“What do you want?”

My youth pastor looked at me, waiting for a response.

“What do you want?”

I hesitated. “I guess it would be nice if my friend could know Christ.”

“You want your friend to know Christ?”

“Yeah.”

“What about the whole school? Do you want the whole school to know Christ?”

“Yeah, but–”

“But what?”

“I just–”

“What do you want?”

I stopped and thought about what I wanted. What I truly wanted.

“I want my Spanish class to start speaking in tongues. Every one of them. One by one until the whole room is filled with the Holy Spirit, and the students out in the hallway press their ears against the doors and say, ‘wait a minute. That’s not Spanish.’” I looked down. “That’s what I want.”

My youth pastor nodded. “Tell God.”

I never did.

When Derrick asked me if I could write about the 21 martyrs, I thought I would be writing about our need to pray for the persecuted church (which we do) and our need to know what others in our faith communities are going through (which we do). But when I woke up an hour before I was supposed to and read a Lent devotional from Biola University, I went on this trail of scripture reading, and noticed that when my Bible spoke of the Holy Spirit, a picture of a dove would be on the side of that text.

And guess what guys—there were a lot of doves beside scriptures about martyrs.

I shook my head. “Sorry, God. It’s 7 in the morning and I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but the Pentecostal chick is not going to talk to her community about the Holy Spirit.”

Doves. Doves everywhere.

“God, I just don’t think you understand how complicated it would be for us to go there. Do you really want to go there?”

Acts.

“Really, God? ACTS?!”

Acts 7.

So I read.

54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together[b] at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

Five verses after the deafening reality of the church being executed, the scripture says “So there was much joy in the city.” The Holy Spirit is all over the story line of martyrs, and you don’t need dove pictures to see that.

The people who stoned Stephen didn’t see God. They were not filled with the Holy Spirit. They fell spiritually blinded to the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

I wasn’t there when 21 men were slaughtered as “a message signed with blood to the Nation of the Cross.” But I’m sure that if this event was documented in my Bible, there would be dove pictures everywhere.

Churches across the world are praying for the martyrs and the persecuted church. For the next 21 days, I will be posting a prayer based on scripture so that we can join them. And as we do this, I would like to challenge you to allow the Holy Spirit to wreck you.

Because, I dare say, I think the 21 martyrs are waiting for you.

9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants[c] and their brothers[d] should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

What if our prayers for the persecuted church could seize the war and bring forth into motion Christ’s glory seen on the earth? What if our prayers could crown beauty for ashes, clothe servants in white robes, give hope to the hopeless, send a battle cry to the heavens? What if the martyrs are waiting for us not to die, but to live? To live boldly, courageously, humbly, and intentionally? What do you want?

Click here to pray with me.

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