Prayer: a Force That Causes Change: Volume 1: a Call to Prayer

By David Williamson

This book is a call to prayer, a call from lethargy and apathy that is so common today, to effective prayer. This is a call to unlimited prayer; prayer that has great power and obtains wonderful results. Christian prayer is a source of great blessing and it is a means of focusing God's power and might on our needs and problems. It brings great answers, if we will pray. Why limit prayer, when God gives breathtaking answers, when we pray. Prayer has great power and brings wonderful results. It is like unleashing a dam of water, the pent up power rushes out of the reservoir and the power affects everything it contacts, it brings change.

This book is a series of articles on prayer. A Call to Prayer is the first of four volumes on the prayer life. These articles were originally published in the online newsletter Voice of Thanksgiving. The articles are intended as lessons in prayer; written to promote thinking about prayer and to encourage further exploration of an effective prayer life. They were also written to foster a growth in devotion to God and the Christian life of faith. These articles are intended to encourage going to the Holy Spirit School of Christian life and prayer, where we learn to pray, not just prayers, but effective faith filled prayers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jun 25, 2008
• ISBN: 9781490729176

David Williamson

David Williamson is one of Australia's best known and most widely performed playwrights and one of Australia's leading screenwriters. His dramas have been produced by all the major Australian theatre companies and have been translated into many languages and performed internationally. David has directed eight professional productions of his own work and written many radio dramas. He has also written (or co-written) scripts for fifteen feature films, including the original screenplays for Petersen, Eliza Fraser (starring Susannah York), Gallipoli and The Year of Living Dangerously (both starring Mel Gibson), Phar Lap, and Balibo (with Robert Connolly). His movie adaptations of his own plays include The Removalists, Don's Party, The Club, Travelling North, Emerald City and Sanctuary, and for television he adapted The Department, The Perfectionist, A Dangerous Life and On the Beach, and wrote The Four Minute Mile.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

THE BLESSING

OF PRAYER

I t is nearly impossible to fathom the significance of prayer. There is nothing in all the arsenals of man as powerful as prayer and nothing as all encompassing as prayer. People have practiced prayer for centuries; volumes have been written about it and still we have yet to measure its depth and breadth.

Throughout history there have been remarkable men and women of prayer; they are examples for us all. Yet, even with these examples, and perhaps due to the awe-inspiring nature of these examples, we struggle to relate to them and their life of prayer. We are overwhelmed by the power of their prayers. For example, Elijah prayed and there was no rain for three years. That is power in prayer.

And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand,there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.

1 KINGS 17:1 (NKJV)

And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

1 KINGS 17:7 (NKJV)

We are tempted to place Elijah and others like him, those incredibly powerful in prayer, in a special category of mankind, people with special powers, people who have a special relationship with God. While these people do have a special relationship with God, it is the same type of relationship that could be ours. However, instead of developing this relationship, we try to make excuses and claim that God listens in some special way to the prayers of these people. This thinking is contrary to the Bible; God is not a respecter of persons. He does not single out people for special benefits and limit others.

Power in prayer is available to all, but not all have made themselves available for this power. While some people in the Bible are kings and queens, privileged in position and power, most are common people with no special qualification, other than their uncommon relationship with God. Great men and women of prayer have been, and are today, common men and women with an uncommon relationship with God. We can have an uncommon relationship with God and be a man or woman of power in prayer.

For Christians, building relationship develops along two main lines, God as Father and God as friend. Jesus brought the great revelation concerning God, explaining that God is our Father. This was a radical departure from the orthodox views of the day and for many people it still is today. We are sons and daughters of God and as such have standing with the Father. We have the rights of a son; we have position with God. We have much to learn about this position, but our position has been established, it is a done deal.

The relationship with God as friend is a lifelong learning process as well. Friendship is not given, it is grown. God is interested in developing an uncommon relationship with His sons and daughters, the relationship of friend. God is God almighty, but He also develops relationships. Friendship is a relationship that grows over time and experiences; it can grow into a strong relationship. A good example of friendship of God and man is seen in the relationship of God and Abraham. Abraham was the friend of God.

Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God.

JAMES 2:23 (NKJV)

But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, The descendants of Abraham My friend.

ISAIAH 41:8 (NKJV)

Abraham walked with God in a special relationship with a closeness reserved just for friends. When the Lord came to visit on His way to judge Sodom and Gomorra, He stopped to visit His friend, Abraham. They ate together and talked; a practice of friends. The Lord shared how He was investigating rumors about the wicked cities and His plan for dealing with the wickedness. This is when Abraham made his plea for the righteous of the cities. Abraham was cognizant of whom he was speaking, his reverence was evident; but He prayed a prayer of one having a close relationship, that of a friend. Abraham was bold with God as only a friend can be.

And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing,

GENESIS 18:17 (NKJV)

Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. And Abraham came near and said, "Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? GENESIS 18:22-24 (NKJV)

There have been other people in the Bible mentioned as a friend of God. For example, Moses had a very close relationship with God.

So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.

EXODUS 33:11 (NKJV)

The Lord spoke to Moses, His friend, face to face, a close relationship. Moses’ notable career included many meetings with God. It also is a life of prayer. He is noted for his intercession for Israel. Then Moses pleaded with the Lord:

Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

EXODUS 32:11 (NKJV)

Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.

EXODUS 32:32 (NKJV)

This is the prayer of a man who is close with God; a friend of God. This is an uncommon relationship, but it is an uncommon relationship available to all who will draw near to God.

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

JOHN 15:I5 (NKJV)

Men and women of prayer should be building uncommon relationship with God; building relationship with God as Father and as friend. This is the opportunity of a lifetime, God almighty ruler of Heaven and Earth has made provision for building relationship. He has opened the door for a step from the common into an uncommon relationship with Him. He has done this so we can pray, and more than just pray, so we can have effective prayer. The question today, it has been an important question throughout history, will you enter in. Will you step into the uncommon relationship with God and pray? This question is more than just saying some prayers, but praying prayers that change lives, circumstances, and nations.

There are many reasons to pray. From desperate prayers, like those made from the foxhole, or prayers made in an inspirational moment, people have always found reason to pray. Men and women, boys and girls, call out to God. Sophisticated or simplistic though they may be; prayer is common, this is not surprising; man is a spiritual being by design. It is natural for a spiritual being to want to pray, to communicate with God.

Although people have a longing to commune with God; there has often been a separation from Him. People have been afraid to draw near to God and have chosen strange and unusual practices and a variety of substitutes for closeness with God. The Bible records examples of these choices. A case in point is Israel, they had just seen the miracles of God, He had taken them out of bondage in Egypt and delivered them from Pharaoh and the Egyptian army at the Red Sea. Now Moses took them to Mount Sinai to meet with God. Here was an opportunity for the people to draw close to God, but with the lightning and thunder, with the sound of the trumpet and the smoke, they were afraid. They choose to stand far off and not draw near to God.

Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

And Moses said to the people, Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.

So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.

EXODUS 20:18-21 (NKJV)

Today there are many people who choose to stand far off from God. This is true of people in many religions and groups; they follow ritual instead of closeness. Standing far off from God, they fill their inter longing for closeness with God with activities, but usually they skip prayer. Even in some Christian circles there is a shying away from God; if people pray at all, they choose to be as far from God as possible, often choosing a mediator to pray for them. They act just as Israel did sending Moses to speak to God for them, only now they ask some priest or minister to go in their place. For many people sending someone else to pray seems much safer than going to God themselves. Some people claim lack of time, or lack of knowledge and skill, I don’t know how to pray, but the end result is the same, they fail to enjoy the intimacy God has prepared for them.

However, there have always been some who are willing to draw near to God. And from the time the Disciples first asked Jesus to teach them to pray, Christians have been men and women of prayer. As noted before this has not been true for all Christians, but many have taken Jesus’ lead and followed Him in prayer. There have been many great men and women of prayer. The prayers of Paul stand as a shining example; he demonstrated the power and import of prayer as well as the close relationship of a man or woman with God. From the time of Paul to our own, history is filled with great Christian men and women of prayer. Some of these people we know their stories and we have heard about their prayer life. They are given to us as examples to guide and help us learn to pray. Many other Christian men and women of prayer are unknown, but to God. Day-after-day they labored in the privacy of their prayer closets reaching out to God for man and nation.

There is nothing quite as easy as prayer and nothing as difficult to master. A simple prayer can be the various forms of the crying out for help! There are other examples of simple prayers, such as that of a child asking for blessing for the night. There are common prayers, known to millions of Christians and others around the world, such as the Lord’s Prayer. However, simple and common as a prayer may be, mastery of prayer can be difficult. The hindrances of the world in which we live and the nature of man, make mastering prayer more complicated. It is complicated to live in a fallen world; a world filled with tragedy, death, and destruction. It is complicated to live with sin and death. To pray we must daily confront results of the fall of man.

Things were different after the fall. Before the fall man had communion with God. God’s creation was good, it included everything man could want or need. God placed man in the midst of a wonderful garden and it was very good.

God’s creation and all that is in it was good. Created for the use and enjoyment of man, the garden was a paradise of unimaginable splendor and beauty. The crowning glory of this wonderful place was the presence of God. Daily, God met with Adam; they walked, talked, and worked together. This was paradise! Then through the act of Adam and Eve came the fall of man and the curse on creation.

Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

GENESIS 1:31 (NKJV)

Then to Adam He said, Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; For dust you are, and to dust you shall return."

GENESIS 3:17-19 (NKJV)

Man went from paradise to fighting the thorns and thistles for survival. Added into this battle was Satan, a thief who seeks to kill, steal, and destroy anything of God or of God’s creation.

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

JOHN 10:I0 (NKJV)

Satan has attacked men and women, striving to destroy their relationship with God, just as he did in the garden. From the time of Adam in the garden to the present, there as been a battle for man, to survive and provide for his family is a constant confrontation with Satan. This confrontation has brought death and destruction to individuals, families, and nations. Men and women have been unable to enjoy the close relationship with God that made the garden experience so wonderful. Into this separation came a ray of light. As predicted in the book of Genesis, God made provision for man to return to close relationship.

So the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.

GENESIS 3:14-15 (NKJV)

While we live in the world of the curse, filled with death and destruction, we no longer need to live under the curse. God has provided for us to enter into His Kingdom. We can join with Him in a close relationship. This relationship is one we can explore in prayer.

From the time in the garden to the present, men and women have longed for a relationship with God like Adam shared with God in the garden, where they talked of the animals and plants; they discussed Adam’s needs and desires. This is the type of relationship we long for. This is the type of relationship that develops in daily times of prayer. Here we develop a nearness to God that allows for exploration of all that we face in life, a discussion of our needs and desires, an investigation of God’s plans and goals.

Prayer and a prayer life has many parts, one is an opportunity to develop a close relationship with God. From this close relationship grows a working relationship, where God and man communicate and deal with their needs and wants.

If