Prayer

I don't know how many times I must have read these lines, but it pricks me every time. It makes my eyes go moist and makes me look for a place to pray. When in office it makes me long for the prayer closet. I wish it does the same thing for you.

Excerpts from the book 'Why Revival Tarries' by Leonard Ravenhill...

The Cinderella of the church of today is the prayer meeting. This handmaid of the Lord is unloved and unwooed because she is not dripping with the pearls of intellectualism, nor glamourous with the silks of philosophy; neither is she enchanting with the tiara of psychology. She wears the homespuns of sincerity and humility and so is not afraid to kneel! 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 shopwindow to display one's talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off. When a man who has crept along for years in conventional Christianity suddenly zooms into spiritual alertness, becomes aggressive int he battle of the Lord, and has a quenchless zeal for the lost, there is a reason for it. (But we are so subnormal these days that the normal New Testament experience seems abnormal.) The secret of this "jet-propelled fellow" we have just mentioned is that somewhere he has had Jacob-like wrestling with God and has come out stripped, but also "strengthened by the Holy Ghost!"

The secret of praying is praying in secret. A sinning man will stop praying, and a praying man will stop sinning. We are beggared and bankrupt, but not broken, nor even bent.

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 mans 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. No linguist here ! There are groanings that cannot be uttered.

Are we so substandard in New Testament Christianity that we know not the historical faith of our fathers (with its implications and operations), but only the hysterical faith of our fellows ?

Prayer is to the believer what capital is to the business man.

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-breaking 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 die !

Sold Out to God!

One reason why we don’t yet see men being used as Paul was used is that we are still preoccupied with some petty stuff rather than being sold out to God completely. Paul says in Galatians 6:17 that he is branded for Christ. Read IICorinthians 11:25-29. Look at the man’s back who bore flogging and beating. See the scars from the stoning he endured. Look at his frail body that has weathered many a shipwreck. Look at him kneeling there hungry and cold yet praying for the churches that they may be strong. Can anyone be more surrendered to God? Can anyone burn with more passion? Can anyone overflow with more love? No wonder Paul was known in hell and the demons were terrified (Read Acts 19:15). Paul died to his preoccupations when he came to Christ. Paul died to his personality when he was led as a blind man to Damascus where he waited for Ananias to come and heal his eyes. Paul died to public opinion when his conversion made headlines in Damascus. He died to security when he preached the gospel that made his own countrymen conspire against him. Paul’s only aim was that Christ be preached. He had no personal agenda. Paul died to fame. Look at him preach to the top socialites of his time King Agrippa, Bernice and Festus. The sophisticated King Agrippa was so moved that he was afraid he’d become a Christian. Is our preaching so passionate or is it trying to impress people. We are mired in mediocrity because we are reluctant to die to our preoccupations. I sincerely pray that I go to my own funeral every day. Amen!

God Is Raising A Remnant

Yesterday was a glorious day. I went to this camp-fire event organized by the local CSI church youth group. It was a fun event and I went there reluctantly as I did not fit in with the crowd. The final event in the agenda was a small sharing time. A brother shared from the Bible and his own life. After this he starts praying.... And there is an immense anointing of the spirit. I was shocked with this as it was a 'CSI' youth group. The Presbyterians are not usually gung ho about the Pentecost experience. Here was a small presbyterian group praying in the Holy Spirit and some speaking in tongues. For some time now I have been praying for the anointing. Today, though wanting to be anointed, I was quite skeptic at first and thought God would work in a different way in me. I was not totally convinced of the violent shaking experience that some were having that day. I wanted some thing clean and neat. But I was wrong. To hell with my ideas. As the praying session wore on one of the brothers who were leading stopped and turned right towards me (closing his eyes) and said that God was telling him of a young man who was having doubts about what was happening. I was amazed at this and was hell sure it was me. My doubts vanished that moment and I asked to be filled. Shaken violently and pleading for the fire to come down on me then and there, I was anointed. Glorious anointing. A very bad day for hell. A tragedy for satan.

God is raising a remnant in unexpected places. To hell with our sophisticated ways. God is looking for men who would be totally sold out to him. If you come to him you are risking personality, pedigree and public opinion. If the Pentecostals are pre-occupied with prosperity and hero worship God will raise fire-brands from unexpected places. He is doing that in South India. While the pentecostals are busy with building bigger buildings and praying for blessings there is a small remnant scattered seeking revival. An unimpressive bunch who are not after blessing but burning. A group of ordinary men who are seeking fire rather than power. A league of prophets who would not tickle your ear but kindle the fire.