Too Busy To......

Tony Hauck

Church on the Rock - Melbourne

Life just keeps getting busier.  It seems every few months Rachel and I have to re-evaluate and prioritize how we’re spending our time.  And all the technology that is supposed to increase efficiency just adds things we can do, making our lives even busier.  I wonder how frenetic the pace of our lives would appear to someone of an earlier generation.  I fear we’ve acclimated gradually without realizing what we’re sacrificing.  And I suspect this isn’t just natural progression, but part of a sinister plot.

Afraid I’ve become a weird conspiracy theorist?  Well don’t get me wrong.  I love technology as much as the next guy, and see its value toward advancing God’s kingdom.  The question is, are we using these tools, or being controlled by them?

The book of Daniel finishes with a description of the End Times, and one line has always stood out to me.  “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”  (Dan 12:4)  This statement is a little cryptic, so I won’t be dogmatic, but I think part of the enemies plan is just to keep us too busy to focus on the truly important things in our lives.

If I’m right, the End Time Church must resist being swept away with the pace of the world, because when we’re too busy, the first thing we sacrifice is usually our intimacy with God.

So have you evaluated how you’re spending your time lately?

What Else Is There To Do?

Bonnie Stebbins

Church on the Rock - Melbourne

Most of us are familiar with the story in Numbers of the twelve spies who were sent into the land of Canaan ahead of the Israelite people.  Two, Caleb and Joshua, came back and reported a wonderful land flowing with milk and honey. They encouraged the people to obey God and take the land.  The other ten spies brought back a report of giants and caused fear to take control of the people.  The Israelites wept and decided the best thing was to go back to Egypt.  Upon hearing this Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in prayer.  What else was there to do, but pray?  The people were determined to disobey God and turn away from Him and His purposes for them.   

Today we can see around us a nation who has turned from God.  Ungodliness is legislated by those who represent us.  Our judges bring forth unjust, immoral judgments.  There are those who, like Caleb and Joshua, are pointing the right way, but their voices are not heeded.  Like Moses and Aaron, we can see disaster and judgment coming.  What should be our response?  Fall on our faces in prayer.  Only God has the answers and the power to accomplish His will. Did the Israelites obey God and enter the land?  They certainly did.  God’s purposes were fulfilled. However, it was not them, but their children who followed the will of God.  Do we want to be the generation who turns this nation around, or will we leave it to our children to do so?  Will we fall on our faces and pray for God’s will to be accomplished in America, in our city?  Will you?

Effective Together!

Gary Stebbins
Church on the Rock - Melbourne

Jesus would often slip aside from the crowds and even the disciples to pray. On one such occasion a disciple of Jesus said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples” (Lk 11.1). Jesus instructed His disciples how to pray with what we call today the Lord’s Prayer. Certainly this prayer has served as a model of prayer for two thousand years. There is however another principle of prayer that Jesus taught the disciples that I believe is equally important, but one the church has not taken hold of as clearly. We find this in Matthew 18, “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven” (Mat 18.19).

“If two of you agree on earth.” Prayer of any type is very important. There is however something very significant about praying together in agreement. This can only happen when two or more people make the decision to come together and pray. This is part of God’s plan and purpose for the church- to gather together and pray. As we read in the book of James, “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (Jam 5.16). Certainly our individual prayer’s can be very effective, but there is something beyond individual prayer that takes place when believers gather together to pray. As the church gathers together in unity and comes into alignment with God’s will and purposes, great things can happen. The effectiveness of our individual prayers is greatly increased through the principle of agreeing and crying out together to God. Matthew says that as we come together, “anything they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.” This is a very significant promise that the Lord has given to His church. The power of agreement greatly increases our effectiveness in prayer. There are things that will only be accomplished as the church gathers together to pray.

There is another dynamic that praying together with other believers brings. We see this as we read on in Matthew 18, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst” (Mat 18.20). There is something about the power of agreement that draws the very presence of God. God responds to His people when they gather together in unity and cry out to Him.

As I have taken time to look at the verses above, I have been encouraged that we need to continue to press forward with MyHop and other corporate gatherings where the church comes together in agreement to pray. There is much power in prayer. To think that we can move the heart of the Creator and invoke His response to our prayers is an absolutely humbling thought.

We serve a wonderful God. Consider taking time to gather together with other believers to pray. You will be greatly blessed as you do.

God Help Me Pray

Tim Franklin

Freedom Christian Center

Luke 22:45 “…and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping...” NKJV “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth. God does nothing but in answer to prayer.” John Wesley

John Wesley knew well the place of prayer, and was often criticized by the church because of his rigid commitment to prayer and his demand that new believers be disciplined to prayer and the Word. Wesley knew the power of prayer, he walked in the spirit of revival and looked for those men who would give themselves to the place of prayer. God still looks for those kind of men, for communities that give themselves to Him in prayer. He can work through a praying church―not a prayerless one. He can work through praying Saints―not prayerless ones.

Is it no wonder, that Jesus would declare “My house shall be called a House of Prayer”? He did not call it a house of planning, a house of strategic thinking, a house of pleasure or a house of ease. He called it a House of Prayer―because that is what He wanted us to identify with. He was imparting to those who would follow Him, that if you desire anointing, supernatural strength, God’s help, God’s favor, then you must give yourself to prayer.

The apostles knew and esteemed the prominence of prayer in their lives. Jesus personally taught them to pray. He left His prayerful mark on their lives with the example that He lived before them. Long before daybreak; long after the sun went down; slipping out during the day; Jesus taught His disciples to pray. After their failure to pray in the garden, on the night Jesus needed them the most, their hearts were eternally marked with commitment to the place of prayer. Never again will we fail like that!

In Acts, they now began to understand that the Kingdom of God had been entrusted to them. Jesus was counting on them. They could not afford to be found prayerless, again. They put prayer first in their lives. They put prayer first in this new community called the church. They esteemed prayer in order that they would bring the people of the region to the highest place of faith and holiness. They ‘stirred themselves up’ to take hold of God. They prayed like Elijah who prayed until his prayers squeezed rain out of a drought. They ‘gave themselves to prayer’ and it was obvious to all. Even smart, well learned men took note that these uneducated men had been with Jesus in the place of prayer, continued to be found in the place of prayer and were turning the world ‘upside down.’

Oh, that Brevard County would experience the presence of praying Saints. Saints who will not say “NO” to prayer, be distracted from prayer, or give up on prayer. May this county know the fierceness of a people who call on God. May it live under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, brought on by tireless Saints, crying out for mercy in prayer. Oh, that Brevard would be awakened to the Presence of God brought on by the thunderous praying of the church. God works through men, men who depend upon Him and seek His counsel and strength in the place of prayer.

Where is the church that boasts of power?
Is she too weak to rise this hour?
Will she sit here idly by,
While souls to a Christless hell go die?
God forbid! Don’t let it be!
Lord put your holy fire in me!
Let it burn and blaze so bright and
Wake me to pray both day and night
Crying out for the souls of men
Crying out for the souls of men.
Give me a holy passion that will not end.
―Song written by Tim Franklin & Dan Walton

MyHOP! Join us this Friday night April 1st, 7 p.m. at Our Father’s House to pray.