Prevailing Prayer

On Sunday night in our meeting we spent some time praying for breakthrough in the lives of people who we are breaking our hearts over.

Sometimes our prayers are not more effective than trying to knock a wall down with an inflatable hammer.

Our prayers need to have more weight if we are to prevail and see breakthrough. Today I picked up my 24-7/SA Prayer Networdk newsletter and read again an extract from an article by Major David Taylor about the conditions for prevailing prayer.

He writes:

1. The conditions for prevailing prayer.

Catherine Booth fervently taught that there were God given conditions that we have to fulfill in order to see our prayers prevailing. This would sound rather mechanical if it were not for the deep spirituality of those conditions. The conditions she saw in Scripture included such primary truths as "abiding" in Christ, obeidence to what God has reveale, being sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading and holding on to God in faith. They are conditions of relationship with God. When a revival that swept across Ireland and America missed England and raised ridicule in the National Press for the way Christians had been praying and expecting God to move mightily, Catherine was angry and exclaimed, "I knew it was not because our God was asleep; not because his arm was shortened; not because his bowels of compassion did not yearn over sinners: not because he could not have poured out his Spirit and have given us the same glorious tiems of refreshing they had in other places. THAT WAS NOT THE REASON. There was only one reason and that was the people asked amiss. They did not understand the conditions of prevailing prayer.... The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." For Catherine Booth, prayer and holiness were inseperable."

God bless

Carol