A Call For Sustainability
On 31 July 2012, the world's worst blackout in recent times
occurred. More than 700 million people in India were without
electricity. Twenty of India's 28 states were plunged into darkness
as energy shortages failed to meet growing demands.
As nations develop, their needs for electricity will increase.
Their leaders must take a closer look at their infrastructural
utilities and facilities, and start planning many years ahead to
include new power and gas stations as they continue to build more
homes, schools, highways, factories and industries. A
short-sightedness in not doing so will create many problems in the
future.
Not enough power supplies mean the current and future demands may
not be sustainable. Homes, schools, factories, industries, public
transport like electric trains, subways and airports, may face a
partial or complete shutdown someday somehow.
As a nation cannot operate without the adequate supply of
electricity and fuel, a Christian, church or ministry cannot run
without the power of the Holy Spirit. Many Christians and
churches are running on empty tanks. Many do not pray at all.
Some energy sources are good as long as there are no problems.
But when disasters strike, these sources can become monstrous
liabilities like the nuclear plants in Japan and Chernobyl. Their
side-effects will wipe off all their past benefits causing many
serious health problems in the present and future!
Likewise, what kind of power we are operating in the spiritual
realm is also important. Many Christian leaders and ministries are
not operating in the power of the Holy Spirit. They are tapping
their powers from other sources including other religions and
occults!
Prayer is our fuel of spiritual power to keep us burning within
and shining without! Without the zeal of God in our spirits, how can
we have the passion of the Lord burning inside our hearts so that we
can shine brightly for the lost outside?
Below are a few quotes about prayer:
A.W. Tozer
Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of
late - and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is
that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it
simply will not work. To pray for revival while ignoring the plain
precept laid down in scripture is to waste a lot of words and get
nothing for our trouble. Prayer will become effective when we stop
using it as a substitute for obedience.
Corrie Ten
Boom
Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?
David J
Wolpe
Prayer is less about changing the world than it is about changing
ourselves.
E. Stanley
Jones
Prayer is surrender - surrender to the will of God and cooperation
with that will. If I throw out a boathook from the boat and catch
hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull
myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the
aligning of my will to the will of God.
Helga B
Gross
What we usually pray to God is not that His will be done, but that
He approves ours.
John Bunyan
In prayer, it is better to have a heart without words, than words
without heart.
Leonard
Ravenhill
A sinning man will stop praying. A praying man will stop sinning.
Martin
Luther
To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be
alive without breathing.
Richard J.
Foster
If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it is
within our power to give them, and this will lead us to prayer:
Intercession is a way of loving others.
Soren
Kierkegaard
Prayer does not change God, but changes him who prays.
Prayer is the fuel that lights our way as we travel through the
journey of darkness in our world! Without the light of Christ, we
will stumble and fall! How far can we move in darkness? Without the
fire of God burning inside us, how can we shine for others to see on
the outside?
Interestingly and sadly so, most Christians do not pray. They
will choose to do other mundane things, always wandering away from
God and His presence. All sensitivity to God is gone as we become
numb in spiritual matters.
Filled with lots of Christian programs
and activities, we think that we are running the race that God has
set for us. But in true reality, it is a crazy race and a hectic
pace set by ourselves and others but not God. As the years go by, we
will find and face a shattered soul deep within us. Then we begin to
hunger for Jesus - to be whole again!
Some pastors and Christian leaders are desiring to start a
movement. They try to redo or outdo the previous revivals. But God
is already doing a new thing! We should not be presumptuous to be
eager to start another movement! We do not duplicate what others
have done in the past revivals.
Haggai 2:9
‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’
says the LORD of hosts.
‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the LORD of hosts.
God wants us to move where His Spirit moves. Only the Spirit can
start a true spiritual movement! When the Spirit of
the Lord prompts us, we will move! Unless the Spirit moves, we
remain silent and be still in the Lord.
No man can start a revival. It is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2 was a great example. The 120 didn't know until it happened.
They never planned or orchestrated it. Only the Holy Spirit can
revive people from spiritual death and indifference. Many true
revivals throughout history followed the same traits. It was a
revival until it had happened. Nothing planned by men.
To revive something is to give it a new energy or life. Something or someone was in fact dead, but is revived to live again.
For example, reviving a person whose heart has stopped beating, or a
tree that had withered away.
But to renew something is different. Like renewing marriage vows,
membership cards, driver licenses etc. Many tried to publicize
revival meetings but they were mostly renewals. Keep on renewing but
not living resurrected lives.
Many man-made movements
generate a lot of activities and programs which in due time
will degrade and fade away. Many people are interested in counting
sheep but not interested in communing with the Shepherd.
Most of these man-made religious movements are not sustainable. Simply because those
initial stirrings come and go off very quickly. And without the
empowerment of the Holy Spirit, and without the fueling of prayer
and intercession, many just die prematurely.
When a movement dies, another starts. Moving from movement to
movement, always doing something but going nowhere. Like a hamster
running endlessly and turning the wheel inside a cage!
And it is
time to stop running here and there, and to return to the Lord. Why
do trials and temptations abound? Simply because we do not take them
to the Lord in prayer!
Today we encounter and face many tornadoes and typhoons of
blizzard prophetic words and books. Many such prophecies over
nations and the world spoken by recognized voices have failed to
materialize.
If observed carefully, we will realize that the vast majority of
these doom and gloom prophecies released over the last 30 or more
years have failed to be fulfilled. Many of the renowned "prophets"
and "apostles" just move on to another new series of prophetic
predictions even though most of their past predicted timelines and
dates have passed without any incident.
Blood moon tetrads and shemitahs generate lots of excitement and
great fear. But shouldn’t we fear the Lord more than all of these?
We have lost the fear of the Lord as we know Him less. We have
focused on these human "prophecies" more than His divine Word. We have also spent
lesser time with Him in praying for the poor and needy.
In Matthew 25:1-13, Jesus shared the Parable of the Ten Virgins
with His disciples. The kingdom of heaven would be like ten virgins
or bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The five who
were foolish didn’t take enough olive oil for their lamps, but the
other five were wise enough to take along extra oil.
When the coming of the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became
drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight they were roused by the shout,
‘Look, the bridegroom is coming! Come out and meet him!’
All the bridesmaids got up and prepared their lamps. Then the
five foolish ones asked the others, ‘Please give us some of your oil
because our lamps are going out.’
But the others replied, ‘We don’t have enough for all of us. Go
to a shop and buy some for yourselves.’
But while they were gone to buy oil, the bridegroom came. Then
those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the
door was locked.
Later, when the other five bridesmaids returned, they stood
outside, calling, ‘Lord! Lord! Open the door for us!’
But he called back, ‘To tell you the truth, I don’t know you!’
Jesus then gave this severe warning to His disciples, “So you,
too, must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of My
return."
The question is still this: Do we have enough oil to last till
Jesus returns? Are we sustainable? Are our ministries and churches
sustainable? Whatever Christian activities and programs even our
prayers and intercessions? If not, how?
As a conclusion, I would like to share a Sunday School song with
all of you. So simple and yet so profound.
Give me oil in my lamp; keep it burning
burning burning
Give me oil in my lamp, I pray. Hallelujah!
Give me oil in my lamp; keep it burning burning burning
Keep it burning till the break of day.