© 2020 Don Pinson | [Download]
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While this is the darkest time in our nation’s history, the light is beginning to rise. I consistently meet people who are praying with others for revival in this land, and who assure me they are also praying in their own “prayer closet” for revival. This is encouraging because, as one great man of God stated it:
“When God intends great mercy for His people, the first thing He does is set them a-praying.”
(Matthew Henry, as quoted by Miles Bennet at http://www.liftupusa.com/pquotes.htm)
After many years in the ministry, it seems to me that the greatest “grace-ometer” (as C.H. Spurgeon said it) of the church is its prayer meeting. You can tell what God is up to in a church by how many people are fervently praying for Him to settle among them and do whatever He wants to do.
So, with the growing darkness in our land, how should we be praying? While it would be usurping the Holy Spirit’s leadership to, in detail, tell someone how to pray about a specific thing, there is a general way I’ve learned to pray that has been very helpful to me—helping me to have faith that God is listening and answering my prayer. Since Jesus promised us that,
“…all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” (Matthew 21:22)
“Believing” (or “expecting”) God to do what we ask is the key to receiving what we ask. But what is there on which we can base our “believing”? That truth is found in 1st John 5:14-15, which states,
“And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us: And if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.”
Thus, praying in the will of God is the key to us being able to be certain that God will hear and answer our prayer. It is the key to faith.
So how can we be certain we are in the will of God? First of all, we can only know the will of God by being surrendered to His will for us (John 7:17). If I can sincerely say, “Lord, whatever you want for me, wherever you want it, with whomever you want it, for however long you want it”, then I am surrendered to the will of God. Secondly, since His Word reveals His will, if what I am praying agrees with what He has written in the Bible I can expect Him to answer those prayers. Therefore, I have found a method whereby I can know I am praying the will of God: If I make my prayer the actual words of Scripture, I can be absolutely certain God is answering that prayer! On that basis I can expect God to answer my request.
One of the prayers I consistently pray for my family is Colossians 1:9. I call each of our names to the Lord and then pray that He will “fill each of us with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding: That we may walk worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in all respects, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of Him.” I believe God is answering this prayer in our family because I know it is His will to work these things in us—His Word says so!
When a group of people pray this way for their community, especially if they are from more than one church in that community, they can expect to see God move where they live. And if we pray, “Father, in Jesus’ Name, help us, as Americans, to humble ourselves, and pray, and seek Your face, and turn from our wicked ways, so You can hear from heaven, forgive our sin, and heal our land” (taken from 2 Chronicles 7:14), we can know He is doing just that—applying that prayer in whatever way and to whomever He chooses to apply it.
Shouldn’t we be consistently praying the Scripture for the lost and for revival in God’s people here in this land?
Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.