“The work of the Spirit can be compared to mining. The Spirit’s work is to blast to pieces the sinner’s hardness of heart and his frivolous opposition to God. The period of the awakening can be likened to the time when the blasts are fired. The time between the awakenings corresponds, on the other hand, to the time when the deep holes are being bored with great effort into the hard rock.
To bore these holes is hard and difficult and a task which tries one’s patience. To light the fuse and fire the shot is not only easy but also very interesting work. One sees “results” from such work. It creates interest, too; shots resound, and pieces fly in every direction! It takes trained workmen to do the boring. Anybody can light a fuse.
…the Spirit calls us to do the quiet, difficult, trying work of boring holy explosive materials into the souls of people by daily and unceasing prayer. This is the real preparatory work for the next awakening. The reason why such a long period of time elapses between awakenings is simply that the Spirit cannot find believers who are willing to do the heavy part of the mining work. Everybody desires awakenings; but we prefer to let other do the boring into the hard rock.”
- O. Hallesby, Prayer (1931)
I came across this quote recently (and remembered that I have this book and haven’t read it yet…). It gives us a helpful image for understand the importance of prayer in relation to evangelistic or church planting work. Of course we all want to light the fuse and see the explosive results! But how many of us are willing to do the difficult part, the heavy part, the part that takes place long before the blast is fired? How many of us are willing to be the one working behind the scenes. Quiet, difficult, trying work. That’s what it is to faithfully and consistently intercede for an unreached people group. This is the real preparatory work for the next awakening.
In reading this and thinking about it, two things take place in my own heart. First, I am reminded of the importance of praying consistently for our focus people, and trusting that as I do we are drilling deeper and deeper into the very hard rock so that the blast can be fired at the right depth. Secondly, it makes me even more grateful for those who partner with us in prayer. I thank God for those who make the time to pray for us and our focus people, even in the midst of their own concerns and busy schedules. Most of the people who partner with us in prayer have never met and likely never will meet anyone from this ethnic group that they pray for. This makes it even more remarkable that they commit to pray for them and faithfully appeal to God for mercy for these people they’ve had no contact with. Many people pray for us as they think of it, and we are grateful. There is a small group of people who have committed to lift us up for a certain amount of time each week and we consider them a crucial part of our team. We know that some pray for us and our people daily and we struggle to communicate how necessary that is.
There are some who get to come on prayer journeys and see the people they pray for, even if only just for a week or two. They get to spend some time praying on location, in areas where His name is not yet known and in villages where he has never been proclaimed, interceding for people where there is currently no Gospel witness. They leave here having seen and experienced more of what life is like for them and better able to continue praying for them when they’re back in an environment and routine that is very different from those they are praying for. Even if on a very small scale, they have shared in a bit of their life.
Either way – whether from the other side of the world or while sitting on the floor and drinking tea in the home of our focus people—we recognize the power and importance of prayer and we are grateful for those who partner with us by doing the difficult and quiet task of drilling deep into the hard rock. May we all get to see the day when the blast is fired and the awakening comes!
