Teach Me to Pray - Week #13: Prayer Supplies Laborers

I have the rare privilege to be in a transitional season of my life in which I can dedicate my days primarily to prayer and to learning to pray. The longer I'm in this time of waiting on the Lord in prayer (over 6 months into it now), the more my heart is being smitten with the reality that I haven't truly believed in the power of prayer. By saying this, I'm not despising the genuine experience of God in prayer that I've had in my life nor denying that God has been real to me in prayer.

But I think there are a couple of things going on in me: one is that my active involvement in the end-times prayer movement for the past several years has made me aware of the fact that I am much more a product of my generation's church culture than I would like to admit (i.e., a prayerless religious culture); the other thing going on is that God has an agenda for His people at the end of the age with prayer at the core of it, and the reality of this is hitting me more each day. He is jealous about His Church being a house of prayer; i.e., about being identified and known as praying people. (Or as Murray says earlier in this book, like Jesus we need to "live to pray", rather than "pray to live.")

The western missionary movement, of which I have been part all of my life, didn't lead me into understanding the power of prayer, because our strategies have been more about our own ideas and efforts than about waiting on the Lord in believing prayer long enough to hear Him and respond in alignment with His strategies. I've been as guilty as the next guy in this so am grateful that He is infinitely patient and longsuffering with us, "winking" for a season at our ignorance. But with the prayer movement that is beginning to sweep the earth, we won't be able to plead ignorance; I want to be aligned with Him as we approach the end of the age.

This chapter of Murray's book ("Prayer Supplies Laborers") places the blame for shortage of "laborers" directly on prayerlessness in the Church. Matthew 9:37,38 "Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.'" Because of our proneness toward activism (taking matters into our own hands) as fallen and sinful humans, we have thought that a weekly corporate prayer meeting was sufficient, but the Lord is beginning to teach us what He means by making prayer the #1 priority for getting the job done, and we're seeing this in the raising up of 24/7 houses of prayer across the earth, a sign and a wonder to testify of what God is setting up in order to prepare His Bride and the earth for the coming of the Messiah.

During much of my history in the missions movement I blamed the shortage of laborers on the Church's lack of vision for the lost, and like most of my peers, I tried to convince people to be missionaries by showing them numbers and percentages, etc.; I've come to realize that it's more about lack of vision for the King; and vision for Him comes through intense seeking of His heart in believing prayer. This implies investing time and money and energy into prayer, real prayer. I'm just beginning to touch this in this season of my journey with Him.

Few have the luxury of a year to do what I'm doing now; because we are each unique, His ways to teach us to pray are unique. My encouragement to all who are His is simply to ask Him to increase the desire to learn to pray. No matter where your desire level is now, it's always appropriate to ask for more, and then take a simple step towards increasing your prayer life, either in your personal prayer life or with someone else, always dependent on the Holy Spirit to lead and help you in this. Look for what God is doing in your area in the realm of prayer and if possible, plug into that.

Lord, thank You for the season we are in now on Your divine calendar; thank You for Your infinite patience with us and for not giving up on us; thank You that You won't relent until You have a wholehearted Bride in agreement with You in prayer and worship and obedience. Forgive us for working so hard to get the job done without waiting on You, O Lord of the nations; would you increase in us the desire to learn to pray and therein partner with You for the sending forth of Spirit-endued messengers of the King at the end of the age. Thank You for teaching us and for hearing our prayers! We love Your ways, O Lord.