By Doug Hazen
National Director for Mobilization Prayer, WorldVenture

I’ll probably never get over it.  I was in a room with my WorldVenture colleagues, discussing new strategies for helping people get on board with God’s work in the world.  We listed a couple of ideas and then God nudged me.  “Why don’t you just use my strategy… “Pray the Lord of the Harvest to send out workers into His harvest?”  I mentioned it and we all hung our heads.  Of course!  Prayer is the only true biblical strategy!  My boss pointed to me and essentially said, “Your role with WorldVenture has just changed.  Make prayer our strategy as an organization.”

Gulp! Help, God, I’m now #theprayerguy!  What do I do?  I decided to find that passage and see if it held any clues.  And did it ever!  First of all, the passage is Matthew 9:37-38 (also found in Luke 10:2).  And then, I discovered that the word translated “ask or pray” is one of the strongest words for prayer in the New Testament.  “Beg, beseech or implore” are all possible translations.  Not only that, the word for “send” is the same as the one used in Mark 1:12 when the Spirit “drove” Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.  I couldn’t believe it!  Is God this serious about getting workers mobilized that he would “thrust out” (Amplified) people in response to my fervent prayer?  Yes!  Talk about the best way to motivate Jesus followers to make more Jesus followers!  Prayer.  Fervent, desperate prayer.

Prayer was central to Mission ConneXion Northwest when Bill MacLeod, several others and myself launched it in 2001. No token prayer at the beginning of our meetings.  No, we prayed a LOT and still do.  As the first director of exhibits, I stressed the priority of prayer with anyone asking about mission ministry.  So it really is no wonder that a few of us, Dennis Fuqua, James Autry, Peggy Stuart and Gerry Breshears have been meeting together for over a year to launch Prayer ConneXion this May 13-14.  Dick Eastman and Pastor Dee Duke will challenge us to a level of prayer and power that you may not know existed. You won’t want to miss it!

I pray differently now. Forget praying merely for people interested in serving God.  I pray now for people who couldn’t care less.  Jesus said it.  “Pray earnestly for the Lord of the Harvest to thrust out workers into his harvest.”  Guaranteed answer by the God of the universe!  My job?  Pray!