The Lord is saying to all of us today what He once said to me: “Don’t go into prayer headfirst, or you will mess it up.”
He is warning us to be on guard, realizing that many voices will come to us and endeavor to influence our prayers. Some of those voices may seem very spiritual, yet they’ll be wrong because they are coming from our own minds or the minds of well-intentioned men.
So what we must do is listen only for the voice of the Master.
When He speaks to us by His Spirit, His leadings will not just excite our heads, they will stir our hearts. They will cause us to say as the disciples did when Jesus appeared to them on the road to Emmaus, “Were not our hearts greatly moved and burning within us while He was talking with us as He opened and explained the scriptures?”
Precious pray-er, every day in God is a new day. What was revelation to us yesterday may be the thoughts of man in light of God’s plan today. To stay in step with the Lord, we must be continually receiving fresh revelation from Him. We must watch for the apostolic Word, walk in humility, and remember just how little we actually know.
We must constantly surrender ourselves and our prayers to the leading of the Holy Spirit and always be sure to pray heart first.
Scripture Reading: Luke 24:13 – 32
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!”