Praying with Perception in 2012
“Forget the former things; do now dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43.18 New International Version).
By Grant McClung
There is a desperate need for perception in our day.
Through mass media and the internet there is a knowledge explosion and information overload. The “haves” in the industrialized, “developed” world with stronger economies are afforded the luxuries of accessibility to literature, education, travel, and exposure to life experiences – including leisure and recreation – that broaden their interaction with a global environment and widen their knowledge, if not their wisdom. In short, this generation knows, sees, and experiences more — but understands less.
Most definitions of “perceive” use descriptors like “awareness,” “understanding,” “apprehension,” “comprehension,” “discernment.” A “perception” is insight, knowledge, or intuitive judgment. As a word, “perceive” is derived from the Latin word percipere – “to seize:” per – “thoroughly” + capere “to take.” Therefore, when insight or wisdom is “perceived,” it is “seized” and “thoroughly taken.”
In Isaiah 43.18 God does not invite a consideration but commands Israel – and us – to forget former things, flee a fixation on the past, focus on His current work, and firmly seize – thoroughly take hold of and embrace – what He is beginning in a new season.
This forward grasp, this perception, of the “brand-new” thing God is doing is indispensable and vital for effective and transformational intercession. Great commission believers are seriously committed to global intercession. Their prayers are typically full of panorama, praise, and purpose – they see what God is doing in our world (panorama), worship and praise Him for that (praise), and see themselves as doing His will (purpose). Intercession, however, can get locked into the past – always leaning upon the history of what God did and predictably expecting more of the same.
Future Vision
God is calling us to a new kind of intercession, urging us forward toward praying with perception. He commands us to forget the past and perceive the new thing He is already beginning. The command comes again in Habakkuk 1.5 as a model for us today: “Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told” (New International Version). The New Living Translation reads, “Look at the nations and be amazed! Watch and be astounded at what I will do!”
A twenty year review (1991 – 2011) reveals mind-boggling miracles from the hand of God in our day. In the brief span of two decades, who would have ever expected some of these amazing, astounding things in world evangelization?
• The collapse of Communist domination across Eastern Europe and throughout the former Soviet Union.
• The multiplication of church planting movements in the world of unreached and unengaged people groups.
• The explosion of Pentecostal/Charismatic growth in Asia, Africa, and Latin America with corresponding revival in evangelical churches.
• The spiraling mobilization and growth of short-term missionaries and local church missionary engagement.
• The unprecedented turning to God in the Muslim world.
• The revival and growth of the church in Communist China.
• Increasing unity and cooperation in missions (e.g. the recent merger of The Mission Exchange with Cross Global Link that provides one unified platform for 35,000 North American missionaries working in 190 countries).
With all this in view, we could easily get locked into “past-oriented” praying, with the testimony “look what God has done!” But the reminders of Isaiah 43.18 and Habakkuk 1.5 push us forward to the brand-new things that God is beginning in a new season now. Do we perceive them?
Perceptive praying involves: (1) Personal repentance and renewal through fasting and consecration; (2) Soaking our minds and spirits with the Word of God in order to build faith; (3) Carefully waiting and watching for what God is doing in our world; (4) Praying for awareness, discernment, perception; (5) Committing ourselves to move with God into His fresh initiatives.
Let us embrace God’s “new thing” in 2012 through our praying, proclaiming, and planning and pray for a release of “perceptive praying” among our leaders and in every local church around the world.
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Dr. Grant McClung, President of Missions Resource Group (www.MissionsResourceGroup.org), is Missiological Advisor to the World Missions Commission of the Pentecostal World Fellowship and International Missionary Educator with Church of God World Missions.
