I don't know about you, but with all the focus on politics and the upcoming election (I'm kind of tired of hearing all the propaganda and accusations from followers on both sides), and sports (as baseball winds up toward the conclusion and football begins it's new season) and we see news reports of violence and death over one unknown man's poorly made film about Mohammed -- not to mention the scandals befalling the royal family -- I find there to be much (in the spiritual sense) to distract us away from our calling. Maybe that's why I feel somewhat of a quiet lull across the land spiritually. The calm before the storm hopefully? Who knows. Yet all the same, there seems to be little of note on the church-wide front when it comes to ardent, zealous spiritual activity. I don't know. Maybe its me, but I have sensed this spiritual lull for a while now -- and also the sense that its time for God's people to regather their correct focus.
That's why
I offer you today's thought from a book entitled, "Why Revival Tarries," by Leonard
Ravenhill. Ravenhill lived between 1907 and 1994 and was an avid proponent
of prayer. And not just prayer, but fervent, heartfelt, earnest prayer
for revival in the Church. This selection has to do with that very topic
-- employing as he often does -- a stark play on words, and a poetic
bent in his writings. I offer it to you since I myself was
challenged by it today. Enjoy."Where is the Passion?"
"No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shop window to display one's talents; but the prayer closet allows for no showing off... Poverty stricken as the church is today in many things, she is most stricken here -- in the place of prayer.
We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many
players and payers, but few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lot's of
pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion;
many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing in
prayer, we fail everywhere...The two prerequisites to successful Christian living are vision and passion, both of which are born and maintained by prayer. The ministry of preaching is open to few; the ministry of prayer -- the highest ministry of all human offices -- is open to all.
Spiritual adolescents say, 'I'll not go tonight, it's only the prayer meeting.' It may be that Satan has little cause to fear most preaching. Yet past experiences sting him to rally all his infernal army to fight against God's people praying. Modern Christians know little of 'binding and loosing,' though the onus is on us:
'Whatsoever you shall bind...' (Matt. 18:18). Have you done any of this
lately? God is not prodigal (ie: given to extravagance and wasteful
spending) with his power, but to be much for God, we must be much with God...The world hits the trail for hell with a speed that makes our fastest planes look like a tortoise; yet alas, few of us can remember the last time we missed our sleep for a night of waiting on God for a world-shaking revival. Our compassions are not moved...
The secret of praying is praying in secret. A sinning man will stop praying, and a praying man will stop sinning... Prayer is profoundly simple and simply profound. 'Prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try,' and yet so sublime that it outranges all speech and exhausts man's vocabulary.
A Niagara of burning words does not mean that God is either impressed or moved. One of the most profound of Old Testament intercessors had no language -- 'Her lips moved, but her voice was not heard' (I Sam. 1:13). No linguist here! There are 'groanings which cannot be uttered' (Rom. 8:26)...
Have we become so substandard to New Testament Christianity that we know not the historical faith of our fathers (with its implications and operations)...?
Prayer is to the believer what capital
is to the businessman. Can any deny that in the modern church setup the main
cause of anxiety is money? Yet that which tries the modern churches the
most, troubled the New Testament church the least. Our accent is on
paying, theirs was on praying. When we have paid, the place is taken; when they
had prayed, the place was shaken!In the matter of New Testament, Spirit-inspired, hell-shaking, world-changing prayer, never has so much been left by so many to so few. For this kind of prayer there is no substitute. We do it... or we die!"
That the Church may be about the the
primary business of the Church, Pastor Jeff
