It’s wonderful to pray and it’s wonderful to be prayed for, I mean seriously prayed for. I was seriously prayed for this Sunday. I was still weary from ministering all day Saturday and had not got much rest but at the end of the service the lights went out, two birthday cakes (took two to hold all the candles) were brought in and before doing the honours I was prayed for. As B turned to ask someone else to pray for me, the Spirit of God came upon her and she began to pray, the sort of prayer that has you sitting still, stunned, and listening; it was powerful, it was prophetic, it was anointed and it was the spirit of prayer in operation. God had taken over the prayer.
It blessed me for two reasons; first, because I was getting some mega divine communication done for my exclusive benefit, a rarity indeed for those of us who spend our lives ministering to others and praying for others; and secondly because it was the perfect illustration of what I had just told the church during the announcement of the five to six am prayer week. Indeed this week is the very first five to six am prayer week of 2011 and one of the prayer points is asking God for the Spirit of prayer to come upon us individually and as a church.
It is a wonderful thing to be moved to pray. When we are moved to prayer in the Spirit of prayer we say things we would not have planned to say or thought to say, it is almost like standing outside yourself speaking the heart of God into a situation. You are literally galvanized by the Holy Spirit, and your prayer becomes bigger than yourself. It is the thing that causes a congregation to pack out prayer meetings, causes people to groan and hunger for God and feel the burden of the needs of people and the needs of the kingdom; not only feel them but pray in the solutions consistently, persistently and determinedly.
Barely had I explained this than I was the first beneficiary of it as the Holy Spirit moved upon someone to pray for me. I admit I had to wipe my eyes, the great woman of faith and power for the hour cried. Yes, I cannot help thinking we are on to a good thing here, because as we have been praying early this week the Holy Spirit has been invading the rest of my day with deeply wrought praying, groaning and intercession. That is why I always say to people that there are some prayers we should not pray if we do not want an answer, I think this is one of them. So let’s keep asking through out this year for the Spirit of prayer upon us, that we will not be able to stop praying, that we will pray as we breathe, steadfastly, consistently and almost subconsciously, that God will take over our prayer. Looking forward to a year of prayer, a year in the presence of the Master. It has certainly started out that way.
Shalom!