Thursday, November 26, 2009

The Father Calls You

You are being called by the Father to daily get alone with Him in prayer.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly (Mt. 6.6).

It's good to pray on the move, at prayer meetings, etc. Paul wrote, "Pray without ceasing (1 Th. 5.17)." And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; (Lk. 18.1)" Here Jesus speaks of prayer with importunity. Secret, devoted, fervent prayer.

Oswald Chambers spoke of wrestling before God in prayer. John Bunyan said, "It is so wretched a thing to be without God that one may gladly dare any calamity in venturing to approach him." I would suggest getting up two hours earlier for prayer is a nearly non existent calamity in comparison to what some saints have endured. Charles Spurgeon said, "Take at once firm hold of God." E. M. Bounds wrote, "Prayer may well be defined as that force which vitalizes and energizes the Word of God, by taking hold of God, Himself." Isaiah wrote: "There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of Me," is God's sad lament. "Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me," is God's recipe for prayer.
There is a promise in the Counsels of Eternity you will be drawn into the presence of Christ by the Father. You do best by calling on Him right away and establishing a regular relationship with Him. He will draw you, but if you wait, it may be under circumstances you won't like. Leonard Ravenhill said, "It's very simple, either concentrate in prayer or pray in concentration camps."

Revival must be an individual experience. We will each become obedient to His call to get alone with Him in prayer on a regular basis somehow. I believe that revival is slowly spreading throughout this Laodicean Church age with some saints. I believe suffering will be the lot of many in order to get the Church in unity. In other words, the revivals of Fulton and Azusa Streets are a thing of the past. Revival will hit each individual in the Church until its flames are as many logs thrown on the fire.
The question is, will we be obedient to the call of God to extricate ourselves from the world and come up to the top of the mount, as Moses, now?

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