Prayer - Desperately Needed, Fervently Desired and Often Faithfully Neglected!
Currently I am reading a very curious book entitled “The Blueprint” a revolutionary plan to plant missional communities on campus. This book is written by a young man who ascribes to Charismatic Theology, and therefore I disagree with much of what He has to say specifically about the Holy Spirit and the practice of the believer, but the author has challenged my thinking on prayer and as a community of believers I hope to do the same for you today. I want to start by asking you, who is this God that we pray to? If He is some tribal God who is lucky to get a few things right from time to time, we are certainly wise in not totally relying on Him and putting all of our eggs in one basket (so to speak). But, if on the other hand He is truly all powerful, mighty to save, ready to answer, faithful to bless us, able to surpass our wildest dreams in answering prayer, then we should wait on Him in prayer, pray with great faith, believe Him for the souls of hundreds and even thousands, and look to Him for personal and corporate revival of the saints!Remember the prayer of Daniel in Daniel 2, where King Nebuchadnezzar was going to destroy all of the wise men in the land if they couldn’t tell him his own dream and the interpretation? Daniel and his friends prayed and asked God for the dream and its interpretation: do you know what they got? The dream and its interpretation! Recently I have prayed and asked God for more young men to disciple and personally mentor in the faith. I’ve asked God for 3 young men, do you know what I have right now on a weekly basis to work with? Three young men who earnestly desire to learn, grow and serve God! We are praying for 10 people to trust God by faith and to be discipled in this year. We have seen 7 trust Christ already and are being discipled. We need to see more! Friends, God answers prayer. Go to Him with specific prayer, then silently wait for Him to answer. Wait on Him and listen to him for as long as it takes.Let me share some suggestions that I am thinking about and hope that you will incorporate into your personal and corporate seeking of God.
- Organize prayer groups and God will answer your prayer! Bring people together at your home, in your community and pray for the souls of men, revival in this country and for churches to be planted.
- Learn to practice waiting prayer. Waiting prayer is silently waiting for the Lord to lead. Do not mistake this type of prayer as a replacement for the intake of scripture, but please recognize the countless times we are told to wait on the Lord and listen to Him. Practice this in your prayer life and be prepared to see Him aswer and lead you in wonderful ways.
- Learn to practice faith prayer. Faith prayer is asking God for great things: things that naturally seem impossible, yet because of the truth of the Word of God, you’ve become convinced that God can and will accomplish them. For me this looks like us as a church asking God for 150 changed lives in the next 5 years. These are people who need Christ and need to be discipled. This also looks like me asking God for us to be able to plant 5 churches that will also plant churches.
What has God burdened your heart for? I would love to hear from you and to hear about what you are praying for. Prayer is desperately needed because the world neither knows God nor acknowledges Him as such, it is fervently desired because I believe God is reviving His people in America to plant churches at an amazing rate to reach the world coming to us, and yet it is faithfully neglected because we’ve forgotten the power of God to answer prayer.
James 5:17-18 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
Aaron
July 16th, 2009 at 10:37
This week we had a small group meet at Panera on Shawnee Mission Parkway and we discussed the need for prayer and how to incorporate it into our worship/lifestyles. God broke through and taught us some amazing lessons. Before I left for the small group, my wife and I prayed for someone who didn’t know Christ to want to get involved in our discussion and that we might share Christ with them. Well, God answered in an amazing way. “Steve” wandered over toward the end of our discussion and began asking questions. Listen, I write this comment to let you know that God is actively seeking those who will wait on Him and ask great things of Him. He will answer. He’s been answering in amazing ways all week!