I feel trapped in time. My heart is filled with expectancy about the National Week of Prayer in January. I can't wait for opening night as we dedicate the new Prayer Tower and begin to see the fulfillment of God's promises for our church as we pray.
Having introduced a series on prayer here in December called "Lord, Teach Us To Pray.", I have felt the need to learn more about prayer myself. Looking back on all my studies I find that I have truly neglected studying prayer. Prayer is a personal thing that I think everyone assumes they know how to do. Yet, as I began to look more deeply into the Word and read some books on the topic, I began to understand why our prayers are so ineffective, we don't know how to pray.
During my studies for my ordination I read a book called The Theology of Prayer. About all I remember about it is how it bored me and it stated that the reason most people don't pray is because they don't believe prayer works. I understand that statement, but I add that the reason it doesn't work is because we don't know how to pray.
Yes, God hears the cry of our hearts and is moved with compassion towards us, but this is not effective prayer. This is little more than the type of prayer that got us saved. What the Lord desires to bring us into is really a co-laboring with Christ through prayer.
Oddly, what I have found about our prayer lives is that, in spite of what we say we are going, it is not the reality when if comes to asking God for things. We hope, we think, we expect God to do something, but rarely do we actually ask. This is amazing to me. Why do we not just ask. Again, it goes back to the mistaken belief that God is going to do what God is going to do anyway.
Of course asking for ourselves is called petition and asking on the behalf go others is called intercession, but we must embrace more than these when it comes to prayer. Wednesday night I touched on it by calling it devotion, which, in my terminology, means waiting upon God and listening for his Spirit to speak to us. This is part of become a useful vessel for his service. God wants to prepare us each day to be effective in ministry by equipping us with his Word, spoken by his Spirit.
I have stumbled upon this area of prayer many times, but just recently begin to understand how it works and why God wants it to be a part of my daily prayer life. I believe it is important that every believer discover this area of prayer because since our days are so filled with personal activities, the will of God is never realized. Therefore, the work of God is never done.
Another area of prayer is what most would class as warfare prayer — bringing down the strongholds of the enemy. Over the past couple of years I could have spared myself and others a lot of damage if I have been more effective in coming against the ruling class spirits that had attached themselves to our church. God gave me enough wisdom this past year to ask intercessors to cover me in prayer as I took on these spirits. Their prayer ministry, and others who pray for me daily, have been a great source of strength and power. As a result, God has recently told me, we will pursue, overtake and recover all. Even through my blunders, God's intent is for me to still possess all the victory he planned from the very beginning.
This past year has definitely been a time of breaking strongholds and recovering those who have been influenced by the enemy. It has been a time also for me to process all I have learned through it and define where we go from here. Instead of a time of continued warfare, now is a time of building. The Prayer Tower symbolizes the new Calvary. It is what we are building for the future. Out of the old comes the new. It is clear that God intends to rebuild Calvary on the prayers of those who cry out to him through knowledge and understanding of his Word.
At one time I would have been nervous about calling a church to prayer. Often the call is met with disinterest and apathy. However, God has dealt with Calvary in such a way that the new prayer ministry that is arising will be taken seriously — not only by the people of our church, but by our community as well.
With all of this on the horizon, I feel a little overwhelmed at times. Even though God has abundantly provided the finances to renovate the Prayer Tower, I still have to walk through the process day by day. Sometimes its hard to old onto a vision when progress is slow and tedious. I feel trapped in time. In my heart and mind I see myself in the tower praying and interceding for great miracles in the lives of our people. I see people calling our PrayerLine in desperation, and God moving in the situation with unmistakable power and authority. I see people falling before our altars in repentance and deliverance as the Holy spirit draws them to the Lord. I see God pouring out his presence like never before. I even see long-standing problems being resolved after all these years. I see freedom, power, and glory falling as God's people pray.
For now, I must work to bring all the details together, never forgetting my first call as a Pastor is to pray, study, and preach. As I do, God continues to move mountains for us and reveal to us his continuing will for Calvary — a place of prayer, power, and purpose!
“If my people,
who are called by my name,
will humble themselves
and pray
and seek my face
and turn from their wicked ways,
then will I hear from heaven
and will forgive their sin
and will heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14