Think about Moses. Remember the experience he had with God out in the wilderness when he saw the burning bush? That remarkable encounter took place before Moses ever went into the land of Egypt to deliver his people from slavery.
Moses was walking through the wilderness, minding his own business. He probably wasn’t even thinking about the presence of the Lord. But just then God came and met Moses there on that mountain, and His holy, manifested presence changed Moses forever.
God’s presence made Moses resolute. It gave him purpose. It gave him both a plan and the knowledge that he could fulfill that plan because of the change God had wrought in him.
Before this burning-bush experience, Moses was in the same place we find ourselves in so much of the time. He’d gotten a glimpse of God’s destiny for him years before. But after making some mistakes, he’d put God’s plan on the shelf and settled into a life of tending sheep in the wilderness.
The same thing can happen to us. Every now and then as we’re praying or worshiping God, we might get a glimpse of the plan God has for us. But some of us keep putting that plan on a back shelf. We keep shrinking back from it.
Or sometimes we don’t have just a glimpse of the plan; we know exactly what God wants us to do. But we keep making excuses about why we aren’t following His plan.
Recently a businessman stopped to talk to me for a minute. He said, “You know, Sister Hammond, God wants me to do such-and-such with my businesses. But I don’t know what all my business associates would think if I did that.”
This man knew the will of God, but he wanted to obey God halfway. The other half of him wasn’t sure if obedience was worth the cost.
He isn’t an isolated case, either. Unfortunately, this is the testimony of too many Christians. God gives them a glimpse of His plan, but they decide they’re just not ready to do all God wants them to do.
They may want to cling to some things that hinder their Christian walk, such as relationships they know they should give up. So they shut God out because they don’t want to hear what He has to say.
People in that kind of spiritual state may wander in the wilderness for a long time – until they have their own “burning-bush experience” where God’s presence enters the scene to transform them and prepare them to fulfill His plan.
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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!”