God Comes Where He's Wanted: Discovering New Hope When Your Prayers Feel Like They're Going NowhereSample

Americans like me love Australian accents. Whether it's a voice actor reading an audiobook, or someone sitting next to us at a restaurant, something is captivating about that accent. I grew up in an area of the country that left me with no distinct accent, so I've always admired people with Aussie accents.

One of those Aussies is Jon Tyson, a pastor who came to Christ at age 17 during a revival in Australia. Jon now leads a church in New York City. I heard Jon share about his family's fascinating journey earlier this year. Captured by the phenomenon of revivals throughout history, Jon took his family on what he called the "Tyson Family Revival Tour." They visited 17 or 18 places where the Holy Spirit had moved significantly over the last centuries.

After returning from studying these revivals, one of Jon's friends asked him, "Did you figure out the secret? What was the common thread?" Jon leaned close and whispered, "God comes where He's wanted."

Revival wasn't about denomination, wealth, or culture. People's deep hunger for His presence was the one common factor when God showed up powerfully in different places, centuries, and continents.

This truth grabbed hold of my heart, and wouldn't let go. I felt God compelling me to pause my preaching, study, and focus on prayer. Prayer is one way we say, "God, we want You here."

When King David wrote Psalm 63, he expressed the same desperate hunger for God: "O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water." David's prayer wasn't just words on a page—it was a cry of longing for God's presence.

In Revelation 5:8, we glimpse how God views our prayers. The text describes our prayers as golden bowls of incense, precious and fragrant before His throne. Every time we pray, we tell God, "We want You here – in this circumstance, in this relationship, in this struggle, in our lives."

My deepest desire for you as you read this plan is not just that you hunger for God while reading my words. I want you to develop an increasing hunger and passion for His presence that grows stronger daily. If God truly comes where He's wanted, shouldn't we continually express our desire for Him?

Throughout this plan, we'll explore how to cultivate and maintain our hunger for God's presence through prayer. We'll examine what can awaken our spiritual appetite and what might dull it. Most importantly, we'll discover how to persist in prayer even when answers seem delayed.

Tomorrow, we'll explore a surprising truth about adversity that I didn’t expect when studying prayer.

I’m excited to share it with you!