Last night at prayer meeting I shared some points from a message preached by CH Spurgeon on the prayer meeting. In the message, he scoured Acts for all the different uses of corporate prayer meetings. There really were some good thoughts. And being that last Sunday, in our verse-by-verse through Acts, we were challenged to seek the empowerment of the Holy Spirit through prayer, I thought it fitting to share some of Spurgeons points.
I followed up Spurgeons thoughts with my own questions. "When we pray for the sweeping revival of the Holy Spirit, what are we really praying for?" "What will things look like when that happens?" "And, do we really want it?" Blank stares are about all I got in response to those questions. I'm not sure we are really ready for what will happen. Whatever it looks like, I know it would require this: absolute surrender--we would have to repent as a body, really giving our hearts up to be changed; we would have to lose control, really giving our plans and purposes up to be changed; we would have to step out in faith, really obedient to do things that may not make much earthly sense. Do we really want to risk all those things?
We have so much to offer as a church. We continue to steadily grow. We have more and more ministries available. We're on mission globally. But, in my estimation, we lack the power of the Holy Spirit. The power comes with prayer--genuine confession, brokeness, anticipation, hunger.
Here's what Spurgeon said:
Again, if you look at the second chapter of the Book of Acts, you will perceive that the prayer-meeting is the place for the reception of divine power. "They were all together in one place," (Acts 2:1) lifting up their prayer, and, as they waited there, "Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them," (Acts 2:2-4) and they were clothed with the power which Jesus had promised them.Would you join me in seeking the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the life of our church? If you run into a fellow church member, have a little prayer meeting today. If you haven't made it to your prayer closet today, make sure you get there--and pray for power, realizing what all that requires of you!
And what a difference it made in them! Common fishermen became the extraordinary messengers of heaven. Illiterate men spoke with languages that they had never heard. They began to reveal mysteries which had not been revealed to philosphers or kings. These men were lifted out of the level of ordinary humanity, and became God-inspired, filled with the Deity himself, who came to dwell in their hearts and minds. The result was that poor wavering Peter became bold as a lion, and the impetuous John, who would have called fire down from heaven upon the Samaritans, had another fire fall upon him; one not to destroy, but to rescue and bless.
Now, the great need of the Church at all times is the power of the Holy Spirit. "We believe in the Holy Spirit," says the doctrines of most churches, but how many, or rather how few, are there who really do believe in him? There is a mysterious, supernatural energy which comes from the Third Person of the blessed Trinity which really in this age falls upon men and women, as truly as when Peter spoke in languages unknown to him or performed miracles; and though the power of working miracles is not given now, yet spiritual power is given, and this spiritual power is just as evident, and just as surely with us today, if we possess the Holy Spirit, as it was with the apostles. Now, if we want to get this, the most likely place in which to find it is the prayer-meeting...Oh! yes, this is the place to meet with the Holy Spirit, and this is the way to get his mighty power. If we would have the Holy Spirit, we must meet in greater numbers, we must pray with greater fervency, we must watch with greater earnestness, and believe with firmer determination.
