So a couple of weeks ago I spent 12 days in Ruurikkala, at a place that used to be a hotel but is now a YWAM base. It is a beautiful place, right next to a lake.
My stay there was really great. I got to get to know some really amazing people, some who were staff at the base and then others who were there for the seminar. We spent lots of time together in worship and prayer, in teaching sessions, eating and then just relaxing. We had sauna a number of times, including once a smoke sauna, which is more traditional. I also got to do the whole 'rolling in the snow' thing, and also 'avanto', which is basically a hole cut in the ice. Going from sauna to avanto made me feel pretty alive, although i was back in the sauna pretty quick.
We had lots of teaching, several hours of it most days. It was really great stuff. A South African couple who are YWAM missionaries in Estonia did most of the teaching. A YWAM Finland leader and a pastor and intercessor from Greater Helsinki also came and did some teaching for some of it. They all told amazing stories of how God has taught them and done amazing things. It really builds up your faith to see that prayer can really change cities and nations.
I have a notebook full of notes from there, and it'll take a while to process it all.
Here's a few thoughts that especially spoke to me:
- We need to take time to listen to the Holy Spirit, and get revelation directly from God. He has strategies specific to our situation and ministry, and He wants to share them with us.
- We need a solid foundation to what we do - our relationship with God and our heart attitudes need to be right. Our secret life in God is what fuels everything. God looks at the heart.
- The fear of God is very important, it keeps us in humility and also frees us from the fear of man.
- Picture of a pan with mud and small pieces of gold (which are at first hard to see) in it. We must see and point out the gold (in people, situations, etc.) and pray about the mud. God gives us revelation and discernment - we musn't use this to criticise, but rather to pray.
- In order to intercede, we must get God's perspective and pray from that, not our own ideas or perspective. We must listen to God and pray His prayers. We must know God's Word in order to know more of what His will is.
- It takes discipline and commitment to climb the mountain of prayer - learning to pray is a journey.
- God knows how to change a place - we have to get strategies from Him. When the Israelites took the promised land, God had a different strategy for each battle.
