Sometimes I wish prayer is like a magic wand. How I wish, with a single wave of it, I will be able to get what I want and what I want now.
There are times when God answers my prayer almost immediately like when I prayed for a parking lot, in the late night while raining and with heavy things to carry up to my house. Knowing the situation was almost impossible, I prayed with my simple faith. Lo and behold, I saw an empty lot and I praised God for that. It was almost a split second - the prayer and the answer.
There are times, like now when I am still praying, believing and hoping for my family to be saved. Humanly speaking, it's a long way although my parents seemed opened about church. I am praying that my brother and sister will return to God as well but it seems that my prayers will take quite some time to be answered.
While faith is the vehicle to answered prayers sometimes I wonder to myself, how much faith is enough faith? Perhaps it's unwavering faith, perhaps it's persistent faith manifested in continuous prayers and asking...
Another element of answered prayer is when we pray according to God's will. God's will is found in His Word but there is another will of God that exists in the here and now and is current. For example, God's will is for us to rebuild the church. How do we know? The leadership prayed and sought the Lord. They've heard and the people have concurred as can be observed from the giving that is taking place. Hence, the church will go through a physical rebuilding. This is the will of God not stated in the bible i.e. the Revival Centre Church is not found in the bible, neither does it say that Revival Centre Church shall be rebuilt in 2007. This is the sort of "will of God" I am referring to. God's will can be revealed to us. For example, God suddenly shows us a friend's name and we pray and that person comes to church, converts and grows in the Lord. But such things do not take place all the time, neither does it mean that each time when God reveals, when we pray, the pattern of conversion will follow. Sometimes we just have to pray and keep on praying.
Recently my church youth group had an evangelistic event. They were all enthusiastic about it which is good. Let me say something about my youth group. They are really a bunch of zealous people, very committed and go all the way out in everything. Their prayers rocks and I believe they are full of faith in everything they do. I think they were believing in God for 500 salvations as a result of this evangelistic event. It was a good belief to begin with and they planned hard for it. They believed God could give them the souls. I asked one of the leaders who was planning and believing in God for the 500. She herself was uncertain about whether 500 people would fill the auditorium or 500 people will be saved?
It's not that I do not have the faith to believe in God's ability to give the souls. He definitely has all the ability. After all, He is in the business of soul-saving. He desires all to be saved and none to perish... Just because someone in revival history asked for 100,000 souls doesn't mean that by asking for 500 souls now, it is God's will for us, here and now. It is still subject to God's timing. Just like it's a matter of time, my parents will be saved, my brother and sister will come back to God. Some people I know pray for more than 10 - 15 years to see salvation happening in their family. While it is not happening now, I believe and will continue to believe that they will be saved.
For me, when I heard that they were believing God for 500 souls, I asked the Lord if it is his will. I didn't have the 'conviction' or the sense of being 'convicted'. I wondered if I had still be in the youth group, would I have been the black sheep of being branded as 'faithless'. It is cool to believe in the impossible, in fact, it's great, yet we got to ask ourselves, is it just something we want to believe or is it an insight, a will, something that requires our obedience and faith. God might have indeed spoken that He will give the 500 souls but could it be over a period of time and not in a single event?
Maybe I am trying to play safe. I would do the work and do it with all my heart and leave the results to God. When Jesus came, He only discipled 12 (and 1 betrayed Him). While there were many heading for hell during the inter-testament period i.e. between Malachi and Matthew, He took 400 years before getting himself born into this world as a man. While more people were going to hell, He took another 30 years to provide for his family and worked as a carpenter. He kept 3 1/2 years solely for ministry amongst the people He came for. He could have just appeared in the heavens or on top of Mount Sinai and spoke to the people, the Jews would all have repented but He took a longer route, a route that somehow made Him less recognisable by His own.
God's ways and God's timing are beyond us. We need to seek Him, discern His will all the time and pray in faith. Not easy, as the natural man wants to see the red sea part, the glory dust descend and what else. Not that great stuff are not good but subject to God's leading and guidance, we will see it take place. Faith is not just about believing in the impossible alone, it is believing that God will deliver the impossible, if we remain faithful in our faith and in our prayers to God.
There were no 500 souls saved that day but there were more than 400 Non-Christians. I believe more will be saved. Let God handle the results, we just do the work.
+we must thank God that there were about 18 youths who responded to Jesus during 21 dec and at the youth service on 23 dec
There are times when God answers my prayer almost immediately like when I prayed for a parking lot, in the late night while raining and with heavy things to carry up to my house. Knowing the situation was almost impossible, I prayed with my simple faith. Lo and behold, I saw an empty lot and I praised God for that. It was almost a split second - the prayer and the answer.
There are times, like now when I am still praying, believing and hoping for my family to be saved. Humanly speaking, it's a long way although my parents seemed opened about church. I am praying that my brother and sister will return to God as well but it seems that my prayers will take quite some time to be answered.
While faith is the vehicle to answered prayers sometimes I wonder to myself, how much faith is enough faith? Perhaps it's unwavering faith, perhaps it's persistent faith manifested in continuous prayers and asking...
Another element of answered prayer is when we pray according to God's will. God's will is found in His Word but there is another will of God that exists in the here and now and is current. For example, God's will is for us to rebuild the church. How do we know? The leadership prayed and sought the Lord. They've heard and the people have concurred as can be observed from the giving that is taking place. Hence, the church will go through a physical rebuilding. This is the will of God not stated in the bible i.e. the Revival Centre Church is not found in the bible, neither does it say that Revival Centre Church shall be rebuilt in 2007. This is the sort of "will of God" I am referring to. God's will can be revealed to us. For example, God suddenly shows us a friend's name and we pray and that person comes to church, converts and grows in the Lord. But such things do not take place all the time, neither does it mean that each time when God reveals, when we pray, the pattern of conversion will follow. Sometimes we just have to pray and keep on praying.
Recently my church youth group had an evangelistic event. They were all enthusiastic about it which is good. Let me say something about my youth group. They are really a bunch of zealous people, very committed and go all the way out in everything. Their prayers rocks and I believe they are full of faith in everything they do. I think they were believing in God for 500 salvations as a result of this evangelistic event. It was a good belief to begin with and they planned hard for it. They believed God could give them the souls. I asked one of the leaders who was planning and believing in God for the 500. She herself was uncertain about whether 500 people would fill the auditorium or 500 people will be saved?
It's not that I do not have the faith to believe in God's ability to give the souls. He definitely has all the ability. After all, He is in the business of soul-saving. He desires all to be saved and none to perish... Just because someone in revival history asked for 100,000 souls doesn't mean that by asking for 500 souls now, it is God's will for us, here and now. It is still subject to God's timing. Just like it's a matter of time, my parents will be saved, my brother and sister will come back to God. Some people I know pray for more than 10 - 15 years to see salvation happening in their family. While it is not happening now, I believe and will continue to believe that they will be saved.
For me, when I heard that they were believing God for 500 souls, I asked the Lord if it is his will. I didn't have the 'conviction' or the sense of being 'convicted'. I wondered if I had still be in the youth group, would I have been the black sheep of being branded as 'faithless'. It is cool to believe in the impossible, in fact, it's great, yet we got to ask ourselves, is it just something we want to believe or is it an insight, a will, something that requires our obedience and faith. God might have indeed spoken that He will give the 500 souls but could it be over a period of time and not in a single event?
Maybe I am trying to play safe. I would do the work and do it with all my heart and leave the results to God. When Jesus came, He only discipled 12 (and 1 betrayed Him). While there were many heading for hell during the inter-testament period i.e. between Malachi and Matthew, He took 400 years before getting himself born into this world as a man. While more people were going to hell, He took another 30 years to provide for his family and worked as a carpenter. He kept 3 1/2 years solely for ministry amongst the people He came for. He could have just appeared in the heavens or on top of Mount Sinai and spoke to the people, the Jews would all have repented but He took a longer route, a route that somehow made Him less recognisable by His own.
God's ways and God's timing are beyond us. We need to seek Him, discern His will all the time and pray in faith. Not easy, as the natural man wants to see the red sea part, the glory dust descend and what else. Not that great stuff are not good but subject to God's leading and guidance, we will see it take place. Faith is not just about believing in the impossible alone, it is believing that God will deliver the impossible, if we remain faithful in our faith and in our prayers to God.
There were no 500 souls saved that day but there were more than 400 Non-Christians. I believe more will be saved. Let God handle the results, we just do the work.
+we must thank God that there were about 18 youths who responded to Jesus during 21 dec and at the youth service on 23 dec
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