“At age 23, I made one of my life’s most dangerous yet necessary prayers,” said Jess Shao on the second day of the 5th annual Burning Hearts Conference.

All ears, the audience listened in for the words that would change the next 28 years of Shao’s life: “Father, I have lived life without consideration of You. I want to turn a new page, a blank page, the pen is Yours – write as you wish.”

This began a rollercoaster journey that saw Shao and his wife serving as pastors of English ministries within the Chinese Church in the US and him being appointed to lead the Chinese ministry at the International House of Prayer of Kansas City (IHOPKC), among other adventures.

Now 51 years old, the director of the Forerunner Leadership Institute in Taiwan can look back on his life and say that this was only possible because his decision-making – his inner GPS – had been guided by the same words that Jesus uttered when he was just 12 years old.

“Don’t you know I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49)

PRAYER REVEALS OUR NEXT STEP

At 30 years old, Shao graduated from seminary. A brilliant student, he topped his class and professors recommended him doctoral programmes and even invited him to return to the seminary as a staff.

He said: “I went back to the very basic posture of prayer – reaching for alignment with God.”

If Shao was to be about his Father’s business, he needed to know what that was. He wanted to know what his specific assignment was, and who better to ask than the Father himself?

Shao struggled with these thoughts: “What I’m hearing is great and godly, but what do I need to do?” 

Then came God’s reply: “I designed a PhD programme for you… You don’t have to fill up applications or even relocate, you just have to say that you want to apply, and you’ll have instant acceptance.”

One feature of this personalised programme that God had prepared for him? “You will earn this degree on your knees,” he remembered being told.

“I’m inviting you to keep tracking with me, to be someone who pursues prayer to the depth that prayer allows. I want you to be a man of prayer.”

Shao knew that all the other options were perfectly good opportunities that he could pursue, but knowing what was on God’s heart for him – to be a man of prayer – made the decision clear. 

He took on a job at a local Chinese church in California where he lived, and through his work there he became a student of “advanced studies in prayer”. 

“Wherever we are placed becomes our context to express prayer,” said Shao, who eventually went on to become the director of the Chinese ministry at the headquarters of IHOP in Kansas City.

HOW CAN PRAYER BE ENJOYABLE?

“I had an internal paradigm that prayer was my primary thing,” Shao later shared with a smaller group during his breakout session in the afternoon.

He reframed the paradigm of prayer: “We’re pressing in for enjoyable prayer, not oppression.”

“I don’t have to oppress people (to pray) the same way you don’t have to oppress people into going to a restaurant they like,” Shao quipped.

“Do you dare to contend for something that’s beyond your experience? Whatever you know about prayer and prayer meetings – God has something better.”

Drawing from his experience in gathering people to pray, Shao and other leaders of prayer movements shared practical ways to experiencing a more enriching prayer life. The other panellists in the breakout session were:

1. Josh Yeoh, founder of the Penang House of Prayer 
2. Susy Park, director of Kingdom First Prayer Tabernacle in South Korea
3. James Lee Lacaden, founder of the Vigan House of Prayer in the Philippines

3 TIPS FOR PRAYER 

Tip #1: Set very simple goals

Begin by setting aside 2 minutes each time, 3 times a day. Set an alarm to remind you. It’s just 2 minutes!

If you need to quiet yourself before God, don’t even pray about anything. Just let your existence connect with His existence… let your spirit connect with His Spirit.

Begin to appreciate the truth that you were designed to connect deeply with God and enjoy His presence.

Many times you’d find that that 2 minutes will easily turn into 5, then 10, then 15 minutes – and that becomes your foundation for a sustainable prayer life.

Tip #2: Learn how to be inefficient with prayer

A word used in older translations of the Bible, in the passage where Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, was the word “tarry”.

“Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.” (Matthew 26:38 KJB)

To tarry is to stay for longer than intended. When was the last time we tarried with the Lord?

What if we were so “inefficient” with our time that we didn’t even finish the five verses we planned to cover because we tarried with the Lord on just one word.

If we spent three hours with God in prayer without even saying a word, is that a waste of time? Let God reveal to you that time spent with him is never wasted. 

The hidden place of prayer, says Park, is where we anchor ourselves and draw strength and security.

Tip #3: Get to know God 

Have you ever tried to sit for a long time with someone you don’t really know?

If we’re awkward with the Lord, Yeoh suggests it’s because we don’t know Him enough.

Really get to know him. Don’t just go through “to do” lists.

Our prayer language has to be more than our ministry or the things you want to see happen in your life. 

Are we so focused on our “kids” – work, ministry and even evangelism – that when we don’t talk about those things we find that we have nothing to say to the Lord? Can we have a wordless communion with Him that’s not driven by prayer lists? One where we linger in His presence?

Desire for a sweetness in your relationship with God that comes only through intimacy with Him.

The Burning Hearts Conference is running from Thursday-Saturday, July 18-20, 2019. Night sessions are open to the public and day passes are still available for Saturday.