Can prayer really change a life? How much time must be spent in order to receive the desired answers? Will prayer really make a difference? These are questions that plague the believer, and yet the Bible clearly states that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much!
Since the beginning of this year I have personally experienced a transformation in the realm of prayer. I was raised on the pew of my father’s church. Our lives revolved around God and His biblical principles, and yet the depth of the effectual, fervent prayer life seemed to elude my understanding.
Again and again I have found myself being drawn to Romans 12:1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, which gives me a clue to unlocking the availing quality of an “effectual fervent prayer”. Although many lives have been offered, sacrifices given, Romans seems to suggest that the quality of the sacrifice is of up most importance to God. From the beginning of time, God instituted offerings and sacrifices that were to be prepared meticulously and set apart without blemishes or flaw.
But the question is, how can we as New Testament believers duplicate this act of worship? Many times I have come into His presence and engaged in singing His praise with my human sacrifice marred with sin and unbelief. My praises were restricted by cares, my offerings were convenient for the moment, and my sacrifice was less than blemish free.
This has plagued and challenged my thinking to the point of personal examination every day to ensure that my sacrifice is holy and acceptable. As if to put the fast-paced prayers of a “busy man” under the microscope, God took me through what an Old Testament journey through the Tabernacle Plan might be like if it paralleled our modern day sacrifice. First, we’d run through the gates with a quick, Thank You and Holy, Holy, Holy. Hastily, we’d throw a fresh road kill on the altar as we cranked up the propane grill to high. The entire incineration would take moments from daily cares and schedules before we’d be ready to wash up from the dirty mess at the brazen laver. Feeling quite pleased that we didn’t get a drop of blood on our clothes, we’d hurry into the inner court. The newly installed motion censored candlesticks illuminated the Show Bread. Sipping our Starbucks coffee to hide the bitter herbs, we’d pause a moment to enjoy the fragrant smell of incense before we hurried up to the veil that hid the Holiest of Holies. But something was wrong…I cannot enter…I dare not enter. My sacrifice was not accepted!
The second vision took place in I Kings 18:25 when Elijah told the prophets of Baal to set up a sacrifice and call upon their gods for the fire power. Meticulously, they dressed the bullock and began to call upon their god. Sensing that more of a sacrifice was needed, they began to yell louder and cut themselves until the blood gushed out of them. The altar became a bloody mess for naught, unacceptable and unholy.
The Lord showed me that the significance of these visions was that people are responsible for the frustration in their prayer lives. God created man for fellowship; but our fast-food drive through mentality impedes the deep, holy relationship that our righteous God desires. Without realizing it, we bring our busy, fast-pace, non-stop, dollar driven “you snooze, you loose” world into the presence of God and try to offer it up on the altar of sacrifice. At the altar of prayer, we attempt to alter His holiness to fit our lives. Instead of finding the holy and acceptable sacrifice to God, we ask Him to conform to a sacrifice that is acceptable to us.
And so Paul beseeches the church at Rome by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is a reasonable worship.
And don’t conform to the patterns of this world: but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, that the good and acceptable and perfect will of God might be proven by your actions.
Through the grace given unto us all and to every man, we shouldn’t think of ourselves as more important than we really are; but we should approach God soberly, and measure your value by the amount of faith God has given you. (Romans 12:1-3)
The Altar must move beyond knowledge significance. It has to become significant in application. The Cross of Calvary is center of our salvation and the Altar of Worship is the application of its life giving blood and power.
“Examine me, O Lord, , and prove me; try my reins and my heart”
(Psalm 26:2)
