The Urgent Need to Pray Earnestly

(Overcomer Wu)

I believe that those who have an ear to hear what the Spirit is speaking to the churches will concur that today the Spirit is calling God’s people to pray earnestly both for our churches and our country. Yet the great majority of God’s people are not stirring themselves up to pray and to lay hold of Him. Rather they are still too busy in their own affairs, families, pursuit of their career advancement, pursuit of fame, fortune, power and prestige. Churches are engaged in programs of their own – some for the uplifting of some person's ministry, some for the community work that is borne out of a good intention but not necessarily what the Lord what's them to do – that have little to do with God’s plan in this end-of-the-age apocalyptic hour. When the Lord called Matthew to leave his money-changing, and Peter to leave his fishing profession, and John and James to leave their nets, they forsook all to obey Him immediately. Thus, they became instrumental in the Lord's hand in laying the foundation and the spread of His Kingdom on the earth. Today, the Lord is looking for this kind of people who would whole-heartedly and unreservedly follow Him at all cost, and unquestioningly carry out His will.

I'm afraid that today there aren't many who are actively listening for God's voice saying, “This is the way, walk in it?” (Isa 30:21). And even those who do hear His voice calling to pray, to suffer for righteousness’ sake, to pay the price for the building of His Church, instead of offering their entire lives and future to Him, they have a controversy with the Lord and they offer excuses. In Proverbs we read “There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov 14:12). This is the way of deadly self-will and self-pursuits. God's people should see that the end is near and that they cannot bring what is of this world's investment and wealth into the next life or future, yet they persist in wasting their time, energy and resources in their course of vanity pursuits – “chasing after the wind” as King Solomon called it in the book of Ecclesiastes.

When Lenin was asked what helped the Communists to overthrow Russia, he said, “The weakness of our enemies.” Today America is weak morally as we can easily witness from the prevalent acceptance of certain sins as widely and even legally acceptable behaviors, and the most of the churches overall are weak spiritually. Consequently, we will gradually become weak also economically and militarily as God's blessings are withdrawn from this country. Already, the dollar as a currency has rapidly weaken tremendously in just these past 2-3 years and our economy as many expert economists, including the former FOMC chairman Allen Greenspan, has predicted that we are sliding into recession within the next 6 months or so. We saw from history that the moral decline of the Roman empire was the beginning of its ultimate defeat and doom. Thus, unless we have a revival in our country by our personal and corporate repentance with dedication to much prayers, we as a country are also soon to be doomed.

“If My people, which are called by My Name, shall humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14). This is God’s covenant of intervention whereby He says “IF” we do certain things, He will heal our land. Are you or I doing these things that will heal our land of its ungodliness and the churches of its lukewarmness? One of His requirements is that we humble ourselves and pray. May we hear the Lord's and the Spirit's calling us to humble ourselves and pray daily and constantly, even unceasingly for the desperate situation of both our churches and our country in these last days. Of course the Lord does have His timing, so we need to be patient even after we have prayed for months and years, “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain” (Jam 5:7).

According to God’s Word, He will readily exercise His omnipotent power on our behalf IF we will humble ourselves and pray. God is waiting for His ministers and His people to prostrate themselves on their faces before Him in confession, in contrition, in heart-searchings, in vast new renunciations to Him. This promise belongs to Israel but also to us by appropriation! It is nothing to God to beat down the mighty mountains of ungodliness, wickedness and infidelity in the world if He has those who will do His work in His way and all for His glory in Christ Jesus. Just as in the days of Zechariah when the God's people were under attack and came across a great hindrance in their rebuilding of God's House, the Lord God said, “ “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘ Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts. ‘ Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!'’” Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying: ' The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; His hands shall also finish it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you. For who has despised the day of small things?” (Zech 4:6-10a).

The Lord God said with great yearning, “I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it” (Eze 22:30). It is not too late to start praying earnestly if we have not already been doing so, for the Lord said, “'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.'”

Today, God is looking for intercessors today. An intercessor is one who stands between man and his great peril, and God and His great power to deliver. The need of intercessors among the ministers and people of God today is the greatest need of all. It is hard to find because there is no credit and acclaim for those who earnestly and faithfully pray in their private hidden room for God's purpose, God's people, the Church, and this wicked world as a whole. When God does not find intercessors judgment shall ensue shortly after. Let us diligently and earnestly pray without ceasing (1 Thes 5:17) not just for Church revival and world evangelization, but with the focus on the attainment of God's glorious eternal purpose that He may hasten the return of our dearest Bridegroom by also preparing ourselves individually as well as corporately to be the spotless Bride of Christ without blemish: “The marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has made herself ready” (Rev 19:7). May we all be a part of that readied Bride!