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.


"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.

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:

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)...?

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