Leonard Ravenhill, Revival Praying

I love Leonard Ravenhill as much as any of the many great Christian teachers I'm collecting on this blog and want to post some from his book, Revival Praying. I wish I could be as obedient to his advice as he teaches we should be and I know I should be. It's miserable to know what you should do and find yourself failing to do it at every turn. However, what he teaches is so absolutely necessary if there is any hope of the Church becoming what we are meant to be I can only post such exhortations as his and hope they set a fire under me as well as anyone else who happens to read them. And they DO inspire me. My prayer life is much the better for such readings even if I fail most of the time to get anywhere near the vision of what the true Christian ought to be.

He quotes his mentor, Samuel Chadwick (The Path of Prayer) in his Preface:

"Brethren, the crying sin of the Church is her laziness after God."

And goes on to say in his own words:

Prayer demands will power. Prayer recognizes unfinished business with and for God. Prayer is a battle for full-grown men, fully armed and fully awake to the possibilities of grace. I write here by constraint, for my spirit is sore, my heart sick at the slothfulness with which we tarry in prayer. My head hangs low that Communists will give more for their dying cause than we will give for the living Christ. [This book was published in 1962

He spends the first few pages chronicling the sin and corruption of America in those days and the apostasy and weakness of the Church in its response.

The world has lost the power to blush over its vice; the Church has lost her power to weep over it. [p. 22]

And he ends his Preface with:

Hear me! Every church without a prayer meeting condemns us; every Bible daily unopened condemns us; every promise of God unusued condemns us; every lost neighbor condemns us; every lost heathn condemns us; every dry eye among us condemns us; every wasted minute of our time condemns us; every unclaimed oppoertunity for God condemns us.

In 1962 he is seeing the barbarians at the gate, in the form of Khrushchev and the threat of Communism, and the daily dying of millions into a Christless eternity. How much farther the barbarians have come in our own time and the millions go on dying and the Church goes on in the same weakness and irrelevance.

Never was there a need for the trumpeters on Zion's walls to sound a louder blast to sleeping believers than at this moment. [p.27]

If that was true in 1962 so much the truer now.

Where is our faith? Where is our sense of mission to this world? It's not that we have none, it's that we have nothing near what we could and should have.

I have said before that one of these days someone will read the Bible for the first time, believe it, and act on it with a daring, simple faith

Many of us when we first believe have something of that fire of faith, but it is quickly quenched among the multitudes of older believers who regard it as fanaticism. But I do think of Bakht Singh who had such a response to his first encounter with the Bible and maintained his simple powerful faith for the rest of his life, which included such exploits as expecting his ticket to be paid for when he got to the airport or the train station for a trip on business for the Lord, and according to the resports it always was paid for through nothing but faith. The power we should have as believers in the God of the Bible is just about never seen among us, so such incidents stand out as unusual when they should be common.

Faith honors God. God honors faith and goes wherever faith puts Him. Faith, Biblical faith, can do all that God can do. (Because its sole desire is God's glory, it would not ask anything amiss -- 1 John 5:14.) Faith's supreme longing is for the return of the glory that has departed from the sanctuary. Its ambition is not colored by the clay vessel. Faith is wedded to the love which "seeketh not her own." Faith longs for an overthrow of the powers of darkness. Faith yearns that the world might know the message of redeeming love, and aches for enslaved millions to be unfettered from the chains of sin.

...What are we Christians doing? To use a very tattered phrase, are we just "playing church"? With all our revival campaigns, are we getting folk into Biblical regeneration? Is it really a comfort to knw that the recent converts will become just like us? What if they are as lazy and self-excusing in the matter of personal devotion to Jesus and active engagement in soul-winning as the rest of our listed church members? ...Surely we need some injection into the Church of the living God immediately.

Then he gets into the conditions for prayer:

The path to the new individual and collective power [the Church needs] would be as follows: First, renunciation of all known sin; Secondly, sorrowful confession that we have failed so much and have been satisfied so long with the status quo; Thirdly, a seeking of God's face in earnest prayer; And finally, Bible study, in order to uncover the promises of God directed to this desperate age and our needy churches.

In making a request of God, the first thing we have to be sure of is this: Is our relationship right? Once we are convinced by the witness of the Spirit that we are blood-related to the Father and not at variance with others, we can come with boldness to the throne of grace. Soiled hearts that operate soiled hands can not plunder the resources of God, for God's command is "Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord." Assured that we are joint-heirs with Christ of the fabulous riches of God, what manner of persons we ought to be! Is there any excuse at all for our present poverty? When He longs to give full vision, is there any reason why we should still be seeing men as trees walking? With the promise of the mighty Holy Ghost to empower us, is there any self-defense when we stagger under the load and fail to "put to flight the armies of the aliens"? Has God failed? Is God unwilling to bless? No! Ten thousand times no! [p.32]

...Men of faith see -- they see the unseeable. Men of faith know a dimension that is unknown to those who pray only routine prayers.

[to be continued]

Pondering the practicalities of improving the practice of prayer

William Law's advice for daily prayer (as spelled out in his Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life)is probably only really doable by someone in his position, independently wealthy with no need to work, and unmarried with no family responsibilities. He dedicated his life to serving the Lord with prayer and the use of his wealth for the poor, and he had the time for it.

He recommends praying six times a day, at 6 and 9AM, at noon, and at 3, 6 and 9PM, and he suggests topics he considers appropriate for those times. He doesn't prescribe how LONG each session should be, but the way he words it here and there hints that maybe he actually has in mind a whole hour at each session. Six hours a day! I'll be doing VERY well if I can arrange for two sessions of an hour each, or more sessions at fifteen minutes or so.

Many have written that the more you do the more you CAN do so it's mostly a matter of getting started.

He suggests Praise and Thanksgiving for the 6AM prayer, with the reading or chanting of certain psalms; Humility (the cultivation of humility and confession of lack of humility) for 9AM; prayer for universal love, and intercession for the people in your life for noon. Then Resignation is the subject of the 3PM prayer, "resignation" being the old-fashioned word for acceptance of everything the Lord brings into your life, contentment with thanks and praise, and "rejoicing in all circumstances," or willing what God wills, the ultimate expression of trust in God. Confession of sin is for 6PM and meditating on Death for 9PM.

I think I'd combine his prayers for the virtues of humility and universal love and resignation in one session, and combine thanksgiving and confession with other topics of my own, but otherwise I have other things I want to concentrate on. The state of the church is a big one, which includes prayer for revival, and "understanding the times" is another big one. If I ever could give specific times to my prayers I'd give each of these topics their own "hour" (even if that hour is only fifteen minutes). Right now I just pray my whole prayer list in one session whenever I sit down for that purpose. I haven't been able to come up with a way to apportion the topics on my list over the day as he suggests, but maybe a natural apportioning would come with time. Of course his method doesn't have to be followed at all, it's just that it appeals to me as a way to pray at length for important things.

If I'm honest I have to admit that I have plenty of time, no family responsibilities and only 20 to 30 working hours a week, at home too, so that I can apportion the time as I please. I have no excuse not to devote the remaining time to prayer. If I worked at it diligently eventually I might even be able to organize my day to provide for regular hours of prayer as Law advises. It's quite clear, however, that my prayerlessness has nothing to do with practicalities. I suspect that even for the busiest of people the problem is always motivation or commitment. Once the commitment is made the time takes care of itself, some forms of busyness get dropped because you come to see that they are not serving any good purpose anyway, and others get taken care of in less time at better times.

The biographies of some of the most dedicated saints often show a prodigious dedication of time to the Lord even in the busiest life. That's how the spiritual power they are known for was won. I forget who it was who worked a twelve-hour day then came home and studied the Bible and prayed for something like another six to eight hours and slept for only the few hours left. He was young. Could I get my sleep needs down at all? Maybe I could, maybe a lot of it is simply habit, and time with the Lord invigorates too. Do I have the excuse of not being young? It's probably best not to explain away anything but put it in the Lord's hands.

At the moment making a regular schedule does seem to be beyond me, I must admit. I haven't been able to sleep at regular times for years now. Just when I think I may be getting onto a reasonable sleep schedule I find myself lying awake for hours, and back I go to sleeping during the day, which I'd rather not do. I end up working during the night, and I pray only when I'm awake and not having to work and there's nothing else I really have to do. In other words, not nearly enough.

Prayer is crucial, the more the better, and fasting with prayer some of those times just as crucial. I know this, I know it I know it I know it, but doing it is SO hard. Sometimes I'm just sitting and thinking Why can't I be praying right now? Getting started seems impossible sometimes.

But at least I'm getting a prayer list worked out. Just to give the barest outline:

For myself: The virtues Law recommends, and healing for arthritis pain and other physical problems.

For friends and family and neighbors: Salvation and God's blessings.

For the church: An increase in the spirit of prayer above all. Just what I'm writing about here and want for myself. Honestly facing disobedience in the church and purging it.

Understanding the times: Right now I really want to understand the Rapture claims, meaning the expectation of the removal of the church from earth as a separate event at some time before the Second Coming. There is a lot that supports it but still enough to keep me from completely accepting it. I'm definitely a Futurist as far as prophecy goes. About all I know for sure is that I can't accept Amillennialism or Preterism. I wrote some about this on the End Times Monitor blog a while back.

Cultivating a High View of God

There is a modern chorus some churches sing that goes "Our God is an awesome God, He reigns from heaven above, with wisdom, power and love, our God is an awesome God." The words are true and it's fun to sing but it's a bouncy little ditty that manages to reduce the message to something much less than awesome by its sheer bounciness, its shallow cheerfulness.

The word "awesome" carries none of the feeling it ought to any more, but comes across more like the expressions "groovy" (that's how old I am) or "cool." Words can be cheapened and cheapen the reality they denote. The greatest truths can be trivialized, God Himself can be reduced to something less than worthy of worship simply by the words we use and the attitude we cultivate, and it seems to me this happens all too often among today's Christians.

If God is awesome we should be properly awed, even overcome with a sense of His majesty. Most of what we do in worship and devotion isn't going to lead us in that direction. We need a truly high view of God if we are going to worship Him rightly. The thought of Him should prompt deep adoration, and it should include a fear of the Lord that keeps us from profaning Him.

Our souls must "magnify the Lord." I've collected a few quotes about this.

Luke 1:46: And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord

From Brother Lawrence (1610-1691): The Practice of the Presence of God:

First Conversation: The first time I saw Brother Lawrence was on the 3rd of August, 1666. He told me that God had done him a singular favor in his conversion at the age of eighteen. During that winter, upon seeing a tree stripped of its leaves and considering that, within a little time, the leaves would be renewed and, after that, the flowers and fruit appear; Brother Lawrence received a high view of the providence and power of God which has never since been effaced from his soul. This view had perfectly set him free from the world and kindled in him such a love for God, that he could not tell whether it had increased in the forty years that he had lived since...

We should feed and nourish our soul with high notions of God which would yield us great joy in being devoted to Him.

From William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, Chapter 14, where he is giving instruction in early morning devotions:

When you begin your petitions, use such various expressions of the attributes of God as may make you most sensible of the greatness and power of the divine nature ...

For these representations of the divine attributes which show us in some degree the majesty and greatness of God are an excellent means of raising our hearts into lively acts of worship and adoration.

What is the reason that most people are so much affected with this petition in the Burial Service of our church, "Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Savior, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death." It is because the joining together so many great expressions gives such a description of the greatness of the divine majesty as naturally affects every sensible mind.

Although, therefore, prayer does not consist in fine words or studied expressions, yet as words speak to the soul, as they have a certain power of raising thoughts in the soul, so those words which speak of God in the highest manner, which most fully express the power and presence of God, which raise thoughts in the soul most suitable to the greatness and providence of God, are the most useful and most edifying in our prayers.

When you direct any of your petitions to our blessed Lord, let it be in some expressions of this kind: "O Savior of the world, God of God, Light of Light, Thou that art the Brightness of Thy Father's Glory and the express Image of His person, ...Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End of all things...that has destroyed the power of the Deveil, that has overcome death... the Judge of the quick and the dead ...

For such representations, which describe so many characters of our Savior's nature and power, are not only proper acts of adoration but will, if they are repeated with any attention, fill our hearts with the highest fervors of true devotion.

I needed this email from Zac Poonen's ministry. I think I need to get off the internet for a while or at least pull way back from it. I'm always embroiled in controversies just from being on the internet. I'm sloppy with money although I have so little you'd think I'd be scrupulous about every penny. I'm good at keeping track of it but not making the best decisions how to use it. As for the tongue, it does get away from me and that's very bad. The internet is the kind of company that encourages that of course, not that it should be my excuse, just means I need to pull back from it. Anyway, this is a good email to meditate on.

Message body WORD FOR THE WEEK 9 October 2011
Christian Fellowship Church, Bangalore, India
http://www.cfcindia.com
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God Has a Remnant in Every Generation

Zac Poonen

There is great spiritual decline today. But, in the midst of all this, God has a few who have a heart for Him. They are not all found in one denomination. They are found in all the denominations – men and women who love God and are seeking to honour Him in all things. They are genuinely filled with the Holy Spirit and do not get involved in controversies. They are very careful in the use of their tongues and are very faithful with money. God is gathering such people together in these days as His remnant.

The remnant prepared the way for the coming of the Lord Jesus. When the Lord was born, there was a small remnant - Simeon and Anna in the temple, John the Baptist, the shepherds, and a few wise men from the east. Today also there is a remnant in Christendom who are preparing the way for the coming of the Lord.

Zephaniah highlights some characteristics of this remnant.

"I will purify the lips of the people” ( Zeph.3:9). The speech of the remnant will be pure. Isaiah was convicted of his speech when he saw the glory of the Lord. I speak often about our speech and about our attitude to money - because the prophets spoke much about these two subjects. If we are careful with our mouth and our money, we can become the Lord’s spokesmen.

“All of them will call on the name of the Lord and serve Him shoulder to shoulder” (Zeph.3:9). The remnant will be united as one body and serve the Lord bearing His burdens - shoulder to shoulder.

“I will remove all the proud and arrogant people from among you. There will be no pride on My holy mountain. Those who are left will be the lowly and the humble” (Zeph 3:11,12). The remnant will comprise only of humble people, because the Lord would have removed all the proud ones. That is another question people ask me, “Brother Zac, why do you speak so much about humility?” Because that is what the Bible speaks of, from cover to cover.

“Those who are left will trust in the name of the Lord” (Zeph 3:12). The remnant will be a people of faith.

“The people will do no wrong to each other, never telling lies or deceiving one another. They will live peaceful lives" (Zeph 3:13). The remnant will be a peaceful people who never tell lies or deceive anyone or harm anyone.

“Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout aloud! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart! For the LORD Himself will live among you! (Zeph 3:14,15). The remnant will be a happy people who have found their perfect security in the Lord’s love for them.

“The LORD your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy. He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy” (Zeph 3:17). God rejoices over this remnant. He does not find joy over people who live in sin. Can a father rejoice in a child who has cancer, leprosy and tuberculosis? No. Neither can God find joy in people who live in sin and who don’t want to be healed. But God does find joy in this holy remnant. With great gladness He shouts over them and sings a song over them. This is the one place in Scripture where it says that God sings over His people. There are many places where we are exhorted to sing a song of praise to God. But here it is God Who is singing a song over us. What a challenge it is to be the type of person whom God can rejoice over.

“He is silently planning for you in love” (Zeph 3:17 – Paraphrase). The Lord plans for us in love and He has pleasant surprises planned for us in the days to come, because He is our loving Father.

“I will save the weak and helpless ones. I will give glory and renown to those who were mocked and shamed. I will give you a name of distinction. They will praise you as I restore your fortunes before their very eyes” (Zeph 3:19,20). The remnant consists of a people who are weak and helpless in themselves. The Lord Himself deals with their enemies and gives His people glory and distinction in the final day.
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Some downer thoughts on the higher life

Have to report that I got discouraged with this blog a while back. Meant to do a post saying why but put that off too.

I'd already been thinking along these lines and then I heard a sermon on Christian radio exploring the scriptures on prayer which made it only too clear that conditions must be met that are hard to meet for prayer that really lays hold of God.

This could of course get into some depth but really the main thought is pretty simple:

There IS a higher Christian life than the life most of us lead, and many of the books I've highlighted here do hold it forth to us. But there are conditions involved and most of us aren't qualified for it and aren't going to be able to get qualified either.*

Discouraging thought, no? Took the wind out of me when it hit me.

Kind of took the wind out of me right now as I wrote this. So I think I'll leave it here for now.

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*There are many who have no interest in any supposed higher Christian life, even if they know something about it, and there are also those who put it down as not a true expression of Christianity and love to make owlish pronouncements about how No, there ISN'T anything "more." So I'm disagreeing with them in claiming that there is such a life and it is worth aiming for. Andrew Murray knew that life, so did John Wesley, so did Watchman Nee (though he insisted it was really the NORMAL Christian life, not something above and beyond it). And so did many others, including many who have been saddled with the label "mystics" which implies something occultic or similar to charismania which is very far from the truth. It may fit some who come under that label (such as Hildegarde of Bingen just to be clear about what I mean -- and a great deal of the contemporary movements that teach something they call "contemplative prayer" which also isn't what that term used to designate either) but there are plenty it doesn't fit, they are simply people who fell so deeply in love with God that they occupy their every moment with loving Him and learning about Him and obeying Him and seeking His presence, and the result of such a dedicated life is knowledge of God, hearing from God, and often supernatural powers -- powers the early church had, nothing weird or new. Charismatics go off into the weird and new and that's where discernment is sorely needed these days, but the TRUE "mystics" are simply true lovers of God, true followers of Jesus. But these true followers of God remain very few among the many.

But most don't care and won't share my discouragement at finding how hard it is to meet the conditions of the "higher life" anyway. Sure makes ME sad to think I will never get straightened out enough to live that life though, and also makes me sad to think this also applies to my hopes of revival. WE AREN'T QUALIFIED FOR REVIVAL. (I hope I'll yet discover I'm wrong).

Zac Poonen on the Body of Christ

The Body of Christ, a great idea rarely encountered in reality that I know of.

WORD FOR THE WEEK 21 August 2011
Christian Fellowship Church, Bangalore, India
http://www.cfcindia.com
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The Reality of the Body of Christ

Zac Poonen

Under the new covenant, God has not intended that we should be lone Christians living by ourselves - even if we are living in victory over sin. God's will is that there should be a Body of disciples of Jesus manifesting His glory together.

There is a difference between a Body and a congregation. A congregation is no better than a secular club. The club may be a good club, where people care for one another and help one another. But a Body is more than that. In the Body of Christ, each member is first of all inwardly connected to the Head and then inwardly and inseparably connected to the other members. These members must grow in oneness until their unity is like the unity of the Father and the Son (Jn.17:21-23).

Satan opposes the building of such a Body anywhere on earth, for he knows that such a Body can rout him, put him to flight, and destroy his kingdom. Jesus said that it is against the church that the gates of Hell would not prevail (Matt.16:18). The gates of Hell may prevail against a lone individual Christian. But they cannot prevail against the church. That is why Satan's attacks on spiritual unity among believers are far stronger than his attacks on purity.

Where any two disciples of Jesus are firmly united in oneness of mind and spirit, whatever they ask for will be granted, for in two such disciples is found an expression of the Body of Christ (Matt.18:18-20).

In fellowship with other believers, we will discover the selfishness and utter corruption of our flesh much more quickly and more deeply than if we lived all by ourselves. It is only through fellowship with others who have a flesh that our rough edges can be smoothened out.

Many believers merely spin theories about the church and the Body of Christ. But we must be among those who seek reality. There are enough theories about the church in Christendom. We don't have to add to that number with one more theory or doctrine about the Body of Christ. Let us demonstrate the reality of the Body in our mutual relationships in our local church, and thus demonstrate to the world and to Satan that the Body of Christ is a reality on earth.
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Lack of spiritual power, my fault, the church's fault both

My posts on this blog seem to be about levels of spiritual growth I feel I can never attain, or the fact that the churches don't teach us anything about such experiences. I could say a great deal more about both of these preoccupations and now that I've identifed them maybe that's what I will be doing in a more focused way.

There must be churches somewhere who do this teaching. It's in books after all.

Right now I'm reading back and forth in some books about prayer I've had for years, books I've read and partly read, and started to read and put down, books that have generally left me feeling I can never do that, but as usual hoping the Lord will find some way to use them to inspire me. For years I've read about prayer warriors who are able to pray for hours on end, who have very specific experiences they describe of feeling called to pray about a certain concern on a moment's notice, even sometimes something they know nothing about, and praying until they have the experience of knowing that God has answered the prayer, and finding out some time later that at that very time the concern was dealt with by God. They talk about "praying through" a concern, they talk about "wrestling" in prayer, or "battling."

These are people who take their cue from God. And that's how it should be. We are supposed to pray HIS will, not our will, be done. How many do this and where are they and why isn't this taught in the churches?

There's another question related to this that frequently comes up, that is: How can I know what God's will is? I have to say I'm thoroughly disappointed in the usual answers we get.

The question is really, How do I learn to HEAR FROM God about His will in the specifics of situations I encounter in my own life and the world around me?.

The question is not How can I learn to obey what scripture reveals of God's general will, His commandments, and so on. It may well be that the question is often asked prematurely, before God's general will has become our guide, but that is not what is said.

Sometimes you get the answer that if we stay in God's word He will communicate with us there. And He does, and often His communications are quite specific to situations. BUT this is still not addressing the question as it is meant, concerning our direct communications with God. He is the vine, we are the branches, that implies something pretty direct.

Most of the answers one gets from today's pulpit imply that there is no such thing as hearing from God so specifically and personally.

Why do we have the Holy Spirit then? Just sort of to be there in the background, believed in but never experienced, never to be an active part of our lives in any way we can be conscious of, just there to ensure our salvation and keep us persevering despite our lack of awareness of His presence?

No.

SO much more I want to say about this, SO tired. Back later.