A weird thing happened to me last Sunday morning. I woke up, and the first thought that came to my mind was another pastor in the area. I had met him just a couple of times in a group with other pastors, and I probably hadn’t seen him for almost a year.
I don’t know why he came to mind. After I lay there perplexed for a moment (I was still in bed), it occurred to me that I should pray for the man. I didn’t know what his present needs or circumstances were, but I figured that maybe the Lord brought him to my mind for that very purpose. Frankly, I don’t even remember what I said. I certainly did not pray long, probably only a matter of seconds.
Then I got up, grabbed a cup of coffee and spent some time with the Lord, reading his Word and praying. My morning schedule was a bit more relaxed than usual, since I didn’t have to preach that morning. My worship service responsibilities included reading Scripture and leading the congregation in prayer.
So after the first hymn, I made my way to the pulpit. When I looked out over the congregation, I was shocked to see — sitting near the back of the sanctuary — the very pastor that I had prayed for the morning! This was the first time, to my knowledge, that he had ever attended our church.
I was so taken aback, that I almost forgot what I was going to say. After all, I had only met him twice, and it had been nearly a year since I had last seen him. Yet he had popped into my mind first thing that morning. Now here he was, sitting in our church service!
I made a beeline for him after the service and told him what happened. He too seemed a little perplexed but was glad that I had prayed for him.
I told my wife what happened, and she said, “Yeah, that’s weird.”
When we describe something as “weird,” we typically mean that it is strange, odd, or bizarre. But the primary definition of weird is “involving or suggesting the supernatural.” Such was surely the case in this instance!
Why am I sharing this with you? Because this whole episode got me thinking about the Lord’s leading in our lives. It made me think of a quote by Martyn Lloyd-Jones that I read years ago in his book Preaching and Preachers. He said, “always respond to every impulse to pray” (pp. 170-171).
Always respond to
every impulse to pray.
Lloyd-Jones went on to say,
I would make an absolute law of this — always obey such an impulse. Where does it come from? It is the work of the Holy Spirit; it is a part of the meaning of “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13). … So never resist, never postpone it, never push it aside because you are busy. Give yourself to it, yield to it…. Such a call to prayer must never be regarded as a distraction; always respond to it immediately, and thank God if it happens to you frequently.
I don’t know what’s going on in the life of this pastor, or if anything came to his own mind as I shared what happened. But I realized afresh how awesome it is that the Holy Spirit of God lives in us and is at work in us. Oh, that we might increasingly be more tuned into him!
With that in mind, I would commend to you two sermons that I tapped into today from preachers who, though dead, still speak (Hebrews 11:4).
The first is an audio recording of a sermon by Martyn Lloyd-Jones titled “Praying in the Spirit.” It’s 43 minutes long and well worth your time. If you can’t listen to it right now, please consider carving out time later to do so. Think of how much of our time is consumed by social media, Netflix, and other superficial activities. Let this preacher of yesteryear feed your soul. To listen to his sermon, click here.
The second resource is a manuscript of a sermon also titled “Praying in the Spirit,” by John Bunyan (the author of Pilgrim’s Progress). To read Bunyan’s sermon, click here.
If you only have time to utilize one of these resources, choose the first one. Have your Bible handy, and block out all potential distractions. You will be richly blessed.