Bruce Wilkinson - Beyond Jabez: Expanding Your Borders

BEYOND JABEZ
published by Multnomah Books

2005 by Exponential, Inc.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from:
The Holy Bible, New King James Version
1984 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Other Scripture quotations are from:
The Holy Bible, King James Version ( KJV )

Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.

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eISBN: 978-0-307-56354-5

v3.1

C ONTENTS

Introduction
The Little Prayer That Could

P ART I
B LESSING FROM G OD

People Who Prayed
Mourning into Dancing

P ART II
I NFLUENCE FOR G OD

People Who Prayed
Renewal Scores in Rwanda

P ART III
P OWER FROM G OD

People Who Prayed
An Offer We Couldnt Refuse

P ART IV
P ROTECTION BY G OD

People Who Prayed
A Secret Addiction

P ART V
N EW H ORIZONS WITH G OD

To all wholike those individuals in the book of Actslook at who they are now and who they will never be, at what they can do and what they will never be able to do and still dare to ask God for the world.

May you personally experience the exceeding greatness of His power toward us (Ephesians 1:19). You will find that He is more than able, and more than desirous, to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).

Without the editorial skills of Brian Smith and David Webb, the marketing insights of Guy Coleman, and the encouragement of the Multnomah team and publisher Don Jacobson, Beyond Jabez would never have found its way to paper. Thank you, my friends, for your commitment to carefully stewarding this message.

I NTRODUCTION

T HE L ITTLE P RAYER T HAT C OULD

W hen The Prayer of Jabez was first published in the spring of 2000, if you had told me that this little ninety-three-page book would become the fastest-selling book of all timeas Publishers Weekly dubbed it in 2002I wouldnt have believed it. But the response has been, and continues to be, incredible. Even now, I employ a full-time assistant to answer e-mails and letters from people writing to tell me of their Jabez experiences! And the stories continue to flood in from those who have tasted the miracle of answered prayer.

Wherever I go, wherever I teach, the question is always the same: How can you explain the sales of your book? After a couple of years, I felt that the answer had become apparent; after all, nearly everywhere I went, someone rushed up to share their own story: You should hear what God did when I prayed the prayer of Jabez

I remember speaking at the Billy Graham Cove where an informal poll revealed that more than 80 percent of the audience had purchased multiple copies to give as gifts to their family and friends. One man had given away more than eighty cases! Why? He told me, For some reason, God is answering this prayer in the life of everyone I have given it toand I want everyone I know to experience the reality that God answers prayer!

The phrase You should hear what God did may be the key to the unprecedented success of The Prayer of Jabez. Millions of people have told millions of others what God has done in their lives in answer to this simple prayer. And when one person tells another what God has done, thats giving God the credit He so richly deserves.

Im also convinced that the prayer of Jabez is directly linked to the call to launch a global movement called Dream for Africa. After the success of the book and its follow-up, Secrets of the Vine, our family unexpectedly felt called to move to Africa and help with efforts to stop the AIDS epidemic, perhaps the greatest crisis to hit mankind since the great Flood. When the call came, I inquired of the Lord, Are you sure? After all, Im not in my twenties anymore. Or my thirties. Or my forties.

I had to smile from the gentle nudge that came back: But arent you the Jabez guy? Havent you been pleading with Me for decades for much, much more territory? Are we going to debate where the boundaries of that territory lie?

During this season, I returned to Matthew 28:1820 and meditated on the Great Commission for months, asking the Lord to reveal to me if I had missed anything vital to the next chapter in my service for Him. I discovered in that study something very significantsomething that I knew, yet didnt knowthat would change my life forever.

Jesus commanded His followers to disciple all nations, or people groups. Not just individuals or families or cities, but nations. For the first time in my ministry, I asked a totally different question: How can I obey the Great Commission by discipling a whole nation for God?

When one draws a circle around the borders of a nation with the intention of discipling that whole nation, it doesnt take long to realize that the most strategic person in that nation is the president or king. But how could I ever hope to even meet the many leaders of Africa?

Yet when I was training ninety-five hundred leaders in Nigeria, I found myself invited to lunch with the president of the nation, who told me that everywhere he traveled in the world, someone would give him a copy of The Prayer of Jabez and that the book had changed his life.

Then when I was in Zambia training more than seven hundred leaders, the president of that nation invited me to his office and told me he had just finished reading The Prayer of Jabeztwice. He came around his large desk and asked me to place my hands on his shoulders and pray for him.

Later I was to speak with the president and first lady of Uganda to find out firsthand how they had achieved a remarkable turnaround and stemmed the tide of HIV infection in their nation. The president was unexpectedly called north to an outbreak of fighting, but his wife gave me the warmest welcome and said, Oh, we love The Prayer of Jabez! But Secrets of the Vine is my favorite.

As of this writing, I have just returned from Malawi, where we were launching another Dream for Africa ministry. Just before we were to fly back to Johannesburg, we received word that the first lady of Malawi wanted to meet with us. As we were introduced, the first ladys adult daughter enthusiastically said to her mother, This is the man Ive been telling you about, the one who wrote the book I just gave you!

One leader said to me recently, The