As pray-ers, we must watch ourselves and make sure we don’t make the same mistake the church at Ephesus made. We must be careful as we go higher in God and our prayer anointing and assignments increase that we don’t get too big for our spiritual britches. (Do you know what that means? It means to get prideful and think you’re too important to tend to basic things.)
We have to make sure that we don’t start thinking we’ve outgrown the need to simply draw near to our Father and fellowship with Him. Because if we neglect the personal relationship with Him that got us where we are today, we will lose that place. We will do just what the Ephesians did and fall from the heights we have attained.
The effects of such a fall won’t just be evident in our prayer lives, either. It will show up first in our day-to-day dealings with other people. Listen to me, dear one. As praying people, we ought to be the kindest, gentlest, most loving people in the world. We ought to be growing daily into the picture of the 1 Corinthians 13 person.
If we’re truly walking in a place of power with God, we’ll be patient and kind, not jealous or prideful. We’ll be considerate of the feelings of others, not rude. We won’t insist on our own rights or our own way. And we won’t be touchy, fretful, or resentful. We’ll hardly even notice a suffered wrong and we’ll always believe the best of others.
So let’s check up on ourselves. Are we more loving in our relationships with friends and family than we have been in the past? Are we growing in the fruit of the Spirit? Are we abounding more in love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, and faith? If not, we’re fooling ourselves to think we’re growing more powerful in prayer.
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:1 – 13
On the chilly March night in 1972 when Lynne Hammond took her first step into a life of Spirit-led prayer, she had no idea what was about to happen. All she knew was the hunger in her heart for God wouldn’t let her sleep. In the few short months she’d been born again, her desire to fellowship with Him had grown so strong she could hardly contain it. “Help me, God!” she cried. “I want to know you. I want to be able to talk to you. Please, teach me to pray!”
Suddenly, a heavenly presence flooded the room. Lynne sensed waves of spiritual fire sweeping over her and a beautiful language began to flow like a river from within her. Although she’d never heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, she knew instantly, without a doubt—this was God!
What began that night soon blossomed into a life of prayer that ultimately became a ministry of prayer when, in 1980, Lynne and her husband, Mac, founded Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Under Lynne’s leadership, the prayer ministry at Living Word has become an internationally recognized model for developing effective pray-ers in the local church.
A teacher and an author, Lynne publishes a newsletter called Prayer Notes, has written numerous books, and currently serves as the national prayer director for Daughters for Zion. Her passion for inspiring and leading others into the life of Spirit-led prayer continues to take her around the world to minister to believers whose heart cry, like hers, is “Lord, teach me to pray!”