Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 3-140 (Practical Christian Living)

Powerful intercession –

SURFBOARD PRAYING

I remember you in my prayers and ask the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, to give you the Spirit, who will make you wise and reveal God to you … Pray on every occasion, as the Spirit leads (Eph 1:16,17;6:18).

There is an intimate connection between the work of the Spirit and prayer. Prayer involves committing ourselves to God’s mind and joining our wills with his mighty purposes. The more we know of God, the more we are likely to understand what his will is and to hear the Spirit’s wise guiding. As we hear the Spirit’s wisdom, he reveals to us God’s will for specific situations which, in turn, motivates us to pray with energised relevance.

The best prayer reflects back to God what he has revealed to us of his will. This is what I would call ‘surfboard praying’. Surfboarding has always looked scary to me. Using a surfboard, the surfer tries to stay on the moving edge of the wave, carried along by its enormous power. He doesn’t need to struggle to move. Prayer can be the same kind of experience. We don’t need to struggle to pray. We only need to go with the flow, even when it seems strange to us, asking the Spirit to lead us to the heart of a problem, whether it be personal, economic or social. Often God chooses initially not to reveal the whole truth to us. But as we show our agreement with him and our willingness to pray in the way he is directing, the front edge of the prayer-wave carries us along.

Although there is an ease with this kind of praying, there is some work involved, too. We have to wait for the wave, stay alert, keep ourselves fit and the board ready for God’s timing. Getting up speed is not always easy. Equally, we don’t need to be too hard on ourselves – God loves us. Another wave will come. It doesn’t even matter if we fall off. He will give us another opportunity to try again.

Prayer led by the Spirit

In his book Love on its knees, Dick Eastman gives an account of his meeting with Mark Gippert. In the spring of 1986, Mark was called by the Spirit to pray for a month in key cities in the former USSR. His mission concluded with four days of prayer in Kiev. Mark went to the square in the centre of Kiev and sat down to pray under a huge statue of Lenin. Every fifteen minutes he changed the focus of his intercession for believers in Russia. He could tell when a fifteen-minute period had passed because a gigantic clock in the square let out a bong each quarter-hour.

On the last day, just before noon, Mark was suddenly convinced that God had heard his prayers and that even then something was happening – something that would shake the Soviet Union, something God would use to bring more freedom, But he needed confirmation of this, so he prayed, ‘O God give me a sign’. Just then, in the distance, the hands of the huge clock moved to the twelve o’clock position, Mark waited for twelve chimes. They never came. It was as though God was saying that the old pattern was over. The very next day Mark began hearing about Chernobyl.

Chernobyl was a terrible nuclear disaster with ongoing destructive effects, but it was also the beginning of the end of the Communist regime, Glasnost was forced on the Soviet Union: being secretive was no longer an option. Suddenly, whether they wanted to or not, they were forced to be open. At a general conference for all party leaders (the first for 47 years), President Gorbachev announced sweeping changes – changes that would lead to the break-up of the USSR. ‘When we stand before God … we will learn that intercessory prayer has more to do with bringing about positive changes in our world than any other spiritual activity’ (Eastman). This was not just intercessory prayer; it was prayer as God directed, led by his Spirit.

Prayer in groups

Prayer is not meant to be always a solitary struggle. A praying community can offer each other support and encouragement, and sustain each other for far longer than a lone individual. On a long flight, a flock of geese will adopt the aerodynamic ‘V’ formation. The leader takes the strain of wind resistance, while the others encourage the front flyer by ‘honking’. Eventually when the leader tires, another bird takes over. In this way they cover vast distances and manage to maintain their homeward direction.

There are many potential relationships that can develop into prayer fellowships. There are the bonds of family, of common interests, of belonging to the same church. There are Christian friends with whom we have a comfortable, positive relationship. In all these relationships, we need to take the risk of venturing out in prayer together. If we don’t, we may lose the opportunity for the bond of fellowship to grow to even greater depth…

Clearly we are unlikely to end up praying together without taking some action. Why not take the initiative and simply invite a couple of friends to meet to pray together? This will show them how much you value their friendship and their support as Christians. Praying together could well enhance your relationship and build your faith. There will also be the opportunity to dare to try new ways of praying, which people often find safer in a small group; for example, praying out loud or working through a meditation together.

A specific, personal need, which you or someone else may have, often serves as an impetus to bring people together to pray. Care needs to be taken here to ensure that no confidences are broken.

– David Spriggs

Reproduced in Encounter with God (January – March 2003) from Dangerous Praying: inspirational ideas for individuals and groups, SU, 2000. ISBN 1 85999 335 4.