AS A PASTOR, one of the questions I hear most often is, “How can I hear God?” I’ve preached on this subject and even written books about it, but I’ve realized something over my thirty-plus years in ministry: most of us only ask about hearing God when we have a problem. Once our problem is solved, we seem to unconsciously say, “Thanks, God! You were great at fixing my issue! Talk to you next time!” Then we go on with our busy Christian lives. The truth is God has so much more to say to us if we would just stick around for the conversation.

If you’ve ever met Mary Jo Pierce, you know she loves to talk about prayer. Even more than that, she lives prayer. In Follow Me, Mary Jo points out a fact we often miss—when Jesus called His disciples, it wasn’t for a day, a month, or even a year. No, He called them to a lifetime of walking and talking with Him.

I want every believer to have an ongoing conversation with Jesus, and Mary Jo shows us how simple it really is. She gives readers an honest, front-row seat to her journey through the book of John—with all the victories and struggles included. This book is so much more than an interesting memoir, though. It’s a roadmap to starting your own lifelong journey of walking and talking with our great Savior. I know God will speak directly and uniquely to every person who reads Follow Me.

I started my own conversation with Jesus in Room 12 at Jake’s Motel. It’s been over 30 years now, and so far, neither one of us has run out of things to say.

You can begin your own conversation with Him today. How? Just open this book and say, “Yes, Jesus. I will follow You.”

ROBERT MORRIS
Founding Senior Pastor of Gateway Church
Best-selling author of The Blessed Life,
The God I Never Knew, and Frequency

There is a television commercial that begins by showing one person using a product and then reveals the vast number of people working behind the scenes to bring that product to completion. I hardly think of this book as a “product”—rather, it is an offering to the Lord—but it still took a team of gifted, praying, and believing-in-me people to produce what you are now holding. To each I owe a deep debt of gratitude.

To Robert Morris, founding senior pastor of Gateway Church. My pastor, your love of God’s Word and the way you faithfully feed it to your “sheep” has inspired me, challenged me, charged me, and ultimately changed me.

To the Gateway Publishing Leadership Team:

• Thank you to Kevin Grove, Mallory Bassham, and Bobby Williams for believing in this project and electing to see it come to life.

• A special thank you to Thomas Miller. When Pastor Thomas first heard about my personal journey through the Gospel of John, he encouraged me—like only he can encourage—to write and share this life-altering encounter with the Word. He is the best!

To Gateway Publishing, my boots-on-the-ground team, who worked tirelessly to see this stepping-into-Scripture journey transferred from the pages of my journal to the pages of this book:

• Thank you to Craig Dunnagan for expertly leading this team and believing this message will bring readers into a transformational walk with Jesus and the Word.

• Thank you to John Andersen, who can hear an idea and then with lightning speed put the vision into action. He has taught me so much about loving and caring (and praying) for my readers.

• Thank you to Jenny Morgan, my editor. In the natural I watched this young mother walk through her first pregnancy and bring precious Lucy into this world. Such love, care, and joy went into every aspect of her daughter’s growth, and we rejoiced together at seeing the fulfillment of what God created in her. I observed the same love, care, and joy as Jenny worked on this manuscript. With integrity for the heart of the message and honor for the methods, her eye for detail resulted in this unending conversation with Jesus.

• Thank you to Kathy Krenzien, Peyton Sepeda, James Reid, Caleb Jobe, and Cady Claterbaugh for overseeing the production and marketing of this project. Their faithful work made it possible to get this book into your hands!

To my prayer partners—my stick-closer-than-a brother-or-sister team—who always carry me over the finish line. Always. They pray for me with an unforced rhythm of grace and with boldness and confidence, believing in the ways God has invested prayer in me.

To Krista Doyle, my great-niece who lives out her own unique passion in prayer. She is a generational God-gift to me. Sharing our love of God and His Word and praying together has been one of my life’s greatest joys.

To my prayer shield—Mallory and Boyd Bassham, Amy and Casey Cook, Stephanie and Allan Kelsey—who have been in the trenches and on the mountain tops with me these past eight years.

To Joan Byrne, my safe place and faithful soldier in prayer. How close we are in the spirit, even though we’ve only spoken once on the phone and met briefly one time. Oh, what God can do in agreeing prayer that miles cannot deter!

To Carol Sosa from Guatemala and her prayer team, who were impacted by my first book, Adventures in Prayer, and took on praying for this second project to come to pass.

To Christa Miles, Mark and Jodie Harris, Audrey Cook, Monika Wiesinger, and Joanna Wiesinger, who wouldn’t let me give up, shrink back, or quit. Living prayer with these wonderful friends is life’s greatest gift!

To my wonderful sisters, Theresa and Raynora, who have known me longer than anyone else! And loved me, often in spite of myself. They have prayed and believed for me. They worry about me. They take care of me. With two sisters (Roberta and Bernadette) already in heaven, along with our parents, Theophil and Yula Mae Dobski, I can’t say how much I treasure these two here on earth.

Lastly, though truly first and foremost, to my husband, Bruce Pierce—affectionally called Brucie. He is my Aaron and Hur partner in life. I love how he loves the Word as much as I do, and he is my most ardent supporter in what God wants to do in and through my prayer life. Brucie has made so many sacrifices for me. May God richly bless him and honor his legacy. Thirty-nine years married, and this is just our beginning.

As always, my greatest desire and prayer in writing is that this book will be a blessing and inspiration to my children, Toni and Traci, and my grandchildren, Mackenzie, Bethanie, Grant, Samantha, and Cassidy. And to the generations that will follow.

Loving God, following Jesus, being led by Holy Spirit, and living prayer is my dearest legacy to them.

Imagine being Nicodemus and secretly meeting with Jesus at night. Imagine being the woman at the well and having the Savior ask you for a drink. Imagine being at the Last Supper and having the Messiah wash your feet. Just imagine …

The idea of engaging in a one-on-one conversation with Jesus is certainly thought-provoking. What would it be like to speak with Him face-to-face, heart-to-heart? How would it change you? What would you be willing to give to hear Jesus say, “Come, follow Me”?

I’ve always taken the Word personally. At the inception of my relationship with Jesus, the Word became my friend. Scripture showed me the plans God has for me, acted as a compass for everyday decisions, and served as a measuring rod for my life. The Bible introduced me to the unconditional love of God, marked out how to have relationships, and taught me how to worship, pray, believe, and hope. The Word was my light, truth, and trusted companion.

However, as always with our God, there is more. And when we discover the more, God has even more. He is continually revealing more depth and breadth and height and width to His unfailing love, unwavering mercy, and eternal goodness. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He doesn’t change. His Word doesn’t change. No matter how much our situations or circumstances may change, the Bible always can and always will speak to our current state. It’s incredible!

In response to my prayer, “I want to get to know Jesus more” (which I will share more about later), God invited me to walk into the Scriptures and have a personal conversation with Jesus by primarily using the red-letter words in the book of John. What I thought would be another assignment turned out to be the most authentic, raw, and transforming encounter I’ve ever had with Jesus and the Word.

This book will take you on my journey through the Gospel of John and invite you into your own. I’ll share from my journals as you write in yours. Together, we will each have our own Emmaus Road, walking and talking with Jesus.

I’m mindful there are verses, words, and thoughts that spoke specifically to what God was wanting to address with me on my journey. There were many conversations in red Jesus did not highlight for me, and those He did may differ from those He will highlight for you. God has specific work He wants to do in and through each of us, and His Word will speak to your life as directly and spot-on as it did to mine.

Starting out, I anticipated this journey to take 21 days (21 chapters, one chapter each day). In truth, I spent a year walking through the Gospel of John with Jesus. In “real” life, conversations ebb and flow, change the subject, later return to the original subject, and so on. The same is true with this journey. This is not a book with a traditional beginning, middle, and end. Rather, it reflects the genuine, day-in and day-out, high and low, mountain top and valley, failing and get up and go again, run the race conversations.

God is so amazingly personal. I pray this book unlocks many hearts and begins endless conversations.

Here are the tools I used:

• A new journal (I love the promise of a new journal—all those blank pages soon to be filled with life lessons and treasures and secrets between God and me.)

• A red pen to indicate Jesus (God) speaking to me

• A blue pen to indicate me speaking to Jesus (God—Sometimes my conversations were with the Father and the Holy Spirit too.)

• Another color pen for sidebar notes, commentary, etc. (optional)

• A Bible (I used The Voice translation. Its script form helped me “step into the story of Scripture,” and its added italicized words and phrases drew me into personal conversations with Jesus. I often referenced other translations to add depth and width to our conversations.)

Someone once asked me to name my favorite Bible translation. I replied, “The MJP version”—my initials. In all seriousness, when I find a Bible passage that God wants engraved on my heart, I will read every translation I can find. I then write the Scripture selection in my own words, sometimes including my name or the names of my loved ones. I follow this practice so that I can personally identify with what God is saying to me in that moment.

As I walked and talked with Jesus on this journey, I often found what He was speaking in each chapter to be very pertinent to what was going on in my life at that time. I was able to take His words from their original historical context and apply them directly to my own present circumstances. The wonderful thing about this method of reading and praying Scripture is that if I were to do it again, Jesus’ words would be the same, but our conversations would be different. My life is ever-growing, ever-challenging, and ever-seeking. Thankfully, His Word is alive and always applicable to what is going on in my heart today.

As much as I consider my red-letter journal to be one of my greatest treasures, my objective is not simply to share my experiences and insights. My greatest desire is for you to have your own journey.

Many of the prayers I share in this book have blank lines for you to fill in with your own details—your needs, your heartaches, your dreams. Let the Holy Spirit direct and lead you in your own transforming encounter with Jesus. Don’t be in a hurry. Walk at a leisurely pace and enjoy your intimate, first person interactions with your Savior.