This type of heartfelt praying only occurs with the enabling of the Holy Spirit. It normally begins with an impression to pray for a known need or, occasionally, an unknown need. A sense of heaviness overwhelms your spirit. Sometimes, there is a specific object, such as praying for revival. It may involve a specific location,...
Richard Sibbes wrote, “It is atheism to pray and not to wait in hope. A sincere Christian will pray, wait, strengthen his heart with the promises, and never leave praying and looking up till God gives him a gracious answer.” The primary point of intensified intercession is that it is far more than a conversational tone....
The scriptural mandate is that every church should function as a house of prayer. Listen to Samuel Chadwick: “There is a marked absence of travail. There is much phrasing, but little pleading. Prayer has become a soliloquy [monologue] instead of a passion. The powerlessness of the church needs no other explanation. . . . To be prayerless is...
Prayer is the greatest force on earth. Andrew Murray said, “We must begin to believe that God, in the mystery of prayer, has entrusted us with a force that can move the Heavenly world, and bring its power down to earth.” A locomotive has sufficient power to travel great distances from one place to another, but it...
The reason many people do not attend our prayer meetings is because they have attended our prayer meetings! Lifeless prayer gatherings are exhausting, and in most churches, the prayer meeting is the least attended service. Why? Could it be that repetitious praying—verbalizing the same requests week after week, often saying the same words—is not only...
Prayer can be a form of worry. You read that right—prayer can become a type of worry, and worry is sin. Rehashing problems to God over and over isn’t praying; it’s complaining. And complaining? Scripture never paints it in a positive light. Take the Israelites. They grumbled against Moses, essentially accusing him of dragging them...