AAA Prayer Part 3

Are we more like a motorboat or a sailboat?  We tend to think and act like motorboats, containing our power within ourselves.  Spiritually, we must function like sailboats whose power is outside themselves.  Fill the motorboat with gasoline, and it can go where it likes, as fast as it likes, whenever it likes until it needs refilling.  Doesn't that sound like Christians who want to attend a service to get "filled" and then use that power for their own purposes?  The Christian life is more analogous to a sailboat that must adjust its sails to the wind when it blows, in the direction it blows, as strong as it blows.  We have no control over the Spirit; we can only adjust our lives to Him.

Appropriating His power can only come after aligning with His purposes.  The power is not ours to use.  We are His instruments, running on His power.

The need for power is undeniable.  Without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5).  The promise of power is readily available.  It comes with the Spirit (Acts 1:8).  When we move in the power of the Spirit, things happen that cannot be explained by our own resources, abilities, hard work, personalities, or leadership.  The 3,000 saved on the Day of Pentecost had nothing to do with Peter's eloquence nor with the fledgling church's marketing strategy.  The place, time, and results all were due to the Spirit.  Power is the ability to produce a result.  We must have power.

More than likely, we will not feel this power.  We may or may not feel a euphoria, a sense of well-being, or a state of confidence.  Most often we feel a sense of inadequacy that keeps us dependent on the Lord. Paul said his preaching to the Corinthians was "in weakness and fear and with much trembling" but also "with a demonstration of the Spirit's power" (1 Corinthians 2:3-5).  Paul later told them that he had learned that when he was weak, then he was strong because the Lord's strength is "made perfect in weakness."  He even boasted about his weakness "so that Christ's power may rest on me," going so far as to state a principle: "When I am weak, then I am strong [i.e., Christ's power flows through me] (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).  So the power we appropriate in prayer is not for our use nor for our state of being.  It is solely for the advancing of His purposes, His kingdom.

But we must have it.  His work cannot be done without His power.  When the winds of revival blew through Wales, the taverns closed and the jails were empty.  In the awakening of 1858 (the revival whose chief characteristic was widespread prayer meetings), one million new believers, more than 3% of the states' population, were baptized into the churches in one year.  An equivalent impact today would add nine million to the churches in the US alone.  When I was 16, I was a failure as a witness for Christ, but after a camp experience of complete surrender to His will and renewal of my walk with Him, I influenced people to commit their lives to Christ without knowing that I was doing it.

We should pray for power.  We should pray that others would receive power.  Ten days of praying followed by an hour of preaching is better than an hour of praying followed by ten days of preaching.  Just ask the apostles.

Pray today that we may approach His presence, align ourselves with His purposes, and appropriate His power.

Missions Roles: Praying

Years ago I read a story about a 19th century missionary to Africa named Hotchkiss.  He was to preach at a certain village but was delayed in his departure by ministry matters.  Walking to the appointment, he realized that he would not arrive at the agreed upon time if he took the usual route.  At one point in his journey, he saw that he could save a lot of time if he cut across the open grassland instead of following the tree line.  Abandoning the trees would expose him to attack by the grazing animals, but he decided to risk it.  Sure enough, in the middle of the meadow, a rhinoceros took exception to his presence and charged.  Hotchkiss had no way of escape.  He was totally exposed and could not outrun the rhino.  He collapsed to his knees, too scared to even pray.  He shut his eyes to brace himself for the impact which never came.  When he looked up, the animal was gone; only the hoofprints remained.  Rejoicing, he went on his way and kept his preaching appointment.  The episode made a great entry in his journal.

When Hotchkiss returned to the states for furlough, he often told the story during his rounds of deputation.  At one of the churches, a man approached him after the message and questioned him about when the near-attack had occurred.  He wanted the specific day and time.  The man distinctly remembered being awakened one night with an overwhelming sense that the missionary was in danger.  He had gotten out of bed and interceded for him fervently until a feeling of peace let him know that the danger had passed.  The man had noted the date and time in his prayer journal.  After consulting both journals and allowing for the difference in time zones, they realized that the man had been praying at the exact moment that Hotchkiss had been in danger.  Amazing.

Since I first read this story, I have heard and read others that conveyed the same idea although the situations differed.  I have come to realize that, in a way, intercessors have a spiritual presence on the mission field.  I myself have had experiences where I have preached in different places.  In one place the message would have greater impact than in the other.  Same messenger, same basic message, but often I would get a letter by which I could see that someone in the states was praying for me at the time I was preaching the more effective message.

I have been guilty of challenging people to do more than "just pray."  There is no such thing as "just" praying.  Without prayer we cannot do anything because without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5).  Ministry that does not grow out of prayer in the Lord's presence remains barren.  Labor in our own strength is drudgery, but how great is our rejoicing when we see Him work.  If a man works without praying, he gets what a man can do, but if his work grows out of prayer, he gets what God can do.  It is true that we must do more than pray, but we can do nothing until we have prayed.

Let's pray today that the Lord will teach us to pray and help us to pray as we should.