Magnificent Prayer #64
Magnificent Prayer #64
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
Colossians 2:9–10
There is no other way to power but by prayer. Hidden prayer is like heat smoldering in the bowels of the earth far beneath the still cone of a volcano. Though to the eye there may be years of inactivity, sooner or later there will be an explosion. So it is with prayer in the Spirit. It never dies. There may be a long birth pain in the Spirit, but birth there will be.
LEONARD RAVENHILL
Pray About It: More than forty years ago, a young Assembly of God pastor was challenged by God to pray for two hours every night. So every night at midnight, the young man stepped into his office, closed the door and prayed. At first the time seemed to drag and he grew restless. But then he combined his prayer time with Bible reading. He also began to offer praises to God in addition to his petitions.
Then one evening he seemed fidgety. He had been praying for quite a while and though he felt close to God, a great sadness seemed to overtake him. “I felt uneasy, as though I had received orders but couldn’t make out what they were,” he said. He asked God about this uneasiness but received no answer. He then began walking around his study. On his desk lay a copy of Life magazine. He started to pick it up, then thought, No, I’m not going to fall into that trap, reading a magazine when I’m supposed to be praying. But each time he tried to pray, his attention was drawn to the magazine on his desk.
Finally, he opened the magazine and saw a pen drawing of seven boys who were gang members in New York City. The next thing he knew, the young pastor was in tears. The volcano had erupted.
Though few in his small congregation understood their pastor’s burden for these gang members, he knew it was from God. A short time later, this skinny young pastor put feet to his prayers and moved to the inner city of New York City and started a work that would become Teen Challenge. The young man was David Wilkerson and many Christians have read the exciting story of how that man’s two-hour commitment to prayer ultimately saved many young teens from the gang life, in the now classic book The Cross and the Switchblade.
That same volcano builds in the life of every Christian pray-er until it eventually erupts into service to God in some form. It may be in teaching Sunday school (powerfully) or in being a doctor, nurse, attorney, mother, father, or grandparent. Or you may even be called to an inner-city ministry as was David Wilkerson.
But whatever you do will be a result of your commitment to prayer and the volcanic power those prayers unleash to propel you forward in God.
My life has not been the same since.
DAVID WILKERSON
From the book
