Prayer: The Privilege of Access, by Phil Evans

Published: July 20th, 2007

Last weekend, I found myself the beneficiary of an access all areas pass to Guilfest, a local music festival in our town. It's a great smaller festival with some good headliners, and I managed to get a access all areas pass due to my connections with a local band that was playing. They had me under ‘crew’ but in truth I only shifted a couple of amplifiers. It felt great to be able to move between stages and walk backstage and hang out with the other people who like me, were also blagging it and looking for some famous people. I don't think I saw any in truth, but I felt special. I had a ticket that most people didn't and it made me feel important and privileged. I had access all areas.  

This week I spent a morning in the prayer room as part of 10 days of prayer in our town, for our town. It was an "access all areas experience" of a different kind. The Guildford Boiler Room has been hosting an international group for a summer school/mission team. Over the course of the weekend the group had been out gathering prayer requests from people attending the festival; little did I know that the next morning I would be praying for the needs of those I stood shoulder to shoulder with taking in the live music.

I loved praying through the many prayer request cards; they ranged from the healing of broken friendships and relationships to things such as Charlton Athletic FC getting promoted next season. Most of them were serious and really provoking; I was overawed by the honesty of the requests and enlightened about the real needs of people in my town in a way that I could never discover from conversations in the local pub, or through tenuous connections on Facebook or Myspace. I felt honoured and privileged to be praying for people who were open and honest enough to share what was really happening in their life. Having access to the real issues affecting the people of Guildford was an honour.

Prayer is a critical connection with the source of all life and goodness; at the festival I was wandering around looking for ‘famous’ people. In the prayer room I was face to face with fame itself. God was listening; as I talked through with him about the people who had written the cards, he showed me his heart for the people I hadn’t met. All I felt was compassion and overwhelming love; I wanted to stay there for longer than an hour.
 

Paul talked in the New Testament of every believer fulfilling a priestly ministry; a calling that requires his people to connect his life with the world around them. My access all areas pass at the festival gave me a privilege of sorts, but the access to him in the prayer room was on a whole new level. Ever been in a prayer meeting which was really boring? I have.  But praying through the prayer request cards of people who didn’t know God was so refreshing; it made prayer so much more dynamic again, as if prayer had just been discovered or in my case, rediscovered. It made the Access All Areas pass at the festival seem mundane in comparison.

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