If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14.

God will first of all deal with the sin of His people in any land, before He heals their land. It would not matter how many prayer conferences and prayer vigils they hold; it would not matter how terrible may be the problems through which their land may be passing. Until there is an acknowledgment of sin in the Church in that land, and a turning away from it, revival will be far away.

Make a study of any true revival which has ever visited any land; it was not without an increased sense of awe of God and right living. A revival of conversions and healings is never without a revival of right living.

In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God says, before He heals the land of any people who are praying, He will first of all deal with the sin of the praying people - His people.

When you find a people who begin to feel a growing need for right living, then you’ve found a people who are not far from revival. But if you see a people who do all the praying but justify their wicked ways, then you have seen a people who draw nigh to God with their lips but have kept their hearts far from Him; a people for whom revival will not soon come.

Sometimes we have the notion that the longer we pray, the closer we get to God; that the more hours we spend in prayer, the holier we become. But it is not necessarily so. In Matthew 6:7, Jesus condemned what He described as the heathen-notion of some who equated the volume of words spoken in prayer with the efficacy of the prayer. He stated that we are not heard for our "much speaking."

Until the glorious sweetness of the all-suffusing presence of God, rather than the clock, begins to ... measure how much time you spend with God, it will be much doubted if you know the sweetness of His presence at all.

"Much speaking," somehow, could also mean `long praying,' for he who speaks much will definitely spend more time in speaking, than he who speaks less. In other words, then, we are also not heard for our long prayers.

You wonder why some people pray so much and yet are spiritually so lean? with very little substance in their lives? Sometimes the problem is the attitude with which they do the praying. Let me ask, for instance, Why do you pray two hours every day? In the bottom of your heart, is it so that you may be able to say to people, or to yourself, that you pray so long daily? If so, your motive is selfish. You are praying to yourself, like the Publican in Luke 18:9-14 who stood and "prayed... with himself," not God (v.11). You want to be able to say to yourself, "Hey, boy, you are trying, men! What a spiritual guy you are!" Therefore, any day, for any reason, you pray less, you feel terrible. It would not matter whether God had answered you or not; it would not matter whether heaven came down in one hour or not. You had failed to make the score, so you feel bad. That is selfish praying.

How much energy you put into the prayer does not count as much as how much, spiritually, you get out of it. Your life also counts as part of what you put into prayer. It is true that in many areas of life, how much one puts in determines how much one gets out. But there are other factors that go with the input. A person may put 80% effort into a dry land and come out with a 20% yield. Another may put in only 60% effort into another land, a fertile land, and come out with an 80% yield. Those whose lands are hard, ("The way of the transgressor is hard" -Proverbs 10:1), may have to do more to get any meaningful yield. But the fact that they do more does not mean that their land is superior; and the fact that the others do what appears less, does not mean that their land is inferior.

Again, take two men who go in to see the king. One spends two hours pleading, explaining, weeping, begging, waiting, making ‘connections,’ and eventually comes out with a N5,000.00 cheque. Then he tells everyone, "Yeah! I spent two full hours with the king. Men, it was no easy job! In fact, I even had tea with the king." Then he hopes that his hearers should hail him.

The second man goes in to see the same king, and in five minutes is out, with a million Naira cheque. He does not even tell anyone about it.

The first man spent a longer time, but that did not mean that he had more. The second man spent less, but the king was his friend, so in a few minutes he received so much. So, it is not necessarily how much time one spends, but how much one knows and is known of the King, and how much one comes out with from the presence of the King of Kings. We should stop erecting trophies for ourselves based on ‘how much’ we pray. When we truly fall in love with God, it won’t even be news how much time we spend with God, for the hours will pass away as seconds. But when we are not such close friends of God, every minute that passes becomes a great noticeable decade of achievement, and every hour a feat worth celebrating.

Until the glorious sweetness of the all-suffusing presence of God, rather than the clock, begins to dictate or measure how much time you spend with God, it will be much doubted if you know the sweetness of His presence at all. Lovers (and love-meetings) are not usually guided by the clock.

Let us draw nigh to God, that He may cleanse us from our filth. Our land will never be due for divine visitation until we ourselves have been visited and forgiven. If anything hinders the healing of a land, it is the sins of the Church. If anything facilitates the healing of the land, it is the repentance of the Church.

When there begins to be a growing sense of reverence for God, and a consciousness for righteousness among the people of God, then revival is not far off. But when a Church is loose and selfish, full of wicked ways, their land will remain sick, in spite of their many prayers, for God will first of all "forgive their sin" before He can proceed to "heal their land." Amen.

From The Preacher’s diary,
August 4, 1995.

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