Choose Victory Over Defeat
Why do we pray? Two reasons: Because Jesus prayed and to be like Jesus means to pray. And nothing of eternal significance happens but in answer to prayer. Prayer enables us to accomplish far more than we could ever hope for relying upon ourselves. It multiplies our efforts. Prayer is the simple difference between defeat or victory. Without prayer we hope for the best we can accomplish in our own strength. Prayer opens doors that might have otherwise been closed, especially the places where we are seeking to do outreach and ministry.
You Can’t Do It Alone!
If the early Christians continually devoted themselves to prayer, shouldn’t we (Acts 4:42)? And wasn’t Charles Finney right when he said, “If the spirit of prayer departs, it is a sure sign of a backslidden heart…?” So, what happens if we refuse to devote ourselves to prayer (Col. 4:2)? We may lose the blessing and favor of God. Worse yet, the Lord may pack up His glory and leave us to do our own thing—whatever we may be able to accomplish in our own strength, effort, and determination. I have seen and testify that things happen when we pray that happen at no other time and in no other way! It’s just that important.
“Do It or Die?”
Absolutely nothing can take the place of prayer. “Do it or die!” challenged Leonard Ravenhill. Matthew Henry, the great commentary writer believed, “You may as soon find a living man that does not breathe, as a Christian that does not pray.” Really? Given the level of prayerlessness, only the grace of God keeps the walking dead on their feet! My prayer mentor, Bishop P. Doug Small of Project Pray says, “We have attempted to substitute singing, preaching, teaching, fellowship, programs, pageants, training seminars, and more—but nothing can take the place of prayer!” A lack of prayer is killing us. Prayer must once again become the essence of our Christian lives. Prayer isn’t optional with God. Though He may know our needs, don’t make the mistake of thinking that He will automatically meet our needs and take care of us. It is not true. God demands that we pray (James 4:2). So, ask largely of Him, because “the people who will change the church and the world are the people who will spend time with God.” Let’s devote ourselves to prayer as a daily discipline (Col.4:2).
Three Aspects of Prayer
The three aspects of prayer – communion, intercession, and petition must be wrapped in thanksgiving, an attitude of gratitude. Sadly, most Americans only see prayer as asking things of God, as petition, and while that is the grand privilege of prayer, it is neither the heart nor the whole of prayer. It is not its beginning or its ending. Good, healthy prayer does not begin with us or end with us. It begins with God and then proceeds to others, and, in between, God meets our needs and invites our petitions. “God is not so much disappointed with you when you fail to pray, as he is disappointed for you!” “Prayer is not due to our pursuing God nearly as much as our recognition of His pursuit of us.” So “before we rush into our ‘God-help-me’ prayers or ‘God-use-me’ prayers, let us make sure we are in the ‘first position’ of prayer, communion, centered in the love of God.”[1]
Tell God What You Need
Philippians 4:6-7 NLT says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything you can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” Maybe instead of stating our requests, we should pray our requests and join with others in agreement. In prayer meetings I have led, when it comes time for petitionary prayers, I urge askers to pray it, don’t say it! It’s a powerful method of making prayer meetings more viable. Could it be that we many of us gave of prayer meetings because they became “organ recitals” and frankly, downright boring?
The journey of prayer is the upward climb from duty to delight. It’s hard. Timothy Keller declared in his book, Prayer, “There is nothing great that is also easy.” That’s why he admitted, “Prayer, then, must be one of the hardest things in the world.”[2] Satan cannot deny that great wonders have been wrought by prayer.
(1) If he can, he will keep us from prayer. If that isn’t feasible,
(2) he will strive to interrupt our prayers. And
(3) if that ploy doesn’t work, he will labor to hinder the success of our prayers (adapted from William Gurnall). And when you add fasting to your prayers, “that extreme in-your-face statement to the devil” (Franklin), he gets disturbed…and defeated…often through distraction, because he knows fasting releases God’s power. We must resist. We must push back with prayer. Taking a strong stand in a battle zone requires more than resistance (see 2 Cor.10:3-4).
Our Greatest Weapon
Our greatest weapon is prayer. It infuses us with power and supernatural strength in spiritual warfare. If we fail it will be because we failed to pray. We can never over pray! Crisis will drive us to our knees.[3] Prayer is your “primary means for acquiring strength and the capability you need to live for Jesus.” Obey Paul’s charge to “pray at all times” (Eph.6:18) at all hours of the day and night if need be.
Crisis calls for passionate, all-hands-on-deck praying. You cannot keep standing in battle if you do not pray. And forget about pulling down strongholds if you don’t turn off social media and seek God’s face. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit knows full well our weakness (Romans 8:26). Our part is to tirelessly “press and pursue praying,” as E. M. Bounds encouraged, “with an energy that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied, and a courage which never fails.” Pray with confidence today that God has placed all the gifts and powers of heaven at your disposal.
P.U.S.H.!
Pray Until Something Happens! This idea comes from Jentezen Franklin who urges readers to persist in prayer! Pray and keep on praying. Endure and pray in a disciplined way until you get through duty to delight. In Keller’s words, “The pursuit of God in prayer eventually bears fruit, because God seeks for us to worship him (John 4:23) and because prayer is so infinitely rich and wondrous.”
So, push through the difficulties at times contending for every inch, though it requires extraordinary effort! Such prevailing prayer, by Wesley L Deuwel’s definition, is “prayer that pushes right through all difficulties and obstacles, drives back all the opposing forces of Satan, and secures the will of God.”
Drawn to Prayer
As you are drawn to your place of worship what do you hunger for? I want to experience the glory of His Presence. There is a vertical orientation in healthy worship that goes beyond the singing or preaching of the horizontal. What glorifies God (the vertical) and sustains us is not our “syrupy brotherly love moments,” nor “our best inspiration praise music and positive preaching.”
What we need is an encounter with the Presence of a holy God. “That,” exhorts P. Douglas Small, “necessitates corporate interaction with God, our talking to God, doing it together, and that is corporate prayer.” Sadly, too little prayer occurs in our corporate worship. Even when we sing prayer songs, we recite the lyrics, but do not pray them. We are in church, unconscious of God’s Presence. Essentially ignoring Him – with Him in the room. Talking to one another about Him – but not to Him.”
Prayer is Not Ancillary to Worship
Don’t make prayer ancillary to worship, as if irrelevant, or it will certainly become “the stepchild of corporate worship.” Instead, practice prayer as an integral part of worship, else “by that omission, we declare its value as insignificant.” Never “assume God’s grace. We transform worship into clubs of sincere people gathered to inspire one another – and that is less than true worship.
The congregation needs to hear the pastor, not only talking to them, but also talking to God in their behalf, modeling Biblical prayer, functioning in his primary role as shepherd-watchman-intercessor. And the congregation needs to be led in corporate prayer by godly leaders committed to being examples in prayer.
