As we left the Jerusalem city limits at 2:30 in the morning, I drew a deep breath of air. In that quiet taxi ride from my apartment to the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, my mind began to wander. I remembered a conversation I had a few days earlier with a seasoned intercessor while walking through the Old City Marketplace. While discussing the revelation of Yeshua's Finished Work, and the tragedy of many in the body of Messiah still trapped in their own dead works, she asked me in her old Scottish accent, "Matt, why do you think God chose us?" This question had stopped me dead in my tracks. Why did God choose me?

For the past three months my wife and I had been in Jerusalem, the capital of the world, and a city deeply entrenched in religion. And now we were parting with the Lord's beloved mountain for a season. I was astounded at the impact that a city can have on a person on such a relatively brief amount of time. And yet, knowing that I was called by God for that time, I also wondered at the impact that I could have had on Jerusalem.

As a volunteer in the Jerusalem Prayer Tower, much of our "work" was worship and intercession, in that order. We had arrived in Israel early September, just prior to the talks for the U.N. Palestinian State Bid. So naturally, this would be a key prayer point for our allotted time. As the days had progressed, we joined from people all over the world coming to pray for the congruency of the Nation and the City.

A critical landmark had occurred on 11/11/11 when the U.N. Security Council put off the decision to admit the Palestinian State. The intercessors enjoyed a very restful Shabbat, as God indeed fought this battle for Israel. It served as one positive reminder that it is not our grit, nor intense warfare prayers, nor our prophetic acts that affect anything in the spiritual realm. It is our trust, rest, and agreement in the love of God that allows his power to change the world.

Despite the other countless prayer battles that had been won and are being won -- a ransomed IDF soldier, property redemption projects, threats of an Iranian war, and the nation coming to faith in Yeshua - I found that it was the individual people that made the deepest impact on us. It was the security guards waiting outside every building, who were won over by frequent smiles and an occasional cookie. It was the enthusiastic, Arab speaking custodian, with whom I was limited in communication to the words, "How are you?" Elevator companions, who were always so delighted that Americans were there praying for them. Of course, we were surrounded by all of our friends in the Prayer Tower, whose heart burn for the same passion.

As these memories of victories, friends, tears, and laughter flooded my mind, I couldn't help but being a little selfish. It was I who God had chosen to change these souls, and for them to change mine. I asked myself in that cab ride to the airport, "Is it pride or presumption to assume that I have left my eternal handprint in Jerusalem? That little ol' me could have made a difference? Why me?"

Then I remembered those words in Galatians, possibly the first letter written by Paul, …[I]t pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me… (Gal. 1:15-16) We were not chosen by the badges of our merit, by the pleasure of God. It is His Son seen through me, not the light of my own good deeds.

We arrived at the airport after a cab ride that seemed too short, and I took in another deep breath of night air. I paid the driver and proceeded to the check in. I turned around and took a last look back on our invisible handprint in Israel. The change that this nation and this world are looking for will not come by heroes and superstars, but by "little ol' me's" whose hearts bear the imprint of God, and who have the audacity to just believe it.