Prayer for revival cannot be answered until...- Shades of Grace | Natalie Nichols
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Dec 17th 09 Posted by Natalie Nichols in Concert of Prayer, Prayer

Prayer for Revival Cannot Be Answered Until…

Water splashing in the shape of a cross

“The question arose whether this was not the real reason
why our prayers for the powerful operation of the
Holy Spirit could not be answered…”

I have been deeply blessed by reading Andrew Murray on Prayer, a resource containing six books Murray wrote on the subject. The Holy Spirit has spoken to me through this book in countless ways—one of which occurred last Saturday as I was praying about this week’s Concert of Prayer and read this sentence. Immediately the Holy Spirit confirmed this is to be our topic in prayer today.

The Greatest Work of the Spirit in Our Lives

The greatest work of the Spirit in our lives is to help us live every day in unbroken intimacy with Jesus Christ. God wants us to be strengthened with power in our inner being—through His spirit—that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, and that we might be filled with His love, leading to the fullness of God in our lives (Eph. 3:17-19).

Murray writes that this was the joy of the disciples, and their “preparation for Pentecost”—“they were entirely taken up with Him. He was literally their all. Their hearts were empty of everything, so that the Spirit might fill them with Christ. In the fullness of the Spirit they had power for a life and service such as the Lord desired. Is this, now, the great object in our desires, in our prayers, in our experience?”[1]

The Deeper Secret of Pentecost

Murray continues, explaining that there is yet a deeper secret of Pentecost. It is this secret for which I feel we are led to pray today—for our own lives as well as the lives of believers in our community, state and nation.

“And yet it has seemed to me that there was a still deeper secret of Pentecost to be discovered. The thought came that perhaps our conception of the Lord Jesus in heaven was limited. We think of Him in the splendor, the glory of God’s throne. We also think of the unsearchable love that moved Him to give Himself for us. But we forget too often that, above all, it is as the Crucified One He has His place on the throne of God. ‘And, lo, in the midst of the throne…stood a Lamb as it had been slain’ (Rev. 5:6).

“Yes, it is as the Crucified One that He is the object of the Father’s eternal good pleasure and of the worship of the entire creation. And it is, therefore, of the first importance that we here on earth should know and have experience of Him as the Crucified One, so that we may make men see what His nature and ours is, and what the power is that can make them partakers of salvation.

“The Cross is Christ’s highest glory. The Holy Spirit neither has done nor can do anything greater or more glorious than He did when He empowered Jesus to go to that cross: ‘Christ…through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God’ (Heb. 9:14). In the same way, the Holy Spirit can do nothing greater or more glorious for us than to take us up into the fellowship of that Cross, and to work in us the same spirit of the Cross that was seen in our Lord Jesus.  In a word, the question arose whether this was not the real reason why our prayers for the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit could not be answered, because we had sought too little to receive the Spirit, in order that we might know and become like the glorified Christ in the fellowship of His Cross.

“Is this not the deepest secret of Pentecost? The Spirit comes to us from the cross, where He strengthened Christ to offer Himself to God. He comes to us from the Father, who looked down with unspeakable good pleasure at the humiliation and obedience and self sacrifice of Christ, as the highest proof of His surrender to Him. He comes from Christ, who through the cross was prepared to receive from the Father the fullness of the Spirit, that He might share it with the world. He comes to reveal Christ to our hearts, as the Lamb slain in the midst of the throne, so that we on earth may worship Him as they do in heaven. He comes, chiefly, to impart to us the life of the crucified Christ, so that we may be able to say truly, ‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me’ (Gal. 2:20).[2]

“There are many who place their hope for salvation in the redemption of the Cross who understand little about the fellowship of the Cross. They rely on what the Cross has purchased for them, on forgiveness of sin and peace with God. But they can often live for a length of time without fellowship with the Lord Himself. They do not know what it means to strive every day after heart communion with the crucified Lord as He is seen in heaven: ‘A Lamb…in the midst of the throne’ (Rev.5:6). Oh, that this vision might exercise its spiritual power upon us.  Then we will really experience every day that as truly as the Lamb is seen there on the throne, so we may have the power and experience of His presence here! [3]

The Union Between the Spirit and the Cross

The Holy Spirit always leads us to the cross. This was the case with Christ and the disciples. The union between the Spirit and the Cross cannot be broken. This is evident in Paul’s letters:

“Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified…Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?” (Gal. 3:1-2, NIV)

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law …that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” (Gal. 3:13-14, NIV)

“God sent forth his Son…to redeem them that were under the law…and…hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts.” (Gal. 4:4-6, KJV).

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature…Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Gal. 5:24-26, NIV)

“Ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ…that we should serve in newness of spirit.” (Rom.7:4,6, KJV)

“Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.  For…God…condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:2-4, NIV)

Murray continues:

“In everything and always the Spirit and the cross are inseparable. Yes, even in heaven. The Lamb, as it had been slain, standing in the midst of the throne had ‘seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth’ (Rev. 5:6). Again, ‘He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, [Is this other than the Holy Spirit?], proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb’ (Rev. 22:1). When Moses smote the Rock, the water streamed out and Israel drank. When the Rock, Christ, was actually smitten, and He had taken His place as the slain Lamb on the throne of God, there flowed out from under the throne the fullness of the Holy Spirit of the whole world.

“How foolish it is to pray for the fullness of the Spirit if we have not first placed ourselves under the full power of the Cross! [4] …

What is it that hinders? The Father…is more willing than any earthly father to give bread to His child, and yet the cry arises, ‘Is the Spirit restricted? Many will acknowledge that the hindrance undoubtedly lies in the fact that the church is too much under the sway of the flesh and the world. They understand too little of the heart-piercing power of the Cross of Christ. So it comes to pass that the Spirit does not have the vessels into which He can pour His fullness.”[5]

Prayer Bullets

  • “Father, help me place myself under the power of the cross.” Philippians 2:13 in the Living Bible Paraphrase says, “For God is at work within you, helping you want to obey him, and then helping you do what he wants.” When we ask, God answers. He gives us the desire to live a crucified life and the ability to yield our will to his, “helping us do what He wants.”
  • Take me up into the fellowship of that Cross, and work in me the same spirit of the Cross that was seen in our Lord Jesus.
  • Keep my mind, my heart and my desires from being influenced and controlled by the flesh and the world.
  • Break the influence that the flesh and world have over Your people.
  • Give the believers in my local church, region, state, and nation an experiential understanding of the “heart-piercing power of the Cross of Christ.”
  • Prepare us to receive your Spirit.
  • May we seek to receive the Holy Spirit so that we might know and become like the glorified, crucified Christ.

Questions:

  • What have you been asking the Holy Spirit to do in your life?
  • Has it occurred to you before now that the Holy Spirit can do nothing greater or more glorious for you than to take you up into the fellowship of the Cross of Christ?
  • Have you sought too little to receive the Spirit in order that you might know and become like the glorified Christ in the fellowship of His Cross?
  • In you does the Spirit have the vessels into which He can pour His fullness? Or are you hindering Him because you are too much under the sway of the flesh and the world? Do you understand too little of the heart-piercing power of the Cross of Christ? 

RELATED ARTICLES ON PRAYER

OTHER ARTICLES WITH ANDREW MURRAY EXCERPTS

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  1. Andrew Murray, Andrew Murray on Prayer (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1998),  222
  2. Murray, 223
  3. Murray, 226
  4. Murray, 229
  5. Murray, 230



 

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