From a Speechless Child: A Revelation Concerning Prayer

Our youngest daughter, Autumn Sunshine, 24, has Down syndrome and autism. People with Down syndrome are mentally retarded. When used in a non-pejorative way, the word retarded means “delayed.”

Autumn’s language learning was delayed, but she learned to speak. She could count, recite the alphabet, spell short words, and could even read simple children’s books. She had a series of books she could read about a puppy named Biscuit. She could read sentences like the following, from Biscuit’s Birthday:

“Wake up, sleepy Biscuit!” said the little girl. “Do you know what day it is?”

“Woof!”

“Today is a very special day. It’s your birthday!”

Autumn could read books like that aloud with no difficulty. When she was tested for autism and asked to name various common objects in a picture book, she could name just about every object. “Ball. Car. House. Computer. Fox. Ice cream.”

Autumn had an extensive vocabulary and she could converse. She could answer simple questions and say simple sentences like “I want cookie, please” or “I love you, Mom. I love you, Dad.”

At some point several years ago, Autumn’s speaking ability gradually faded away. Now she never speaks at all. She can still recognize the words in her Biscuit books. I know, because I recently read one to her, then asked her, “Which word says ‘birthday’?” She pointed to the correct word. Then she pointed at the picture of the puppy and pointed to the word “Biscuit” to show me that she knew which word said “Biscuit.”

In spite of ongoing speech therapy with professional speech therapists in her special-ed classes at school over the past 14 years, Autumn remains silent. The school psychologist told us that this is not uncommon in kids with autism. They learn to speak, then at a later date they just stop speaking. Psychologists do not know why it happens, or how to prevent it, or how to fix it.

By the way, please do not tell me “Maybe her autism was caused by this or that, because I saw something on the internet that says autism is caused by this or that.” And please do not tell me “Autism can be cured by this or that, because I saw something on the internet that says autism can be cured by this or that.”

I am not interested in theories, junk science, and quackery. I am not writing about Autumn’s speechless condition to seek anyone’s advice or sympathy or help. I am writing about this to make a point.

Here is the point: Teresa and I were recently discussing how sad and disappointing it is for us to have seen Autumn go forward in her language learning, and then see her lose her ability to speak. As I thought about how it saddens us, grieves us, and disappoints us, I received a revelation from the Holy Spirit. Here is what the Spirit spoke to my heart:

“The sadness and grief and disappointment that you feel because your child stopped speaking to you is a shadow of the sadness and grief and disappointment that the heavenly Father feels when one of His children stops speaking to Him in prayer.”

This is the revelation that I want to share. The heavenly Father is grieved by the prayerlessness of His children, just like Teresa and I are grieved by the speechlessness of our daughter. I believe that God’s sadness, grief, and disappointment is even greater than ours, because Autumn’s speechlessness was not her choice. But if you are one of God’s prayerless children, your prayerlessness was your choice.

When the Lord addressed the seven churches in Revelation, we see that He first complimented each church for the things they were doing well, then corrected them for things they were not doing well. For example, He complimented the church at Ephesus for their good works, labor, and patience. “Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee,” He added, “because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works” (Rev. 2:1-5).

This was the Lord’s pattern. Compliments followed by correction. Now let me ask you an important question:

If the Lord were to write you a personal letter, using this pattern of compliments followed by correction, in which of those two categories would He mention your prayer life?

Would He compliment and praise you for your prayer life? Would He say: “You have one good thing going for you. You pray earnestly, consistently, fervently. You diligently seek Me in prayer and you regularly intercede for others”?

Or would He say: “Your prayer life needs some serious improvement”?

I came to the Lord over 50 years ago. During my half a century of walking with the Lord, I have been involved in several different churches, fellowships, and ministries. There is one thing that all these groups had in common, and it is this:

The most sparsely attended meetings were the prayer meetings.

The only exception to this was when Teresa and I took a group of five other young people to spend six months working on a kibbutz in Israel in 1977. The seven of us decided that we should all meet together for prayer every single day. So every day at 5 p.m., we met in a pine grove just outside the kibbutz and spent an hour or more fervently praying together. It was the most glorious six months of my life.

Other than our small group of seven in Israel, in every other group I have been with, the prayer meetings were the most sparsely attended meetings. As A. W. Tozer said (paraphrased), It is almost impossible to get people to attend a meeting where the only attraction is God.

Prayer is not the only element of our faith, but it is a very important element. Yeshua/Jesus said, “My Father’s house shall be called a house of prayer.”

Yes, other activities happen in the Father’s house: music, praise, preaching, sacrifice, study, etc. But Yeshua did not say that His Father’s house shall be called a house of music, or of praise, or of preaching, or of sacrifice, or of study, etc. As important and as necessary as those things are, it appears from the Lord’s words that the main defining factor of the Father’s house should be prayer.

The Father’s house today is not a Temple of dead stones in Jerusalem. It is a Temple of living stones. “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you?” (1 Cor. 6:19). The Temple in Jerusalem is gone. Now you are the Father’s house, and His house shall be called a house of prayer.

When I talk about prayer, I am talking about more than just the amount of time spent praying, though that is important. I am also talking about the content, the consistency, and the quality of your prayers. What things are you praying about? How consistent and disciplined is your prayer life? What about the quality of your praying? James 5:16 says “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” If this is true, then it is equally true that the ineffectual lukewarm prayer of an unrighteous man availeth little. One minute of effectual fervent praying from a righteous man will accomplish more than a whole hour of ineffectual lukewarm prayer from an unrighteous man.

You do not need to be Pentecostal to pray fervently, but it helps. Even if you are not Pentecostal, you need the Holy Spirit. Yeshua said, “He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters” (John 7:38).

Do your prayers flow like rivers of living waters? Or is your prayer life more like a slow trickle or a stagnant, stale, shallow puddle of muddy water? Or worse yet, has your prayer life dried up and completely faded away, like our daughter Autumn’s ability to speak has completely faded away?

Long before Yeshua spoke about these living waters, the Prophet Jeremiah spoke about them when he rebuked the Jews of his generation. Through Jeremiah, the LORD said, “For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13).

If you have the Holy Spirit, that fountain of living water is in you. You need to open your heart and release it in Spirit-empowered prayer. It is bad enough to neglect this source of living waters. It is even worse to hew out cisterns, broken cisterns that hold no water.

What are broken cisterns that hold no water? They are any of the things that people pursue as a substitute for the moving of the Holy Spirit. They are pursuits for things that do not satisfy man’s spiritual thirst. Just as water slowly seeps out of a leaky cistern, so the pleasure from those pursuits soon leaves the person still thirsting, still longing for something more.

Broken cisterns are not always things that are inherently sinful. There are many non-sinful things that can become broken cisterns if used as a substitute for the Holy Spirit. A few examples are: sports, entertainment, hobbies, improving your property, the pursuit of money, seeking a promotion in your career, political activism (even if you are on the right side), and education (even religious education).

Another thing that can become a broken cistern is obsession with conspiracy theories. Some people get deeply concerned and even worried because they think that King Charles, the royal personage formerly known as Prince, is the antichrist. I cannot prove that King Chuck is not the antichrist, but even if he is, so what? What are you going to do about it? The Bible says the Lord will not return until after the man of sin is revealed. It’s something that has to happen, right? If you want the Lord to return, you should look forward to the antichrist being revealed, not be worried about it.

Another conspiracy theory claims that the 1969 Moon Landing was a hoax. I have no reason to believe it was a hoax, but even if it was, so what? What are you going to do about it?

“I’m going to tell others about it!”

Okay. And what are those people going to do about it?

“They will tell others, so more people will know!”

I don’t want to sound rude, but get a life. Get your nose out of the internet and into the Scriptures, and learn to pray. Stop drinking from broken cisterns. Saturate your life with prayer, alone and with others.

May the Lord transform us from being a prayerless people to being a prayerful people. Amen.

| DB