On Prayer...

Uh, I'm for it.

I've always been for it. I feel, though, that I have only been giving it lip service for lo these many years. It just has been in the last three years or so that I have seen how critical it truly is. Let me share with you my journey...

Three years ago, I read Dr. Greg Frizzell's book titled Returning to Holiness, where he described our need to come to God for thorough spiritual cleansing, taking more time than the typical "holy pause" that too many people use as their substitute for prayer. As a result, my personal prayer life became deeper and more personal than at any other time in my life.

Two years ago, I was able to get ahold of a pre-published version of John Franklin's book And the Place was Shaken. In that book, he makes the case that corporate prayer is a discipline that not only was common in the New Testament church, but was a vital staple in any great movement of God throughout the last two millenia. He pointed out that the apostles devoted themselves to the ministry of corporate prayer within the church (Acts 6:4). I realized that as a pastor, the ministry of corporate prayer in our church was one of my primary responsibilities.

Last year, we looked along in abject frustration as the judicial system in our country failed one lady named Terri Schiavo, somehow ordering her to be starved until she died. No amount of protesting, no amount of legislation, no amount of appealing was able to save her. She died. And we were powerless to do anything about it. What had our society done? What do we do now? The only option was to pray; pray for forgiveness, pray for healing, pray for spiritual awakening and renewal in our land. But we need to do it together.

In San Diego, there has been more of a rumbling throughout the region in the Body of Christ about our need to pray together than I can ever recall happening at any time in any other location where I have lived. And it's working.

On May 3 of this year, Judge Gordon Thompson ordered the cross atop Mount Soledad be removed within 90 days or else the city of San Diego would be forced to pay a daily fine of $5,000. 100 days later, President Bush signs into law a bill that authorizes the United States Department of Defense to take possession and control of the property of Mount Soledad. The difference? God's people throughout the county began to pray. And God stepped in and flexed some serious muscle!

Yeah, I'm for prayer. How about you? Are you for prayer? Enough to get into a regular prayer group that will seek after the presence and directive from God Himself, and not let it turn into a time to recite what "we want" God to do?

Tell me about your prayer group: where it meets, when it meets, what is God doing in it.

Peace