(Job 34:30 AMP)
Just think about how communist leaders kept the Soviet nations of Eastern Europe in spiritual darkness for so many years! People there couldn’t read the Bible. They couldn’t go to church. It was against the law!
I remember what that was like. I still have a scar on my ankle from the time I tripped over some railroad tracks while running from the KGB during a ministry trip to the Soviet Union. I know how locked up the whole place was.
But, thank God, the Church started praying for that communist government to change. Believers started asking God to anoint and raise up leaders who would open the door for the Gospel. Those prayers prepared the way of the Lord. They made a highway for God.
When that highway was finished, the bastion of communism crumbled overnight!
God anointed an unsaved leader named Mikhail Gorbachev and somehow all the opposing forces around him were silenced while he worked out the plan of God in that nation. At the same time, God anointed a U.S. leader named Ronald Reagan—a man who, by his own admission, lived beyond his own natural vision—to win the cold war and open the way for the Gospel to be freely preached in Eastern Europe.
Looking back, it’s amazing to see how both Mikhail Gorbachev and President Reagan were anointed to fulfill the plan of God through their roles as national leaders. Why did they receive that anointing? Did they get it because they were such good men? Did they get it because they earned it?
No. They got it because the Church prayed.
Scripture Reading: Job 34:16–30
Excerpt permission granted by Lynne Hammond Ministries
On the chilly March night in 1972 when Lynne Hammond took her first step into a life of Spirit-led prayer, she had no idea what was about to happen. All she knew was the hunger in her heart for God wouldn’t let her sleep. In the few short months she’d been born again, her desire to fellowship with Him had grown so strong she could hardly contain it. “Help me, God!” she cried. “I want to know you. I want to be able to talk to you. Please, teach me to pray!”
Suddenly, a heavenly presence flooded the room. Lynne sensed waves of spiritual fire sweeping over her and a beautiful language began to flow like a river from within her. Although she’d never heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, she knew instantly, without a doubt—this was God!
What began that night soon blossomed into a life of prayer that ultimately became a ministry of prayer when, in 1980, Lynne and her husband, Mac, founded Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Under Lynne’s leadership, the prayer ministry at Living Word has become an internationally recognized model for developing effective pray-ers in the local church.
A teacher and an author, Lynne publishes a newsletter called Prayer Notes, has written numerous books, and currently serves as the national prayer director for Daughters for Zion. Her passion for inspiring and leading others into the life of Spirit-led prayer continues to take her around the world to minister to believers whose heart cry, like hers, is “Lord, teach me to pray!”