At church growth seminars you can hear the concern. "We've tried busing, we've tried neighborhood groups, we've tried gospel meetings and we've tried worship renewal. If it works at all, it never works for long. Every method we come up with seems destined to fail:"

That is precisely the problem. Every method we come up with is merely another of man's devices. Because only God "gives the increase;' our energies should be spent determining how God intends for the body to grow.

Jesus knew God's will by knowing God

If Jesus was endowed with an innate and unshakable knowledge of God's will through supernatural means, I cannot relate to his life in human form. His prayer in the Garden the night of his betrayal tells me that he struggled to know the will of God like all of us. How did he succeed so much better than I? The answer lies in the relationship he maintained with the Father. Knowing God's will, like knowing the will of anyone, comes from knowing the person. Intimacy of relationship is the only way we can know how one thinks, desires or grieves.

Jesus came from the Father but never left him. Jesus knew the written record of God's interaction with man. He often cited just the right passage to render a circumstance spiritually meaningful or prophetically fulfilled. Truly the word of God is active and alive. To know the will of God requires us to know the historical and inspired account of scripture. But knowing the book is not the same as knowing the author.

The time and intensity Jesus spent in intimate communication with the Father is the measure of his knowledge of God the person. Too often we assume the prayer life of Jesus was the mark of his divinity, rather than the result of his humanity. If Jesus prayed all night because he was God, then I don't need to add this level of spiritual discipline to my life. If Jesus prayed all night because he was man needing to know his God and Father better, perhaps more sleepless nights around my house would be in order.

The correlation between major events in Christ's ministry and his prayer life is not coincidental. He sought God's voice constantly and consistently. So powerful was prayer in Christ's life that the disciples asked him to teach them how to pray, not what to pray. They learned their lessons well, for the ministry of the early church was noted for its prayer and its power. Mission efforts were begun or aborted because prayer brought the early Christians into direct contact with the working will of God.

If we wish to see the will of God revealed in our churches and in our lives, we will need to seek, find and submit to His will as He works in our midst. We must learn to resist the sometimes overwhelming temptation to have it our way. The Corinthians got caught up in the gospel of "do your own thing" and had to learn submission to each other and to God. The Galatians decided to substitute legalism for faith and had to be rebuked. A bit of "my way or the highway" had seeped into the Philippian church causing humility and unity to suffer. To each was given a similar prescription for moving more completely into the will of God: pray.

Likewise, each early church was unique to its time, place and people. The church in Jerusalem became a mother church. Antioch was noted for its mission emphasis. The Macedonians were commended for their generosity. Like Christians, each church had a unique personality, a notable character and an individual calling for service. God's plan for diversity in the kingdom includes different functions for the churches. The question is how do we know what he wants us to be and what he wants his church to become where we work.

It will be called a house of prayer

After chasing out the commercialism of his day, Jesus spoke of the temple by reminding us, "My house will be called a house of prayer (Matthew 21:13). Is it? Do visitors speak of us as people of prayer? Are our churches known as houses of prayer? Is prayer the first resort, or only the last resort? Do we seek God's will before we begin the many works in which we expend ourselves, or do we merely ask his blessings on what we have decided to do? Is God telling us that some of our ministries have outlived their intended life, or should never have been started in the first place? Is God calling us to serve a unique purpose in our community not met by anyone else? Does God wish us to be the distinct part of the body of Christ that he designed us to be? How will we know? Are we listening?

Prayer is neither method nor manipulation. It is the means by which we communicate with the God of the universe and determine his will for our lives and his church. We can become the church of God's intent if we become the people who seek his will above all else. Let us walk as Jesus walked, confident in the relationship with our Father, a Father whom we follow because we know him as he knows us.