Isaiah 64: When the “Oh” Returns to the Prayer Meeting

Scripture 

Isaiah 64:1–2
“Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!”

Scripture Reflection

This is revival praying…for two reasons. First, there is the content of the prayer.  It’s a cry for God to tear the heavens apart and come down — which, of course, He did - both at Jesus’ baptism and at the hour of His crucifixion, when the veil of the temple was torn in two.

But just as important as the content is the tone and tenor of the prayer. We feel it from the very first word.

“Oh” is not a content word; it is a groaning word. It echoes the groaning of the Spirit and the groaning of all creation. The prayer needed after a long season of decline is not casual, but filled with “ohs” like this one. Isaiah is praying with a holy burden.

One participant in the Welsh Revival of 1904 is reported to have said, “You know revival is near when the ‘oh’ comes back to the prayer meeting.”

God, teach your people to pray from our guts. Put your own groaning within us in this season, as we wait for you to rend the heavens and come down.

Praying it UP / IN / OUT

UP: Acknowledge His glory and our need for Him to “come down.”

IN: Ask the Spirit to birth a holy burden in your heart. Pray for greater hunger in the church and in our region for God’s manifest presence.

OUT: Cry out for God to reveal Himself to the lost. Pray that spiritual resistance in New England would be broken and that His enemies would tremble before Him.

Closing Prayer
Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down. We don’t need better techniques or strategies. We just need You.

We cry out, not with polished words, but with holy desperation. Bring the “oh” back to Your Church. Bring the groan of the Spirit.

Let us pray not from performance, but from the depths, from our guts.

Tear the veil. Shake the mountains. Split the heavens and pour out mercy.

Amen.