Many if not most Christians know the name A. W. Tozer, but A. B. Simpson (1843-1919) is not always a household name. The two were instrumental in the founding of The Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination. (Two years ago we ran an article here which alternated between the two of them presenting a total of four devotions.)
Remember the AT&T commercial about “the power of ‘and'” which ran a few years ago? The “and” in the C&MA’s name refers to the history of the denomination as a merger of two groups, a mission agency and a group of like-minded people who desired to worship in local “branches” with mission work at the forefront of what they do. You can read more about Simpson as this Wikipedia entry.
Chosen and Ordained
Adapted from a sermon by A. B. Simpson on October 5, 1900
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. (Jn. 15:16, NIV).
I find from this beautiful text that the element and the process by which our life is to be brought out and tell of God is chiefly through the ministry of prayer. That is the principal service, the principal fruit, and the main thing for which He has chosen and ordained us. There is an emphasis in this text that I did not always see. Leave out the middle of the verse and just join the first and last clause: “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you [or ordained you] that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
It is one of the things for which He has chosen you and ordained you. He does not say He has chosen you to pray or to be on your knees all the time, but He has chosen you to get your prayers answered; He has chosen you always to be efficient in this ministry of prayer. As I read it that way it becomes not only a pledge of answered prayer, but a tremendous responsibility to have my prayers answered.
A Place of Blessing and Power
God has placed each one of us in some vital place of service and power. He has left us with people and surroundings that we touch and nobody else can accomplish what we may do, and God expects us to be effective where He has placed us.
In the Book of Zechariah, the prophet gives you the beautiful vision of the golden candlesticks with the seven branches and the great central bowl, and there, without any effort of man, automatically, the oil just pours from the trees down to the bowl and down to the lamps, and they are filled without the touch of human hand. And that, we are told, is the process in the spiritual world.
You and I and our brethren are thus linked together. Each of us is a golden pipe put there to bring power, first to our own souls and then to the souls around us. But if we are not free, if we do not bring the power, then our work is a failure. God has put us there for that purpose; He has ordained us. He says that we are to get things from Him by prayer.
Therefore, God has ordained us; He has put us in the place of blessing and power that He might use us, and that down through us from the Heavenly Head might flow His life and fullness to the Church and the world.
I believe the Holy Spirit will always pray in us if recognized in this way. I have an idea that every bit of our life—from morning to night, from Sabbath to Sabbath, from June to December, from year to year, from cradle to glory—ought to be the working out of the Holy Spirit’s prayer. I believe somehow that God wants to put into me everything that comes out of Him, that the Holy Ghost wants somehow to breathe in my heart the whole story of my life and then let me pray it out.
The Flood of Prayer
I have an idea that the Holy Ghost puts in our heart a divine prayer, and as we meet it, understand it, and turn it back to Him, it unfolds into a thousand things as the day goes by. That holy desire becomes first a blessing to our soul—it brings rest, comfort, joy, healing, and as the hours go by it works out into life. It was just a little seed, but lo, it unfolds into a tree of life. And I think that is the way God wants us to live our lives—to be so in touch with Him, so instant in prayer, that He will just put His thought into us and we will pray it back until all His will is wrought out in our life.
I go to my room at night. The burdens of the day are gathered up by the Spirit into a ministry of prayer that I do not understand. It may be just a cry, just a longing to pour it out to Him, but I find that there comes to me as I thus wait upon Him, a sweet tranquility of mind, a rest of nerve and brain and body, hope and confidence for the trials of the coming day. And I lie down and rest, bathed in His presence and blessing.
And then there is your morning prayer, and then you go out in the business of the day. Perhaps there is a temptation which strikes you, but it turns Heavenward and is quenched in the flood of prayer. Perhaps you have some service to do, some word to speak, some sufferer to relieve, some message for Christ. Another prayer. As the day goes on, from morning to night, each moment just links you with God, and you say, “Lord, I have met you a thousand times today, and truly there has not been a moment that has not been Divine”; for the commonest things become sacred when they lead us up to Him.
I believe that is the way the Holy Spirit wants us to live out our lives. Sometimes you will find, as you have begun the day in close communion with Him, that you will marvel greatly as things meet you in life, so Divine, so simple, so beautiful, that you will wonder and say, “O, Lord, this is what You were praying out in me last night! This is something You were thinking of for me, and when this burden was on my heart, Lord, I believe you were preparing this blessing for me.”
Beloved, the Holy Ghost has ordained us to a priesthood that is greater than any other service. Let us keep in such perfect touch with Him that at any moment of our lives His prayer may be wrought in us and then wrought out according to His purpose which works in us mightily. Remember that you have not chosen Him, but He has ordained you for this blessing, that it is for His glory to do it for you, and it is not asking a special favor, but rising up to your Heavenly right in the Name of Jesus.
The center of the mission of the Christian and Missionary Alliance is to know Jesus as our:
The C&MA in Canada is known for what is called “middle ground theology.” People in Canada are often just as incredulous as the people in Eastern Europe when they learn that a growing Evangelical denomination permits some variance at the pastoral or congregational level on what others consider hot button issues. Dr. Cook goes on to name a few:
Christianity 201 