1. For ministers of God to be convinced not just by lip-service, but demonstrated in action that prayerlessness is indeed a sin.
“A bankrupt who had a millstone
of debts around his neck would not delay long in using blank checks signed by a
millionaire and specially donated to him for his distress. Why then do we
Christians delay in using the ‘exceeding great and precious promises’ which
have already been signed by the Pierced Hand?” (Leonard Ravenhill, Revival Praying, 2010, p. 63).
“We may call prayerlessness neglect,
or lack of spiritual appetite, or loss of vision. But that which matters is what
God calls it. In I Samuel 12:23 God calls prayerlessness sin: ‘God forbid that I
should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.’ Prayerlessness is disobedience,
for God's command is that men ought always to pray and not to faint. To be prayerless
is to fail God, for He says, ‘Ask of me.’ Prayerlessness is sin” (Ibid., p. 64).
"Prayer links man's impotence to God's
omnipotence. Prayer swings us out of the natural into the supernatural. Prayer turns
our stony words into bread because He who turned water into wine still longs through
the preaching of the Word to impart nourishment to heaven's pilgrims” (Ibid., p. 65).
2. That ministers of God will repent of our disobedience, pride, lack of compassion, and half-heartedness.
“If God were to commission angels
to serve Him down here, heaven would be empty of angels in five minutes. But God
wants men! He wants obedient men, broken men, weeping men, resolute men — men strong
in courage, men strong in will, men of ability, men of durability” (Ibid., p. 64).
3. For God's ministers to realize that self-denial in discipleship is best expressed in prayer.
Paraphrasing:
“To follow Christ implies
self-denial and the best way to practice such self-denial is by praying. This
should be done on a daily basis, a daily dying by choice. Someone says, ‘There's
nothing wrong in trading stocks or cryptocurrency for a couple of hours.’ Maybe
not after you prayed. Yet there is something wrong when we trade, do business or
do some other thing without the Spirit's leading. It is wrong when instead of praying
we do things just to please others. There cannot be two operators of the Christian
life. We are either Spirit led in everything or self-led” (ibid.).
4. If what Leonard Ravenhill says in his book, "Why Revival Tarries" is accurate, may ministers of God repent of the following:
- commercialization of evangelism
- cheapening of the Gospel
- carelessness
- fear
- lack of urgency in prayer, and
- stealing God's glory
5. That the church will influence the world rather than the opposite.
Reflecting on one chapter in Ravenhill's book "As the Church Goes, So Goes the World," I can't avoid to think that the church has no right to blame the world for its immorality, for instance, the
multiplication of genders in our time. Just like in the days of Samuel, instead of Israel influencing her surrounding nations, she is the one being influenced by the nations. Perhaps, this is not true to the whole church, but I suspect that a large part of the visible body of Christ has been influenced by the spirit of the world, instead of serving as salt and light. This is to say that an immoral church does not have the credibility to speak judgment on an immoral world. And besides the spirit of revival is holy. There is no way the Holy Spirit can visit an immoral church except in the spirit of fire. And so let us be cautious in condemning the world for its sins if similar sins are also found in us.
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