prayer diary
MATURE MULTIPLY MOBILISE – A VISION OF FRUITFULNESS FOR ALL !
PRAYING WITH FIRE
Prayers must be red hot . It is the fervent prayer that is effectual and that availeth . Coldness of spirit hinders praying ; prayer cannot live in a wintry atmosphere . Chilly surroundings freeze out petitioning ; and dry up the springs of supplication . It takes fire to make prayers go . Warmth of soul creates an atmosphere favourable to prayer , because it is favourable to fervency . By flame , prayer ascends to heaven . Yet fire is not fuss , nor heat , noise . Heat is intensity - something that glows and burns . Heaven is a mighty poor market for ice .
God wants warm-hearted servants . The Holy Spirit comes as a fire , to dwell in us ; we are to be baptised , with the Holy Ghost and with fire . Fervency is warmth of soul . A phlegmatic temperament is abhorrent to vital experience .
If our religion does not set us on fire , it is because we have frozen hearts . God dwells in a flame ; the Holy Ghost descends in fire . To be absorbed in God ’ s will , to be so greatly in earnest about doing it that our whole being takes fire , is the qualifying condition of the man who would engage in effectual prayer .
Our Lord warns us against feeble praying . “ Men ought always to pray ,” He declares , “ and not to faint .” That means , that we are to possess sufficient fervency to carry us through the severe and long periods of pleading prayer . Fire makes one alert and vigilant , and brings him off , more than conqueror . The atmosphere about us is too heavily charged with resisting forces for limp or languid prayers to make headway . It takes heat , and fervency and meteoric fire , to push through , to the upper heavens , where God dwells with His saints , in light .
Taken from the EM Bounds book The Necessity of Prayer .
16 Revival Times March 2018