When Spencer and his family arrived in South Asia, he was excited to see God move in powerful ways. He knew God had called them to the field, so he anticipated that God would answer his prayers with power.

But after a few years, life on the field felt less like a spiritual upgrade and more like a series of trust exercises.

One afternoon, Spencer invited his Muslim friend Kamel to spend some time praying together and then listening for God’s response. With their eyes closed, they waited on God to speak. Then Kamel exclaimed, “What is happening?”

Spencer opened his eyes in surprise but saw nothing out of the ordinary. “I don’t know… What are you feeling?” he asked. Kamel’s voice was full of awe as he described the tangible presence of God in the room.

Despite feeling happy for his friend, Spencer silently wondered why he hadn’t seen or felt anything at all.

When he experienced similar situations over and over again, he began to wrestle with doubts. Maybe prayer wasn’t supposed to be part of his outreach. So, he tried to focus on practical ministry outlets like learning the local language, sharing the Good News, and helping people.

“I’m more of a doer than a prayer,” he told his teammates.

But eventually, the Lord convicted him to take prayer seriously in his ministry. He realized that no matter how many seeds he planted and how often he watered them, it was God alone who could give growth to a genuine transformation toward Jesus.

At a prayer meeting with the team, they felt God put a specific neighborhood on their hearts, and Spencer suggested they walk and pray over every street and foot path. It took them six months.

They went out in pairs, listening to God and praying for everyone they met. Each time, they asked God to lead them to a person of peace who would open doors for the Gospel in that community. They even got their churches back home involved. Nearly 900 believers were praying over the neighborhood of 100,000 Muslim people.

Yet, at the end of that time, they hadn’t made any deep connections in the neighborhood despite feeling distinctly called there.

One thing was becoming clear—following Christ’s lead through the mystery required greater trust.

Another of Spencer’s spiritual question marks came in the area of healing. Throughought their time in South Asia, his wife and teammates saw Jesus miraculously heal people when they prayed. Spencer didn’t.

Then one day, he was at the neighborhood park with his seven-year-old son. While Charlie played, Spencer relaxed on a park bench with Amaan, a new Muslim-background believer he was discipling. Amaan was the first in his family to follow Christ. And he had recently suffered a stroke.

“If my family knows I am a follower of Jesus, they will say that the stroke happened because I left Islam,” Amaan worried. He was covering his face with a scarf to hide the paralysis, and Spencer could hear the shame in his voice.  

“God is with you,” Spencer encouraged him. “Can I pray for you in the name of Jesus?”

Amaan nodded, and Spencer laid his hands on him. “Jesus, heal your son, in your mighty name.”

His friend thanked him, but Spencer could tell that nothing had changed. At that moment, Charlie ran up to them, cheerfully greeting Amaan, who had been to their home many times to study the Bible.

“Charlie,” Spencer asked. “Will you pray for Amaan with me? He got hurt and needs Jesus to heal him.”

Charlie nodded and stood on his tiptoes to reach Amaan’s shoulder. Scrunching his eyes closed, he prayed simply for Amaan’s healing in Jesus’ name. Then he opened his eyes, smiled at the adults, and ran back to the playground.

Nothing happened right away, but early the next morning, Amaan called, bursting with news.

“Spencer, will you meet with me? I have to tell you something.” The joy in his tone caught Spencer’s attention, and they made plans to meet later that day.

When he walked into the restaurant to meet Amaan, Spencer looked right past him at first. His friend was no longer hiding his face with a scarf because he was completely healed.

Amaan broke into a wide smile when Spencer finally met his gaze. “The weakness in my left side is gone too! I can’t believe God listened to the prayers of a little child.”

As Spencer praised God with Amaan, the story of Jesus teaching his disciples to become like little children ran through his mind. It encouraged him to keep praying and put his trust completely in Christ for the outcomes.

Now, even when his prayers aren’t answered with a yes, or when God’s actions are mysterious, Spencer has learned to persevere.

“It’s been a confusing walk at times, and I still wrestle with understanding,” he reflects. “But I’m convinced that God hears and loves my prayers and wants me to keep talking with Him.”

Pray:

• Pray for field workers to persevere in prayer even when they aren’t seeing God move in the way they expect.
• Ask God to raise up believers in the U.S. to pray for unreached Muslim people groups in South Asia.
• Pray that God will use workers to pour out miracles of healing that lead Muslims to Jesus.

**This account comes from a long-term worker. Names and places have been changed for security.**

Main photo on iStock: FG Trade

Original article: https://frontiersusa.org/blog/persevering-through-mystery/