The modern professing Church seems to be completely turned around. The Lord has hidden His face from us and yet we are continuing on a path trying to do things for Him rather than seek His face and seeking the return of the shining of His glory on His desolate sanctuary. The name of the game is to see who can do the most and get the most involved. We have buildings to build and programs to carry out. We have activities to carry out and busy things to keep us busy. While many recognize that the professing Church is weak, it seems as if the answer to the predicament is more business and more to do. Books are coming from the busy presses on how to do church and all the other how to do things. Those of the Reformed persuasion have their own list of things to be done, but they are still things. After all, to reform a church we think that the church must fit a specific standard.
The real mark of a local church that is truly seeking the Lord is one that seeks the face of the Lord by spending much time in prayer. Without hearts that truly pray, correct theology is nothing more than information. Without hearts that pray, outward prayer is simply cold hearts uttering correct words. Without hearts that pray, the marks of a church are marks of deceit. Without hearts that pray, one can institute elders and have a biblical form without true substance. Without hearts that seek the Lord in prayer there will be people seeking themselves in various forms in words with the Lord’s name attached. Without hearts that seek the Lord’s interests in prayer there will be people seeking their own interests. Without hearts that seek the Lord’s glory in prayer people will seek their own honor and glory. Without hearts that seek the Lord’s kingdom in prayer people will seek their own kingdom in reality. Without hearts to seek the Lord’s will in prayer people will seek their own will and call it the will of the Lord. Without hearts that love the Lord and so seek His face in prayer people will simply seek the things of self that they love. In other words, what the professing church needs to do is to stop its activities and programs and begin to seek the Lord from the heart pleading with Him to turn His face and make it shine upon His people.
In years past this was seen by some. One of them was a man named A.W. Pink. He wrote several books and two on prayer. The following is from his book on Fervent Prayer:
“Consider also the burden of them. In the recorded apostolic prayers there is no supplicating God for the supply of temporal needs and (with a single exception) no asking Him to interpose on their behalf in a providential way (though petitions for these things are legitimate when kept in proper proportion to spiritual concerns). Instead, the things asked for are wholly of a spiritual and gracious nature: that the Father may give unto us the spirit of understanding and revelation in the knowledge of Himself, the eyes of our understanding being enlightened so that we may know what is the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe (Eph 1:17-19); that He would grant us, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith, that we might know the love of Christ… and be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph 3:16-19).”
When we read words like this, we should be humbled and broken for our own shallow and misguided words that we have called our prayers. Out of all the apostolic prayers, he says that not one of them is a supplication to God for temporal needs. He could only find one prayer that asked God to interpose in a providential way. Rather than focus on temporal things, the apostolic prayers were for spiritual things. We need to read these prayers and we need to hear the focus of those prayers today. Is it any wonder that the modern professing Church is so weak and helpless in spiritual things if even Her prayers show there is nothing spiritual about Her? What is the difference between asking God for things and seeking the face of the Lord for spiritual power? What is the difference between uttering words and truly having a heart to pray these things? For the rest of this newsletter I want to focus on the heart behind the prayers in the things mentioned by Pink as he quoted Scripture. We could learn the proper words and repeat them just like the apostles wrote them down, but if our hearts are not engaged we are not truly praying. We can learn how to pray in the sense of learning a proper method, but we have not learned to truly pray until Christ Himself by the Spirit has taught our hearts to seek the face of the Lord in prayer.
What kind of heart is it that is engaged in prayer like this if it is more than just words? What kind of heart is it that pours forth its true desires like this? What kind of heart is it that instead of praying for the things of self it prays that the Father may give to us the spirit of understanding and revelation in the knowledge of Himself? This is a heart that desires the face of God more than the world. It is a heart that has a love for God Himself rather than the things that the world offers and even things that religion offers. It is a heart that loves God Himself and desires His presence more than buildings and programs and all the pomp of religious ceremony. If this type of prayer is truly the deepest desire of the heart, then that heart is one like Moses who desired to see the glory of God more than anything else. But we must always force ourselves to think and dwell on the fact that a heart like that is not one that is worked up or can be obtained by human effort. A heart like that is one that grace alone can form.
We must get away from the modern approach to education. It teaches people the facts and then says they understand it. We have not learned to pray when we repeat correct words, for even a parrot can pray if we spend the time teaching it words. True prayer can only come from a heart that has been humbled and broken by the mercy of the Lord and then tempered by the hand of God in the soul. Prayer can only come from the heart or it is nothing more than any pagan could memorize if s/he wanted to bad enough. Interestingly enough it seems as if the focus of much of our words we call prayer is most likely what a pagan would ask for. We ask God to help us in our temporal concerns and help people with their physical issues. We ask God to add to our number and give us money for the buildings. But we do not see those things in the apostolic prayers. What we do see is Paul’s heart poured out in prayer pleading with God “that He would grant us, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.” When we live in our own strength and think we just need a little help from God I suppose his prayer does not make much sense to us in our self-reliant day. But Paul thought that the people needed to pray like that. Why do people need to be strengthened in accordance with the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man? Why is that vital to prayer?
The answer to the previous question is from the rest of the text: “that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith, that we might know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:16-19). What a beautiful prayer this is if people want to know what it means to have Christ dwell in their hearts and they want to know the love of Christ and they want to be filled with the fullness of God rather than to spend all of their time praying over buildings, programs, and the physical problems of people. The real need of any person that is having a physical problem is to rest in the sovereignty of God in the matter. They need the love of God in their soul more than they need their bodies to be healed. When we only pray for the physical problems of other people it shows that we are spiritually unaware at best. No matter a person’s physical condition they need Christ and more of Christ far more than anything else. In fact, if we truly believe in the sovereignty of God then their physical problem is in the hands of God and He has brought it to pass for a spiritual reason.
The professing Church in America does not pray because it does not know by the understanding or experience how to pray from the heart and in the Spirit. Praying in the Spirit is not a charismatic approach, it is a spiritual approach. We are not spiritual enough to truly pray because we want to pray in our own way and pray for the things that concern us rather than according to the Spirit. We don’t have a prayer because we don’t have a heart to truly pray. Anyone can repeat words or say certain things, but for spiritual prayer the heart must be broken by the Spirit and taught to pray by the Spirit. The Spirit will lead us to Christ and give us a love for the Father and only then will we really be praying. We are good at having so-called prayer meetings where we run through a list of things and go home satisfied that we have done our duty. But where are the prayer meetings where people are broken of self and seek the Lord and His presence? Where are the prayer meetings where people groan for the living God from a heart that aches with love and desire for Him? Without that, is it true prayer at all?
We must learn to pray as Paul prayed and our learning must be of the heart and by the Spirit or we will be doing nothing more than filling our minds with information and the air with similar words. Notice the difference between learning to say what Paul said and praying those words from the heart full of desire for the glory of God and the spiritual good of His people. We must seek the Lord for a heart that loves God from the depths of its desires and a heart like that seeks the Lord and His glory. We think something is prayer when we bring our ever so slight desires (if at all) to God for the physical well-being of another. We are more excited over a new dress or a new toy than we are over God Himself. We will ask for things and have greater delight over another human being’s attainments than we do over the glory of God. Until our hearts are broken and the Spirit teaches us to pray, we will continue on in our words we call prayer and yet we will not have a prayer at all. Accurate theology and the best words in prayer are not what the Lord looks for. He is looking for broken and humbled hearts that will learn from Him to pray.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment