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I was in prayer one day and I was asking God what He wanted me to pray for:

He told me to pray that people's hearts would be opened.

I asked Him how He wanted me to pray for this.

He took me to Luke 24:13-31

This is one of the most profound messages the Lord has ever given me!

It's a long passage, but through it and those that follow, the Lord is painting a picture of today and how we can miss Him and who He is when He is right there in our midst.

There is a powerful message here if we can just get hold of it.

Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem.
And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.
But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.
And He said to them, "What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?"
Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, "Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?"
And He said to them, "What things?" So they said to Him, "The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,
and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him.
"But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.
"Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us.
"When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive.
"And certain of those who serve with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see."
Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
"Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?"
And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther.
But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." And He went in to stay with them.
Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.
Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.
And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?:
So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together,
saying, "The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!"
And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.

The first question out of my mouth to the Lord was, "How does breaking of bread open eyes?" He then took me to Matthew 14:13-21 where it speaks of the feeding of the 5,000 who "ate and were filled". I still had questions...

Next the Spirit took me to John 6:26-27: Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."

I still had lots of questions...I still didn't understand how to pray for people's hearts to be opened by talking about the breaking of bread. Usually the Lord speaks extremely straightforward and clearly to me. This was the first time I couldn't understand what He was trying to tell me.

He then led me to John 6:57 - "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me."

and John 6:63 - "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and they are life."

Next came 2 Corinthians 3 (in entirety) with emphasis on the following:

Epistle written in our hearts (of Christ)
By Spirit - not ink
Spirit of Living God - not on tablets of stone
our sufficiency is from God (not ourselves)
New Covenant - Spirit
Letter Kills - Spirit gives life

I still didn't understand clearly enough all that the Lord was trying to tell me to pray for the opening of people's hearts from this approach...

It is now the next day - this is taken from my journal:

"To say that yesterday was difficult would be an understatement. God has asked me to pray into His Word for His people. When I pray, it is important that I fully understand what the Holy Spirit wants me to pray. I guess yesterday was a step to the next level - perhaps a test - I have no idea. All I know is that by the end of it I still "didn't have a clue". I refused to let it go or to compromise the deeper meaning. I was grumpy and generally hard to live with (for this I had to ask for help & forgiveness & have repented). I prayed last night, "God, help me to understand - How do I pray this?"

This is where He took me - it deals with the breaking of the bread (parts He emphasized):

Acts 2:42 - Fellowship
Luke 24:30 - Recognize Him "as He broke the bread"
Mark 16:14 - Spoke rebuke regarding unbelief
John 21 - Disciples came to know Jesus yet another way

I know these passages seem to contradict themselves. I also know this cannot be true. Perhaps I need to re-study. In John, the risen Christ showed hands and sides then breathed on them to receive Holy Spirit. I still "didn't have a clue"...The Lord usually sends me all over the Bible when He's revealing things to me. This day was no exception.

As I was sent to the following - I began to get a glimmer of understanding...

1 Corinthians 10:16 - Bread we break at Communion is the Body of Christ
1 Corinthians 10:17 - We are one bread and one body - All partake of that bread
Romans 12:5 - We are all one body in Christ and one another
1 Corinthians 12:12-13 - ONE SPIRIT
BREAD = SPIRIT
This is what "unity" means
Ephesians 4:13 - Unity of faith
Ephesians 4:4 - One Body - One Spirit
Ephesians 4:16 - Whole body knit together

Okay Lord, I'm beginning to understand, yet "How do I pray it?" I was exhausted and went in to take a shower. The Lord seems to speak to me there more than anywhere else, today was no exception. The following came as both a vision and in words:

A Vision of the "Body of the Lord"

He showed me a body. The body had some sort of affliction that caused it to function incompletely. The legs, arms, hands and feet didn't work correctly and the mouth could not speak in a way that could be understood. It could not walk and some of it's internal organs functioned poorly. The kidneys did not work at all and it was on dialysis.

Then the Lord said, "This is my body today. Although this body is imperfect, it is still one body. If you cut off a chunk of flesh and set it apart, it will die. It is dependant on this body to live. You can take a pin and prick this body and it will feel pain. There is communication within the body. This is through nerves, blood flow and such. Separate cells function as separate units even as they are part of the whole. Even so, they cannot live as independent units. They will die."

This body can live if it were to loose parts such as a toe, even two legs and two arms, yet it cannot loose the head. It would die. The head without the body attached would also die. There is an interdependence.

Light bulbs are going off all over the place - I remembered reading Ephesians 4:13

"Till we all come to the unity of the faith

and of the knowledge of the Son of God,

to a perfect man,

to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;"

We can read words, and we can understand, but when the Lord speaks directly to you about something it is so very powerful. I will never be the same again and I haven't been able to look at the church the same since. We are not several separate "bodies" that belong to many different churches. We are not even a collection of people that are a "body" of believers. We are actually the "Body of Christ" with Him as our head. If we as a people can ever truly get hold of this truth - there lies the power. There lies the truth!

The body must become a whole functioning body again. Look at the much spoken of passage in Ezekiel 37. As the Lord has Ezekiel prophesy, the dry bones rattle and come together, bone to bone. When they are breathed upon, they live. In verse 11, the Lord says that they are the whole house of Israel. In the next section, the Lord talks of gathering the children of Israel and making them one nation. (I believe He talks here of all His children, not just national Israel). Note that this takes place directly before Gog attacks and is defeated.

While still in the shower, the Lord showed me His body as it was healed. It is the Spirit that heals. We are all of the same spirit. We are all part of Christ's body. In this is the true meaning of unity. He showed me the following:

As the Lord's body was broken and we partake of it...

We are joined together again as His body in Spirit.

I Corinthians 12

For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free - and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
For in fact the body is not one member but many.
If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body?
And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?
But now God has set the members each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.
And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."
No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty,
but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body having given greater honor to that part which lacks it,
that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another
And if one members suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

To finish up where I started...

The Lord showed me that as we pray for one another we should pray as if they were part of ourselves for indeed they are. He also revealed to me that we are constantly looking for Jesus when He's right in front of us. If it is true that we are one body with the Lord, that means as we look at one another, we are looking at a part of Jesus. This isn't anything I'm making up or going out on a limb to speak - it's directly out of the Bible (see above). We are one body, many parts, united with the Lord. The reason the disciples didn't recognize Jesus when He revealed Himself to them on the road to Emmaus is the same reason we don't see Him the right way today. Look around you, He is everywhere. The Lord is revealing Himself to us today just like He revealed Himself to the disciples 2000 years ago.

to the Lord be all glory, amen...