Luke 19:42, 44
If you’ll learn to watch and be sensitive and obedient, you can interrupt the plans of the Devil. You can help people right when they need it. You can take care of situations in advance and stop trouble before it starts.
But oftentimes, Christians are so busy paying attention to the natural affairs of life, they miss the opportunity for such preemptive strikes. They’re like the city of Jerusalem back in Jesus’ day. He wept over that city because the people in it were so spiritually insensitive that they missed their day of visitation.
Sometimes we marvel and wonder how the people in Jerusalem could have possibly failed to realize that the Messiah was among them. But if you really think about it, you can easily see how it happened. Jerusalem was a busy city. People had a lot to do. They had to go to work and make a living for their families. They had to take care of the children, do the housework, cook the meals, deal with the in-laws, and take care of all the other demands of daily life.
Is it really so shocking that they didn’t drop everything and run down to the temple to hear Jesus teach?
Certainly He was well-known for His miracles and His ministry. And, no doubt, most people attended His meetings once or twice. But they didn’t tune in to Him long enough to realize who He truly was because they were too busy attending to natural things.
Christians are much the same way today. We have the Holy Spirit Himself abiding within us all the time. He is always in our hearts teaching us and showing us things to come. But many times, we are too focused on natural things to pay attention to Him, so we miss what He is saying to us.
As a result, we sometimes find ourselves in trouble like Jerusalem did. We find out the enemy has come against us and backed us into a corner. We find the Devil camping on our doorsteps, wreaking havoc in our lives because we weren’t watching!
Scripture Reading: Luke 19:29 – 44
Excerpt permission granted by Lynne Hammond Ministries
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!”