Holy Desperation

“The key of holy desperation for the presence and ministry of Jesus is required in order for us to move out of our complacent, satisfied existence. Desperation is the underlying fuel that ignites our hearts for unity, prayer, worship, and repentance. If we aren’t longing for Jesus our ministry activities will be routine and hollow. There is certainly no shortage of ideas, plans, methods, books, teachings, programs, and activities in the church; what we are suffering from is a drought of desperation for God!”  Rhonda Hughey

Are we desperate enough for God and His presence? This is a good question for each one of us to ponder. I taste the level of commitment necessary for city transformation whenever I am involved in a 24/7 House of Prayer. I remember how I felt after finishing a non-stop 24-7 House of Prayer in Spain a couple of years ago. It had radically changed my life, just as it had to so many others who had stepped into the fire of God’s presence in that location in southern Spain. Prayer lives had been challenged. The question I had to ask myself was:

“How far am I willing to go? 

How desperate am I willing to become? 

Can I even begin to think about going back to how things were before?” 

The answer was “No!” It was time to proceed. Many of us had stepped in this far and the levels of commitment required were going higher. God had challenged us to a new phase, a new mountain to climb for His glory. He wanted us to go deeper in holy desperation. The battle had been great, but there was no turning back.

There was something so exceeding real and alive to that dimension of living. 

There was something so necessary and dynamic to that taste of unity between the churches. Suddenly we realized that we were in this together, and we desperately needed one another to touch that region of Spain with God’s glory. I began to value and love the body of Christ in all its’ dimensions as I had never done before. I began to understand what it meant to be members of one another. We had tapped into God’s wonderful plan for Kingdom living, and I never wanted to return to the old ways. God had brought me a step further in holy desperation during that time. I felt really alive with the purpose of God! 

We will not see transformation in our cities and neighborhoods until our hearts move into a greater level of holy desperation for God.  Rhonda Hughey in her book Desperate for His Presence shares about purposely pursuing God. She says:

“The decision to make a radical lifestyle change and realign our hearts with the Lord is a matter of our will availing itself of God’s grace and reprioritizing our time and commitments. We can willingly and purposely begin to pursue God! When we do, He responds, and the more time we spend in His presence, the more desperate for Him we will become. It’s an interesting dynamic; the hungrier we are for Him, the hungrier we will become for more of Him!”

    
There are ways we can evaluate our cities and our personal lives to see if they are on their way towards transformation. We can discern if the signs of transformation are present and increasing in our city. George Otis, Jr. gives several indicators of transformation. Below are some of these indicators adapted from his study. Take time to regularly evaluate your city and your personal life, and pray through these indicators. Most of our cities have a long way to go, but desperate prayer is the key. Study and pray these verses over the area where you live. Take inventory and prayerfully answer these questions about your own life regarding holy desperation:

*The political leaders acknowledge their sin and dependence on God - 2 Kings 11:17-18, 23:2 and Jonah 3:6-9. Do I acknowledge sin in my own life? In what areas do I need to grow in holiness? Make a list

*The economic conditions improve - 2 Chronicles 17:3-5, Psalm 144:14, Isaiah 60:5, and Amos 9:13. Am I wise in my spending, and do I give to the Lord’s work?

*Kingdom values are integrated into daily life - Ezra 10:4, Nehemiah 8:10, Ecclesiastes 10:17, and Acts 19:17-20. Am I practicing Kingdom living in my own life? See the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7.

*Crime and corruption diminish - 2 Kings 12:13-15, Nehemiah 5:6-12, and Isaiah 60:17-18. Are there any evil practices in the way I live?  

*New laws are put into effect - 2 Chronicles 19:10 and Nehemiah 10:31. Am I obedient to the laws of God? Where do I need to grow in obeying God’s Word?

*There is a decline in divorce, bankruptcy and suicide - Nehemiah 12:27-28, 43, Isaiah 54:11-14, 62:3, 7, Jeremiah 30:17-1, 31:11-13, and Hosea 2:15. How are my family relationships? In what ways am I seeking to help those who are struggling with marriage, hopelessness, or poverty

*The natural environment is restored - Leviticus 26:4-5, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Ezekiel 34:27, and 36:29-30. How am I helping, or hindering, God’s natural environment?  

*Christians take responsibility in healing and helping their community - Isaiah 58:10-12 and 61:104. In what ways am I helping my community?    

*Christians take revival into other cities and nations - 2 Chronicles 17:9, Isaiah 61:6, and Acts 11:20-26. What is the level of my revival passion? Am I fervent for revival in my city and nation or am I apathetic? 

We will not begin to see this kind of transformation in our cities unless we first become desperate for God. He wants us to become so desperate for His presence so that we want it more than anything else in the world. What does desperation look like? Let me give you a good example. A young man approached the Greek philosopher Socrates and said,

“O great Socrates, I come to you for knowledge.” 

Socrates took this young man and walked him down to the sea. They waded into the water, and he dunked the young man under the water for thirty seconds. Finally he let the man up for air and asked him to repeat what he wanted. He sputtered,

“Knowledge, O great one.” 

So Socrates dunked him under the water and held him there a little longer. He then asked the question again. After several dunkings and responses, the philosopher asked,

“What do you want?” 

The young man gasped, “Air, I want air!” 

“Good,” said Socrates, “When you want knowledge as much as you want air, you shall have it.” 

In a similar way, God wants us to be desperate for His presence like this young man gasping for air. Many of us have faced moments of desperation in this life.

If you’ve just lost your job and have five children to take care of, you know what it’s like to be desperate.

If you are starving and are searching everywhere for a meal, you know what it’s like to be desperate.

If you’ve been saved out of drugs, have overcome alcohol, have lost a loved one or have lived through a terminal disease, you know what it’s like to be desperate.

If you remember what it’s like to be lost and searching for the answer and now know what it’s like to have found Jesus, you know what it’s like to be desperate.

God wants us to seek Him desperately and invites us to seek Him with all of our heart. Desperation is one of the secrets to a deeper prayer life. Are you willing to respond to this invitation? The door is before you - the door of intimacy and the door to His presence. Let’s invite the King of glory to radically come into our lives and take over, asking Him to make us passionate in prayer. Are we not right at this moment in a place of desperation for the transformation of our cities and nations? How bad must things get before we become desperate?  

Nothing will happen without God. Let’s invite the King of glory in. Let’s say like David in Psalm 24:9-10:

“Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty - he is the King of glory.” 

“Lord, we open the door to your invitation - Teach us holiness - Radically change our personal lives and reprioritize everything - We seek Your face - Make us hungry - Make us desperate for You and Your presence. Change our city. Bring revival to our nation. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

“To be desperate means to be without hope in your current condition and to know that in your own power you don’t have the necessary resources required to change it. People who are desperate become determined to find help, often taking great risks to meet their desperate need. In the communities where transforming revival has occurred the people of God were desperate enough to change their lifestyle and their priorities and to commit their time and resources, making everything secondary to the desperate pursuit of God in their midst. They cried out in desperation, and the Lord heard their cry.”  Rhonda Hughey

  

By Debbie Przybylski

Intercessors Arise

deb@intercessorsarise.org

http://www.intercessorsarise.org

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Listening Prayer and Expectation

“’The word of the Lord came to Elijah… I will send rain upon the earth.’ That was the foundation of that persistent praying and sevenfold watching on the mountaintop. First the ear heard, then the voice persistently claimed, and the eye expectantly looked. First the voice of God, then the voice of man. That is the true order. Tremendous results always follow that combination.”  S. D. Gordon

Think about these questions as you evaluate your personal relationship with God.

Are you able to endure silence?

Are you tuned into hearing God’s still, small voice?

Are you able to listen attentively to what He is saying above all the noise of your world?

In order to pray His will, it is crucial that we hear God’s voice clearly. We all know what it is like to talk with someone who never listens. It is absolutely frustrating! Likewise, God wants us to learn to listen to Him. It is as we spend time before Him in quiet listening that we are able to pray His will more fervently and with greater expectation, hitting the target effectively. We need to be certain of hitting our target as we pray for the situations we see around us. When you give God time in listening prayer, He will direct your prayers strategically, even when you don’t realize it. He will help you to proclaim His will in your prayers, and your level of faith will increase.

God has so much to say to us daily, but often we can’t hear the fine, quiet tones of His voice.

When I was growing up, my father used to make and sell hearing aids from our home. Individuals would come into our house with hearing aids that needed repair. We, as a family, would not even bother to go into the living room to talk with them, because we knew they were not able to hear our voices.

How many of us are in the same situation with God?

He can’t tell us things because our hearing needs repair or we are not taking the time to listen. He often can’t speak into our lives because we are not ready, nor able to discern the treasures of what He has to say to us. Just as we could not communicate with my father’s hard-of-hearing guests, God may feel the same way with us. He can’t share His secrets because we are not listening or are too distracted. We are not able to hear Him whispering in our ear. As a result, we are the ones that miss out and have chosen the lesser thing. And our expectation of what God can do does not increase.

Listening prayer builds expectation. Notice the difference between Mary and Martha in Luke 10:39-41: “She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made… ‘Martha, Martha’, the Lord answered, ‘you are worried about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better.’” Mary listened and sat at Jesus’ feet while Martha worked.

Let’s look at three dimensions of listening prayer.  As you evaluate your own listening skills, answer these three questions.


Three Dimensions of Listening Prayer

• The Ear Hears - Are you attentively listening?
  

It’s just too easy for us to make our plans and then ask God to bless them. But to be effective in prayer, we must learn to listen to His plans and cooperate with Him. We are then able to pray God-size prayers and join God in partnering with His answer. His blessing then follows because God’s plans will always bring tremendous blessing and fruitfulness.  t may take time, but in due season we reap a harvest. Listening is key to being effective and watchful in prayer. It’s a skill to develop in all relationships, but especially in our relationship with God. If we don’t listen to God and hold fast to His word, the devil will continually attack and weaken us with His lies.

“The first stage of Moses’ prayer training was wearing the noise of Egypt out of his ears so he could hear the quiet, fine tones of God’s voice. He who would become skilled in prayer must take a silence course in the university of Arabia”. S. D. Gordon

• The Voice Persistently Claims - Are you persistently claiming?

Sometimes God tells us things in the secret place of listening, but we fail to persist in claiming His promises. We may pray for a time, but then we give up. We fail to proclaim the truth in His Word. However, when we do move into that dimension of knowing what God wants and as we pray His Word with His unction and anointing, the answers will surely come. Our faith will rise up to that level of proclamation, and we shall see the fulfillment of our dreams. Listening prayer builds an assurance in our inner being of God’s will in the here and now. This moves us into new dimensions of faith and victory.

“When we so absorb this Book (the Bible), and the Spirit of Him who is its life that people cannot tell the line of division between the man, and the God within the man, then shall we have the mightiest power as God’s intercessors in defeating the foe. God and man will be as one in the action of service against the enemy. S. D. Gordon

• The Eye Expectantly Looks - Are you expectantly looking?

It’s easy to lose an expectant heart when we are bombarded by bad news on a daily basis. We don’t want to live in the place where we listen to the lies of the enemy. We want to have ears that hear the sounds of heaven and eyes that look with expectation of victory in all that is before us. We are soon stepping into eternity, a wondrous place to live. Now is the time to rise up in prayer and see what God has for each one of us as we work to pray in His kingdom. We are made to reign with Him, and one day all our tears will be turned into joy. Learn to listen now and the heartbeat of God will empower your prayers of proclamation, and you will look expectantly for the fulfillment of those prayers.

“Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always” (Psalm 105:4). 

Moses learned to listen in the desert. He learned the value of solitude. God had him in a training program. Early this morning I got up, got a cup of coffee, and sat outside listening - listening to God, to the many sounds of nature, to a natural wonderland of birds and animals right in my own back yard. It was a rich experience and as I did this, my expectation level in God rose.

When we begin to listen to the voice of God through a trained, attentive ear, then we shall be able to walk in a new level of Holy Spirit-inspired productivity and anointing. Let’s ask God to help us to slow down and listen in prayer, that He may empower us with Godly proclamations of life and truth that bring freedom into the lives of all those we touch through intercession. Learn to touch heaven with your prayers by learning the secret of listening prayer. Learn to live on this level of expectancy in prayer. We can learn from the example of Moses as we seek to be God’s watchman in prayer.

“There were two distinct stages in the training of His (Moses) ears.  First there were the forty years of solitude in the desert sands, alone with the sheep, and the stars, and - God.  His ears were being trained by silence.  The bustle and confusion of Egypt’s busy life were being taken out of his ear.  How silent are God’s voices.  How few men are strong enough to be able to endure silence.  For in silence God is speaking to the inner ear.”  S. D. Gordon

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise
deb@intercessorsarise.org
http://www.intercessorsarise.org

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