Pastor Fredrick Russell on the Benefits of Audible Conversation with God

THE WAR CONTINUES APACE: “SPOKEN PRAYER”

A close-up of Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church Lead Pastor Fredrick Russell, cropped from an image on the Berean website.

 

ONCE AGAIN IN THE WAR ROOM: 100+ WARRIORS
Prior to Wednesday night’s “War Room” prayer session, it was necessary to relocate about 40 chairs from the food pantry waiting area, up to the chapel. The pantry labor pool had anticipated having to do this just after closing at 5:30, and prior to the 6:00 pm opening of the Chapel. I was surprised at around 5:15 to see new Pastor Danielle Pilgrim personally transporting the folding chairs upstairs, four at a time. I am sure that she is physically capable of this effort, but was pleasantly surprised that she would be willing to engage in a task that many might feel was “beneath them.” This action definitely ingratiated her to the lowly menials (such as I) that were present. She also pitched in, as she did last week, to sing in the four person “choir” that introduced the service.

The Yamaha Motif keyboard used in last week’s “War Room” (transported from the big church across the street) was not evident at tonight’s gathering. A smaller “Korg” unit was employed, shorter by a few octaves, and easier to transport. The small drum kit that was used is a permanent fixture in the Chapel. The keyboard player is unknown to me, but is a practitioner of some experience, judging from his graying hair. His contribution to the atmosphere of the service was practically continuous, just as it was last week.

Pastor Russell was once again the featured speaker. All of the other Berean pastors were present, with the exception of Dr. Lamb. The “War Room” is all about prayer, so more introductory material on the nature of prayer was presented. This constitutes the “basic training” phase of the proposed campaign. Pastor Russell said that a member of the church had asked him to present some information on how one should pray.  The pastor said that sometimes when we pray we find that we have run out of things to say. We wind up repeating ourselves. Prayer becomes rote, and you are boring to yourself (and possibly to God as well).

A proprietary image, complete with watermark, of some Tibetan prayers wheels, the epitome of “rote” prayer. The song “Gonna Have a Little Talk With Jesus” mentions prayer wheels for some reason.

But when you are praying right, finding words is not an issue. When you are in a tight spot, and desperately need some help, the words just seem to spill out of you. “When you are in trouble, you know how to pray,” Pastor Russell told us. You pray in a primal language that seems to come from deep inside of you.  The Pastor stated, “I am a proud projects guy.” He stayed with an aunt of his when he was eight years old. She worked as an assistant in a nursing home, not a very high-wage job, , and had lots of bills. She had a car (a Mustang) that she was making payments on. The payments fell behind, so one day the repo man came to visit. She called the police about it, naively assuming that they would be on her side, but the police wound up assisting the repo man. In the midst of this vexing scenario, the pastor’s aunt began to earnestly pray, to “moan” (and maybe “groan” a little, as well). It was her natural reaction to adversity.

Pastor Russell said that “prayer begins in trouble, and continues because we are always in trouble at some level.”

In an aside, the pastor related that, in the church he was brought up in, there existed some extremely right-wing characters. They felt that the physical attitude that one adopted while praying had some bearing upon the prayer’s effectiveness. But Pastor Russell assured us that this  was not at all significant. It does not matter whether you kneel or stand, or whether you pray alone or with other people (I read a humorous letter from a West Indies congregation to Ellen White asking her if their practice of praying barefoot, and with their eyes open, was the proper approach. Ellen White replied that she didn’t think so).

A Muslim muezzin hollering “adhan,” leading prayer in a most audible manner from his lofty minaret.

God does not allow people to go very long without trouble, because without trouble, people would not pray. Every now and then God will “drop you a Mickey,” in order to keep you on your toes. The pastor cited either Hebrews 12: 6: “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth,” or maybe Proverbs 3:12: “For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.”

Pastor Russell is a strong advocate of “praying out loud.” He provided four reasons as to why this is a good approach:

• Praying out loud helps make our time with God more valuable, because it keeps prayer from just being “mental.”
• Praying out loud helps keep our focus on God. Utter silence can be a distraction.
• Praying out loud professes blessings (Being exhausted, as usual, I missed an explanation of this point).
• Praying out loud, when you do it over others, is encouraging to others.

Another slight aside described David dancing before the Lord (an incident that the king’s wife did not care much for). The pastor observed that sometimes, when you are alone at home, you may praise God in an extravagant way (this reminded me of recent discussions of the meaning of the word “Hallelujah”).
The pastor was not asking us to take his word for it. There exists several scriptural verses concerning the efficacy of spoken prayer, such as:

• Psalms 50:15: ” And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”
• Jeremiah 33:3: “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
• Psalm 34:17:  “The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.” The pastor interrupted his citations in order to remind us that we cannot always rely upon human beings to help us when we are in distress, but that we can always rely upon God.
• Psalm 56:9: “When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.
• Psalm 18:6: “In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.
  

“Christ Praying in the Garden of Gethsemene,” by Heinrich Hofmann, 1890, a prayer I believe was probably spoken aloud.

The pastor told us that the reference to the “temple” in the last Psalm quoted helped to relate this week’s sermon to last week’s, one that described the throne room of heaven as being the place where all of our prayers (like the aroma of sweet-smelling incense) wind up. A short testimony by Terry Taylor followed the sermon. Each person attending the “War Room” this evening  was asked to write down on a card an urgent personal prayer request, one that would remain anonymous. My request was for clean lips, as I have been prone to mutter four-letter words in moments of stress lately. This is kind of an antithesis to prayer. The cards were shuffled, and then distributed back to the congregation. The card I received was from a person who did not seem very assured of their salvation. I am to pray for this person, and I will be sure to do this. I feel very badly for them. If sin is not the cause of this (relatively easy to remedy), then it stems from a lack of faith (a harder nut to crack, one requiring the holy spirit’s intercession). My role model at Berean (who I have not mentioned in a long while), while nearly perfect in every other regard, nevertheless has issues with “doubt.” I am infinitely thankful that I do not possess the slightest trace of doubt. A person with bad intentions toward me might allude to James at this point: “neither do the devils!”

The closing prayer was by “retired” Pastor Perry Jennings, who had spent all day distributing groceries and good advice at the Berean Food Pantry. He is tied with Elder Bowden as worthy recipient of the “nicest person in the world” award.

Deacon William Stewart at the Atlanta Community Food Bank, witnessing God’s amazing providence firsthand as workers bless the Berean Food Pantry with a free bin of grapefruit