Prepare to Pray for Revival

Prepare to Pray for Revival

Is there a prayer God cannot answer? In the book Highway of Our God, Catherine Booth sets forth the idea that there is prayer that God cannot answer. The reason she gives why God cannot answer certain prayer is that it would break His Law. She questions why some professing Christians say that they pray but get no answer to their prayers and wonders why they do not give up praying.
In a message Catherine spoke these words in reference to unproductive prayer, “This is a very God-dishonoring experience, and to account for it something must be wrong either with the supplicants or the Giver. Often I feel what a deeply dishonoring thing it is when Christians meet, as they do to pray for revival or for some specific thing in their churches and in their families, and it never comes.”

She continues, “It is not because God is asleep, or that His arm is shortened. It is not because He cannot pour out His Spirit and give us glorious times of refreshing. There is only one reason and that is His people ask amiss. They do not fulfill the conditions of prevailing prayer. They are not the characters to whom God has made promises to hear and answer prayer. The promises are made to those who keep His commandments, who walk in the light and have fellowship with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who can make intercession for them. How can the Holy Spirit make intercession for a person when He is not in them?”

Let’s think about that and break it down. There are spiritual laws or principles regarding this amazing gift of prayer. First God hears and answers the prayer of the unsaved when they pray for salvation. That is a good thing for us because it opens a whole new level of praying to us. Prayer is communion with God and involves listening as well as speaking. For the Christian, prayer becomes our “vital breath our native air” for we enter God’s Presence through prayer.

Catherine Booth called effectual prayer a four linked chain that connects our souls with the heart of God. The first link is fellowship with Jesus. The second link is obedience to His commands. The third link is the intercession of the indwelling Spirit. The fourth is the exercise of prayer.

If you have experienced a season when God has not heard your prayers, consider it may be that one of the links has broken. First examine your heart and habits. According to the Psalmist if we hold sin in our hearts, God will not hear our prayer. Harbored sin can break the four linked chain. Enter God’s Presence in prayer and confess your sin. Ask God to reveal anything that does not please Him and repent of it. Then ask God to show you how to pray.

The Giver is ready to pour out His Holy Spirit on The Salvation Army, upon your corps, your community and your family. Ask God how you should pray and get ready for the answers!