Some years ago now, Anne and I were very blessed to be doing some ministry in Birmingham in the north of England. In a borrowed car we took occasional trips out of Birmingham where we were staying. One of those trips was to the town of Kidderminster in the Severn Valley in the West Midlands district. At Kidderminster enthusiasts and volunteers have restored a large amount of the historic local railway systems that were once the backbone of industry and transport back in the day. I mean, the scale of the restored work (trains, carriages and railway tracks, stations and more) was amazing. It was like standing in a life-size Thomas the Tank Engine world – it was just fabulous!
It was fascinating to look at the restored steam engines and carriages of the Great Western Railway. And there were many. All different shapes and sizes – and colours. One very big locomotive was being fired up with coal ready to do a tourist trip to Shropshire some 50kms away. I got chatting to the engine driver who, all decked out in period costume, very enthusiastically filled me in on the history and restoration of this huge machine. I asked him how much water was in the boiler. He said, about 10,000 gallons (45,500 litres). “How long does it take to get a head of steam up from cold?” He said, “In winter about, a day, using wood, a couple hours less for coal, but that’s pretty expensive. Most of the time we just keep the fires burning so it doesn’t grow cold.” I pondered this information for the rest of our outing, thinking, “You wouldn’t want to be in a hurry”. It took almost a day for the locomotive to be ready to even roll – it was best to keep the fires burning.
So, to get this massive locomotive moving from cold is not like flicking a switch, or turning an ignition key. It takes quite a while to build up a head of steam so that the steam engine can push those huge pistons to drive those huge wheels. I thought about that, on the way back to Birmingham in the car. There was a lot of fire and heat being stoked up in the firebox of that locomotive - but it took quite a while, nearly a day, to get to operating temperature so it could move. The heat needed to be sufficient for long enough to produce steam for the entire journey. Without steam there is no movement. You know, our prayer lives can sometimes need quite a bit of fuel burn and stoking up to get from a place of cold prayerlessness to prayer power, prayer movement and momentum. And once we’re there, we need to stay steamed up or we won’t have enough steam power to drive those wheels and get somewhere for very long.
Like that steam train, we can’t just jump in, pull a lever and steam away – we have to get steamed up to operating temperature first. The steam pressure has to build so that we’ve got sustained power and unstoppable momentum in the heavenlies. I am convinced that the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenly realm well know this and can easily resist the prayers of believers at times because there is not enough heat to make any steam that really gets us moving. They resist us knowing they can outlast us. I am convinced many Christians don’t know this, and that prayers from a half-heated boiler are offered up with no steam. Without wanting to do violence to the scriptures, I think this is one of the issues in the Laodicean church.
Revelation 3:15-16 (NLT)
[Jesus] “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!”
Of course, the issues for the Laodiceans were more than this, but a lukewarm spirituality is never going to fire up the prayer boiler, is it? All prayer needs the spiritual equivalent of steam to really get the pressure and power to move and achieve powerful momentum. Otherwise, prayer is only warm water – maybe lukewarm water.
When we consider all this, perhaps we may feel that it is a miracle that any of our prayers get answered sometimes! But since our heavenly Father has a deep love for each and every one of His children, He gives gifts of answered prayer to those who press in and ask. Yet He still parents us as He sees fit – the answers aren’t always yes. He is the Supreme Creator, whose rule is sovereign. There are some prayers that God may choose not to answer in the way that we would like. But turn this into a positive. For every one of your prayers that is answered, the Almighty, Creator God has altered the course of the universe, just because you asked him to. Great thought, eh?
Prayer is much more than asking God for things – even good things. It’s much more. Jesus, himself, taught that prayer was being open to the God who is at work here and now. He taught the disciples to pray saying, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done as it is in heaven ...” In other words, “Father, teach me right now how to get in tune with Your divine activity right here because I want Your will to be done – Your will is so much more brilliant than what I want ...” In the Garden of Gethsemane that horrible night before His humiliating and torturous death Jesus prayed, “Is there any way for this cup to be taken away from Me? I don’t want to do this.” He was brutally honest with God. And honesty is critical to really connecting with God in prayer. But God said, “No! It has to be this way ... I have an eternal plan upon which billions of lives hang ...” And He sent an angel to minister to Jesus ... God knows it’s tough not getting the answers we want sometimes ... and He will send His grace, and even angels to help us.
Does that mean we can never ask God for anything? No! it doesn’t mean that. It means that we need to ask what we need, and intercede with faith, being honest and real ... but also to be ready to accept what God says because there may be something much bigger going on. Most of that kind of prayer is petition - asking for God’s help and guidance. But wait, there’s more to prayer than just petition. There is prayer as warfare, too – against spiritual forces that are coming against you, your family, our church. In warfare prayer – both defensive and offensive – there is prayer where we need to undo the works of the devil. This includes things like prayer for the sick, prayer for the expulsion of demons and so on – a lot more steam is needed here! And one of the things prayer with fasting does is build a head of steam!
We need to keep on praying, and building up a head of steam on our knees in prayer, trusting in the One who made us, who loves us, and who brought us back to Himself through the death of His Son – and who leads us. But here’s the thing I understood with fresh clarity that day in the Severn Valley when I was chatting to the engine driver: we must keep the fire burning and keep the water as hot as possible so that it takes very little time to produce the steam of prayer when we need to use it. We cannot wait a day!
The Scriptures contain numerous reports of circumstances and events where prayerlessness, or insufficient prayer, led to disappointing and even disastrous outcomes. Let’s be blunt: prayerlessness is a way of living, spiritually speaking, that acts on the subconscious belief that prayer can only accomplish so much – and that once you’ve given it a shot, and nothing happens, you stop heating the boiler. We need to learn how to persevere in prayer ... and become more effective in prayer. It's the steam of prayer that really overcomes the inertia of our flesh selves and hard opposition to us in the spiritual realm. On the Lord’s day on Patmos, the apostle John was in worship and prayer – and suddenly he “became” in spirit. It didn’t take all that long for the boiler to come to operating temperature and produce steam.
Ephesians 6:18 (ESV) “[keep] praying at all times in spirit, with all prayer and supplication.”
Let’s get steamed up in a good way!
Ps Milton