The Fields Beyond the Fences
Often, we build imaginary fences for ourselves that keep us in a place of fear. Some of these fences, themselves, are composed of fear. Perhaps fear of judgment from others, or fear of the unknown, or fear of not being in control. But the Lord desires to take us beyond our fences. Have you ever wondered what lies beyond?
One of our young MAPS Global missionaries, a native to the Middle East, was able to travel back to the culture he was raised in during 50 Hours, and was powerfully impacted. He shared how the Lord brought him to a place past his fences during the 50 Hours of prayer and worship in the Levant. And, in his journey beyond, he also brought others to a place of deeper freedom.
“The idea of doing the 50 Hours of nonstop prayer and worship in a Middle Eastern country, for me, is wild,” said the MAPS Global missionary. “It’s something I had never heard of, growing up in the Middle East. I didn’t have a lot of expectations, but I did have the expectation that this would be really special.”
Having spent three months in the Levant as a Frontier Missions School student, our missionary was excited to be back in the Levant for the 50 Hours trip.
“There were a lot of things I really loved about the land and the people. My heart was captured for that nation,” he said. “I was there almost three years ago, so going back for 50 Hours was exciting because I was reuniting with a lot of people. I was excited to be back in the land, see the familiar places and go back to the prayer room. To worship there and serve people again. It was a very special place for me.”
As the 50 Hours started, prophetic choruses began to fill the room about Jesus being the true King, and His Bride knowing Him as her King. Then, about 36 hours into the 50 Hours of prayer and worship, a big shift happened in the room.
“The prayer topic was [for the Lord to] ‘fill the new wine skin with new wine.’ As the worship started, the Lord started to move and interrupt our set list. The worship team began to sing about joy in the Father’s house,” said the Levant Mission Base leader. “These songs shifted the room, and then one of the pastors got on the mic and said that the new wine that God is pouring out right now is joy. The Church will need joy in the coming season because it will be Her strength. Then, from that prayer, we moved into a ministry time where people in the room were invited to receive prayer for a fresh baptism of joy. If they wanted to receive this, they came to the altar and someone would pray with them.”
“So, the plan was to do the first 40 minutes of worship and then pray to God, ‘reveal to us the new wineskin.’ After the first 40 minutes of worship, joy erupted. We had a few songs planned, and we only sang half of the first song. I really felt the tangible joy of the Lord and what true freedom and joy in His presence looks like. When the songs started erupting, I just started dancing on the stage,” said our missionary. “I had never done that here, in the U.S. And here I was doing it in the Middle East! As I was singing about joy, I was having this internal dialogue with the Spirit. He was saying, ‘you are singing about true joy. You are singing about true freedom. But have you ever really let yourself experience true joy or true freedom? You always wanted to experience it, but you always built a fence around it and boundaries around it on how far it can go and how far you can experience it.’ It was like those fences that I always put as boundaries were breaking down and I didn’t care. All of a sudden I didn’t care. All of a sudden, it felt like it was just me and Him in the room, even though there were crowds of people. I just started dancing on the stage and the moment I started doing that, everyone in the room started dancing and singing about joy. Choruses started coming out about how we have a joyful God and how Jesus is the happiest man that we know.”
“It was great, because that was not the plan at all. Which I believe, if you give God that space, then He will always do that. If you give God that place that He is asking for, then He will use that and lead you wherever [He wants to go],” he said. “There are fields beyond those fences. There are fields and rivers and new depths. For me, that was the biggest revelation that came with that.”
“Even here, I still have fences. I have fences [that determine] how much I can experience and how deep I can go. Ideas. Thoughts that this is not for me. That this is for others that are way ahead of me. I feel like God was [seeing] that and wanting to release an invitation to me. He was so gentle with me. He gives us that invitation to break down those fences. When I allowed Him to knock them down, I really experienced that [joy] for the first time, ever,” he said.
Not only did this missionary experience that freedom, but his newfound joy and freedom in worship continued to lead the entire room into a place of freedom as those in the room danced and sang with that same joy.
“The indigenous team was worshiping, and people were still dancing and being delivered and crying. That was very special to me that it was not just a moment [from which] people moved on. I am from a culture that moves on too quickly. People go back to their seats as if it never happened. But that is not what happened. It continued on, and it was very powerful,” he said.
The missionary said that he felt that that time was “marking” not only for him, but for the nation. He felt that it was a marking of a new season.
“It was like Revelation 4, where He says, ‘come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’ I feel like there is an invitation to knock down those fences and ‘come up here,’ to see new depth and new revelation,” he said. “I shared that with the local people and pastors there, that there is a real invitation for the Bride to ‘come up here.’ To go beyond the fences and the walls that we built.”
There is a deeper joy that the Lord is leading His Church into. A joy free from the fear of judgment. Free from shame. Free from guilt. A place beyond the fences. There are fields of harvest and unreached people groups that have a song to sing to the Bridegroom King. The Lord is drawing His people to go and reach the unreached and He is pouring out joy in their midst. He is gently inviting you to step beyond your own fences.
Will you give Him the space to do so?