Thursday, February 25, 2016

#20 We can be Saved from Prayerlessness


 Wesley L. Duewel: "Chadwick has written, 'It would seem as if the biggest thing in God's universe is a man who prays. There is only one thing more amazing, that is, that man, knowing this, should not pray.'
(Samuel Chadwick, The Path of Prayer [Kansas City: Beacon Hill, 1931],11-12)

Lord, make us giants in prayer! Prayerlessness is the sin of the casual Christian. The absence of truly prevailing prayer is the sin of many praying Christians. Thank God, there is a way to a life of prayer and empowerment through prayer.

We must have an entirely new relationship to Jesus. Says Andrew Murray

    'It is vain for us, with our defective spiritual life, to
     endeavor to pray more or better. It is an impossibility.'
     (Andrew Murray, The Prayer Life [Chicago: Moody, n.d.], 31)

We must see Jesus as the Lord who waits to save us from prayerlessness. We must believe Him for a new life of closer fellowship with Him, a life in His love and communion beyond anything that we have known thus far.

Jesus longs to save you from a defective spiritual life and a defective prayer life. He must become more personally real to you. You must value His infinite love more than ever before.

You must reciprocate His longing for communion with you. Be willing to take time to share His prayer burden with Him as He intercedes at the right hand of the Father.

The resurrected, enthroned Lord Jesus, your great Intercessor, through His Holy Spirit, will teach you the life and power of prayer. May the Spirit fill you with the spirit of intercession.

Learning to prevail in prayer demands willpower. It demands recognizing your spiritual priorities. 

Ravenhill has said,

    'Prayer is a battle for full-grown men, fully armed and
     fully awake to the possibilities of grace.'  
    (Ravenhill, Revival Praying, 11-12)

God teach us the role and priority of prayer! God give us a thirst and relish for prayer for meeting face-to-face with the Lord Jesus!

God teach us to meet the conditions of prayer, to cultivate the hunger for prayer, to experience the joy of prevailing intercession and the power of God that comes upon our life and others as we pray!"

(Google image and my emphasis added)


Used by permission of the author and Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., Greenwood, Indiana
#20 We can Be Saved from Prayerlessness
by Wesley L. Duewel
(pp. 34-35) Zondervan 



    Father, we see that learning to prevail in prayer demands willpower. 
    It is our prayer to be more diligent, and to take the time to meet with You for our various concerns.
    May we see the role and priority of prayer to make it important to us, thus discovering the power released in and through our efforts.
    We ask this in the Name of Jesus, Who made this all possible by His sacrificing Himself on the cruel Cross. Amen.

Today’s Bible verse: Jer. 5:5 a "I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them, for they have known the way of their God."

Today’s quote: "The light that shows us our sin and condemns us for it will show us the way out of it into the life of liberty that is well pleasing to God. If we allow this one matter, unfaithfulness in prayer, to convict us of the lack in our Christians lives, God will use the discovery to bring us not only the power to pray that we long for, but also the joy of a new and healthy  life, of which prayer is the spontaneous expression." (Taken from p. 20 of The Ministry of Intercession by Andrew Murry)

Our thought today: In Acts 2:1-4, we find the pattern for the Church for the early believers. They kept what happened then in mind throughout their sharing of the Gospel, and of the subsequent promise of the Holy Spirit's indwelling the believers. (see 2:38; and chapters 8 and 9 of Acts for examples)

Our question today: If the Church started out this way in Acts 2, what makes us think it should be any different today?

Answer: Because God has not changed the Plan of Redemption that His Son paid for with His Blood, we are to follow the Scriptures in our thirst for Reality in our salvation experience. 

Pray for the evidence of His Presence in your life. It is the "down payment" for our eternal existence in Heaven when we die, or when Christ returns for His Own.

Why Lord?
27th- Saturday’s post by Andrea Merrell

   Reflections (Lessons from a mirror)
28th- Sunday evening's post by James H. Cagle

#21 The Prevailing Christ
3/1- Tuesday's post by Wesley L. Duewel

#22 Christ Prevailed on Earth
3rd- Thursday's post by Wesley L. Duewel


A popular post:  #20 Intercession as a Spiritual Gift  C. Peter Wagner 
shares with us that "Intercession is not one of the 25 spiritual gifts mentioned specifically as gifts in the New Testament.

But, like the gift of exorcism, I believe it should be added to the list..."





No comments:

Post a Comment