“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” We spend a good bit of our time in church offering prayer requests to one another. I wonder how many of the subsequent prayers are fervent? What’s more, I wonder if they come from righteous people? These are the two operative words in this verse, and ought never be overlooked. There has been a movement in evangelical circles recently to gather for large ecumenical prayer events. This has been a key, motivating passage. Statements such as “prayer works” are used to encourage attenders, yet I find myself saying “No: God works through the prayers of the righteous”. Gathering large groups of worldly believers or lost church members for prayer meetings can never be effective. Let us be careful to live Godly lives and to pray fervently. Then if we gather together we can be certain to expect big things.
“And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.” This is a wonderful and almost unprecedented passage of scripture. As you read through the Old Testament it is a hard verse to skip over without reading again and again to be sure you understand correctly. Could God have been speaking to Moses face to face? Well, apparently not literally, because a few verses later God says no man can see Him and live. Remember that God is not limited by any physical boundaries. He was speaking to Moses “as though” they were face to face. I think that means that every level of intimacy that is present in a face to face conversation was present here. We attempt to have a face-to-face-style conversations via phone or internet with friends and family but can’t quite succeed. God achieved this with no difficulty. It is a magnificent thought, but is it really different than the opportunity we have in the new covenant, while every believer is brought close to God by completed cleansing of sin and the constant indwelling of the Holy Spirit? It’s hard to say, because it is hard to compare. This we know; saved men today may have maximum communion with the Lord through the Written Word and prayer. The real question is whether or not we are choosing to take advantage of it.
Devotions | Chris | 
August 24, 2009 10:00 pm | 
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