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What we can learn from Jehoshaphat’s prayer life by Dwayne Moore |
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What we desperately need in our worship services is for God to move off the pages of our orders of worship and into the hearts of our congregation. Dwight L. Moody remarked that "every work of God can be traced to some kneeling form." A.T. Pierson, a Bible teacher in the 18th century, once observed that "no revival has ever come about but by united supplicatory praying, as in Acts; and no revival has ever continued beyond that same kind of praying."
We see in 2 Chronicles 20 that Jehoshaphat obviously understood that prayer is indispensable. That's why he called all the people to fast and pray rather than to run out and fight. If they hadn't heard from God, they wouldn't have known what to do to win the battle. Furthermore, I believe God honored their determination to seek him first. (According to Matthew 6:33, he still does!)
Not only did prayer have an effect on the outcome of their dilemma, it also had a profound effect on them. In fact, at least three results of personal and corporate prayer are revealed in that passage.
1. Prayer refocuses us on God.
Prayer puts our focus where it belongs: on God. When Jehoshaphat prayed, "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you" (2 Chronicles 20:12b), he was placing all their faith and hope in the Lord. I can't begin to count the times I have frantically run around just minutes before a service, trying to get every little detail together. Then I am gently reminded to pray, and my entire perspective changes. I have had dress rehearsals that would otherwise have been disastrous turn calm and productive by simply stopping to pray. It's not a difficult thing. But it does fly in the face of our self-reliant attitudes.
I remember one particularly amazing, life-altering service that our praise team led. I shudder when I consider how my "self-reliance" nearly hindered God's work there. An hour before, I had done no preparation, no planning, and certainly no praying for that service. I was just going to rely on my "natural talent and experience." I will be forever grateful that the Holy Spirit prompted my stubborn and pride-filled heart to finally pray.
Carol Cymbala, director of the great Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, said, "[God] can only bless people who are in tune...with him and with one another. That is why we begin every choir practice with a season of prayer...The choir's ability to minister can never be better than their spiritual tone."
2. Prayer sensitizes us to God's voice.
According to 2 Chronicles 20:13, even after Jehoshaphat had finished his prayer, every man, woman, and child remained standing, waiting to hear from the Lord. Apparently they had been in that position before: desperately needing a word from God. They somehow knew to listen for his instructions. Thus the second result of prayer that we learn from this story is that prayer sensitizes us to God's voice.
If there's one skill more important than any other for a praise leader, it is the ability to listen and recognize the voice of the Shepherd. Worshippers should be so familiar and sensitive to his speaking that the slightest prompting is recognized and heeded. I cannot overemphasize this. I am convinced that the more we learn to listen to God's voice and obey him without hesitation, the more God will entrust to us opportunities to lead his people in praise.
Verse 13 implies that the people of Judah were silent before the Lord for a long period of time. This is a powerful idea, especially today, when we seem surrounded by noise from the television, cell phone, stereo – something. It's rare to see a person walking quietly alone in a park or sitting silently by a stream. Some of us actually avoid being quiet.
Yet it's in the solitude of silence that we most often hear from God. In his book Intimacy with the Almighty, Charles Swindoll writes, "If we refuse to provide pockets of silence in our lives, we will always flounder in a fog, wondering who God is and what he's doing...But if we deliberately fashion protracted periods of silence, we will grow deeper in an increasing awareness of the real presence of God."
3. Prayer gets results.
Jehoshaphat and the children of Judah apparently knew and certainly discovered that prayer gets results. God heard, answered, and saved his people as a result of their prayers. We have in our possession the same powerful and effective tool today.
Without a doubt Billy Graham will be remembered by many as the most significant Christian of the 20th century. His crusades have reached millions for Christ. Dr. Graham attributes this great success to prayer. One of his favorite and most famous quotes is: "The three most important things we can do for a crusade are to pray, to pray, and to pray."
Dr. Graham's longtime director of crusades, Sterling Huston, tells the story of a service during the 1984 Alaska Crusade in which Dr. Graham was struggling with a throat problem. As he started to preach, his voice gave out without warning. Many people immediately began to pray. Dr. Graham called on someone else to preach in his stead that night. When he returned to the podium to give the invitation, he could barely speak. Even so, they had one of the largest responses of the entire week.
As Sterling Huston explains it, "A team member said to Billy Graham, ‘The Lord received glory for himself tonight.' Graham's response was ‘Yes, he did, and it shows where the real power comes from!'"
It's no wonder that prayer is the most necessary element for an effective worship service. That's where the real power comes from!
This article was excerpted from Pure Praise: A Heart-Focused Bible Study on Worship (Group Publishing 2009).
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