The 'Right' Prayer

I was reading this yesterday.  It is a story of a prayer summit hosted in South Korea by one of the pastors of a very large Reformed church there.  In fact, one of his emphasis' is on prayer.  The importance of prayer, the need for prayer, the absolute essential-ness of prayer.  They invited the churches of North America to join them in prayer for revival.

It is interesting because they have all sorts and kinds of prayer that they do there, but one type of prayer which really took the mostly Western Pastors by surprise was a prayer in which the whole congregation gathering in the sanctuary earl;y in the morning, would in unison, start calling out their prayers to the Lord. This particular prayer was called the Tong Sung Prayer and apparently, it is used quite extensively in that area and culture.

What was interesting about it was not so much the prayer itself, but the reaction of the clergy there when asked if they would ever think this sort of prayer would be welcomed back in their churches in North America.  Quite a fee of them responded with hesitancy about whether or not such a type of prayer would thrive in their churches or would even be welcomed there.  This struck me as typical about some of the clergy I know here.  Many of them are too afraid of offending people or trying something new in their churches.  They have gotten in too much of rut and I would think spiritually, they may be in need of a doctor.

But if they just sat and prayed about it and meditated on the experience, they may be surprised to discover that this is just what the Doctor ordered.  I am talking about the Holy Spirit working in the hearts and minds of believers.  North America, you know, does not have the Holy Spirit bottled up somewhere where we are siphoning it off in little bottles, doling it out in small quantities as we think it is needed, in order to "make it Last" longer.  Seriously, that is how some people must think of the Holy Spirit!

In truth, there is no end to the Holy Spirit. He is God and there is no end to that.  In fact, the more of the Holy Spirit is let out to do His work, the more of Him that we have.  Think about that!  It's not that we have a bottomless bottle of Him, but the more we pour out, the more bottles we have! Each one of them bottomless and undrainable.

So Pastors, I issue this challenge to you. Not only in the CRC, but throughout the Christian Church.  Stop trying to bottle up the Holy Spirit;  allow Him to flow! Do not be fearful of letting Him out to do His work.  You will never run out of Him and who knows?  Maybe by releasing Him in our churches, we just might find that we will have abundantly, what we have been longing and praying for in the Church. Revival!  Pure, Holy, God-praising, Christ-centered, life-changing Spirit-filled R-e-v-i-v-a-l!

Amen?

Blessings All!