Written On My Heart

 In the Old Testament, when the High Priest went before the Lord in the Holy of Holies, he was instructed to wear an Ephod, a linen garment something like an apron, over his vestments.  Attached to the Ephod was a breastplate divided into 12 segments, each segment bearing a precious stone upon which was engraved the name of one of the 12 tribes of Israel:  Whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastplate of decision as a continuing memorial before the Lord (Exodus 28).

One of the very first changes I noticed in myself after my encounter with the Holy Spirit in 1977 was that I began to pray for other people -- much to my great surprise.  I had prayed almost all my life, but rarely for others, mostly for myself and my own concerns.  In fact, trying now to reconstruct my mindset at the time, I believe that I did not really think it made much difference whether I prayed for someone or not.  "O God, help me!" was probably about the best I could do when it came to prayer.

The morning I experienced some kind of anointing from above as a result of a young woman's prayer in the hospital, shortly before I was taken into surgery, I began to pray -- really pray -- for someone else, a complete stranger.  I was awake during the surgery -- but that's another story --- and lying on the table, I found myself praying for healing for a woman in Florida, someone I had never met.  She was having the same surgery I was having, but she had cancer.  A friend had mentioned her to me the previous week when she heard I was scheduled for this operation. And now, I'm praying for her?   In the middle of my own surgery, when I should have been scared and worried about myself?   Wait! What?  Who is this person who is now praying for someone I don't know?  This is something so new I don't quite know how to process it.

So rather than the "Baptism of the Holy Spirit" being some kind of temporary emotional high, I began to discover that it was bringing amazing changes into my life, in very quiet and non-emotional ways, but rather in a kind of soft peace.  In the days and years to come, I discovered that praying for others would become a way of life.  Eventually, however, I began to sort of carry a burden of prayer because there were more and more people to pray for -- as if, ha ha, God's work depended on my prayers.  I still had much to learn about the ways of the Spirit!

But then God sent an angel to instruct me in His ways -- a woman who had a well-known ministry of prayer and intercession for others.  She told me that she too at first carried a burden of prayer, trying to remember all those who had asked for her prayers.  But in adoration one day, the Lord spoke to her, reminding her of the Ephod worn by the High Priest when he entered the presence of the Lord.  "When you come into My Presence," the Lord told her, "I read the names of all those written on your heart, just as the High Priest carried the names of Israel into my Presence."

After that conversation, I began to make ephods for myself in prayer -- index cards divided into 12 spaces.  I would write the names of those I was praying for, one in each space, and then I would place the index card into my current meditation or daily prayer book, where I would be sure to see it.  Later, as I was teaching Confirmation classes for so many years, I would write the names of my students on the cards and keep them in my planning notebook.  Rather than worrying about trying to pray for each person -- as if God would not act without my prayer -- I would just metaphorically hold up the card before Him, and let Him direct my prayer in that moment.  And then, my "work" became His Work instead!  Much better, I guarantee!  

Jesus said, "The work I do is not my own; it belongs to the One who sent me.  The Father who lives in me does His work through me."

Eventually I came to realize that Jesus Christ, the High Priest, entered into the Holiest of Holies, the Presence of His Father, after His resurrection, with our names written on the Ephod of His Own Heart. He said to Mary Magdalene, "Go and tell my brothers that I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God" (Jn. 20).  Never had He spoken in such a way previously!  He carried us into the very Presence of God, and now His God was/is our God!

So if in some future date, you come across one of my books with an unusual bookmark divided into 12 squares, and if your own name is written in one of those squares, just know that I have carried you into the Presence of God and that the Father Himself has been at work on your behalf!