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| The Prefects' Fountain in the Harry Potter films, on display at Warner Brothers Studios, Watford. Each tap releases a stream of coloured water. |
Not long before
you began reading this, you turned on a tap. Water flowed from it. It quenched
your thirst or cleansed your hands. Now scale up that image. Think of a dam or
a weir. It has a sluice gate, like a tap. Open the sluice, and water flows out
to irrigate the land, drive a turbine, or serve our homes. Close the sluice,
and the crops wither, the lights fail, and we die of thirst.
Jesus likened
the Holy Spirit to flowing water (John 7:38-39). A number of Christian writers picture
prayer as a means of opening a channel, tap, sluice, or door, through which God
can work in our world. “Prayer lets God loose,” says Philip Yancey1.
Adds Robert Llewelyn, “Prayer may open a channel through which it becomes
morally possible for God to work … not changing
God’s purpose but releasing it.”2
This is
potentially life-changing, even world-changing. Bishop Stephen Cottrell claims
that “We are not puppets being controlled or manipulated by God. We can
influence events. Intercession is not a technique for changing God’s mind, but
it is a releasing of power as we place ourselves in a relationship of
co-operation with God. When we pray we are in communion with God, we seek his
will and the channels of communication are open.”3
There is a
profound reason for this. God has taken voluntary limitation. He did it in
Jesus, accepting all the acute limitations of human life and relinquishing,
temporarily, the awesome limitless realms of eternity (Philippians 2:6-8), celebrated
in the Christmas story of Jesus’ birth. God again limited his influence on
earth when he commissioned his followers to be the builders and messengers of
his kingdom (eg Matthew 28:19-20; Luke 10:3-11; Acts 1:8). He does not shout at
the world through a heavenly megaphone. He does not bombard individuals with
spiritual spam messages. He does not wave a Harry-Potter style magic wand to
banish the evil and lay out the good. Instead, God waits for his people to
speak and act on his behalf; we are his hands, his mouthpiece.
Prayer before action
Above all, God
has voluntarily limited himself to working through prayer. Norwegian pastor Ole
Hallesby wrote, “God has voluntarily made himself dependent upon our prayer.”4
Prayer is the chief means by which God’s presence and power connects with this
world. This is, in the 21st century, totally counter-intuitive.
Prayer seems passive, even passing the buck, an excuse not to get stuck in to
the messy chaos of human affairs, a way of distancing ourselves from getting
too uncomfortably involved. Yet in God’s economy, prayer is the priority.
Pointing our
that the monastic movement and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount set themselves
against the common attitudes and desires of society, theologian James Houston
asserts that “Prayer belongs to this counter-culture and our prayers are
frustrated whenever we compromise between our praying and living. Prayer should
determine the spirit in which we live our lives. Too often we turn this upside
down, turning the agenda of our everyday needs into shopping lists for prayer.”5
Anglican
minister Magdalen Smith suggests that the common inversion of priorities,
putting needs before prayer, is symptomatic of a lack of faith. “In our secular
society action can be an easier option than dreaming or praying because we
simply do not believe that God is able to act in the world. We cannot cope with
the intangibility of either dream or prayer. But action is no substitute, for
without the dream and the sustaining power or prayer, our actions quickly feel
empty.”6
Prayer can change the world
There is a
profound mystery and a massive challenge here. Historian Richard Lovelace
suggests that if church members “were to intercede daily simply for the most
obvious spiritual concerns visible in their homes, their workplaces, their
local churches and denominations, their nations, and the world and the total
mission of the body of Christ within it, the transformation which would result
would be incalculable. Not only would God certainly change those situations in
response to prayer – we have Christ’s word that if we ask in his name he will
do more than we ask or think – but the church’s comprehension of its task would
attain an unprecedented sharpness of focus.”7
Hallesby
agreed. “The church is always the little flock. But if it would unite on its
knees, it would dominate world politics – from the prayer room. And the result
would be one of two things, either a world-wide revival or the appearance of
the Antichrist.”8
So the
disciples failed in their mission when they tried to do God’s difficult work
without soaking it in prayer (Mark 9:28-29). “Pray continually,” charged Paul,
who knew a lot about fruitful mission and faithful discipleship (1
Thessalonians 5:17). “Without me, you can do nothing,” Jesus warned (John 15:5).
Prayer keeps us sensitive to God’s subtle nudges, and to his even more subtle
responses to our praying, which may be different to our stated concerns.
“Unanswered
prayer” is another topic, but Pete Grieg, the accidental founder of the 24/7
Prayer movement, was once staggered by a revelation from God that “‘I never
forget a single prayer my children ever utter, even if they do.’ The very idea
that the living Lord might diligently have treasured up every little prayer I
had ever prayed, even the ones I had forgotten, and that he might still be
weaving their fulfilments, was almost too much to take in. It means that there
must be answered prayers most days that I never even recognise as such, and
casual requests I have uttered that continue to marshal the very hosts of
heaven.”9
And that,
perhaps, is one reason why Jesus told his disciples to be persistent in prayer
(Luke 18:1-8). It shows that we really mean what we’re asking, that we’re not
being casual about prayer and saying in effect, “it would be nice if you do
this Lord, but if not, well, I guess it doesn’t matter.” Persistent prayer
refuses to take no for an answer but looks for any sign of God’s activity even
if it isn’t presenting us with the exact gift we had on our wish list. And
persistence also recognises that God never forces his will on others, and that
it takes time for attitudes and circumstances to change or be changed.
So if we want
to see change in our world, our churches, in people around us and ourselves, perhaps
our prayer now should be for God to pour out a spirit of prayer and
supplication into our hearts. Every period of renewal and revival in history
has been preceded by people crying to God for him to visit them and their
world. “Units of prayer combined, like drops of water, makes an ocean which
defies resistance.”10 Remember that, the next time you turn on a
tap.
All heaven waits with bated breath,
For saints on earth to pray;Majestic angels ready stand
With swords of fiery blade.
Astounding power awaits a word
From God’s resplendent throne;
But God awaits our prayer of faith
That cries, ‘Your will be done’.11
Think and talk
1. Look up the
Bible references quoted above. Spend time thinking (and discussing) their
meaning and implications for daily life.
2. When you
pray about big issues in the world, to what extent do you distance yourself
from them (praying for “them”) and to what extent do you identify with the
problems and needs (praying for “us”)? See Ezra’s example in Ezra 9:1 – 10:16.
What might you learn from this?3. What might you be able to do locally to encourage people to pray together for each other and for the church, community and wider world?
References
1. Philip Yancey, Prayer, Hodder 2008, p.140
2. Robert Llewelyn, Prayer and contemplation, Oxford: SLG Press, 1985, p.63. Stephen Cottrell, Praying through life, Church House Publishing 2003, p.28
4. O. Hallesby, Prayer, Inter Varsity Fellowship 1963, p.127
5. James Houston, The transforming friendship, Lion Publishing 1991, p.64
6. Magdalen Smith, Fragile mystics, SPCK 2015, p.145
7. Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of spiritual life, Paternoster Press 1979, p.160
8. O. Hallesby, op.cit., p.128
9. Pete Grieg, Red moon rising, David C Cook 2015, p. 151
10. E.M. Bounds, Power through prayer, Moody Press n.d., p.83, quoted by Richard Foster, Celebration of discipline, Hodder & Stoughton 1980, p.39
11. The first verse of the hymn “All heaven waits” by Graham Kendrick and Chris Rolinson, © 1986 Thankyou Music.
© Derek
Williams 2018
