Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC. One church with multiple locations, NCC owns and operates Ebenezers Coffeehouse, the Miracle Theatre, and the DC Dream Center. NCC is currently developing a city block into the Capital Turnaround; the 100,000-square-foot space will include an event venue, a child development center, a mixed-use marketplace, and a coworking space. Mark holds a doctor of ministry degree from Regent University and is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty books including The Circle Maker, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Wild Goose Chase, Play the Man, Whisper, and recently released Win the Day. Mark and his wife, Lora, have three children and live on Capitol Hill.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Draw the Circle

Zondervan

Contents

Introduction......................................7Day 1: Get Ready..................................15Day 2: Established by God.........................21Day 3: Amazing Things.............................26Day 4: Don't Pray Away............................32Day 5: Write It Down..............................37Day 6: Shameless Audacity.........................42Day 7: Put on Waders..............................47Day 8: One God-Idea...............................52Day 9: Dream Factory..............................57Day 10: Crazy Faith...............................62Day 11: First-Class Noticer.......................67Day 12: Sow a Seed................................72Day 13: One Day...................................78Day 14: Speak to the Mountain.....................84Day 15: Contend for Me............................89Day 16: Lord, Surprise Me.........................94Day 17: Do Not Delay..............................99Day 18: Keep Circling.............................103Day 19: Memorial Offerings........................108Day 20: Go Set Ready............................112Day 21: Set Your Foot.............................118Day 22: Prayer Fleece.............................123Day 23: Not Now...................................129Day 24: Find Your Voice...........................134Day 25: A Prophetic Voice.........................139Day 26: Game with Minutes.........................144Day 27: Double Circle.............................150Day 28: Quit Praying..............................155Day 29: A New Prayer..............................160Day 30: Abide in Me...............................165Day 31: Spell It Out..............................171Day 32: Get a Testimony...........................176Day 33: Prayer Covering...........................182Day 34: Raise Up a Remnant........................188Day 35: The Longest Lever.........................194Day 36: Senior Partner............................199Day 37: Prayer Contracts..........................204Day 38: Climb the Watchtower......................209Day 39: Holy Ground...............................215Day 40: Prayer Alphabet...........................221Notes.............................................227

Chapter One

Get Ready

He prayed to God regularly. ACTS 10:2

Five words tell me everything I need to know about Cornelius: He prayed to God regularly. Scripture doesn't record exactly when or where or how he prayed. It doesn't reveal whether he prayed in the morning or the evening. It doesn't tell us what he said or the posture he prayed in. It just says he prayed regularly. And when you pray to God regularly, irregular things happen on a regular basis. You never know when or where or how God will invade the routine of your life, but you can live in holy anticipation, knowing that God is orchestrating supernatural synchronicities.

Like a grandmaster who strategically positions chess pieces on a chessboard, God is always preparing us and positioning us for divine appointments. And prayer is the way we discern the next move. The plans of God are only revealed in the presence of God. We don't get our marching orders until we get on our knees! But if we hit our knees, God will take us places we never imagined going by paths we didn't even know existed.

If history is a chess match between good and evil, then Acts 10 is one of God's epic moves. It reveals how one prayer can change the game. It reveals what can happen when two people pray. It reveals the power of prayer to checkmate the enemy and seal the victory.

Here's the play-by-play.

A man named Cornelius has a vision while praying in Caesarea. Simultaneously, Peter has a vision while praying in Joppa. Those visions collide in a divine appointment that radically alters the course of history. Up to this point, the Way was a sect of Judaism. It isn't until Cornelius, an officer in the Roman army, puts his faith in Jesus Christ that the gospel is opened up to Gentiles. If he doesn't get saved, you can't get saved. It's not even an option. So if you're a non-Jewish follower of Jesus, your spiritual genealogy traces back to this genesis moment. When Cornelius puts his faith in Christ, the door of salvation swings wide open to the Gentiles. But it started with two people praying. Those two prayers have been answered billions of times over the last two thousand years. In fact, they were answered yet again when you put your faith in Jesus Christ.

Now let me state the obvious: Cornelius and Peter should have never met each other. Never. Ever. They were separated by geography. The thirty-two-mile distance between their two towns may not seem like much to us, but the average person in the first century didn't travel outside a thirty-mile radius of their birthplace. And more significantly, they were separated by ethnicity. Roman soldiers and Jewish disciples didn't hang out. In fact, Peter broke every law in the Jewish books when he entered the home of Cornelius. Stepping through that doorway was like crossing the Rubicon. He went against everything he'd ever known and risked everything he'd ever accomplished. That doorway to the home of Cornelius was like the wardrobe in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland. I call it The Door to Whosoever. When Peter entered the house of Cornelius, it literally meant, "Whosoever will may come." And that includes you and me!

Get Ready

It's not every day that a member of the United States Congress requests a meeting with me. At first I was curious. Then I got a little nervous. I hoped it had nothing to do with the fact that I had illegally taken my kids sledding at the Capitol during snowmaggedon a few winters back, but I figured that couldn't possibly warrant a federal investigation. Turns out the congressman just wanted to thank me for writing Wild Goose Chase, a book he read during his first run for Congress.

As we sipped lattes in my office above Ebenezer's Coffeehouse, the congressman shared his backstory with me. Not unlike Daniel's improbable rise to political power, Jim's path was full of unpredictable twists and turns. It all started one day in 2007 when the Holy Spirit said in that still, small voice, "Get ready." His initial reaction was, Get ready for what? At the time, Jim was directing one of the largest Christian camps in the country and preaching on weekends. He was perfectly content doing what he was doing, but the Holy Spirit kept impressing the same thing on him: "Get ready."

Several months later, Jim was reading the newspaper when he came across an article about the congresswoman who represented his district. Rumors were flying that she was going to make a run for governor, which would leave her seat in Congress vacant. That's when the Holy Spirit said, "This is it."

Jim didn't have a political bone in his body. In fact, he didn't even know the boundaries of his congressional district. He went online to do a little research when his wife walked in and said, "What are you looking at?" He said, "County statistics." She said, "We're running for Congress, aren't we?" They had never talked about it or thought about it. Running for Congress seemed like a wild goose chase. After all, Jim had no background, no network, and no resources. There was no way he could win — unless, of course, the front-runner happened to drop out of the race a few months before...