14 Praying To Get Results
atmosphere. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, our text
says, the Holy Ghost manifested Himself.
God made man to fellowship with Him. He is our Father,
because we are born of God. I'm sure of this: There are no
earthly parents who enjoy the fellowship of their children more
than God enjoys the fellowship of His children.
In one meeting I held, I said to the people after the sixth
week, "Let's have some different kinds of services. I want us to
come to minister to the Lord. I may read a little bit of Scripture,
or make a few comments, but I'm not going to preach or teach a
lot. We're not going to come to petition God; we're going to wait
on the Lord and minister to Him.
"I don't want us to come and wait 10 minutes. I want us to
come with the thought that we're going to wait at least one hour.
We'll minister to the Lord—tell Him how much we love Him
and thank Him for His goodness and mercy."
The people came and praised the Lord. I found they wanted
to wait on God. In that kind of atmosphere, God ministered to us
in very unusual ways. Although that was years ago, there still are
things happening today as a result of what the Lord did in those
services.
I'm sure of this: We miss a lot of what God has for us
because we don't take time to get into an attitude of worship and
minister to the Lord.
A Bible example of this is found in the 16th chapter of Acts.
Paul and Silas were arrested in Philippi, where they had gone to
preach the Gospel. They were beaten with many stripes and cast
into prison. The jailer was charged to keep them safely, "Who,
having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison,
and made their feet fast in the stock " (v. 24).
Notice particularly the 25th verse, "And at midnight Paul
and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners
heard them."
They certainly couldn't have been singing some of the songs