Are You Willing?
Starbucks - Cobb Pky
Kennesaw, Georgia
I am in the process of reading “E.M. Bounds On Prayer.”
As I travel the path of this book I will share the thoughts that the Lord gives me.
Prayer is so very important. The very foundation that the church is built upon. The very thing that gives us the strength to walk the path of life that we are on.
It is our source of strength. Our lifeline that links us with our Father, with the Lord. It is what prepares us and helps us to walk. Yet it is often times the most neglected gift that has been given us.
To many things rob us of the time that should be given to prayer, to seeking the Lord, of drawing strength from His presence.
E.M. Bounds says “The life of the church is the highest life, and its office is to pray. It’s prayer life is the highest life, the most fragrant, the most conspicuous. When God’s house on earth is a house of prayer, then God’s house in heaven is busy and powerful in its plans an movements.” (Isa 56:7 - for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.)
One of the things that I have seen over the last three years is the power that there is in prayer. That it is the life source of the church. That only as we tap in daily to the Lord, to His word, can we do what we have been called to.
It is in His presence, in prayer that we draw strength. As I went through the Chemotherapy and radiation, through the two surgeries and the divorce, it was during the times of prayer that I drew strength from the Lord, from the Spirit, that enable me to press in, even when I didn’t understand all that was going on. Yet the Lord was there, He heard me and comforted me.
E.M. Bounds further shares “God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world, the better the world will be and the mightier the force against evil everywhere.”
We can look at Daniel in the Old Testament. He was persistent in prayer, it was twenty-one days before there was a breakthrough because of the spiritual warfare that was taken place. The Lord is ever calling us to a place of prayer, of willingness to come before Him, to lift those things He puts on our heart before Him and be persistent in our prayers till there is a breakthrough.
Are we willing to answer the call to prayer? To give time to the Lord, in intercession. To be in an attitude of worship, of prayer.
It is so easy to say yes but so hard to do, but, if we are persistent, we will experience a breakthrough. Prayer will become part of our life, our walk, our relationship. That we will become a people of prayer, attuned to the Heart of God.
E.M. Bound further says “Prayer, in one phrase of its operation, is a disinfective and a preventive. It purifies the air, it destroys the contagion of evil.”
In prayer a battle is wages, warfare takes place, the way is prepared and the enemy is defeated and put to flight and the path is open for fulfillment of God’s purpose.
Many times the Lord would put someone on my heart to pray for, to lift before Him in prayer and though I may not know why I am praying, the Spirit of the Lord does and in being obiedent, the Lord will move on behalf of that person because we responded to the Call to Prayer!
Again, during the last three years, it was prayer that brought me through the battles, even during the times “I couldn’t feel anything” He was there.
I have had people asked me how can you pray to a God that allowed you to go through the cancer, the surgeries, the divorce?
It was because of prayer and the prayers of others that I could walk this path and it is because I walked this path that I am right in the center of God’s will for my life.
He gave me strength to walk, to see beyond what I am and have gone through and has given me a faith to trust Him, knowing that when it is all over, when all is said and done, I will stand strong in the Lord, in the power of His Spirit and share the reality of the life changing power and healing there is in the Lord!
Are you willing, to pray?
Till later,
Paul