Real Prayer and Intercession

Leonard Ravenhill met some people who told him that they had never slept but spent the entire night, every night, in prayer. I think that that is a slight exaggeration, it seems more likely to me that at least one of these men went to bed at four o' clock in the morning and slept for a few hours, but still, an enormous amount of time, and I can feel quite tired at midnight. In this country in the last forty years there has been an unprecedented amount of prayer. Interecessors for Britain are a group of people I belonged to for several years and they receive newsletters and pray for Britain for one hour a week, as they have done since the abortion bill was passed in 1967. I am no longer a member of Intercessors for Britain and am concerned that their theology is misguided and that they may be praying for the wrong thing.

I read a book written by a similar organisation in Sweden, intercessors for Sweden. They believed very strongly that Christians should take their nation for Christ. If we seek to become like the church in the New Testament we must accept that that is not a Biblical precedent, that is not what happened in Biblical times. The New Testament church did not take the nation of Israel for Christ. They preached the gospel. They went to prison. Many of them died. A lot of Intercessors for Britain theology is based on verses in the Old Testament about God's judgement coming on Israel. God looked for a man who would stand in the gap, but he found none, so judgement came. We were invited to stand in the gap, we could be that man, we could stop God's judgement coming on our nation. Another favourite verse was, 'If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and seek my face and repent of their sin, then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.' I would have to differ with the popular interpretation of that verse. The people of Britain are not the people of God. We cannot pray for them as if they are. We cannot repent of their sins on their behalf and demand God's judgement not to come on them. The last forty years of prayer have made no difference to the United Kingdom. There is no hope of the abortion act ever being repealed, and abortion is becoming more common every day. The homosexuals have won, there can be no hope of doing anything to hold back their march for freedom now, and we are simply picking up the pieces and begging the politicians to give churches a few concessions so that the persecution of Christians under these laws will not be quite so severe. At university the Christian Fellowship received a request from Intercessors for Britain to pray that God's hand would not come down in judgement on this nation, that it would be restrained. I actually prayed for God to bring his hand down in judgement. That was the only way people were ever going to learn. Yes God, make us a poor country again, make us a country where there is no freedom of speech, where evangelists live in fear for their lives because they are preachers of the gospel, and maybe we'll wake up. That's what things were like in New Testament times. Why should God want people to have an easy life? What is Jesus going to do when he comes back? Do you think he's coming to have a church picnic with us? Read the book of Revelation. He's coming to smash the world with a hammer. That's what happens when God's judgement really comes on the United Kingdom, and there's nothing we can do to prevent it.

If the people who started Intercessors for Britain in 1967 could have seen forty years into the future, would they have decided they were wasting their time? Perhaps not. But they may have prayed differently. My point is that we are the people of God. Why should we storm the heavenlies praying for our useless humanistic government when we could be praying for our church? There is one verse in Timothy that tells us to pray for rulers and those in authority, but there are obvious limits to what the early church achieved in this area, saying as most of them went to prison. No repeal of ungodly legislation for them, and that's something Intercessors for Britain frantically pray for. We would achieve much more if we spent one hour a week praying for eachother and praying for our churches. As for the Methodists at the end of the road, whether God's judgement comes on them is between the Methodists themselves and God. I have no business repenting on their behalf. Are they born again children of God? Then let them pray for eachother. If I pray for my own church I am familiar with its state. There are churches that God would like to close down. In the book of Revelation, in the letters to the churches in chapters two and three, a church is spared if it rediscovers its first love or if there are a few godly people left. It is possible that the Methodist church a quarter of a mile away will discover its first love, although, actually having visited the place, I think it's unlikely. It is more likely there a few people who have not soiled their clothes and that the Methodist denomination will be spared for their sake. Wesley Memorial church merged with Chowdean Chapel forty years ago, and will probably merge with Sheriff Hill Methodist church and eventually St. Mark's church on the other side of Gateshead, and perhaps even a few other churches. It may be God's plan for judgement to come on some of our churches. In 1976 a survey was done saying that 10% of people went to church and 1.5% of them were committed Christians. I would feel better if 2% of people went to church and 1.5% of them were committed Christians. That would be a leaner, fitter, healthier church. It used to be a laughing stock. In the 1970s there was a theologian who believed that Jesus was a homosexual, and another who didn't even believe in God. The beliefs of the then Bishop of Durham David Jenkins on the resurrection of Christ are well known in this country but were a small part of something very much worse that had been going on for years. People were turned against religion by a church that seemed dull, dead or even just boring, which indeed it is when it has no life in it. People were expected to go to church. Wouldn't it be nice to live in a country where people go to church because they want to? Oh God, give us a generation who have never been turned against religion.

My prayer for Britian is this, that things will become very, very bad, because we've never had it so good and we've never been so ungodly, that the church will be persecuted, because none of us are ready to die for God because we will never have to, and none of us know how to love God more than our family, because we don't have to go to prison, that all the churches that have no people who are born again will be closed down and replaced by churches that are full of people who are born again. I pray that the people who are born again will be totally committed to God and totally committed to one another. I pray that anyone who is not in this category will either quickly become so or quickly leave, as I am worried about the damage that can be done by church growth if it involves this kind of people, that they may become like a tumour and a deadly cancer that destroys the church. The early days of the Jesus Army in Newcastle saw quite considerable growth but it may have been growth of the wrong kind of people. When people are committing all kinds of immorality and constantly attacking eachother with vicious rumours and arguments, that's when the church goes down, that's when it nearly dies, as it nearly did. We need to pray that every year God would add at least one person who would build this church up and would make it strong. We need to pray that evangelists would be led to people who are genuine seekers. I give out leaflets in the city centre. I began to pray that my leaflets would only be taken by people who really wanted them. Immediately I prayed this prayer, I noticed fewer people taking the leaflets. More people were saying no. More leaflets were reaching people who really needed them. I now ask God not to allow anyone to take a leaflet unless they are going to become a genuine child of God and be genuinely converted, saved and born again. I give out ten leaflets a week, if this prayer were answered it would cause tremendous growth. I ask God to bring all the people who are genuine seekers of truth into Newcastle city centre on a Wednesday afternoon when I am around. A similar miracle happened at the church barbecue. A woman stopped to asked for directions, recognised Joyce who also attends another church in Hexham, and now wants to join the Jesus Army. I ask God to bring all the totally committed, born again Christians who are disappointed with other churches and looking for something more, real fellowship, real commitment.