New Perspective on Studying?

So studying long hours into the night is never usually a highly-anticipated activity. But in my quest to see how God is working in everything, I had another thought. What if all the time I spent at Hayden Library, I saw myself as a library intercessor? I mean the whole idea sparked when I was taking a break from doing my work (which I should be doing now). I went outside and sat down by the fountain and just sat there observing what has happening around the campus and asking God what He had on His mind. There was a street preacher talking to a small crowd. Usually the crowd is made up of the same group of people from the secular-free thinking society. I just kinda sat there and observed and prayed for what was happening there.

While I was sitting there, a friend came out of the prayer chapel and approached me. We started talking about the street preachers and stuff, and as we talked, he mentioned to me that a girl he knew had a vision that one of the prominent leaders of the secular club crying out to Jesus! Cuurrraaazzzzy! So we prayed over that and declared that, and then I walked back down the library steps to finish my homework (which I will be resuming shortly). As I walked down, I saw people sitting outside, and to be honest, they looked somewhat oppressed and down-hearted. It is even more obvious now as we head into finals. I walked into the doors of the library, and I was reminded of the intellectual bindings that the enemy has over students in our campuses.

As I thought about it, I had this thought come into my mind that we really need to be praying for the students in our campus. And what better place to do it than in the library. The library represents a place of one of the enemies strongholds -our minds. The intellectual stronghold over the campus is probably one of greatest hindrances to gospel of Christ. As I think about it contextually, Hayden library is an underground library so we go beneath the very foundations of the school itself. 24 hour prayer has been housed many times on Hayden Lawn which is directly on top of the library. We have talked about this many times with our prayer group, and one of the things that has come up is praying for the foundation of Hayden Lawn and ASU in general because intellectualism currently is one of the biggest foundations that the university is founded upon. Symbolically, I think this is pretty powerful because here at ASU, like I've mentioned, the library is underground which makes it literally a foundation for a big part of the campus.

And as I think about it even more, Hayden library is open 24 hours a day for most days of the year. And as I think about it more, so many people are in the Hayden library at the wee hours of the morning. I was here until 2am last night. So as I think about it, why don't I be more intentional in lifting up prayers every time I am here studying. What if I changed my mentality of going to the library? What if we all changed our mentality about studying and used it as an opportunity to intercede against the oppressive spirit of intellectualism that has held our campuses bound for so long. What if we are saw ourselves as watchmen interceding in the night as we worked into the wee hours of night on homework. The enemy wants to try to steal our joy and bring anxiety through school work and especially now during finals time.

But I don't think we tolerate this foul spirit of intellectualism and anxiety that the enemy places upon us! No, the Bible says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Freedom! Can you imagine what that would look like if that happened at the library? What if the library of all places was a place where the Spirit of God rested? There would be freedom and deliverance! We see people be freed of so many disorders and addictions associated with the stresses of school work. It would be amazing! It would change the foundation of our campuses and rock the spiritual atmosphere.

So like I said before God is good! He is too good to be confined to our Sunday morning church services, Christian club meetings, or even conversations with friends. God is with us everywhere we go and in whatever we do. Let's remember that especially during this season of finals and crazy studying. Be a library intercessor! It's the year of the Lord's favor. He is going to set the captives free!

Dear God,
May we see you in every moment of our lives. May you change our perspectives from earthly things to heavenly things. May we not be bogged down by things of this world, but may we be set free by renewing of our minds. Renew our minds and give us a fresh new realization that we are loved by you. May we be intercessors wherever we may be. May you bind the spirit of intellectualism on our campuses and restore the foundations to be built on the Cornerstone. Bind the hearts of broken-hearted and set the captives free. We declare the year of Jubilee - the Year of the Lord's blessing! Thank you, Abba Father. You are our true source of knowledge -you are the way, the truth, and the life. In Jesus Name. Amen.