Sunday, January 11, 2015

Prayers of The Saints

"O Lord, I call upon You; hasten to me!  Give ear to my voice when I call to You!  Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!"
Psalm 141:1-2

"Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that He can open the scroll and its seven seals.
And [the Lamb] went and took the scroll from the right hand of Him who was seated on the throne. And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints,
And they sang a new song, saying,  Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth."
Revelation 5:5-10


A group of pastors and others in my area have organized a round-the-clock prayer movement for the year 2015.  The vision is to have 24/7 prayer for revival and transformation in our county for the entire year.  People have signed up for time slots to pray for an hour every week, until there is someone praying for revival in our region every hour of every day of 2015!  As of today, all but 5 hours of the week are filled.

Someone thought I might be interested in joining this group.  Honestly, when I first heard about it?  I didn't want to do it.  I don't do well with this type of commitment.  I didn't want to promise to do this for a whole year and then end up letting it slide halfway through.  I also struggle with focused prayer.  Big time.  I wholly agree with the idea of praying for revival.  But it is not something that is constantly on my mind and heart.  And the actual putting into practice of praying faithfully when my heart is mostly too distracted and busy to burn for revival....well, it looks good on paper.  But the reality is that it's not happening.  So I kind of ignored the opportunity until we actually entered the new year.

God got me.

He wouldn't let me forget.  Sure, I know our nation needs revival.  The state of Ohio needs revival. Our region needs revival.  Our churches need revival.  But I decided to do this not out of a heart on fire to see revival, and not out of a sense of obligation or guilt....I'm doing it because God reminded me that the person who needs revival the most.....is me.  And if I understand the accounts of some of the greatest spiritual awakenings in history, they started with one person who drew a circle, whether literally or figuratively, stood in the center, and asked God to send revival, starting with the person inside that circle.

So this is the heart of my prayer in this weekly hour.  Yes, I'm praying for the body of Christ and our county and our nation, circling wider and wider ripples with my prayers....but I'm starting from the position of the one in need of eyes to see and desperate for my heart to be freed from the trappings of this earthly shadowland and of my own kingdom.  I'm asking God to start the fire in me.

God says our prayers are like sweet incense before Him...rising up continually in His presence.  We cannot know how powerful our prayers are.  If we knew, if we believed the power we had, we would pray more!  We would pray harder and longer.  We would lay aside other things to spend more time in prayer.  But we have to start somewhere.

I have more to share from my first hour in this round-the-clock army of prayer, but I'll save it for another post.  For now, let me leave you with the lyrics from one of my favorite songs by Rend Collective.  This song seeks to express the heart of what I believe we are asking for, and it has been an inspiration for me in the first faltering steps of my time in prayer.  The song is called Build Your Kingdom Here.

Come set your rule and reign in our heart again
Increase in us we pray
Unveil why we're made
Come set our hearts ablaze with hope
Like wildfire in our very souls
Holy Spirit, come invade us now

We are your church
We need your power in us!

We seek your kingdom first
We hunger and we thirst
Refuse to waste our lives
For you're our joy and prize
To see the captive hearts released
The hurt, the sick, the poor at peace
We lay down our lives for Heaven's cause

We are your church
We pray revive this earth!

Build your kingdom here
Let the darkness fear
Show your mighty hand
Heal our streets and land
Set your church on fire
Win this nation back
Change the atmosphere
Build your kingdom here!
We pray.

Unleash your kingdom's power
Reaching the near and far
No force of Hell can stop your beauty changing hearts
You made us for much more than this!
Awake the kingdom seed in us!
Fill us with the strength and love of Christ

We are your church
We are the hope on earth.

YES, JESUS!  BUILD YOUR KINGDOM HERE!


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