I have been making an effort to read a chapter of With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray each day, and am being provoked all over again to seek God for what the Bible actually says is possible in prayer.  Even at IHOP-KC, it is all too easy to come up with a theology to explain away my barrenness and lack of power in prayer.

Oh Lord, may I not settle for less than what You have actually promised to Your Church!

With Christ in the School of Prayer, note after ch 21, "The All-Inclusive Condition"

On a thoughtful comparison of what we mostly find in books or sermons on prayer, and the teaching of the Master, we shall find one great difference:  the importance assigned to the answer to prayer is by no means the same.  In the former we find a great deal on the blessing of prayer as a spiritual exercise even if there be no answer, and on the reasons why we should be content without it.  God’s fellowship ought to be more to us than the gift we ask; God’s wisdom only knows what is best; God may bestow something better than what He withholds.  Though this teaching looks very high and spiritual, it is remarkable that we find nothing of it with our Lord.  The more carefully we gather together all He spoke on prayer, the clearer it becomes that He wished us to think of prayer simply as the means to an end, and that the answer was to be the proof that we and our prayer are acceptable to the Father in heaven. It is not that Christ would have us count the gifts of higher value than the fellowship and favour of the Father.  By no means.  But the Father means the answer to be the token of His favour and of the reality of our fellowship with Him.  ‘To-day thy servant knoweth that I have found grace in thy sight, my lord, O king, in that the king hath fulfilled the request of his servant.’

A life marked by daily answer to prayer is the proof of our spiritual maturity; that we have indeed attained to the true abiding in Christ; that our will is truly at one with God’s will; that our faith has grown strong to see and take what God has prepared for us; that the Name of Christ and His nature have taken full possession of us; and that we have been found fit to take a place among those whom God admits to His counsels, and according to whose prayer He rules the world.  These are they in whom something of man’s original dignity hath been restored, in whom, as they abide in Christ, His power as the all-prevailing Intercessor can manifest itself, in whom the glory of His Name is shown forth.   Prayer is very blessed; the answer is more blessed still, as the response from the Father that our prayer, our faith, our will are indeed as He would wish them to be.

I make these remarks with the one desire of leading my readers themselves to put together all that Christ has said on prayer, and to yield themselves to the full impression of the truth that when prayer is what it should be, or rather when we are what we should be, abiding in Christ, the answer must be expected.  It will bring us out from those refuges where we have comforted ourselves with unanswered prayer.  It will discover to us the place of power to which Christ has appointed His Church, and which it so little occupies.  It will reveal the terrible feebleness of our spiritual life as the cause of our not knowing to pray boldly in Christ’s Name.  It will urge us mightily to rise to a life in the full union with Christ, and in the fulness of the Spirit, as the secret of effectual prayer.  And it will so lead us on to realize our destiny:  ‘At that day:  Verily, verily, I say unto you, If ye shall ask anything of the Father, He will give it you in my Name:  ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be fulfilled.’  Prayer that is really, spiritually, in union with Jesus, is always answered.

 

Vermont just legalized gay marriage, this time without the Supreme Court legislating from the bench. Now there are four states where gay marriage is legal - Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, and Vermont.

Andy Comiskey of Desert Stream Ministries, had some good commentary on the situation in Iowa:

‘Gay Marriage’ in The Heartland « 40 Days of Devotion: "A lower court heard the case in 2007 and ruled that the ban was unconstitutional due to the judge’s belief that ‘homosexuality is unchangeable’, that ‘gay parents will not impact the development of their kids’ and that ‘homosexuals are politically powerless.’ All false, especially the last point: gays in Iowa have Lambda Legal, the most powerful reps I know.

The lower court’s ruling was ’stayed’ then appealed to the Supreme Court, which heard the case last January. I could tell by the hearings that the Court was more inclined toward Lambda Legal than the traditional voice. On Friday, the Court announced that it had unanimously redefined marriage. One decision by one court and the most basic institution of the state changes for all of its citizens."

In addition to the false claim about homosexuals being politically powerless, I just read the following in The Language of God, by Francis S. Collins:

An area of particularly strong public interest is the genetic basis for homosexuality. Evidence from twin studies does in fact support the conclusion that heritable factors play a role in male homosexuality. However, the likelihood that the identical twin of a homosexual male will also be gay is about 20 percent (compared with 2-4 percent of males in the general population), indicating that sexual orientation is genetically influenced but not hardwired by DNA, and that whatever genes are involved represent predispositions, not predeterminations.

....

To summarize this section: There is an inescapable component of heritability to many human behavioral traits. For virtually none of them is heredity ever close to predictive.
Environment, particularly childhood experiences, and the prominent role of individual free will choices have a profound effect on us. Scientists will discover an increasing level or molecular detail about the inherited factors that undergird our personalities, but that should not lead us to overestimate their quantitative contribution. Yes, we have all been dealt a particular set or cards, and the cards will eventually be revealed. But how we play the hand is up to us. (Collins, The Language of God, 260,262)

The truth is that even if some people are born with a predisposition towards homosexuality, it is absolutely possible to change. I have a number of friends who were living a gay lifestyle, and by the power of Jesus Christ, they changed and are not looking back. In fact, some of the men who have come out of homosexuality are among the most powerful men of God that I have met. There is a reality and a gravity to their lives and their testimonies that gives them power to set others free. Andy Comiskey is a great example - I've published a couple of his talks on my podcast, which I highly recommend.

Here's what the Bible says:

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NKJV)
⁹ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

Voice of the Martyrs is distributing a movie about the three believers in Jesus who were killed in Malatya, Turkey on April 18, 2007.  The movie was produced by The Austin Stone community church in Austin, TX.

April 18 has also been designated the International Day of Prayer for Turkey. There are still only a few thousand believers in Jesus in a nation of 70,000,000, and the believers are often under great pressure, as you can see in the trailer for Malatya.

Please pray for Turkey!

If you would like to order the DVD, it is available on the website.

Christian Persecution Blog: Malatya Film: "Two years ago one of the most heard stories of persecution was what happened in Malatya, Turkey when young Muslims murdered three Christians in a Christian publishing office."

Update (9-Apr-2009): Thanks to Todd for pointing out that The Austin Stone actually produced the movie instead of VoM.