HISTORICAL
OVERVIEW OF PRAYER THRUST IN CRM
By
Cosmas Ilechukwu
Introduction
The theme of our meeting this night is taken from
Psalm 80:18 – “Revive us, and we will
call upon Your name.”(Psalm 80:18 NKJV) We are gathered for God to revive
us so we can pray again. Someone had noted that whenever God wants to bless a
people, He calls them back to prayer. God is calling us back to prayer again.
This meeting is an important symbolic gesture in response to His loving
prodding aimed at getting us back into our closets. By the time we are through
in the place this night, we would have gathered enough fire to set us ablaze
for revival once again.
Right from the inception of this ministry in the
early eighties, God made it very clear to us that prayer should be our life
wire. In the prophecy of February 18, 1980 that commissioned this ministry, the
Lord said to us:
Start
preparing the people for the great harvest in the Catholic Church ... I want
you all to prepare for the great battle. The devil knows and he is planning for
you all. I want you all to learn to
receive from me. You’ve got to learn to wait on me. I don’t mean going on a
fast, but waiting to hear me speak to you. Ask me if you are not sure of what
to do, I will explain to you. You are my children, why do you fear to talk to
me. Did I not make all things for the glory of my own name? You had better
learn to speak. You have to speak. You just have to talk. Then I shall know you
are really sincere.”
From this prophecy, there was no doubt in our mind
that God desired us to take prayer very serious in our work with Him. Accordingly,
prayer became our first call to duty. We prayed in season and out of season.
God poured out on us “the Spirit of grace
and supplication” (Zechariah 12:10). Prayer thus became the very atmosphere
we lived in. Intercession became our main occupation in life. Prayer cells
sprang up in our fellowships across the nation and prayer fireworks were
ignited all across our campuses and cities wherever a charismatic prayer group
existed. We, as it were, laid prayer
siege on the throne of God as we pleaded for revival in the Catholic Church.
God answered us and the church came aflame with revival fire from east to west
and from the north to the south. Charismatic prayer groups sprang up everywhere
we went under the direction of the Holy Spirit.
Weak
People Emboldened By Prayer
At the inception of this commission, we were mainly
students, young and inexperienced in the strictest sense. Worst still, we were
despised in our home church and untrusted by others who were born again groups;
a condition that worked for our benefit because it made us depend solely on God
for everything. We were weak people
emboldened by God in answer to prayers.
Having nobody to run to for any form of support, God became our all in
all and prayer became our lifeline. As we prayed, God answered and we were
encouraged to pray more.
We invaded Satan’s dens with innocent faith and laid
claim on souls that Jesus died for by the force of prayer. God was with us
confirming our word with signs and wonders. God taught us that prayer is the
spawning ground for every effective and enduring spiritual enterprise He was
leading us to undertake on His behalf. He showed us that He could only use
praying people for the work of the ministry.
Therefore, He challenged us, “Give me praying men and I will give you
revival.” He described the quality of such men, as He would need in a prophecy
during the then annual end of session prayer program of the God Is Love
Community in July 1982:
“Men
of faith, men of good repute, men of diligence, men of honesty, men of love,
men of zeal, men who will war, men who will give their all, men who will not
look back, men who will forge ahead, men who will lean on me, men who will
depend on me, men who will trust me, men who will think of me... I am making
for myself an army of men who will give their all. Who will stake all in. Who
will stake their hand and leg in; not leg in and hand out, or hand in and leg
out. Men of beaten gold. Men of quality, men of perfection for I am of
perfection. Men who will do the work.
Men who will not look back. Men who will not think twice...”
Such were the kind of people we were then and such
are the people God requires now. Men of beaten gold He called them. These are processed men because they have
submitted themselves to divine procedures for preparing His vessels.
9For I think that
God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we
have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. 10We
are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you
are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! 11To the
present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten,
and homeless. 12And we labour, working with our own hands. Being
reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; 13being defamed, we
entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all
things until now.(1 Corinthians 4:9-13 NKJV)
The processes of God in raising men and women of
“beaten gold” are not such that any person would naturally desire because they
often run counter to our natural inclinations and expectations. Naturally, we
desire privacy, but God makes us a public spectacle. We want to be first but God
puts us last. We cherish freedom but God parades us as prisoners on death rows.
We naturally desire to be seen and judged by others as wise, but God makes us
fools for His glory. Whereas we would like to demonstrate our strength, God
would want us to appear as weak. Rather than being seen as distinguished, we
end up being seen as dishonourable people.
However, amidst these deprivations and afflictions, God is working in us
the qualities and capacities we would need to represent Him on earth and to
bear the eternal weight of His glory.
16Therefore we do
not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is
being renewed day by day. 17For our light affliction, which is but
for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory, 18while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at
the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but
the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NKJV)
Men of beaten gold do not loose heart in the face of
afflictions for the sake of Christ. They know that the perishing of the outward
man means the renewal of the inner man. They know that their present
affliction, though painful and uncomfortable now, is actually light when
compared to the eternal weight of glory they are preparing us to bear. We
understood this much then, no wonder God honoured us. On hearing our prayers,
God rent the heavens and came down in revival waves. We had revival. It was
clear. We sought for it with diligence. We prayed for it with obvious passion.
We were other world-minded and God was faithful to bless us with revival flames.
Our desire, determination and passion for revival and prayer as a means of getting
it were explicit in our anthem.
We shall have
revival cost what it may.
Pentecostal fire
shall descend again.
We must tarry in
prayer with faith and accord;
Until God
answers us with revival flame.
This anthem was not merely a song to us then; it was
our war cry. It was our mantra for prayer war. God had told us, “The battle of
the future, is the battle of prayer. Those who will move forward must move
forward on their knees.” We wholeheartedly embraced prayer as a means for
warring for the expansion of God’s kingdom. Our concern was the realisation of
the purpose of God for our times. Our commitment to this was total.
In 1983, at the meeting of the National Catholic Charismatic Students (NCCS) Western zone held at
the University of Lagos, the Lord said to us,
“My
purpose for you is greater than you ever think. My purpose for you is greater
than you ever imagine. But I want you to
come and ask of me and I will reveal to you things you know not. .. I am making
for myself an army. A group of people who will rise up and prevail. A people who will know that I am the Lord of
host.”
We spent long hours in prayer to catch, even if it
was a mere glimpse of God’s purpose. God’s purpose for our existence then and
now is revival. He looked for people who like Jacob would prevail with Him in
prayer and emerge as a prince who had power with God and with men (Genesis
32:27 KJV). God is still looking for
people who will take Him at His words and prevail with Him in prayer. This kind
of prayer is one that is wholly dedicated to understanding the will of God in
any situation and insisting that it must be done. Such prayer as John Knox prayed in his time,
“God give me Scotland or I die.” Such
prayer seeks the expansion of God’s kingdom over the bread and butter demands
of the modern christian. The big question is, can such people still be found
among us today?
The
Intercessors’ Camps And The Beginning Of Organised Intercession In CRM
While we prayed in preparation for the NCCS National
Conference 1984, which was hosted at the Anglican Teacher’s College, along
Sapele Road, Benin city, God directed that we have three days of pre-conference
prayer. He impressed it in my heart to call for people who would pray
sacrificially for the move of God in the conference. He led me to Psalm 50:5, which says, “Gather My saints together to Me, Those who
have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.” Emboldened by this scripture we
asked for people who could pray with fasting for a couple of days to gather at
the conference hall three days before the official commencement of the
conference. About forty to fifty people
responded and we prayed day and night for the outpouring of God’s Spirit in the
conference. God answered us as heaven
came down and glory filled our hearts.
It was at this pre-camp prayer bout that our Revival Anthem was first launched. Two
other significant outcomes of this camp apart from the unprecedented move of
God in our midst was the decision to start having annual intercessors’ camp.
The first took place at University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus from December 28,
1984-January 1, 1985. The second outcome was that it was at that pre-camp
intercession that God birthed the vision for the Intercessors’ Digest.
From that time, the Intercessors’ Digest became an important tool for revival-prayer
mobilization not only in our ministry but also in the entire country. Several
prayer ministries were encouraged and even inspired to begin after reading the Intercessors’ Digest. God used that publication to fuel the revival
fire in several churches, but especially among the youths in our universities.
The Late Bishop G.G. Ganaka of Jos, after
experiencing the presence of God in the conference commented publicly in during
his message, “what I see here can only be explained as God’s action among His
children. This is a rebirth for the church.”
God will do it again for us and with us as we resolve to pray with
passion and vision once again.
Praying
With Unity
On the 28th of August 1984 at the
University of Benin, God spoke to us saying,
“I
want unity in your prayers and supplications toward the revival. Set out a day
to wait on me. My children, I say do this in unity. What you have started is
what I have sought and long for in my church and for the world. This day have I spoken. Set a day out and fast on that day; make it
whole unto me, a common day for my soldier, for the revival. My children more
rain will fall as you have asked for but I need a common day and I need unity
in your prayers.”
In response to this word, we set aside the last
Saturday of every month as our common day of fasting and united prayer in all
our fellowships across the nation then. Intercession was the lifeline of the
ministry in those early days. The backbone of every of our fellowships was the Intercessors’ Squad that God raised in
all our prayer groups. The Intercessors’
Squad consisted of brothers and sisters who were prepared to go the extra
mile in prayer to see the purposes of God triumph in our time. Motivated by the
acronym PUSH –Pray Until Something
Happens, we did not consider a no for an answer and God honoured our faith.
Through prayer and fasting, we set limits for the devil and delighted in making
him mad. Therefore, the saying goes
then, “we charismatics like to make Satan cry.”
Do we still do that? Have we not compromised prayer and forfeited power?
Praying with fasting on the last Saturday of every
month served as a powerful impetus to the pursuit of the vision for the great harvest
in the Catholic Church. The monthly Intercessors
Digest helped us to focus with well thought out prayer points. Thus, we were able to pray with faith and
accord for the needed revival.
GCF
And The Spread Of The Revival Fires
The Marvellous
Encounter of 1982 brought a heaven sent momentum to the spread of the
revival fires. God used that program to expose the vision to several other
students and to challenge our graduate members who were either doing their
National Youth Service Program or working in an employment to start charismatic
prayer groups wherever they were. We challenged ourselves, students or graduates,
not to spend one month anywhere without starting a prayer group. This was basically how the charismatic
movement in the catholic church spread to most of the parishes in Nigeria and
prayer was the force behind it all.
On the 5th of April 1985 at the Graduate Charismatic Fellowship (GCF)
conference in Kaduna, the Lord served us notice of our eventual rejection by
the Catholic Church:
“And
the Spirit of the Lord said to me, comfort ye my people and say to my people to
take courage for I am with you and go with you.
but I say to my people that time is coming when the doors of the church
will be shut to you and I say to you my
people that I will not prolong those days...But before those days come saith
the Lord, I want you to know that I have prepared people among you that you
will send to the various states and to various countries and these men in the
states and in the countries in which I will send them shall be the point of contacts
saith the Lord. As you move, these ones shall be the ones to receive you as I
send you.”
God knew that we would not remain in the Catholic
Church forever and warned us 13 years before we got frustrated out. Some of us
are still angry with our leaders that we are no longer in the Catholic Church,
but it was obvious that we could not have continued there if we wanted to
remain relevant to God and His program. He saw it coming and told us even
before we ever thought of it. As long as the Lord kept the door of the Roman
Catholic Church open for us, we were faithful in fanning the flame of revival
from within. When the door was shut against us, all we needed to do was to seek
the face of God to receive a new approach to the work. This is part of what we have come here to do
and resolve to do until He shows us the way. He gave us His word on this, “Ask
me if you are not sure of what to do. I will explain it to you.” In the course of this praying meeting, we
will ask God for what He would have us do to ensure the fullest fulfilment of
the promised great harvest in the Catholic Church.
Prophetic
Update And The Way Forward
During the National Prayer Conference in March
21-23, 2013, an important word came from the Lord that signals a new dawn for
the CRM. God is about to do a new thing
in our midst and in line with the way He has led us from inception, He has sent
us a word and now awaits for our response.
“I
bless you CRM, I will keep you and my face shines on you and I give you peace.
And I saw the New Face of CRM like the mount of transfiguration experience. The
new face is full of light and great moments are just being revealed. This new
face shall cause you to be heard in the nation oh CRM. This new face will cause
many to desire to dwell with you. This new face will reveal deeper truths for
you oh CRM. This new face marks you for another dimension of my love, which you
have not experienced. This new face marks you as the apple of my eyes. This new
face will reveal uncommon worship from my people with their lips and their
substance. Says the Lord.”
The new face God is giving CRM is described in terms
of transfiguration experience. Let us refresh our minds on what happened on the
Mount of Transfiguration. Luke 9:28-36:
28Now it came to
pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James
and went up on the mountain to pray. 29As He prayed, the appearance
of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening. 30And
behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, 31who
appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at
Jerusalem. 32But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep; and
when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men who stood with
Him. 33Then it happened, as they were parting from Him, that Peter
said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three
tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not knowing what
he said. 34While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed
them; and they were fearful as they entered the cloud. 35And a voice
came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” 36When
the voice had ceased, Jesus was found alone. But they kept quiet, and told no
one in those days any of the things they had seen. (NKJV)
On the mount of transfiguration, Jesus received a
new face while He prayed. “As He prayed,
the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and
glistening.” The new face God has promised us will become a reality as we
re-engage in prayer that is rooted in the Scripture. Scriptural praying is not
common these days, but it is only that form of praying that can occasion a
glorious transformation. Notice that as He prayed Moses and Elijah talked with
Him. What was the implication of the appearance of Moses and Elijah on that
mountain in that occasion? I guess they were there to declare allegiance to
Christ and to hand over to Him the Law and Prophets (the Old Testament) which
from then will be subsumed in Christ. Moses represented the Law while Elijah
represented the Prophets, with Jesus and apostles representing the gospels and
the epistles. Thus, the whole counsel of God creates the platform for effective
and transformational prayer ministry. The
prayer that will usher in the new face will be strongly rooted in the word of
God.
Moses also received new face from God. You will
realise that it happened again in the context of communing with God around His word.
27Then the Lord
said to Moses, “Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I
have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28So he was there
with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank
water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten
Commandments. 29Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai
(and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down
from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone
while he talked with Him. 30So when Aaron and all the children of
Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to
come near him. (Exodus 34:27-30 NKJV)
The new face God promised us will indeed demand a
new commitment to pray and reflective study of the word of God. As Moses’ face
shone while he talked with God, so will our own while we talk with Him in the
closet of prayer. But the prayer must be deeply rooted in the word of God. Outside
the promises of the Word of God, prayer becomes nothing more than religious
ritual with no relevance before the throne of grace. At the beginning of his
kingship, King Solomon set forth an attitude that is very important to
effective praying when he prayed, “Therefore,
Lord God of Israel, now keep what You promised Your servant David my father, ...
And now I pray, O God of Israel, let Your word come true, which You have spoken
to Your servant David my father”(1 Kings 8:25-26 NKJV). Prayer is nothing more than asking God to
cause His word to come true in our times and lives. We pray for revival not
because we need it, but because God promised it in His word. Hence, the
Psalmist prayed, “revive me according to
your word” (Psalm 119:25 NKJV).
The word of God must be central in the new prayer
offense we are about to launch. Unscriptural praying borders on infantile
idolatry. Knowledge of the scriptures is vital to an effective ministry in
prayer. We must go deep into the word of
God if we must come out strong in prayer. The new face is the reflection of the
glory of God. It must shine inside before it is seen outside. Hence Paul
explained, “For it is the God who
commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2
Corinthians 4:6 NKJV). Until the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
shines in our heart, it will not reflect on our faces. Therefore we must do our utmost to let the
word of God dwell in our hearts in all wisdom (Colossians 3:16). Then we will
be able to pray God’s word back to Him and let Him fulfil them.
