Prayer

Introduction “if my people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7: 14 (NKJV). As a follower of Christ, let me ask ‘How many times have you heard this Scripture read or spoken to you or a congregation?’ My good guess is probably at least ten times. 2 Chronicles 7: 14, is probably no stranger to a follower of Christ. But I’m here by the Spirit of God to beacon you to DO IT! No longer read it and hear it as a good word or verse of the day but LIVE IT. We must awake and rise a cry to God for such a time as this. An unprecedented move of God demands unprecedented prayers. As a people geared up like Esther and Daniel to stand in the gap for their generation and people to petition heaven. The writing of this book did not come by a personal passion to write, it came by an instruction from God through a word of wisdom, so with trembling in the fear of God, I believe the Holy Spirit will pen the words shared in this book. Hear it as a call from God to you to arise as Esthers and Daniels in this generation who are willing to follow God whole heartedly, fast and pray passionately for an awakening and revival to God. God does nothing except in response to believing prayer John Wesley The Cry of a Generation The Scripture says that “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.” Romans 8: 22 (NKJV). Right from the heart of the world around us there is a groaning –-a cry—arisen and has been since the fall of man. A cry for what you might say? Verse 19 answers that question: “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.” Romans 8: 19 (NKJV). The cry is for the revealing of the sons of God. In this cry is a plead for the sons—the matured children—of God to step up to their position in Christ and reveal the glory of God. Creation raises this cry and oh that we who claim the identity of the children of God will take our positions to become matured sons of God and reveal the glory of our Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the cry of our generation—a cry not mufled, only but that the children of God would unplug their own ears and listen! That we would have the response God wants us to have. A response not of panic or despair but of hope and affirmation that He who subjected creation to futility to provoke this cry is willing to bring to fulfillment the HOPE for which He has brought it into subjection. The cry of a generation is to be heard by the Church. The cry of a generation is to be heeded by a people the Lord Himself has granted the authority to do something about it—His Body. Perhaps it is time we awaken with an urgency, a quickening—for the time is short, and the time to arise is now. In the revelation of the cry of creation we see that the children of God also have a cry well up within them: “Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” Romans 8: 23 (NKJV). Thus there is a cry without—the cry of a generation—and there is to be a cry within—the cry of the sons of God. The cry we hear without is to provoke the cry that arises within and the cry that is within is to lead to a yielding to the Spirit to produce an earnest fruit—a response God is calling us to for such a time as this. For it is written “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8: 26-27 (NKJV). This cry is the preparation for prayer. It is to fan the flame of Spirit-filled and empowered prayers. Oh Lord that You would find in Your Body a people yielding to Your Spirit in prayer for the harvest You desire The cry of a generation—seen on the empty faces carried with despair, anxiety, worldliness, and destitution. It is seen on the moral degrade and departure from the laws of God and the path God has made for us. It is seen on the face of the lonely and empty living without Christ. It is seen on the face of our culture burning in pursuit of cisterns that do not satisfy. And thus, the cry of a generation rings loudly, it yearns for the revealing of the sons—the matured children—of God. Oh Lord burden our hearts to hear the cry around us that we might yield to the Holy Spirit in fervent prayer for the revealing of the sons of God—for Your move in our lands The Spirit’s response to the cry of creation and the cry of the sons of God is prayer, intercession, a partnership with the sons of God in groanings—yielded prayers.