“This generation has yet to prove all that prayer can do for believing men and women” – A.W. Tozer

THE ABOVE QUOTATION ought to concern as well as constrain us. Firstly, if we are honest, we will come to the conclusion that we have failed in the area of prayer. Secondly, we have an open door before us to explore the unfathomable depths and profundities of prayer.

The average period for a generation is roughly thirty years. That may not seem a relatively long time, but to look at it from another numerical aspect: three decades. A tremendous amount of change has swept our nation since 1996. One just has to ponder for a few minutes – which is well worth doing – over what has transpired in each of our lives during that time span. A great deal has altered, and so much has happened that no doubt some of us could write a book.

Tozer passed away in 1963 and his words bear greater significance in our era; if prayer was hardly explored then in his day we have not even begun to really pray in our generation. Granted that some individuals are not counted, but generally speaking we can safely say that it’s the general spiritual climate among current-day evangelicalism.

We can all utter words of ‘prayer’ with a veneer of religiosity that have no true spiritual substance; we can copy and mimic another godly believer if enough time be spent in their company, but to independently pray that touches and moves the courts of heaven is another thing.

We live in such a time where no one can pretend to be a Christian; we either have the real ‘McCoy’, or we blatantly go along with the modern status quo. Lukewarm Christianity will have demons leaping upon us in mockery exclaiming, “Who are you?!”,  while Jesus’ and Paul’s name have them tremble; those authentically marked by God as His chosen, and such who know their own frailty while wholly dependent upon the Lord will be recognised by legions of demons.

Finding prayer to be unappealing, tedious, pointless, or used as a last resort gives evidence we have not even begun to truly knock, push beyond boundaries and ask in ways that demonstrates true friendship with God.

Leonard Ravenhill uttering the words, “No man is greater than his prayer life”, ought to rock many of us out of our complacency. Robert Murray M’Cheyne stated similar, “What a man is on his knees before God, that he is, and nothing more.” All this may sound so strange, so alien and of another language we haven’t the foggiest idea of understanding. We may find it strange because we are complete strangers to it.

“I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe”, said Mary Queen of Scots. We only have to briefly delve into the history of such a cruel and barbaric queen to realise the significance of her words; she was an extremely powerful ruler who controlled the mind, will and emotions of her armies – either through their unswaying love or fear; she had her way. Yet she feared one man stamped with the presence of God, and whose prayers were mightily answered.

The above mentioned men were just men, flesh and blood, with flaws and weaknesses but men who knew God.

We have merely played in the shallow foam of the sea’s gentle ending waves rather than venturing amidst the ocean’s overwhelming depths where God’s wonders are known.

Is it any wonder as to why the apostle Paul mentions prayer in the sixth chapter of Ephesians – that famous passage of the full armour of God. We can easily recite each piece of the armour, but give little to no thought that prayer is what fastens the entire apparel together; without it we are powerless. Every pastor, teacher, preacher, evangelist and missionary wastes their time without being saturated first in prayer.

The imperative need lying before us is a soul-saturating baptism of prayer and to be taught how to effectively pray. No Bible college, book, pastor or teacher could ever impart or instil this gift; they may whet our appetite leaving us profoundly enthused only to cool off and dissipate as a junkie’s fix wears off in a few hours. It is to be sought in desperation, alone before God. That desperation is knowing our weakness, our emptiness and a refusal to let go until God blesses us, not with some gift that we often tend to idolise but rather with God Himself. Nothing meant more to Jacob than knowing God. Distractions will continue to steal us away from knowing that Pearl of inestimable value, so long as we allow them to have sway. We settle so eagerly and quickly for the mesmerising instant fixes of digital technology and entertainment while foregoing the grandest journey our hearts and feet could ever embark upon; we chase after virtual reality rather than pursuing Reality itself.

The war against our souls is to persuade us to either pray quickly, simply, another later time, another day, or to not pray at all. When we have prayed for a few seconds – or even minutes at a self-satisfying push – we are inclined to believe and feel we have defeated our Goliath’s, driven back Pharaoh’s military might or secured the next desired Prime Ministerial and Presidential election. When we ‘finished’ our prayers, we really had not even begun. “Pray until you pray” as the Puritans would state. “It’s so hard and requires every ounce of concentration and effort”, some may say. Of course it does, and should we remain dull and mindless over the fact that our adversary the devil will do anything to prevent us from praying? To the principalities, prayer (in the Holy Spirit) is like unleashing an atom bomb – putting it in simple terms.

One of the most dangerous prayers to sincerely pray is, “Lord, teach us how to pray.” It’s dangerous to our sin, the devil and the world; it’s a dangerous weapon in the hands of God, and in the power of the Holy Spirit the kingdom of God advances that the gates of hell have no choice but to give way.

Is God therefore reliant on our prayers; is God powerless without our prayers? We have not even started to understand what prayer is if such questions are to be asked. God has decreed that much of His glory be displayed through beseeching Him. Prayer is not getting something out of God for our benefit; it is breathing in a realm of utter dependence on HIM, and is none other than acutely realising our birthright (according to God’s good pleasure) as to why were willed into this world; it is to embark upon the one highest vocation any person can reach – that we may know God and His ways. So much for the children of Israel knowing God’s acts, but quite another to know His ways (Psalm 103:7). Jacob was dripping with prosperity, but all that meant nothing when the crucible came; if he couldn’t have God then nothing else mattered. Unless we arrive at such spiritual desperation, we shall never know the awesome privilege of prayer. We can forget about our preconceived notions of what prayer is; it’s almost blasphemous, and how the devil succeeds in painting prayer to be something entirely different from what it really is. Our comfortable lifestyles have numbed us from discerning this incredible wonder to where we’re too weary to exercise and grow in this spiritual gym; we prefer ease of being lulled to sleep and being ‘chilled’ compared to a lifestyle of prayer’s life-giving pulse becoming almost synchronous with our breathing.

Many of us are deterred from praying because we don’t know how to, and when we do begin we almost quit because of the lack of heart-vocabulary and the real exposure of our true spiritual state. It’s uncomfortable, and our era has made us disdain anything contrary to comfort. This is where the struggle begins, but if we can press through – despite how weak and inadequate we may feel – to where we know the Holy Spirit meeting us in our weakness, the breakthrough begins. Few will carry on because it is often not instantaneous. It will expose our nakedness, and such is too costly for our pride where we dare not have our so-called ‘refined’ reputation tarnished. We are professionals at giving off an impressive front but amateurs in being real. In the crucible all that matters little to none. In the crucible is where intercessors rise not to great heights of their own, but seeing how incalculably high and glorious God is (Isaiah 6:1-4).

These are the men and women needed in our generation. Long gone are the days for Christian celebrities of worship leaders, man-elevated prophets and teachers; they don’t work, never have and never will do. Anything that shifts our focus from God to a man or woman is the beginning of spiritual decline. We can even have all the best bible institutions the world can offer, but without the power of God manifest we are no better off than the blind Pharisees who confidently declared Abraham being their ancestral father. We have never advanced so much as with our current pinnacle of theological leaning, and yet somehow we appear more dead than alive. We must beware of holding a sound Biblical creed yet denying (not knowing) its power in our lives.

This may initially read as being so blatantly negative and condemning, but if God were to move in reviving power, our encounter would mirror the words of Isaiah, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips… for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Hands up, revival enthusiasts, who are still passionate for revival. Still desire it – the REAL thing?! There will be a liberating-price to pay if so; the price of pride but a wondrous elevating out of spiritual mediocrity, and such mediocrity that inevitably has the world ignore us because we neither attract or repulse; we just become part of a cosmopolitan society where everybody blends in to endorse everyone’s philosophy as making up ‘truth’ in its entirety. Spiritual lukewarmness! A really sad and pitiable state to be in.

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:15-16). We shall skim quickly over that as it negates a loving God; it’s not very encouraging… just give us the positives, you know – the kind that makes us feel good and high. We love the Jesus, “gentle, meek and mild”, but not so much the Jesus who warned the churches mentioned in Revelation, chapters two and three; the Old Testament so-called ‘God of wrath’ is no longer applicable in our New Testament era, for we now have Jesus full of love… but how quick to forget that this ‘same’ Jesus – the gentle Lamb of God – is also referred to in the last book of the New Testament where many will face “the wrath of the Lamb” (Revelation 6:16).

Luke warm; indifferent; apathetic; offensive – it all carries more or less the same connotation. Prayer is the measuring gauge of the life of a believer and a church; not being active in this imperative area makes us neither hot nor cold, rendering us weak, ineffective, grieving to God, and a due laughing stock of the world.

Yes, it ought to concern us, and we must beware of labelling conviction as condemnation; being shaken out of complacency is never comfortable, and true comfort comes when we’re rightly aligned to God. This is not perfection but rather the road toward perfection for we are chosen, called and cleansed to be entirely conformed to the image of Jesus Christ; that Day is coming where not even a trace of sin shall be detected in us from Pure Eyes of white flaming fire. This is our calling, our home and eternal dwelling we’re heading to. Genuine spiritual concern doesn’t end here for such authenticity will inevitably lead onto a constraining; there must be an opposite to the state of mediocrity and lukewarmness, and if the Holy Spirit is moving on and in our hearts He will never allow us to remain content with our superficiality; there must be that cry, “Give me life or I die!”, and it is not so much feeling alive for ourselves to spiritually dissect and become self-absorbed, but rather alive unto God where we discern His call and the interests of His kingdom, and all that it implicates how we live here in such a vast short time in light of the oncoming endless ages. Perceiving God’s interests will surely govern a right praying, will fuel effective praying, and will ignite the wonders of God travailed through such prayer.

We live amidst an era that is politically corrupt like no other time in our lives; immorality is not only flagrant but blatant and audacious; wrong is not just tolerated but elevated, and right is not something that has just thawed but rather scorned; society is collapsing at a rate that is almost impossible to reckon with. Despair grows by the day and the general moral of our climate somehow has seeped its way – slowly but surely – into the very recesses of minds; it affects the way we speak and walk in life. All good and well to have repelling political movements that inspire hope of promised change, but our situation, particularly here in the United Kingdom, goes way beyond political reform; the real issue lies with the heart of the British people that are ignorant of God, having turned away from Him only to embrace a self-help form of humanism; give me morality but never with God at the root of it all! What we desperately need is not Reform or Restore Britain; we’re in dire need of reformed hearts. There is NO hope in Parliament but a parting of our ways in returning to the Lord. With hearts of stone there is no hope; only the Spirit of God can surgically replace such hearts with the kind that beats for God. The rot has gone too far beyond symptomatic repair; we need again the inward root operation of the Holy Spirit to redemptively sweep hearts that make up a great nation.

The answer is on our knees before God in complete an utter dependence upon Him, that His will be done here amidst these isles as it is in heaven; rather than the looming gusts of a third world war but to implore of God that the winds of heaven would be felt and known again. How many are willing to pray; how many are willing to seek the face of God and sacrifice whatever would deter us from doing so?

It is long overdue to realise and reckon with the power of prayer that can change and overt evil infinitely beyond any political capability and power; prayer that can break the influence and chains of any elite earthly power. “I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe”, recalling the words of Queen Mary. That is something… something quite extraordinary that is unheard of in our day, and should such a wonder be confined to our history books that makes God appear dead in our day?!

Should we scorn the likes of Rees Howells, our Welsh intercessor, whose theology may not be compatible with a polished system of reformed doctrine? Yet despite his flaws – in the eyes of some – God chose to use this man to bring about great answers to prayer that incredibly altered the course of the Second World War. Does the life of Rees Howells unnerve us because he embodied what it meant to be wholly sold out to the Lord, while we comfortably hide behind the letter of sound doctrine yet devoid of the Spirit behind such words?

We forfeit so much communion with God, neglect so many opportunities to be alone with Him that we stunt our growth, and not just exclusively to the spiritual aspects but all round in our lives. That forfeiting is not detrimental in the sense of losing our salvation, but of sensing and of encountering the realities of being seated with Christ in the heavenly places; we miss so much! Thomas Brooks says it well, “Though God be very prompt and ready to bestow upon His people the best and the greatest of blessings, yet He will by prayer be sought unto for the actual enjoyment of them.”

Do we see the worth of sacrificing the glitches of our modern day of ease for the unsearchable riches of Christ? There we will see what we treasure most; what we hold dear the most. We can have all the pietistic feelings we want, and none of them amount to anything unless the fire of the Holy Spirit constrains us to where we go beyond mere feelings to beholding the Living God. Right feelings may follow but are never the dominant note. The hard evidence that God has truly moved is that we are no longer the same; nothing else draws and satisfies as our hearts are fixed in prayer unto God. The ‘lights’ of this age may call and entice, but tasting God makes triviality of the all-consuming aspects of this life that deceitfully promise gain.

God remains to be known in our generation through mighty acts of answered prayer.

Recalling Leonard Ravenhill’s words are like ice-water to the heat of spiritual ignorance, “Five minutes inside eternity and we will wish that we had sacrificed more, wept more, grieved more, loved and PRAYED more, and given more.”

Do we REALLY understand the significance and seriousness of this solemn and wondrous reality? Prayer. Whatever way we view it will determine how we live the remaining time we have left. The fruit shall either be one of tormenting regret, or with joy accompanying the apostle Paul, “I have finished the race set before me.” Will we be that generation proving all that prayer can do for believing men and women?