"Prayer is commission. Out of the quietness with God, power is generated that turns the spiritual machinery of the world. When you pray, you begin to feel the sense of being sent, that the divine compulsion is upon you"
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“Prayer is commission” flips the usual script. Jones refuses to let prayer be a private spa for the anxious soul; he drafts it into the realm of orders, assignment, deployment. The line is managerial on purpose. Commission is what you give an officer, a diplomat, a missionary. He’s telling believers: if your prayer life ends in serenity, you’ve missed the point.
The subtext is both corrective and energizing. Jones writes in an era when Christianity is wrestling with modernity, global conflict, and the moral demands of empire and post-empire life. As a Methodist missionary thinker, he’s wary of piety that becomes an alibi for inaction. So he uses almost industrial imagery - “power,” “generated,” “machinery” - to make the mystical sound consequential. Prayer isn’t merely symbolic speech; it’s the hidden lever that moves visible systems. That “spiritual machinery of the world” phrase is doing a lot: it suggests history has an engine room, and the faithful have access to it.
The intent is motivational, but also disciplining. “Out of the quietness with God” grants contemplation its dignity, then immediately cashes it out into obligation: “being sent,” “divine compulsion.” That’s a bracing reframing of religious interiority. Instead of asking prayer to confirm your desires, Jones implies prayer should reassign them. The true test isn’t how uplifted you feel afterward; it’s whether you walk away with marching orders - compelled toward service, justice, risk, and a life that looks less like refuge and more like mission.
The subtext is both corrective and energizing. Jones writes in an era when Christianity is wrestling with modernity, global conflict, and the moral demands of empire and post-empire life. As a Methodist missionary thinker, he’s wary of piety that becomes an alibi for inaction. So he uses almost industrial imagery - “power,” “generated,” “machinery” - to make the mystical sound consequential. Prayer isn’t merely symbolic speech; it’s the hidden lever that moves visible systems. That “spiritual machinery of the world” phrase is doing a lot: it suggests history has an engine room, and the faithful have access to it.
The intent is motivational, but also disciplining. “Out of the quietness with God” grants contemplation its dignity, then immediately cashes it out into obligation: “being sent,” “divine compulsion.” That’s a bracing reframing of religious interiority. Instead of asking prayer to confirm your desires, Jones implies prayer should reassign them. The true test isn’t how uplifted you feel afterward; it’s whether you walk away with marching orders - compelled toward service, justice, risk, and a life that looks less like refuge and more like mission.
Quote Details
| Topic | Prayer |
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