The Lost Art of Prayer

“Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.” (Micah 6:1)

 

Somewhere in the modern development of our churches we have lost the art of prayer.  We’ve lost it so badly that we don’t even realize that we’ve lost it.

Fifty years ago, we didn’t pray like we do today – we prayed like warriors. The prayer room was a place of contending and battle where you went in to wage spiritual warfare as you fought your way up to the Throne of God. You knew going in that Satan would withstand you and do his best to mollify your prayers, make you weary, and convince you to quit before you won the victory. Prayer, real contending prayer, was work; a labor of love in the furnace room of war.  You went in, not to sing songs and feel happy, but to fight for the cause, to contend for deliverance from the powers of darkness, and stand for the glory and honor of God.

The prayer warriors of those days talked about “praying it through”.  You didn’t stop when you felt like it – you prayed it all the way through until you got the victory.  If that meant all night, then you prayed all night.  Why would you quit before you got your answer?

But oh, when you did!  What an incredible rush of glory when you broke through!  It would feel like the heavens opened up and sunshine and glory would pour down. When you got your answer, it was as sure and solid as the foundations of the Earth.  You knew you had touched the Throne of God.  It was always worth the fight.

Today, when I speak about storming the Throne of God in prayer, I get quizzical or blank looks from those listening to me. The response I get back is that God is our “Daddy” and because He loves us so, we shouldn’t have to struggle to gain access to Him in prayer.

Is that really faith though? Or is it a form of presumption? Do we assume that because we believe in Jesus, we merely have to mention our desires and God will leap to our call?  We simply guess that if we whisper our thoughts to God, somehow He will answer … we hope. We pay no price because there is no battle. The problem is, however, that neither is there any victory.

But if you want to call for the heavens to pour out the rain like Elijah did, then you have to pray like Elijah did.  There is nothing free in God – nothing. Elijah was a man who stood in the awesome fear of Almighty God, but because he stood in that righteousness, he was also able to stand in that holy boldness that only comes from the fear of the Lord. Proverbs is definitive in its statement that in the fear of the Lord is great confidence.  You cannot approach the holiness of God in blood-washed victory if there is the slightest shadow of sin in your life.  But even in that righteousness, Elijah was a man who knew that he had to contend before the Almighty in fervent effectual prayer if he wanted to see God rend the heavens.  He was a warrior in God because that’s what it took to move the Heavenlies.

It is said that prayer moves God. And great moves require great prayer. And that takes great faith, not a faith that merely hopes God will answer, but a faith that stakes its claim on the rights that were purchased by the Blood of Jesus Christ and refuses to give in until the victory is won.  

But the power to pray like that does not come overnight nor is it as simple as flipping on a light switch. There is a process that starts with the Word of God and journeys through valleys of faith to strip us of our fleshly ways and brings us through spiritual depths that are never realized nor suspected by casual Christianity. It is a place of the Cross — a place of blood, suffering, and death and of our ultimate rest in God. 

It is a place where warriors are forged, where prayers are answered, and where great moves of God are birthed.

 Brother Dale

Advertisements

Read Full Post »

An Incredible Year

The Lord woke me up early this morning and reminded me that I have been stingy with the folks who have been so faithful to support us in prayer and finances and have not spent enough time sharing the wonderful things that have been happening this year.  This has been an incredible year, even though I have only made a few trips to Africa so far.

One of the most amazing things that I have watched God do has been with the Pygmy tribe in Uganda/Congo area. We went there a couple years ago and lit a fire in several places.  As usual, this was a place that had forgotten the fires of revival and had settled into a complacent Christianity. After a few weeks, an excitement had taken over the churches there. They began to spread the message of revival to the other churches in the area and then, led by Pastor Noah Kamanzi, they began to pierce the darkness that has dominated the Pygmies that live in the jungle there.  These are people that are despised and persecuted, even killed, because they were so primitive that they were not considered as fully human. Pastors have repented for how they had rejected and hunted them down.  But now, the message has begun to take root, and the glory of the Lord is burning.  To date, over 70 Pygmies have gotten saved. That may not seem like a lot, but that is more than have accepted the Gospel in the last 2,000 years.  The human sacrifices are stopping, the demon spirits are losing their hold, and Light is being spread for the first time in a very dark place.

In Burundi, a small country nestled in next to Rwanda and had shared in the genocide and hatred that took place, there is a new excitement taking place.  I have always said that my job was just to show up – it was God’s job to take it from there. I do not have the finances that these large evangelistic organizations are able to spend, and so I must rely solely upon God.  When I was there earlier this year, I was asked to do a couple TV broadcasts. Didn’t cost anything; I just did them and went on the next place, leaving it in the hands of God.  Well, they have taken those broadcasts and have been repeatedly airing them on TV, believing that revival is the only true answer to the hatred and bitterness between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes that still plague this country.  Now they have asked if they can start airing these broadcasts on national TV so that those who do not watch Christian TV will also get the message.  Not bad for a little guy with no money.  It’s like, “Just show up, son, and let Me take it from there.” Wow, how incredible is God if you just let Him be God.

In Tanzania, I am still getting reports from pastors who have taken the message of sharing the Gospel to go out and win the lost.  Churches are growing, new ones are being planted, and souls are getting saved. People that were healed when I was there have been a testimony to the slumbering churches of a new life of possibilities when we seek the face of God and pursue a regeneration of revival in their land.

Nigeria is another story. I was there twice this year and faced a difficult wall of suffocation that has taken over the Church there with its corrupt message of cheap grace, free blessings and prosperity, and an anemic faith based on what is in it for themselves. The message of Four Steps to Revival is beginning to take hold and I am being asked for more and more booklets to spread to a more far-reaching area than I would have ever been able to visit.  God is beginning to break their hearts.  The battle will continue to rage for a while because Satan does not want to give up his hold on the churches there that he has dug his claws into, but God is on the move.  And we know God will win.

Let me make a note about the booklet, “Four Steps to Revival”.  This is a little booklet that contains the basics of the messages that I have been bringing for the last 10 years.  (It’s on our website: www.revivalfire.org/foursteps.htm) Everywhere we have passed out these booklets, they have had a shattering effect.  To date, we have given out somewhere between 15,000 to 20,000 booklets.  I keep hearing of how they continue to spread to ignite more and more churches. I am amazed at what this little book has accomplished.  I don’t feel like I have written this. This was God’s book, not mine.  I have been thinking of having it published through Thomas Nelson publishers so that it would be available for America on Amazon and other booksellers, but the cost of $1,000 to start the process has held me back for now. It’s God’s money, so I guess if He wants this done, He will send the money.

There are so many other testimonies to tell but I am out of room.  Literally, tens of thousands of souls have been saved, hundreds healed, and who knows how many churches have been ignited. There will be more.  During Christmas, I will be going back to Kenya to launch another “Gideon Generation” with the youth in western Kenya and I am expecting an explosion of the Holy Spirit there.  After that, it looks like I may be going to Chad, South Africa, and possibly India. I don’t know how, but that is the Lord’s job to provide.

For now, I have had to go back to work to pick up our personal finances.  This has been a long break for me, but I guess I needed it, not only for the money to pay the bills, but to get rested up for the next set of campaigns.  I am eternally grateful to those of you who have caught the vision and have held us up with your prayers and your finances. I could not have done any of this without you. I believe you will meet countless souls in Heaven one day who will come up to thank you because they have escaped an eternity in Hell because of your faithfulness.

Long letter — sorry, but there is so much to tell — but let us pray that this is just the beginning.

Again, thank you for all that you have done to keep us going.  All I can say is that it is working; it is working; it is working.

Praise the Lord,

Brother Dale

Read Full Post »