Anyone who knows me will know that my heart is for prayer and the power of God that is released as we pray. My overwhelming desire over the years has been to see the saints released to walk out that which Father places on our hearts as we look upon His face and into the eyes of Jesus. I believe that our faith if it lies dormant festers and becomes as dirty rags before the Lord. Lazarus was told by Jesus to "come forth" and the disciples were commanded to remove the grave clothes. Many in the body of Christ are responding to the heart of the Father to remove the graveclothes from the church so that the saints can walk in His Spirit and bring life to a world that is hungry and crying out for Him. If you're up for it you will find that your faith in the Lord will soar as you step out and meet the needs of the world headlong. Holy Spirit will move you to respond with Father's love for the lost, the broken and those who have been marginalised by society. A society that thinks more about its own belly than those who are not blessed with three meals a day and a comfortable bed on which to lay their heads. A society that despises slavery and forced prostitution but does little to stop it. A society that blames the social services for not doing a job that they are unable to do because the need is so great. (I ask, "where is the God of Elijah? Where is the church?") A society that spends more money, even in a time of 'recession', on eating out and entertainment than it would cost to pay for every hungry person under the poverty line to have three meals a day.
Come on. What are we thinking? What are we doing? What are we praying? Are we willing to be the answer to our own prayers? Are we willing to walk free of our graveclothes so that we can take hold of peoples hands and pull them out of their hopelessness into the arms of Jesus?
I'm going out with friends this evening to celebrate a birthday and I've determined to have the cheapest thing on the menu and to put the difference between that and what I would have liked to eat into my Uganda jar. I'm not telling you this to make you think about how good I am. Rather it's so that you might think of ways that you might be an expression of Christ Jesus in this world by being a part of the answer to your own prayers - if you dare pray them.
If you feel that you're being smothered by festering graveclothes all you need to do to break free is to ask Jesus to show you His heart. He will bring you close to people who will help you to remove the graveclothes. Then take hold of His hand and walk with Him.
Love you.
