The Lord sort of confirmed to me this weekend that he is moving throughout our people to bring them into this new season of prayer. From Pastor Sonny’s Sunday School Class to personal comments and public statements, people at Calvary are beginning to talk about prayer.
In seeking to find new avenues of prayer, I am also seeing an interest in attending new prayer meetings. Also, there are people interested in becoming a part of a new prayer ministry at Calvary. When I asked who would be interested Sunday night, almost a dozen hands were raised.
This is exciting, but even this initial response does not mean people are praying. However, keeping prayer on our minds is a first step. There are people in our congregation I know pray on a daily basis. There are some who never pray, privately or publicly, but will join with others who do. Then there are those who have the desire, but need instruction and direction. That’s where my heart is being led.
Basically, I feel the Lord saying, “Teach my people to pray.” Assigning times of prayer, setting up prayer meetings, and actually joining together in prayer, are not enough. What we pray about is as important as when we pray and how much we pray. This is what I believe the Lord is speaking to me about — the how and what of prayer.
The Assemblies of God have, for some time, called this prayer modeling. I know it to be a biblical truth, but on the one hand I want prayer to be from the heart, on the other hand, I want prayer guided by the Word. Prayer modeling is something I actually do though. I pray many times using Psalms as my guide.
My first foray into these prayer models is to learn how others are using them. Our Superintendent, Don Gifford, has supplied me with several, but I struggle with their application. I don’t know if it is my unwillingness to guide corporate prayer, or my unwillingness to do the extra work.
After I have grounded myself in being able to teach on prayer, I think the first step towards implementing guided prayer (or prayer modeling) is to start a monthly Men’s Prayer Breakfast. I think I can handle doing one extra meeting a month and do it well. I’ll set aside the day before each month and devote it to assembling the material the men will be praying through. As it builds, I’m sure we can reuse a portion of these models each month.
Just as we try to build the act of giving into every event and meeting, so we also should build guided prayer into the same. I am realizing that more people will pray as they are lead by others. I was overjoyed by the prayer that went forth at the Watch Night Service on December 31st last year. I could sense the people anticipating their turn to pray and formulating in their heads what they were going to say.
Among us Pentecostals, there is an important place for us all praying in unison and in the Spirit. Yet, there is also an important aspect of individuals praying one at a time and us listening to them and adding our amen to their prayers.
I have purchased a new book to read for February called The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson (www.thecirclemaker.com/). He is the author of In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. Our family counselor recommended it when I mentioned the burden I had for teaching our church to pray. I’ve had to revise my reading schedule to include this book, so other great books will have to wait. The Lord has been leading me to so many new books lately that I feel like I’m back in school. However, in my efforts to stay current, more reading must be a part of my daily life.
This season of my life reminds me of what Paul said to Timothy, “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.” (1 Timothy 4:13) I feel until the Lord comes I must attend to the ministry of the Word he has given me more and more. Although he states what Timothy should do in public, we should note, the majority of what Timothy actually did took place in private. That was the time he spent in preparation for public ministry. I’m such a doer that keeping myself still, when things need to be done, is hard. I’m almost sitting before the Lord saying, “Let’s get our time together over with, I’ve got things to do.” May the Lord deliver me from that attitude.
This week though, as I write this, there is something that I would like to accomplish. I will share more about this on the last two Wednesday nights of February, now that we are finishing our Assemblies of God doctrinal overview sessions this Wednesday.
First, we must focus our prayers on our family members — our sons and our daughters, if you will. To do this we must be aware of God’s desire for them to join us at Calvary and his promises concerning their salvation.
Most of us are familiar with the verse from Acts which says, “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” (Acts 16:31) “And thy house” is an important understanding to glean from the Word. As parents we are given authority over our children’s spiritual lives up until the time they come under the covering of another household. Being of age in America does not mean you are independent of your family in God’s eyes. We must remind the enemy that not only are our kids the Lord’s property, they are still our property until they marry. The covenant of marriage creates a covering and a spiritual responsibility for the husband and father of that family to protect and provide before God.
Secondly, We must also realize that the enemy is not satisfied with destroying our children. He wants to use them to bring us down, to keep us upset, and to discourage our faith. Claiming household salvation is the first step, defending our families from the enemy is the second. To defend our families through prayer we must exercise binding and loosing. You can bind the enemy attacks from getting to your children. You can also loose the Holy Spirit’s voice upon their lives. Yes, what they choose to do with it will remain their choice. However, we all succumb to influences — good and bad. The influence of our testimony, the binding of the enemy, and the loosing of God’s Spirit upon their hearts and minds, is the ultimate combo of salvation.
We must do this on a daily basis. We must also continue to sow the Word into their lives. Even if your child no longer reads the Bible, or never has, we must make sure they get a daily dose of the Word. Write to them letters that contain Scriptures and explain to them what they mean to you. Give them gifts and cards with Scriptures in them. Colossians 4:6 tells us, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Include a testimony and a Scripture verse in every conversation with your children, no matter how old they are. they will remember and the will be saved.
This is not all, but it’s the right start during this season of prayer.