Prayer Always Precedes Gospel Change and Growth

This is the month where dreams, desires and plans are put into place with the hopes that this year will yield different, better results. All of us do this. We think and write these out but, unfortunately, most of us lack in a detailed follow through. In preparing for this new year the question that was lurking in my mind at the end of last year was this: "Why do I need the calendar to change to seek after and desire change?"

The answer is that I (we) don't. If we really desire change in our lives, homes, families and ministries it starts and ends with the intentional and unrelenting seeking of the Lord.

In Acts 1:14 Luke tells us that in the days following the ascension of Jesus, this new and fledgling band of disciples gathered together and were "devoting themselves to prayer." They, knew what Jesus had taught them and how this redemption plan would work: He has to go and He will send the Spirit (John 16:7). Yet, how long this would take was unknown and, therefore, a bit scary. So, instead of trying to figure this out on their own or read the latest book on self and time management, they prayed. They did this because this is what you do, first and continually, when you are seeking direction, clarity and or change. Luke says that they were not simply praying, but they were "devoting" themselves to this.

In Acts 2:1 Luke describes the situation with similar language used in Acts 1:14. We can rightly, I believe, conclude that that their being gathered together here also included prayer. It is what happened next that would changed the course of redemptive history: Pentecost happened! The promised Spirt, the Spirit they had been waiting and praying for, finally came and they were changed, them and all who heard the Word through them.

When Luke uses the word "devoting" in Acts 1:14 he means, among other things, that they were stubbornly refusing to change this practice of prayer until they received what they were asking and waiting for. The change that would take place by the Spirit. The Spirit did, indeed, come but He did so upon a people who were refusing to know and live lives that were void of intense prayer and seeking after the Lord. The principle here is that change comes when God's people are desperate enough to have a posture of soul that gropes after Him, relentlessly, until they change they are seeking (relationship, soul, life, job, marriage, etc) happens.

This year I highly encourage you to seek change. I encourage you to have plans, and desires and dreams. Yes, I encourage you to give detailed execution to those things so that they will become increasing realities. Yet, I also encourage you to do this, above all and first: stubbornly refuse to stop seeking the Lord until the change you seek and desire happens. This is the only pathway to change and transformation. The truth is that nothing we desire can take place apart from Him. Jesus teaches us that the power, dare I say the secret, of change is abiding in Him (John 15:4-5). This abiding requires prayer (John 15:7).

Perhaps little happened last year in our lives and churches not because our plans, desires and dreams were wrong ungodly. Perhaps little happened because we prayed little. If you desire to change and see spiritual growth this year, pursue God in prayer. If churches desire to see the fruit of life in their community, they must be devoted to prayer. The event of Pentecost has already happened and can never happen again, despite churches having "Pentecost Sunday's." However, the same Spirit who descended on the church then is, today - perhaps at this moment - still descending on His us, His people, to empower, fill, use and amaze us by His power in us and for us.

You want a 2025 that is different than 2024? I know I do. Therefore, resolve to begin today, January 9th, 2025, devoting yourself to prayer.