“It is Jesus who teaches us how to pray. He learned it amid the trials and tears of His earthly life. In heaven it is still His beloved work. His life there is prayer. Nothing delights Him more than to find those He can take with Him into the Father’s presence, clothing them with power to pray down God’s blessing to those around them, training them to be His fellow-workers in the intercession by which the kingdom is to be revealed on earth.” Andrew Murray
Jesus teaches us how to pray and love. He wants us to feel compassion and begin to take action for those in need. He teaches us how to pray heaven’s blessings to earth. Prayer must lead to action. Prayer is vitally important, but it is not the end. As we pray, we receive the heart of God for the world around us. He clothes us with power. He leads us to people in need with His love and compassion. He brings us to the lost and lonely, the hurting and sick who need healing. Prayer leads to a lifestyle of loving and caring. Jesus is our example.
Through prayer God gives us power to be His witnesses everywhere we go.
Let’s realize that prayer and action go together, but we can’t do it alone. It is nothing less than the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit where God Himself is our guide. It is geared towards His glory alone. All selfish ambition and man-made schemes must fall by the wayside as God leads this most amazing prayer movement through His Spirit. The work of man is to glorify the King. And as John the Baptist said in John 3:30: “He must become greater; I must become less.”
An amazing thing happens when we have times of prayer together in the prayer room. A transformation takes place in our lives where God’s heart becomes ours. This fact alone is reason to begin 24/7 prayer. The hour is urgent. We need to pray and feel God’s heart for the world. Michael Howard, in his book, Tales of an African Intercessor, stresses that the key to intercession is when our heart lines up with the heartbeat of God and His agenda. He says:
“Nothing was more pressing than that the nations and multitudes who were marching to a Christless eternity should be saved. How I saw the agendas of men: so many and varied and all of such vital importance to them, but there was only one paramount agenda to God: THE NATIONS. I instantly realized that the entire task of the glorious TRIUNE God was completely and utterly devoted to this one supreme purpose for which Jesus had so freely given His life. All else was rather trivial in comparison and we all had majored on the trivial.” Michael Howard
By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC