Our street evangelism ministry was failing. For the third week, no one showed up for the weekend outreach, and in the dim glow of the streetlights, I asked God to continue his work. A few months later, Jeff and I had dinner. The next summer we started praying for Lansing, MI. once a week in his basement. Eight months later, after training and consulting our pastors, we walked into the porn stores and dark, sweaty bars in downtown Lansing, MI on a blustery February Friday evening. We introduced ourselves to our new congregation.

We met the owners, employees and bar tenders on Michigan Ave. and promised we would be their pastors. After 4 years of weekly ministry and constant prayer, two bars closed, one of the porn stores burned down, and a few dancers and workers attended our church. Within two more years, the blocks we adopted as our ‘church’ were purchased by a local Christian business association. The entire area was razed, and replaced with a new civic arena, and a family friendly AAA ball park.God is Good. He did exceedingly above anything we could ask, or think.

Prayer that moves God’s heart isn’t about running through a laundry list of my needs, wants, and desires. Prayer isn’t about what I think is important, or the Top 10 on my Spiritual To-Do List. Prayer isn’t:

• A cosmic gumball machine, into which I insert my prayers and get what I want back.
• An exercise to earn God’s love, favor, love or attention.
• Unloading my cares and burdens on God, on the run.

Real prayer is much deeper, and much more costly. Maybe that’s why, in our instant and digital generation, our prayers are so ineffective. Prayer is communing with God and spending time with a Father that loves and longs to meet with us. Intimacy like that takes time. Prayer is spending time listening to, and talking with the One who knows you thoroughly and loves you deeply. Prayer is:

• Setting your heart on what is important to God before pursuing what is important to me.
• Connecting your heart, mind, soul and spirit to God’s voice, love and will for you.
• Letting God work in you, so that later, that he can work through you.

Here are a few scriptures to help move you toward life changing, heart rending, world shaking prayer.

• Real prayer is Emotional – read Ps 137 and pay attention to the way the writer pours out his raw feelings to his God.
• Real Prayer is Honest – Read aloud Ps 41 and 42, and consider times when you were burdened, happy, worn out, and trusting. Did you feel free to express these things to your Father?
• Real prayer isn’t instant. In Dan 9.24ff, Daniel read a promise from God written by Jeremiah nearly a hundred years earlier. He approached God on the basis of this promise, and asks God to keep his promise to release Israel from captivity. According to Dan 10. 1-14, he fasted and prayed for three more weeks before receiving God’s response.

In the 15^th century, Martin Luther wanted to renew genuine worship. For centuries monks had kept the scriptures and sacred music locked away in monasteries. But after printing press put the Gutenberg bible back in the hands of the common man in the 1450’s, Luther worked to put worship back in the hands, and minds of the common man to fuel the revival that swept Europe. History says that Luther wrote new hymns to bar tunes and folk songs. His goal to implant the seed of God’s word deep in the hearts and minds of his listeners centered around these common melodies. He hoped that when men  went about their daily routines, the Holy Spirit could bring to mind eternal truth. Charles Wesley continued this approach when we wrote over 6000 songs for Christian worship on the 18^th century.

Between Luther and Wesley’s day, the Protestant Reformation gave birth to another explosive renewal in the arts. Symphonic composers like Handel, Beethoven and Mozart rose to the forefront of their craft, and many of their works were dedicated to the King of Kings, and Lords of Lords. Today, concert hall audiences still stand and sing along at the climax of Handel’s Messiah. Imagine pipe organs and orchestras performing the Halleluiah Chorus on stately cathedrals and vaulted concert halls throughout the last 3 centuries. Classic music in the 21^st century, Handel and Beethoven were contemporary musicians of the 16^th and 17^th century.

In the 20^th century, the Jesus movement and the charismatic outpouring that flowed across the American church gave birth to another revolution in contemporary music. Even though the traditional church was hesitant to change, today contemporary Christian music is on its way to becoming traditions for the 21^st century church.

Worship is never about the outer form, or style of music. Worship is about the heart of the worshipper. Whenever our hearts are more concerned about what is on the outside than the whole hearted devotion on the inside, we are in need of another revival. Real worship must be genuine, contemporary worshiper, heartfelt, and surrendered.

Looking into the scriptures, another idea is essential to genuine worship. Abraham stood at the foot of Mt Moriah. He’d waited for 25 years for his son Isaac, raised him for another 13, and now he’d traveled three days to a mountain’s name whose name means “God will see” to offer him, at God’s request, as a sacrafice.

Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. (Gen 22.5 KJV)

Abraham’s worship included:

• He was obeying God, without hesitation.
• He was going with the full intent of sacrificing his son.
• His faith and relationship with God was so deep, that he knew that Isaac was the son that God had promised.
• He intended to kill his son, not to please god, but to obey him
• He knew that he would also return with his son, because God is faithful to keep his promises.

Genuine worship, praise and prayer that changes our hearts and pleases God includes personal cost. Abraham learned the lesson by obeying God, and trusting him with the results. David also said that he wouldn’t offer a sacrifice that didn’t’ come at personal cost to himself, and he learned these hard lessons the same way – by what he did.

And Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground. And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, "To buy the threshing floor of thee, to build an altar unto the Lord, that the plague may be stayed from the people. And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood. All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king. And Araunah said unto the king, The Lord thy God accept thee. And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. (2 Sam 24.20-24 KJV)

Genuine praise, worship and prayer aren’t about how we feel. These essential pieces of a Christ-centered life aren’t about the environment around us, or the music we listen to. Genuine worship flows from a heart that’s surrendered to God, loves Him, gives up your rights voluntarily, obeys Him and follows wherever He leads.

A quick study of the history of revivals since the days of John Wesley through America’s Second Great Awakening, and into Billy Graham, and Dwight Moody in America reveals that at the core of these preachers’ message was a call to live a life separate and different from the world around us. Two favorite Bible verses that come to mind are Jesus is prayer in John 15 where Jesus told his followers to be in the world of not of the world. A second verse, in Peter's first book, describes Christ-followers as people who were called out of the world, a chosen nation, a royal priesthood and a holy nation. Yet just as much controversy surrounds these two vintage versus as does the way these verses were interpreted and applied. Through the centuries, these verses have been interpreted to mean many things.

1. For the monks in 15^th century Europe, being separate from the world meant hiding themselves away with the scripture in monastic castles, away from the corrupting influences of the world. Their approach didn’t work too well, and the absence of God’s word in the culture contributed to the Dark Ages, the Crusades, corruption in the church like no other time in history.
   
   
2. For the Amish, who came to America with roots in the self-same Germanic, separatist ideals, living apart from the world means living on farms without electricity, in cloistered communities. I respect the dedication and hard work of this modern separatist tribe, but it seems like they missed something along the way. Is it really holier  to have to work a farm behind a horse-drawn plow? I’m not sure that’s how Jesus would define holiness.
   
   
3. For the Catholic Church through the centuries, living as the “one true church” apart from the world meant that its members had to do what the church prescribed. Members still focus on partaking regularly in a list of seven sacraments in order to be considered part of the “holiness club.” Also dating back to Medieval Europe, this approach worked well when poor peasants were dependent on the wealthy land owners, (who were also church leaders) for land, food, and blessings, (which unfortunately were available at a price for those who could afford them.)
   
   
4. Today in America, historically traditionally structured denominational churches are dying in record numbers, especially here in West Michigan. For the past 50 years, these churches have remained static in the midst of a changing culture, because that is just the way, they always did things. Their decision to demand that the world do things they way has left their seats and budgets empty.

No, I don’t think being a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation is about building walls around our religious club, and demanding that the world must learn, and keep our particular membership rules if they want to be included. Am I being too harsh? Maybe, but what does the church accomplish when we approach those who don’t come through the doors a Sunday morning with this kind of attitude? I believe that Jesus taught a lived a different interpretation of “in the world, but not of it.”

Jesus lived an example, and left us large footsteps to follow. His command to go into the world and make disciples of all nations was built on two other foundational pillars. Jesus said first that all authority under heaven was given to him, and therefore, we go forward in his power and unction.  Secondly, Jesus lived an example that was in the world, eating with the “sinners and tax collectors” and those outside of the religious life of his time. He made a difference in their lives by the way He treated them. He gave up his rights to stay comfortably in heaven, demanding we meet the standard of the OT. He expanded the kingdom and gave us the same charge, by living a different sort of life. Then, after setting the example personally, Jesus’ asks us to:

• Transform the culture, not hide from it.
• Expand the kingdom by inviting those who don’t know him into a relationship with him,
• We have to demonstrate what that love relationship look like by engaging those outside the world with his love, and demonstrating that love between us.
• Reveal God to the blind, help the deaf hear, and heal the lame, both literally and figuratively.
• Be filled with power so that our words, works, actions and relationships all point the same direction.

For three years, the disciples watched Jesus's model these five principles in EVERYTHING he did. Jesus lived with power, focus, and love they had never encountered in anyone else. Jesus didn’t “have a ministry” he ministered. He didn’t write books or distribute podcasts; he gave divine, power-filled life to those he met. His platform pylons were driven deep into the bedrock of prayer. In fact, the only thing Jesus's apostle asked him to teach them was how to pray. They knew the source of his strength, wisdom, power and faith because, again, Jesus modeled a life built on prayer.

Like Jesus, the solution to powerlessness and path toward revival starts in prayer. The course corrections for a drifting life, ministry, or church are anchored in prayer. Like the example Jesus gave of what a revived life looks like, the early church left was the example of where revival starts.

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord, in one place.
(Acts 2.1 KJV)

The apostles left the mountain after watching Jesus ascend into the clouds and obeyed him. He told them to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit; they gathered together and waited. Because they listened when Jesus taught them about prayer, they followed his example, and applied the lessons. Then, when they were all together, gathered, obedient and open, and in one place, joining their voices in prayer and study of God’s word, he filled them with his Spirit’s power.

We don’t know when revival will start, but it always starts with God’s people. We don’t know when Jesus is coming back, but he’s asked us to be busy about the affairs of the kingdom until he does. Let’s start the New Year with a commitment to increasing the intensity, frequency, commitment and duration of our daily prayer. 

I’ve watched the influence of the church ebb and flow for the past 30 years, and I have to confess that in most cases, the message and energy behind a movement was much more impressive than the fruit it created. Maybe my expectations are high, but based on the time, money, energy, promotion and presentations strategy that’s flowed into the public arena in the name of modern Christian ministry, I believe that, if Christ-followers were giving our time and attention to the right things, we would see much more lasting fruit in the world.

Before I go too far into the deep end of the pool where it sounds like I’m just splashing around and complaining, let me preface these thoughts with my confession. I’m a committed member of a local body that is using it’s time and resources to build the kingdom and send the gospel around the world. We’re not a perfect church, and I’m not a perfect Christ-follower. Yet I have to return to the standards by which Jesus gave us to measure myself, and periodically ask “How am I doing? How is my church doing? Are we fulfilling the commands Jesus gave us to make disciples, expand his kingdom and transform the world?”

In business or ministry, it’s easy to be busy – and still accomplish little of lasting value, and the larger the church, the more momentum the congregation can create, and by mistaking momentum for God’s presence and anointing, churches can carry on for years (decades), never fulfilling the great commission in a way that is commensurate with their abilities, gifts, resources, and calling.

Ouch. As Christ–followers, we all know this is true. We just want it to be true of other churches . . .  “those guys over there” . . .  not us.

Looking Back

In the past 40 years, since the Jesus People movement of the 60’s, the corresponding Charismatic movement in the churches, and the explosion of creativity which followed, contemporary Christianity has become its own subculture. Social calendars in every major city are filled with Christian concerts, conferences, cruises, musicians, magicians, comedians, authors, and events in ways that would have never happened just 40 years ago. When I came to Christ, contemporary Christian music was only found in dimly light coffee houses, street corners, and barn pastures. How things have changed.

My lament is not meant to criticize, but revolves around this single idea. As the culture changed, and contemporary Christian ideas became part o the larger church culture, Christians thought, and popular magazines of the contemporary Christian movement proclaimed that the cultural acceptance and transformation would carry with it deeper Christian influence in the world. We thought that because Christian music was appearing on the airwaves along with other top 40 and rock and roll music, that Christianity would be more accepted, and have greater influence. As money flowed into the Christian subculture grew in the name of evangelism, missionary and outreach budgets shrunk, and yet Christian influence in our culture diminished. Something is wrong with this picture.

At the same time Christian concerts, music, conferences, art, t-shirts and book stores have proliferated, the church’s influence on the secular world has measurably decreased. Virtually every survey has revealed fewer people attending churches, fewer people believing and regularly reading the bible as a source of their faith. The country and the church has more divorces, more violence, more single parent homes, and more brokenness. By any objective measurement, the gospel is making less of an impact on the American continent today that is was 50 years ago.

Jesus said that our Father’s will was that we bear fruit, and that our fruit remains, and this is the reason for this retrospection. I’m not writing to condemn or criticize. I’m writing to say, with the exception of a few pockets, the church today has a huge disconnect between our effort, activity, and outcome. We are called to be salt and light in a decaying and dark world. Over the past 40 years, we’ve lost ground.

Spending our Resources for Eternity.

I’m not writing today to propose one size fits all, uninformed solutions. I’m not that arrogant. I’m writing to ask four simple questions.

• Is there passion in your heart for what you’re doing, and for what your church is doing? Confirmation of God’s blessing and purpose is passion. If our hearts are cold, it’s time to do visit the Heart Surgeon, empty our hands of everything that consumes our time and energy, and give him permission to change things, and change me.
  
  
• Are you living on purpose or just spending time?  Jesus and his followers in the church’s first centuries were clear about their mission. They didn’t allow the needs of the day, hour, or moment, extraneous entertainment and time hungry hobbies, and to pull them away from God’s Word, prayer, and doing the things which God entrusted into their care. They knew they were stewards who would give account, not owners who could do what every they wanted.
  
  
• Is there power in your life, church, family, and ministry . . . real, life changing power? The early church and the Christian church throughout history, during times of revival embraced and flowed with supernatural, life-changing, relationship-healing power. Like a vineyard which no longer yields fruit abundantly, maybe it’s time to ask God to prune our lives, and surrender leaves and branches that consume energy without returning anything of eternal value.
  
  
• How is your prayer life?  In Jesus’ life, passion, purpose, and power all flowed from his connection to his Father in prayer. When the disciples got up in the morning, and Jesus wasn’t around, the gospels tell us that they knew He was off praying. In fact, the only thing that the disciples specifically asked Jesus to teach them was how to pray. They knew his life flowed from his Father, and they wanted to live the same way.
  
  

At the heart of what I’m asking is this question. Why don’t we have revival? Why doesn’t the church live like, look like and have the influence on the world like the first century church, and like the church in the US during the Reformation, and the first and second great awakening. The late revivalist Leonard Ravenhill wrote that today's Church didn’t have revival because we are content to live without it. While we can’t manufacture revival, every outpouring of God’s power that changed the course of the world was connected to a period when his people loved and obeyed passionately, lived purposefully, walked in the power of God’s spirit, and prayed fervently.

The world is becoming a darker place. Are we the generation that will start the next great awakening? 

I don’t like blogs. I write content for half a dozen blogs on a regular basis, but I have to confess I only tolerate these 21^st century publishing platforms. The source of my displeasure is that an ideal blog post, so I’m told, is 400 to 600 words, just enough space to make an unsubstantiated claim, or spout some cultural cliché. Like seeing and smelling the golden off brown skin of a Thanksgiving Day turkey, 600 words doesn’t get down to the meat and bones of an issue. A blog leaves me hungry for depth, meaning and life changing content.

This topic, praying for revival, is the perfect example. Readers have as many varied expectations of this topic as the number of people reading these words. For some, praying for revival is an evening-long special service, or week-long series and accompanying heightened emotional fervor. Like listening to a carnival barker, we are drawn in by promises of amazing and wonderful ___ (fill in the blank) _________, and a few days later, as the tents are pulled up, and the trucks packed, we feel better, but possessing no lasting change . . . not really. We are still hungry for spiritual change.

A blog post is a lot like what the church accepts for a revival. We read short paragraphs and bullet pointed ideas, feel better, and then life goes on as normal.  No, I don’t like blog posts, and I’m not satisfied with this accepted definition of a revival either.

The term revival was coined to describe periods in history through which entire cultures were affected. Significant portions of the population returned to a deep religious faith and renewed religious practice. The First Great Awakening in the US happened prior to the Revolutionary War, and was responsible for the distinct God-centered message in our countries founding documents. Franklin, Jefferson, Washington were greatly influenced by, among others, David Brainerd and George Whitefield. The latter was an English cleric who preached with the Wesley brothers. Together they were responsible for the revival which saved England from the social and moral turmoil which nearly destroyed France during the late 18^th century.

During America’s Second Great Awakening (1830-1860), traveling preachers like Jonathan Edwards and Charles G. Finney traveled New England by horseback. Their preaching emptied bars, taverns and closed burlesque theaters. They didn’t preach against the businesses, rather their message of holiness and a Holy God affected measurable cultural change. The power of God’s Spirit was so intense that accounts of Edward’s sermon “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God” include the story of men and women falling out of their pews, holding to the hard wood seats for fear that the ground were going to open, and they would be sent directly into the flames of hell.

Finney would arrive in a town, and take a room overlooking the town square for prayer and fasting. In one New England town, Finney wrote in his autobiography that after 3 days of intense intercession, men and women wandered out of the bars, and stopped each other on the street, wondering why they felt so unsettled. Finney’s sermons didn’t boast the benefits of heaven as much as he assailed his hearers with the fear of hell. He wouldn’t offer an altar call until his listeners knew their fate apart from Christ. Only then were they invited to repent, and receive new life. This process sometimes took days, and Finney didn’t stop preaching until his hearers “brought forth fruit, suited for repentance.”

At this point, I must backtrack. I started this post with a bit of a complaint, and now I’ve continued to question our modern view of revival. My purpose is not to assail churches, or insist that revival preaching must be hell fire and brimstone. No, my point is much more radical. If we are to pray down heaven’s favor and men’s salvation, we must have an accurate vision of the revival we seek, and not settle for counterfeits.

Genuine revival praying and revival itself brings forth fruit, identifiable visible and measurable fruit. Revivals like the ones recorded in history books are measured by the visible affects they left in our culture. Genuine revival is centered on repentance and holiness, which creates evidence that an entire people group is fundamentally changed. Revival brings transformation in the way men and women conduct their businesses, relationships, and families. Revival is built on the foundation of prayer which leads to and starts with repentance, which interestingly enough means “transformation or metamorphosis” in the original Greek.

So here are my obligatory blog bullet points:

• Can we have revival without prayer? No, I don’t believe we can. Beginning with the Elijah’s sermon on Mt Carmel and Peter’s sermon in the Book of Acts, revivals begin with intense, extended prayer.
• Can we have prayer without revival?  Yes, we can, for that is the state of the church today. We pray, yet the Christian church is losing numbers and influence in our post-Christian, secular nation.
• What will it take to pray down revival in a way that one brings the other, so that we see genuine revival in our times? I close this short blog post with my real point.

I’m writing to cast a vision, and I do so with the words of late revivalist Leonard Ravenhill. “The reason the modern church doesn’t have revival is that we are content to live without it.”

1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear . . .
6b . . . Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways.
8 The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace.
9 Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. (Is 59. 1-2, 6b-9)

Every revival mentioned herein began from a place where God's people acknowledged their evil hearts and deeds, and then accepted God's terms for renewal. If my people, who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray, seek my face, and turn from their own wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land. 2 Chr 7.14. 

The men’s ministry in our church recently held a daylong event, and I had the privilege of being part of the prayer team. As the guys gathered in the gym surrounded by camo-netting, motorcycles and 4x4 ATV’s,  I was welcomed into the church's prayer chapel by the presence of God’s Spirit. I expected to fight with my roaming mind to stay focused on the prayer-task at hand. I expected to consciously have to still my mind, and wait for my emotional wheels to coast to a halt before I would really enter into God’s presence.

Instead God’s Spirit met me at the door, and for the first hour, I was overwhelmed by a single idea. I sensed God ready to meet with me, not standing off in the distance waiting for me to fight my way into his presence. While I didn’t hear an audible voice, I overwhelmingly sensed God say:

 “You are here to ask me to do things for you, but you don’t have to ask. You don’t even have the right to ask for anything of your own accord. I want your prayers on the basis of my promises to you. I want to answer your prayers, and I offer you my grace, power and presence on the basis of my Unchanging Word.”

As I’m writing this, I’m having a hard time describing how this single idea transformed my prayer expectations. I often spend time in extended prayer. I have my prayer lists, and I pray for my kids, my church, my finances, family and country. I ask God to glorify himself, reveal himself, and cover those who spend their lives in service of the ministry. I have my shopping list that I lug into my prayer closet, but so often I feel like I have to walk up hill before I can talk to God. I have to clear away the brush in my mind to find a peaceful place in the middle of my mental forests before I pray. For those of you in an intercessory ministry, I trust you understand the struggle my inadequate words are trying to frame

Prayer is hard work, and if we don’t pray, there are events in the kingdom that will likely never happen, miracles left undone, souls left unchanged. I do, and God will; if I don’t, God won’t. It’s hard to dance with this humble task without becoming arrogant in the execution.

Yet that day, God reminded me that I am in a covenant with him, and He wants me to pray. God wants and waits for me to enter into his presence. I don’t have to come up with the perfect formula of words before God hears me. He has promised to hear me . . . hear us, and we get to stand before him on the basis of his unchanging commitment to us, our Father, Redeemer, Savior and Friend.

Years ago, a musician named Scott Wesley Brown told this story. Sitting in a prayer meeting, he waited his turn while trying to find the perfect words to impress God and the people around him. He didn’t feel the pride in his heart until a young girl spoke up and said slowly:

“Dear God, A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z.   
Father, I don’t know what to say, so here are all the letters I know.
You put them together in the right order. Amen”

Irritated at first, Brown was humbled by the time the girl finished. He wanted to get it right, to impress and declare. The girl just wanted to pray.

When I go into prayer, do I remember that prayer is a conversation? I hear it all the time, but too often I act as if it’s all up to me. Why aren’t more people coming to the prayer meetings? Didn’t Jesus call all of us to pray? Why are there so few people in the prayer room this morning? It’s so easy to be quietly proud in my prayer closet. That morning in the prayer chapel, God illuminated my pride from his perspective.

I pray because he asks me to come. I can expect an audience because he promised to answer. I am welcomed because of what Jesus sacrificed for me. I can love, because I was first loved. If there’s anything I have to get right in my prayers, it’s humility, and the conviction that God will keep his promises when I ask. Now I can ask in faith.

I listened to a conversation between pastors John Piper and Rick Warren recently. From their theological towers, one can barely see the other’s camp on the edge of the horizon. Piper, a died in the wool Calvinist, wanted to talk with “whosoever will can come” Warren about Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life. While the two could have staked out their own territory like medieval lords protecting their castle, they lowered their theological drawbridges and met in the valley to honestly talk about faith and life in Christ.

At one point Warren said “When I find two scriptures that seem to be opposed to one another, I accept them both.” So when Piper asked his friend about Calvin’s predestined approach to salvation, Warren replied that he accepts the idea, that God draws men He foreknew and predestined to salvation. He also believes that whoever confesses Jesus as Lord becomes part of God’s family, and that the door is open to every man - opposing ideas, yet one faith. Warren was comfortable with a God who is bigger than his own understanding.

I have a similar problem with two other scriptures. I hear Christ-followers say “I felt the Lord prompt me to __ (fill in the blank here) ______,” and so they make sure to do, or not do ____ (whatever) _________. This personal interaction with God is like a faith merit badge, worn as proudly as any Eagle Scout’s sash.

At the same time, friends from the less charismatic crowd tend to focus on obedience. They study scripture and are so sure to follow the biblical principles that the idea of hearing God’s voice is almost unnecessary. Their lives are often stable, prosperous and fruitful . . . evidence of God’s presence.

A vital prayer life and prayer ministry has to move out of the “either / or approach” to an intimate relationship with God, and embrace both hearing and obeying God’s voice.

• If we only do that which we feel prompted into, we become selfish, self-focused children. We demand God meet our requirements, rather than opening our hearts to follow his. 
• If we only act on what we read in the Bible or learn in a Sunday school class, we become stale, and quite the opposite of the “hear before we obey” crowd. We miss the prompting of the Holy Spirit because He often doesn’t fit into our programs. God asks us to change, take risk, and move into new territory.
• If we use our comfort zone as an excuse to nullify our brother’s approach, we miss the blessing of what God can, and wants to teach us. We risk becoming bigoted, closed hearted, and quenching the Spirit we so desperately need.
  
  

Even the quickest historical survey reveals that the men through whom God changed the world were men who lived by both creeds. No one had to tell Wesley, Spurgeon, Wilkerson or Moody that God’s heart was broken over poverty, orphans, and widows. They preached the word in season and out, ministered to the poor, and listened for God’s voice on a daily basis.

The man who won me to Christ had this plaque on his desk.

All Word and we dry up.
All Spirit and we blow up.
With the Word and Spirit, We grow up.

Jesus demonstrated both. Shouldn’t we?

Today was my church's 33^rd anniversary celebration, and I think it was a sign of God’s pleasure over us and his joy that 33 people were baptized on Saturday and Sunday between the three services. During the 9:15 service, a few prayer warriors met in the our Lighthouse prayer chapel and interceded through the early morning service, and for the next 33 years. We prayed for our church’s future history, and in this ministry we call the Outlet Prayer Ministry, we often wrestle with silent questions:

• What does God want?
• How can we get there?
• How can we glorify Him?
• We ask God to draw more KCC’ers into a saving relationship with Jesus.

At the core of these questions lies the idea of revival, and getting back to the influence on the world around us that the early church exercised. After Peter’s first sermon, over 3000 people were saved and baptized. (Acts 2) Throughout Acts, sermons brought conviction and conversation. As we prayed this morning, two ideas bubbled to the surface.

1) The apostles waited on God’s promise of anointing and power at Pentecost before they began to preach the gospel. Jesus had asked them to wait for this promise before venturing into the world with his message of grace and forgiveness. One the Day of Pentecost, just before God’s power fell, Luke writes that the apostles were “all together, and in one place.” Did the detailed doctor repeat himself, or is this an important component to the day’s miraculous events?

In another translation, this phrase is rendered “the apostles were together in one place, and in one accord.” It wasn’t enough for them to be physically together. They had spent the 10 days between Jesus ascension and Pentecost praying, reading the scriptures, and building deep community. I imagine that they talked through Peter’s denial, Thomas’s doubts, James and John’s desires to have the first place in line, and how Jesus had to appear to them two or three times before they were ready to really, really believe. They came to a place where they were not only all together, but they were in one accord, ready to speak to the world about this life-changing Jesus.

2) The church had lost everything. Those who believed in Jesus cowered in that upper room for fear of the Jewish leaders and the Roman guards. For three years these young idealistic disciples followed Jesus around the country learning his Way, Truth and Life. They had gone all in, and now Jesus promise was all they had.

These conditions describe the hearts that God found when he poured out his power, and the church began to change the world. They didn’t have any allusions about building kingdoms, businesses or fortunes. The One they loved most had been cast out, and eventually crucified by those who were threatened by his power. As his followers, they could not expect to be “better than their Master.”

I’m not writing to suggest that Christians should choose a path to deliberately create conflict with the world around us, or that being a ‘real’ Christian means selling everything we own and finding a room to rent in a hotel somewhere. I’m saying that Jesus brought his followers into a place there they could honestly say that they had Him and only Him on which to rely. They waited in that place, and in that place God poured out his power which equipped them to change the world.

As we prayed this morning, we prayed and asked for God’s power to once again fall, and continue to fill KCC, our people, staff and services in the years to come. Yet in the midst of our prayers, I had to confess that too often we are dependent on ourselves, serving divided interests, and at odds with each other. . .  and yet we still ask God to come and do great things. Throughout the scriptures, God connected the dots between the condition of his peoples’ hearts and lives with his ability to answer their prayers in great ways. As we start our 34^th year, let’s pray with King David, and ask God to:

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Ps 139. 23-24

As a Christ-follower, I have a laundry list of things, important things on my prayer list. Children, finances, job issues, friends going through tough times – I can go on. God I need this. God, I want you do that. I don't know about you, but when I pray this way, focusing on my laundry list, my prayers seem like they bounce off a brass ceiling, and fall to the ground around me. I'm not saying that we shouldn't pray for situations like these, Yet if all I do is ask for stuff, it's not long before I sense something in my prayer life is missing. I wind up spiritually dry and unexcited about the eternal.

There are no rules when we pray, yet God's Word gives gentle instructions. We can't manufacture God's power. Yet when we pray, and follow his pattern, He promises He WILL show up. The purpose of a prayer ministry, any prayer ministry, is to find and follow God’s pattern in order to find God’s promised response. Based in God's Word, we know when we pray and wait expectantly, our Heavenly Father does what we can't. The acronym ACTS is a great way to focus on his pattern as a guide.

Adoration (Praise): Psalm 100 says: “Enter into God's gates with thanksgiving, and come into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him, and bless his Holy name. (Ps 100.4) When we gather together, intercessors should resist the temptation to start with our laundry list. Instead we take time to praise, and worship God for who He is. We take time to recognize we are coming into the courts of the Creator of the Universe, and He is worthy of our praise.

Confession: Psalm 66.18 says: “If I regard, (or hold onto) iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Jesus encourages us to take this idea seriously. He says that when we come to worship, if we remember that we have something against someone, that we should leave our sacrifice, and reconcile or make the situation right before we come to worship. Does this mean I have to be perfect before God will hear my prayers? No. It means that God expects that we live what we say we believe, and do what we can to live in right relationships with others.

Thanksgiving: Phil 4.6 says: “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Thanksgiving naturally flows from a heart that is filled with worship, and that has been cleansed of sins. We are naturally thankful when we can see God's greatness, our humanness, and how Jesus has bridged the gap. Thanksgiving differs from praise and worship in that worship lifts up who God is, thanksgiving focuses on what God's done.

Supplication (Intercession) : 1 Thess 5.16-18 says: “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” Finally we get to our laundry list, but when we start by focusing on God, and his requests of us, theirs is a change in my attitude. After focusing on God's glory, dealing with our sins, and spending time thanking Him for all the things He's done in our lives, my laundry list isn't all about me anymore. It's about God, His glory and how we can be a part of His plans.

If you’re involved in a prayer ministry or prayer group at your church, I challenge you to change your focus for the next few times you gather. Put your laundry list in the pocket of your bible case until you spend time in God’s presence, longing for him instead of stuff. In Jeremiah 29.11-13, God says that when we seek him, we will find him, when we search for him with all our hearts. The condition resides with us. We have to lay down our agenda, our to do list, our expectations and wait on him before we will see clearly to pray according to his priorities.

For two years, a handful of members at my church have gathered for prayer in our Lighthouse Prayer Chapel during at least one weekend service. Every weekend, we lay down our own agenda and life’s general busyness, and pursue one thing. We ask God to be increasingly present and powerful in Kentwood Community Church (KCC). ministries and services. We ask Him to reveal Himself, and lead the services to a deeper experience of his purpose, presence and power.  (see Jer. 29.11-13)  Without God, our efforts at ministry fall flat. There’s not one heart we can change, one life that can be lifted, or one program that will be successful without the Power of God through is Holy Spirit, and the Word of God guiding us in truth.

Most KCC’ers, and many believers haven’t experienced an extended prayer time. The idea of praying together in a group for 70 - 90 minutes is intimidating and unknown. At the same time, we mentally agree that praying together for the church ministries is a good thing. Prayer is something that ‘somebody’ should do. This reminds me of a poem I heard somewhere long ago.

The Parable of Responsibility  

Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody came to church one Sunday.

There was an important job to do and Everybody was asked to do it.

Everybody was sure that Somebody would take up the challenge.

Anybody would have done it, but in the end Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry because it was Everybody’s job.

Everybody thought Anybody would do it, but Nobody realized that Anybody wouldn’t do it.

In the end, Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

We started the Outlet Prayer Ministry to end Everybody’s, Somebody’s Nobody’s and Anybody’s dilemma when it comes to prayer. Jesus encourages us all to pray.

• He set the example for us to follow.
• He chided his followers when they couldn’t minister to others because of their lack of prayer.
• He longed for their support in the Garden, asked them to come along with Him.
• He lamented when they couldn’t pray just an hour with Him.

Jesus promised power, and positive results when we follow his example, accept his invitation, and then follow through by laying down our agenda, and spending time in prayer. Maybe your church could establish the same kind of prayer group. I would love to know what you think about this idea.

In Ps 24, a young King David asks, and then answers a question burning on the young king's heart. 

Who may climb the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies. They will receive the LORD’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their savior. Such people may seek you, and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob. Ps 24.3-6 NLT

In my prayer time a few days ago, I felt God asking me to take these words seriously. What would it look like in my life if I made sure that I was walking and living with clean hands, and a pure heart? How would I spend my time? How would I spend my money, and the other resources that God has entrusted into my care?

What would it look like if I made sure that in every relationship, I was completely honest, and didn't treat someone as if I had to lift myself up, and come across as though I'm better than another? Are there any idols in my life, things that I give my time, talent and attention to more than I devote my energies to my Father? I know that I'm forgiven, and saved by the grace of God, so these questions aren't about earning his love or favor. But that's not the question that David is asking. David is asking who is the person that will walk with God, that will live with God showing Himself active, present and powerful in his life.

Jesus challenged his followers with the same high expectations regarding our relationship with Him and others. He connected the dots between the quality of our relationships with others, and the temperature of our relationship with Him. In the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:

“So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God." Matt 5,23-24

I'm not trying to be legalistic, or tell our pastors what to teach on a Sunday, but what would it look like if at the beginning of a weekend service, before the worship started, your pastor said something like this: 

If you have a dispute with a friend, if you have a broken relationship with a family member, co-worker, etc. it's time to go and make it right. We're not going to have service today. Go, take care of the relationship issues in your life. I'll see you again next week.

And that was it. No songs, announcements, teaching or prayers. The worship ministry left the platform, and the lights came up. What would that be like? 

Maybe a more exciting question is this – What do you think the service the following weekend would be like? Coming into God's presence with a clear conscious, with the weight of damaged relationships lifted from our hearts and hands. What kind of blessing would we then receive from God? David writes, and promised that blessings from come from the Lord, and we would enter into his righteous, powerful, healing presence.

Prayer is more than asking God to do stuff . . . to take care of this, that and the other thing. Prayer starts with God moving in our lives, to change who we are, how we treat others, and how we interact with the world. When you pray, you can expect God to challenge you, to work on changing your heart. Then in the future God is free to move through you, and answer your prayers for others through what He can do through you.

Ever traveled through a major city, and had the opportunity to see a one of the nations' “Grand Central Stations”? Chicago's is called Union Station, as is the transportation center in Kansas City, St. Louis and Los Angeles and Washington DC. Each of these are modeled after the architectural wonder in New York, the majestic Grand Central Station. Built in 1871, Grand Central Station rivaled the Eiffel Tower for its architectural grandeur. At the beginning of the 20th century, cities with extensive public transportation systems built these hubs to link bus, rail train and local metro trains to simplify the process of getting from point A to point B. 

I've traveled though Chicago's Union Station often, and recently rode the Subway in and out of Manhattan. I marvel at the number of people processed across the ticket counters and through the turnstiles daily. Standing in the station during rush hour is another life changing experience. The vaulted ceilings and marble pillars amplify every conversation. It's not the kind of place where you can have a quiet private conversation. During rush hour, you can barely hear yourself think above the din of travelers and public announcements.

I can only imagine how at times, Jesus' life must have been like standing in the middle of Grand Central Station at rush hour. After gaining popularity, Jesus was often met by throngs of people who wanted to hear the itinerant rabbi teach, or press Him for a miracle. Yet Jesus was always on task, focused, and never lost sight of his Father's purpose for his life.

This was His secret. 

And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him. And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. And Simon and they that were with him followed after him. Mark 1:34-36

Jesus was focused on his calling and ministry, the things that were important to his Father because he regularly made time away from the crowds, clamor and tumult of public life and career to talk with his Father. Prayer was His priority. Prayer was his vital breath.

I can look over my Christian life, and see that during the times I made a daily prayer time a priority, I was much more focused, stable and centered on my life in Christ. When I let the crowd push into my life and push prayer out, hearing God was like trying to talk to a friend while standing in Grand Central Station during rush hour.

If you want to your prayer life to continue to grow, I want to invite you to join me and commit to daily prayer, away from the crowds, centered on God and his word. we eat every day, get to work, spend time talking to our family, etc. We make time for what is important. Maybe it's time we stop submitting to the Devils schemes, and make time for the most important task of the say. Whether you pray alone or in a group, you will experience God's power and presence in a new way. Nothing turns up the temperature of your spiritual life than standing in God's presence, knowing you're heard and sensing His presence and personal reply.

I have a secret to confess. It's been over 30 years, and I have to come out of the closet – or at least out from behind the couch. I was 6 years old, and one night after my mom herded me off to bed, I crept back down the stairs, and hid behind the couch in our family room. Just out of her line of site, like a moth to a flame I was pulled into one of 1966's most innovative TV programs. I watched with wide eyes as Gene Roddenberry's “Wagon train to the stars” told the story of the Enterprise and its five year mission to go where no man has gone before. Yes – I have to come clean – I am a closet Trekkie.

This is no surprise to my wife or kids. When the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager spinoffs hit the airwaves, I remember pulling my kids onto my lap, and along with a bowl of popcorn, we watched Captain Picard continue the mission that my childhood heroes Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock began. The names had changed but the story was the same. Men, women and aliens banded together to face the unknown, out-gun old enemies and out-smart new ones. For those who are wondering . . . yes . . . we even attended a Star Trek convention or two.

One of my favorite episodes in that original series featured displaced society adrift in a hollow, round spaceship. War had left their planet uninhabitable, so their society's leaders built a 'world' inside a space-going ball. The catch was that the citizens believed that they were on a planet. an artificial 'sun' rose and set, and the entire world was designed to replicate home. After three generations drifting through space, their outside-in spaceship was the only world they'd ever known.

The episode's conflict because the spaceship was off course, and drifted toward an inhabited planet where it would crash and create galactic destruction. As the story raced toward it's climax, Kirk and his cohorts faced the challenge of convincing the inhabitants that they were on a space ship, not a planet. The Federation heroes had to help the helpless, and convince the society that what they believed was wrong, and what they experienced on a daily basis isn't real. There was a larger world outside of themselves. They had to change their reference point, and accept a new reality based on truth which resided outside of their experience, or face certain doom.

A minor character from this show intrigues me yet today. An old man, an outcast that most of the characters considered crazy was written into a brief scene. As Kirk, Spock and the boys tried to convince the society of their need to shed their wrong beliefs, this old man crept out of the shadows and spoke forbidden words.

“I believe you. I know we're not on a real planet. . . For the world is hollow, and I have touched the sky.”

A prayer ministry is built from the same conviction. This world is hollow, and we can touch the sky. We can touch Heaven with our prayers and connect with a new Reality which resides outside ourselves. When we do, we discover God's perspective. When I am affected by His point of view, my world can . . . and must change, and I can no longer stay the same.

The world is hollow, and we can touch the Sky. We don't have to settle for the world as it is, and Jesus calls us to go out into the world and work to bring about change. We are to make disciples, feed and clothe the poor, heal the sick, and see God change lives one at a time. It starts with prayer, because God's power must first work in my life, before I will grow to a place where He can work through me.

If your small group would like to learn more about prayer, and making deep, life changing prayer a part of the culture, contact Tim Burns and the Outlet Prayer Ministry at Kentwood Community Church, Grand Rapids, MI (http://www.kentwoodcommunitychurch.com/opmblog) We can help you with resources and ideas on how to encourage your congregation or small group to set an intentional time to pray together for your church, neighborhood, church, and state. As a group you will grow closer together, and individually God will work in your heart and life as He draws you closer to Himself.

For the world is hollow - join me - let's touch the Sky.