Over the past week or so, I've been rereading the letter I'd written just about a year ago to a few members of our congregation to invite them to pray for revival. In it I'd written:
My primary purpose is that of [Edward Dorr] Griffin's: to facilitate and to encourage one another in our "praying for a revival of religion." And by "choice members," I think all of us would humbly agree there is nothing at all choice about us, except the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has deemed to pour out His love, mercy, and grace upon us in Christ Jesus, and He has been drawing us to the ministry of prayer, and He has brought us together at ________ Church at this particular time. God Himself has made each of us willing in His power, He has given the burden for His Church and the desire to pray for her. In addition, from my reading Church history, it appears to me that prior to every revival of religion, God has raised up pockets of people to pray, a few choice members, as Griffin put it. Now, as to whether God will move in our case, we know He is sovereign and He pours out His Spirit according to His good pleasure – and yet He ordains means, which include importunate prayer. So let us take hold of and pay heed to Jesus' words:
Luke 11:5 And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
~ Please see my post: update: tent of meeting 3+ years later ~ "praying for a revival of religion"
As I was rereading and reflecting on that Scripture from Luke 11, first, that phrase because of his impudence struck me... and second, the phrase whatever he needs... And then, the conclusion came:
Will we ever be impudent in praying for the Holy Spirit if we don't see our need of the Holy Spirit?
Can we presume upon God and expect His Holy Spirit to be poured down upon us in reformation and revival if we are not praying as we ought? (Yes, I know God is sovereign, but, as I mentioned above, we are responsible to use the means He provides.)
From Strong's Concordance, the Greek word for "need" is chreizo, meaning "to make (i.e. have) necessity, i.e. be in want of:--(have) need."
The more keenly we spiritually sense our need of God's Holy Spirit, the greater our impudence will be in praying for the Holy Spirit. In Luke 11, Jesus commends impudence in prayer for His Spirit. However, in marked contrast, Jesus has no commendation at all for the Laodicean Church, but rather words of rebuke and a call to repentance. What was her sin? She saw herself as needing nothing!
Revelation 3:15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
May our gracious and merciful God open our eyes to see our spiritual pride. May He humble us and show us how wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked we really are, so we might see our desperate need of His Holy Spirit and cry out to Him in repentance. May God pour out upon us a spirit of holy impudence in prayer for His Holy Spirit. My brothers and sisters, through the body and blood of Jesus, we are not merely going to a friend's house to ask for bread – but through the precious blood of the spotless Lamb, we now have the privilege to go with holy boldness into the Most Holy Place, to the throne of God and plead there with The Friend who sticks closer than a brother and pray to our Heavenly Father with impudence and importunity for what we need. Has He ever been a wilderness or a land of darkness to us? Is He not the Father of lights, from whom every good and perfect give comes?
Jeremiah Lanphier: "as often as I see my need of help"
As I was considering how vital it is for us to know our need, so we might pray as we ought - so we might pray impudently, I was reminded of the account of Jeremiah Lanphier, a man who saw his own need and the Church's need of the Holy Spirit. In New York City, God used this man to spark the Laymen's Prayer Revival (1857-58), which impacted countless souls in the United States and across the world.
On 1st July, 1857, a quiet and zealous business man named Jeremiah Lanphier took up an appointment as a City Missionary in down-town New York. Lanphier was appointed by the North Church of the Dutch Reformed denomination. This church was suffering from depletion of membership due to the removal of the population from the down-town to the better residential quarters, and the new City Missionary was engaged to make diligent visitation in the immediate neighbourhood with a view to enlisting church attendance among the floating population of the lower city. The Dutch Consistory felt that it had appointed an ideal layman for the task in hand, and so it was.
Burdened so by the need, Jeremiah Lanphier decided to invite others to join him in a noonday prayer-meeting, to be held on Wednesdays once a week. He therefore distributed a handbill:
HOW OFTEN SHALL I PRAY?
As often as the language of prayer is in my heart;
as often as I see my need of help;
as often as I feel the power of temptation;
as often as I am made sensible of any spiritual declension
or feel the aggression of a worldly spirit.
In prayer we leave the business of time for that of eternity,
and intercourse with men for intercourse with God. . .
... Accordingly at twelve noon, 23rd September, 1857 the door was opened and the faithful Lanphier took his seat to await the response to his invitation …. Five minutes went by. No one appeared. The missionary paced the room in a conflict of fear and faith. Ten minutes elapsed. Still no one came. Fifteen minutes passed. Lanphier was yet alone. Twenty minutes; twenty-five; thirty; and then at 12.30 p.m., a step was heard on the stairs, and the first person appeared, then another, and another, and another, until six people were present and the prayer meeting began. On the following Wednesday, October 7th, there were forty intercessors.
Thus in the first week of October 1857, it was decided to hold a meeting daily instead of weekly ….
Within six months, ten thousand business men were gathering daily for prayer in New York, and within two years, a million converts were added to the American churches ….
Undoubtedly the greatest revival in New York's colourful history was sweeping the city, and it was of such an order to make the whole nation curious. There was no fanaticism, no hysteria, simply an incredible movement of the people to pray...
~ Source: J. Edwin Orr, "The Light of the Nations," pp. 103-105, cited in http://www.intheworkplace.com/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=51927&columnid=1935 - retrieved July 25, 2013 (boldface mine). I would encourage you to read more about the Laymen's Prayer Revival at that site and elsewhere.
~ A personal note: I'd previously read about Lanphier and the Laymen's Prayer Revival, but as I was recently rereading some of the accounts, it thrilled me to notice Lanphier was 47 or 48 years old when all of this was taking place (he was born in 1809) ... since I'll be turning 55 next month, and God only began to burden me with the need to pray in the past few years! As many of the saints have been known to say, we're immortal till our work is done!
Psalm 138:8
The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.
Amen.
~ Psalm 115:2 ~
May God be pleased to use these words to show more and more of His people their need of help, that the language of prayer might be in our hearts, so we might speedily go into our closets and seek the Lord (both as individuals & as well as in concert with others), leaving the business of time for eternity, and intercourse with men for intercourse with God. May God guard and strengthen us, that we might not be followers of the Laodiceans, but see our need of Him and pray with impudence like Jeremiah Lanphier.
* Please add your PRAYERS below as God's Holy Spirit leads you. *
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