Most of us don’t think of John the Baptist as a construction worker, but spiritually speaking, he was. He was sent by God to construct spiritual roads for Jesus’ ministry. He bulldozed through the obstacles that would have blocked His path and opened the way for the masses to receive from Him.
Thank God, John didn’t just cut a little path that a few people could walk on. He didn’t build a puny little two-lane road. He constructed a super highway so that thousands upon thousands of people could hear the Gospel and be blessed.
How did he build that highway? He did it as Zechariah 4:6 says, “not by might nor by power” but by the Spirit of the Lord. He did it by dispersing the anointing God put upon him—an anointing divinely designed to separate light from darkness, bring people to a place of repentance, and get them ready to enter the kingdom of God.
Although that sounds like a very unique anointing, surprisingly enough, John the Baptist wasn’t the first man to walk in it. The Old Testament prophet Elijah did too. Hundreds of years before John came on the scene, Elijah was busy with his own brand of spiritual road construction, working “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
“Well, Sister Lynne, that’s all very interesting,” you might say, “but what does it have to do with me? I certainly can’t be compared to Elijah.”
Actually, you can.
In fact, the New Testament does exactly that. It says that when you pray, you can produce the same kinds of results that Elijah did. So can any other born again believer.
Granted, it’s hard for most of us to wrap our minds around that fact. For the most part, we feel so ordinary and human, we can hardly imagine ourselves having the kind of spiritual impact that somebody like John the Baptist or Elijah did. But when we put on our spiritual hardhat and go to work in prayer preparing the way of the Lord, the same things happen for us that happened for them. People’s hearts are opened. Nations are changed.
Truly, in our day as in Elijah’s, “… the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16). So climb on your bulldozer of prayer and put it in gear. Jesus is coming. Spiritual highways must be built to reach the masses in every corner of the world. It’s time to get to work!
Scripture Reading: Luke 1:57 – 80
On the chilly March night in 1972 when Lynne Hammond took her first step into a life of Spirit-led prayer, she had no idea what was about to happen. All she knew was the hunger in her heart for God wouldn’t let her sleep. In the few short months she’d been born again, her desire to fellowship with Him had grown so strong she could hardly contain it. “Help me, God!” she cried. “I want to know you. I want to be able to talk to you. Please, teach me to pray!”
Suddenly, a heavenly presence flooded the room. Lynne sensed waves of spiritual fire sweeping over her and a beautiful language began to flow like a river from within her. Although she’d never heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, she knew instantly, without a doubt—this was God!
What began that night soon blossomed into a life of prayer that ultimately became a ministry of prayer when, in 1980, Lynne and her husband, Mac, founded Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Under Lynne’s leadership, the prayer ministry at Living Word has become an internationally recognized model for developing effective pray-ers in the local church.
A teacher and an author, Lynne publishes a newsletter called Prayer Notes, has written numerous books, and currently serves as the national prayer director for Daughters for Zion. Her passion for inspiring and leading others into the life of Spirit-led prayer continues to take her around the world to minister to believers whose heart cry, like hers, is “Lord, teach me to pray!”