A pitiful, sickly, and self-centered kind of prayer and a determined effort and selfish desire to be right with God are never found in the New Testament.
The fact that I am trying to be right with God is actually a sign that I am rebelling against the atonement by the Cross of Christ. I pray, “Lord, I will purify my heart if You will answer my prayer— I will walk rightly before You if You will help me.” But I cannot make myself right with God; I cannot make my life perfect. I can only be right with God if I accept the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ as an absolute gift.
Am I humble enough to accept it? I have to surrender all my rights and demands, and cease from every self-effort. I must leave myself completely alone in His hands, and then I can begin to pour my life out in the priestly work of intercession. There is a great deal of prayer that comes from actual disbelief in the atonement. Jesus is not just beginning to save us— He has already saved us completely. It is an accomplished fact, and it is an insult to Him for us to ask Him to do what He has already done.
If you are not now receiving the “hundredfold” which Jesus promised (see Matthew 19:29), and not getting insight into God’s Word, then start praying for your friends— enter into the ministry of the inner life.
“The Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends.”
As a saved soul, the real business of your life is intercessory prayer. Whatever circumstances God may place you in, always pray immediately that His atonement may be recognized and as fully understood in the lives of others as it has been in yours. Pray for your friends now, and pray for those with whom you come in contact now.
(By Oswald Chambers)
Prayer is a call, a command and a gift. Through prayer, a believer is motivated by love for Christ to contribute to strengthening the church in love (Ephesians 4:16) to build a strong family unit patterned after the Word, and to be diligent in service to others.
- “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6).
- “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you”(John 15:8-12).
Pray that hearts will be touched by God and helped by the Holy Spirit to become sensitive again to and pained by the laws of God.
- We should pray that souls will respond to divine correction and feel the remorse of absolute guilt that appreciates true reality. We must also pray that our minds and consciences experience the renewal that can only come by loving and meditating on the word.
Prayer is an essential part of Christian living. Christians are to pray constantly, without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
- Whether we think of; or speak to, God, whether we act or suffer for him, all is prayer, when we have no other object than his love, and the desire of pleasing him. All that a Christian does, even in eating and sleeping, is prayer, when it is done in simplicity, according to the order of God, without either adding to or diminishing from it by his own choice (Wesley, in the Plain Account).
Spiritual energy when effective is always superior to the most deft political man-oeuvres. Mary Queen of Scots is reputed to have admitted:
- “I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe.”
We need to pray for guilt that comes from a renewed and sanctified conscience. One of the primary battles of the conscience is to establish the mind sets that produce correct feelings of guilt.
- Civil legislation enforces social order by having laws that produce its own desired form of guilt and shame to correct behaviour. Civil laws will therefore focus on tolerance, equality, rights and protection of real or perceived threats to groups. Since unresolved guilt can be a primary driver shaping our reactions, it is important that Christians respond more to absolute guilt based on God’s laws even sometimes at the expense of attention to the subjective guilt linked to well intentioned civil perspectives.
The pain of guilt has a very important curative value. It is a warning indicator to adjust before a worse consequence happens. Hard heartedness occurs when repeated transgressions make us lose the ability to blush – and the absence of guilt becomes a license that disconnects the warning indicator systems. Disaster is now nearer than we can discern.
- The conscience is reliable only if the mind is sanctified by the law and word of God but not if already distorted to rationalise that which the laws of God forbid.
PRAYER BRINGS REVIVAL
Revival is a restoration, a bringing back to life from a dead or decaying condition.
- It is a returning to God from a sinful or backslidden condition of heart and soul.
- And it is a renewal of the work of the Holy Spirit bringing us into a personal walk with God and a devotion to His cause on the earth.
Revival Rests on two legs!
- Prayer and
- The ministry of the Word of God.
That is how the early apostles brought down revival in the early days of the church. The history of revivals also trace without exception that these two were un-mistakable characteristic of every work, move or renewal that became a widespread revival. In each of these offices are men and women called to
- Pray and
- Preach the word of God.
They minister to individuals in prayer, teaching and counseling as well as to groups, congregations wherever the Lord opens the door. As it can happen in an individual’s life, so can it in the religious life of a congregation, a community or a generation. When it does, it is a congregational reawakening to God, His principles and His program for their lives.
- It is a repairing of spiritual desolation and religious ruins.
- It is a restoration of Biblical order and a commitment to biblical pattern of ministry.
- Moreover, it is a fresh outpouring of the Holy Ghost bring freshness and refreshing, leading to renewed faithfulness and fruitfulness.
Erick Chepkwony, TH.D 