Lay Your Hands on Me

Annette Fetzer, Asbury alumna (2006)

Sometimes I lay my hand on the shoulder of the person for whom I am praying.  Sometimes I pray quietly in tongues and sometimes I interpret what I am praying.

For whom do I usually pray?  Eighteen to twenty-two year olds who attend a secular college campus, Texas Tech University.  Energy and emotion abound here!  So do boots of the Ugg and Cowboy variety, identity formation questions and Texas football.  

It's a rare day that I don't end up talking about sex, boundaries in dating and what someone is going to do with "their" life.  In this people group, changing your Facebook status is the first call for help, texting or twitter the second and coping mechanisms the third.  I get consulted after roommates and Google searches have been exhausted.

I pray all the time now.  I pray before I meet with people so the Father will lay a foundation and go ahead of me.  I wait on him in the conversation, listening to Him as I listen to the student.  So many of the spirits - living in short shorts and sorority t-shirts - are in crisis when they come to me. 

Remember the crushing blow of rejection?  The negative feedback loop of looking at porn?  The seasonal collegian changes of friendship?  The pressure to know what you want to do for the rest of your life?

I pray because battles are fought and won on our college campuses, and I am not talking about national titles.  If students commit at this age then it often sticks for life.  

To be clear, I am not my own personal IHOP, praying 24/7.  I have a full time job in ministry with college students whose demands are constant.  Preaching, one-on-one meetings, 15 minutes of Super Mario Brothers (need me to tell you where the extra lives are?), discipleship, outreach, community life, phone calls, a whole virtual world in which I must engage.  When I am working I am giving out the whole time.  It takes a lot of emotion and energy.  

It is as regular as checking my calendar that I find myself praying for the fruits of the Spirit.  Patience, when the introvert in me is tired of meeting with people.  Joy, when my schedule seems to have become mundane.  Kindness, when I am doing more parenting than ministry.  Peace, when I wonder when God will answer that prayer for my husband to come forth.  Gentleness, because God made me direct. 

Speaking of the Holy Spirit (which I love to do!), one day I simply prayed for a student's spirit without mentioning it to them.  I was worried about some choices they were making.  That student came walking in my office that very afternoon!  After meeting and praying they were set free from a demonic stronghold.  

Weekly, I see Satan fight for my student's lives.  And that is when I bring in my concealed weapon - prayer - and say, Holy Spirit, lay your hands on them.