Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Revival: Not Just Intensity of Prayer

by A W Tozer

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And  he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and  manifest Myself to him.  - John 14:21

Intensity of prayer is no criterion of its effectiveness. A man may  throw himself on his face and sob out his troubles to the Lord and  yet have no intention to obey the commandments of Christ. Strong  emotion and tears may be no more than the outcropping of a vexed  spirit, evidence of stubborn resistance to God's known will....

No matter what I write here, thousands of pastors will continue to  call their people to prayer in the forlorn hope that God will  finally relent and send revival if only His people wear themselves  out in intercession. To such people God must indeed appear to be a  hard taskmaster, for the years pass and the young get old and the  aged die and still no help comes. The prayer meeting room becomes a  wailing wall and the lights burn long, and still the rains tarry.

Has God forgotten to be gracious? Let any reader begin to obey and  he will have the answer. "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he  is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father,  and I too will love him and show myself to him" (John 14:21).
Isn't that what we want after all?  The Size of the Soul, 20-21.

"Lord, help me to obey Your commandments. My spirit is willing, but  my flesh is weak! I long to live in that obedience, in order that I  may know the Father's love and manifestation to me. Amen." 

Today's "Insight for Leaders" is taken by permission from the book, Tozer on Christian Leadership, published by WingSpread Publishers

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