Precious lessons learnt from the Holy Spirit about prayer and of the Father’s love, while on a 60-day Prayer-journey through New Zealand … and why I got zealouslyLost in Prayer
How wearing the full armour of Eph 6 and a backpack, a tent and food for 10 days, 40 SMS prayer partners, a little yellow guitar, a map, a pair of worn-out shoes and a scimpy little cap, childlike faith and just being crazy enough to step outside the square, started me off on a life-changing adventure with Jesus …
As I reached the southern end of my prayer-journey through New Zealand I turned around and looked back in the direction where I journeyed for the previous 60 days (42 days prayer-walking, 16 days bike-praying, 2 days bus-praying and 2 hours prayer-in-the-air). I prayed a final prayer for New Zealand and God spoke to me through a little yellow sign with four words on it. My heart gave four wild jumps and I knew that this mission was accomplished.
It was autumn, 2002 and I was walking on a dirt road, just outside Johannesburg, South Africa; praying, singing and talking to God, when suddenly a sense of deep joy and fulfillment came over me. I could just see over the dry, tall wintery grass. Between the tall grasses wild flowers dotted an array of pink, white and deep purple. The view over the blue mountains on the horizon, was as refreshing as the blue skies above; and God’s presence was tangible …
I enjoyed that moment so much that I spontaneously told Jesus how much I loved walking with Him in His creation while singing, praying and talking to Him. What happened next, launched my life into a new direction. I felt what I can only describe as the Lord answering me directly and personally in my heart, saying: “This is what I made you for”. It was like some part of my life’s purpose was revealed to me and I knew that from then on I would walk with God in a much deeper way. Since then I have done prayer-walks in South Africa, Sweden, Denmark, Singapore, and New Zealand and have seen many prayers answered.
For almost 2 years I had this dream in my heart to prayer-walk about 1600km covering the length of New Zealand. But with a broken marriage and a teenage daughter from a previous marriage living on the other side of the planet, I felt worthless. I felt too unworthy to even pray for myself. I felt that I wasn’t even good enough to pray for one other person, let alone for a whole country. It was to me like I was outside ... in the dirt, in the emptiness, almost like a hard-headed donkey. Out there - a sinner - and alone. That is where I repented and where God spoke to me again saying that if He once used a donkey to speak to Balaam, He can use me to speak and pray too. Even though we are unfaithful, we can be sure God is always faithful. He restored my confidence and used me in an awesome prayer-journey through New Zealand. God drew me so close to Him and He personally showed me His goodness and taught me so much about prayer.
A wide spectrum of people - from the very poor to the very rich have offered me a bed for a night to stay and oh, how I was humbled and stretched by the conversations and times of praying together. A poor man aged 70, (the Lord told me only to be a friend to him for the afternoon) said to me the next morning, that I was the 2nd person ever to come into his home whom he trusted. He then spoke about unforgiveness towards his mother which lasted since his childhood. And he let me pray with him about it. In another house we waited for news after a national disaster where a group of 6 children and their teacher drowned, and someone in the house had a cousin in that group. At 3 in the morning the dreaded call came to confirm that the cousin died too. I was there to pass the box of tissues and so they wouldn’t have had to go through the pain of that morning alone. It was awesome to see God answer my prayer after a woman offered me the last food from her cupboard for dinner. As I lay in bed that night, I didn’t know what to ask God for - so I just asked Him to bless her. The next morning her brother phoned and said that they had such a good fishing trip the previous night and he was sending her some of the extra fish.
I started off with 40 SMS linked prayer partners and we prayed for rain as I walked through an area that was experiencing drought. After half hour I got a text from a prayer partner who had her children praying too. She said it was pouring down. The next day the newspaper heading read: WET WET WET - but still drought. We continued to pray and that drought was broken.
How God healed my fear of heights ... just because He loves me and because He knew I would be on the edge of the road 37 days later looking down at the drop on the one side and the mountains on the other side - going through Arthur’s pass ... and actually enjoy it high up there without any fear of heights. And you know, every time I think of this incident I feel there are many people who will be set free from some fears as I testify about this. Ps 34:4 (KJV) "I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears."
So many divine appointments - like the house which I passed and as I saw the old man sitting in the back yard, I heard the Lord say - go speak with him. I first passed by and wanted to reason in my mind whether it was just my own thoughts - deep in my heart I just knew that I knew it was the Lord. I turned around and went in. There was this old man - saying that he was just feeling hopeless. His wife died 3 weeks earlier and I realised God brought me 13000km halfway around the world to stop and offer encouragement and comfort and to pray with him. And I almost missed the opportunity by not stopping. When I left he was looking a bit bright-eyed and seemed to have more hope.
During the initial planning I wanted to take my camera with and as I prayed about it I felt that God wanted me to leave it. The focus of this prayer-journey was not to be about making memories and taking pictures, but about the praying.
I worked out the shortest route and started to plan to do the trip in a record time, but as I prayed about it, I felt God wanted not to take any short cuts. I also felt He wanted me to leave out a stretch of 440km. I was a bit stunned because I saw the possibility of national publicity because of this achievement. A few days later I yielded to His will because I understood the focus of this prayer-journey was not to be about the achievement, but about the praying. I realised that the shortest route never would have taken me where God wanted me to go. I asked God each morning to show me where to go for that day - and what a blessing that turned out to be - a real “walk with God”.
A few times, as I was prayer-walking, I lost track of where I was heading and would find myself being lost. I can only describe it as getting “Lost in prayer”. This meant I didn’t manage to finish all the achievements I set out to do from the start - and the Lord spoke so clearly in my heart that it was OK, because it was not about the achievement, but about the praying.
He spoke to me through someone prophetically and said that He would raise up someone from New Zealand to complete the 440km which I had to leave out. And He fulfilled that promise in the last week of the 60-day prayer-journey, when someone joined in the walk, after God called and prepared him for it almost a year earlier.
You may have noticed the slight name-change from prayer-walk to prayer-journey. That is because I eventually prayer-walked for 42 days, bike-prayed for 16 days, prayed in the bus for 2 days and ended off with a prayer-in-the-air, while flying back from Invercargill to Auckland, where I initially started.
People have often asked what I prayed for. The same thing I wanted to know when I started to plan the prayer-walk. God gave me Isaiah 40:9 as the main theme to pray for New Zealand: “... Behold your God!“ New Zealand, behold your God ... consider your God. Think about the goodness of God. Be thankful for the grace of God. Look around you and see what the Lord has done, what He has made and where He has brought you. New Zealand, behold your God. Come back to your first Love, come back into a deep relationship with God. To pray, as I walk, for the things the Holy Spirit would lay on my heart, for and with people He would let me meet and to pray for revival. Behold the goodness of God. Behold the faithfulness of God. Behold the your provision from God. Behold His unconditional love for you.
Three months after starting to plan for this prayer-walk, I finally saw the bigger picture. The Lord has been orchestrating it all the time. As soon as I realised God has said yes I could go on this prayer-walk, I was ready to go immediately. But I felt in my heart the Lord said ... Wait ... so, early in January I prayed and got the answer to start the day after Easter weekend. Six days before I started, I heard about Ryan Craig. He was embarking on a similar walk as I - also been called about 3-4 months before. Except - he was starting from Invercargill in the south, and I would be starting from Auckland in the north. He asked his boss when would be a good time to resign from his job, and he was asked if he could wait till Easter weekend. So, from 25 March we were covering the country in prayer, from both sides, for 60 days.
We kept in contact via mobile phone and with SMS-text messages since we started walking and finally met up after 35 days. It was on the South Island just outside Ward. We spent 3 days just fellowshipping and walked together to Picton, where he took the ferry to the North Island and I continued on my journey south..I always finance the prayer-walks personally - BUT on this prayer-journey friends and church members blessed me with gifts like plane tickets, shoes, a bike and finances without which I would not have been able to make it. I started off with 40 prayer-partners. I sent them SMS-text messages about what I prayed for along the way. Many times I would write up to 6 page messages which I then sent to 40 people. This list grew as I met people along the way. One person felt God laid on their heart to finance my phone-costs which made it possible for me to keep the prayer-partners well informed. By the end of the walk, the list has grown to 80. Prayer partners were a big part of this walk. Sometimes I felt that I was only doing the leg-work in a combined prayer-war. There is such power in prayer. The spiritual atmosphere changes when we pray. As we walk into a room, gathering or area we change the spiritual atmosphere when we start to pray.
One morning, within the first week, I headed out with much enthusiasm. I haven’t even walked a kilometer, when I felt an urge in my heart to pray for something specific. I was passing close to a Buddhist temple. I felt to walk around the area on which it stands, and reclaim the land for Jesus. It would be a prayer of proclamation that Jesus is King and that He alone is worthy of all our praise. By praying as I walked around the temple, I knew the spiritual atmosphere would be changed. So, before I started, I stopped and sat down on the edge of the pavement from where I could see the temple. I typed a text message informing the prayer partners what I was about to do and asking them all to pray with me. I started to send the text message to them one by one, praying for each of them individually as I sent it. As I was doing this, I noticed a man across the road, in the paddock, leading a white horse in my direction. Somehow it struck me that this was very significant. I kept on sending the text messages without mentioning anything about the man with the white horse. He came to the fence and hooked the horse onto a pole directly across from where I was sitting, Again I wondered about the significance - but I didn’t understand it (yet). The man came around the horse, lifted the horse’s feet and cleaned the hooves ... I was intrigued. I thought to myself - that horse is being prepared for service. Still I didn’t say a word of this to the prayer partners but just kept on sending the original message. As I finished off, I started receiving messages back from prayer partners. God spoke to me through a text message! A prayer partner, without having any knowledge about the white horse, sent me the following message:
“Can you ask Lord Jesus to fight the battle for you … let th captain on th white horse of Rev ride and fight 4u! You worship for the victory already won 2day and see th work th Lord will do on yr behalf”
That day I knew we prayed alongside the mighty army of God, with Jesus leading and fighting the battle for us, as we prayed, worshipped and sang. This was one of the main themes God has taught me on my prayer-journey. When we begin to sing and praise God, something powerful happens in the spiritual realm. Eph 6:12 (KJV) “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.“
I often took great comfort in understanding the depth and power in just singing about God’s goodness and mercy, and realising that He is so, so, so holy. This is how God worked in the days of the Old Testament and it is how He still works today - 2 Chron 20:22 (KJV) “And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.”
Is it possible that we are missing something of God’s greatness and His holiness and His power? Is it possible that we can live deeper in Him and that we can trust Him more and more. Yes I know so. I want to encourage you, as you read this, to take God even more seriously as what you are doing even right now. And let Him have His way in your life. Let Him rule and reign your life and come to the place where He wants you to be, and as Psalm 34 puts it - taste and see that the LORD is good, and added to that - blessed is the man who trusts (or take refuge) in Him.
When I look at how God planned the whole event, I realise that this is also a miracle. Ryan is 21 years old and I am 47 - and that meant that not only did we cover the country with prayer from both sides, we also covered a wide spectrum of age groups. He had a great impact on the youth and I had a great time fellowshipping with and ministering to older people.
On the day that I started, I realised that my friends who warned me to take a wide rimmed hat, were right about the strength of the sun. I was wearing a scimpy little cap, and close to my first sleep-over, I hung the cap on the side of my backpack. I later realised that the wind blew it off and I thought to myself, I would take the time the next day and go and buy a wide rimmed hat. The next morning, without mentioning anything about the cap or hat to them, my hosts said they wanted to bless me with something that they bought some days earlier. It was a wide rimmed hat!!
In the weeks before I started I had 3 different people come up to me saying they felt the Lord wanted me to know that my shoes wouldn’t wear through. On day 30, I asked the Lord about that promise because I was starting to feel the stones through my shoes, which have by then been getting quite worn out. I didn’t quite understand how He meant my shoes wouldn’t wear out. The very next evening a stranger phoned me to say that they felt the Lord showed them to go to a shoe store to price the best pair of walking shoes. They paid that amount into my bank account and 2 days later, when I got to the next city, I got a pair of the best walking shoes, and my soles didn’t wear out.
On day 18 I woke up in a small town, ready to go. As I started getting up, I heard this in my Spirit: Don’t move until the Holy Spirit tells you to. I already walked around the town the previous day and thought I have finished praying, but to God everyone is valuable and precious and I soon realised that He had something special for me to do. I felt in my heart to take my little yellow guitar and practise the mealtime prayer of grace which a friend helped to translate into the Maori language. I had it set up as a song and was sitting next to the beach singing this song over and over. A car stopped and a Maori family invited me for a cup of tea. When the tea came, there was a plate of food with it. I recognised this as an opportunity to talk about blessing the meal with a prayer before we started to eat. This lead to a discussion about Jesus and they allowed me to pray for them. One man even agreed that we could pray for his healing. As I left, I was encouraged when one of the family said to me that they felt this “co-incidental” meeting was definitely arranged by God. I walked away with memories of a family being refired and inspired. How much can we do when we are just available. Be encouraged!
Even in preparing for the prayer-journey, the Lord orchestrated some wonderful “co-incidental” meetings for me. This is an amazing story and I give God all the glory for just caring about the detail so much, that He brought some real practical things to help me prepare. I prepared to go for a 30km prayer-walk as part of my training. I packed my backpack and planned the route. About 3 hours before I left, I was asked to help someone else to get to church, which took me to a different part of town and I started the walk in a totally different place from where I planned. About 10km into this walk, a woman came along with a set of walking poles, and a backpack. She stopped and asked me how far it was to the Takapuna camping ground. We started talking about where she was going, and it turned out she was on Day 16 of walking from the north (Cape Reinga) to the south (Invercargill) of New Zealand. Because she was also a keen mountaineer, I wanted to know more about what and how she packed and if she could give me advice.
I also learned that she was diagnosed with cancer (terminal). She said to me: “I can cry myself to sleep every day OR I could get up and live my life to the full” ... that touched me.
Anyhow - I am amazed that God would be so interested in the details of my planning, that He would actually orchestrate for me to meet someone on the same long walk as I was planning for ... and for me to have the opportunity to ask her some good questions about planning, gear and packing.
Then something amazing happened ... An older man stepped onto the pavement - from crossing the road. He just started talking to us and walked a bit with us. We reached the place where he would turn off - and I felt the Lord nudge me to stand back to observe something precious. The next moment the man asked the woman if he could pray for her. She wasn’t a Christian but said she wouldn’t mind a blessing like that. He put his hand on her shoulder and I realised that God wanted me to see how easy it can be to just reach out and pray for a stranger. And how we never know who we come across and how we are instruments - and always need to be ready for use by the Master.
Is it worth it - will it make a difference? While training to get ready for this prayer-journey, I walked along a busy road on the way to Warkworth. I felt led by the Holy Spirit to pray a specific prayer over the motorists as they were driving past:
“Lord, just give that person joy right now - even as they are driving. And give them travelling mercies Lord so the joy wouldn’t cause accidents. Lord, let it be such a full measure of joy that it will impact their lives...”
Two days later someone came up to me and asked if I was the one walking up north past Warkworth. I replied that it was me, and this person said that he noticed me as he was driving on that road, and as he went past me, he just felt such a measure of joy come over him ... and he mentioned that he will always remember that day!!
I just knew God has, in a sovereign way, showed me that my prayers are not in vain.
And I just thank You Jesus for Your encouragement and for having prepared me in body, mind and spirit for this prayer-journey.
And I ask that You touch each one reading this right now Lord Jesus.
Just visit with a gentle touch right in the heart where only You can Lord.
And bring healing and restoration Lord.
And ignite a new flame of purpose and destiny.
And just reveal more of Your love, Lord Jesus
Amen.
On the last day of the prayer-journey, I was reminded in a precious way of the verse that I had on my mind from the start - Isaiah 40:3 (KJV): “… Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” This is when I turned around and looked north in the direction from where I came for the past 60 days. I prayed a final prayer and alongside the road a small yellow sign caught my eye. It was intended for marketing the tourist route to the north - but for me it meant much more. It was a yellow sign, a colour which to me, signifies faith and hope. It had four words on it which made me feel my heart make four wild jumps. Giving me in my heart the assurance that God sent me out on a mission and I then knew it was accomplished! On it was written: “THE HIGHWAY STARTS HERE”
Peet Bekker is available to talk, pray and prayer-walk and can be contacted: peet@carer24.com or on +27 74 482 4341.
Contents of this article are previews from the book Lost in prayer
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