December
2003
Ministering to the Lord
In the church at Antioch there were prophets and
teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene,
Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and
Saul. While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the
Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul
for the work to which I have called them.’ So after
they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them
and sent them off. (Acts 13:1-3)
The above is a description of what must have been a wonderful
meeting. The literal meaning of the words ‘while they
were worshipping the Lord…’ is while they were
ministering to the Lord… That they were experiencing
the presence of God powerfully is confirmed through the record
of the Holy Spirit having spoken into this context. I suppose
the opposite is referred to in the saying of Teresa of Avila:
‘All difficulties in prayer can be traced to one cause
– praying as if God were absent.’
The fact is that God is never absent when we are praying
to him – Moses put it like this: ‘What other nation
is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord
our God is near us whenever we pray to him?’ (Deut 4:7).
And this is the understanding that is the transforming influence
over how we pray.
Given that prayer is defined as speaking with God, let me
put it like this: if you were speaking with God, would it
make a difference to you whether he was in the room or not?
Imagine he was! Jesus said: ‘Where two or three come
together in my name, there am I with them.’ (Matt 18:20).
Of course, these words do not preclude the possibility and
reality of God’s presence when we are praying alone
as well.
In the prayer meeting context, the synergy we are constantly
seeking is the combination of the presence of God with the
presence of his people and it is this very combination that
seems to epitomise the description of the meeting that is
given in the words from Acts 13 at the head of this article.
I do not suppose those involved gathered together that day
conscious that their meeting would be so significant in terms
of world evangelism but it was! Out of the meeting Paul was
despatched on the first of his missionary journeys.
The point for us surely is that it should be dynamic each
and every time we come together to pray and to worship. Of
course, if we do not really believe that God will be present
on these occasions we will fall into the trap that Teresa
of Avila has identified. But our experience is quite the opposite
– I cannot remember a prayer meeting when we have not
experienced the presence of God and I know this is entirely
down to his faithfulness rather than anything of inherent
merit on our part.
As we move on into the New Year, it is surely good to remind
ourselves that the very simple act of coming together to pray
and to worship has history-changing potential each and every
time we do it.
Jeremy Jennings
This article is an edited version of one first published in
Focus, December 2002. Reproduced here with permission.
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