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Amber grew up on a farm in southern Minnesota. Her and her husband did ministry together in North Dakota for 7 years before moving back to Minnesota, where they currently work at a church. She loves reading, running and exploring the outdoors with her family. 

It was a beautiful August night in Orlando, Florida and I was in a convention center auditorium surrounded by tens of thousands of people ready to worship Jesus. Incredibly stoked, would be the way I felt about sharing a week in this place with believers from around the nation and the world.

In my eyes, this was it! I had devoted my life to loving and serving people, and to sharing Jesus with them. Now I was in a place to get renewed and encouraged amidst so many amazing like-minded believers, and even hit the beach a time or two! Little did I know that my nice comfortable world was about to be shaken.

I can remember exactly where I was sitting. Stage left. Front section. Up close with a direct view of the stage. A huge screen was suspended from the ceiling just two rows in front of me. It would be the perfect view of a video that would literally become imbedded upon my heart.

A Moment of Impact

The lights dimmed as the screen lit up. The crowd hushed. A soft-spoken man began to speak. He spoke of having had a sense of adventure since a young age and of the ways that God had moved in his family to prepare their hearts to reach a people group that had yet to know His love. He spoke of the cause that compelled him to relentlessly pray and live among these people. Every word he spoke was weighted with passion and love. But then the story took a turn. He began to speak of a terminal illness that was shortening his window of time to impact these people, and how he was determined and assured that his impending death would not be a loss. His calm passion conveyed confidence that he would make an eternal impact on the lost of his city even as he died. He was dying out loud. Living amidst the people he loved and facing death with peace and certainty, knowing that his Father had prepared a place for him. His assurance in God’s plan and purpose was surreal. Tears streamed down my face, not just because of the situation he was facing, but because he remained unmoved and confident in the goodness of his Father God, and in the perfect plan that he was living out — the plan that was literally costing him his life.

Just days after viewing the video, this man went to be with his Father. But his death wouldn’t be in vain. He truly died out loud and planted a seed that would be the catalyst point for the beginning of an awakening in this people group. Personal friends of mine attended his funeral and I could not help but be in absolute awe of God’s plan and timing as they had arrived in this region as this man was venturing along his journey of dying out loud. His dying prayers were answered, are being answered and will continue to be answered.

Walking in Obedience

Needless to say, my comfortable first-world plans had been shattered in those few minutes of viewing his story and I wondered what my response should be. Later in the conference while responding to an altar call and telling God I’d do anything and go anywhere, I imagined being asked to accomplish some grand plan which of course would involve moving to another nation.

Instead, as I went back home from this encounter, I was faced with a different aspect of living dead. While I had been assuming that God would speak to me and my husband about moving to a foreign country, He instead spoke a phrase to me that has resonated in my heart since:

The prayers of one person walking in obedience has the power to change the entire atmosphere in a region.

Really? I wanted to be on the ground wearing the boots, doing the work, loving the people, eating their food, sharing in their joys and their sorrows. I didn’t want to “just” pray!

The Power of Prayer

But you know what?

Boots on the ground need to be partnered with prayers that are on point.

Not well crafted prayers full of eloquent words, but prayers that come from hearing the Father’s heart for those who do not know the love of His Son. Prayers that are spoken in love and authority. Prayers that touch heaven and move the unshakable on earth.

For every set of boots advancing the message of Jesus’ peace, we can come alongside, crying out and interceding for:

• open doors for them to walk through
• protection
• favor
• supernatural ability to communicate the language
• key breakthroughs
• provision
• eyes that see through the Father’s eyes
• ears to hear the Father’s leading
• miracles
• assurance of the Father’s love and presence with them

To LiveDead may mean you pick your family up, embark on adventure, face fear of the unknown and relocate to one of the nine almost completely unreached countries along the Silk Road. However, it may mean keeping your boots on the ground where you are and asking God for His heart in order to intercede with prayers that are on point for a country, a region and a LiveDead team who need their boots covered in prayer.

God moved my heart for the Silk Road region and its people for a purpose. I may not be physically walking on the ground there and displaying the Father’s love, but I can ask for His heart for a region and speak words that will break down walls, set prisoners free and push back the darkness. And so can you.

Let’s cover the boots of those walking in obedience along the Silk Road with our obedient prayers that are on point, moving heaven and shaking earth.

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