"Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God; for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up.” Psalm 5:1-3 (KJV)
Tony Salerno started the Agape Force, but I don’t think I’d be far wrong to say that Winkie Pratney was the “force” behind much of what we learned and who we became. The Force was conceived in the wake of his ministry.
Winkie’s teaching impacted us in more ways than most people ever knew. His fiery, wiry presence, often hilarious presentation, and heart stopping message made theology palatable. Especially in the beginning, Winkie’s tracts and Youth Aflame manual gave us the ammunition we needed to load our big guns and storm the gates of Hell. Phrases like “A law without sanctions is merely advice”, “Knowledge equals responsibility” and “Trust God or die” were all Winkie-isms that were often heard and spoken by us all. One of the most frequently heard and most powerfully life changing concepts was this. “The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is selfishness.”
We saw love and selfishness as direct opposites and worked hard to eradicate all things selfish from our lives. We saw that every sin had its birth in a selfish heart. So we strove to love God and each other.
Thus inspired, and with a mandate to read twenty chapters a day in the New Testament, it didn’t take long for team members to stoke the fires of personal revival and conviction. God’s Word has never and never will return void.
Wherever the Agape Force was, as surely as the sun would rise, when it did, there were the sights and sounds of morning devotions. Up early, each person on staff would stake a claim to a piece of real estate in which to pray, read the Word, and get alone to worship Him.
I remember well, that in Sebastopol, no matter where you went in the early morning you might stumble over someone. In the dorms some would stretch out on bunks, Bible open. In any building, opening a closet door might reveal a person deep in prayer. Out on the grounds you could hear the sounds of prayers and shouting from the woods. Under almost every tree was another Bible-reader. It was our time to get alone with God and draw from Him the strength we needed for each day. Later, when we moved to Texas it wasn’t so hard to find a place to get alone. There was so much more room with 400 acres! Still the woods would echo with the sounds of unashamed prayer and the lawns were dotted with the faithful.
The things we learned from God on those chilly, rainy, hot and muggy, bright and breezy, foggy, cloudy mornings, set the stage for all we did and said and sang. We learned at His feet, what a Bible School could never teach us: To hear his voice, to pour ourselves out each morning, and to be filled with Him.
These stories of morning devotional times capture the simple, childlike faith that we embraced Him with. The littlest thing could teach us.