Nothing says Christmas like a water buffalo. For a poor family in Asia, getting a water buffalo is like getting a farm tractor to pull a plow, or getting a milk truck full of delicious milk, or getting a stand at the market to sell cheese.
A water buffalo opens the door for work, food, and income. More importantly, it opens the door to talk about Jesus. And nothing says Christmas better than that. I am so excited. I am.
This is going to be such a treat for you to be. And we have for us Peter Gregg. I got it this time. The founder of the 24-7 prayer movement in the United Kingdom is where he came from, but now it's gone across the whole world. And we got to hear you this morning in the Winston-Salem prayer breakfast. And Pete, this is more amazing what God has done through you.
And what would you share with our listeners as you come in this season? Well, God is calling His people to pray all around the world. We had a prayer meeting in South Africa last week with two million people in attendance, because the problems in that country are so grave politically, economically, socially.
And we see that all around the world. There are enormous needs, but people are beginning to pray at an extraordinary level. I would say we're in the biggest movement of prayer the world has ever seen right now. And anywhere you touch down, you find Christians who are saying, I sense God's got more for us.
I sense the answers to the world's problems are not ultimately just political or economic, but spiritual. And so people are turning to God in prayer. But it's complicated. And a lot of folks are like, well, how do we do that? Yeah, I mean, prayer can be confusing.
At one level, it's simple. Karl Barth, the great theologian, said that it's simplest prayer is asking. Prayer, at its best, is conversation. It's listening to God as well as speaking. And at its deepest, it is communion. There is a place in prayer that is even beyond words. But yeah, I was saying at the breakfast this morning, the three keys are keep it simple, keep it real, and keep it up. And I couldn't help but just, as I was listening, my favorite verse in the Bible is actually at the end of Song of Solomon, where the beloved, there's the last words from Jesus to the beloved, and he says something really simple, just let me hear your voice. And so as I was listening to you say, keep it up, he's just wanting to hear from us.
Yeah, that's right. And what could we share with our listeners that you would say that might make it a bit salty, something, a place that they would like to go in prayer? You know, God has designed the world that we would walk in partnership with him. There are things that will only happen if you pray about them. There are things that will not happen unless you pray about them.
It's not all automatic. You know, the will of God is contested. There is the world, the flesh and the devil contesting against the will of God. When a terrible thing happens in our world, a child is abused or human is trafficked, that is not the will of God.
And it's for the people of God to rise up and say yes to what God's purposes are. You know, real prayer is not us trying to get God to say amen to what we desire, but it is us living as an amen to what God desires. That's why Jesus says miracles will happen, but it is when you pray in my name, in other words, in alignment with my will.
One of the important bits of positioning when it comes to prayer, and it's very simple, every listener can do this, is firstly bring yourself into alignment with the will of God. What has God promised that isn't happening right now? And pray it in. Use your will as a landing pad for God's will. And then if that's the vertical alignment with God's will, find the horizontal agreement with other Christians. A very powerful thing just to get together with one or two others if you can and come into agreement together that God's will would be done.
That's how we reverse the curse. You remember back in the Garden of Eden, the first humans said to God, not what you will, but what we will. And with that, every cancer, every sickness, every sin came into the vacuum that created. When Jesus in another garden in the Garden of Gethsemane said, not my will, but your will be done, he reversed that curse. And we started to see the kingdom of God, righteousness, peace, joy, the beauty of things rightly aligned came back into the chaos of creation. And so it's very powerful when you think about your kids, or you think about your work environment, or you think about your street, to say what is it that God is saying, and then use your free will to say amen to that. Wow, and you have quite a story with your own son. And there was just a whole season of prayer between your wife and your son that would be an example of how God just delivers. But the thing I love, and as you listen to this story, as Pete describes it, is that it is two-way, and it's even communion. It's not just him asking, but there's obviously some conversing that's going on, but also there's some communing that's in this story. Would you share that with our listeners?
Yeah, sure. The Lord convicted me a little, actually. I was praying vague prayers for my kids. I was praying for them, but it was kind of, would you bless them at school today and help them not to die, and that kind of stuff, you know. And I sensed God saying to me, yeah, but what do you actually want me to do?
What are you asking? It's that question that Jesus said to blind Bartimaeus, you know, what do you actually want? And Bartimaeus goes, duh, I want to see, and Jesus goes, oh, okay, and heals him. So I sensed the Lord saying, what do you want me to do? And one of my spiritual advisors said to me, you really need to get along with God and ask him, why did you make my kids?
You know, why did you knit them together in their mother's womb? What is your purpose prepared in advance for them to do? And so I spent some time just looking at different promises in the Bible, and there were one or two that just, they came alive for me. And I sensed the Spirit of God saying, these are my promises for your kids.
And I made the decision I'm going to pray these promises very specifically, laser beaming in on my kids. And one of the promises was that, it's a lovely thing that they say about Jesus, he grew in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and with man. And so I began to pray in a new way around that, not just vague, please bless them, but would they grow in wisdom, stature, and favor today with their schoolteachers? Would they grow in wisdom, stature, and favor before heaven today?
And so on. You might say, what difference did that make? I tell you, within two weeks of beginning to pray more specifically like that, for my sons to grow in stature in heaven and on earth. One of our sons, who was, I can't remember, either 12 or 13 at the time, sat bolt upright in bed at 9 p.m. one night, called for my wife and me. And he said to us, I need God. I want to pray that prayer thing. Now, he's grown up going to church, he knows the deal, but this was the moment. And there was such an urgency, he knew it couldn't wait till the morning. And so we had the great joy, I had the great joy of kneeling with my son and praying with him as his eternal destiny was secured.
He gave his life to Jesus Christ. Now, if the story ended there, that would be good news, right? But what happened next would really fry your noodles. So the next day, my sister-in-law, who lives many miles away, and she doesn't go to church right now, she's not exactly kind of on fire in her faith. She phoned me up and said, what happened with, and then named this son, yesterday?
And I said, why do you ask? I didn't say to her, well, you know, that's amazing. And she said, I had a dream last night in which a stranger in your house, I think it was an angel, invited you into your own study, you and Sammy, that's my wife, and said, your son has been, listen to this, noticed in heaven.
And here's how you'd erase him. So get this, two weeks after beginning to pray that he would grow in wisdom, stature, and favor in heaven and on earth, he sits bold upright and says, I need God on the very night that my sister-in-law receives a dream in which an angel says he's been noticed in heaven. Now you can say that's coincidence, or you can just say there is a God who is the ultimate father to our children, who loves us and has a purpose for our lives. And when we come into alignment with his promises and his purposes and use our will as a landing pad for his will, then great things happen. Miracles take place, there's power in prayer. And I know it's confusing, I know it's difficult, but when you pray, God answers. And the cool thing is you have so many resources that can help listeners as they're listening to that prayer and thinking, wow, how can I get on this track?
How can I get on this trail? You've written these books that literally can give you a roadmap on how to go there. Yeah, I just put a book out called Dirty Glory, Go Where Your Best Prayers Take You. Well, that title jumps out at me. Right, well I'm glad, because the Bible is so full of unusual phrases that we just get used to, but actually it's about the incarnation, the glory of God in dirty people like you and me in a dirty world. God's glory begins and belongs in the brokenness, not amongst the religious. So Dirty Glory is getting people fired up all around the world in prayer, and you can get it from Amazon or wherever else. So yeah, we're going to hear more about Dirty Glory. He's got several other books. Again, you're listening to Truth Talk Live. Our guest today, Peter Grigg, I'm going to get it right yet.
I often struggle with names, but what an amazing, amazing journey. And also his website is, if I'm not mistaken, 24-7 Prayer? Yeah, 24-7Prayer.com, and you can get loads of resources there to help you individually, but also to mobilize prayer in your church context or amongst your friends. Yeah, and when we come back, I think I was going to get another segment, I hope. Sure. And we can talk a little bit about what actually happened in Winston-Salem that would give us some insight as to where prayer might take this whole movement that you're talking about in the coming years. Again, we've got a lot more coming up for you on Truth Talk Live. Stay tuned.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-07-07 19:00:11 / 2023-07-07 19:04:58 / 5
