A few years ago, the Lord gave me some instructions that have gone a long way toward keeping me on the right path in prayer. He said, “Keep a loose hold on your own thinking and understanding of events that are to be. Keep a firm hold on God and His revealed will.”
I knew the minute He said it, I hadn’t always done that. Sometimes in prayer, I’d gotten just a little too much of myself in the driver’s seat. I’d started dictating to the Holy Spirit what needed to happen instead of letting Him dictate those things to me.
One time, for instance, when I was praying about the body of Christ, I got stuck praying my opinion about the way things ought to go. I thought everybody needed to be a part of the word of faith movement (because it had blessed me so much) so I gathered verses of Scripture and built a case to pray for that.
I even had a group that prayed with me along those lines. We were fervent in our praying. We got plenty steamed up about the issue. But even so, we weren’t getting any traction. We weren’t really going anywhere.
I found out why one day when I was standing in the prayer room and I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, “Don’t pray that way anymore. That is not the will of God.”
I was so floored that I ran out of the prayer room. Too flustered to know what else to do, I walked to the water fountain. Instead of getting a drink, I just stood there with a sullen face watching the water run and thinking, Then what am I supposed to pray?
Of course, once I asked that question, the Holy Spirit started answering it. He gave me a revelation of the multifaceted body of Christ and empowered me to pray in a fresh, new way. He lifted me out of the rut of my own opinion and took me to a whole new level in prayer.
That’s how it always is when we get a revelation from the Holy Spirit about something. We see things we haven’t seen before. We learn things that, without His help, we’d never know. That’s why as pray-ers, we should always stay in the passenger’s seat and leave the driving to the Lord.
Scripture Reading: John 16:1 – 15
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!”