BrianIngraham.com | ASPIRE

While rereading A.T. Pierson’s book “George Muller: All Things are Possible.” I stumbled upon this great section on prevailing prayer.

Five grand conditions of prevailing prayer were ever before his [George Muller’s] mind:

1. Entire dependence upon the merits and meditation of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the only ground of any claim for blessing. (See John xiv. 13,14; xv. 16, etc.)

2. Separation from all known sin… (Psalm lxvi. 18)

3. Faith in God’s word of promise as confirmed by His oath. Not to believe Him is to make Him both a liar and perjurer. (Hebrews xi. 6; vi. 13-20)

4. Asking in accordance with His will. Our motives must be godly: we must not seek any gift of God to consume it upon our own lusts. (1 John v. 13; James iv. 3)

5. Importunity in supplication. There must be waiting on God and waiting for God, as the husbandman has long patience to wait for the harvest. ( James v. 7; Luke xviii. 1-10)

About a month ago I had the opportunity to sit around a table with some exceptional men who love the word of God and who are wanting to see God’s Kingdom advance again in Scotland. Some from the greater Glasgow area, some from Edinburgh, some from other places like Stirling, Perth, and Dundee.

We all got together and listened to Iain Murray, of Banner of Truth Publishing, speaking to us about what we, as the young Church leaders of today, can learn from the Puritans.

Michael Luehrmann recorded the session and has made it available HERE.

I found this to be a casual time jam-packed with gold… enjoy.

I have become convinced our church is under the most subtle and dangerous of spiritual attacks and it is coming at the most sneaky of times. It comes at a time when we are growing, things seem to be thriving, people are excited, and the services are going well. On the one hand God is moving, and yet at the same time our adversary is at work attempting to “cut the power.”

For the last six weeks or so, our times of prayer have been slowly drying up, there is a noticed loss of urgency and enthusiasm. Our Tuesday night prayer time has gone from thriving to just a handful of people in the shortest of time. It had even entered my mind to just stop the Tuesday prayer altogether. Last Tuesday it was so bad, some of the people were silently searching, in prayer, for the reason of the dramatic decline in this area, and the dramatic rise in sleepiness, apathy, and faithless praying. We now are certain of Satan’s hand in this. He knows how to kill a good church, take the heart out of the praying.

I ‘randomly’ picked up James Frasier’s Biography this morning and was greatly encouraged by what I read. James was reflecting on Ephesians 6 about standing firm in Faith, Righteousness, Truth, in readiness, and in prayer, so that we can stand in the day of evil. Out of his circumstance he writes:

“I am not, however, taking the bleak, despondent view I took yesterday… the opposition will not be overcome by reasoning or by pleading, but by (chiefly) steady, persistent prayer.”

“I am now setting my face like a flint; If the work seems to fail, then pray; if services, etc., fall flat, then pray still more; if months slip by with little or no result, then pray still more and get others to help you”

“In every battle there are crucial spots. Get near and stay near to your Divine Chief until He turns and points them out. And at those points face and force the fight.”

I am convinced our ‘Divine Chief’ has pointed out this crucial battle for us and our church. It goes with out saying that we have chosen not to stop our Tuesday night prayer time. Join us in praying against this attack, that the enemies’ strategic attack would be fully defeated, and that again prayers would flow passionately and with faith. Thank you for standing with us. Prayer is powerful. God still hears prayers and God is still moving!

Living and leading a church in the shadow of the University of Glasgow, I have felt challenged by divinity students of the university and a professor who attends Re:Hope to research ‘higher criticism’ and ‘biblical authorship’, especially with the first 5 books of the bible. The Universities in Glasgow are teaching the same as Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, etc. namely, that Moses didn’t write the first 5 books of the bible, instead they were written by at least 4 different authors 500-800 years after Moses lived.

Knowing the calibre of universities teaching the higher criticism approach to the bible I was expecting a highly scholastic and tightly packaged theory and found myself shockingly disappointed. At times, in my study, it felt a bit like reading the Da Vinci Code, one part conspiracy, one part institutional cover up. It felt like the Da Vinci Code but with much larger holes and leaps than I ever imagined.

Although there are lots of little issues one could address pertaining aspects of the higher critical approach, ultimately it all boils down to one premise. Either God is who the bible says he is, or not. The Critical approach begins with the premise that God is not who the bible says he is, if he even exists at all. And all we have been told about God via the bible is merely the work of disgruntled, historical revisionists, re-slanting their history to forward their political interests hundreds of years later.

There is only need of such a theory if God is not who the bible says He is. There is only need of such theory if God cannot do supernatural things, if he cannot both lead people to prophecy and then see prophecy fulfilled. If God is not who the bible says He is, what was the deal with Jesus? Good thing God is.

A few years ago I was on youth staff at Rolling Hills Community Church. During those years I learned big lessons that have shaped both who I am and how I do ministry today. Rolling Hills had 8 full-time staff in the youth department with very focused area’s of specialization. Mark Began (the boss, a.k.a. ‘The big shooter-downer’:-) had quite a challenge bring unity to his staff. I remember it was a season of particular tension, we didn’t seem to be getting along well, and he took us all to play Frisbee golf at a local park. We spent the afternoon chucking Frisbee’s and just playing. It was fun.

The next staff meeting, people walked in with smiles seeing each other, I even think there was some hugs and some, “it’s great to see you’s.” It was a learning moment in my life that made it into my first written draft of my philosophy of ministry.

“Never underestimate the power of play.”

That day I saw tensions on church staff dissolve. I saw people giving a bit more grace to one another. I saw increased love. That day I learned that love and grace are cultivated in play. This is the driving reason for game nights at church. This is the driving reason for video game nights with church people. And deep down, I am thinking the genuine unity and love for one another that is continuing to grow at Re:Hope could be the natural symptom of things many might consider to be a waste of time.

Last night, our video game night at Microplay Gaming Centre was electric. There was a great group of people from church and so many people who have never gone to church in their lives having a great time. It sounds so stupid, so pointless. Yet, it was blazingly obvious that camaraderie was being build, friendships were growing and the unifying power of fun was at work.

BTW- “I killed Dan.”

I am a huge fan of biographies of godly people over the ages. I am currently reading “George Muller: All Things Are Possible,” (First published in 1901) given to me by Scotty. I am usually not so concerned about what they eventually accomplish, but I am incredibly interested in what pieces God put in them to make them the mighty people of faith that they become. Here are some fantastic building blocks God put in George Muller early on in his life as preparation so that he could do what God would call him to do.

1. Prayer and Reliance on God’s Intervention: “Prayer, on the knees, both in secret and in such companionship of believers, was henceforth to be the one great central secret of his holy living and holy serving. Upon this corner-stone of prayer all his life-work was to be built… Prayer for direct divine guidance in every crisis, great or small, was to be the secret of his whole career.”
2. Cover-to-Cover Bible Reading: One of the yearly forming steps in his life “was the discovery of the preciousness of the word of God.” “During the last 20 years of his life he read it [the Bible] carefully through, four or five times annually, with a growing sense of his own rapid increase in the knowledge of God thereby.”
3. Reading of Missionary Biographies: Muller read the life of A.H. Franke who lived 100 years previous to Muller and modelled his ministry after his. Also starting in the year of his conversion “He now began to read missionary journals which kindled a new flame in his heart.”
4. Any Cost Commitment: Muller almost walked away from his life calling because he fell in love with a Christian woman who wasn’t interested in ministry. Ultimately, after much pain, “He gave up the girl he loved.” This decision was not the last dealing with the issue of self-denial in the following of Jesus.
5. Shaped by Waiting: Early on Muller rushed into several mistakes via ‘lot casting’ for divine decision making. “The flesh is impatient of all delay, both in decision and action…God is often moved to delay that we might be lead to pray, and even the answers to prayer are deferred that the natural and carnal spirit may be kept in check and self will may bow before the will of God.”
6. Other People: “Such vacillations in Christian experience were due in part to the lack of holy associations and devout companionships. Every disciple needs help in holy living, and this young believer [Muller] yearned for that spiritual uplift afforded by sympathetic fellow believers.”
7. Simple and Certain Faith: “…And so God gave him from the outset a very simple, childlike disposition toward Himself… In faith and in the filial spirit, he always continued to be a little child.”

Let’s not be idiots! These are consistently found in the DNA of people of real faith. If we want to be mighty people of God let us learn from the people who have gone before us. Which of these seven things need to become more prevalent in your life?

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within. — Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Why, within a hundred years, did such a small country, with a small population, produce so many missionaries? 150 years ago the people of Scotland were leading the way globally per capita in world missions. Iain Murry suggests that these key ingredients made this significant nation massively potent for the Kingdom of God internationally.

• “Scottish missionaries came from homes and backgrounds where simple living, hard work, ready sacrifice and earnest devotion were the everyday experiences of youth.”
• “Nominal Christians, who care little of their own souls, are not going to be concerned for others, least of all for people whom they never saw… New Zeal to take the gospel out was born out of a new experience of its power.”
• Returning to faith in Scripture as the Word of God. (“The proof that faith in Scripture and its message is supreme in the motivation of mission can be seen in what has happened when that faith is absent.”)

Where are the people who will be mocked by the divinity students for not being highly critical of the Bible, but who instead have faith in it as God’s very words? Where are the ones who escape from nominality, and zealously exude a love for God and humanity? Where are the ones who refuse to loose hope for their God rejecting city? In short, where are the hero’s? Are there any left? Who will rise up?

Got to love Scotland. When it comes to the tobacco industry they don’t mince words. On one side, “Smoking Kills.” On the other side of the same box “Smoking can cause a slow and painful death.”

A friend of mine gave me this box after he finished them off. You have to shake your head. It couldn’t be more clearly spelt out for him and yet he sucks them down anyways. Isn’t it crazy how we do that? How we ignore the truths we don’t want to believe, no matter how clearly they might be laid out, to our own destruction?

Thanks to Christ’s Church Federal Way I have been doing some extra reading on the history of Scottish Christianity (reformation to present.) I think the most appalling, yet most encouraging theme of Scottish history is the complete abandonment of the faith and subsequent reviving. I was shocked to discover that the church has had other times in its short history far more dead, and desperate than today. I find encouragement in the fact that in dark days God revives his dying bride through the passionate faith of a few. Historically speaking, it is when people return to reading the bible themselves that the church returns in power.

Some themes in the revivals in Scotland:

• A return to the Bible in the pulpit and in the populace.
• A reliance on the power of the Spirit returning people to prayer.
• An anointed person or group sacrificially bringing a spark to a dead faith in a given region.
• Refusal to quite even though year after year revival teeters on the edge of total collapse and utter ruin.
• Powerful conviction leading to repentance leading to ‘unreasonable’ passion.

I see the stirrings of good things at our church. I see the pulpit and populace being bibliocentric, and our church growing in prayer. A good start. Time and tenacity will see if what is beginning will bring a reviving in our city. What I haven’t seen much of is deep conviction leading to repentance. I see repentance, but not by the kind of deep brokenness that has characterized other revivings. Then again, that seems to be the last piece that sweeps in quickly when everything else is in place. I wouldn’t be surprised to see our city revived in the next few years.

We need a reviving in our land, the kind of reviving we have only heard about. Is history in the process of repeating itself?