Chapter Thirteen: Reviving Prayer

The author of Raised with Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything, Adrian Warnock, continues with the topic of revival, and focuses in on prayer.  And he immediately grabs the reader’s attention by stating that:

• this chapter on prayer is “potentially the most important chapter in this whole book”
• ‘reviving prayer’ will lead to the most dramatic and immediate changes in the average Christian’s experience, but
• we need to overcome our prayerlessness.

Got your interest?  Well, here are the highlights of the chapter – but they’re no substitute for getting into the book yourself.  What has the resurrection of Jesus got to do with reviving prayer?  It motivates us to pray with boldness because we know God is alive and more than able to answer prayer, given that He is able to raise the dead!

Revivals in history started with prayer meetings.  Is there a particular type of prayer that is one of the catalysts for a sovereign Lord to bring revival?  Adrian uses the prayers of Elijah in 1 Kings 17-19 to reveal the nature of reviving prayer.  In sum, it looks like this:

• plainly recognises the situation requiring God’s intervention (“don’t deny it or put a brave face on it”)
• passionate intercession before God, consistent with His biblical revelation
• calling on God to act today as He has in history. viz. “Do it again, Lord!” (see Hab 3:2)
• a heart centred on God’s glory and not our own
• asking God to bring repentance – He does it, not us
• asking God, in a bold manner, to act – and when He does don’t be floored (contra. Acts 12:15)
• be persistent in waiting on God, and discerning as to when the answers from God are beginning to flow.

My own life is not characterised by consistent reviving prayer.  It needs to be.  What about you?  Your church?

The churches in Melbourne need revival.  This wonderful city needs revival.  What about where you live?

The challenge presented by Adrian is right on – ask the One, who is in the business of bringing life where there is death, to send the fire of revival.

Death.  It’s confronting.  LIfe is precious and it hangs by a slender thread.  That’s how Adrian Warnock, author of Raised with Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything introduces:

Chapter 12: Send a Resurrection, O Lord!

The great news of course is that “God is an expert in revival.”  What happens when someone turns to Jesus in faith?  A spiritually dead person is united with a life-giving Person.

And with this introduction, Adrian focuses on revivals – when the church en masse experiences more fully the change made possible by the resurrection.  Aussie Stuart Piggin is quoted on the nature of revival:

“It is a powerful intensification by Jesus of the Holy Spirit’s normal activity.”

This is a terrific chapter by Adrian.  He comments:

• ‘revival’ is available to all Christians individually – it is quantitatively, but not qualitatively different, to our normal experience
• both through the Acts of the Apostles and church history, the Church has grown in fits and starts
• since Acts is Scripture, “it must have a role in forming our doctrine and practice” – right on!
• Acts is a “model account of how church mission should ideally proceed”
• the pattern of revival in Acts is also seen in church history:
  • period of intense emphasis on prayer in the church
  • dramatic work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers
  • inevitable impact on those outside
• whenever a group of people experience a revival, prayer and the Word of God are emphasised.

And these are the subjects of the next two chapters in Raised with Christ.

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I remember coming home from primary school and asking my Dad, “Are we from Scotland?”   “No.  We’re from Ireland.”  No more information.  With a surname like ‘McArdle’ either origin seemed reasonable.

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Many years later at the graveside of an uncle, his son and my  cousin announced to me, “Hey Rod, I’ve being doing some investigations.  Our family tree goes all the way back to Scotland.  In the 17th century, we, along with many other Catholics, fled the Protestants of Scotland and ended up in Ireland (on the south-east section of the current Ireland / Northern Ireland border).”

So,  both answers were right! Scottish and Irish.

And so here’s a prayer attributed to St Patrick:

As I arise today,
may the strength of God pilot me,
the power of God uphold me,
the wisdom of God guide me.
May the eye of God look before me,
the ear of God hear me,
the word of God speak for me.
May the hand of God protect me,
the way of God lie before me,
the shield of God defend me,
the host of God save me.
May Christ shield me today.
Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit,
Christ when I stand,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
Amen

Now that’s a great prayer, whether Irish, Scottish or Aussie!

A church service was held outdoors in the courtyard at St. Martine de Tour church in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  Picture: Damon Winter/The New York Times

See here for an illuminating article in The New York Times on the tenacity and vibrancy of Haitian Christians in the midst of unspeakable suffering.

The reporter, Deborah Sontag, recounts:

“Another man attending the evangelical service introduced his wife, eight months pregnant, who sat on the pavement blank-faced. “A concrete block fell on her stomach, and we don’t know if the baby is still alive,” said the man, Ricot Calixte, 28. “Prayer can help, I think. As I still breathe, I have faith.””

Let’s join Ricot in praying for his wife and unborn baby.

In the third message in our summer series on following the Lord Jesus, James Duff preached on prayer: Talking to Jesus.  He encouraged us to not see prayer as our personal shopping list.

Tim Keller likewise comments:

“People are used to thinking about prayer as a means to get their personal needs met. However we should understand prayer as a means to praise and adore God, to know Him, to come into his presence and be changed by Him. We need to better learn how to pray, repent and petition God as a people.

Biblically and historically, the one non-negotiable, universal ingredient in times of spiritual renewal is corporate, prevailing, intensive and kingdom-centered prayer.”

Keller then goes on and describes what he means by ‘kingdom-centred prayer.’  Read it here.