Last night a very amazing thing happened. We are teaching correct inductive topical Bible study habits to about 40 students from four different denominations. For many, their idea of topical study is to take a phrase out of the Bible and apply it however it will appeal to their congregation, make them feel good, or help them gain popularity and money.
We started with the topical study of prayer.
In the evenings, I go over the day with the 17 team leaders. Tonight I constantly pointed them back to the context and God’s intent in the passage and suddenly things shifted. They began to see that Jesus didn’t intend for us to constantly ask for temporal needs. They saw that Paul’s prayers for the church were never about physical needs. They saw that in the Lord’s Prayer, the focus is on His kingdom, His will, and our heart condition more than physical needs. They became very sober and quiet. Someone said “We have this all upside down. We don’t know how to pray.” I then took them to the story of Moses in the wilderness after the people built the golden calves and God was angry. The dialogue between Moses and God was Moses asking for God’s presence and for God to show him who He was and His glory. He never asked God for provision or physical needs. You could feel God’s Spirit pulsating in the little kitchen dining area we were gathered in. Then Ezekiel said, “Oh my, then when Jesus says our Heavenly Father knows our needs in Matthew, He means that we are to focus on His kingdom, not our own needs, and He will take care of us as He knows best.” I agreed. One of our main leaders, John Tuu, said “I think we need an altar call.”
We talked about how to pray for His kingdom, His will, and our relationships with others. Suddenly I heard Martha gently sobbing. I said, “Let’s pray,” and they all broke out into gentle praying and crying. The English phrases I heard repeated were “Oh God, we don’t know You. Please forgive us. We need to know You, Lord.”
This went on for quite some time. Even if the impact was only on these 17 people, I knew from this night alone that many people would be forever changed. At least 17 churches will know their God better because God had birthed a hunger for Him and His kingdom in the souls of these pastors. I know that because of what happened in this room alone, well over 4000 people will hear about God differently after this training ends. Some of these pastors have very large churches. Some congregations will hear for first time about His kingdom and there will be a change in focus that will expand God’s church.
I hunger for this to happen in the USA. We are not so different – focusing on what God does for us instead of who He is and His kingdom.
Oh Lord God, put a hunger in our souls for You and Your Kingdom; that our heart’s cry would be “Lord we want to know you! Lord, show us Your glory! Lord Let Your kingdom come in us and in our part of the world!”