Wherever Marthe Moseley goes—and since she travels for work, this is a long list—she is a beacon of light. It is completely normal for an absolute stranger to approach her in the airport terminal and start a conversation, and within a few minutes, that conversation has inevitably led to Jesus. Here at University, Marthe is the closest thing to celebrity we have. Chances are, you know her, too, and you are better for it. And chances are, that like me, you have wondered, how does one become a Marthe, a person who so closely walks with God that to be near her is to feel His presence?
So I asked.
And what I learned is so simple. It’s not easy—but it is simple: every single day, Marthe chooses to begin her day with the discipline of scripture reading and prayer.
In the spring of 1999, Marthe attended the Women of Faith conference, and at a pre-conference intensive, literally titled, “Change Your Life,” she met Becky Tirabassi, who God used to call Marthe into a different way of prayer. The truth is that Marthe had always been a pray-er. She doesn’t remember a day that she hasn’t known Jesus, and she will tell you that her son, Nicholas, her sixth pregnancy and only child, was prayed into existence by the people of this church. Marthe knew prayer. She knew her Bible. But this was a whole new thing.
Marthe was called to daily, disciplined prayer: “It was a call to obedience, to come to the Lord with everything, to interact with scripture, to believe that it would come alive as I read and prayed.” Using a format that Tirabassi developed of readings from the Old and New Testaments, as well as a Proverb and Psalm, Marthe prays and reads and marks her Bible and journals her prayers each morning. What began as an hour a day has turned in to two and half hours each morning. As she reads and is reminded of someone, she prays that scripture for that person, marking the name and date by the scripture in her Bible. This time has become an intimate conversation with God; she fully expects for Him to speak with her, and He never disappoints. She leaves this time ready to go into the world and be the nurse, teacher, mother, wife, friend, and walking light that she is.
Spending intimate time with God has honed her ability to hear Him, sense His promptings, and respond, even when the request He makes of her seems completely crazy. He has told her to grab her Bible and her oil (to anoint with) and get in her car to go to people’s houses and pray for them. He wakes her up in the middle of the night to pray, putting specific people and situations before her eyes so that she knows how to pray. She says she used to feel weird and worry about what people would think of her: “I was pretty Lutheran in my praying. It was private, between me and God, but as I have been privileged to deliver messages to people from God, to provide intercessory prayer in moments of crisis, I have realized that what God lets me step into is incredible. It’s the best life ever.”
I asked Marthe how she discerns that she is in fact hearing from God, rather than something or someone else. “Prayer is spiritual sandpaper. It ‘tunes your ears to wisdom.’ And you always ask, ‘Does it match up with the fruits of the spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?’ God does not ask of us things that don’t match up,” she explains.
I asked Marthe what else we should know to be more like her. And her immediate response was unsurprising: “It’s not me. It’s Jesus. I want people to go to the Lord. My wish for our church is that we would go to God first.”
Prayer has changed Marthe Moseley. May we all choose to be so lucky.