Our President has called for prayer Tomorrow. Some are saying we need prayer to extinguish the impact of the Coronavirus.

Recently our Friend on WordPress, Brian Troxel, posted a quote by E.M.Bounds on prayer. The quote was about the passion or fire that fuels the walk of a believers prayer life.

This quote caused me to take inventory, and to think back. As a believer one knows when the fuel gauge for fervency is full in our prayer life, and just as he knows when it’s full he also knows when it’s running near empty. But the danger that exists for us is running near empty on fuel when it is most needed.

Tragedy strikes your family and you are out in no man’s land far from God and you can barely strike a flame. I was reminded of those times in my life, but I was also reminded of the times when passion ignited a prayer so fervently that it mounted upward to the throne room of God and its waves crashed downward through the gates of hell as they were melted in its wake.

The fullness of our walk with God puts us in a place where we are available to be used in such a way for Him. As Spirit filled believers we are on call as they say 24/7. It is not our fervency, but His welling up within us, for it is not our will, but His that must be done.

I remember the first church prayer meeting that I was ever in, where God through us stormed the gates of hell to deliver a child who was in distress. We were told critical with a 106+ fever, in the Emergency room. The chid was the son of our pastor and his wife. The church was the Christian and Missionary Alliance of Bowie Maryland.

I was at that time as close to being a fanatic for Jesus as one could get, without being caught up in a chariot of fire. I’ll never forget — at the beginning of the evening service when Ike Rays stood up and stated, “we are going to have a prayer meeting now for pastor’s son — they are in the emergency room. I want you to stay and pray with us only if 1. You are willing to pray until we get an answer and 2. you believe that God does answer your prayers. If not it is ok for you to go as service is cancelled.” We we’re still praying when about 45 min. later we received a call that the high fever had broken. Later still, we heard that it must have been less than 5 minutes into our prayer time when the fever actually broke.

Was our prayer fervent? Just before the evening service was to begin we had been told that the Ellis’s had to rush to the emergency room. That ordeal taught me something. Fervent prayer is not long prayer (even though we prayed on long) and faith can not be worked up. It must already be. Faith is belief in God’s word, that He knows, hears and will act even on short notice, and that our trust in all of those elements make up necessary ingredients for prayer certainly seemed to be what God was teaching me.

The other thing that I have discovered in prayer is that when I am not full of God’s Holy Spirit, it is then that I can’t pray fervently, because I don’t know within myself what I have just stated. I don’t have confidence that God hears and will act. I always know that He knows, but my not walking in fullness causes me to doubt His direction. I don’t understand His will, don’t know if He hears me; don’t know if He will act. If we are honest we have all been there, and we wonder how we got there.

Being filled all the time is difficult in a world where Satan lurks seeking his chance to devour us. Giving him that chance comes in our failure to walk daily in the word and constant in prayer. The armor of God is meant to be put on once and never taken off. But we do. Just remember it can be put back on. If prayer is a reflection of our walk; then we should be constant in communication with our Father. Let’s ask Him to put down this virus and it’s negative impact on our Nation and the world.