Will this prayer meeting really make a difference for Harvest America 2018?
This is the question I asked myself recently while preparing for one of the Harvest America prayer meetings scheduled around the DFW metroplex. The last time Harvest America came to town, it touched over a quarter million lives, and nearly 26,000 people ended up professing Christ. These are numbers of biblical proportion, and, to be honest, I wondered if my simple prayers at a humble prayer meeting would really make that much of a difference come June 10, 2018.
The same day I stumbled across some commentary on Revelation 5:8, which presents "golden bowls filled with incense." These are described as "the prayers of the saints."
I discovered two things.
First, "incense" is a sweet-smelling substance. In other words, prayer matters because it's like a sweet-smelling aroma to God. He loves the aroma of prayer, and is pleased when He smells it. Second, there will be a time when the bowls are full of incense, and they will be tipped over and poured out upon the world, ultimately ushering in the second coming of Christ. So prayer is also meaningful because it fuels the consummate purposes of God on earth.
By the time I was done with the text, I realized that I was asking the wrong question. I was thinking too small. Not only will a prayer meeting matter in the context of Harvest America, but it matters in the context of the coming of God's kingdom to earth, which is really what Harvest America is all about. Each time we pray it's as if we are adding another drop of incense to a bowl, and one day the bowls will be filled up and poured out to reveal the one "sitting on the throne" (Revelation 5:13).
With this in mind, I want to invite you to come to our final pre-Harvest America prayer meeting on Monday, May 14 from 6:30 to 7:30 PM at "Prayer Mountain" located at 5950 Eagle Ford in Dallas. We're going to spend time in worship, Bible reading, and of course in prayer to do our part to add drops of incense to God's golden bowls.
I hope to see you there.
Jared C. Wellman
Harvest America Prayer Chair