A call to prayer

I believe the Spirit of the Lord is sounding a trumpet call to prayer to His people all over the world. This is not a call relevant to Malaysia only but a call to nations across the globe. If you're reading this now, God is speaking to you in the place and country you're from. This is not just a call to prayer for a specific agenda initiated by man, be it in the political or socio-economic sphere. This is a time where God is birthing His plans and purposes in this kairos season through His praying bride. Oftentimes, we are motivated to pray for certain pressing situations, for e.g. an impending elections or the happening of a certain event around our lives, etc. - in which all these are valid reasons to pray and are not wrong in themselves. But there are times when our short-sightedness blurs our spiritual vision of God's plan and purposes in this hour. Putting all the events of what our natural eyes see aside, we should be still and enquire of the Lord of His plans and purposes for this hour in our lands - be it in Africa, America, Europe, Asia or any nations throughout all the continents of the world.

The Lord seeks for a company of His people who would wait before His Presence for His directives and be the vessels whom He can birth His Kingdom on earth - through prayer. Yes, through prayer. We would like to think of a thousand and one thing which we can do to bring forth His Kingdom on this earth but not prayer. When God desires to accomplish His work He will seek for a company of praying people. And now is the time where His eyes are seeking whom He can share and release His heart's desires, i.e. His heartbeat so that His desires shall be birthed into reality through the prayer of the saints. I am reminded of the account of a man named Simeon in Luke 2. Here was a man waiting, praying and believing that he would live to see the birth of the Father's desire - the promised Messiah in his lifetime and true enough, he lived not just to see but also to hold in his hands the Messiah and released a dynamic prophecy to Mary. Just like in the account of the creation of this world, when the Spirit of the Lord was hovering over the waters, once again the Spirit of the Lord is hovering over His people. There are many who have heard this call and responded in the secret place whilst there are some who have grown weary and the vision has become blurred. He is blowing a fresh wind to awaken His desires within His people now. Strength is being released for His vessels to align themselves for the birthing of kingdom purposes even in this hour. This is an initiative from His throne and He who has begun a work in us will bring the same unto completion in Christ Jesus.

The enemies of God's kingdom and His plans are tirelessly forming hindrances and oppositions in the form of distractions amongst the people of God. And distractions are what they truly are - distracting and steering our vision, our strength, our focus and our being away from that which is important - that which God desires to accomplish through our lives. Have we been distracted? How are we spending our time? Are we rightly dividing our time prioritizing kingdom business ahead of the rest? Are we being swayed by what the media tells us as the "breaking news of the hour"? Are we guilty of aimelessly jumping into the bandwagon of the latest spiritual fad in town? How we need to read and meditate afresh the familiar verse in Matthew 6:33 - But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

How do we respond to this call to prayer? It is a time to set apart time and place to pray. As led by the Spirit of God, gather with like-minded saints to pray and wait before the Lord. It's not business as usual. Perhaps, we should also discard our ritualistic forms of prayer when we approach God if there is no life in them. Just gather with the believers or come before His throne by yourself and be still. Ask for His light to shine in our hearts and begin to open our hearts and pour out our hearts before the our Merciful God and Father. A time to humble ourselves and call upon the Lord. A time to repent of our prayerlessness and other wicked ways as the Spirit of the Lord shines His light in our hearts. This is indeed the first step we can take as we choose to respond to the Spirit's wooing. We will look into other aspects of prayer in the coming days but for now, let's not delay responding to His divine call to prayer.