I promised I would summarise some of Pastor Y Cho’s book to Prayer for Revival – to help us with the subject of prayer. I am drawing from the preface and his introduction , making it clear what are my own thoughts and experience . Direct quotes and any scriptures are indicated accordingly. I close with a prayer.
Essentially revival will stem from a church or person who is given over to fasting and prayer.
In a climate where there is much darkness, throne room prayers are essential to break generational, physical and spiritual yokes.
Pastor Cho admonishes that it is not just physical cancers that are attacking people but there is much ‘spiritual cancers’ in and outside the Body.
Time given over to daily prayer will wrought wonders. The Bible tells he ‘he always hears us when we pray;
Praying in your spiritual language helps when we don’t know what to pray and also is the force that helps us to pray and intercede much longer than using our own minds and as the task is great.
Pastor Cho put his trust in the Holy Spirit to guide admonishing us that ‘The Holy Spirit knows the mind of God and can discern the will of God’ for each individual and situation.
Don’t be overwhelmed, give the issue to God.
PATTERNS OF PRAYER
There is a pattern to prayer which I have written about before . Pastor Cho gives his own example which is similar to what I have come to know and find beneficial. I can’t pretend I currently pray those long hours punctuated throughout the day, but I want to start again and review where I am loosing quality time.
Pastor Cho starts with praising God for a good hour and then he begins to flow and cover the rest of the issues government , his nation , other nations , ministries and missionaries and then his family .
He opines that ‘ministry to the Lord must come before ministry to people’. Essentially highlighting that many seek to minister and help others, but they are often drawing on depleted tanks and not ministering with the full knowledge of Christ for that day, that person, that individual or that nation.
‘To react is to allow people and situations to control you, to act is to be in control of the circumstances’
Pastor Cho prays for over an hour in the morning without which he knows he would only be functioning on natural resources and would soon deplete. Throughout the day and facing problems he continues to pray before he acts. He covers the poor tendency of Christians to react instead of waiting , praying and then reacting. By waiting on God in this way , he discerns God’s will in a situation and develops the mind of Christ in his walk and interactions.
Pastor Cho’s disciplines were to pray again in the afternoon – to get away from distractions. He spends over an hour prayer before preaching at his church on Sunday and a further 4-5 hours in praying before preaching to an audience across nations.
He highlights the need for ministers to look at how they spend their time. There is much eating, drinking and surfeiting which eats into the time available to God. The pattern for many ministers is that they go out to eat after and ministry event and fellowship with each other, then in the morning for the ministry they are often too tired to spend time praying when they wake to effectively draw from the throne room for themselves and others.
What I have seen in my walk is some ministry settings is much eating and chatting before church or a called for prayer and worship event thus losing much valuable, sensitive time to draw close and preparing the environment. We need to set new patterns of coming in.
Growth for ourselves and breakthrough for revival will come if we spend dedicated times in prayer and fasting before we plan , act, and minister to others.
DEFINING MOMENTUM AND IMPETUS – MAINTAINING REVIVAL
Let me share some bullet nuggets for you
*’Revival must not only be prayed for them to begin but they must be prayed for to be maintained’
Using the analogy of driving a car Pastor Cho admonishes we must keep up the ‘impetus ’ of prayer not the ‘momentum ‘ – momentum (he shares ) ‘is like having a foot on the pedal but when you remove your foot the momentum is lost ‘ over time and the car will eventually come to a standstill .
*”Momentum does not maintain movement and in time ‘the special visitation from God will end up as a momentum of the past”
Pastor Cho shares the numbers of people converted in his home church as a result of the foundation of prayer that drew them in, in Korea. He encourages that we too in our nation and churches, can have the same success if we have discipline in prayer and fasting –
We must draw away from the crowd and develop an effective prayer life. We must pray without ceasing. We must be filled with God’s spirit when we pray – let the Holy Spirit pray through you…leave your own thoughts and niceties , your own language and understanding to one side. Pray in the spirit and be filled. We must seek to know the mind of our God, on any matter before we preach, minister or reach out to others.
To summarise further and before I close in prayer
🔹 Prayer is done by first praising God to get into His presence and asking for cleansing and confidence and boldness knowing that he will now hear – follow on with covering the rest of issues: government, surrounding nation, other nations, ministries and missionaries and then ones family.
🔹 ‘Ministry to the Lord must come before ministry to the people. There should be a continuous flow for true revival. This takes discipline. Separate oneself to never stopping to pray with fasting. Essentially an overflow of the holy spirit in our lives is needed to avoid drawing on exhausted vessels and those not ministering with the full knowledge of Christ…
🔹 “To react is to allow people and situations to control you, to act is to be in control of the circumstances.”_
🔹 Pray before you act. ~ wait, pray then take action to discern God’s will in a situation and develop the mind of Christ in one’s walk and interactions. Morning then afternoon and evening ie continual seamless prayer – to pull away from distractions.
🔹 Pray before ministering with more devotion to people , an unknown audience or unknown circumstances.
🔹Ministers must look at how they spend their time. There is much eating, drinking and surfeiting which cuts into the time available to God.
🔹 Growth and breakthrough comes from dedicated time in prayer and fasting for revival BEFORE making plans, acting and serving.
🔹Maintenance of revival is necessary and needed .
MY PRAYER
Father help us as we review our individual prayer lives to start again if we have missed it. Help us to secret away to you to find your will for us and others in this unprecedented time of our living history .
Help us to look at ways to draw away to you and to sit at your feet. Help us to be sensitive when you are pulling us away from the worlds gaze and much activity to time with you in prayer.
We need you Lord more than ever before. We repent for trying to do things in your name without proper consultation with you. We had good intentions, but we want God’s intention Holy Spirit. Draw closer to us and help us to have and understand the mind of the Father in all our affairs. Help us to develop the mind of Christ on a foundation of prayer.
Help us Lord to keep in step with you not to seek to minister to others without our cups being full.
We have nothing to give anyone but our sin , shame and disgrace and we need perpetual washing each day .
Wash us, cleanse us , take away our infirmities. Forgive us when we have failed you. Help us to forgive others so that we may minister with a free and unadulterated heart and do great things in your name.
Our lives, our families, our nations , the kingdom is depending on us to play a pivotal, ground breaking part, starting with prayer in the throne room and developing a daily audience with you.
Evangelist Linda J UK
5/5/2022