Just a couple of amazing things on prayer from a book I’m reading by S.D. Gordon entitled ‘Quiet Talks on Prayer’.
“This is the thing to mark keenly for those who may go [onto the mission field], and for those who must stay: no matter where you are you do more through your praying than through your personality [or in other words your physical presence]. If you were in [Japan] you could add personality to your prayer. That would be a great thing to do. But whether here or there, you must first wib the victory, every step, every life, every foot of the way, in secret, in the spirit-realm, and then add the mighty touch of your personality in service. You can always do more than pray, after you have prayed. But you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. and just there is where we all seemed to make a slip at times, and many of us are yet making it-a bad slip. We think we can do more where we are through our service than prayer to give power to service. No-with the blackest underscoring of emphasis, let it be said-NO. We can do no thing of real power until we have done the prayer thing.”
Prayer is like an electrical switchboard that harnesses the power of an electrical plant. Though the man at the switchboard might not fully understand the intricate properties of electricity and how it goes from one point to another, he can pull the switches in the room to send power to the places that need it. In that room, unbeknownst to the recipients of the power, he pulls a switch, the most simple of acts, a lever moving but a few inches, and an entire city receives power. We as believers have that opportunity to send the power of God all across the world by the simple act of praying. How do we expect to do anything anywhere without first sending the power of God through the switchboard of prayer? We pray so little but then expect so much! It would be like sending a battery-sized amount of power somewhere and being surprised when it does not power the entire city! What a terrible error we make in our prayer life.
-A summary of an analogy given by S.D. Gordon
Filed under: Reflections
