Power Failure!

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"I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn't have to destroy the land, but I found no one"" (Ezek 22:30)

The power failure in the Church today is due to Prayer failure. Churches which boast of the Sunday morning attendance must mourn the attendance in the midweek prayer meeting. Even prayer meetings have more of preaching, planning and partying than praying. Isaiah laments, "He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor" (Isa 59:16). He told God, "There is no one who calls on Your Name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You" (64:7).

Our Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples to pray, but who teaches the art of praying in Church or seminary? Preachers are interested to get people write to them for prayer, but who teaches the people to pray for themselves through situations? There is nothing wrong in helping others in sickness and sorrow (Js 5:14), but we preachers have an awesome responsibility of producing God-dependent warriors and not preacher-dependent weaklings. "In anyone among you suffering? Let him pray" (Js 5:13).

Several ministries are duplicated but there is still no competition for the ministry of prayer. The Lord has convicted me more than once of being too busy with the things of God to find time to be with Him in solitary prayer. There had been great blessings in all these years of my preaching but I am also aware of the blunders I have committed, invariably due to lack of private prayer. When leaders neglect personal prayer, they cause unspeakable harm to the ministry, the fellow-workers and the people.

Let us study the prayer life of the leaders  of the Bible again. Abraham, the father of all believers, was a mighty intercessor (Gen 18:20-24,32). Moses, the greatest prophet, who led the Israelites out of Egypt, was a prayer warrior (Ex 32:30-32). Paul was perhaps the greatest of all apostles. He was a mighty intercessor (Rom 9:1-3; 10:1). There is no other way! Where are men like John Knox (1514-1572), the Scottish Reformer, who prayed, "Lord, Give me Scotland or I die?" At his funeral was declared, "Here lies a man who in his life never feared the face of man!"

Pray on, pray on, believing ones, God's promised Word is sure,
That they shall overcome by faith who to the end endure;
Pray on, pray on; oh, weary not, the Cross with patience bear;
And though its burdens weigh us down, the Lord will answer prayer!
                               (Fanny J. Crosby, 1823-1915) 

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