We Don’t Need Hoopla! We Just Need Action!

My former pastor of twenty-five years talked about the prayer warriors who were in a closet somewhere laboring in seclusion. “It’s not those who are out in front who will get all of the credit,” he said. “It’s those behind the scenes that make it all happen by their powerful and prevailing prayers.”

He went on to say that the real hero’s in heaven may be some three-foot grandmas who no one ever heard of, because they were in the prayer closet praying all the time. Prayer is the fuel that makes God’s work advance.

We may think of the famous Christians everyone knows about, who are consistently in the spotlight; we may think they will get the biggest rewards in heaven. I personally think that perhaps some individuals in relative seclusion, that no one knows about, may be doing the “heavy lifting,” in the kingdom.

John the Baptist spent most of his life alone in the wilderness. Elijah performed one of the greatest miracles reported in the Bible, but it seems overall, he spent more time in the desert than anywhere else.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to see a famous Christian author, who had flown into the city on his private jet. Honestly, I was disappointed . . . so much so, that I got up and left in the middle of his presentation. There was little or no anointing on him, and I had to wonder if this man spent much time in prayer, or any at all, to prepare for his speaking engagements.

The flip side of the coin, is a personal friend of mine who has labored in a hard mission field in rural Minnesota for nearly two decades. His church is still small, about thirty people on a good Sunday. He once told me he felt he was not very gifted, that he couldn’t write, or play a musical instrument, and that his only talent was preaching. Because he wanted to make the best of his gift, he would spend two solid days in prayer before he would enter the pulpit.

When I visited his church one Sunday, the service began with an hour of worship. An hour of worship, you say . . . acchhh! That’s way too long!

Ordinarily, yes. An hour of worship would put people to sleep. But, not this time. There was such a heavy anointing on the worship that it seemed like about fifteen minutes. Then there were some announcements. I was standing with my head down, kind of tuning in to the Lord, basking in the sweet presence, when all of a sudden the power of God hit me like a tidal wave. I looked up to see what had happened. My friend had left the back room where he was praying and had walked to the pulpit. When he entered the room the power of God came with him.

Wham!

Well, he preached for about an hour and a half. The presence of God filled the room like an invisible cloud. When he was done preaching, he didn’t know what else to do, so he dismissed the service. Not a single person in the audience moved . . . for a half hour. No one wanted to leave the sweet presence. Everyone just sat there drinking it in.

Here is a man who lives in relative seclusion. He is not famous or well known, but the power of God rests on him like few men I have ever met. Why? Because he is willing to pay the price. He doesn’t just talk about prayer. He does it!

If you have a desire for recognition, look out! Sooner or later, it will rise up and bite you where it hurts.

I think that many young evangelists aspire to the position because they envision themselves speaking in front of large crowds of people. The best example of an evangelist that we have in the New Testament is Phillip (Acts 8: 26-40). Phillip was led by the Spirit to climb up into the Ethiopian Eunuch’s chariot and lead him to Christ in a one on one encounter. I believe a strong case can be made that the role of the evangelist is to lead individuals to Christ one on one. The second role of the evangelist would be to teach others to lead people to Christ one on one. There’s not a lot of hoopla around that!

Remember, Jesus made himself of no reputation (Phil 2:7). He wasn’t interested in recognition. In fact, He shunned the crowds and tried to get away from them. Apparently, what He really liked to do, was spend all night in the mountain praying.

He was only interested in doing what God had sent Him to do. A great deal of His work was in quiet places ministering to an individual, or to two or three people.

Something that bothers me, is the abundance of Christian conferences in America. Every time I turn around there is another conference somewhere. If they are to feed Christians, then the majority of us must be really fat! How much food do we need? What if, instead, we spent that time in the prayer closet? Then, I think, the body of Christ would move ahead much faster.

If you love the crowds and the recognition, if you love the hoopla, watch out! You may be headed for a fall.

My advice to you is to be single-minded. Stay focused. Your focus should be to hear the voice of God and to do whatever He tells you to do.

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Photo designed and taken by Lorraine