It’s training camp season here at AIM’s base camp in Gainesville. We’ve got the Shearmans staying at our home and young people flowing through it. Many of them just want to hang out and many of them know they need prayer and are going to stick around until they get it. Sean Smith stuck around …
By Seth Barnes
It’s training camp season here at AIM’s base camp in Gainesville. We’ve got the Shearmans staying at our home and young people flowing through it. Many of them just want to hang out and many of them know they need prayer and are going to stick around until they get it. Sean Smith stuck around till 12:30 last night before we finally laid hands on him out on our porch. Dustin Unkle drove up from Atlanta because he knows there’s life in this house. When Clint Bokelman prayed for him around the campfire last night, Dustin got what he came for. Mark Newland is here from Vancouver soaking it up.

After Gary Black spoke last night to the new team (57 of them) of twenty-somethings going on the World Race, he made it easy if you wanted prayer. Just raise your hand. And the rest of us circulated through the crowd praying for them. I think almost everyone got prayer and many got breakthroughs. It’s an eager and humble bunch; if God has got something more for them, they are going to go after it. Guys like Ryan got prayed for by four separate leaders and kept soaking it up.
And why shouldn’t they? Prayer counselors like Mary Lou Jackson and Jim and Marsha Capo have stored up a lifetime of discernment and love praying for others. God usually speaks to them about what the person they’re praying for needs. And the results are obvious. Often I’d look at them and the person they were praying for was in tears or in some way visibly moved. Prayer does that for people.
I don’t understand why this doesn’t happen all the time in churches. Life is too stressful and our responsibilities too heavy to try and do it on our own. We need prayer. We need someone to lay hands on us and pray until God probes the cares of our heart and “the burdens of our heart roll away.”
Wherever you are, however isolated you feel, or however self-sufficient and comfortable you feel (maybe especially if you feel comfortable), do yourself a favor today and go get some prayer. Don’t let pride or inconvenience keep you from it. It is the church in action and God’s design for us to build one another up and protect one another. Around these parts, it’s as normal as telling stories around campfires and sipping coffee together in the kitchen the next morning. It brings life and connection and opens up the kingdom in new ways.
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Yep, good call. I definitely need to exercise more humility in this area.
AMEN!
good blogSeth,How taking a few minutes and praying for me,if the LORD gives you anything you can e- mail me.
Shalom,
Hugh
This is so true. There is a multitude of people walking around needing prayer and the resulting tangible touch of His love and power. Recently, God has crossed my path with a couple of complete strangers. One needed gas, the other a prescription. The needs were attended to, and in the end, both received prayer. I am convinced people are desperate for this, whether they know it or not. It’s something we need to both give, and receive. Thanks for keeping us ready to respond.
Prayer… ahhhh… Know this Seth, I will be praying for you, covering you, throughout this day! Be blessed!
Mary Lou Rocks! Even over the telephone her prayers for and with me had me trembling and crying and I had never before experienced anything so wonderful in prayer before her phone call. Prayer is now a craving rather than an obligation, it really is a two way conversation. Pray for me as I will be praying for all of you!
God Bless!
Josh
Yeah, I waste too much time waiting for people to come to me because they see a need. I know I need to be bolder and refuse to miss out on a blessing or a prayer.
Amen, Kim.
amen, c’mon! that’s the church i signed up for!
Aaahhhh! I’m jealous! (but a good jealous. . .) Sign us up for the January 09 Race training! Love you guys,
Wish I was there…but God has me here.
The Bible says if we have faith we will do what Jesus did and even greater. I just read this morning that He got in a boat and immediately the boat reached where they were heading…that would be a quick way to travel to GA. 🙂
Seth, as someone of this generation who you have devoted your life to training and discipling, I say that we too need to be praying for you as well as the other leaders. For those of you who pour out endlessly, I want to be on my knees crying out to God on your behalf too. So, just know that I am praying for you and for your leaders, and if the Holy Spirit moves me to pray something specific I will be sure to email you that prayer.
thanks, Andrea. It was different at the house tonight. With all the great fruit we’ve seen this week, behind the scenes, we leaders have been beat up pretty bad. One of us who is leaving another ministry in order to help lead this generation had his house broken into and his car damaged by people from his congregation who are wounded by his leaving. On top of that, he’s got a very painful medical condition. And like many of us, he wonders, “can I keep doing this?”
Without your prayers and the prayers of those like you, we’d die and close the doors. Thanks for listening to God and lifting us up. It means more than you know.
Seth, I am always blessed when I check your blog! Thanks for sharing.
I might wake up in the morning hearing the Lord whisper deep secrets in my spirit and sleep under the cover of angels wings. I might be the one who sees visions that are not of this world, or feel the power of God so strongly in my daily life that it nearly knocks me off my feet. But on Sunday in church, as I knealt on the floor asking God to release me more, He gave me a picture of a big white handle that disabled people or old people have bolted to the wall to help them up and down steps. The Lord said “you need help” So when the call for prayer was given I was there, hands out ready to recieve.
It makes no diffence who we are and what are calling is, we still need one another to pray for us.
Pray for those who are always giving out, those you think are doing “Ok”. Those are usually the ones who get the least prayer!
We all need a time to recieve
filing better