Kingdom-Centered Prayer I

This is an abridged version of a section of Tim Keller's paper on Kingdom-Centered prayer, the kind of prayer that is at the heart of spiritual renewal.

Kingdom-centered prayer calls us to put aside our requests for personal gain and comfort. Instead, we pray for God’s Spirit in our hearts, God’s presence among us, and the glory of God in the city.

1. For God’s Spirit in our hearts (Eph. 3:16-19)

Just as it is one thing to have a bank account and another to draw on it, so it is one thing to have God as Father and Jesus as Lover and another thing to draw on that and actually experience it — to be actually shaped by it in the depth of your emotional life and in the breadth of your life out in the world. He is praying that we would grasp the truth of who and what Christ is until it becomes much more than a rational proposition. For example, do you know God loves you? If you do, why do you get so inconsolable when others criticize you? When the truth of God’s love for you really “catches fire”, when the truth about God’s love gets big — when it disturbs and comforts and thrills you — then you will find that criticism doesn’t harm you as it did before. The truth has descended into the heart. That is what Paul is praying for. It is the difference between knowing that a man is your father, and being held in his arms. When one of us receives this “witness of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:15,16) we have personal renewal. When it is poured out on many people at once, we have a revival.


2. FOR GOD’S PRESENCE AMONG HIS PEOPLE
But the point of corporate prayer is that we come together as a body, seeking God’s presence in the community.
Let’s look at Exodus 33:15-20: Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”…Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the LORD said …“you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
In the New Testament, the church is called the ”temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 3, Eph. 2, 1 Peter 2). That is an enormous claim! The Spirit’s presence in our lives through Christ is a fulfillment of the Old Testament promise that God will indwell his people. Paul understood that the Spirit’s presence is not given simply to provide individuals with great experiences, but to make the Christian community a society that is absolutely unique, altogether apart, a community of love and truth and beauty.
Ultimately, times of great spiritual renewal are times in which seekers or visitors can come into a gathering of Christians for worship and immediately sense a love that is so robust and “thick” you could almost cut it with a knife.

What is needed is something so striking and so signal that it cannot be explained inhuman terms. …We can preach the truth, we can defend it, we can indulge in our apologetics, we can try to present a great front to the world, but, you know, it does not impress the world. It leaves the world where it was. The need is for something so overwhelming, so divine, so unusual that it will arrest the attention of the world and prove that we are indeed… the people of God. …What is wrong in our own day is the disappearance of the uniqueness of the church... Ask him to make us something that is so amazing that the world shall be compelled to look on and say “What is this?” as they said on the day of Pentecost. (Lloyd-Jones)

3. FOR THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE CITY
In Jeremiah 29 God calls his people to pray for the peace (shalom) of Babylon. These were violent, pagan societies, yet God’s people were called to pray for God’s glory to be revealed to them. So, corporate prayer renewal in Columbus must be prayer for Columbus. We are to pray for the glory of God to be seen. That is a major theme of the Psalms. God’s glory is his weight, his importance, his reality. Many people in our cities believe in a God, but not in a God of glory. One of the best ways to pray this way is to walk through a neighborhood and pray for it. This kind of prayer can also involve praying for a people group. Here are just a few examples:

the homeless; single parent families; prisoners, the pornography, prostitution, and sex industries (especially runaways caught in prostitution and sexual slavery); people with AIDS ; the colleges and university communities; the business and financial community; the artist and music community; the poor neighborhoods; Latinos, Somalis