prayer coach

image courtesy of Leonard Ravenhill interview

After I posted the prayer quotes by Leonard Ravenhill earlier this week, I got interested in more about this man. I found a two-hour interview of him where he shared about past revivals and his view of Church today.Here are some takeaways I had from the interview.

1. Prayer was important to these revivals.

This may sound obvious, but when I listened to the interview I was overwhelmed at the intensity he held for prayer. He prayed with his elders for 45 minutes to an hour before any service. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, prayed with his team from the end of one day’s service for four hours for the next day’s service. Evan Roberts of the Welsh revival started meetings with 3 hours of prayer, spoke for 15 minutes, then prayed all night for the next day’s service. Their commitment to prayer was not idle words, but backed with a depth of experience. One statement of Ravenhill stood out to me, there were often more people packing the altar before a meeting than there was afterwards.

2. Holy living was an overflow of these revivals.

When William Booth or W.P. Nicholson preached, people will get so convicted of the Holy Spirit that pages of hymnals would be commonly shredded in the pews from people fidgeting as light came into their souls. When they converted, they gave all to God. Missionaries going to the far reaches of the world – not for a few years of sight-seeing, but giving their lives away. C.T. Studd immediately gave up his professional athletic career to follow Hudson Taylor to China. Studd’s words summarize the heart of many during that time:

image source unknown

I came across this post today from Os Hillman of Marketplace Leaders. What a great warning from Jeremiah. It is very strong, but the thirsty need a sharp rebuke before drinking poisoned water. Enjoy.

Embracing Lean Times

March 30th, 2011

Have you ever considered at what point a test becomes so difficult that you decide you can no longer trust in God and you must take over to solve the problem? The prophet Jeremiah describes a situation in which the temptation to solve a financial problem can become so great that we trust in man’s way to solve it.

This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17:5-8).

Jeremiah drew a sharp comparison between the man who trusts in his own effort to solve his problem and the man who trusts in God when he cannot see the outcome. The man who trusts in God bears fruit despite the circumstances in his life. He does not shrivel when the heat comes; in fact, his roots go deeper into God’s grace. He continues to bear fruit in spite of his circumstances.

Yesterday I had the unique opportunity to ask Bill Johnson of Bethel Church how Christians should view death. Bill Johnson has grown in popularity within the charismatic circles for one who pursues miracles and particularly healing. As with all Christians, he believes that nothing is impossible with God (Matthew 19:26), but he takes it much farther by intentionally pursuing God for the impossible. Having taken this approach to life and ministry, he claims he has seen many people healed. It was in this context, I asked him:

How does he keep himself from disappointment when the people for whom he pursues healing do not get healed?

As a disclaimer up front, Pastor Johnson was spontaneously answering one person’s question. These thoughts were not prepared for mass distribution. If you question or disagree with his answers, I could have easily misquoted him when I wrote down his answer. Of course, if you find it helpful, I will let him take credit for his answers.

Actually, this view is actually a good summary to Bill Johnson’s approach to this subject. He gives God the credit for anything He does, and he doesn’t blame God for anything He doesn’t do. Someone gets healed… that’s all God. Someone doesn’t get healed… there is more to pursue with God.

He has a view of Scripture that Jesus never turned anyone away who asked for prayer and everything Jesus prayed for happened. If we can do everything Jesus did and greater (John 14:12), than we need to approach life with that expectation. We can’t make Scripture say something different if the person we pray for doesn’t get healed. Our calling as followers of Christ is to make our experience match the Scripture.

image courtesy of Black History Heroes

“Reading about nature is fine,
but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully,
he can learn more than what is in books,
for they speak with the voice of God.”
- George Washington Carver

From a very young child, George Washington Carver was very inquisitive. When he was ten, he asked his foster parents why are grapes purple while visiting a vineyard. His foster father didn’t know and said, “Nobody knows.”

“Does God know?” George asked.

“Of course he does.”

“Then I’ll ask him,” George responded, and left the room.

The foster father was incredulous saying George shouldn’t talk that way. “He sounded as if he were going to meet God out there – around the house.”

For George Washington Carver, that is exactly what he did. During one of his lecture, Dr. Carver described the conversation with God that got him started studying the peanut.

I asked, “Dear Creator, please tell me what the universe was made for?”

The great Creator answered, “You want to know too much for that little mind of yours. Ask something more your size.”

Then I asked, “Dear Creator, tell me what a man was made for.”

Again the great Creator replied, “Little man, you still ask too much. cut down the extent of your request and improve your intent.”

So then I asked, “Please, Mr. Creator, will you tell me why the peanut was made?”

“That’s better, but even then it’s infinite. What do you want to know about the peanut?”

“Mr. Creator, can I make milk out of the peanut?”

“What kind of milk do you want, good Jersey milk or just plain boarding-house milk?”

image courtesy of Dosso Dossi

Many in the liturgical tradition are celebrating Saint Bartholomew today. This is one of the lesser known apostles as he doesn’t have a speaking part in the Bible. Tradition of him is also limited although there is some indication that he went north into present day Turkey in the region of that was once part of Armenia. There is also some indication he took a copy of Matthew’s gospel to India. What we do know is that he took to the message of Christ out from Jerusalem.

With that awareness the liturgical church takes inspiration from his example and prays for the same behaviors and attitudes in them. I think it is a beautiful aspect of the Christian life that many of us are not exposed to. Below is an except of the Book of Common Prayer for this day. May you find inspiration and help in your prayers through the history of the church that has gone before us.

The Collect.

O ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who didst give to thine Apostle Bartholomew grace truly to believe and to preach thy Word; Grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church, to love that Word which he believed, and both to preach and receive the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Epistle. Acts v. 12.

BY the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.

image courtesy of Campus Crusade for Christ

The last blog post on Royalty has had me thinking about my time with Campus Crusade. As you have been following this blog, you will know that I love Dr. Bright and Crusade. Both have had a significant impact on who I am and my outlook on life. As you learn the history of the organization and the early years, Crusade was going after the influential. When it first started, Dr. Bright was interacting with the athletes and campus leaders. Still in the early years, Crusade brought all their staff to California for the Berkeley Blitz to take Christ to the future leaders.

One of the things we were taught on staff was the principle of the powerful 1%. This taught that 1% of the population went to college and that these would be the future leaders of the world. If we could reach the college students today, we would in effect change the world.

I have been thinking about this because on staff many had a problem with going after leaders. “Jesus did not go to the leaders” was the common response. We needed to go to the poor and needy. Without going into the reasons why these are not true, I believe the reason so many have a hard time focusing on leaders is because of the concept of the pauper mentality.

Many Christians are living their lives with the belief that they have nothing to offer the leaders besides saving faith. When it comes to the real problems leaders face, we believe we have no resources to draw from. It is why we change Jesus command from making disciples of all nations to making disciples in all nations. Jesus came to create a revolution and transform society. We are looking to survive.

image courtesy of Jason Upton’s website

I recently heard Jason Upton’s adoption story repeated and loved how God strung together different events to show His love. Jason Upton is a worship leader often compared to Keith Green – whose passion for the Lord comes clearly through his music. His story is that he is adopted, and recently as he had gotten older decided the need to pursue finding his birth parents. What he found out was the amazing hand of God fulfilling his destiny.

Jason’s mom became a Christian in the late 60′s early 70′s in the Jesus movement. She loved Jesus then fell for this man who was “not yet” a believer. In Jason’s words he was the fruit of evangelism gone bad. A few months into the pregnancy his mom decided she wanted to get an abortion. Jason’s dad talked her out of it.

Three months after Jason was born, Jason was placed in the home of his adoptive parents. During this time his mom put together a box of memories for Jason. She included pictures of him, the house, and his parents. She also included his story and a prayer she had written out.

This adoption was considered a closed adoption. This is where the only way for Jason or the parents to find out who the other was is through mutual consent. So some time after Jason contacted the adoption agency with his request, he received this box. He opened the box, looked through the pictures, and read the prayer. His mom had prayed that Jason would one day become a worshiper and lead others into worship. God had answered her prayer without Jason knowing it was prayed for him and without his mom knowing it was fulfilled.

I had the privilege to hear from Carey Casey, the CEO of the National Center for Fathering, on Friday morning. He shared a story about his youngest son Chance that I would like to share.

When he is not traveling, Carey gets up early to spend time with God in a set room in his house. A some point Chance decided to get up with him and sit on his lap while his dad spends time with God. One day Carey asked his son why he enjoyed sitting on his lap. He said:

• Your lap is warm.
• I feel safe.
• I like your coffee breath.

This is cute story, but Carey followed this by saying that God whispered to him saying, I want you so close to me that you smell my breath.

I hope we never get over the great privilege of being close to God and having his desire for us to come to him. What an amazing thought of being that close to God. To sit in His lap and feel His protection as our dad.

• How do you get that close to God?