THE CHURCH’S GREATEST NEED AS WE GO INTO 2021

As I was praying this morning, I prayed about if I should write one final blog for 2020, and immediately I felt the Lord drop a word into my heart. WHAT IS THE GREATEST NEED IN THE CHURCH TODAY (especially the Western church)?

I believe the greatest need is that the Church needs a fresh revelation that without the Lord WE CAN DO NOTHING. This is both corporately and personally!!!!!

We often mouth the words that we can do nothing, but it is NOT revelation or we would be doing something about it. I was told as a young person, “when I get DESPERATE then God would move in my life. I do not see any desperation in the Western Church.

I had the privilege of going to Korea in 1978 for the first English Church Growth Seminar held in Dr. Cho’s church, and there we attended an ALL NIGHT PRAYER MEETING. When a nation lives under the threat of war, the Church gets desperate and prayed, and this has been the key to the phenonenal growth of Christianity in South Korea.

During the political turmoil in Germany in the mid 1980″s the Church began to pray initially just small numbers that grew to half a million, as a result of that praying the “Berlin Wall” was torn down and Germany became a united nation once again.

In this last decade as a result of the political turmoil in Malaysia, the Church began to pray, and dramatic changes took place, sadly, there is turmoil again, and my Malaysian friends tell me the Church has lost its fervency to continue praying!!!!

I read a statement on FB recently that really reminded me of this tremendous need in the Church.

It doesn’t matter how much we stategize “IF WE DON’T PRAY, It doesn’t matter how many flyers we hand out IF WE DON’T PRAY, It doesn’t matter how good our musicians are IF WE DON’T PRAY, It doesn’t matter how good our church looks, ID WE DON’T PRAY. WE ARTE CALLED TO BE MEN AND WOMEN OF PRAYER” Josh Carlson

That statement says it all

Can I ask a series of questions?

Does your church conduct prayer meetings?

Have you ever heard of a half night or full night of prayer?

Have you ever attended a half night of prayer?

Has your prayer life increased in 2020?

I don’t mean necessarily in time, BUT IN INTENSITY

I have written previously that down through history whenever the Church experienced persecution it sure sought the Lord in prayer,

If we honestly believe that God is SOVEREIGN and has permitted this pandemic for example, it is for a PURPOSE, and for Believers IT IS FOR OUR GOOD!!!!!! Rom.8:28 NKJV And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

God not only uses all the good things we see in the Word of God like our glorious inheritance in Christ to work in our lives, but He permits things like a pandemic, to cause his people to press into Him more than ever.

In Leonard Ravenhill’s book “Why revival tarries” the very first chapter is entitled THE SIN OF PRAYERLESSNESS. Whether we want to have personal revival, or see the Church revived, the answer is the same, WE MUST GET DESPERATE AND START TO PRAY LIKE NEVER BEFORE.

Let us start with the Disciple’s request of Jesus in Like 11:1 NKJV “Lord, teach us to pray,” This is a prayer Jesus will quickly respond too.

Please be reminded of James words in his letter (4:2) NKJV “You do not have because you do not ask:

It is time to ASK AND KEEP ON ASKING as Jesus challenged us in the “Sermon on the mount”..

You may say “I don’t know how to pray”, or “what do I pray for”?

Paul gives us the answer in Rom. 8: 26

NKJV Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

AMP. N.T. So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.

MESSAGE Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.

PASSION And in a similar way, the Holy Spirit takes hold of us in our human frailty to empower us in our weakness. For example, at times we don’t even know how to pray, or know the best things to ask for. But the Holy Spirit rises up within us to super-intercede on our behalf, pleading to God with emotional sighs too deep for words.

I trust my next statement does not disturb my non-Charismatic friends, but I thank God, that I have a “prayer language” and when I don’t know how to pray I simply “pray in the Spirit”.

and let the Holy Spirit pray through me as I pray in tongues, THE HOLY SPIRIT KNOWS WHAT IS THE WILL OF GOD.

Let me conclude with the Words of James 5:16 NKJV The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

N.L.T. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

PASSION for tremendous power is released through the passionate, heartfelt prayer of a godly believer!

MESSAGE The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.

May God give us a FRESH REVELATION that WITHOUT HIM WE CAN DO NOTHING, but with Him, the POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS.

Saints “LETS DO IT” AMEN