I believe that was the first time we really began to search for what prayer should be. All our lives we had, for want of a better description, taken a mere shopping list to the Lord. It was our shopping list. It was what we wanted. Somehow it was all about us! And not about Him!
At that time we were led to pray just as the disciples had said to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” And that, for me, was the beginning of a journey; a deeply exciting time of learning, of searching and seeking and realising that prayer is something of the Spirit and NOT of the flesh. It has also been a hard road and one sometimes of frustration and weakness; a journey that is certainly not complete but one which grows in intensity and revelation as we cry, Lord teach us to pray.”
Leonard Ravenhill, born in 1907 in Leeds in England told of a Dr. Carl F. Henry, founder and editor of “Christianity Today” who once sent out a question to twenty leading preachers in the country. The question he asked was this, “What do you see for the church of Jesus Christ by the year 2000?” Mr Ravenhill goes on to say he remembers only one answer and that from an Elton Trueblood, a Quaker philosopher. He said this amazing thing, “By the year 2000 the church will be a conscious minority surrounded by an arrogant, militant paganism.”
And that is exactly where we find ourselves. Paganism even runs rampant through many church organisations! Where have we gone? The church needs to pray. We need to “weep between the porch and the altar.” (Joel 2:17)
We need hearts that are broken unto the Lord in prayer and intercession as the weeping Prophet Jeremiah had. We need to cry out to the Lord for His Holy Spirit to do something in the heart of the church with regard to prayer. We need to actively seek to pray and to grow in prayer as the revelation of Christ Jesus grows within us.
“It has often been said that prayer is the greatest force in the universe. This is no exaggeration. It will bear constant repetition. In this atomic age when forces are being released that stagger the thought and imagination of man, it is well to remember that prayer transcends all other forces.”
Post published in: Faith