PRAYING FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE

Are you praying for the impossible? I begin my daily devotionals by going over key verses through which God has spoken to me. After each verse I have several long term prayer requests. Under one of those verses I have this prayer.

I want to wait prayerfully for You to accomplish what is absolutely impossible in human strength.

I pray for God to help me trust Him for the impossible. But I don't want to pray for just any impossibility. For one thing, if I am praying for anything short of what God desires, I will be praying too small.

I am not absolutely sure what God wants to do in and beyond America in these days. But I believe I know some things God wants us to ask for. I believe God wants us to pray for our culture to be radically turned around.

Several weeks ago I wrote in this blog that there is more to concern us about abortion than its legality. One of the things I wrote was that it is crucial to change our media and our culture's attitude toward sex and marriage if we want to significantly reduce the number of abortions. That is humanly impossible. But I don't think that is enough.

I am listening to Eric Metaxas' book, If You Can Keep It.  He says freedom does not mean to be ungoverned. As the founders of our nation meant it, liberty is the freedom to govern ourselves. Eric quotes Os Guinness, citing the "Golden Triangle of Liberty.” The founders all assumed these three things worked together, liberty, morality, and religion. We cannot have liberty without morality, and we need free religion to sustain personal morality.

I believe a genuine revival sweeping the land will not just change our attitudes toward sex and marriage, but toward all morality, religion and godliness. I have been more and more alarmed at the profanity on television. Some of the shows that never had filthy language or innuendos are now rife with them. The fact that many of us think that is a picky matter is an indication that this is not simply an unholy influence, but a spiritual thermometer of our nation. In Matthew 12:34 Jesus said,

"Brood of vipers!How can you speak good things when your hearts are evil?

For the mouth speaks out of the overflow of the heart."

I fear this year's presidential election reflects the hearts of America. Especially in a democracy where grassroots movements sway elections we get the government we deserve.

Changing the hearts of this entire nation would be a revival like the world has not seen since the sweep of Christianity through the Roman Empire in the first three centuries A.D.

I don't know what we will see as a result of these prayers. This kind of praying may turn out much like Abraham's intercession for Sodom. The tears of Jeremiah did not change the hearts of Israel. And the move of God on Europe in the early days of the church cost believers dearly. But it was certainly worth every drop of martyrs' blood. Whatever it costs us, such prayer could bring about the greatest revival in history.

Let's pray for the impossible!

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BRINGING DOWN STRONGHOLDS

Last week in my other blog, http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/, I wrote about the complexity of the issue of abortion. Like many social problems its roots are deeper than its legality. I did not mention that the law acts as a teacher and does play a part in changing the thinking of society. But it is also important to note that we are facing spiritual strongholds that must be brought down to make radical changes in our culture. It is easy to treat these matters as less difficult or painful than they are. But it is important to note that Jesus said,

“I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy.”

(Luke 10:19)

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 tells us,

“The weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ.”

We come against spiritual strongholds when we seek to change human nature or have real effect on our culture. I don't want to pretend that politics are not important in this spiritual battle, but as long as we think it is our primary means, we will be defeated. Let me point out three necessary elements in changing society.

Evangelism

Nothing changes people like the gospel. The majority of believers in Corinth had no spiritual background at all. God needed to make great changes in their thinking and lifestyle. Nothing would change them or people today like being radically born again.

Discipleship

And while a great change comes upon us at our conversion, there is also a process of transformation by which we are made more and more like Jesus. Before changes can spread into wider society, God needs to change us in the church. It is the will of God that we become salt and light to the society around us. If we try to do that in our own strength we will fail.

Prayer

But we have been given prayer to work in our world. We have the limitless power of God to break down our society's spiritual strongholds. By prayer we can do the impossible. Who knows what God will do through our prayer?

CONSIDERING YOUR PRAYERS

In John 12:27,28, one of my favorite Scripture passages, Jesus questioned how He should pray in a particular situation. Do you think about what you should be praying?

"Now is my heart troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name!" Then a voice came from heaven: "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again."

Consider the situation of your prayers.

God uses the particular circumstances of your life to motivate you to pray. Most of us think of painful circumstances that can drive us to our knees. That is good thinking. But in fact, the immediate situation of Jesus in John 12 was by no means the most painful of His life. However, Jesus was prayerfully sensitive to what the Father was doing in His life. He knew where He was headed. Every mention of the "hour," or "His hour," in The Gospel of John relates to the cross. When Mary broke the flask of fragrance over Him, Jesus knew she was actually preparing His body for burial. When the Greeks came asking to see Him, Jesus knew He would have to pay a terrible price to draw all men to Himself.

Consider the purpose of your prayers.

Knowing God's purpose Jesus could not pray, "Father, save me from this hour." God uses bad things to accomplish His glorious purposes. The Bible is clear that God uses trials to develop your character. And prayer is an essential element in His making you more like Jesus. Are your prayers counter productive? Are you praying against what God is doing in your life? I heard a powerful sermon this week by Tim Keller. In it he said, "Prayer is not a consumer tool. It is a refiner's fire."

God did not give you prayer so you could become more and more selfish. He gave you prayer so your prayers and your life will become more like Jesus'.

But even that is not the ultimate goal. God is developing your character so His name will be glorified. That is the highest good, the greatest joy, the most wonderful outcome of your life and the circumstance He has placed you in.

Consider the affirmation of your prayers.

When Jesus prayed, "Father, glorify Your Name!" there came a voice from heaven, "I have glorified it and will glorify it again!"

As we consider our prayers God draws us deeper into the fellowship of prayer. And He will give greater and greater assurance of His purpose.

Some of those standing there said, "It thundered." Others said, "An angel must have spoken to Him." I get goosebumps as I write this.

But Jesus said, "No. That was not it at all." They missed the point. "This voice did not for me. It was for your benefit."

Jesus did not need to hear the thunderous voice for His own assurance. It came to give assurance to those around Him. And as our prayer-roots grow deeper into God's purpose, He will give assurance to those around you with a thunder that shallow praying never brings.

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PRAYING IN OUR PAIN

For all the years I have suffered with my cancer my pain has been surprisingly minimal. But for the past week I have had some severe pain. I just left my doctor's office. To his surprise and my delight, it is evidently not caused by my cancer. But it still hurts.

In his book, The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis calls pain, God's megaphone.

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, He speaks to us in our conscience, and He shouts to us in our pain."

I doubt if it surprises you that police and fire engine sirens or the smoke alarm in your bedroom don't play Beethoven melodies or the latest jingle from a TV commercial. Their purpose is not entertainment but alarm.

Although it may go against most modern American thinking, it is not necessarily the will of God that our lives be filled with pleasure, comfort and entertainment.

Above all else God wants us to hear His voice and respond to His grace. It is through pain and suffering that we are shocked into the realization that there is something wrong in our lives and in the world. Through pain God quickly gets our attention.

Pain certainly calls us to pray. But prayer does not often relieve the pain immediately. And we need to learn to pray while we are hurting. Over the years of minor to moderate pain prayer has been a comfort and joy. This week, my pain increased enough that the pain pills the doctor give me do not take away all the pain. Sometimes they don't seem to do anything at all.

Among other things, I have to ask God to help me focus on what I am praying. I have to ask God to help me focus on other people and greater needs. It is still true that nothing lifts my heart like worship and praise. But I need God's Spirit to keep my attention on His glory.

Of course, we always need God to help us pray. We even need the Spirit of God to teach us what to pray. We need His hand on every facet of prayer. I have become painfully more aware of that.

Lord, I need You not only to teach me, but to help me pray.  

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WHAT DO WE TELL THE CHILDREN

Many, if not most of you have heard Andy Stanley's humorous warning, "You are scaring the children!" Northside Baptist Church no longer allows the video to be seen because of copyright claims, although over two hundred thousand people already saw it. Here is a portion of Andy's admonition.

“All of you who are 45 and older, look up here.

Many of you have grown weary and lost heart and the reason is–you have fixed your eyes on a political system… and you are growing weary. And you need to knock it off. And I’ll tell you why… because you are scaring the children!”

But what do we tell our children in these days? Let me suggest that we tell them to pray.

From this you and they may hopefully ask, "If we begin to pray as we have never prayed, will that solve all the social and political problems of our day? Will that restore our nation?"

God might indeed do that. He will certainly do that eventually. But I am not certain that He will work that way immediately.

If we look back in history we do not always see revival leading to complete restoration. Instead the awakening often prepared believers bring Him glory in terrible times to come.

A great prayer awakening swept America in 1858. Did that end slavery, the great moral and political division in our country? It did not. In three swift years the nation was thrust into a great civil war in which more Americans died than in either of the world wars.

If it did not prevent such a catastrophe, what was the point? Well, many thousands died  and went to heaven instead of hell. Many came home crippled or blinded with a spiritual strength to face the difficulties. Our country was able to pick up the pieces and go on. I don't think that would have happened without God in the lives of many.

In the mid-twentieth century would a prayer revival in Europe have prevented the rise of the NAZI regime? I don't know. But I do know praying people were able to help hundreds of thousands of children and others escape from the horror of the Third Reich. Many horrible things happened in those days. But there were also many with God given courage to oppose power of evil in their day.

I don't want to promise that we will not pay a terrific price for our sins as a nation. And like Daniel and his godly friends, righteous people will share the judgment. But we can be prepared to love and minister to people, and give great glory to God whatever happens in our country. And who knows what God will do, if we begin to pray as never before?

Priestly Prayer

Hezekiah became king of Israel after the death of the wicked king, Ahaz. Ahaz had led the people to turn away from the Lord to worship Baal. After he was installed as king Hezekiah led the people to return to the Lord. That year they cleaned out the abandoned temple to celebrate the Passover for the first time in years. But they had to postpone the celebration because too few of their priests were consecrated before the Lord. But they finally had the most wonderful celebration they had ever had. The last verse of 2 Chronicles 30 tells us about the ministry of the newly consecrated priests. "The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God healed them, for their prayer reached heaven, His holy dwelling place."

Did you know that God is calling you to a priestly ministry? Our nation needs healing. God has put you in contact with people who need spiritual healing. But most of you are aware that this calling requires more than you can do or be. But you need to know that God provides the primary things  you need to be a priest of God.

You need A higher Priest.

On the cross Jesus prayed even for those who were crucifying Him. "Father, forgive them." That prayer is at the heart of the will of God for the people around you.

Right before the cross Jesus being a priest to His disciples, told Peter that despite his pride, he was going to deny Him three times. Then Jesus said, "But I have prayed for you. And when you return, strengthen your brothers.”

Wouldn't it be powerful assurance  to know that Jesus prayed for you. He has and He does. As Jesus prayed for His disciples in John 17, He also prayed for us who would believe in Him through their word. And Hebrews 7:25 says Jesus continues intercede for you before the throne of God. When you pray for your neighbors relatives and friends, you can know you are joining God in interceding for them. The Lord has planted you in their lives so you would join Him in praying for them.

You need A higher Righteousness.

When Hezekiah became King the priests had to be consecrated before they could serve. Nothing is more important to prayer or any other ministry than holiness. When Abraham interceded with God on behalf of Sodom, he appealed to the righteousness of God. "Surely the Lord of all the earth will do what is right." And he appealed to God's love of Righteousness. He asked if God would spare the unrighteous, if there were fifty righteous people in the city. And God said He would spare even the unrighteous because of the righteousness of fifty people.

"What if there were five less than fifty?" Abraham continued to bargain God down. And God agreed that He loved righteousness so much that He would spare the unrighteous because of the righteousness of ten people. But there were evidently not even ten righteous people in that wicked city. At that point the Lord ended the conversation with Abraham and Abraham went back home. Why do you suppose that was? I am of course not sure, but I suspect this was the reason. If Abraham got down to asking God to save the city for one righteous person, was his nephew Lot really righteous? Even Abraham was depending upon the righteousness of God. Romans 4:3 quoting Genesis 15:6 telling us Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Are any of us holy enough for our righteousness to be counted for others? Not eternally. There is only one person who was that righteous, Jesus. He died in our stead so His righteousness would count for us. Whatever you are praying for others, you are appealing for the righteousness of Jesus to be applied to their lives.

PRAYING FOR FRUITFULNESS

Modern Americans often have the strangest notion of prayer. Much prayer in these days is an extension of our materialist convictions. You can hear preaching, here and in many countries around the world, that poses provision as the primary purpose of prayer. This is often taken to the extremes. "God give me a Cadillac." "God let me win the lottery."

But according to Jesus, the primary purpose of prayer is fruitfulness. In John 15:7 Jesus gave us a wonderful promise of prayer. He said, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. 

But Jesus continued in verse 8, "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." The purpose of prayer is fruitfulness. Today I read day 10 in the little booklet, 40 Days of Prayer, on the fruit of the Spirit. It reminded me that bearing fruit begins with my character and continues in the significance of my life. God is planting His seeds in my life to touch others and impact the world.

The provision of the Father is a foundational assumption of prayer. You don't need to spend much time praying for provisions. Your Father knows what you need before you ask. But fulfillment and joy do not come from worldly possessions, pleasure, or success.

Jesus continues in John 15:11, "I have told you this that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full. Joy comes from purpose and usefulness. Are you praying for fruitfulness? Or are you praying junk?