felt like a 5 loaves and 2 fishes moment for our very first communion with a new house church that had come out of our ministry.
• One of the first house church gatherings we went to, when we sat in a circle with a room of mostly brand new believers and cried out in worship, “God heal our land that your name would endure forever!”

But the very favored one that comes to mind is at the end of 2020. After Covid lockdowns for 3 months, Thailand mostly reopened and our partners continued to push forward and see new believers and churches nearly every week. After 2 years of a crazy whiplash of travel and trainings and an explosion of new fruit, our partners coordinated a big celebration camp for all the church planters in the network, over 100 people from 30 teams in 20+ provinces in Thailand. We were big enough as a network to get shirts made! They chose สุดปลายแผนดิน to put on the shirt – “to the ends of the earth” from Acts 1:8.

After hearing countless stories of answered prayers, miraculous healing, deliverance, new believers, new churches, changed lives, sacrifice and suffering, trials and obstacles, and faithful obedience, our team prepared an activity to help each team receive vision from the Lord about where He was leading them to pioneer new churches. We grouped each of the 30 teams in 5 regions: North, Northeast, East, Central, And North-Central. We asked each team to listen to the Lord about 3 places they felt He was leading them to focus on in the next year. We told them that after 10 minutes of prayer and listening, to put a sticker dot on their province map on the wall of where they felt led to pioneer.

As these faithful church planters began putting stickers on maps, they looked like bright points of light against the background of the maps. Spiritual points of light in a land covered in darkness.

It was at that moment that I thought, “This work will continue through these people with or without us.” This was a prayer we had been asking for before we even launched, before we had even met these friends, before many of these people had ever started following Jesus.

And through this group, there was a legitimate chance that the promise of Habakkuk 2:14 could be fulfilled in Thailand – “that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

Overwhelmed and with tears flowing down my face, I had to go to a corner to sit down. After wiping my eyes, I looked over and saw my teammates similarly teary-eyed. And next to them were some of the regional leaders, those that we had trained the earliest like Mint and Talia, also crying. It was God showing all of us that the vision He had promised was beginning to be fulfilled.

Less than 6 months later, Jenn and I would be on a plane being repatriated back to the States for cancer treatment. We wouldn’t return for over 18 months, and the church planting network would encounter its most intense season of opposition, with Covid restrictions shutting down the country, Talia also being diagnosed with cancer, our network leadership team falling apart, and teammates coming off the field.

While we were gone, we weren’t sure how the ministry would go and had to release it to the Lord. Much of the work contracted during that time, but the thought I had during that 2020 celebration camp remained true – the work continued on even without us there. The past 2 years since coming back, we have had a season of ‘starting anew’ to help the network restart their momentum.

But just a week from now, we’ll have our first celebration camp with the whole network of church planters since 2020. Many of the people are different, and the people who remain like us, Mint, and Talia have been significantly changed.

Through trial and suffering and loss, the Lord has brought new life and new leaders and new believers and new churches in new areas that have never had the gospel. We continue to believe that this promise of Joshua 1 will be true for our Thai partners: “every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you,” until the gospel has gone to every people and place in Thailand.

Favorite Team Memory

There’s also way too many to count here, but I’ll bullet point a few favorites:

• Our pre-field team retreat where we tried to go through a desert survival scenario to figure out team dynamics and communication but we ended up all dying of thirst. Whoops.
• Our first team fellowship ever, where I told everyone to buy something on the street that looked interesting so we could potluck – 5 out of 7 people brought roast chicken because everything else looked weird!
• Late night McDonald’s as second dinner while watching Friends after 6 hours of meetings with our leadership team. This was a regular occurrence but some of my favorite times together with our leaders.
• Our sub-team getting together for a meeting during a heavy travel and training season where we all decided to put our heads down on the table for a power nap before starting our meeting because we’re all beyond exhausted.
• Thanksgivings and Christmases, including the Thanksgiving where I was super confused about why the turkey was so cold inside and burnt outside only to cut it open and find some mutant turkey breast that had a 3 inch layer of fat that wasn’t cooking – blegh.
• A family gathering in the States where we brought together all the parents on our original team to spend time together, celebrate, and honor our parents for their sacrifice and support in sending their children.
• A prayer activity with interactive stations at our team retreat in 2017 that Jenn and I frantically created 2 hours beforehand, but the Lord met us with intimacy and power. The last station was from Revelation 5:8, which references the “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” before the angels and elders proclaim Jesus’ worthiness among the nations. We had teammates write down prayers towards that final vision and put them in the bowls as an offering to the Lord.

The most impactful team memory however, is our last team celebration in 2019 as an original team before expanding into three teams in 2020. We deeply love and appreciate every teammate that has ever come through our teams in Thailand, but there was something special about our original team of 13. We were all so fresh faced, naive, earnest, and so-so-so not ready for what was about to happen. But we were together and we had each other in the midst of all that confusion and newness.

We had the vision to expand into multiple teams even before we launched, because of the uniqueness of the different contexts within Thailand (Buddhist/Muslim/Tribal) and because the Lord had blessed our team with multiple leaders. After 2 years of prayer, planning, and preparing the new team leaders, we had a final celebration as a team before we officially expanded.

We split into guys/gals time and the guys got to watch Muay Thai together. And we reflected on good and difficult times as a team. We worshipped and prayed together. And we celebrated all that God had done in and through us. Jenn and I prepared small gifts for each teammate as well.

We led a reflection exercise where we asked each teammate to think of 3 words that described them and described the team at the beginning and 3 words for themselves and the team now. Blue text is for personal words and black text is for team words.

Perhaps even more than the ministry fruit we got to celebrate together, this list of transformed lives and a transformed community is maybe one of my most cherished things from our time in Thailand.

From selfish, proud, naive, insecure, broken, superficial strangers to joyful, rooted in Christ, safe, abiding, thriving, tested, humbled, fruitful, impactful family. It’s such an unbelievable thing that God did in a short few years to knit us together.

At the end of the time, while crying the hardest I ever have in front of other people, I commissioned our teammates out to their new teams and fields of ministry in Thailand, and commended them to God as Paul does with the elders in Acts 20.

That time together marked a significant transition for us, as soon after we would be in different places, with different teammates added to the new teams, and Covid happening simultaneously with our team expansion. But wherever God will take us – to different cities, different organizations, or different countries – no matter what, that team will forever be family for us. And when those golden bowls of the prayers of the saints – including our prayers from that team retreat – get poured out at Jesus’ return, I’m sure that this family, clothed in white robes and together with those from Thailand we had the opportunity to impact, will save each other seats around the throne. Maybe afterwards we’ll have some McDonald’s.

How to Prepare

When we first started learning about this topic, a mentor told us, “Anecdotally, maybe 20-30% of spiritual warfare is what we would call a power encounter – overt demonic oppression, physical manifestations, dreams, nightmares, etc. But 70-80% of the warfare is through the Enemy’s temptation, lies, and attacking sin patterns.” It’s hard to know for sure, but in general, this has been the case in our experience as well – much of the warfare is conducted in our own hearts and minds.

Various Scriptures allude to this: 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” The counter to the Enemy’s attack is a sober mind, being spiritually vigilant and watchful.

2 Corinthians 10 says something similar: “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” The weapons of spiritual warfare destroy arguments, opinions, and thoughts, in order to obey Christ.

This is not at all to discount that the Enemy also attacks the physical – just look on any page of the Gospels or Acts – physical manifestations of demonic oppression abound, and the Kingdom coming includes deliverance from these types of bondages as well as spiritual and mental bondages.

If we know that much of the battle is in the spiritual realm and in our own hearts and minds, our preparation must reflect this.

A. Freedom in Christ

Part of the training that our organization does in training people for cross-cultural ministry is in freedom in Christ. It’s true that sanctification is a continual process from the time that we begin following Jesus until he completes that work by taking us home. But the part that is not talked about enough is that Jesus purchased freedom from sin for us! We can experience significant victory and freedom over sin patterns in our lives that we have felt like might be with us forever. This is a critical part of learning to thrive overseas; whether from the Enemy or from cross-cultural stress or a combination, your sin issues WILL come to the top. If you haven’t reached a place of significant freedom in Christ, these things will either be a significant barrier to thriving or effectiveness, and in many cases end up sending people home with a wake of carnage in the aftermath.

We believe understanding Union with Christ is a significant part of finding freedom – our own striving in sanctification is futile; surrender your sanctification to Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to will and to give power and to do the work of freeing us from sin.

Other helpful tools include Neil Anderson’s Steps to Freedom in Christ, and corresponding books Victory over the Darkness and The Bondage Breaker. Our recommendation would be to find someone who has gone through or even led others through the Steps to Freedom and have them lead you through it.

Professional counseling is also another helpful resource to help us uncover certain sin issues, bondages, unbelief we have about God, or deep-seated patterns from our family of origin that we might not have known about. Finding counselors that specifically work in the missions space is crucial. Many times, when you go through a candidate conference for missions agencies like Frontiers or Pioneers, you will have to do an assessment with a professional counselor that will bring these things up anyway. From what we’ve heard, the majority of people are either rejected or paused from going to the field to address these types of issues because if there are bondages left unaddressed, it will come up and derail a team, family, or individual.

Lastly, establishing a rhythm of confession, repentance, and accountability before you launch and while you’re on the field is a necessary element of finding freedom in Christ. See Jenn’s post on Heart Checks for Emotional Thriving to learn about Life Transformation Groups (LTGs).

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

James 5:16

B. Study and Memorize the Word

If the Enemy attacks our minds and hearts through temptations and lies in the context of spiritual warfare, then ignorance about how he engages in warfare is one of the biggest weak points for him to attack. Prepare for spiritual warfare by studying what the Bible says about it, and memorizing passages of truth to be your firm foundation when those lies come. Below is a list of passages to study and memorize before you go. When you’re aware that you’re engaging in spiritual warfare, recite and declare these truths out loud. This list isn’t exhaustive but are key passages for understanding and battling the Enemy.

C. Understanding the Spiritual Climate

In Jenn’s story about our first exposure to Thailand in the first post, we were completely overwhelmed because of our lack of understanding in spiritual warfare, lack of knowing the Word, and lack of perspective about spiritual realities in Thailand. Learning and praying through the spiritual realities of the place you’re going to can help to prepare you for warfare you may encounter.

For example, Thailand is a very spiritually charged place, where fear and power is the main worldview – fear of spirits is prevalent in everyday life. Therefore, studying passages and learning best practices about casting out demons was one thing that we tried to learn about before we launched and ask questions about when we arrived. I had never heard a story of someone being influenced or oppressed by demons when I lived in America, but in Thailand, every single person we talked to had an experience with it or knew about it. My worldview needed to catch up with the worldview of the people I wanted to serve and live amongst. Our team had to ask the question – how will these realities affect our ministry approach?

In America, spiritual warfare and influences may not be as overt – there are major patterns in our society and culture around materialism, comfort, anxiety, addiction, power. To think that there is not spiritual influence in these categories would be to ignore the Bible. In Thailand, from our studying of the culture, society, and history, there are major spiritual strongholds in sexual deviance (sex trafficking, prostitution, infidelity, gender confusion are all prevalent throughout Thailand), addiction (drugs and alcohol), and death / suicide (highest suicide rate in Southeast Asia), among other things. We needed to be on guard for our own hearts against these things, and be forming our discipleship processes around these topics. We’d heard too many stories of the long-term worker who ‘innocently’ started going to massage parlors by themselves and spiraling downwards until they left their families to engage in prostitution regularly in Thailand.

Pray, research, and ask questions about potential spiritual strongholds in the country you’re going to. What are major sociological issues in your country? What type of worldview do they have and what are specific examples of how it affects their spiritual and religious lives? What is the major religion in your country and how does it affect social, cultural, family, and personal lives? Ask experienced workers or local believers about their experiences with these things to get a practical understanding of how these issues play out in your country.

Indicators of Spiritual Warfare

One of the main questions around spiritual warfare is – how do we know when we’re undergoing spiritual warfare? On the one hand, we see from the Bible and from the places we’re going to that spiritual warfare and demonic influence is very real. On the other hand, we don’t want to be the boy who cried wolf and assign every toe stub and every errant thought as ‘I AM UNDER SPIRITUAL ATTACK!!!!’

Again, 1 Peter 5 reminds us to be sober-minded and watchful. Many times, spiritual warfare and personal sin issues of the flesh are not mutually exclusive – it can be the Enemy poking at an area where we are already weak. Below, we’ll talk about responses to spiritual warfare, and many times, the response can be similar in situations of personal sin issues or spiritual warfare, almost like antibiotics attacking a variety of bacteria. Here are some indicators that spiritual warfare or influence might be happening:

• Sin issues and random thoughts: sins coming up that you thought you had victory over and temptations or thoughts that come out of left field might be spiritual warfare. For example, one of our close friends brought their family on a vision trip to see if they would serve in Thailand long-term. Their young daughter, who was 9 years old at the time, would say things like, ‘Mom, you’re just going to leave me here aren’t you?’ She had never thought of or even imagined abandonment before but had these thoughts upon arriving in Thailand. Many times, children can be more spiritually sensitive than adults, and parents should have particular focus in checking in with how their kids are doing. Teammates in their first few weeks in Thailand had sudden and random thoughts of self-harm that had never come before. Situations like these might be spiritual attack.
• Physical symptoms / feelings: nausea, headaches, feelings of uneasiness, feelings of lack of peace or fear can all be signs of spiritual warfare. They also could be the intensity of cross-cultural stress, but many times, some of these feelings might come out of nowhere or be triggered by something. As Jenn mentioned, when we went on prayer walks through temple areas, engaging in direct spiritual warfare, we would literally cross over the threshold of the temple and be immediately hit by headaches, uneasiness, and nausea.
• Nightmares and difficulty sleeping: Many times, we are especially vulnerable in situations of sleep! Spiritual warfare can come in the form of vivid nightmares and difficulty sleeping.
• Works of the flesh vs. fruit of the Spirit: Galatians 5 and 1 John 4 give us some of the clearest indicators of good vs. bad spiritual influence. In Galatians 5 we see two opposing lists – the works of the flesh juxtaposed against the fruit of the Spirit. Decisions, words, thoughts, actions that bring about the fruit of the Spirit in love, joy, peace, patience, etc., and that point to the Lordship of Jesus, are from the Holy Spirit. Things that cause dissension, immorality, anger, strife, and that point away from Jesus as Lord are from the Enemy. Use Galatians 5 and 1 John 4 as grids to discern and test the spirits.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, [3] and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

1 John 4:1-2

• Inability or difficulty in feeling God’s presence or hearing His voice: Like our friend who messed with the bell in the temple, many times spiritual warfare can cause disruptions in our ability to meet with God. If there’s something blocking your access to Him, it is worth evaluating if there was an opening for the Enemy to attack.
• Disunity and unforgiveness: One of the main places that spiritual warfare comes in is through disunity and unforgiveness among believers. Take special care that in your anger, ‘do not sin… and give no opportunity to the devil’ (Eph. 4:26-27). If you feel a conversation or conflict escalating from a 3 to 11, pull back and bring the group to prayer and repentance.

In almost all of these situations, there will be an aspect of discernment – is this my own flesh or is this spiritual warfare? And I think the Bible somewhat backs this up: the Enemy attacks the weak points of our flesh and sin, and so we need to be vigilant in holiness and in watchfulness against his attacks. The following responses address both these issues.

Best Practices Against Spiritual Warfare

These best practices are things we do regularly in order to stay vigilant against spiritual attack.

1. Abide in Christ and Be Filled with the Spirit. Regularly surrender your own control and desires and flesh and receive from Jesus. Daily times with God in worship, prayer, and Scripture are critical. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to fill you daily, hourly.
2. Put on the armor of God daily. Paul says in Ephesians 6 to put on the armor of God in response to spiritual attack. What does this mean? I pray and ask God every morning to help me put on the armor and go through each piece. But it’s not a magical incantation. The armor of God is embodying the salvation, righteousness, truth, peace, Spirit, and Word of Christ within us to protect us from the Enemy’s distractions, lies, attacks, accusations. So I go through and ask myself the questions: “Where am I not living out of the assurance of salvation that Christ has given me and where am I living out of fear and doubt?” “Where am I not believing truth?” “Where do I not have peace?” “Where am I unrighteous?” “Am I living out of the Spirit’s power or just my own strength?” “Am I consulting and armed with the Word in my life today?” Evaluate where you’re missing the armor and rectify it through prayer and confession.
3. Regular confession and repentance. We’ve already mentioned regular accountability groups through LTGs – be proactive and depend on your brothers, sisters, and teammates to help you avoid opportunities for the Enemy to attack!
4. Prayer over places you stay and praying for protection as you go. Whenever we are staying in a new place, we pray a quick prayer over that place – that any spirit that is not of Jesus in that place would leave, and that this place belongs under the authority and Lordship of Jesus! And as we enter into any situations, we are praying for God’s protection and the filling of the Spirit with us, particularly in more dangerous situations like conflicts with others, spiritually charged locations like temples or red-light districts, and when engaging in prayer walks or evangelism.

Responses to Spiritual Warfare

When you encounter these situations where there are indicators of spiritual warfare, what do you do? Here are some responses to follow while actually in the event of a spiritual attack:

1. Immediately bring it to the Lord in prayer. Pray out loud. Pray according to Scripture – that the Enemy has no power over those that belong to Jesus. Invite the presence of the Holy Spirit to come.
2. Invite in community ASAP, bring things into the light. One of the biggest mistakes that we can make in situations of spiritual warfare is to keep it quiet – this is exactly what the Enemy wants as he is the father of lies. But those lies lose power when they’re exposed. For these sin issues or disruptive thoughts, find a brother or sister in Christ and tell them about it as soon as possible. Have them pray over you, and if appropriate, take steps in accountability during that period of attack (perhaps keeping someone from opportunities of self harm, or addictive substances, for example).
3. Quote and declare Scripture out loud. The giant list of Scripture above speaks to the truths of who Christ is, who we are in him, and how little the Enemy has power over us. Speak out and declare these Scriptures to strengthen your faith through the truth of God’s Word.
4. Play worship music and worship. Psalm 22:3 says that God inhabits the praises of His people – worshiping God brings his presence and is a direct act of spiritual warfare. When her children were experiencing spiritual warfare through nightmares, one of our mentors would take a portable speaker with an unending playlist of worship songs and simply play it on the lowest setting in the corner of her kids’ room – bringing them peaceful sleep!
5. Have experienced believers or spiritual leaders pray over you. If certain spiritual warfare subsists beyond initial responses, it can be helpful to find other people experienced in spiritual warfare, or spiritual leaders like elders, to come pray for you.

Conclusion

The topic of spiritual warfare can feel confusing, scary, and overwhelming for many of us that don’t have a lot of experience with it. I’ll be honest – when we first started encountering situations of demonic oppression and even seeing some of our Thai partners cast out demons regularly, it was pretty scary for us! One of our close Thai partners, similarly nervous about these situations, would just repeat 1 John 4:2 somewhat tongue in cheek – พระเยซูเป็นพระเจ้า which means “Jesus is Lord” over and over again, just in case!

But Scripture repeatedly declares the Sovereignty of God over the Enemy, that he was defeated by the Cross and will be destroyed completely at Jesus’ return. So we don’t need to fear, but instead can focus on being filled with Christ, sober-minded, and watchful.

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

1 John 4:4