1 Thes.5:16-18 – Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
If anyone is paying attention you would have to say the Lord has been calling His church to prayer. Apparently, whenever the Lord wants to do something fresh in this world He begins by pouring out His Spirit of prayer. As we all know the church started 2000 years ago in an upper room prayer meeting. What started as 120 disciples gathering for extended prayer for ten days exploded into a revival that effected every part of their world. Today, the effects of that prayer meeting in Jerusalem are still reverberating all around us. What started as a prayer meeting became an unstoppable worldwide movement. In the 1700’s there was another prayer movement that is seldom remembered. It started in Germany among about 200 German Christians called Moravians. What happened through their prayers resulted in another worldwide move of God. Here is a quote from Jason Hubbard about the Moravian prayer movement.
“The Moravians understood that right now, Jesus is being adored with unceasing worship and prayer. If this is the pattern of worship and prayer in heaven, so let this be our pattern on the earth. Jesus is worthy of all of our worship, all of our obedience and all of our affections. Our worship and prayer must be around the throne, around the clock and around the globe.
One of the clearest commands to continual day-and-night, worship-saturated prayer is given to the church at Thessalonica, where Paul writes, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”. Paul is asking the church to develop a lifestyle of unceasing, joy-filled thanksgiving and prayer. It is clear that this command is to the gathered church at Thessalonica. As with most commands to pray in the New Testament, Paul is not simply commanding each individual to engage in unceasing prayer. Rather, he is exhorting the corporate body to this lifestyle.”
Over the last several months our church has been experiencing a fresh call and anointing to pray. As I said before, whenever the Lord begins to do something new it starts with an outpouring of prayer. Maybe, just maybe, we are on the verge of something special in the body of Christ. Could it be that this call to prayer will spill over into our world resulting in a fresh harvest of souls.
Well, whatever has been initiated and working through the body of believers, many of whom were given fore site by means of that which they could relate to, simple signs that meant little to others than themselves, but yet stirred the faith of those looking. If I have learned anything through the last (9) months, it’s that those who pursue (seek) will in fact find and that clearing away all the “filler” in our lives most certainly increases our awareness of the ever present Trinity and what they are putting together at this time. It’s a good thing to get caught up.