THOMAS: Well, it is a key part of it that God has made a promise,
but He keeps His promises through means. And Scripture is clear from
the first book to the last book that part of that means is our prayer and intercession.
It is key on a personal level. I think it's key on a corporate level. You know, if we hold to
the maxim that the healthiness of a church is its prayer meeting, we are very unhealthy churches.
If we were to measure the volume and depth of prayer in a typical twenty-first century Reformed
church to, say, a church a hundred years ago, two hundred years ago, three hundred years ago, there
would be a qualitative and quantitative difference I think, which is alarming on one level.
If we want to see the fulfillment of Psalm 2:2, which is a fulfillment of what God told Abraham in
Genesis 12, if we want to see that in all of its fulfillment as the closing chapters of Revelation
hold it, we need to be prayer warriors and we need as a church individually and corporately to
stand in the gap and to pray. If we want to see Jesus coming again soon or sooner than we think,
I think that we need to be praying for those nations to be gathered.
NICHOLS: There's an example, Jesus Himself of weeping over Jerusalem. And,
you know, here He is with the disciples helping them to see that the fields are white for harvest
and in trying to give them that vision of the need for the gospel, and then His own
High Priestly prayer of intercession in many ways a model for us. So,
I think we have it in Jesus Himself by command and by example of the necessity of this intercession.
REEVES: And it's interesting the Matthew 9 classic mission text,
"Consider the fields. Pray to the Lord of the harvest that He might send out
workers into the harvest field." Now, read the context of that verse and it's
"And He saw the crowds that they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd,
and He had compassion on them. And so He said to them, 'Pray to the Lord of the harvest,'" which is
a very odd thing to say because we think, "Well, you're the one feeling the compassion for them!"
And surely, one prayer of Christ's would be worth far more than all of those. So,
why is He asking them to pray? And so, that little verse gets you into seeing
salvation is about being drawn into share the life of the Son before the Father,
and that means to share His passion, His concern, to share His
desire for that one plan for the church, for that one plan to see the glory of God fill the earth.
Our praying for mission is our Christ-likeness. It is an important part of our Christ-likeness.
It is part of being united to the Son and enjoying life in Him, praying like Him, "Our Father."