Taking back what was stolen from us

A few weeks ago at the Fulness Retreat I sensed the Spirit say that one of the things he wants to re-release in the Salvation Army is extempore and vocal prayer.
As I was waiting upon the Lord I had a picture in my mind of lots of individuals on their own in their prayer closets all praying faithfully. I felt assured that there is a lot more Salvationist praying going on than we know about. However I also felt that the Spirit was saying that these prayers need to be released into vocal public prayer.

As I have been processing this it occurs to me that this again is all part of the same call to the Salvationists to have confidence in our identity. Prayers that are not reliant on prayer books or the eloquent and uttered by anyone who felt led something that characterised our worship and was envied by many other churches.

I have a growing conviction that there has been a gagging of public prayer in the UK SA that has become a spiritual stronghold over many of our corps. I believe that in some quarters the enemy has stolen our freedom in prayer. I am on a mission to get it back.

We have all been in those meetings when prayer has been asked for and there has been that restless awkward silence, whilst everyone waits for the usual volunteers to let everyone else off the hook. When at last, they wearily get to their feet because they can bear the silence no longer, the sigh of relief from everyone else is much louder than the words of prayer uttered.

More and more, in the Army we are reading prayers from the screen, praying silently and writing things down on bits of paper to avoid the agony of the silence and to try to involve the silent majority in the prayer time. That’s Ok, there is a place for those things but we must not retreat to them because people are afraid to express their heart.

I have never liked the awkward silence and have always been frustrated by it. But of late it has become a real burden. When there is a delay in people responding to the call for prayer and you know it is not just about people becoming still enough to be led by the Spirit, I want to cry. I feel a sense of sorrow that we can’t find our voices to pray in front of one another.

Anyway in the light of this I have been praying about my own corps, which is freer than many in this area but I also know that there are many who are frustrated at their nervousness about praying in public. Anyway having prayed, shared something of my heart on this and promised that we will not railroad anyone or embarrass anyone into praying out loud we have seen some release. At least 8 people prayed aloud on Sunday morning and others in the evening meeting. I am praying for even more freedom.

I have a growing conviction that if we find our voices to pray before one another we will find our voices to proclaim salvation to the world.

God bless

Carol