Dwight L. Moody was a great witness of the Gospel in the late 1800’s. He not only spoke to crowds of thousands of people at that time but he also filled his day witnessing one-on-one to people no one else seemed to care about. D.L. Moody once entered a tavern in order to ask the bartender if his two little girls might attend Sunday school. The bartender told Moody that the atheist club met there every Thursday night and he didn’t want to upset them and loose their business, so he didn’t think that that was going to be possible. Moody looked into the face of this man and pleaded on behalf of these two little girls. Finally, the man’s heart was touched and he said, “Preacher, I will tell you what, if you come down here on Thursday night and meet with those boys and have a discussion with them, and if you win that discussion, I will let you take my two little girls to your Sunday school.” Moody said, “Agreed,” and he went out and immediately he looked up a crippled news boy named Tommy. He said, “Tommy, I need your help on Thursday night.” One Thursday evening, Tommy, who had trusted Christ and was known to be a little boy who loved God and prayed often to God, went with D.L. Moody to this tavern.
The tavern was full. There were people sitting on whiskey barrels and beer kegs all across the bar. In stepped D.L. Moody and little Tommy and Moody began, “Gentlemen, it is our custom to begin our meetings in prayer. Tommy, why don’t you stand up on that barrel over there and open up this meeting in prayer.” Tommy began to pray and plead to the Lord for the souls of all those who were present. As Tommy began to pray, tears began streaming down his face as he prayed that God would touch these atheists with His mercy and that they would come to salvation.
First, those atheists with sensitive hearts began to shuffle their feet and because of the conviction and compassion in this little boy they began to realize that they had lost their appetite for the faith and they shuffled out of the room. One-by-one, all these men shuffled out of the room and by the end of little Tommy’s prayer, there was only D.L. Moody, Tommy, and the bartender left in the room. Everyone else had gone home. Moody turned to the father and said, “I claim your two girls for my Sunday school.” The bartender answered, “Okay, you win, but it sure is a strange way to fight.” D.L. Moody answered, “It is the way I win many a battle.”
Christian, prayer is one of God’s chief weapons to win His battles against sin, overcoming the world, the flesh, the Devil himself. It is a battle to win men’s and women’s hearts to the Gospel, and yet often prayer is that sword that stays in the scabbard for the church. It is the gun that is seldom locked, loaded, and fired. Prayer is often that fighter jet that remains grounded. The spiritual battle continues to rage on in our own souls and in the life of the church, and yet we often act as though we are living in peace time; as though no souls are dying without Christ; as though no deceptions lurk to seize our children’s minds; as though no temptations worm their way into our own hearts to corrupt our souls; as though Satan has ceased from his work to destroy Christ’s church, to rob God of His rightful glory.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, now is not the time to lay down the weapons of our warfare. Now is the time to take up the weapon of prayer, in particular. Now is the time to hold fast to it for the life of the church and our own soul depends upon it.
This past Tuesday, more Americans voted than ever before in this nation’s history. More Christians voted than ever before in this nation’s history. We voted because we sensed the significance of this election; we sensed what was at stake. Voting is very, very important. But, prayer is yet more so. The church of Jesus Christ needs to understand what is at stake if we do not commit ourselves, devote ourselves, to prayer.
In Acts, Chapter 1, God calls His people to prayer. He does so through the example of the disciples of Jesus as they waited for the coming of our Lord. Jesus Christ has just commissioned them to be witnesses throughout the entire world and now they are instructed to wait and to worship and pray as they waited and that is what we find them doing.
In this story we will find four distinctives behind God’s call to prayer for us; let us learn from God to pray. The first distinctive that emerges from the story is that God calls believers to gather together for prayer. In Verse 12 we read:
12Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the City13When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
Remember, they were at the Mount of Olives and they saw the Lord Jesus ascend into heaven. They are gazing and two angels ask them, “Why are you standing there staring into the sky? Jesus is going to return.” Then they decide that they will return to Jerusalem to obey the Lord and wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus had just told them, in Verse 8, “You will be my witnesses. You will be witnesses to the fact that men and women and children in this world need a savior and that I am that Savior. Men and women need to come to Me in order to find forgiveness of sin, in order to have hope in this life and the life beyond. You are going to be my witnesses in that regard.”
Understand that this was not an individual witness that each one was to bring to the world, but this was a witness together. It is a plural term “you all” are going to be my witnesses. He didn’t have the idea that each one would go in isolation from the others but that they together, as a group, would be about the work of bringing a witness to the world. It is not unusual for us, when we come to Verse 12, to see that they are returning to Jerusalem together. It is about a Sabbath day’s walk, it says, which is about fifteen minutes at a slow pace; about a half to three-quarters of a mile in length. When they arrived, they, together, went up upstairs to the room where they were staying. Many commentators believe that this is the same upper that the disciples had gathered in at the Last Supper when Jesus gave them the bread and the cup.
In First Century Jerusalem the upper rooms of homes were the largest rooms and this room could hold up to one hundred twenty people, which is what the text seems to be indicating, and those present were: “Peter, John, James, Andrew” and he lists the other of the eleven disciples, as well as later mentioning the women and Mary and Jesus’ brothers. There is a huge group of people gathered together. The principle that God gives us all through Scripture is that we need each other. We are not born again to ourselves but we are born again into a community in which we need to gather together and serve Christ together, encourage one another together, pray together, obey together. The church is to be together actively pursuing the will of God.
God places each of us into a new community when we are born again and one of the worst things that can happen for a Christian is for that man, woman, or child to become isolated away from the group; away from God’s community.
Verse 14 tells us, “they all joined together”. Other translations say, “they were all in one accord”, “they were united”, “they were of one mind” (NAS). In these phrases there are two ideas that stand out and these various translations reflect that. The first is that they were physically together, in the same place, for the same purpose: to pray. The second idea is that they were relationally, or spiritually, together. They were united. There was no sense that the disciples were pointing fingers of blame: “Peter, why didn’t you do this,” “Thomas, why didn’t you do that?” There was no arguing among them as to who would be the greatest. There were no divisions, no factions, no fighting. We see this beautiful picture of this group of people huddled together in this Upper Room, physically joined together for the purpose of worship and prayer, but also, relationally, spiritually, joined together as one.
It is in this fashion that the church of Jesus Christ is the strongest and most effective. By way of observation, we will see this all through the book of Acts. We will see the beginnings of organized religion. Many in our culture today will say, “I don’t like organized religion. It is me and my god and I will do my own thing.”
Right away we see here that someone is taking minutes, at least Luke has the minutes of the meeting because he writes down the names of the people who are there; he knows there are one hundred and twenty people there. There are leaders amongst them. There are eleven disciples and they are going to choose a twelfth, and there is one leader that emerges as the first among equals, Peter, who becomes the spokesperson, and they have an agenda that they realize they need to fulfill. While it is possible for an organization to take over the heart and soul of its life, God intends for us to be organized together, and the rest of the New Testament revelation will reveal that. God calls followers of Jesus Christ to gather together specifically for prayer; to gather together physically so that you and I are joined in the same place, at the same time, for the same purpose to bring praise and petition and supplication and intercession before God. We are to gather together spiritually so that the physical meetings of prayer are sweet times of genuine love, genuine fellowship, genuine caring for one another, and genuine adoration towards God Himself.
Do you believe God called you, and not us together as a church, to gather together with Christ’s church in the same place physically for the purpose of prayer and worship? We are here today and to a certain extent we all believe that, but I believe that it is vital for us as a church to gather together for prayer in a much more committed way than we are presently expressing. Do you believe that? The church will not receive the fullness of God’s blessing if she does not listen and heed God’s clear call to gather together for prayer.
Many believers will say, “It is enough to come on Sunday morning. I don’t need to gather together with other believers for any other time or place or purpose.” Some many contend, “I can pray to God on my own without the church of Jesus Christ present.” Some excuse themselves with, “I am not comfortable with praying with other people.” Some may say, “I just really don’t want to. It is not something that excites me. It is not something that I feel motivated to do.”
Sadly, overall, the condition of the church is such that prayer meetings are most often absolutely empty in modern times. In fact, many churches have said, “We give up! We surrender! We are tired of having a handful of people coming to prayer meetings so we are just going to cancel prayer meetings. We are not going to have a time when the church gathers together for the explicit purpose of prayer.”
At Bethany, I have been encouraged as we have given the congregation the call to once a month set aside a time when you gather together with the church for prayer. We call that “first prayer” because it is first in priority, but it is also first in a sense that it is on the first Wednesday evening of every month, or the first Wednesday morning of every month; 6:30 in the morning or 6:30 in the evening. If those times aren’t convenient, and you really want to gather, tell me another time and we will do it at any other time you tell me because I believe that you need to set aside a time for the purpose of gathering together with other believers for the purpose of prayer. I have been encouraged to see that we are beginning to grow. We are not nearly where we should be, or need to be. We have Wednesday night prayer meetings every Wednesday so you are welcome to come every Wednesday. I understand how difficult life can be and the business behind it, but I am saying, let us begin by thinking, “Can’t we, at least once a month, twelve times a year, say, ‘I am going to set aside an hour to gather together with other believers simply to pray.’”
Do you believe that God has called you to gather together with other believers for the purpose of prayer?
Participation in the prayer gatherings of the church is the toughest sell for the church because prayer is the hardest work for those who are participating in it. In most other meetings of the church, those meetings can, in a legitimate way, be made fun and to a certain degree exciting and entertaining, even on a surface level. It is legitimate, for instance, in a sermon, to have humor and to add stories of human interest so that even those who come with a superficial ear, might leave and say, “That was kind of fun. That was enjoyable.” It is possible to have a musical in such a way where the melody and the excellence of the vocalists and musicians provide even the superficial ear and ability to leave and say, “Well, that was kind of fun. That was kind of enjoyable.” We saw a drama today where even the superficial ear can say, “Well, that was kind of fun to listen to that.” Again, there is a very legitimate sense behind those kinds of things involved in the worship of God.
Don’t get me wrong, the primary purpose of all those things in the church, whether it is a sermon, the music, or a drama, is always for the worship of God and the enjoyment of God. But, it is also true that a soul that does not enjoy God might still enjoy the medium. Does that make sense?
In prayer, I have yet to find a way, and I cannot fathom a way, that a soul that does not enjoy God will leave a prayer meeting saying, “That was enjoyable.” If we are to be fervent and enjoy prayer it is because we enjoy the God that we are communing with. It is just hard work, that is what it is, and it requires us to be in love with God. That is why it is such a hard sell for the church of the 21st Century.
God calls believers to gather together for prayer. The second distinctive we want to look at is that God calls believers to devote themselves to prayer and commit themselves. Again, in Verse 14,
14They all joined together constantly…
Other translations, like the New American Standard Version, make it even more apparent the meaning behind these words. It says,
14 These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer…
One Greek scholar, A.G. Robertson, says, “That means they stuck to praying!”
We might ask what were these one hundred twenty people praying about in this room? What was the content of the prayer? We don’t know. We can take some guesses, but I believe the reason for that is that it really doesn’t matter what they were praying about so much as the fact that they were praying and the nature of their praying; that they had gathered together and they were fervent, they were devoted to this spiritual act. They were committed and were persevering in prayer. They held on to the idea of prevailing in prayer.
There are many circumstances and situations that come to the believer to discourage us from gathering together in prayer. I recognize that, but this commit of these early disciples prevailed against all of these circumstances, all of these situations, so that there simply was no quitting to their praying together.
Here is a convicting question, and this is perhaps for some of the older saints because some of the younger saints have never participated in prayer meetings, how many of you used to attend prayer meetings in your younger days but no longer attend prayer meetings in church? That is a hard conviction, and I don’t want to lay a guilt trip on you. That is not how we are motivated to pray, but it is just to observe where the church has gone.
I remember as a little boy my parents taking me to prayer meetings and my question was, “Dad, why do we have to go to prayer meetings?” “Because we have to, son.” My dad didn’t try to convince me, “It is going to be a lot of fun, son! There is going to be this and this and at the end there is going to be candy. We are going to prayer meetings, son.” I thank God that my parents were faithful to showing me a spiritual commitment that I learned was absolutely vital to the health of my soul because, originally, I didn’t appreciate it. The Bible calls us to such devotion.
This term “they devoted themselves to prayer” occurs several times in the New Testament. In Acts 2:42, we will see again, this church, now that the Holy Spirit comes
42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship…and to prayer.
In Romans 12:12, the apostle Paul is going to write,
12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
In Colossians 4:2, Paul says,
2Devote yourselves to prayer…
This is the very same word that is used in Acts 1:14, to describe what they were doing. What might discourage us from prevailing in prayer; from persevering and not quitting? Let me give you two reasons that are often offered. First, “God is disappointing me. I prayed to God and He did not answer, or He answered in a way that I did not Him to answer.” Sometimes God, in His infinite wisdom, says, “No!” to our request. We are tempted to say, “What does it really matter if I pray or not?” It does matter and the apostle Paul recognized this for his own life. He had this thorn in the flesh, and we don’t know much about what that thorn is, expect that he is suffering because of it and he prayed three times to the Lord, “Lord, please take this thorn away from me. I believe it is hindering me in my ministry. Please take it away.” God said, “No, no, no!” It could have been easy for Paul to say, “What is the use in my praying those three times then? A lot of good that did me!”
That was not the apostle Paul’s heart attitude at all. He recognized that his praying did him great good, because he realized that it was through his praying he realized God purposes those prayers. He said, “God, I thank you that your grace is sufficient because of what I am learning now as this thorn in the flesh is plaguing my life, I am learning that in my weakness you are strong. Thank you, God.” God was answering his prayer but it was different his own fleshly desires.
Others may say, “I am just too busy,” and again I believe that our need is so great that we must pray. We are a very action oriented people. We expect action and we expect it immediately. We want to do something to fix our problems. We don’t want to wait. More than that, we want God to do something. We want God to act quickly and on our time table. If God doesn’t do something we think something is horribly wrong so we have to get even busier to affect the change. It is a mistake to think, “The more I do for God the more honoring I am to Him.” This is not necessarily the case.
The Bible is an action oriented book so there is action that must be taken. The disciples were told to “go and wait” for ten days. It would have been easy for these disciples to say, “Jesus is just given us this charge to be witnesses. There are cities that have never heard the Gospel. There are people who need to be redeemed. There are things to do to get this church going, but God says, ‘No, wait!’” Prayer is the fuel that makes action effective. All of our action becomes like the spinning of the wheel of the hamster. There is a lot of activity but there is no forward movement unless God is behind it. God honors the prayers of His people so you see why praying is so absolutely necessary to the preparation of the effectiveness of our action.
A builder doesn’t start the construction of a house before the plans are finished. A baker doesn’t start a cake without preparing the ingredients. A general doesn’t send his troops into battle without a battle plan to win the conflict. We don’t even go on vacation without preparing for that; without having a map in hand and understanding where we are going and how we are going to get back from there. How is it the church can think that we can act without any preparation to empower the action? Beloved, we must pray.
It is so encouraging to look at the list of the guys. Outside of Peter, James, and John none of these others are mentioned. This is the last time they will be mentioned in the New Testament. They are a bunch of ordinary people. There are no superstars in this room. This is no “celebrity Christianity; ‘Hey, we have the MVP of such-and-such a league so now we will be able to turn the world upside down.’” There was none of that; just plain, ordinary folk. You know what they had? They had plain, ordinary folk who devoted themselves to prayer and they turned the world upside down.
We might ask, “What does the church of Jesus Christ need today in order to bring a revival to itself, in order to bring a harvest to the nation of souls coming to Christ and honoring this God who is so worthy of our worship? What is it going to take?”
History reveals that every revival began with people committing themselves to prayer. It didn’t require a large number of people committing themselves to prayer. It just required people who said, “I am going to devote myself to prayer because I believe this is necessary. This is God’s call upon our lives.”
The third distinctive is that God calls believers to study His word in prayer. The “word in prayer” always mesh together; they always go hand-in-hand. We see that in Verse 15:
15In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled…”
Peter emerges as the first among equals, the leader of the group. He is telling them, “This is the Word of God and God’s Word will not return void. It will accomplish whatever God intends for it to accomplish. The Scripture has to be fulfilled.” This indicates that these disciples are off in rooms meditating with blank stares on their faces. These men and women are gathered together in prayer around the Scriptures. They are saying, “God told us that we are going to be witnesses. God has told us that the Holy Spirit is going to come. Maybe we should find out what God is saying in His Word about this Holy Spirit; about what is going to take place.” They are intent on studying the Scriptures as they pray.
Prayer is never divorced from the Truth of God’s Word. Our prayers must be informed by the Bible. Prayer is talking to God. The Scripture is God talking to us. There is no sure revelation that we have that is certain and absolutely true apart from what God has revealed in His Sacred Scripture.
There are some who will say, “God told me this. God told me that.” There have been times in my own life where I have felt the strong impression of the Lord in His leaning upon me. I think that there is a certain legitimacy in that. I am not here to deny anyone’s experience, but the truth is, I cannot validate anyone’s experience, not even my own. The only think I can validate and say, “This is something that is sure, something that is trustworthy,” is the written, revealed Word of God.
Look at what Peter says in Verse 16,
“…the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke through the mouth of David concerning Judas …”
Peter doesn’t say, “Listen to what David wrote by the Holy Spirit,” rather he says listen to what the “Holy Spirit spoke through the mouth of David. This is to say that God is the original author of this book.” That is what Peter believed and what Peter is teaching. In his letter, II Peter 1:21, he is going to describe that process by saying, “Holy men of old were borne along, were carried along, were moved, by the Holy Spirit to write the very words of God.” Isn’t it so encouraging to know that we have the very words of God that we can rest our entire life upon; words that were established in eternity past and will be just as true, just as sure, just as certain in eternity future, just as certain as they are today.
Our culture likes to think that values and moral truths changes and shift with people, movements, and cultures, but that simply is not true. The Word of God is what stands forever and Peter is basing his praying upon the Word that is informing him as he prays. He knows what God says is true so he spends time in waiting, in prayer, and in study of the Scriptures.
These disciples had a very difficult path ahead of them and they wanted to make sure that they were basing their action, plan, and program upon God’s Word. The Scripture had to be fulfilled.
Sometimes, as Christians, we say, “We want God to bless our church. We want God to bless our family,” but if we are serious about God’s blessing, “God bless America”, we must learn that the way to God’s blessing is through the study of His Word and calling out to Him in humble prayer. That is the path of God’s blessing. That is the foundation, and then to embrace the Word of God, believe it for ourselves, live it out and proclaim it to other people of the world, this is the story of the Christian church. If we desire blessings of this church, if we desire blessings of our family, if we desire God to bless America, this must be our story in this generation.
Verses 16b and 17 talk about the Holy Spirit speaking through
“…David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus— 17he was one of our number and shared in this ministry.”
David lived a thousand years before Judas, and yet David spoke concerning Judas because the Holy Spirit was leading him to speak concerning Judas. There is no one in the history of the world who frittered away a greater privilege than Judas. He walked with Jesus. He talked with Jesus. He did miracles along side the other disciples. He watched miracles. Yet, all of that was lost. It is possible to have great spiritual privilege and yet loose it all.
For you young people who are in church and whose moms and dads take you to church week after week and instruct you in your home, please look at Judas and understand the warnings given. It is possible to have great spiritual privilege and fritter it away. I urge you to call upon God and say, “God, be merciful to my heart. Open my ears and make my heart sensitive to you. I want to have you in my life.” God will be gracious if you pray such a humble prayer.
Verse 17b through 20 talk about
“…the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. 19Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)
20“For,” said Peter, “it is written in the book of Psalms,” ‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and,” ‘May another take his place of leadership.’”
Peter is pointing to the fact that Scripture prophesied that Judas would betray the Lord and Scripture also prophesied that another person would be risen to take his place. That shapes their action. They read that Scripture and realize that “God wants someone to become the twelfth apostle. It is not right for us to leave his space vacant.” “Why is it not right?” “Because the Scripture says that this is what is going to happen and it is going to happen through us. God intends to fulfill his plans and purposes though us.” They trusted God in that way.
The last distinction we come to with regards to prayer is that God calls believers to make decisions on the basis of prayer. Please know that prayer aligns our hearts to God’s plan and it aligns our hearts to God’s Scripture.
The disciples had a huge decision to make; this one of replacing Judas as a member of the twelve apostles was huge. How would they know who to choose? Verse 21-22 says,
“…it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”
They mark out some qualifications: the person had to have been with Jesus the whole time of His earthly ministry; they had to have been an eye witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is what an apostle is, consequently, that is why there are no more apostles today because no one today had been with Jesus the entire time and had been an eye witness to His resurrection. That is a qualification of being an apostle. After this, in Verse 23, “…they proposed two men…”
They did the best they could and it came down to two men: it might be Joseph and it might be Matthias. Look at what they did in Verse 24:
“Then they prayed…”
It is vital in the decision making process of this church, in the decision making process of your life and family, that you not merely give lip service. There have been groups, and it is not a part of this leadership team, but there have been leadership teams in the past that come to the congregation, or the group they are leading, and they say, “We prayed about this and we believe that this is where God wants us to go.” I have been in on those planning meetings and I don’t remember having hardly any prayer, but that is what the leader said. Undoubtedly, I am sure they may have prayed individually. It is vital, if you are involved in a ministry inside this church, or outside this church, that we not give lip service. It is vital in deacon meetings. It is vital in Sunday school teacher meetings. It is vital in AWANA meetings. It is vital that we don’t open in prayer and just say a few sentences and then move on to the regular business. Our decisions must be grounded and rooted in prayer.
Why is that? These disciples recognized that they, “did not have the wisdom that is required to make right decisions. Jesus has risen and just because He has ascended doesn’t mean He has left us. Jesus still wants to be the head of His church and He still wants to guide us”, so they really, truly prayed about this.
There are ideas that have emerged in modern Christianity, and I can’t find it anywhere outside of modern Christianity, that Christians today are to make decisions based upon wisdom principles as opposed to prayer and as opposed to thinking that God will actually direct your life. God wants us, today, to be mature, confident people. When we come to decisions and think through them and consider if there is anything in Scripture first, reflect on that based upon our wisdom, and then make a decision, we shouldn’t expect to hear God to give direct guidance. That is nonsense in regard to the Scripture. Over and over again, people in Scripture sought God’s guidance for these things and so must we. We must expect that God will guide us.
Wisdom and Scripture are necessary. That is what the disciples did and I am not belittling those aspects of the decision making process, but part of that decision making process is, “Lord, would you guide me? Then I am going to trust you with it. I am not asking for a sign from heaven, but I am just going to trust that you will guide me.” God will guide in a hundred different kinds of ways, but He will guide His people as we pray.
How do they discover who will replace Judas? We find the answer in Verse 26:
26Then they cast lots…
There were two stones; a white stone and a black stone. They said, “Okay, we will put our hand in. If it is a white stone it is going to be Matthias. If it is a black stone it is going to be Joseph,” and they pulled out a white stone. That is how they did that.
In the Old Testament it was not unusual to cast lots. I want to encourage you that this is not the example that God gives us from this point on. As you consider who you are to marry, I would not encourage you to use different colored stones, to include going to college, what house to buy, and all other important decisions.
The Holy Spirit comes in Acts, Chapter 2, and from that moment on this whole methodology for making decisions is set aside. There is no more mention in Scripture as having a place in the decision making process. I believe that this is because the Holy Spirit now lives in us and is able to guide us from within.
The early church devoted themselves to prayer. Everywhere we turn in the Book, the disciples of Jesus are praying. I can think of the number of times, and almost in every chapter, this is a necessary lesson for the church today.
I look at Peoria, Illinois, and its community, and I still see the work that still needs to be done. I see the plight. We cannot be under any delusion that our country is somehow turning to a spiritual revival. I don’t see any indication of that, rather I see the plight of our country into gross materialism, overt sin, the churches mindless conformity to this world, and I say, “Lord, we need a revival”. If we are to expect a revival we have to ready ourselves for it and that is why God calls us to pray.
Would you not be one of those God calls and make preparation for His church and a true revival in this generation? We must pray.