If depended on my prayers, I pray in the Spirit

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How would I answer this question on a daily basis?

“If revival in this land depended on your prayers, your faith, your obedience, would we ever experience revival?”  – Del Fehsenfeld Jr.

Psalm 80 challenges me right in this area and leaves me with a message.

I should pray earnestly for revival among God’s people.

With impending doom in sight, mostly due to the unfaithfulness of the people in following God, there is a prayer, an earnest prayer, asking God to send revival. In fact, it is repeated three times.

Bring us back, O God!
    Show us your mercy, and we will be saved! Bring us back, Almighty God!
    Show us your mercy, and we will be saved! Bring us back, Lord God Almighty.
    Show us your mercy, and we will be saved. – Psalm 80:3,7,19 GNT

The prayer format goes something like this –

  • restore and save
  • how long will You be angry?
  • here is what has been happening when You were involved and then when You were not
  • God come and take care of Your people again – restore and save them

How can I develop greater faithfulness and fervency to pray for revival?

When Paul was writing the Corinthian church  he quoted a passage from Isaiah that just might shed some light here.

If you won’t listen to me, then God will use foreigners speaking some strange-sounding language to teach you a lesson. He offered rest and comfort to all of you, but you refused to listen to him.  – Isaiah 28:11-12 GNT

When I read this chapter, this verse sticks out like a sore thumb for it does not fit into the context of the chapter at all. Of all the verses Paul could have quoted when speaking about the abuse of the gift of tongues and all things relevant, he picks this little verse from Isaiah to explain what God was talking about. This is what God was going to do – God was going to pour out, over the church, the gift of speaking in tongues and it was going to be a restful experience to those who exercised it.

And I have found that in my own devotional life, when I have a problem and I don”t know how to pray over a particular situation, or I have a problem and I want to praise God and I feel a total inadequacy in English, that as I begin to praise the Lord in the Spirit or I begin to pray in the Spirit that it is such a restful experience. And I just find great rest in it. Great peace in it.  – Chuck Smith

Make conscience of daily exercising thy graces in meditation as well as prayer. Retire into some secret place, at a time the most convenient to thyself, and, laying aside all worldly thoughts, with all possible seriousness and reverence look up towards heaven; remember there is thine everlasting rest; study its excellency and reality; and rise from sense to faith, by comparing heavenly with earthly joys. Then mix ejaculations with thy soliloquies; till, having pleaded the case reverently with God, and seriously with thy own heart, thou hast pleaded thyself from a clod to a flame; from a forgetful sinner, and a lover of the world, to an ardent lover of God; from a fearful coward to a resolved Christian; from an unfruitful sadness to a joyful life; in a word, till thou hast pleaded thy heart from earth to heaven; from conversing below, to walking with God; and till thou canst lay thy heart to rest, as in the bosom of Christ, by some such meditation of thy everlasting rest as is here added for thy assistance. – Baxter

 

Prayer for spiritual needs are answered

Kisongo Trek Resource

Another great Psalm that leads us to prayer is Psalm 79. It starts with lament, moves into supplication and then there is prayer for vindication, forgiveness and reprisal and finally ending in praise for God responding.

Lord, will you be angry with us forever?
    Will your anger continue to burn like fire? – Psalm 79:5 GNT

I love that the writer did not ask why there was trouble but rather the question of how long must they suffer. It is the question that moved them from lament to prayer.

Turn your anger on the nations that do not worship you,
    on the people who do not pray to you. – Psalm 79:6 GNT

Doesn’t this make sense – why pick on me? Why not the ones who are really out of line? Hear us the prayerful, and mess around with the prayerless.

Do not punish us for the sins of our ancestors.
    Have mercy on us now;
    we have lost all hope. – Psalm 79:8 GNT

The urgency of the prayer was the acknowledgment that there were generational sins involved. I need to make this my prayer and make it a continual prayer. 

The concept of former iniquities suggests a principle. “Sins accumulate against nations. Generations lay up stores of transgressions to be visited upon their successors; hence this urgent prayer.” – Spurgeon

The Book of Common Prayer has this verse sounding like this –

O remember not our old sins, but have mercy upon us, and that soon; for we are come to great misery.”

I have never called on God in regards to His honour, but I like it when I read this prayer here. One day I might have too.

Help us, O God, and save us;
    rescue us and forgive our sins
    for the sake of your own honor. – Psalm 79:9 GNT

I will try to wisely use it understanding it will be my greatest weapon when I am in battle with the evil one. In fact, is not the name and honour of God the mightiest weapon I have when it comes to prayer?

“Prayer is therefore here made by the faithful, that God, not to gratify any vindictive spirit of theirs, but to vindicate his own attributes, would break the teeth of the oppressor, and work a public and glorious salvation for his chosen.” – Horne

There is something about God watching over me that gives me joy in the midst of my troubles.

I watch over it and water it continually. I guard it night and day so that no one will harm it. – Isaiah 27:3 GNT

In fact this idea comes from Jesus teaching on delivering me from evil and I know He hears for His is the power. For this reason I have courage when I pray today.

We have courage in God’s presence, because we are sure that he hears us if we ask him for anything that is according to his will. He hears us whenever we ask him; and since we know this is true, we know also that he gives us what we ask from him. – 1 John 5:14-15 GNT

My courage comes from the assurance of eternal life. I am not sure that one could pray according to the will of God except that they would be in a place where they have already prayed asking God to save them from their sins.

THE PROMISE: WHEN WE PRAY, GOD HEARS US AND WE HAVE THE REQUESTS THAT WE ASK OF HIM

Isn’t this why prayer is not optional – it is absolutely essential for if I do not pray then I am not living by faith in God. And if I do not pray, I am trusting in myself, which is no difference to what the world is doing.

  • This promise means I can have courage when I approach God in prayer
  • This promise means I come into His presence when I pray
  • This promise means I can ask anything according to His will and He will hear me
  • This promise means that I know He hears me and I will receive from Him the requests that I have asked from Him

Here is a truth I know to be real – I must ask according to God’s will. Only when I do not know God am I not seeking God’s will in prayer. Prayer is not talking God into giving me what I want, it is rather me submitting my will to His.

Maybe the big question is, how do I determine what God’s will is? And the next difficulty to overcome is how can I pray according to God’s will when His ways are not even my ways – I am thinking in ways that make sense to me. Ask John when it came to the death of his brother James. James died, yet Peter was rescued from the same fate. Notice Jesus did not pray that Peter would be able to resist the evil one’s attack, as I would have, He prayed rather that Peter’s faith would not fail and that he would be restored.

Prayer is what I do even when I do not understand God’s will or ways. I should be praying for God to give life to whose who are separated from Him.

If you see a believer commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray to God, who will give that person life. This applies to those whose sins do not lead to death. But there is sin which leads to death, and I do not say that you should pray to God about that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which does not lead to death. – 1 John 5:16-17 GNT

Prayer is essential in the restoration process.

…thou must in thy meditation quicken thy own heart. Enter into a serious debate with it. Plead with it in the most moving and affecting language, and urge it with the most powerful and weighty arguments. It is what holy men of God have practiced in all ages. Thus David: ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.’ And again; ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul! and forget not all his benefits!’ This soliloquy is to be made use of according to the several affections of the soul, and according to its several necessities. It is a preaching to one’s self; for as every good master or father of a family is a good preacher to his own family, so every good Christian is a good preacher to his own soul. – Richard Baxter

 

 

Pray to Jesus

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The Enemy of Christ both opposes the true Jesus and offers a substitute Jesus.

This is how you will be able to know whether it is God’s Spirit: anyone who acknowledges that Jesus Christ came as a human being has the Spirit who comes from God. But anyone who denies this about Jesus does not have the Spirit from God. The spirit that he has is from the Enemy of Christ; you heard that it would come, and now it is here in the world already. – 1 John 4:2-3 GNT

The evil one doesn’t care at all if you know Jesus or love Jesus or pray to Jesus – as long as it is a false Jesus, a make-believe Jesus, a Jesus who is not there, and who therefore cannot save.

The Inclination, Disposition and frame of the mind, in all its Affections whereby it adheres and cleaves unto spiritual things. This minding of the Spirit resides habitually in the Affections. Wherefore the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the Spirit, or the mind as renewed and acted by a spiritual Principle of light and life, is the Exercise of its Thoughts, Meditations and desires on spiritual things, proceeding from the Love and delight of its Affections in them, and engagement unto them. – John Owen

 

Answered true prayer

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Praying in confidence, believing that I will receive from God whatever I ask, allows me to experience a daily adventure of answered prayer. The excitement of actually seeing God working in my life and in the lives of those I am in contact with is something that gives me daily stimulation. This is what seems to be the norm for walking with Jesus and how He intended for us to experience every day.

And so, my dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, we have courage in God’s presence. We receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. What he commands is that we believe in his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as Christ commanded us. Those who obey God’s commands live in union with God and God lives in union with them. And because of the Spirit that God has given us we know that God lives in union with us. – 1 John 3:21-24 GNT

Unfortunately I run into so many who believe that following Jesus is boring or at least a mediocre experience. Young adults have lost hope in the promises of God. They do not understand what transformation even looks like. Most do not know what it means to have a relationship with God where they have an adventure of seeing a living God at work, answering prayer. Prayer is the most characteristic and must fundamental part of my relationship with God. Prayer is my expression of dependence on a loving God.

The spirit of prayer is about courage when coming into God’s presence. It implies a close relationship and a feeling of belonging or having the right to be there. In other words, there is no fear of being rebuked.

Three things may be distinguished in the great duty of being spiritually minded, under which notion it is here recommended unto us:—

(1.) The actual exercise of the mind, in its thoughts, meditations, and desires, about things spiritual and heavenly. So is it expressed in the verse foregoing: “They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh,” — they think on them, their contrivances are about them, and their desires after them; “but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” They mind them by fixing their thoughts and meditations upon them.

(2.) The inclination, disposition, and frame of the mind, in all its affections, whereby it adheres and cleaves unto spiritual things. This “minding of the Spirit” resides habitually in the affections. Wherefore, the φρόνημα of the Spirit, or the mind as renewed and acted by a spiritual principle of light and life, is the exercise of its thoughts, meditations, and desires, on spiritual things, proceeding from the love and delight of its affections in them and engagement unto them.

(3.) A complacency of mind, from that gust, relish, and savour, which it finds in spiritual things, from their suitableness unto its constitution, inclinations, and desires. There is a salt in spiritual things, whereby they are condited and made savoury unto a renewed mind; though to others they are as the white of an egg, that hath no taste or savour in it. In this gust and relish lies the sweetness and satisfaction of spiritual life. Speculative notions about spiritual things, when they are alone, are dry, sapless, and barren. In this gust we taste by experience that God is gracious, and that the love of Christ is better than wine, or whatever else hath the most grateful relish unto a sensual appetite. This is the proper foundation of that “joy which is unspeakable and full of glory.” – John Owen

 

 

Days of prayer to save

days of prayer to save

A Psalm describes well how both comfort and anguish can reside in our hearts at the same time when we remember the works of God.

I cry aloud to God;
    I cry aloud, and he hears me.
In times of trouble I pray to the Lord;
    all night long I lift my hands in prayer,
    but I cannot find comfort. – Psalm 77:1-2 GNT

Crying out to God is affirmed again and displayed is a confidence that God has heard.

“Days of trouble must be days of prayer; in days of inward trouble, especially when God seems to have withdrawn from us, we must seek him, and seek till we find him. In the day of his trouble he did not seek for the diversions of business or recreation, to shake off his trouble that way, but he sought God, and his favour and grace. Those that are under trouble of mind, must not think to drink it away, or laugh it away, but pray it away.” – Henry, cited in Spurgeon

I notice that in times of trouble my prayer looks like this – it is urgent (cry), it is active (hands) and it is persistent (all night long).

This is what John has to say about it.

 I am writing this to you, my children, so that you will not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have someone who pleads with the Father on our behalf—Jesus Christ, the righteous one.  – I John 2:1 GNT

I have someone interceding for me – someone the Psalmist did not have. I will be saved.

“The tree is no mere channel, piping water unchanged from one place to another, but a living organism which absorbs it, to produce in due course something new and delightful, proper to its kind and to its time.” – Derek Kidner