Praying in the Spirit
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Lanolin: "Am coming back to this thread Because our church has started praying more, and we had a prayer meeting last night"
Our pastor gave us some 'tips' on effective prayer. Instead of just jumping right in, so we ended up 30 minutes of prayer time instead of an hour. And some of that was worship time too."
Great! But you wisely seam to sense the danger of such a structural approach. Christians are uncomfortable with prolonged sllent prayer. It's as if they wrongly feel that nothing is happening! My weekly prayer group received remarkable answers to prayer. But we spend too much time in fellowship and chitchat prior to getting down to prayer.
Lanolin: "Here is where I think we might be going wrong...when our prayer is time bound. When someone tries to control it and fit it into a schedule and then says well our prayer time is up. We have to go home now and lock the church up."
Perhaps the greatest enemy of great revival is the modern short attention span. Time consciousness destroys the purity of our spiritual longing by preventing us from lose our self-consciousness and getting lost in praise and a burning quest for great er intimacy with God. Generally speaking, the more time devoted to prayer, the more effective it is. That's why the greatest revivals were preceded by hours spent in prayer.
Lanolin: "However, we have made a start."
Yes, 30 minutes of continuous prayer is an exceptional start, especially for newbies to group prayer. If your group extends that time period, in my experience you will be delighted to find yourself praying in the Spirit. Your praying will seem to just flow, with the words and topics arising effortlessly and, more importantly, the power of your praying will noticeably increase!
Lanolin: "Our hearts must be clean before God before anything else. We must humble ourselves."
I urge you to watch the video I posted in my Historic Revival thread on the Hebrides Revival of 1949-34. The breakthrough came during a prayer meeting of about 6 people in a barn. A church elder was meditating on Psalm 24:3-6 when he was moved to cry out, "Are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?" Then he fell into a trance or was slain the Spirit, however you want to characterize it. As Rev. Duncan Campbell puts it, "At that moment a power was unleashed everywhere on that island that everyone felt intensely." Hundreds of people suddenly left their houses or other buildings and wondered the roads, seeking God's face.
Lanolin: "What I found different from a regular prayer session is that we spent time listening to God and there was a lot less personal requests but more a sense of His presence as He cleansed our hearts."
Great! Because it's not enough just to praise, thank, and petition God. Prayer must be a 2-way conversation, and so, meditation on God's presence and guidance is also essential.
Our pastor gave us some 'tips' on effective prayer. Instead of just jumping right in, so we ended up 30 minutes of prayer time instead of an hour. And some of that was worship time too."
Great! But you wisely seam to sense the danger of such a structural approach. Christians are uncomfortable with prolonged sllent prayer. It's as if they wrongly feel that nothing is happening! My weekly prayer group received remarkable answers to prayer. But we spend too much time in fellowship and chitchat prior to getting down to prayer.
Lanolin: "Here is where I think we might be going wrong...when our prayer is time bound. When someone tries to control it and fit it into a schedule and then says well our prayer time is up. We have to go home now and lock the church up."
Perhaps the greatest enemy of great revival is the modern short attention span. Time consciousness destroys the purity of our spiritual longing by preventing us from lose our self-consciousness and getting lost in praise and a burning quest for great er intimacy with God. Generally speaking, the more time devoted to prayer, the more effective it is. That's why the greatest revivals were preceded by hours spent in prayer.
Lanolin: "However, we have made a start."
Yes, 30 minutes of continuous prayer is an exceptional start, especially for newbies to group prayer. If your group extends that time period, in my experience you will be delighted to find yourself praying in the Spirit. Your praying will seem to just flow, with the words and topics arising effortlessly and, more importantly, the power of your praying will noticeably increase!
Lanolin: "Our hearts must be clean before God before anything else. We must humble ourselves."
I urge you to watch the video I posted in my Historic Revival thread on the Hebrides Revival of 1949-34. The breakthrough came during a prayer meeting of about 6 people in a barn. A church elder was meditating on Psalm 24:3-6 when he was moved to cry out, "Are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?" Then he fell into a trance or was slain the Spirit, however you want to characterize it. As Rev. Duncan Campbell puts it, "At that moment a power was unleashed everywhere on that island that everyone felt intensely." Hundreds of people suddenly left their houses or other buildings and wondered the roads, seeking God's face.
Lanolin: "What I found different from a regular prayer session is that we spent time listening to God and there was a lot less personal requests but more a sense of His presence as He cleansed our hearts."
Great! Because it's not enough just to praise, thank, and petition God. Prayer must be a 2-way conversation, and so, meditation on God's presence and guidance is also essential.
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