His Hand is on the Door

“Frustrate the plans of man…”

November 28th, 2007

There’s a little prayer Marci Sorge, our Ministry Director at IHOP-KC, prays every morning to start the day. She simply asks the Lord to frustrate the plans of men so that His plans can be established in our midst. Therefore, when I find myself “stuck” on something and unable to move forward, I will often look up to the heavens, growl menacingly, and mutter to myself, “Marci….!”

It’s quite comforting, however, in the midst of my frustrations, to have some sense of the source of my inability to move forward. My temptation is to, in my stubbornness, simply plow forward and keep slamming into the same wall over and over again. To know, however, that there is a sovereign, invisible hand pressed against my dullness changes the “rules of the game” a bit. After years of this kind of pattern mixed in with a little “God-awareness” I can actually rest when resisted in my plans rather than stew and sweat.

I can not even begin to list how many times over the past five years I have been frustrated at the slowness of something that I want to see develop quickly, only to be stunned by the “suddenly” of God. Bang! Seemingly overnight, the things that I have been praying and thinking about land in a way that was better than I originally conceived. How many times have I said afterwards, “Wow! God, you did that so quickly!” Of course, I always somehow in the drama of the moment forget about the months of wrestling (sometimes years) and pain in the waiting. It always feels “speedy” and timely when God moves, regardless of the delay.

I find that there is an inherent trust and confidence that develops and deepens in me towards any ministry that would ask God for things night and day for eight years. My confidence comes from the wisdom of continual prayer, not from any wisdom inherent to the ministry itself. What happens when a people present themselves to God daily and ask Him for things from the Bible? The prayers of Paul related to wisdom, holiness, authority, the gifts of the Spirit, love, discernment, understanding of the scriptures, patience and perseverance…what would happen if a group of people gathered twenty-four hours a day and prayed these prayers to God?

Of course, the answer to this lies in your view of God’s sovereignty. How sovereign is He? How big is God? Can He answer the biblical prayers of weak people offered up to Him twenty-four hours a day? Is He worthy of such an expression of devotion and faith? Does God answer prayer - and whose prayers does He answer? I would not say that God favors continual prayer over the infrequent one in the sense of which prayer He will answer - but Luke 18 is an apologetic for “prayer without ceasing”, or the continual prayers of the “elect” ones who are confident of God’s answer, regardless of the timing.

Therefore, if I were to look to build a life of prayer from a biblical framework, I would pray the prayers of the Bible (asking what the Holy Spirit wants us to ask for) and I would do it as continually as possible. In other words, I would recruit other “elect” ones with confidence in their identity to pray the same biblical prayers at other times in the day. Then I would set the prayer meetings to music, mostly because it makes it easier to pray for long periods of time enjoyably - helping to manage the rigor of continual prayer (it’s what King David did according to the Lord’s command).

Then I would recruit a godly, humble, and wise woman to pray a little prayer every morning related to the plans of men being frustrated. With all those “ingredients” in place, I would wait eagerly for God’s answer (1 Cor. 1:7).

David

Entry Filed under: life at ihop-kc, life in the spirit, prayer