CHAPTER 5
THE
POWER TO HEAL THE PAST
T
has the measurable potential of fulfilling Jesus’ Great Commission. It may come as a surprise to
some to learn that one reason no previous
generation could say such a
thing is simply that they did not possess the
necessary tools to measure
accurately either the progress of world evangelization to date or the remaining task. We now have the technology to
do it, and
the calculations
are being
car- ried out by our sophisticated
Christian research centers.
LIGHT AT THE END OF THE GREAT COMMISSION TUNNEL
It is one thing to see light at the end of
the Great Com- mission tunnel, but it is another actually to get the job
done: namely, to establish a viable church-planting movement in every one
of the yet unreached people groups of the world. When that is done, every baby
born anyplace in the world, for the first time in history, will have a
reasonable opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ in his or her
lifetime. this is one way of saying that “this gospel of the kingdom will have
been preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations,” to paraphrase
Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:14.
For two
thousand years, God’s kingdom has steadily advanced through one “gate of hades”
after another, as Jesus would put it, reflecting his words in Matthew 16:18. As
a result, satan has his back to the wall, so to speak. George otis
Jr. says, “the soldiers of the Lord of
hosts have now encircled the final strongholds of the serpent…. While the
remaining task is admittedly the most challeng- ing phase of the battle, the
armies of Lucifer are faced presently with a community of believers whose
spiritual resources—if properly motivated, submitted, and uni- fied—are truly
awesome.”1
Why would
otis say we are faced with “the most chal- lenging phase of the battle”? For at
least two reasons.
First, it could be argued convincingly that the vast ma-
jority of the yet unreached people groups are located in that part of the world in which satan has been more deeply en- trenched for a longer period of time than he has in any other part
of the world. the closer
we get
to the ancient
sites of
the tower of babel and the Garden of eden,
the
truer this is likely to become. the second reason is found in
revelation 12:12:“For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath,
because he knows that he has a short time.” If this is truly the genera- tion
that can complete the Great Commission, we should not be surprised if we are
also those against whom satan is unleashing unprecedented fury.
this
is the reason world missions can no
longer be a business-as-usual, status-quo operation. George otis
says, “those Christians who assume they can apply 1970s-vin- tage ministry
strategies to 1990s realities are in for a rude awakening. Strategic plans and
policy manuals written for yesterday’s placid conditions are rapidly becoming
mu- seum pieces.”2
AN EXTRAORDINARY POWER BOOST
because
world evangelization is a divine activity, exe- cuted through selected human
agents, it is to be expected that God will supply his people with the
knowledge, tools, and resources necessary to
complete the task. this is ex- actly what he seems to
be doing in our days. I believe that God is now providing the greatest power
boost to world missions we have seen since William Carey went to India 200
years ago to launch what we call “the modern mission- ary movement.” this
increased reservoir of power is being released through three extraordinarily
powerful spiritual resources that are now available to the entire body of
Christ. Not that they are brand new, but in previous decades only a tiny
segment of believers was in touch with them.the names of all three were coined
after 1990.they are:
strategic-level spiritual warfare.this is the subject of
Chapter 3.
spiritual mapping.this is the subject of Chapter 4.
identificational repentance.this is the subject of this chapter.
So let’s get on with it.
IDENTIFICATIONAL REPENTENCE
Isaiah
58:12 says, “those from among you shall
build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many
generations; and you shall be called the repairer of the breach.”
Apparently it is possible to go back and confront the wounds previous generations might have caused.
I have been a Christian and a church attender for almost 50 years,
and I cannot recall ever hearing a sermon from the pulpit
about identificational repentance or about healing the wounds of the past. I have four earned graduate degrees in
religion from respectable academic institutions, and not one
of my professors even hinted such a thing is possible. you cannot find sections about identificational
repentance in the writings of classic theologians such as Martin Luther or
John Calvin or John Wesley. that
is why I
say the
topic of this Chapter is “new.” It is certainly new for many of us, but not new for the
Scriptures, as we shall soon see.
We are
extremely fortunate to have an outstanding text- book about this subject called
healing america’s Wounds by John Dawson
(regal books). In my opinion, this is
one of the most influential
recent books for Christian leaders of all denominations. It is mainly because of the support Daw-
son’s book provides that I feel confident enough to write this chapter,
my first extended writing about identifica- tional repentance. I consider this so important
that I re- quire my Fuller theological
Seminary students to read
healing america’s Wounds, and I regularly
invite John Daw- son, who has
founded the International reconciliation
Coalition, to come and help me teach my classes.
Since the
publication of healing america’s Wounds, overt events for the express
purpose of repentance and reconcil- iation have been rapidly escalating, not
only in America, but in many other parts of the world as well. Japanese
Christian leaders have gone to the cities of Asia to repent of Japanese occupation
in World War II. brazilian leaders have repented to Paraguayans for a brutal
war that involved not only ap- propriating land that was not theirs, but a
bloody massacre as well. Germans have gathered in holland in repentance for
atrocities of hitler. New zealanders have publicly ad- mitted and confessed
their abuse and their oppression of the native Maori people.
here in
the united States, Lutherans have repented for the anti-Semitism found in
Martin Luther’s writings. Southern baptists, at their national convention, took
offi- cial action to apologize to African-Americans for en- dorsing slavery.
Methodist leaders were among a group who repented on site of the sins of Col.
John Chivington, a Methodist lay minister,
who led the atrocious
and shameful massacre of Arapaho
and Cheyenne Indians at Sand Creek near Denver more than 100 years ago. Some
months later, the united Methodist
General Conference followed suit by passing a resolution
denouncing their ancestors’ actions and apologizing for the Sand Creek atrocity.
At a 1996
Promise Keepers rally of 50,000 in Washing- ton, D.C.’s JFK Stadium, Pastor
A.r. bernard, an African- American, was one of the speakers. he spoke of the
reality of generational sin. he argued that racism, passed from one generation
to another, may well be the sin of the American nation that has most grieved
the heart of God throughout our history. he called for repentance. he
challenged white men to repent for their racism, and he challenged minority
men to repent for their bitterness.
thousands responded and gathered on the field in front of the platform,
all of them deeply moved by the holy Spirit and many of them openly weeping.
Any doubt
of the sincerity and appropriateness of this act was convincingly dissolved by
a remarkable celestial phenomenon. All day long the skies had been thickly
over- cast, some rain had been falling, and the atmosphere had been a clammy 65
degrees. At about four o’clock in the af- ternoon the public repentance took
place. the 50,000, some on the field and some in the stands, were singing
together, “Stretch out your hand and heal this nation.” When they came to a
line in the song,“Cause your face to shine upon us again,” the clouds instantly broke, and
the sun shone through for the
first time that day. Within 10
minutes, not a cloud was left in the sky, and the bright sunshine
quickly raised the temperature in the stadium by five degrees, ac- cording to the thermometer on the score
board.3
these
things, happening more and more frequently around
the world, are clearly one of the more important things the Spirit is saying to
the churches. Let’s try to un- derstand some of the principles behind this
powerful spir- itual tool God seems to be encouraging us to use. Let’s have an
ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
PERSONAL REPENTANCE
Whereas
“identificational repentance” might be an un- familiar concept to
many,“personal repentance” is not. Sin can and does invade our personal lives
from time to time. When it does, not only does it affect us as individuals, but
the ripple effect also can and often does move out to dam- age our families,
our friends, our jobs, our health, and our total quality of life. Can we do
anything about this? of course.this is something we have frequently
heard preached from the pulpit. every seminary student can pass an exam-
ination in the subject. We do find it repeatedly in the writ- ings of Luther
and Calvin and Wesley.
to
review, we know that God loves us and desires to have fellowship with us. When
sin enters our lives, however, it raises obstructions that prevent us from
being all God wants us to be, and it inhibits God from doing what he would
otherwise seek to do in our lives. our fellowship with our Father is no longer
the same. It does not have to remain that way, though, because God has
given us a chance to remit the sin that is at the root of whatever problems
might have arisen.
A foundational principle is that “without shedding of blood there is no remission,” as we read in hebrews 9:22. throughout the old testament, the blood shed for the re- mission of sins was ordinarily
the blood of sacrificial bulls
and goats and other animals.
A new sacrifice
was required for each new sin. Jesus,
however, changed that once and for all when he shed his blood on the cross. the blood of Jesus is now sufficient to remit all sins wherever and whenever
they might occur. We no longer sacrifice animals.
the
necessary steps to secure remission of
sins are fa- miliar to all believers. We first identify the sin
specifically. Generalities at this point will not suffice. It is not the time
to waffle by saying, “Lord, if I might possibly have sinned…” or to confess some
vague tendency toward sin- ning. only if we call the sin we have committed by
its proper name can we move on to the next step, which is to confess the sin to
God and ask his forgiveness.
AMerICANS’ FroNtIer SPIrIt
hAS INStILLeD IN uS the NotIoN thAt We Are MASterS oF our oWN DeStINy. We ADMIre the “SeLF- MADe MAN.” When we sincerely confess our
sin, then God is “faith- ful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). the sin is remitted. our responsibility
from that point on is to walk in obedience to God and then to repair
whatever damage that sin might have caused others. In most cases, it is a
fruitless effort to attempt to heal the wounds a given sin might have inflicted
on others until the sin itself is confessed.
CONFRONTING CORPORATE SIN
As
anthropologists frequently remind us, we Westerners in general and Americans in
particular are characterized by an individualism that seems a bit strange to
the majority of the human race. our frontier spirit has instilled in us the
notion that we are masters of our own destiny. We admire the “self-made man.”
We think we can pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. If I am successful, I
expect to get the credit; if not, I expect to get the blame.
other peoples of the world tend to think much more corporately. the decision of who a young person is to marry,
for example,
is ordinarily a group decision, not an
individ- ual choice. In many of the most significant cultures of the world, all important decisions are group decisions.
only unimportant matters are left to the individual’s discretion.
I think this may be one of the reasons I have found
that non-Western Christian leaders seem to have a much easier
time grasping the concept of identificational
repentance than some of us Westerners do. Identificational repentance
is premised on the reality of corporate sin. In other words, not
only do individuals sin, but groups of people also sin. this can be a group as small as a family (see exod. 20:5-6; Lev.
18:25; Deut. 5:9) or as large as a
nation (see Isa. 65:6- 7; Jer. 11:10; 15:4,7; 16:10-12; Lam. 5:7). It can be a religious group, it can be a city, it
can be a church, it can be an in- dustry, it can be a government department, it
can be a race, or it can be a school.
Wherever
many individuals are meaningfully linked to- gether in a social network, that
group can sin, not as indi- viduals, but as a group. When it does, each
individual member of the group is, to one degree or another, identified with
the corporate sin whether the person personally par- ticipated in the act
itself or not (see exod. 32:9-14; Jer. 3:25; Ps. 106:6; Dan. 9:8,20; ezra
9:6-7; Neh. 1:6-7; 9:2).
God gives us a way to confront corporate
sin just as he gives us a way to confront
individual sin. I believe that God has a purpose for every nation, whether a geopolitical na- tion or a culturally-bonded people group. If that group sins
corporately, however, the nation
cannot be all that God wants it to be without the remission of the root
sin. the classic Scripture
for this is 2 Chronicles
7:14: “If My peo- ple who are called by My name will humble themselves,
and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and
heal their land.”“healing the land” obviously does not refer to the individual realm, but to the corporate realm. therefore,
“forgiving their sin,” which
is another way of talking about remitting their sin, means remitting corporate sin.
I like the way my friend Johannes Facius of the International Fellowship of Intercessors puts it. Facius says,“there is one major problem that stands in the way of
healing the land. that is the unconfessed historical sins of the nation. un-
confessed sin is the foothold of satanic forces, whether we speak
of the individual or of the nation. unconfessed sin constitutes a basis for satanic rule. We must therefore find a
way of dealing with it, if we are
to see our people deliv- ered from demonic strongholds.”4
STEPS TOWARD REMITTING CORPORATE SIN
our
approach to remitting corporate sin is parallel to the way we handle individual
sin.
First, we
specifically identify the corporate sin or sins of the nation. this is a
function of spiritual mapping, as I explained in the last chapter. For example,
after years of careful study and analysis, I tend to agree with Dr. A. r.
bernard, the Promise Keepers speaker, who suggested that racism may be
America’s number one corporate sin. Some might mention abortion as a top
candidate; but abortion, in my opinion, is a subset of racism because it is
treating some human beings as if they did not really matter.
to be more
specific and to get
closer to
the basement of
reality, we soon see that one of the elemental
strong- holds allowing the enemy to perpetuate
racism in our na- tion is, first of all, bringing
Africans to our shores
as slaves. I believe this is the number one
corporate sin, in terms of magnitude, that
our nation, as a nation, has committed. A deeper and more fundamental
sin lies at the root
of this, however:
namely, the way we european immi-
grants to America treated our host
people, the Native American nations. I think it is an arguable
hypothesis that had we treated the Indians more justly,
we may never have bought and sold African people as slaves. Canada, for ex-
ample, treated what they call the “First Nations” differently, and they never engaged in slave trade as we did.
A second
step is to confess the national sin corporately and ask God for forgiveness.
because of the massive social implications of national sin, as contrasted to
individual sin, this step ordinarily requires much more to achieve results.
rarely, if ever, can it be accomplished in only one public act. Going into
great detail about what is required for ad- equate national repentance is
complicated by the relative newness of this whole concept. even those of us who
are leaders in this movement find ourselves, at this writing, on a learning
curve.
As an
example, you may have noticed I said the South- ern baptists recently
“apologized” for their participation in slavery. that has an
identificational side to it, but some leaders who
participated in the debate leading up to the de- cision argued that it would be
inappropriate for those of us today to “repent” for the sins others had
committed. I con- tend that it is highly appropriate, but I also realize it
will take some longer than others to understand the biblical
and theological principles behind identificational repentance.
Further, I anticipate some will persist in their opposition and also
criticize those of us who are advocates of identificational repentance.
the third
step toward remitting corporate sin is to apply the blood of Jesus Christ and
to ask God for forgiveness. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission
of sin, but the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us, corporately as well as
individually, from all sin (see 1 John 1:7).
the final
step is to walk in obedience and to do what is necessary to repair the damage
caused by the sin. In many cases, this will become an extended process,
particularly in those cases where the national iniquity has been passing
through many generations. the reasons underlying
this phenomenon merit some explanation.
INIQUITY PASSES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION
My friend Gary Greig, who was associate professor of old testament
at regent
university
School of Divinity in
Virginia beach, Virginia, says,“the principle of generational
sin—the cycling of sin, guilt, and bondage
from generation to generation—reflects part of the essential holy character
of the Lord.” he refers to exodus 20:5
and says,“[God’s] holiness
causes him to visit or appoint the iniquity of par- ents upon their descendants to the third and fourth gener- ation
of those who hate him.”5
It is helpful at this point to understand the difference between sin and iniquity. the sin is the specific act that was
committed; the iniquity (avon in hebrew) refers to the state of guilt resulting from that sin that is passed down through
generations. We Americans, for
example, suffer today from the corrupting effects of the iniquity of slavery in our soci-
ety although none of us alive ever personally
engaged in the slave trade itself. I believe that the phrase “third or fourth generation” can be understood as a figure of speech, mean- ing that it goes on and on. how long? until the act of sin, which began the malignant process, is remitted by the shed- ding of blood.
time does not heal the wound; instead, the
wound be- comes more and more painful as it moves
to each succeed-
ing generation. one biblical example is the sin of Cain murdering
his brother, Abel. Five
generations later, Lamech
also committed murder and specifically identified his sin
with that of his ancestor,
Cain, by saying,“If
Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,
then Lamech seventy-sevenfold” (Gen. 4:24). those of us who were in Los
Angeles during the riots
of
1972 are well aware
that racism is not better than it was in
previous generations, but worse, despite a constant
bar- rage of presidential admonitions, legislative actions, and Supreme Court decisions. the prognosis is that it will con- tinue to worsen until appropriate spiritual action is taken.
ONLY CHRISTIANS CAN REMIT NATIONAL SINS
Who can take the action to see that the causative sin is properly repented
of and forgiven
by God? this
takes us back to the principle
that there is no remission of sin with- out the shedding of blood (see heb.
9:22). the only blood now available for remitting sins is the blood of Jesus Christ.
the only persons eligible to take the
authority to repent
and
claim the power of Jesus’ blood to forgive
sins are those who
have already been redeemed by his blood: namely,
the Christians. Kings, prime ministers,
chiefs, presidents, judges, generals, or others, by virtue of their office and apart from Jesus’
blood, cannot be designated as
the point per- sons for
significant
acts of repentance. they
may, however, be
present when such events occur and participate in the public acts of acknowledging the repentance
and offer whatever gestures
of forgiveness may be appropriate.
It is
worth reiterating that the Christians who take this initiative to heal the
wounds of the past may not be, and usually are not, among the generation that
committed the root sin. they can, however, identify
with that generation, though no one else can take on the burden of
past sins. Cer- tainly those who actually committed them cannot. they are dead
and assigned their eternal destiny, whatever it may be. Let’s not confuse
identificational repentance with resolving personal sins of any past
individuals. We are not advocat- ing, as some do, that living believers can be
baptized for dead persons, nor are we suggesting that our actions can shorten
sentences that some have supposedly received to spend time in purgatory.
Furthermore, in most cases honesty will reveal that the presence of the
iniquity that has been passed through the generations is much more than
symbolic. For example, as it became clearer and clearer to me that racism was
the chief sin of my nation, I found myself moving out of years and years of
denial that I myself could be infected with racism. Now I am finally able to
admit that, although I never bought or sold a slave, I, too, am racist, and I
deeply regret it. When I participate in identificational repentance, there- fore,
I am not attempting to relieve myself of responsibility for the injustices I
see around me. I make it a point to con- fess my own personal sin while I am
also confessing the sins of my ancestors.
John Dawson summarizes
it this way:“unless somebody identifies themselves with corporate entities, such as the na- tion of our citizenship, or the subculture of our
ancestors, the act of honest confession will never take place. this leaves us
in a world of injury and offense in which no cor- porate sin is ever acknowledged, reconciliation never
begins, and old hatreds deepen.”6
What does
Dawson mean by “identification” in this con- text? he says that identification
“signifies the act of con- sciously including oneself within an
identifiable category of human beings.”7
As
examples, I can easily identify with the injustices per- petrated against
Native Americans because my ancestors were among those who succeeded in
creating conditions that drove the Mohawk Indians out of their native
Mohawk Valley into Canada. I can also identify with the inhuman slavery
industry simply because I am a white American.
CAN PAST SINS REALLY BE REMITTED?
It is difficult for some to accept the proposition that Christians in this generation can
do anything at all about what happened in past generations. For example, one irate reader of Charisma magazine responded to an article about
identificational repentance by writing
these words: “I feel no obligation to apologize
for the alleged faults of any great- great ancestor,
nor do I expect to receive any apologies or recover any debts due that ancestor. If
any Indians feel my ancestors injured their ancestors, then they can just ask my ancestors
to apologize to their ancestors.”8
Awhile
ago I discussed the matter with a friend of mine who is a respected evangelical
biblical scholar. he assured me that the notion of remitting sins of past
generations is neither taught in the bible, nor is it theologically sound. Many
others would agree with my professor friend and with the Charisma reader.
one of the reasons for this, I think, is that our evangeli- cal biblical orientation is heavily weighted to the New tes- tament,
which has little to say about identificational
repentance, either implicitly or explicitly.
An abundance of New testament teaching can be found about the corporate
nature of sin and, to a lesser degree, the concept of identi- fying
with the sins of peers. An abundance of old testa- ment teaching can be found, however,
about both corporate
sin and the validity of living persons identifying with sins of those long gone
from this earth. For some reason, we frequently overlook the
fact that the New testament is based
on the old testament. Gary
Greig, who teaches hebrew and old testament to semi- nary
students, says, “Since the
old testament was
the bible of the New testament
church [it] therefore
offered the only scriptural model of sin and confession available to the early church.”9
When Paul wrote to timothy that “All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
re- proof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for
every
good work” (2 tim. 3:16-17), he was
referring to the
old
testament, not to the Gospel of John or to 1 Peter or to the
book of Acts.
If we agree that the apostles were “biblical”
believers, we must realize that they knew and
taught old testa- ment principles.
I have
already mentioned the corporate nature of Second Chronicles 7:14, which affirms
that God can and is disposed to forgive, or remit, the (corporate) sin of his
people and heal their land. Some might argue that this may refer only to the
sins of the contemporary generation, not to past generations. Nehemiah’s prayer
of confession, however, said, “Both my father’s house and I have sinned”
(Neh. 1:6, emphasis mine).
Likewise,
Daniel said,“I was…confessing my sin and the sin of my people” (Dan.
9:20, emphasis mine). In both these cases, Daniel and Nehemiah were identifying
with and confessing sins of the idolatry of past generations that
they themselves did not commit. At the same time, they recognized they had
been personally affected by the iniquity resulting from those sins.
IF We AGree
thAt the
APoStLeS Were “bIbLICAL” beLIeVerS, We MuSt reALIze thAt they KNeW AND tAuGht oLD teStAMeNt PrINCI- PLeS.
REMITTING SAUL’S “ETHNIC CLEANSING”
David was the king when
Israel once suffered a three- year famine. believing in two-way prayer, he asked God if his people were suffering
what could soon become a life-
and-death situation for any particular reason. God said,“It is
because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house, because
he killed the Gibeonites” (2 Sam. 21:1). here is a case
when the iniquity of the sin of a past generation
actually was hav- ing a physical
influence on a succeeding generation.
the Gibeonites, residents of the
Promised Land, had
succeeded in negotiating a covenant with
Joshua so he would protect them and not liquidate them as he was doing to other groups occupying Canaan at the
time (see Josh. 9). the Israelites had kept that covenant for 13 generations. We do not have the details of exactly how and why it happened,
but at one point in time, King Saul apparently
decided to do some “ethnic cleansing” and massacred many
of the Gibeonites. this serious sin of breaking a solemn covenant was not
properly handled by Saul’s generation,
but God had not forgotten it. the iniquity was passed on, and the judg- ment
resulted in a famine. David needed no further
explanation. Well versed in the biblical principles of identificational
repentance, he knew that the way out of the famine was to secure the remittance
of the sin of Saul, a sin in which David did not participate at all as an individual.
Saul could do nothing about it be- cause he was dead and gone. As the king of
Israel, it was David’s responsibility to take corporate action on behalf of his
nation.
understanding
that there is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood, the question
then became: What blood should be shed? the unfolding story is one that has
caused a good bit of discussion among biblical scholars be- cause human
sacrifice is forbidden by Jewish law (see Deut. 12:31). questions arise whether
David was at this point act- ing according to God’s will, because what happened
is strange. Nevertheless, David approached the surviving Gibeonites and asked
them to decide exactly what blood should be shed.
David said, “With what shall I make atonement?”
(2 Sam. 21:3). the Gibeonites
responded that David should
turn
over to them seven blood descendants
of Saul whom they would kill and then hang up their bodies for a public display.
It goes without saying that since Jesus shed his blood, a call for such things is no longer necessary, but those days were different.
David, rightly or
wrongly, gave them the
seven individuals, their blood was shed and the sin of King
Saul in a past generation was forgiven.
the result? “And after that
God heeded the prayer
for the land” (2 Sam. 21:14). the famine ended!
I have found no clearer
biblical teaching about healing the wounds of the past. the 12 apostles and other leaders of the early
Church knew the story of the atonement for the sins of
Saul
very well.the fact that they did not elaborate on identi-
ficational repentance in any of the Gospels
or epistles is no
more significant, in my mind, than the fact that neither
did they elaborate
on the old testament use of musical instru- ments in worshiping God. because of this, entire
contempo- rary denominations have chosen
to be“noninstrumental,” but
the collective wisdom
of the body of Christ
through the ages has been otherwise.
For most of us, the
fact that the old testament was
the only bible of the apostles
leads us to assume that musical in-
struments were being used in the churches
they planted and pastored.the same hermeneutical process
could equally apply to the old testament assertion that, indeed,
God desires
to remit sins of past generations now in New testament times.
RELEASING THE POWER OF IDENTIFICATIONAL REPENTANCE
this is a book about powerful prayer. of all the forms of
prayer I could list, none surpasses the potential of the prayer
of identificational repentance for opening the way to spread the
gospel. Why? back in Chapter 3, I stressed
that the over- riding reason unbelievers do not
accept the Good News of Jesus Christ is that satan, the god of this age, has succeeded
in blinding their minds (see 2 Cor. 4:3-4).
God has given us powerful weapons of spiritual warfare that, when properly used, can remove those blinders. In many cases, however, or- dinary prayers
seem to have little effect because certain strongholds that have been erected have
provided satan a legal right
to continue the evil work he is doing.
We are now realizing that the sins of past generations and the resultant iniquity present in our own generation
have contributed to erecting and strengthening these strongholds much more than many of us
could have imag- ined. relating this to spiritual warfare,
Scripture tells us, “the
weapons
of our
warfare are not
carnal but mighty
in God
for pulling down strongholds” (2 Cor.
10:4).
As I have mentioned previously,
one category of these spiritual strongholds
is “arguments,” the translation of the Greek logismos (2 Cor. 10:5), which implies that such strong-
holds come into being through certain human decisions
and actions. Corporate sins such as Saul breaking the covenant with the Gibeonites or the
American government breaking hundreds of equally valid covenants, or
“treaties,” with American Indians
constitute strongholds that give
the enemy a legal right to keep minds of the unsaved
blinded to the gospel and also to steal, to kill, and to destroy while he is doing this.
Identificational
repentance helps to pull down such strongholds. Let me give you an example.
PACHANGAS HEAL SOBOBAS’ PAST WOUNDS
the
Pachangas and the Sobobas are two Indian nations located in what is now
Southern California. back before the arrival
of the europeans they had become
bitter enemies. on one occasion,
the Pachangas, who lived near the current
San Diego, invaded the territory of the Sobobas, living in what
is now hemet, California, right across the San Jacinto Mountains from Palm Springs. the warriors of both tribes locked
into a fierce battle. As the struggle went on, the Soboba women and children escaped and hid themselves from danger deep in a canyon
of the San Jacinto Mountains. the Pachanga warriors prevailed, and once they had
de- feated the Sobobas they followed the trail of the women and children into the canyon.
they had no mercy. When
they found them, they proceeded to
slaughter every one of the defenseless Indians in cold blood. to
this day
the name of
this place on the maps is listed as “Massacre Canyon.”
this massacre
furnished a
stronghold for
the devil.
As the generations went by, the Sobobas as a group degener- ated
and became miserable. Destruction and death in- creased until not many years ago the Soboba Indian reservation was
classified by the united States Department of the Interior as the most violent of more than 300 reser- vations in the united States. they were averaging a murder a month,
Indian killing Indian.
THE DWELLING PLACE
Meanwhile,
the whites settled in hemet and it became a flourishing retirement community.
Some years ago, bob beck- ett and his wife, Susan, moved into hemet and founded the Dwelling Place Church. the Dwelling Place has enjoyed sus- tained growth and is now the spiritual home to more than 800 believers. bob beckett has emerged as one of the chief leaders
of the Spiritual Warfare Network, and is much in demand as a
conference speaker across
the nation and in other parts of the
world. he is a regular visiting
lecturer in my Fuller Seminary classes, and I take my students on annual field trips to hemet.
For many
years, when his church was passing through some troubled waters, he held an annual spiritual warfare con- ference
in hemet featuring such experienced
warriors as Cindy Jacobs and others. During those conferences, some whites
repented of the abuses of their ancestors against the Indians, and significant reconciliation took place.
Seeds of identificational repentance were planted. A handful
of Sobobas and Pachangas were
born again, and they began to grow in their faith.
At one point, bob beckett discerned
that his congregation was mature enough spiritually to tackle one of the
region’s most pressing social problems—the violence on the Soboba
reservation, located outside
of town in the San
Jacinto Moun- tains. through the church’s intercessors, they
discerned God’s timing and set a date
for prophetic intercession,
identifica- tional repentance, and certain prophetic
acts on behalf of the Soboba
Indians. beckett called together his
elders, his in- tercessors, and the Christian Sobobas and Pachangas who
were by now church members.
they met on a
specific day, then drove their
cars and vans to the mouth of Massacre Canyon and walked up the dry stream bed to the place where the massacre had taken place and the innocent Soboba blood had been shed. As they stood in a
group on that defiled land, they spent a good bit of time worshiping and exalting Jesus Christ as the rightful Lord of Massacre Canyon and of the Soboba Nation. they then went into an extended time of prayer,
asking God to cleanse the land they were standing on of the blood guilt
of past generations.
At the
appropriate time, a Christian Pachanga publicly addressed a Christian Soboba,
confessing the sins of the ancestors and asking forgiveness for the massacre.
Not a dry eye could be seen in the canyon when the Soboba sin- cerely forgave
the Pachanga, both of them identifying with their entire tribe and both acting
on behalf of the leaders of a former generation.
In one
accord, the group begged God to forgive the sin of the massacre, and then
thanked him for remitting the sin on the basis of the blood shed by Jesus
Christ. to com- memorate Jesus’ death they all took holy Communion, saving some
of the wine, and symbolically pouring it out on the land.
they claimed together that the power
of the blood of Christ would overshadow the evil power of the innocent
blood once shed there.
STAKING THE GROUND
After
communion, bob beckett performed a prophetic act by “staking the ground.” he
had brought along a 3-foot 2x2-inch oak stake, sharpened at one end, which had Scrip- ture references inscribed on
the four sides. In prayer and great faith, he drove the stake into the ground as a prophetic
act to seal the spiritual
transaction that had just taken place. When he finished, each person picked up a
grapefruit-size stone from
Massacre Canyon and drove
in their cars and vans a short distance
down the San Jacinto Mountains
to the Soboba reservation.
beckett
had previously secured permission from the Soboba chief to enter the
reservation and pray for the Soboba people. Without this permission, they would
not have dared to go close. one county social worker told me she never went
into the reservation because whenever she tried, bullets were shot into her van.
Violence was rampant and uncontrolled.
once on the reservation, the group gathered at the bur- ial ground. Previous spiritual
mapping has indicated that
the seat of the powers of darkness was located in the Soboba cemetery. there they had another sustained time of worship
followed by powerful prayer. At the right moment, bob beckett drove a second stake into the ground, this time breaking the curse of violence over the Soboba reservation
as he was doing it. the group
then solemnly piled up their grapefruit-size
stones as a memorial, returned to
their ve- hicles and went home.
What
happened?
FROM VIOLENCE TO HARVEST
the public act of identificational repentance I have de- scribed
took place in August 1992. Since then, and I am writing this four years later, not a single murder has been committed on the Soboba
reservation except for one that took place in a totally unrelated context. Acts of violence that were once the rule are now the exception. Social work- ers
can come and go at will, and satan’s
blinders have been
removed. one-third of the
Sobobas have now been
con- verted, including a tribal
shaman. he now serves as the head usher in the Dwelling Place Church!
on a
recent field trip, my Fuller students and I saw a huge white tent in which
evangelistic services were being held and people were being saved every night.
Furthermore, reports are coming in that the revival is spreading to ten other
Indian nations in Southern California.
Whether
Southern baptists or Japanese intercessors or Gibeonites or Promise Keepers or
Soboba Indians, a rap- idly growing number of people can testify that God truly
has given us the power to heal the past!
140 PRAYING
WITH POWER
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
In what sense is it correct to say that the Great Com- mission can be completed in our generation?
Why do you suppose
that past generations of Christians did not recognize or teach
identificational repentance?
REFLECTION QUESTIONS 141
explain, as well as you can, the difference between sin and iniquity.
List some corporate sins you personally could identify with, even though they are not necessarily your own personal sins. Do you think it would be worthwhile to repent for any of these? Should others do it with you?
CHAPTER 6
FRESH PRAYER ENERGY FOR YOUR CHURCH
T
and God’s kingdom will advance
irresistibly.
“LITTLE PRAYER, LITTLE POWER”
the movement
toward
powerful prayer
began in
China long ago. Partly as a result
of that, China is in all probabil- ity the nation of the world that, at this writing,
is seeing the- greatest church growth week by week and month by month. Most of the churches there
bear no outward resemblance at all to the churches
in your community.
because the government of China is Marxist, it is not in the
least favorable toward Chris-
tianity. It tries to convince the
people that Christianity is a “foreign
religion,” but is having little success.
A
relatively small number of Chinese Christians meet in church buildings
something like ours, and are registered with the
government. the majority gathers in house
churches, though, and attempts as much as possible to keep out of sight of the
general public and of the government of- ficials. hundreds of new house
churches begin meeting every week. Some researchers estimate that as many as
35,000 Chinese accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Sav- ior every single day!
how can
this happen? how can some of the greatest church growth in the world be
happening under a govern- ment bent on hindering the spread of the gospel in
every way possible? It happens through prayer. one researcher, who prefers to remain unnamed,
reports, “It appears that the distinguishing feature of the present-
day church growth in China is the disciplined
prayer life of every
believer. Chinese Christians pray to the Lord for (1) a watchful and praying spirit; (2) a burden to pray for oth- ers;
(3) a time and place to pray; (4) energy to pray with fellow workers; and (5) the right words to use in prayer.
In this manner they wish to be a trumpet to call all people to more prayer.”1 I love the way
the Chinese
use much of their prayer time to pray for more and better prayer time! No wonder their churches
are on an upward spiral in both
quantity and quality. I recently received a report concerning
an evangelist referred to as simply brother yeng. his assistant
was preach- ing in an evangelistic meeting in a village where the gospel had
never been preached. Some local gangsters who had heard of the meeting burst in to cause trouble. brother yeng took
command of the pulpit as
soon as he saw them coming in. he sensed
the holy Spirit telling him that the gangsters had decided to disrupt the meeting because they did
not know the greatness of God. So what did he do? he prayed and said,“God,
please show these people that you are a great
and true God. Please perform a miracle!”
Sensing
the flow of the holy Spirit’s power in answer to his prayer, brother yeng
boldly said, “Is anyone here deaf?” A woman came forward bringing a deaf woman,
who obviously had not heard the question. brother yeng prayed that God would
heal the deaf woman, and she was immediately healed! he then invited all others
who were deaf to come forward, and, by God’s grace, every one of them was
healed right before the eyes of the audience.
ChINeSe ChrIStIANS hAVe A WIDeSPreAD Motto: “LIttLe
PrAyer, LIttLe PoWer; No PrAyer, No PoWer.” Several people
then rushed out of the meeting to bring back sick relatives. the gangsters? Amazed at what they
were seeing, they rapidly changed their attitude toward the
Christians and went home to bring back
some of their sick family members as well. before the end of the night, six of eight paralyzed
people they prayed for were instantly
healed! the report
goes
on to
say:“because of
the miracles,
the whole
village, including the gangsters, all
believed in Jesus!”2 Chinese Christians have a widespread motto: “Little
prayer, little
power; no
prayer, no
power.”3
COULD
YOUR CHURCH
BECOME A HOUSE
OF PRAYER?
Some of the most quoted words of Jesus were stated when he chased
the money
changers out of the temple in
Jerusalem. he said,“It is written,‘My house shall be called a house
of prayer’” (Matt. 21:13). ever since then, many have applied it
to their churches and
have prayed, “God, please make our church a house of prayer.”
As a result of the increasing momentum of the contem- porary prayer movement,
more and more churches
in Amer- ica and in other parts of the world now could conscientiously accept the designation “houses of
prayer.” I am sure the number
of such churches is now larger than ever
before in history, whether measured by sheer numbers or by percent- age
of existing churches.
one of the finest recent books about prayer in the local church is written by two friends of mine, Glen Martin and Dian Ginter. I love their title, power house: a
step-by-step guide to Building a Church
that prays (broadman & hol-
man). they
talk about churches that
are houses of prayer (as contrasted to churches that merely have a prayer
min- istry of some kind or other). they have formulated as good
a description as I have found: the
true powerful house of prayer will
have prayer saturating every aspect of its individual and corporate life.
having significant prayer will be seen as the first thing to do when planning,
when meeting, etc. there will be teaching on prayer from the pulpit, in Sunday
School classes, and in small group settings. People will think of prayer as a
major factor to be used at first to solve any problem. the whole congregation
will be involved in prayer to some degree. Prayer will have a foundational positioning
in the life of the individual and the church as a whole.4
Notice that Martin and Ginter stress that a church
en- ergized by prayer will see prayer in action both on the level
of the
individual church members and on the corporate level of the church
as a whole. Surveys show that
virtually all Christians
(and also the majority of non-Christians) be-
lieve in prayer. Most of them do pray from time to time. other than saying
grace at meals and an occasional crisis prayer, though, too many Christians lack
an ongoing atti- tude of prayer as a
part of their normal lifestyles. Some do not take the time to set aside a daily time for talking to and listening to God. Members of churches that are houses
of prayer tend to rise above such spiritual mediocrity and de-
velop an ongoing communication with
their Father. Life without prayer
begins to feel strange.
THE KEY:
THE SENIOR PASTOR
only rarely, if ever, will a church wake up some morning
and find that it has become a house of prayer.
I have heard stories of
this happening through a revival, but even in those cases the revival
did not ordinarily penetrate through a
prayer vacuum.
A FrequeNt SAyING oF PrAyer
LeADerS IS “WhAt IS
GAINeD by INterCeSSIoN MuSt be MAINtAINeD by
INterCeSSIoN.” It almost always came as God’s response to church mem- bers who were already praying. the transition to a house of prayer
more than likely will happen through intentional ac- tions of the leaders of the church. the key person for this is
the senior pastor.
In helping pastors understand the dynamics of church growth for
more than a quarter of
a century, I have con- cluded that many of them are spending
too much of their time and energy on the wrong things. I therefore
attempt to help them readjust their priorities of leadership.
I con- stantly encourage pastors to delegate more and more of the
things they have been doing to gifted laypeople. I quote the bible
to them and remind them that a major role of pastors is to “[equip] the saints for the work
of ministry” (eph. 4:12). I also
advise them that two things they
cannot dele- gate, if their church is going to grow, are their leadership and
their faith (or vision).
More
recently, as a result of my studies of the prayer life of local churches, I
have been forced, although reluctantly at first, to add a third item to the
list of things a pastor should not delegate. If the church is ever to become a
house of prayer, the senior pastor must cast the vision and assume the leadership of the church’s prayer ministry. that does
not
mean the pastor cannot delegate the administration and
the implementation of the prayer ministry. that should be delegated to intercessors and prayer leaders
of various kinds.
All the church members should know without question that their pastor has prioritized prayer in his or her per- sonal life and ministry. If this is the case,
it will constantly surface in the pulpit. hardly
a sermon will be preached without acknowledging the power of prayer.
In casual con-
versation, the pastor will turn the agenda to prayer as fre- quently as to any other topic. testimonies to answered prayer will be a common part of church life. the pastor will
brag to
others, in the good sense of the word, about the prayer life
of the people and the congregation
as a whole and give the glory for it
to God.
PRAYER LIFE IN THE PRAYER CAVE
In
Chapter 1, I told the story of how the Prayer Cave of Kiambu, Kenya, was
planted through powerful prayer. A frequent saying of prayer leaders is “What
is gained by in- tercession must be maintained by intercession.”
Pastor thomas Muthee must believe this, because there can be no question that
prayer continues to be the number one prior- ity of the church he pastors. his
church is an extraordinary example of a house of prayer; he, as the senior
pastor, pro- vides hands-on leadership for the ongoing prayer ministry.
every
Saturday morning the entire pastoral staff of the Prayer Cave, including the
senior pastor, gathers with the intercessors and prays from 7:00 to 12:00.
“PrAyer IS the MeANS by WhICh We beCoMe FuSeD
WIth GoD, to SuCh AN eXteNt thAt GoD CAN eASILy FLoW INto our AFFAIrS AND We
CAN eASILy FLoW INto GoD’S AFFAIrS.”
one of
the elders has a full-time staff position just to administer and coordinate the
prayer activities of the church. the designated intercession
team of the church numbers about 400. of them, 12 serve
specifically as high level “crisis intercessors,” which thomas Muthee calls
“the hit squad.” they are highly gifted
in discernment and prophetic intercession. they may spend three to
four days at a time in the small prayer room called the “Powerhouse,” which
they constructed right next to the church. Interces- sors occupy the
Powerhouse, praying 24 hours every day. once a month, a prayer retreat for
intercessors only, called “bush Ministry,” meets in the forest for one day
(which Africans call the “bush”) from 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.
A prayer meeting called
“Morning Glory” is held in the church from 5:00 A.M. to 6:30 A.M. every day. It is
matched every evening with “operation Prayer Storm.” on Friday evenings the church sponsors an all-night
prayer vigil from 9:00 P.M. to 6:00 A.M. the men’s fellowship, the youth min- istry, the women’s group, and the children’s ministry each
have a faithful prayer team to
cover each particular area. Students in the church’s bible school are required to pray two hours a
day as part of their schedule.
In the bible school, from 8:00 A.M. to 9:00 A.M. each morning,
a daily prayer meeting is
scheduled, and from 2:00 to 3:00 each afternoon, attendance at a “prayer
school” is required of each student.
VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL DIMENSIONS
I have heard thomas
Muthee say, “Why do we
empha- size prayer so much in the Prayer Cave?
Prayer is the means by
which we become fused with God, to such an extent that
God can easily flow into our affairs and we can easily flow
into God’s affairs.”
Flowing into the affairs of God is an excellent analogy for a theology of prayer. this applies to the vertical dimen- sion, our relationship with God. I also like what Glen Mar- tin and Dian Ginter add to show how prayer can affect the horizontal, or interpersonal, dimension of church life. they
say that prayer functions
like oil: “Prayer provides the lu-
brication so that as a church, made up of different parts, all
members can fit together perfectly, working together with-
out friction, to perform a job which they could never ac-
complish on their own.”5
It would
be easy to assume that prayer is prayer without distinguishing between the many
kinds of prayer that are necessary in a church. Muthee, for example, makes a
clear distinction between those pray-ers who are designated as “intercessors,”
and those who are not. A smaller group among the intercessors is regarded as
the “hit squad,” who receives special, often confidential, prayer assignments.
Martin
and Ginter point out that if prayer is like oil, different kinds of oil are
needed for different kinds of machines. they say,“the same concept applies to
prayer. there are different kinds of prayer for different kinds
of situations. God has shown us how
to pray for certain re- sults, confess when appropriate, intercede for
others, and do spiritual
warfare in specific situations. each fills a need and, when
used appropriately, can be the very
oil to make our lives and our churches run the best.”6
PRAYER AND CHURCH GROWTH
I became
interested in the prayer movement several years ago principally because I
wanted to understand what relationship prayer had to the growth or non-growth
of churches. this would be expected because I am a professor of church growth.
I thought it would be an easy assignment, and I would find that the churches
that prayed the most would grow the most while churches that prayed less would
grow less. After all, this is what I had been hearing in ser- mons about
prayer. Most of my friends assumed it was true.
My first surprise was that hardly any solid research had previously been done about the subject. Apparently, the as-
sumption of a direct positive correlation between prayer
and church growth was so
strong that research would seem re- dundant.
I spent years and years studying
growing Ameri- can churches, interviewing their pastors, and analyzing their
growth dynamics.
In the
first two books I wrote about American church growth, reference made to prayer
was not substantial enough to find a place in the index! In the third, I wrote
one paragraph about prayer in 218 pages! In church after church, almost all of
them growing churches, prayer rarely surfaced as a significant subject in
conversations with the pastors. My conclusion was that being a “house of
prayer,” as we have been defining it, apparently is not necessarily a
prerequisite for church growth.
My doubts increased as I read three recent influential
books by
top leaders in evangelical Christianity. the
first, by tony Campolo and Gordon Aeschliman, is titled 101
Ways
Your Church Can Change the World
(regal books). Not one
of the 101 ways is prayer! the next
two books
were even more important
to me because the authors are among the most prominent
figures in the church growth move- ment. the authors, bill hybels and John Vaughan, are both
personal friends of mine, and they know that the tone of these comments is not criticism,
but rather a mutual ad- mission that we may not always
be as up front as we might in discussing the role of prayer
in the growth of the church.
bill hybels is the pastor of what is widely regarded as the most
influential church in America at this writing, Willow Creek Community Church in
North barrington, Illinois. A recent book, which he wrote with his wife,
Lynne, is en- titled rediscovering Church: the story and Vision of Willow
Creek Community Church (zondervan). It is a high quality and insightful
book, carrying my personal endorsement on the back cover. Part one tells the
story of the church. Part two analyzes the growth principles employed, such as
the six major elements comprising the vision of the church, a seven-step
strategy for implementing the vision, ten values that set the movement apart,
and five qualities of a true follower of Christ. Interestingly, of the 28
items, or growth dynamics, in Part two, none is prayer! John Vaughan directs the Mega church research Center in bolivar,
Missouri. he is recognized as possibly the lead- ing figure in the country on mega
churches, which by definition
are churches consisting of more than 2,000
in attendance on weekends. I use his excellent
book mega churches and america’s Cities (baker) in my classes at Fuller Seminary. A key chapter in
the book is “Predictable
Changes in Growing Churches,”
in which Vaughan carefully analyzes characteristics of mega churches that seem to set
them apart from smaller, non-growing
churches in the nation. he lists 20 of these growth principles, not one of which is prayer!
both hybels and Vaughan deeply believe in prayer, and they practice prayer in their own
lives. bill hybels has writ-
ten a whole book about his prayer
life: too Busy not to pray (Inter-Varsity
Press). If you asked either one of them what role
prayer plays in the growth of
churches, you would be likely to get a
20-minute monologue affirming with deep conviction that without powerful prayer large and influen-
tial churches
could never have grown as they have. they
would affirm that it is God, and God alone, who
gives the increase. All this helped me begin
to understand that just because pastors of growing
churches may not include prayer on
their lists of principal
growth factors, it did not mean they
necessarily considered prayer as incidental.
“PRAYER IS A MAJOR FACTOR”
It took my friend thom
rainer of Southern baptist theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, to give sub-
stance to what I had been expecting.
he studied 576 of the most
evangelistic churches he could find in America. he did not wait, though, to see
if the pastors, left to them- selves, would mention prayer as a factor. he
included prayer on a list of factors he had the pastors evaluate. Much to my
relief, he found that “Nearly 70 percent of the churches rated prayer as a major
factor in their evangelistic success” (italics his).7
the
following are some of the things the pastors of these growing churches said:
“Prayer, corporate prayer, explains the evangelistic turnaround in our church”;
“I believe the primary reason that God has his hand on our church is our
commitment to the foundation of prayer”; “our growth through conversions? It’s
the result of our prayer ministry that takes place seven days a week.”8
rainer
says, “therefore, we conclude, with conviction, that most
evangelistically-growing churches are also pray- ing churches.”9 tommy barnett of the huge
First Assembly of God in
Phoenix, Arizona, tells how prayer
and evangelism turned his church around. he preached about prayer and revival
one Sunday and received a tremendously
enthusiastic response from the congregation. then
he announced he was beginning a prayer meeting every Monday morning at 6:00. the next day no fewer than 1,000 people came just to pray.
barnett says, “As we started praying, things began to happen in our church.
Many people were saved. We put a pastor in the church
24 hours a day so people
could bring the lost to get saved. Someone was
also available around the clock to baptize
the newly saved.” Was this
just a flash in the pan? No! tommy
barnett adds, “the revival has never stopped. our people
began fasting, praying, and seeking God diligently, faithfully, and
systematically. then they go out and witness on the streets, winning people to
Jesus Christ.”10 the largest, fastest-growing church on the
West Coast at this writing is Saddleback Valley Community Church in orange
County, California. Weekly attendance is currently running about 13,000. Prayer
is a high priority for Pastor rick Warren, a dear personal friend. In a recent
letter to me, Warren said, “We consider prayer and church growth to be so
linked together that it is a membership requirement to commit to praying for
the growth of Saddleback. If you won’t commit to this you can’t join because it
is a part of the membership covenant that you must sign to become a member.”
Warren goes on to say, “I don’t know of any other church in America that requires
its members to pray for its growth!”11
At this point, I do not want to be misunderstood. I am not suggesting that the more prayer,
the more church
growth. Church growth is somewhat
more complex than
that. Many non-growing
churches have dynamic prayer ministries,
but other factors are lacking. I agree with rick Warren, who says,“Somebody needs to boldly state the ob- vious: Prayer alone will not grow a church.” Warren
affirms that “Prayer is essential,”
but he goes on to observe, “It takes far more than prayer to grow a church. It takes skilled
action.”12 having said that, let’s move on to the basic rules of prayer.
PRAY ACCORDING TO THE RULES
As I
have said
many times, not
all prayer
is equal. this
applies to the prayer life and ministry of a local church as much or more as to any other arena of prayer. In another book in the prayer Warrior series,Churches that pray (see pp.
46-56), I list four rules of prayer that bear repeating here, but have considerably less detail and include
some other em- phases. A pastor who wants
to lead the church
to become a true house of prayer
should make sure these rules are woven into the very fabric of the congregation on every level.
Rule 1: Pray with
Faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (heb. 11:6). Faith in prayer is believing that God will answer the prayer.
here is where the two-way
prayer I discussed in Chapter 2 becomes important. to the degree
that we hear from God we can join Jesus, who said, “the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the
Father do” (John 5:19). If we hear from God and know his will in a given situation, we then can pray
with much
more faith. “If we ask anything
according to his will, he hears us” (1 John 5:14). Nothing builds our faith in prayer more over the long haul than knowing our prayers are answered. one common fault I have
found, even in churches that have strong prayer ministries, is that answers to prayers are not shared
often enough with those who have prayed. It is one thing to believe that
the
bible teaches God
answers prayer. Most pray-ers do, but that is not enough. We have developed
fairly efficient ways of putting current prayer requests into
the hands of the people, but we are running far behind in doing the same with answers
to prayers. every positive answer we share builds the faith of those who
prayed; consequently, their future prayers are more powerful because they have
more faith.
one church I visited set aside a large room in which members of the congregation came to pray throughout
the week. People were always praying
there, some for longer
times than others. on the right
side of the room, a huge bul- letin
board was attached to
the wall on which prayer re- quests were tacked. Intercessors removed the requests of
their choice, prayed
for them, and fastened
them back
onto the bulletin
board. the wall on the left
side of the room contained
another huge bulletin board on which the
an- swered requests
were tacked. Intercessors also helped them-
selves to the answers and
lifted praises to God for his faithfulness and his power. every answer built their faith, and the prayer
ministry flourished. Rule 2: Pray with a Pure
Heart. the
effectiveness of prayer stands or falls on our relationship to God. the
closer we are to God and the more intimate we are with the Father, the more
accurately we can know his will and the more powerful our prayers will be. If
we allow anything to come into our lives such as unconfessed sin, wrong atti-
tudes, improper habits, or questionable motives, we cannot sustain the
relationship to God that we desire. If such is the case, we need to take immediate
steps to clean up these things. God has given us ways and means to do
this, al- though frequently we will need to seek the help of others who can
minister to us and help us to be set free.
Fasting
is one of the means God has provided for us to come into a closer relationship
to him. Alice Smith, one of Doris’ and my personal intercessors, says,
“Spiritual dis- cernment is one of several benefits when fasting. Fasting
sharpens our ability to discern the kingdom of light, and the kingdom of
darkness. Discernment enhances our ability to see God’s perspective in a given
situation.”13
Fasting
was one of those things most Christian leaders I knew, including myself,
glossed over until this remarkable decade of the 1990s came upon us. Now it
seems we are bent on making up for lost time. the wide media coverage given to
bill bright’s first 40-day fast, and the subsequent prayer and fasting events
that have drawn thousands of leaders have created a new climate. For the first
time in my memory, fasting has become popular in America. When we do it, we now
like to talk about it instead of keeping it a se- cret. excellent books about
the subject, such as elmer L. towns’ fasting for spiritual Breakthrough (regal
books), are providing a deeper understanding of fasting than we have ever had.
I will focus more on fasting in Chapter 10.
the net result
[of fasting], as
I see
it, is to draw God’s people on a large scale closer to him than we have been, and that will help purify our hearts so that our prayers
can be more powerful. the Net reSuLt, AS I See It, IS to DrAW GoD’S PeoPLe oN A LArGe SCALe CLoSer to
hIM thAN We hAVe beeN, AND thAt WILL heLP PurIFy our
heArtS So thAt our PrAyerS CAN be More PoWerFuL. Rule 3: Pray with Power. After I was born again as an adult, I was nurtured in an evangelical tradition that acknowledged the holy Spirit as part of the trinity, but not much more. We became slightly embarrassed when groups such as Pentecostals seemed to talk too much about the holy Spirit.
We also tended to complain to each other
that their emphasis
on the holy Spirit was taking glory away from Jesus, the person of the trinity who rightly deserved it. What we failed to realize was
that
quenching the Spirit,
which we were really doing (although
we would have denied
it), was, among other
things, weakening our prayers.
We understood only superficially what Paul meant when he said,“Praying always with all prayer and supplication
in the spirit” (eph. 6:18,
emphasis mine).
When
Jesus first told his disciples he was going to leave them, it caused quite a
commotion. Peter argued so strenu- ously that Jesus had to say, “Get behind Me,
Satan!” (Matt. 16:23). When things calmed down, however, he told them it would
be to their advantage if he left. how could that be?
Jesus said,“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your
advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the helper will not
come to you”(John 16:7).to put it clearly, Jesus was telling
his disciples that for the work he had called them to do, they
would be better off with the immediate presence of the third Person of the trinity than they would with the second Person. I am not alone these days in recognizing the crucial role of the holy Spirit in our lives and ministries. As a result, I
have shed many of my previous inhibitions in talking about
the power and the gifts of the holy Spirit
and overtly appropriating them in my life and ministry. My new enthusiasm for spiritual
things is not without its price. Many of my
old
friends, although not exactly rejecting me, have decided they would be more comfortable to keep me at arm’s length because I seem to them to be “too charismatic.” even so, I still believe that to the degree we receive the fullness of the
holy Spirit and operate in all the
gifts of the Spirit, the more powerful our prayers become.
Rule 4: Pray with Persistence. Let me elaborate on this rule by presenting a personal testimony
from Singa- pore. Gordon tan
is a Singapore medical doctor who
had decided he could acquire everything
he ever needed in life without God, until his beautiful wife, Kim Li, developed a form of cancer. tests
showed that a certain hormone had
reached a dangerous
level of 10,000 units/liter. If it did not come down in a few weeks, radical treatment would be nec- essary.
For the
first time, Gordon tan decided to pray to
Jesus, which he did.
the next week
the level remained at
10,000 units. he said, “I continued
praying but felt as though I was praying to a wall. there was no response from
God.
I felt abandoned
by Jesus, forgetting that it was I who had
earlier abandoned him.”
In a few weeks, the count went up to 20,000 units, precipi- tating a crisis. of five doctors handling
the case, four called for immediate cancer treatment.
one was willing to allow one more week,
and Gordon chose that option. he says,“At this
stage, I was in pieces. My whole life appeared
shattered. Where was this
God I had prayed to for four whole weeks?”
In desperation, he called the Anglican bishop and asked him to come to the hos- pital, anoint his wife with oil and pray for her healing. When he did, Kim Li felt a
power surging through her body that would have
caused her to collapse if she had not been sitting.
Dr.tan says,
that night, a broken man, I came before God as a child. For four whole weeks I had been calling my own terms: “heal her! heal her!” For four whole weeks I had bar- gained,“Lord heal her. heal her and I will do whatever you want.”that night I surrendered all to him. tomor- row would
be the results of the crucial blood test. I prayed,“Lord Jesus, I have fallen from a cliff. I am two inches from the rocks.
If you do not save me now, I am
finished. but, Lord, thy will
be done.”
the next
day the blood test went down to 1,400, and soon it was down to zero. Kim Li had
been miraculously healed!
reflecting on what at first seemed to be unanswered prayer, Gordon tan rejoiced that he had the persistence, although hav-
ing a low level of faith, to continue beseeching God. he sum- marizes it by saying,“During that time my pride
was slowly broken until my spirit
was like putty before
him. but just be-
fore I was about to snap, God saved me.the Lord needed that
time to break me till I came to him as a child so that he could
build me up again.”14 Dr. tan had learned the fourth rule of prayer:
persistence.
MAKING IT HAPPEN
I won’t extend this chapter
by attempting to catalog
the in- creasing numbers of practical, effective, and exciting ideas
that are emerging to help transform
your local church into a house of prayer. In the resource
section at the end of the chapter, you will
find valuable tools to help make it happen.
I think I should highlight one concept, however, that seems
to me to have the potential of being the most powerful
thing local churches could do to multiply the effectiveness of their prayers for their churches, for their communities, and for the unreached peoples of the world in this decade. I refer to “local
church prayer rooms.”
Although
no overall coordination of the movement is in place as yet, some estimate
that up to 2,000 local churches in the
united States have already installed prayer rooms or prayer chapels or upper rooms or prayer centers or whatever they might be called. It seems the two denominations that have the
largest number of prayer rooms are
Southern baptists and united Methodists.
the most prominent national leader of this movement I
know of is terry teykl, former
pastor of Aldersgate
united Methodist Church in College Station, texas, and founder of
renewal
Ministries.terry is actively promoting the prayer room
movement across the nation, and he has written a textbook
about the subject, making room to pray. In it he says,“A place or
center designed for this makes
continual prayer a possibility for any congregation. In this way the church and city can be
‘soaked’ in prevailing prayer.”15 your church probably has the potential
to find a room that can
be designated as a prayer room. Kenwood baptist Church of
Cincinnati, ohio, has a prayer room that operates
24 hours a day, seven days a week. here is their description of a prayer
room:“Furnished as a warm, inviting
room,there is a small altar area, comfortable chairs, floor pillows, a meeting table,
and five study tables set up as prayer stations.
the prayer stations have
up-to-date information to stimulate prayer about
various needs such as missions,
staff, congregation needs,
government leaders, etc.”16 the following diagram is a floor plan of the church’s
prayer room:
A typical
prayer room has one or two telephone lines. Some will be able to afford a dedicated fax line, and some a computer
equipped for e-mail and access to the World Wide Web.
It is a place, as terry teykl says,“where prayer can happen—a room,
a site, a meeting hall—just as the disciples met in the upper room. In this actual room people can pray, cry, petition, wait, be quiet, intercede, and believe to receive from God.”17
A local
church prayer room that aims for
24-hour-a-day staffing is one of the highest commitments to prayer a church can make. It also has extremely
high potential for returns that benefit the Kingdom of God. It constitutes a major step toward transforming an ordinary church into a house of prayer. Could your church become a “house of prayer”?
REFLECTION QUESTIONS 165
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
on a scale of 1 to
10, where would you rank your
church as a “house of prayer”? Why?
Can you name some pastors
who seem to give a higher pro- file
to prayer than others do? What do they do differently?
If God does not answer your prayer the first time, do you pray again?
how long do you keep
praying?
166 PRAYING
WITH POWER
What are some things that could be done in your church to raise
the level of powerful
prayer?
(Note By Blogger: Due to the length of the book which this content is from I have broken it up into a short series of blog posts.)
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