“The Prayer Crisis: A Nation in Peril”

Last week, Chris made a striking statement: the greatest threat to Canada is not political instability, economic downturns, or external forces—it is a prayerless Church! His words should cause us to pause and reflect. Why is the Church struggling to pray? Is this an irreversible condition, or can it be changed?... to read more, go to nhop.ca

Transcript

hi everybody it's Chris bber the director of the national House of Prayer coming to you today from Ottawa well it's been a yet another interesting week a lot of things happening all at once it's kind of an exciting time it's great to be in a prayer assignment it's really really uh really really interesting time you know last week we were talking about the biggest threat to Canada was a prayerless church and today I want talk about a little bit more I was at an event last night yesterday uh with um oneway Ministries spons at this event along with meeting Point Ministries and the Jewish Federation of Ottawa and they brought in a university Professor named

um uh Gil Troy it was a very interesting time we talked about listened to about anti-Semitism and and how we can uh combat it together in Ally ship so it was good it was good it was really good I so appreciate our friends at the Jewish Federation and how we part have been partnering with them this year and one of the things that uh Gil spoke about yesterday and it really resonated in my in my spirit and it was uh essentially mechanical versus symptomatic um and so what I want to say there so many times or or how about this causation versus symptoms so when you have something that's symptomatic you know if like for me if I eat eat too much I will gain weight so the cause of

me eating too much that's the cause and the symptoms are me putting on too many pounds um I don't know if that's for you but that's that's what my life is so I have to be very careful if I don't exercise right um I get stiff and my muscles shrink so again it's it's a it is something that is causation versus symptoms um but in the term of symptomatic versus mechanical it's like this if I have a flat tire on my car I can change the tire replace the tire and I can motor along I'll be fine however if my engine loses all of its oil it will therefore crash the engine break the engine it'll die that is a complete yes it's mechanical but there's it's symptomatic the system doesn't work

anymore it's broken Beyond repair and so often we can look at things as symptomatic and mechanical so last week we talked about um you know the greatest one of the greatest threats to Canada is a prayerless church so what are the causes and what are the symptoms so here so this what I want to talk about today causes what I'm I'm a guy who asks why why is this like this why is the church not Eng engaging in that that place of prayer why aren't Christians in the word every day why wouldn't they choose to be fed but with the word every day why are they depriving themselves many of us depriving ourselves and speeding ourselves maybe once a week spiritually and you think of that it's

like man you got to be that's got to be something wrong so so so so I'm asking the Lord what's the why where are the symptoms what is causing our sympto our systems to fail and so so one of the things I found and it's found in Revelation to and it talks it's the you know it talks about the angel of the Lord is the the Lord is speaking to the angel in Ephesus the messenger in Ephesus and it is actually says in Revelation 2 it talks about all the great things that they do they persevere they endure they do great things they fight the right causes but they've lost their first love they've lost their first love so perhaps maybe seeing a a a a mechanical problem in the church because I don't

think it's systematic to tell you the truth I think it's fixable you know systematic means it's not fixable it's broken forever it's not going to work but it's mechanical and what is the way we could possibly fix this is come back to our first love to come back to that first you remember what it was like when you first were saved how passionate in love you were Jesus were're with Jesus so that also you know if you have a car and some of most of us have cars I've got I've got a car I like my car and uh but if I were to let the oil run out in that car it wouldn't take very long for that that whole system to crash and so often we are walking through life and we

are not being filled up with the spirit we are not being filled in Ephesians 5 it talks about be filled don't be drunk with wine don't be drunk don't get drunk on the things of the world don't get drunk on off fence don't get what whatever it is don't get drunk on anything else but be filled with the spirit of the Lord be and actually I love how that reads it actually reads in the original Greek be being filled so this is an ongoing Perpetual thing that we do we are being filled and how do you find be filled with the spirit you're in that place of prayer you're in that place of daily devotions you're in that place in the word listening to the father every day every moment that

you're listening you're staying connected you are abiding in the vine so often we just sort of pop out for six days and join back in in on the sbth even if we do that so I want to encourage you today be being filled with the spirit and if there are mechanical your me your mechanics are failing ask the Lord why and then repair them because they're do you need to change of fire do you need to fill up with oil is there coolant missing fix the things in your life ask the Lord how do you repair this and how do you get back to that place of First Love how do we do that how do they do that I believe it's being and spending time with the Lord every day every day I was talking with a

national leader on on uh on Friday and we were talking about the prayerless of the church and he stated this and I don't know how accurate this is if it's a broad enough picture but he says statistically in Canada most pastors and leaders spend seven minutes a day in prayer and devotions and uh and I'm not pointing the finger because I know what A busy life pastors and leaders can have I have a busy life too so for us for both Marilyn and I it is if we are not strategic IC and if we are not intentional in our time with the Lord it'll slide right to the bottom as far as priorities so make First Love a priority I'm Chris byberg the director of the national House of Prayer and we

will see you next time oh yes and remember every day is the National Day of Prayer bye for now [Music]