If any Christian might wonder if
they are a target of spiritual warfare, all they need to do is determine to
pray more. One will soon find why prayer
must be a discipline. From distractions to demands, many things will seek to
pull the Christian from engaging the Father in prayer. It’s in prayer where there is intimacy with
Him, it’s in prayer where revelation in given on any subject or issue or trial,
it’s in prayer where power is released!
As Billy Sunday once said, “If you are strangers to prayer, you are
strangers to power.”
Few Christians will not lament the
present conditions they may face, or what is happening in the community they live
in, or the moral condition of our country.
Beyond that, there are the enormous issues in nations around the world.
Just think of the 10/40 window and the sheer millions and millions of people
that need to hear of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. As John Stott said, “We must be global
Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God” and as Oswald
Smith said, “We talk of the second coming, half the world has never heard of
the first.”
As a Church we must take
responsibility for the lost around us.
We know the answer, the answer is Jesus.
I would also venture to say, we all know the means to make Jesus
known. We know it’s His Word (i.e
the “seed” as Jesus spoke concerning the Kingdom to bring the harvest), but we
also know its prayer. Prayer
moves the heart, prayer prepares the ground for the seed of His Word, prayer
opens doors of opportunity, prayer releases boldness, and prayer (in God’s
infinite wisdom), is the gift He has given to shape history. History belongs to those who pray.
And here we are, 2017, in Father’s
providence He has allowed us to live in such a time as this. We have the awesome privilege, honor and
responsibility to pray for His glory to be revealed in the Earth. We know what we ought to do, we are to be a people
of prayer. “To him who knows the right thing to do, and doesn’t do it, to him
it is sin” James reminds us (James 4:17).
We are called to act on so many
promises given to us in prayer by our Lord.
I want to encourage you, to go with me through selected passages as we
look at prayer that avails before God from Scripture. From this study, to then apply what we learn
immediately in practice and watch what our King will do in and through us for
His great Namesake.
I testify (as I’m sure you can as
well) to the power of prayer. I have
seen so many miracles from demons cast out, to the blind seeing, to a tumor
disappearing immediately, the lame walking those on the brink of death be
raised up to the astonishment of nurses and doctors and on and on. I have seen Father open doors to preach to
multitudes, to a national radio program, to the beginnings of transformational
revival in areas He has placed my family and I.
How did it happen? Obviously, not
by the arm of flesh! It was only by His
Spirit as we humbled ourselves in prayer.
And yet in all I’ve seen I’m hungry for so much more and I’m quite certain
you are as well!
How will we see our hearts and our
families aflame for God? When we are
people of prayer. How will see our churches filled with His presence and
power? When we are people of prayer. How will see our schools, communities and
cities changed, even our nation impacted in transformational revival? When God’s people become people of prayer.
So, will you go on a journey with
me in prayer? Perhaps you are already in
a wonderful place of intercession and abiding prayer, may these posts encourage
you as you press forward. Maybe you have
backslidden and you are looking for a time of re-consecration, may these posts
challenge you and provoke you in your recommitment. Perhaps you feel you are a novice in prayer,
may these posts be a tool to move you deep in a place of intimacy and prayer
and may your journal be filled with testimony after testimony of answered
prayer and watch as you are changed forever.
Maybe you are wanting to have a group discipleship time, feel free to
use these posts as we look in the Word, to bring a deeper level of
accountability but also excitement as your group believes Father together for
impossible things, and see transformation take place.
One
of the gravest perils which besets the ministry is a restless scattering of
energies over an amazing multiplicity of interests which leaves no margin of
time and of strength for receptive and absorbing communion with God. – Andrew
Bonar
"Is prayer your steering
wheel or your spare tire?" - Corrie ten Boom
I know of no better thermometer to your spiritual
temperature than this, the measure of the intensity of your prayer. ~ Charles
H. Spurgeon
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