Scripture: "Bring ye all the tithes unto mine House, and prove me now therewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it."—MAL. iii. 10.
This last promise in the Old Testament tells us how abundant the blessing is to be. Pentecost was only the beginning of what God was willing to do. The promise of the Father, as Christ gave it, still waits for its perfect fulfilment. Let us try and realize what the liberty is that we have to ask, and expect great things.
Just as the great command to go and preach the Gospel was not only meant for the disciples but for us too, so the very last command, "Tarry till ye be endued with power from on high," "Wait for the promise of the Father," "Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost," is also for us, and is the ground for the confident assurance that our prayer with one accord will be heard.
Take time to think of what a cry of need there is throughout the whole Church, and throughout all our mission fields. Let us realize that the only remedy to be found for inefficiency or impotence, to enable us to gain the victory over the powers of this world or of darkness, is in the manifested presence of our Lord in the midst of His hosts and in the power of His Spirit. Let us take time to think of the state of all the Churches throughout Christendom until we are brought deeper than ever to the convic¬tion that nothing will avail except the supernatural, Almighty intervention of our Lord Himself, to rouse His hosts for the great battle against evil. Can anyone conceive or suggest any other matter for prayer that can at all compete with this: for the power of God on the ministers of the Gospel, and on all His people, to endue them with power from on High to make the Gospel in very deed the power of God unto salvation?
As we connect the prayer for the whole Church on earth with the prayer for the whole power of God in heaven, we shall feel that the greatest truths of the heavenly world and the Kingdom of God have possession of us, and that we are in very deed asking what God is longing to give, as soon as He finds hearts utterly yielded to Himself in faith and obedience.
