“Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down…”  Isaiah 64:1

Today’s churches seem to have everything:  Theologically trained leaders; A committed core of lay people; Cutting edge technology, etc.  Everything but the one thing we can least afford to be without…Passion!  And nowhere is that more obvious than in prayer.  I am reminded of the shut-in who asked her sister who just returned from a church prayer meeting, “Did anything unusual happen at church tonight?”  The sister replied, “No!  Just the same old people saying the same old prayers with the same old results!”  We obviously are in need of both instruction and inspiration when it comes to passionate praying!

That brings us to the prophet Isaiah.  Remember what the apostle Paul wrote to the church in I Corinthians 10:11 concerning the Old Testament writings, “Now these things…were written for our instruction…”  So let us sit at the feet of Isaiah in chapter 64 of the book that bears his name with a teachable mind and heart, and allow the Holy Spirit to apply Isaiah’s words to both instruct and inspire us to passionate praying!

Passion in prayer in today’s churches should begin and end praying for the Lord’s manifest presence!  Now I am certainly aware the Bible says where two or three gather in the Lord’s Name, He is there, but I am also aware there are unusual exceptions!  Listen to the words of one of the great preachers of all time, George Whitfield, as he made notation in his journal concerning a service in which He was ministering in the English town of Cheltenham, “Suddenly, God the Lord came down upon us!”  Did you hear that?  There are exceptional examples of the Lord unusually making His presence known, and when He does, everything is different!  All become aware of the One who is Holy, Holy, Holy, and the fear (reverence) of God is evident!  This is exceptional!  This is supernatural!

Listen to the terms Isaiah uses in his impassioned cry:  Rend (tear open) the heavens; Cause the mountains to quake; Boil the waters (oceans); Cause the nations (saints and sinners) to tremble!  If you agree this strikes at the heart of the need in today’s churches, the need in your church, I challenge you as I challenge myself to meditate on Isaiah 64 and ask the Lord to stir us up to passionate praying…

Jon Moore

“Pray to your Father Who is in secret…”  Matthew 6:6

It has been rightly said that intercession is wholly a secret service!  Intercession does not have the snares that many areas of ministry contain.  There is no publicity, so few know the names of those who cry out in secret, thus pride is not a factor.  Neither is greed!  Intercession is not trying to convince God to give something to someone He doesn’t really want to give, but it is first finding out what God desires to do in a life and agreeing in believing prayer.  Jesus said, “Pray then in this way: Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven”!

After the great Chicago fire of 1871 pastor D. L. Moody went to London while his church building was being rebuilt.  He was invited to preach in a large church, but it was hard preaching.  At night it was the same thing until halfway through the sermon it seemed the windows of heaven opened.  The meeting was extended for ten days.  Four hundred were added to the church, and every nearby church was affected!

What was the explanation?  It was not Mr. Moody’s doing!  A woman who had been diagnosed terminally ill had asked, “What can I do shut in my home flat on my back”?  She said, “I can pray”!  One Sunday her sister came home to announce a visiting preacher from the U.S. named Moody had preached that morning.  Over a year earlier she had been given a copy of a paper published in Chicago that contained a sermon by D. L. Moody, and she was led to pray that God would send him to her church.  As the months went by, no one knew but the woman and God!  By the way, any student of church history knows the name of D. L. Moody, but no one remembers the name of that woman!

Jon Moore

“…What mean these stones…”  Joshua 4:21-24

In September, 1904 Seth Joshua spoke at a Bible School where Evan Roberts had recently enrolled.  In a service at a nearby church the evangelist had preached on the need for God to bend us, and Evan Roberts prayed passionately, “O God, bend me”!

Evan Roberts asked for and received permission to return to his home village with “a message from God”.  It was a four point message he would deliver all over the country of Wales.  1) Confess every known sin, and put any wrong done to man right.  2) Put away every doubtful habit.  3) Obey the Spirit promptly.  4) Confess your faith publicly.

On October 31, 1904 Roberts preached this message in his home church, Moriah Chapel.  A revival began that would eventually sweep the entire country.  In 5 months time over 100,000 souls were added to the roles of the churches, most of whom were between the ages of 18 and 45!

The illegitimate birth rate dropped 44% within a year.  Drunkenness was cut in half, and there was a wave of bankruptcies, mostly in taverns.  Judges were presented with white gloves as there were no major crimes to try.  Police were questioned how they spent their time.  There was a slowdown in the mines, but not due to a strike.  Ponies no longer understood the language of the newly converted miners!

When I started reading about the great Spiritual Awakenings, I had never heard or read of such things, and I suspect that many people in churches today have not either.  It has been over 100 years since we last had a nationwide revival in America, and it seems to me there is a great need to make stories like this known to this generation.  It is hard to miss what one has never had!

Jon Moore

“You will seek Me and find Me when you search for me with all your heart.”  Jeremiah 29:13

“Hear my prayer, O Lord, Give ear to my supplications!  Answer me in Your faithfulness, in Your righteousness!  And do not enter into judgment with your servant, For in Your sight no man living is righteous.  For the enemy has persecuted my soul; He has crushed my life to the ground; He has made me dwell in dark places, like those who have been long dead.  Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me; My heart is appalled within me.”  Psalm 143:1-4

It has been a long time since America has seen the glory of God on a nationwide scale.  It almost seems that evil is prevailing!  Does the Lord have a Word for us here in the early part of the 21st century?  As is often the case, the answer for today can be found in days gone by.  God spoke through His prophet Jeremiah to let us know that He does not respond to half-hearted attempts on our part to seek Him, but He requires our whole heart.  David modeled this truth, even in times of great opposition and adversity (Perhaps more so in such times) to break though to victory.  “Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.”  Psalm 4:1

David reminds us that the follower of Christ can prevail in prayer in spite of his worldliness!  He confessed to God, “For in Your sight no man living is righteous.”  Many years ago a wise man of God defined success in the Christian life in a way I have never forgotten.  He said, “Success for the Christian is when what has been written of you can be said about you!”  Think of the many things that have been written about the people of God in the Scriptures.  “We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us!”  Romans 8:37; “You are the salt of the earth…the light of the world.”  Matthew 5:13,14; “You have overcome the evil one.”  1st John 2:13; “God always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests though us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.”  2nd Corinthians 2:14; “You are dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  Romans 6:11.  To the extent to what has been written of us can be said of us, to that extent we are successful.  Little wonder that David wrote that no man can be seen to be righteous in the sight of God apart from the grace of God!  Thank the Lord that by His grace, we are made righteous through faith in Christ (Romans 5:19).

David goes on to say that the Christ-follower can prevail in prayer in spite of his weakness.  He wrote of feeling persecuted, crushed, overwhelmed and appalled by the enemy.  Just as Jesus warned Peter that Satan had asked to sift him like wheat, we can be defeated by the devil when we face him in our own strength.  At such times, the temptation is to give in to distress and depression, but that very scenario can be the springboard to great triumph when we give our heart to believing prayer!

August Bartholdi spent ten years of his life designing a lighthouse for an entrance to the Suez Canal as he visited the pyramids, but there was no funding to build it.  Later, the country of France decided to give the United States of America his creation that would be known as the Statue of Liberty!  What seemed like a devastating disappointment ended up a magnificent success!

Confronting our weaknesses can either be a cause for pity, or a call to prayer!

Jon Moore

“I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your doings; I muse on the work of Your hands.  I stretch out my hands to You; My soul longs for you, as a parched land.  Answer me quickly, O Lord, my spirit fails; Do not hide Your face from me, Or I will become like those who go down to the pit.  Let me hear Your loving kindness in the morning; For I trust in You; Teach me the way in which I should walk; For to You I lift up my soul.  Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies; I take refuge in You.”  Psalm 143:5-9

We live in a time when it seems that evil is winning the day.  David, the psalmist, experienced such times, yet he was inspired to pray until he prevailed.  Hopefully this passage will be an encouragement to every Christ-follower to pray for victory with a renewed confidence.

David was inspired to prevail in prayer as he remembered the Lord’s past works (vv 5-6).  We can learn from that!  There is spiritual strength in recalling the Lord’s past mighty works in behalf of His people in Bible times, in the history of the Church, in our personal life and in contemporary events.  We have a tremendous advantage over the old testament saints.  We have the record of the mighty acts of God in the Scriptures.  It is spiritually therapeutic to read, re-read and meditate on all these works of His hands.  It is also inspirational to read, re-read and meditate on the awesome works of God in the history of the Church.  Finally, it would benefit greatly every true follower of Christ to sit down periodically and make list of all the things the Lord has done to provide for and protect his or her life, as well as those of family and friends.

David found additional inspiration to prevail in prayer as he learned to recognize the Lord’s present ways (vv 7-9).  We can be reminded, as was David, that he was dependent on the Lord twenty four hours a day, every day of his life.  But we are not to stop there, but remind ourselves that we can always trust in the Lord’s faithfulness.  Regardless of the time, or situation, it is tremendously comforting and inspiring to be reminded that, “Faithful is He Who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”  1st Thessalonians 5:24  David said, “I trust in You!” (v 8), and “I take refuge in You!” (v 9), and we can say the same thing!

The ancient Chinese used to foster hope in their theatre by using a two-level stage.  The main play was on a lower stage while the final act was on a stage above.  As the people watched the actors on the main stage going through adversity and trials, they could see how things worked out on the upper stage.  Armed with this information about how things would work out, the people in the audience would shout encouragement to the actors on the main stage to keep going in spite of their trials, and how things appeared for the moment.  The people of God have the final act clearly set forth in the Bible.  Even though we are beset by what seem like overwhelming problems, that which is revealed about the Lord’s character and being in Scripture, and our ultimate victory with Him should be more than ample to inspire us to continue to prevail in prayer!

Jon Moore

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us  alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”  Ephesians 2:4-6

In far too many instances Christians feel like God is on one side, the devil is on the other and the believer is in the middle like a rope in a tug of war uncertain as to who is going to win!  The Bible paints a far different picture, describing rather a vertical chain of command with Jesus at the top, Christians under Him and Satan and  his demons at the bottom!  So this is why the seventy exclaimed excitedly, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!” Luke 10:17.

We need to remember what Jesus Christ said to His disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth!”  Matthew 28:18  Also keep in mind what the Lord said to the seventy before sending them out to minister, “Behold, I have given you authority…over all the power of the enemy…” with the added admonition, “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your your names are recorded in heaven.”  Luke 10:19,20  Earlier He made  a similar  commitment to the twelve disciples in Luke 9:1.  The emphasis here is clear that the authority and power rested in the Lord and were not the possession of His followers due to any characteristic of their own except their relationship to Christ.

What about believers today?  Does this have any meaning for us?  Does the Bible have anything to say whether we are included or not?  One of the great catalogs of Truth concerning those who are “in Christ” is found in the first thirteen verses of the book of Ephesians.  In that letter to the believers in the church at Ephesus the writer Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, uses the term “in Christ” ten times in those thirteen verses!  The fact is that believers today are more “in Christ” than were the disciples, because the Holy Spirit had not yet been given, and He is the One who baptizes us “in Christ”!  1st Corinthians 12:12,13  Certainly the disciples were with Christ, and Christ was with them, but we are “in Christ”!  Therefore, according to Ephesians 2:6, we have been raised together with Him, and caused to be seated with Him in heavenly places “in Christ Jesus”.  We are told in Ephesians 1:20,21 that He (Jesus Christ) was raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly places, “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come”.  So if you are “in Christ” then you have been seated with Him in the heavenlies, and you have been given authority by Jesus Christ Himself.  This and this alone is the basis for the believer’s authority!

I am told that in the Korean culture that people give their gifts to others using both hands.  This symbolizes that they are holding nothing back, but giving all.  Jesus Christ has held nothing back from His people, giving us all of Himself, including His authority, keeping in mind that that authority may only be exercised within the framework of our position “in Christ.”

Jon Moore