Secrets of the Heart

P134 of "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire":

“According to 1 Corinthians 14, if meetings are governed by the Holy Spirit, the result for the visitor will be that “the secrets of the heart will be laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, ‘God is really among you!’” (v25). This should be our goal. When a visitor comes in, there should be such a mixture of God’s truth and God’s presence that the person’s heart is x-rayed, the futility of his life is exposed, and he crumbles in repentance…. Are we longing for this? Are we praying for this? Are today’s church leaders aiming for this? Are church members encouraging their pastors to act on the Lord’s promptings no matter the cost?”

One of the repetitive themes you will pick up if you are reading our blog this summer is that 2008 has been marked by a deeper call to prayer, repentance, and listening to God. You wouldn’t have found a River City leader before this year saying prayer was unimportant, but for whatever reason this year has carried a distinct sense of an experience that God is calling the people of River City to deeper expressions of His heart and His desires for repentance and renewal in this world.

One of the outcomes for us as leadership is to ask questions of both our personal prayer lives and our corporate prayer life at River City. How do we take it to the next level in our own lives? How do we take it to the next level corporately?

At one Elder meeting this summer we took this Cymbala quote and used it as a way to pray for River City. A fresh encounter with this passage brought new perspective on how we can pray for our times together as a body. 1 Corinthians 14 paints an incredible picture of a Spirit-filled service. When God’s truth and God’s presence mix together with prayerful hearts, the secrets of the human heart will be laid bare and even those who may not know God yet will be compelled to say, “God is really among you.”

So we as leaders invite you to pray this prayer for our body along with us. Pray for the church leaders, that we would aim for this. Pray for me, that I would be willing to act on the Lord’s promptings, no matter the cost. Pray for the worship leaders, that they would be able to create the atmosphere that makes us most receptive to this. Pray for each other, that we will come in with a sense of expectation that God wants to move like this. And pray for those who have not come to River City yet. Pray that when we take the risk to invite our friends to River City that they will not walk away saying we are cool, fun, organized, or edgy. Instead, pray that they will walk away saying, “God is really among you.”