007 or Johnny English Matthew 6:6

I answered the call to preach what I was 16 years old. I love preaching the word of God more than any other activity in this life. Nothing blesses my soul like doing what God has called me to do. Like all young preacher boys back in the day I wanted to reach as many people as possible with the message for the gospel. And that meant having the largest church you could possibly build. Back then the mega churches were few and far between and none of them over about 50,000. That was just one or two. Small potatoes compared to today. So, for many years I strived to build a church. I had some success. Two of my churches had a high of around 200 which was not great but respectable. But even though I still love to preach the gospel and do every chance I get I have a completely different dream in mind. If I could do anything I would like to go into my prayer closet, pray for a person, walk out, and get a phone call but they got saved. Now obviously except for some very rare situations it would never happen this quickly, but this is a valid lost ministry in the church. I get online and listen to public domain books of all of the great preachers of the 18 and early 1900’s and they all speak of the necessity of the ministry of Prayer. The church today does an okay job of telling men about God, but we have completely lost the art of telling God about men. That is almost a quote from one of the preachers of the 1800s. They spent as much time on their knees as they did in the pulpit. The pulpit was always easier, but not necessarily as effective. My brother and I talked a lot about the future of the church especially in America. It is going to look different than it did in the past. We are living in a church hating culture now. One of the lost arts that we're going to have to get back is the ministry of Prayer. We need churches and individuals who in their prayer closets know how to get a hold of God until things change. Being the pastor of a megachurch is like being a general in the army. There is nothing wrong with that. If my life would have worked out where I was one that would have been great. But right now, I would rather learn to be a spy. Someone who behind-the-scenes is manipulating the kingdom through prayer to see the world move and the kingdom advanced. Nothing wrong with being a general but we don't need as many of those. We desperately need more spies and soldiers. My goal lately is to learn to be a spiritual 007. You might not get as much recognition but I'm learning that if God is happy with my service that is all that really counts. I'm afraid I've probably been a little bit more like Johnny English than 007 but even he finally learned. (In an English accent) “What do you need M, I'm on the job.”