Summer Reading Challenge. Chapter 4 Commentary.
I will never forget the tremendous impact chapter four of Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire had on me when I first read it several years ago. I was no less stirred by it upon rereading it recently. The account of Jim Cymbala’s prodigal daughter and her return to the Lord and the role prayer played in her return should be read by every believer.
Several important factors in this account are noteworthy in their universal application to our own practice of intercessory prayer whether as individuals or corporately.
First, there was the recognition by Pastor Cymbala after two and a half years of struggling with his daughter’s waywardness that he could not fix the problem himself. Have we come to that same position of humility in our own struggles?
Second, there is the sensitivity to the Spirit’s leading exhibited by the young woman who sent the note to Pastor Cymbala in the middle of a prayer meeting sharing her conviction that they should stop the meeting and all pray for the Pastor’s daughter. How sensitive are we to the things about which God through His Spirit is speaking to us?
Third, there is the passion in prayer exhibited by the congregation as they interceded literally with groaning and, as Pastor Cymbala describes it, “a sense of desperate determination…” Have we experienced such passion in prayer that we have called upon the Spirit to help us intercede as He will according to Romans 8:26?
Finally, there is the settled peace experienced by Pastor Cymbala as he was convinced in his spirit that God would honor the desperate intercessory prayer of his people. And He did! If you are not reading this book, get it now and see how God worked an incredible miracle within thirty two hours!
This would be a good place for me to stop but I feel compelled to address those who are saying, “That’s all great, but what about me and the desperate prayer I have been praying for years?” While there is not space here for a complete answer, let me recommend the one page devotional God’s Silence—Then What? in My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. It is the devotional for October 11 and while it may not fully answer all your questions, I have found it helpful in my own experiences with “unanswered” prayers.
Linford Youndt
pastor ivanildo 
I read this story about the daughter somewhere b/4. Most likely in Christian literature. I like his emphasis on prayer. I saw David Wilkerson’s ‘Cross and the switchblade’ as a teen. And was a leading cause to my conversion. This movie is timeless. If you’ve never seen it, I would encourage you to see it.
Yes, that is a great story. I never saw the movie but read the book several times in my teens. Prayer moves the heart of God, if we only knew this “secret”…
Thank you to all those who thought of challenging us to read this book for the summer reading. Thank you so much , oh how I am delighting in the reading.
It stirs my soul, like the story in the Old Testament of Caleb and Joshua, how when God told them and the others to go spy out the land only Caleb and Joshua believed in what the Lord told them, ….i.e. that HE was to give them the land, He just wanted them to see what was to be theirs and tell the people.
I just finished chapter 4, oh what and encouragement to me, to us as a body of Christ! The story of Ricardo and God’s awesome grace of reaching down to save what most would think was impossible to reach let alone invite him and others like him to their church and be truly welcoming to them.
What ministered to me most is the power of prayer regarding Ricardo when it was certain he was dying, how Pastor Cymbala was so sensitive to the Holy Spirit that he OBEYED the promptings of the Spirit and prayed for God to give him life believing God had something more for Ricardo and then ask others to intercede for him that way as well.
How often do I/we pray ‘safe’ prayers, we look at the “circumstances” and pray what seems “practical” to the circumstance. Isn’t that just what the other 8 spies did when they searched out the land, they looked at things “practically” only Caleb and Joshua believed what God told them!
Too often I/we are afraid to cry out to God and ask HIM for the impossible, why is that? Is it that deep in our soul we really doubt that God can do “what seems impossible to us, is it that we are afraid to step out in boldness and ask God for the “impossible” because if things don’t turn out the way we pray we will look like a fool for praying that way? or be so discouraged we will not ask that way in faith again?
Oh, that I/ we will become more childlike in trusting our Father God as we pray, stepping out in ways we’ve never stepped out before, stop praying ‘safe’ general prayers but prayers that reveal the deep desires of our souls, seeing that loved one come to salvation, that child who is living wayward physically, emotionally or spiritually to be released from the bondage they are in, for that loved one who is dying to be restored and given more days, months, years to live. For our wayward nation to come back to acknowledging God as sovereign ruler, for the hatred in our world to cease ……on and on we can pour our desires to HIM. The quote from E.M.Bounds says it so well….”Desire gives fervor to prayer….Strong desires make strong prayers…There can be no true praying without desire”
Pastor Jim included the verses from Matthew 7:7, Jeremiah 29:13, James 4:2 yet balanced it with the truth that we don’t automatically get everything we ask for; acknowledging our prayers are always based on God knowing what is best and HE gives us only what is BEST. (In spite of how it looks from our current viewpoint) I had to think how God tells us HE has given us all authority, yet we live too often as if we have no authority, especially in our pray lives.
I’m praying and believing for us as the Body of Lititz Grace and the Body of Christ as a whole will catch this vision as Pastor Cymbala said so well, ”Isn’t it time to say, ‘Stop! We’re going to pray, because God said that when we pray, he will intervene.’”
Hallelujah, may it be so See you at prayer meeting
My soul is being renewed in the truths of God’s faithfulness shared in Pastor Cymbala book.