Lack Of Response For A Call To Prayer

Several years ago I heard a TV preacher state, "a prayerless church is a powerless church." I concur with that statement!

A few months back I placed a call for spiritual awakening and revival to our member churches of the association. There were few "takers" and I was a bit disappointed. To be honest, I felt like prayer was the ONE thing that could bring us together (and I still do), and it was disappointing to visualize that so few were willing to come together for prayer.

A similar experience was experienced in my life today. As many of you know, I am attending a National Convocation for Associational Missions. In recent years, there have been 2 such meetings--one in 1964 (Gulf Shores), and then a lesser emphasized meeting in 1989. All the "hype" indicated a "mountain top experience" awaits us all, and I NEED that experience!

In the information emails, they continually emphasized our praying for the event and then - when we got here - to gather prior to the main event for the purpose of prayer. The email stated, "for all early arrivers, gather with other ADOMs for a GUIDED time of prayer" and listed the time as beginning at 9 AM and continuing until well after the registration time. Since the prayer time began at 9 AM and I knew people from across the nation would have to fly in the day before to make it - I determined to use Tuesday as a travel day to be refreshed and ready for this experience to take place.

Linda looked at the agenda and determined the prayer time was for the ADOMs and decided not to go to the prayer time. Off I went---eager to be a part of the GUIDED prayer time. As I walked up the mountain to the chapel, I saw no one. The chapel was dark. I entered - there was NOTHING. Please note that I have stated GUIDED several times now in this article--to me, that AT LEAST meant some type of GUIDE to facilitate the prayer time.

I was a bit early, so I waited. 9 AM came, no one present. 9:10 - no one present. With that, the enemy began to tempt me with negative thoughts about the lack of attendance. I decided that the enemy could not have the upper hand in this! I pulled out my Bible and began to read scripture. Then I pulled out a list on how to pray for family that I am preparing - so I prayed for them. I began to look at some notes for my sermon on Sunday, and I began to read through those scripture passages. Little by little I began to realize that Dougald NEEDED that time alone with God. Because DOUGALD was alone on a mountain with God, he was not distracted from some things DOUGALD needed to deal with, etc. etc.

About an hour into my PRIVATE prayer time in a chapel on top of a mountain at Ridgecrest, an Associational Director of Missions from Oklahoma entered the chapel. At first, the enemy almost distracted me again - how dare he intrude in DOUGALD's time alone with God. After all, he was supposed to be here at 9 AM if he wanted to be a part of this. The nerve of coming in and disturbing those that were already there (DOUGALD).

He prayed for about 15 minutes and as he was leaving the chapel, he took note that I was working on my sermon. He came over to introduce himself and share his burden for this event. I shared my immediate feelings about the lack of attendance with him, and then the lesson I felt the Lord was teaching me through this experience. He shared with me that he was in the midst of a prayer walk around Ridgrecrest (HOW DARE DOUGALD HAVE SUCH NEGATIVE THOUGHTS ABOUT SUCH AN INTRUDER) and that he had decided to enter in to pray in the chapel. Then God used him to teach me yet another lesson - he stated, "anywhere one plus God is there is crowd enough." He wished me well and went about his prayerwalk.

I stayed for another 45 minutes or so - reflecting upon the scripture and the conversation. Being silent, and allowing God to speak to me. I left the chapel to head back to the hotel. As I got down the mountain, here came the "man in charge" of the entire event. Going to the chapel to pray. If I had not had the past 2+ hours alone with God, I would have said something like - "about time." Instead, I wished him well. He stated something about heading to the chapel, and I thought to myself - the Holy Spirit prompted me to leave so David could have some quiet time ALONE with God. As I walked back to the hotel, I said a little prayer for David. You know - there has to be a lot of pressure on a man who is calling 1200+ Associations together for prayer and planning to reach our nation for Christ. The BURDEN he must have on his heart. I hear around 500 Associations will show up. I imagine David's hope was for ALL to be in attendance.

My fervent prayer is that David--and myself will NOT be overwhelmed with the enemy's distraction of asking us to see who didn't show up. What my BROTHER from Oklahoma shared with me this morning needs to be the lesson we all learn---WHOEVER shows up PLUS GOD is "crowd enough" to accomplish what God has planned!!!!

Do we still need corporate prayer? You bet we do! Do others miss out when they do not participate? Again, the answer is a definitive YES. BUT -- let us never go to the default emotion the enemy wants us to go back to -- the focus is not on who shows up on the human side. The focus is whoever shows us PLUS GOD. For God is sufficient!!!!