The Prayer Experiment: Discovering a Prayer That Could Change Your World by Dennis, Jay (Author) and Jeffcoat, Marilyn (With)

Chapter One

Discovering a Prayer That Could Change Your World

Impact ... gotta have it in order to make a difference in the world. I want it so badly in my Christian walk that I am willing to do whatever it takes to get it. This is the way I approach living my life, but sometimes God stretches me so far beyond the boundaries of my comfort zone that I often have to stop and reconsider what in the world I am doing. Since I became a Christian at age sixteen, I have been praying that God would increase my opportunities to have greater impact on my world. In fact, I have not just prayed for increased influence on my world, but I have been pushing the envelope in my faith expectations as I have begged God to increase my influence in the world.

Personal Journal

Friday, September 18

Trying to get away today was such a hassle! I knew it was going to be "one of those days" as soon as I walked out and discovered a flat tire on my car. As I changed the tire, I got grease or something all over my clothes, so back into the house I went to change into another set of "business casual." As I opened the front door to leave a second time, the dog bolted out the door. I had stopped again to chase this soon-to-be-an-orphan animal down the street, yelling, "Abbie! Abbie! Come here, girl!" Not a good start....

When I finally got on the road, I had to stop by the office for just a minute to grab something I needed to carry with me-and this turned into an hour and a half of crisis management ordeal! Now I was really running late. Once on the way, I was not quite sure which turn to take-because the sign was down-so I headed down what I thought must be the right road-and, of course, it wasn't! That only cost me another fifteen to twenty minutes. More and more it seemed like I wasn't supposed to go on this retreat....

And now that I am here, I am beginning to wonder if it was worth it. It's so hard to get away from my responsibilities at the church. Plus, I hate leaving Angie and the kids again. And then to go somewhere for the weekend to be with people I don't even know, for a purpose that God has not yet made clear.

Oh, God, this has been a tough day ... not so much for what all has happened, but for what has not happened. I can't imagine why you've led me here. What difference can I make among all these community and business leaders? I know I have prayed that you will increase my impact, but how can that be possible here? I've gotta be honest with you, Lord. I feel like such an outsider here-like such a nothing little weenie among all these hot dogs.

God, you are definitely putting my living-on-the-faith-edge commitment to the test this weekend! You know I am willing to venture anything if I know you are in it. So, please, Lord, reveal your purpose in my being here....

The story does not end here. God was writing a new chapter in my life.

Be Careful What You Pray For

I have learned to take faith risks because I have a tremendous fear that somehow I'm going to "miss God" or miss out on what he wants to do in my life if I do not. I want to experience God unleashed in my life and to know that I have-without reservation-allowed him to work in and through me. When I come to the end of my earthly existence and a tombstone records the dates of my birth and death, I want the little dash in between those dates-which tells the true story of my life-to symbolize that God did something so big through me that it was obviously of him. I cannot be satisfied with a putting-in-my-years-for-a-gold-watch mentality. I am not content with a just-barely-getting-by spiritual existence. I want to impact my world for the God who has radically impacted my life. It's the least I can do, and it is the highest for which I can strive to attain.

As a serious Christian who passionately believes in God's promise to empower his people through his Holy Spirit to impact a lost world, I have had serious doubts about that being fulfilled practically in the lives of those who say, "I'm a Christian." Often I find myself questioning what significant impact I am having in my sphere of influence and what difference the church is making in society today. I am obviously not alone in that feeling. A recent Gallup Poll indicated that 70 percent of eighteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds believe religion is losing its influence in American life. As I examine such surveys taken by both Christian and non-Christian pollsters, I am perplexed and increasingly troubled that we, as Christians, are making no measurable impact on lives and culture; yet, should this not be our passion?

When I discovered the prayer of Jabez, I found a prayer with which I could relate. When I tried praying it as a thirty-day prayer experiment, I found a prayer principle that changed my life, as well as the lives of thousands of others who dared to try it at my suggestion. While I make no claim that it is a sure-fire cure-all, I am convinced by years of repeated experimentation that this prayer experiment is a timely solution to a problem plaguing so many Christians: the lack of positive impact in the world. In detailing this experiment to you, I do not presume to be the Louis Pasteur of Christendom-only a fellow struggler who has desperately searched for a genuine answer to an important question, the question of meaningful impact in the world.

A word of caution to the wise: Be careful what you pray for, you might just get it-but not always the way you want it. If you choose to invest the time, energy, and faith necessary to perform this prayer experiment in your life, be prepared for some changes-dramatic changes-in your life. But these changes may not be anything you can presently envision. Time and again, I have seen this experiment turn individuals' lives upside-down and inside-out as they are reshaped for a new task. It has been amazing to watch God unleashed in experimenters' lives and ministries. God still does big things-even today. This prayer can change your world. Are you ready for it?

Just "Uh ... Christianity"

On one episode of The Simpsons, son Bart asks his father, Homer, what his religious beliefs are. Homer replies, "You know, the one with all the well-meaning rules that don't work in real life. Uh ... Christianity." I believe the greatest threat to Christianity and the American church today is the threat of indifference or being ignored. It seems to be making little difference that there's "a church on every corner," eighty-five percent of our population call themselves "Christians," and sixty-one percent of Americans say that religion is very important in their lives. Even though we are surrounded by an abundance of Christian books, tapes, CDs, radio programming, seminars, study resources, and Bible translations, positive Christian impact on culture and lives is not being felt as it should be. America has more unchurched people than the entire populations of all but eleven of the world's 194 nations! Most of them used to be churched but stopped attending. Influencing other people's lives is not the priority for Christians that it used to be. A recent Barna Research Group survey found that since 1991 born-again Christians have become less interested in influencing other people (48% vs. 30%) and in making a difference in the world (58% vs. 39%).

Warren Webster, veteran missionary to Pakistan, confessed before thousands of college students at InterVarsity's triennial Urbana Missions Conference this need for Christians to make a difference in people's lives. He said, "If I had my life to live over again, I would live it to change the lives of people, because you have not changed anything until you've changed the lives of people." Born-again Christians must once again realize the importance of making a difference in the world for the cause of Christ. We must possess the desire to change the world, to influence the lives of people who have in many ways become inoculated against Christianity. True "impact Christianity" is what our nation and world desperately need. Anything less is a failure on our part, as believers in Christ, to carry out the Great Commission mandate (Matt. 28:19-20) of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

To go from a prevalence of "uh ... Christianity" to "impact Christianity" in our culture does not call for more people calling themselves Christians; rather, it calls for us who call ourselves Christians ...

to become who we profess to be in Christ Jesus

to dynamically apply the truths of God's Word to our lives

to be transformed Christians in plain view of a lost, but seeking world

to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to make a significant difference in the world

to live as transparent, authentic Christians who contagiously infect the world

to make an obvious difference in the world that so desperately needs God's truth

If the Internet is a barometer of our contemporary mindset, then I find convincing evidence of the world's increasing curiosity and a deepening hunger for spiritual things. A recent report in the Wall Street Journal examines religion's staggering presence on the World Wide Web and its exponential expansion.

By some measures, religion is almost as big as sex online. Plug "God" into a Netscape search, and you'll get as many as 600,000 responses, remarkably close to the 775,000 sites listed for "sex." Yahoo! Inc. lists 17,000 sites devoted to religion and spirituality, compared with 12,000 about movies and 600 about home and garden.

In The Great American Paradox, David Meyers cites even higher "God" online stats: "As of August, 1999, 'God' could be found on 5.6 million websites."

Spiritual interest is not just reflected on the web, it permeates every aspect of our culture from movies to television programming, from books to magazine articles, from constructing Zen meditation gardens to dialing psychic networks. While today there is increased spiritual interest in Eastern mysticism, New Age thinking, and even witchcraft, we find there is a diminishing Christian influence in the world. With the world on a search for God, why is Christianity not making a bigger difference in people's lives? What should we as Christians and the church do to regain a genuine influence in people's lives? I believe that in order to influence our world, we must be willing to ask these kinds of hard questions and relentlessly to seek answers. That's where The Prayer Experiment is helpful.

Whassup?!

A popular commercial features some guys conversing with each other using a term that's been around for a while in a distinct-and somewhat annoying-way. Phoning each other, they ask, "Wha-a-s-s-u-up?!" My trying to convey in writing how they sound is more than a little challenging. This one-word, male-bonding greeting comes out of their mouths sounds something like a laryngitis-stricken Darth Vader coughing up a fur ball as he Ebonically greets Luke Skywalker. So, too, you may be asking, "Whassup with a thirty-day prayer experiment?"

Years ago while a student in seminary, I discovered the biblical recounting of what seemingly was an insignificant prayer by a "lesser known" guy in the Bible named Jabez. Making only one appearance in Scripture (1 Chron. 4:9-10), Jabez achieved distinction because he prayed. Here was a man who Scripture says was "more honorable than his brothers" (v. 9) and who impacted his world for God.

When I read the account of Jabez, something inside of me immediately resonated with this man. I knew I was like him in wanting to make a difference in my world. I thought that if what he did worked for him, perhaps it, too, could work for me. I knew that I wanted my prayers to make a difference-in my life and in the lives of others. As I read and reread Jabez's simple, but powerful, prayer, it became a profound reminder that God wants his people ...

to pray big to believe big to dream big to impact big.

I claimed his prayer as my own and began praying that prayer with the hope that God would "bless me indeed" (v. 10), as he had done Jabez.

Now, more than a decade later, this prayer continues to influence me everyday. As a result of this prayer, I have been amazed to watch mountains of impossibilities moved, countless "highly unlikelies" changed to glorious realities, and incredible miracles of God take place in my life and in the lives of so many other Christians.

In fact, without the prayer of Jabez's being such an important part of my life, I may have missed the opportunity to serve as pastor of my present church. You see, when I was approached by a search committee about my coming to First Baptist Church of Lakeland, Florida, as their pastor, I struggled to know what to do. Being a minister who's willing to go wherever God leads me has never exempted me from wrestling with him when faced with such an important decision. I believe most ministers do. For me, doing God's will doesn't present nearly so big a problem as finding it. In my decision making about this church, I earnestly sought God's will in prayer and in godly counsel. For six months I daily prayed the prayer of Jabez, not knowing where my praying would take me. I believed my responsibility was to pray it in faith, and it was God's responsibility to answer it in whatever way he chose.

The counsel came. Several friends in the ministry advised me to forget about considering Lakeland. They felt it would be a poor career decision for me to go to what was then a smaller church in a smaller city and for less money. "Hold off," they told me. "Something bigger and better will come along if you just wait a bit longer." With all of the counsel I received, I did not sense God in what I was hearing. The answer was not apparent.

As I lay in bed wrestling with the yet-unmade decision that I was supposed to share with the search committee the next day, God got my attention. He reminded me of that which I had been praying daily for months. Addressing my indecision and uncertainty, God spoke to my heart and said, "Jay, I am answering your prayer. Don't blow it!" Finally, I had my answer. In faith and without hesitation, I said, "Yes!" to God-and to the committee.

Later God reminded me of a telephone call I had received earlier that week from a friend who had heard I was talking with this church about becoming their pastor. After talking with me for awhile about the decision I was about to make, my friend said, "Jay, may I pray with you over the phone?"

"Certainly," I said.

Continues...

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