For a condensed version of Jonathan Edwards’ call to prayer go to http://www.sbapc.org , click on “BLOG,” and then “a call to prayer.”
James 5:16 – “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.”
Isaiah 64:6-7 gives us some important and yet extremely neglected elements of prayer. “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 7 There is no one who calls on Your name, Who arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.”
There is a clear link between verses 6 and 7. Verse 6 teaches that our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment and then that our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. In light of our sin we are told (v. 7) that there is no one who calls on His name and who arouses himself to take hold of God. Why is this the case? It is because He has hidden His face from us and has delivered us into the power of our iniquities. We are a nation and a professing Church without prayer because we have been delivered into the power of our iniquities. The power of sin is the love of sin and the blinding influence of our pride. We can be preachers and very religious people who say a lot of words that we think is prayer and yet we do not truly take hold of God because He is judging us.
A people that God has hidden His face from are those that cannot truly pray. They may get together for religious activities and may spend a lot of time saying words toward the ceiling, but if God has hidden His face from a people they are not truly praying no matter how many words they are offering up. The priests of Baal danced and prayed for hours and yet they were not truly praying. When God has delivered people into the power of their iniquities they cannot truly pray. When God hides His face from a church it might be growing numerically, but they are not a people that can pray and do not have the presence of God. We may lament the lack of prayer in our own hearts and in the life of churches, but it is not because men and women do not put forth enough effort. It is because God has hidden His face from the people and has turned them over to the power of their iniquities.
It is no accident and it is not just a formula that II Chronicles 7:14 gave the Israelites the steps to seeing their nation healed. 1) The people must be God’s people. 2) They must humble themselves. 3) They must pray. 4) They must seek the face of the Lord. 5) They must turn from their wicked ways. In other words, in some ways the passage in Isaiah 64:6-7 is what we need II Chronicles 7:14 for. The passage in Isaiah tells us of the judgment of God in hiding His face and the passage in II Chronicles tells us how to return to God by seeking His face. Our churches and our nation will never see true revival apart from the steps outlined in II Chronicles 7:14. But we must be careful not to assume that these things can be done apart from the work of the Spirit in our hearts. It is not that the passage just gives us some easy steps to be done, but it prescribes what must be done by God in our hearts.
Before men and women can rouse themselves to take hold of God, the judgment of God must be removed. This means that they must be deeply humbled in heart for there is no true prayer apart from humility and no deep prayer apart from a deep humility. There is no taking hold of God until the grip of self is loosened by a deep humiliation of soul. The depths of prayer are determined by the depths of humility that the Lord works in the soul. The face of God cannot be seen apart from a deeply humbled heart that seeks His face and nothing else. The face of God that has been hidden in judgment cannot be sought apart from a people that are turning from their wicked ways. But know that it is the Lord that has turned us over to the power of our iniquities and so it is the Lord alone who can grant repentance from those iniquities. If we desire the presence of the Lord in true revival, it will cost us much humbling of heart and repentance. If we are not ready to deny our very selves and reputations to seek Him, we are not ready to truly pray. We must get beyond our external religious veneer which is the judgment of God on us and seek an ever deeper humility that we may pray in an ever deeper way to grab hold of God and seek His face.
“I… do not feel sufficient emptiness in my soul to receive God” (Howell Harris).
“But now the more I did in prayer or any other duty, the more I saw I was indebted to God for allowing me to ask for mercy; for I saw it was self-interest had led me to pray, and that I had never once prayed from any respect to the glory of God” (David Brainerd).
He learned that a deep humiliation of soul was needed in order to truly pray. That is true of us as well.
God Loves... Himself 
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