Prayer Exposure in Korea

We had an exciting day. We woke up about 4.30 in the morning and attended the Dawn Prayer Meeting which was held at the main sanctuary. About 700 people were present at the Prayer Meeting. Attending this meeting gave me a glimpse into the very heart of the church. Although, this is a very big church, with lots of property and workers, the true secret of the church rest in prayer. We saw how the Church Senior Pastor, his staff and church people prayed. They were very passionate, zealous and diligent in their prayer.

As we were praying, God revealed that the reason why the people gave so much to the church both in finance and service was because they realised that they are serving the living God.

They remembered us in prayer this morning. And they prayed that God will grant the Senior Pastor courage and strength to speak to us. I also notice that they depended on God through prayer for every thing. Because they don't take God for granted and depend on Him entirely (this dependance is expressed in their prayer life), God is able to do great and might things in their midst.

This evening the Senior Pastor shared a brief history of the church. He told us that his conversion into Christianity, and his calling into full time ministry was all linked to prayer. When he was at the age of 18, he went with his friends to a prayer mountain and prayed. His prayer was very brief as compared to his friends, but he noticed that his friends experienced the reality of God when they prayed. This challenged him to pray and he asked God to reveal Himself to him. But nothing happened for him at the prayer mountain. When he returned home, he was determined to seek God and prayed earnestly. After a few weeks the Holy Spirit came upon his life and everything changed.

In prayer, this church was built. The first building costed them about US 10 million dollars. They were not very rich but God assured them that he would provide. And sure enough God fulfilled the promise. Do you know that they did not do any fund raising projects to get funds? The Senior Pastor said that he only prayed that God will convict the hearts of people to give, and God did that.

Now i realised why Korea is such a special place. It is a place where the people take God seriously and give themselves wholeheartly to prayer. Another characteristic of the church is that they also are faithful givers. They take tithing seriously.

I also had the opportunity to visit the full gospel's prayer mountain. I think it would be good for people to come to Korea and experience prayer movement for themselves. Certainly, we don't have to adopt everything that the Koreans do. But, what is important is that we catch the vision and passion to pray.

When we ask them the question why do Koreans pray so much, his answer was that they are filled and moved by the Holy Spirit to do so. He testified that without the Holy Spirit, we will not be able to pray as we ought to. And one needs more of the Holy Spirit in order to live a life of prayer and holiness.

My dream is that some day, i would be able to bring groups of people to Korea to experience the power and reality of prayer. I hope and now i must start praying that God will make this dream a reality.