This month we continue our “Spiritual Principles from YWAM’s Early Days” 4-Part series on the topic “Lordship of Christ” with Darlene Cunningham. Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with YWAMers from around the world as we pray and hear from God.

In Philippians we read that at the end of time every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (2:10-11). But how are we doing with making Jesus Lord right now? Do we trust Him? Do we hesitate in obeying Him? This teaching of making Jesus Lord was one of the foundational principles emphasized in YWAM’s early days. In this month’s YWAM prayer focus, called The Invitation, YWAM’s cofounder Darlene Cunningham shares a dramatic personal story of how she saw this principle at work in her own life, and she gives YWAMers guidance about how to pray for a renewed commitment to making Jesus Lord each day.

Please take a moment to watch the short video with Darlene as she is interviewed by Miranda Heathcote, who works with YWAM in Spain.

For a summary of the video, see the very bottom of this post.

Please join us this month during The Invitation prayer day on Thursday, March 12, as we pray and discern. If you only have a few moments to pray please pray for yourself and the YWAM family to grow in our ability to trust God enough that we will obey Jesus without reservation. Thank you for being part of The Invitation. We would love to receive stories from you regarding how you prayed. You can email us at prayer@ywam.org.

Additionally, please note the prayer request regarding the call for all YWAMers to share Jesus with five people during the month of May.

Prepare to Pray:

Read aloud together from Romans 12:1-2:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you” (from The Message translation).

As you watch the video, pay attention to the way Darlene describes the lordship of Jesus. She says His lordship “means that there is no aspect of my life that He is not Lord of. When we have the lordship of Jesus it shows up in everything we do.”

After watching the video, everyone in your group will need paper or a journal, and a pen. Guide your group through the following steps:

<figure class="aligncenter"><figcaption>1. Have them draw a large circle on the page. </figcaption></figure>

<figure class="aligncenter"><figcaption>2. Mark out 6 segments (much like pieces of pie).</figcaption></figure>

<figure class="aligncenter"><figcaption>3. Label these segments: relationships, finances, decision-making, body care, time management, vocation.</figcaption></figure>

<figure class="aligncenter"><figcaption>4. Imagine that the value at the center of the circle is zero and at the circumference of the circle is 10.</figcaption></figure>

You are invited to consider each area of your life (you may add others if you feel prompted). To what extent are you satisfied with the Lordship of Jesus in this area of your life? Zero represents complete dissatisfaction, that is, you realize that Christ is not at all Lord of this part of your life, and perhaps you have never even considered that He might be. On the other hand, ten represents complete satisfaction, that is, you know that you live in complete submission to the Lordship of Jesus in this area of your life.

Make this a reflective process and time of dialogue with the Lord: listen to Him, be open to the affirmations and convictions of the Holy Spirit as you make a mark along the lines representing each aspect of your ordinary, everyday life.

How To Pray – Lordship of Christ:

• Pray for awareness of distractions. After Darlene shared the story about her young daughter needing medical attention, Miranda commented that in the story it wasn’t just obeying God but being aware of God’s direction moment by moment.
  • What are the things in your life, and the life of your team or community, that prevent you from paying attention to the movements of the Holy Spirit?
  • How do you encounter distractions in your day-to-day life?
  • In what ways are your affections or attachments directed towards other things?
  • As you become aware of these “other loves” express this awareness to God. How might God be directing you to arrange your life in such a way that you consistently pay attention to His leading?
  • What would this look like in the context of your team or community?
• Pray for a distinctness from the surrounding culture. In the Romans passage we read: “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.“
  • Are there ways in which you or your community has taken on particular values from your cultural context that run counter to living with Christ as lord?
  • Take time to name any ways in which this might be true of you.
  • Along with this confession, repent of these areas of cultural adjustment and ask the Lord to once again align you with the life and teaching of Jesus.
• Pray for a responsive heart. Darlene said delayed obedience is not Lordship. Consider any area of your life, or your life as a community, where you sense an invitation from God to take a step of obedience.
  • What is stirred in you as you pay attention to that invitation? It could be excitement, anticipation, fear, reluctance or some other emotion.
  • Rather than brushing those feelings aside, how would it be for you to be with the Lord in the reality of those feelings?
  • Allow time for you to become aware of His presence. Perhaps He has something to say, or perhaps He simply wants to be with you in a way that reassures you in this step of obedience.
• Pray for increasing levels of trust in God. Darlene says “Jesus can’t be Lord if you don’t trust Him, and you are convinced completely that He is always kind, and just, and has all wisdom and all the things we know about His character. If we line ourselves up with that, then lordship is really quite easy.”
  • Take time to bring to mind those areas where you are finding it hard to trust God.
  • Pray that in your life and the life of your community, there will be a deeper revelation of God’s kindness, justice and wisdom.
• Special note: Please pray for everyone in the YWAM family to share their faith with at least five people during the month of May. YWAM leaders are calling for YWAMers to participate in the Global Outreach Day (globaloutreachday.com) by witnessing in this way. Said Lynn Green, one of YWAM’s leaders, “Please start praying that the Lord will open the door for every YWAMer, regardless of their role, to speak personally about Jesus with five people during the month of May.”