Prayer
Prayer
What has the Lord been saying to me? As I begin to write and formulate this article, I am faced with the inevitable question. What is the Lord saying to you. In answer to this question, it is easy to fall into the trap of presenting a sermon on a topic that is on my heart and has been for the preceding week. Instead, I am going to attempt to answer this thought with a more informal response.
The Lord has shown me that His people were first known as :’The Ones who called upon the Lord’. In Genesis 4:26 :"And as for Seth, to him also a son was born and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord."
In Jeremiah 33:3 we read :"Call to me and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know".
God wants us to call upon Him. In the Book of Acts we read about how the apostles were all in one accord, in one place. They (the apostles) had a habit of meeting and praying daily, in one place in one accord, and thats when the building started to move, thats when the Holy Spirit descended upon them! Praise God! You see even the Apostles who had walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, ate with Jesus, had to come together in one accord in prayer, before the Holy Spirit moved. This really ministered to me. I have seen what happens when a Church gathers in one accord, in one place in prayer. Mountain moving faith manifests, people get saved, sick get healed, and the Holy Spirit starts to move.
If we as a church would come together in one accord, we too can expect God to show up. Are you ready for the supernatural? The biggest handicap that the Body of Christ faces today is division amongst ourselves. Christ will return for
a united body of believers irrespective of doctrinal beliefs and differences. We find in Acts that the disciples were in one accord , praying daily for a period of ten days. The preacher (Peter) did not have any fancy gimmicks, audio visual systems or even any training (as far as we know) in oratory presentation. What he did have was the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We read in Acts 2:41 that three thousand were added to their number.
I believe we as pastors have gone off on a tangent looking for the latest trend in either music or audio visual in an effort to gain believers into the body. While I do not deny the need to remain current in our presenting of the Word, I believe we have lost the urgency to seek the Lord with open hearts, crying out to Him. This is what brings conviction and revival. Men are convicted by the Holy Spirit and not man’s words, audio visual effects or gimmicks.
If we are to study Jeremiah 33:3 the key element in this scripture (in my opinion) is call upon the Lord. As a body of Christ today, we need more calling upon the Lord as ONE body of Christ. We have many parts, but we are one body. Lets unite as one body, and seek God with a new urgency. Hebrews 11:6 says that God rewards those that seek Him. We need to get back to a urgent seeking of God.
My name is Timothy Edwards. I am originally from South Africa where I served as both pastor and missionary in Zambia and South Africa. I presently pastor Faith Community Church in Carrollton, Kentucky.
I am married with one little boy (18 months), have a Bachelors degree in Psychology and am presently studying my Masters in Biblical Counseling. I am ordained under Grace Fellowship (Lexington,Ky).
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