July 21, 2003
Special Summit '90 Issue
FSM 172 (FN 281) DO
Copyright: June 1990 by Family Services, Zurich, Switzerland
—Luke 11:1.
(Part One of a Two-Part Series)
(Supplement to GN#'s 435 & 436)
1. The most important topic that was covered at the Summit '90 was the need for us all to establish a closer walk & link with the Lord through GREATER PRAYERFULNESS & deeper, more consistent communion with Him. In the Word Dad has very frequently emphasised our need to pray & stay in close touch with the Lord. Such Letters as "Stop, Look, Listen!", "Morning Prayer", "Temple Time" etc. have become key building blocks in our spiritual foundation, so we are quite familiar with the principles of being prayerful & communing with the Lord. However, through the guidance of Mama & Peter, & as we discussed lessons & shared personal experiences & observations together, we were able to learn many precious lessons about how to PRACTICE the principles of prayerfulness that Dad has taught us through the Letters.
2. This topic of "Prayerfulness" was originally scheduled to be covered sometime during the MIDDLE of the meetings.—But, shortly after the meetings began, Peter moved this topic forward so that "Prayerfulness" was one of the FIRST topics to be discussed. He explained this change of schedule & emphasised the seriousness & urgency of discussing the importance of prayerfulness by relating the following story from the Good Thots:
3. Evangelist D.L. Moody said that his greatest mistake occurred October 8, 1871. On that night in Chicago, he addressed one of the largest crowds of his career. His message was about the Lord's trial & was based on Pilate's question, "What shall I do then with Jesus?" (Mat. 27:22)
4. As Moody concluded, he said: "I wish you would seriously consider this subject, for next Sunday we will speak about the cross, & at that time I'll inquire, `What will YOU do with Jesus?'"
5. But that was the night of the great Chicago fire which almost destroyed the whole city. And before the next day, Chicago lay in ashes. "I have never since dared," said Moody, "to give the audience a week to think of their Salvation." (Good Thots, pg. 1428, #31)
6. Peter explained that if something unexpected were to happen during our meetings & we were not able to complete the full agenda or we for some reason had to MISS discussing this important topic, then we would miss the most important leadership lesson there is: PRAYERFULNESS! Learning this lesson was so vital that Peter said very straightforwardly, "If you don't get this one point, you CAN'T be a good leader."
7. The lessons we learned about prayerfulness had a tremendous impact on each of our lives. We pray that you also will be able to partake of these life-changing principles & guidelines that will be covered in this two-part series.
By Peter A.
8. Of all the leaders in the Family, Dad is obviously the BEST. Why?—Because he's a man in tune with God. And WHY is he so in tune?—Because he prays about EVERYTHING, he's CONSTANTLY communicating with the Lord, asking the Lord what to do, what to say & when to say it. And he's constantly praising & thanking the Lord for everything! He's a wonderful sample of being prayerful & having true communion with God. I understand, though, that if I use DAD as the example in this talk you may feel like, "Well, he's God's Prophet, I'll never attain to the way Dad is!"—And you may be tempted to give up & not even try. So I'll use MAMA as my example.
Prayerful Mama Has Become Even More Prayerful!
9. Besides Dad, Mama is the next best leader in the Family, & for the same reason: She's VERY prayerful, she spends time communing with the Lord & praying about things. Of course, she's ALWAYS been quite prayerful, but she's even MORE prayerful NOW than she used to be. During this last year she's learned some very important lessons that brought about a change in her life & made her a lot MORE prayerful.
10. I'll try to explain this a little bit. As you know, Dad has entrusted a great deal of the Family administration into Mama's hands, & she bears the responsibility of many decisions within that realm, along with myself & the other people that she counsels & prays with. Mama used to be able to simply pass on the responsibility of making final decisions to Dad, but as you've read in the Letters, Dad is frequently encouraging Mama by saying, "YOU need to do what I've trained YOU to do as much as possible, which is to handle the personnel & the administration of the Family. This will free me more to do what I'M supposed to do, to give the Lord's Words." So, with Dad's help, support & confidence, over recent years Mama has been making more final decisions herself & taking an even greater leadership role. And through recent lessons she's learned, Mama has come to a greater realisation that the responsibility of the decisions she faces now falls more & more on her.
11. Well, I can't explain all the details here, but what happened was that Mama & I made a decision that produced some negative results. In fact, it looked like we could face some very serious repercussions as a result of this. It was a bit of a jolt to Mama to see what happened, but this experience had a profound effect on her & seemed to draw her much closer to the Lord.—Much like what Dad says in "Golden Seeds" (ML#254), "Some of the most precious lessons you learn from the Lord come out of deep dark experiences." Thank the Lord it all worked out for good in the end!—And one of the GREATEST BENEFITS of this "deep dark experience" was that Mama became much more aware of the importance of being constantly prayerful, & as a result she began sharing her lessons along these lines, which resulted in a "Prayerfulness Revolution!"
A "Prayerfulness Revolution" Was Born!
12. Please don't misunderstand me, it's not that Mama WASN'T prayerful before this experience. Even BEFORE this happened I considered her, next to Dad, to be the most prayerful person I've ever met, but it's just that it's DEEPER now, like the Lord used this experience to give her a much stronger link with Him.—And I think she now feels MORE DESPERATE & is more prayerful about her decisions.
13. Not only is Mama more prayerful about her decisions, but she also now USES THE POWER OF PRAYER a lot more than she used to. She has seen & personally experienced the strength of desperate prayer & the power of seeking the Lord for answers to impossible situations & expecting Him to do miracles! She sees the importance of seeking the Lord, not only about DECISIONS, but about EVERYTHING! When she hears about problems or persecution on the field or about people who are having a hard time, she PRAYS for them, & she asks US to pray for them as well. She's always saying, "Please put So-&-so on our prayer list. Did you PRAY for that situation tonight?" She is constantly reminding us to "pray one for another". (James 5:16)
14. At the Folks' Home, we have regular daily meetings to discuss business together, but about once a week, we just put all the business aside & get together & PRAY for different things. In other words, we have a meeting that is dedicated ESPECIALLY to prayer, not discussing or deliberating, just praying! It's very uplifting! And we've accomplished a lot more by PRAYING for situations & for the Lord's solutions, than by all of our discussions.
15. As you may know, Mama's eyes are constantly sore, there's hardly ever a time when they feel good. Because of this, she tries not to read too much. She CAN read & sometimes she HAS to read, but she suffers when she does, so she tries to keep her reading to a minimum. She listens to tapes of reports & she has us read to her phone messages & the new pubs that are being produced. So although she is still quite busy, not being able to read has given her more time to pray. In one sense, she can't DO as much as she used to, but because she's PRAYING a lot more, I'd say she's getting a lot more DONE through her prayers.
16. One of Mama's mottos is: "If you personally can't do something & you have to ask somebody ELSE to do it, then you'd better PRAY for them!" So we're constantly praying for the different assignments that we've given to the Creations team, the Video team, our leaders etc.—And I know while I'm here at these meetings she's got everybody praying for me too. She couldn't come to these meetings herself, she had to send me, but I know SHE FEELS THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PRAY that I stay on the straight & narrow & that I give the right counsel. It's not like when I leave Home I'm "out of sight, out of mind." I know Mama's praying for me & she has others praying for me & ALL of us here as well.
Making Prayer a Habit! —Nothing is too Small to Pray About!
17. Mama has learned from Dad to pray over the littlest things & the tiniest decisions. That's what Dad does. I'd like to share a little story that is a good example of how Dad is constantly praying & how he expects OTHERS to be constantly praying also:
18. One day I was asked to watch the kids while they were working in the yard. I was going to read & keep my eye on the kids at the same time, so one of the girls brought out a chair for me & set it down in the middle of the yard. I didn't think anything of it, I just went & sat down in the chair & went about my reading while watching the kids.
19. Now it just so happens that Dad's window overlooks the yard & he often looks out his window when he eats. As you know, he has difficulty getting his food down, so while he eats he needs to relax & he usually likes to look out his window, because seeing the Lord's Creation relaxes him & helps his eating go better. But on this particular occasion, when Dad sat by his window & was trying to relax & eat & enjoy the view of God's Creation, there I was sitting right smack in the center of the yard working. This was a distraction to Dad as it made it difficult for him to relax because it reminded him of all the business & problems of the Family. He asked Mama WHY I was out there like that & she said, "Well, he was asked to go out there & keep an eye on the children, so one of the girls brought a chair out for him so he could sit & work at the same time." Dad said, "Well, did she PRAY about WHERE to put the chair? I pray about EVERYTHING!" The answer, of course, was no, she hadn't prayed. If she HAD prayed, the Lord could have showed her to put the chair somewhere else, & if I had prayed before sitting down, I'm sure the Lord would have given me a check about the location of the chair. But who thinks to pray about something so small as that except Dad, & perhaps Mama? But that's what we ALL should do! We need to pray over the littlest things, we need to pray CONSTANTLY & make a real HABIT of praying.
We Need to Pray Over Every Little Thing!
20. (Endureth: Regarding the incident with the chair, does that mean we should pray about EVERY move we make?) To be honest, I asked the same question. I asked, "Am I supposed to tell these leaders that they're supposed to pray over EVERY little thing?"—And the answer was a definite YES, that's what we should be doing! As bottle-breaking as that may be, the answer is yes, Mama's talking about praying over EVERYTHING! I've got to admit, it was a real shock for me & it takes some real getting used to! It's a difficult habit to develop.
21. I'm not "Mr. Advanced" on this subject, I haven't developed a habit of constant prayerfulness. In fact, about a month ago, I found myself feeling impatient that Mama prayed so much! I felt like saying, "C'mon, we prayed already, let's make some decisions!" But when she talked about developing the habit of praying over EVERYTHING she was serious! She means that we should be CONSTANTLY communing with Jesus & asking Him what to do, what to say, what does HE think about the situation, what answers does HE want to give?
22. If Dad came into this meeting room, he wouldn't just come barrelling in & immediately start the meeting. He'd look around & he'd ask the Lord, "Is everything right? Is everybody sitting in the right place? Is there enough lighting? Is there enough ventilation?" He'd ask if everyone was comfortable & he'd be praying, "Lord, is there anything here that should be changed?" That's just how prayerful he is, & THAT'S what Mama's talking about. That's how we ALL should be.
23. I know we're not like that now, but we need to work on developing a HABIT of praying over EVERYTHING. We should be constantly seeking the Lord's guidance & ask-ing Him. "Is this REALLY the thing I'm supposed to do right now, or is there some OTHER thing I should be doing?" We need to be OPEN to His Spirit & ask Him to show us exactly what we should be doing.
24. Like with the chair in the yard, the girl who brought it out should have prayed: "Lord, is this the RIGHT place to put this chair?" Bringing a chair to the yard like that was something out of the ordinary & she should have asked the Lord about it. And I should have prayed about it also. When I came along, I should have prayed, "Is it right, Lord, that this chair is out here in the middle of everything?" I should have been in tune enough to pray, "Lord, is this really right?" And if I HAD, I'm sure He would have reminded me about Dad's eating & I would have moved it to another part of the yard that would have been out of his view.
25. Awhile back I'd go for a walk & talk with Mama in the EVENING, because the sunlight would bother her eyes if we walked in the daytime. As we started out on the walk she'd pray: "Lord, thank You for this beautiful starry night & for the beautiful Moon. Bless & keep us, help us not to stumble or fall, help us not to be seen by anyone who shouldn't see us." So for the first few minutes of our walk she'd be praying, thanking & praising the Lord & asking for protection. The first couple of times this happened I was thinking, "Okay, we've prayed, let's get on with our talking!" But once I started to get converted to a more prayerful attitude & I got over my initial "hurry-up" aversion to it, I began to see the benefit of taking the time to look up at the stars & really thank the Lord for His Creation, & ask for His protection & commune more with Him, rather than being in such a hurried spirit.
26. Dad & Mama are constantly praying for EVERYTHING, they're ALWAYS praying.—And as leaders, we need to cultivate the same habit. We need to be in CONSTANT communication with the Lord!
27. We have to WORK to overcome our bad habits & help each other cultivate good habits. We have to REMIND EACH OTHER to pray. If you forget to pray, then someone should sweetly say, "Should we pray?" & you shouldn't take offence at it. It's not something to be offended about, we need each other's help to make it a habit.
28. Sometimes I sit down with someone & we're just chatting, but before I realise it, we're into a business discussion, so then we have to CATCH OURSELVES & stop & pray. So it's best to pray first before even starting to talk with someone, even if you think it will just be a casual conversation of only a few minutes.
29. (DUST:) I can see that prayerfulness is definitely a habit that we need to cultivate & help each other with. This morning I went in to talk to Dawn about a phone message & we made a decision & I got all the way downstairs before Dawn caught me to say, "Dust, we forgot to pray!"
30. (DAWN:) For the first day or so after Peter brought out these points on prayerfulness, there seemed to be a little bit of awkwardness between some of us in the Home—perhaps I shouldn't say "us", perhaps it was just with me, as the Lord worked on my pride. Each time I would stop a discussion & ask, "Shall we pray first?", I really had to get over that embarrassment & worry that the other person would think I was giving him a correction, especially if he was the one who approached me with a question or subject of a discussion, & then I would be the one to stop him & suggest that we pray together first.
31. But these fears & worries & feelings of embarrassment are just part of the Enemy's bag of tricks to prevent us from being constantly in prayer with each other. But it really doesn't take long for everyone to get in the habit & the swing of it together & for these things to become more natural. I believe it's really going to change & revolutionise the Family & make us all much more prayerful. I'm sure it will also bring down the Lord's blessing & more direction in our daily lives & the decision-making of the Homes & Shepherds & on down to each department & little Family group.
32. (OSHEA:) Mama mentioned how it's important that we make the phrase, "Should we stop & pray?" as common as, "I love you", "God bless you", or any other of our familiar expressions. As you said, it's everybody's responsibility & if it's a habit that we're all working on developing together, then hopefully someone will always remember to speak up & remind everyone to pray.
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33. (CHRIS:) Sometimes we don't pray because we don't want to come off like we are overly spiritual, or we don't want to offend others. Other times it seems to be an unspoken rule that the LEADER is the one who prays in many situations. So when we're with co-workers or peers we sometimes don't pray as much as we should because we don't want to send a signal that we think we are the senior member of our group, or we don't want it to look like we're trying to establish ourselves as such. All of these things are just little nuisances that, when you're aware of them, are fairly easy to get around & to overcome. Like Mama said, we NEED to overcome them for the sake of praying more.
34. (MARY:) It seems like there was much more emphasis on praying over every little thing when the Family first began. We used to pray all the time about everything. It was one of the things that really impressed me when I first joined the Family, but I think we've gotten away from that. I think we have made the word "spiritual" synonymous with "self-righteous", & of course none of us wants to be self-righteous. So we tend to shy away from anything that could make us appear spiritual. I'm really glad that the Lord is exposing this wrong attitude.
The Importance of Praying out Loud!
35. Recently Mama asked me if I'd work on editing Dad's "jewels" for publication. Throughout the day, whenever Dad is talking, whoever is with him records it. These tapes are typed & then someone goes through & culls out the jewels & they end up being used in the Letters of Jewels. Mama has usually been the one to decide on which of Dad's jewels should be used, but since she is not able to read now & since I had a little extra time, she asked me if I'd like to work on them. It's been quite life-changing for me to go over these transcriptions of Dad's daily conversations & interactions with others, as through this I've seen how much Dad prays—OUT LOUD!
36. Dad's so prayerful & peaceful. He's always saying things like, "Thank You, Lord, for the beautiful sunshine! Thank You, Lord, for the birds & Thy Creation, it's so beautiful, Lord, & it's so peaceful." He'll pray, "Lord, the shoppers are going out & they're going to be doing business, so please keep & protect them." He's really serious in prayer when somebody's out. He doesn't just pray once, he continues to remember them in prayer throughout the day & when they return he'll often say, "I'm so glad you're back so I can stop praying for you to have a safe trip!" He's constantly praying over EVERYTHING! And you can tell that by his FRUIT, the Words the Lord gives him, the Family, the revelations—all these are the fruit of his PRAYERFULNESS.
37. You might think, "If I pray out loud often, people might think I'm trying to be Mr. Spiritual." Well, there's nothing wrong with being SPIRITUAL! It's just that being spiritual has gotten a bad name in the Family, because usually people who are self-righteous often come across like, "I'm so spiritual!" But we need to take the bad connotation away from that word, BECAUSE THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING SPIRITUAL. There's nothing wrong with being attuned to the Lord or praying out loud. If we can get others to be more prayerful by our own sample of praying out loud, it would really be a wonderful thing!
38. (Lisa: Often I pray IN MY HEART instead of out loud. For example, when I go for Get-Out I look at Creation & I say in my heart, "Thank You Jesus, isn't it beautiful?" I pray in my heart as I go, but I don't pray out loud much. Or I stop during a conversation & pray quietly, "Jesus, please lead & guide me, I'm stuck."—But should I say it out loud so the person I'm talking with can hear me?)
39. Mama said, "PRAY OUT LOUD! Pray out loud a lot! Constantly pray out loud. Because if you DON'T, how will people know you're praying?" If you're talking with someone & you stop & shoot a SILENT PRAYER to the Lord, the person you're talking to doesn't know you're PRAYING. They might just think you're trying to compose your thoughts or you don't know what to say or you're daydreaming about your girlfriend or boyfriend or something. How can they know if you're praying unless they HEAR you? Or you can sit down to eat & pray & thank the Lord for the food in your heart, but if nobody sees or hears you, they won't know if you prayed or not! Dad often stops right in the middle of meetings or talks & prays & asks the Lord to help him to know what to do & say. It's a good sample of depending on the Lord & it helps everyone else get in the habit too.
40. Of course, we don't want to be like the Pharisees & blow a trumpet every time we're going to pray (see Mat.6:2), but on the other hand, we have to SET THE EXAMPLE just like with anything else, because it is likely that our Family is NOT praying as much as they should. And if we're trying to set the example in prayer, OTHERS HAVE TO HEAR IT, because otherwise they don't know that we're praying. So the answer is yes, pray out loud!
41. (ISAAC:) If you don't pray out loud, then the Lord doesn't get the credit. I was visiting a Home recently & one of the brothers had a number of business questions so we sat down together to discuss them. Some of them were pretty tough questions & I really didn't know the answers, so I'd stop & silently pray & then tell him what I thought.
42. At the end he said, "It was really great talking to you, you've got all the answers!" I said, "I don't have all the answers at all, it's only the Lord." But because I wasn't PRAYING OUT LOUD & acknowledging the LORD so that he could HEAR me, the conclusion he drew was that I was the one who had the answers. It was the WORST conclusion for him to draw, but I didn't give him any other option because I didn't pray out loud.
43. (SILAS:) The need to be a public testimony & sample by praying out loud is really convicting. I think I oftentimes don't do this for fear of appearing overly spiritual or for fear that people will think that I'm being self-righteous by praying so much. But I know that yielding to these fears & this pride has had a very detrimental effect in many ways. Because, as you pointed out, others may think that I don't pray much at all, which is a very bad sample.
44. I think this revolution of prayerfulness will be very contagious, as the more WE take the time to acknowledge the Lord verbally, the more OTHERS will do so also. It will also give the LORD the credit for anything & everything that is accomplished throughout the day, which is so very important.
More Points to Ponder About Prayerfulness!
45. Dad & Mama are constantly praying for EVERYTHING, they're ALWAYS praying, & you need to cultivate the same habit. You need to be in constant communication with the Lord.
46. When you assign a job to someone, be sure to pray out loud with the person before they go off to do it. If you don't, they may feel the pressure that you are expecting THEM to do it, rather than your having committed it to the Lord together.
47. When one of our leaders visited the Folks' house some time ago, he noticed that the Folks prayed over every little thing. When they gave an assignment to people or met with people they would pray for them when they parted. It impressed him so much that he said that he would like to make it a habit that he doesn't part from people without praying for them.—Leadership should portray a sample of dependence on the Lord. Even if you ARE praying, if you don't pray OUT LOUD, others think that YOU are the one who is coming up with the answers.
48. We should pray out loud so that other people will see how much THEY'RE supposed to pray. They won't learn to be prayerful if they don't see & hear a sample in US.
49. When we pray out loud it's like a public testimony. We're making a commitment in prayer & faith, & from there on everyone is expecting the Lord to answer.
50. (PHILLIP:) I knew that not spending enough time with the Lord was a real weakness with me, that's why I got in the habit of spending time with Him early in the morning. But the closeness that I would establish with Him in the morning would get thinner & thinner throughout the day, because I hadn't cultivated a constant continual habit of praying throughout the day & not JUST once in the morning.
51. (ISAAC:) During the JLC meetings that we held a few years back, Mama sent us the following message: "When you DON'T know what to do, pray. When you THINK you know what to do, pray. When you KNOW what to do, pray. The Lord is your Righthand Man. What does He do? He does everything, basically." When I'm in a Teamwork with other people I talk with them, but we often forget that the Lord is there too & we should talk with Him just as we would one of our Teamwork members.
52. (SILAS:) One of the most impressive lessons that has continued to speak to me during these meetings has been Peter's sample of continual prayerfulness. It's been a real blessing to observe him conducting the meetings, & to see how often throughout the day he takes time to acknowledge the Lord, not only in big matters, but small matters as well. It's been real contagious & I'm very thankful to have been able to partake of this sample.
53. Learning to be more prayerful is a very major NWO for me personally. I have a real bad habit of oftentimes being quick to begin to discuss situations or even answer questions without taking time to acknowledge the Lord. It was very convicting to be able to discuss this together, & I can certainly see the need for a major change in my life.
54. (DUST:) We've talked so much about being a sample as leaders & Peter has expressed that he's very concerned about his own sample to us, especially his sample of being prayerful. It was Peter's prayerfulness on the very first day that he arrived that really struck me. I noticed right away that he stopped to pray over the little things. After arriving at the Home, Peter came down to the dining room & talked to a few of us for a few minutes. We began just a very light conversation & we'd only gotten out a few sentences when Peter stopped & prayed a simple but meaningful prayer asking the Lord to be with us & to guide our conversation. That little prayer was such a sample to me.
55. (CHRIS:) Mama asked us to give examples of things that we SHOULD pray for but usually DON'T pray for or we FORGET to pray for. I thought a little about this & following are some things in my life that I either never pray for or usually don't pray for or often forget to pray for. I believe listing some specific examples will help me to apply these lessons more to my personal life. It was a bit of a shock when I realised how many things I do without praying. So here's my list of things that I need to pray more for:
56. Praying before I shave, as I wash the dishes, for the Lord's wisdom & guidance with every report or piece of paper I read, for my children, for our leaders on the field. For equipment as we use it, such as dictaphones, computers, transcribers, Walkmans, ovens, toasters, microwaves, coffee-makers, cameras, electric razors etc. For pubs that are in the works & the continued flow of God's Word to His children. For our musicians as they continue to compose & produce new music. For our neighbours & security as we come & go from our Homes & offices. For the people that we encounter during the day. For people that we see in the news, World leaders etc. For every conversation, even every bit of fellowship, for every little decision & every little discussion. Continually praising the Lord & thanking Him for all the wonderful things He does, praising Him & thanking Him for His Creation, the beautiful weather & the wonderful life He's given us, the wonderful fellowship, our beautiful children & how wonderful they are, & for all the innumerable blessings that He bestows upon us daily.
57. I'm seeing that I've actually been quite neglectful to avail myself of the power & results that I know prayer brings, & I'm seeing that I have a long way to go in this area. It's an area that I'm just so weak in, but also an area that I'm the most excited about strengthening & working on & spending more time on.
58. (DAWN:) It seems that the Lord is bringing us up to a higher level of communion with Him & a deeper relationship with Him. All our work, even if within the realm of administration or a seemingly PHYSICAL ministry, has to be done in the Spirit. These precious lessons are teaching us that we have to be in an attitude of prayer & that everything we do should be bathed in prayer.
59. I guess there will always be a big difference between the work in the wings, the Lord's service, & entering into His special dome where we completely block out everything else & have pure uninterrupted & unobstructed communion & sweet fellowship, lovemaking & hearing from Him. But maybe this PRAYERFULNESS REVOLUTION will bring a little more of the DOME into our WING life too, so that there is not such a distinction between the two.
60. It's like Dad said, "Prayer is something you should be doing ALL the time, no matter what else you're doing! You can't wait until you're through doing this or that, & THEN pray. It's like thinking on your feet!—Or like BREATHING!—Just breathing the Holy Spirit all the time, being in constant communication with the Lord!"—ML#1957:24.
Copyright 1996 The Family