Learning to Importune in Prayer

By Zacharias Tanee Fomum

The Holy art of importunate praying and intercession.

Importunity, says Prof. Fomum, is the cry of a man in extreme danger. It is madly asking God to open a door through the wall of a situation—until the door is opened. Importunity has God’s interest in view; it is taking no rest until God is moved to do that which He alone must do. He affirms that "when God gives you a number of problems to which man has no answers, then He has promoted you—He has given you materials for importunity praying."

God’s purposes in the New Covenant are tied to the Spirit-filled life. Christian service also starts with this quality of life. He reiterates his heart’s cry to see the leader strive to be Spirit-filled and press on to attain to the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

We send out this book with prayer that the Lord would use it to produce men and women of importunate praying—watchmen at the gates of Jerusalem.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ZTF Books Online
• Release date: Sep 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463118061

Zacharias Tanee Fomum

For FREE books from Zacharias Tanee Fomum: https://books.bookfunnel.com/ztf-free-ebooks. Professor Zacharias Tanee FOMUM was a man of uncommon spirituality, a leading voice for revival, a workaholic, a prophet-teacher, and a world-shaping spiritual genius. He was a bestselling Christian author (with over 350 books, over 10 million copies in circulation in over 100 languages) and a professor of Organic Chemistry (with over 160 published scientific works of high distinction (earning him the award of a Doctor of Science degree from the University of Durham, Great Britain). His books and the millions of people he influenced in more than 40 years of Christian ministry continue to impact the world with the Gospel today. He founded Christian Missionary Fellowship International (CMFI), a missionary movement that has planted churches in more than 120 nations on all continents. He believed in a life of simplicity and with the support and dedication of his wife and their seven children, his all—time, money, heart, and soul— was dedicated to spreading the Gospel. He carried out exploits for God through the making of disciples for Christ, planting of churches, building spiritual leaders according to the model of the Bible, and serving the body of Christ, especially as a teacher on prayer. Learn more and read exclusive excerpts at: https://ztfomum.org

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PRELIMINARIES

1

CALLED TO SUCCEED

Hudson Taylor said,

The first thing to say about a work of God is that it is impossible, then that it is being done and that it is finished.

I believe the Interceding Jesus. It is not possible for the Father not to answer Him. He prays perfectly, though we pray imperfectly. The Father answers His perfect intercession on my behalf and in favour of His work. Victory is assured. You are a success. Your success is guaranteed.

You have the Holy Spirit in you to make sure that victory is assured. He is in me to ensure that my victory is guaranteed. He is in you to ensure that your victory is guaranteed. Failure is absolutely impossible. The success of Satan is impossible because I know the Holy Spirit is in control. You may be alone in a situation. But you are not alone. Remember the One who is within. All the armies of the enemy are like nothing faced with the One within.

Our salvation was conceived by God. He is the author. He cannot fail. It was rooted in infallibility and possibility. Your personal victory is guaranteed. It is absolutely impossible that the devil wins. Your place in God’s purposes was not according to the thoughts of man. Who can fail them? You were chosen, called and placed in His purposes by God. He is the guarantor of our success in Him. Father, Son and Holy Spirit guarantee my success in His service. Look at His victory and know your own victory is settled. Go with boldness from the victory of the Lord. Glory be to His name.

The enemy must fail. There can be no draw. He was overthrown on the cross. In your life, act out what was executed on the cross. The Head cannot succeed and the body fails. The captain cannot win and the army fails. The victory of the army is guaranteed by the victory of the captain. He is the Captain.

2

QUALIFIED TO SERVE

Our missionaries, our workers, must fulfil the following conditions:

pure,

holy,

consecrated,

filled with the Holy Sprit.

We may represent this as below:

I look with great admiration at the man called Jesse. He produced a David, a general, a dancer and a lion-killer. Then his daughter Abigail gave birth to general Amasai. Then Zeruiah gave birth to three generals—Joab, Abishai and Asahel.

3

THE SHEPHERD

Leadership at all levels demands shepherding. Whatever your gifts are, you must have something of a shepherd. An administrator will need to pastor some people, if not; there would be no people to administer. If you have no shoulder on which some person may lean and weep, you may not have anyone as well. The more pastors, the more workers.

Timothy was asked to do the work of a pastor. The pastor needs the rod and the staff. Some people use only one of them. David could say

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

The call to make disciples demands that we all do the pastor’s work. Some will do more than others. But all should do something in that direction. In this matter, the sisters must not run away. They should get fully involved. It is not the pair of trousers that pastors men. They have what it takes to do the job.

We shall function according to the ministry gifts that the Holy Spirit gives us. When the Holy Spirit gives, we recognise the gifts. We do not understand better than the Holy Spirit.

Sister, if you can rally your crowd and preach, do it. If you can lead, do it. If you can cast out demons, cast them out. We have to recognise that some women have a mighty anointing. Should they go and throw away the anointing?

In China, under the work of Watchman Nee, there was a time the brothers were disloyal. The women were loyal. In one day the communists arrested one hundred leaders and locked them up for seven years. The women led the work. One hundred elders in one day locked up, and leadership given to women. The women planted and led the house churches.

We need the sisters not only to cook food and take care of children, but to be co-workers. This would mean that the leadership may double and the work would go at a faster rate.

From the beginning, the church did not need an administrator. Then there came the need, and the seven were appointed. Let us look at the story;

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6: 1-4).

With increase in numbers the need for administrators imposed itself.

In the International Missionary Enterprise, my assistant cannot help me very much because both of us are leaders. He cannot help me much. My gift is seeing what should be done. If you tell me to execute, I will spoil it.

If the two leaders are seers, then there will be no execution. Brother Theodore, our missionary to Nigeria sees and brother C. K. C., his servant executes. C. K. C. has a lot of talents to put things into place so that the things are done. It is working there.

If the husband and wife are both seers, the house will be permanently locked. You will starve there. The leaders must ask, Am I mainly a seer or am I mainly an executor? You cannot however execute without some level of seeing.

Moses said to Joshua, Select some of our people and go and fight. I will go to the mountain to pray. Moses was praying, Joshua destroyed the Amalekites. He went to the place of seeing, while Joshua went to the place of execution. Some people have a sharpened capacity to bring in practical solutions. They should function fully in that capacity. Others do not have the practical solutions; they should function where they have the enabling from the Lord.

You do not need the gifts of another. You have what you need in order to take your place in the Body. Do not seek for the gift of another person.

What is required for those who have to take critical decisions is the need for an all good conscience and a strong conscience (strong as opposed to the weak conscience). They need a very sensitive conscience. They are to live in the perpetual fear of God, fearing lest they offend the Holy Spirit in anything. They are to tremble before God, every day.

If their conscience is soiled, they are done for. They can no longer hear from God. They will now lead according to the flesh. They will work with their human will, mind and emotions. Theirs will be a leadership after man and after the flesh. There is too much of this kind of leadership around. It is the leadership of the soul. The human personality is made up of the human spirit, the human soul and of the body. We could represent it as below:

In spiritual leadership, the Holy Spirit takes the decisions and they are executed. In carnal leadership, the flesh takes the decisions and executes them. We may represent it in a diagram as below:

The Spirit-filled person is led by the Holy Spirit from inside as illustrated in the diagram below:

When the Holy Spirit is blocked, man is then led from outside. This is carnal leadership. It is an abomination to lead the people of God by the flesh. It is horrible and tragic when everybody thinks according to their mind. The logic of the flesh excludes the Spirit, and nothing good can come out of it.

Leadership must also come to the experience of what is called the division of the spirit from the soul. When the spirit and the soul are not separated, the soul wins over the spirit. There is therefore the need for the experience of separation of the spirit and the soul so that the spirit may act in independence from the soul, executing the dictates of the Holy Spirit. This separation also enables a man to come out of the confusion of not knowing the source of the information that reaches him. I sought God for this experience for five years. Then in 1973, it happened. I know exactly when it happened, during my 8th reading of Watchman Nee’s book, The Release of the Spirit.

The experience of the release of the spirit is crucial for primary leadership. In this experience, the Holy Spirit takes control of the human spirit which in turn takes control of the human soul. In this manner then, the natural mind, will and emotions are kept under control.

When the spirit and the soul are not separated, the soul wins. In that case, the will of the soul will be done. When the separation takes place, the Holy Spirit takes control and the human spirit can take control of the human soul. In this way, the natural mind, will and emotions are under control.

If primary leadership does not get to this experience, everything will be led by the will of the leader, emotions of the leader and mind of the leader. A man can lead according to the flesh for years. But this is tragic. There is no possibility of the Lord taking over when such is the case. For such a leader, all is done according to the logic of the moment. When logic reigns, the wings of faith are clipped. Such leaders cannot fly up to the God of limitless possibilities. He will not believe God to lift the numbers from forty-four to four hundred in the same year as it happened with our missionaries in Niger. The person cannot believe God to raise the income for the work of God from ten million to thirty million. This limits God.

Natural intuition is the capacity to receive from the sub-conscious. At the natural level, the chances of its correctness are high. (Women generally have a well developed natural intuition). But natural intuition avails to nothing in spiritual matters. The intuition of the spiritual man is the capacity to receive directly from God by the Holy Spirit. Knowledge received in this manner is useful to God. Because leadership is receiving from God what is to be done, any problem with the intuition is fatal beyond telling.

Communion is the organ that allows the flow towards God; that permits one to wrap around Him. If there are problems in communion, a person becomes a man of the mind, and his emotions will flow carnally. He cannot reach out to God. It is of such critical importance that leadership should be after the Spirit. As we shall see, the mind of God is radically different from that of man on the same issue and situation.

When a man is slapped, the mind of man says, Revenge or Leave the mad person alone. God says, Turn the other cheek. When your wife says, You are an idiot, the flesh says, Make her sorry for this forever. The Spirit says, Go, thank her for having condescended to marry an idiot, and thank her for all she has borne for marrying an idiot. This is why the people who are given to think everything through are dangerous. What they think may look very correct, but is so far removed from