Before we move on to Strategy #2 – Our Focus, I want to talk about a few points that may help you while you continue to pray for the restoration of your Passion for Prayer. Each of these come from “The Battle Plan for Prayer”, including the prayer at the end.
And here is a little music to set the vision in your mind…What If His People Prayed – Casting Crowns
LEGACY
Psalms 65:2 says, You who hear prayer, to you all men come.
I felt so frustrated with myself when I read this. “There is no greater privilege for anyone than being able to personally talk with and speak into the ears of Almighty God.” We make all kinds of effort to watch famous people, meet them, watch interview with them, see what they think about things. How much more important and influential is our Jesus, who sits at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. Who would you rather be intimate with than Him?
It should not surprise us that the most spiritually successful men and women in the Bible were always people of prayer. Abraham, Issaac, Moses, David, Nehemiah, Daniel and many more. Of course even Jesus Christ used prayer in his walk on earth. If Jesus himself needed prayer to succeed on earth as a human what in the world makes me think I could get through without it?
Know that whether you realize it or not, you come from a legacy of prayer dated back to the Bible times. Even if you are unaware of your immediate family and their prayer habits, resolve to start now in giving your descendants a legacy of prayer. Don’t leave your children and grand-children wondering if you cared enough pray for them. Leave the the proof and the encouragement to keep that legacy going into many more future generations.
POWER
2 Cor 10:4 The weapons of our warfare are not of flesh but devinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
Let’s consider warfare and what it looked like in history. Trench warfare started being used sparingly in the American Civil war in the 1860’s. The increased range and velocity of firearms had reached a level that armies could no longer afford to merely march at one another in columns, taking huge casualties on both sides. By World War I the rapid-firing machine guns left no other options. Digging in and climbing down into trenches became the standard method of survival.
The strength of the trenches was protection, but at the expense of mobility. There was almost no defeating the enemy under these circumstances. Just endless fighting. Until…. the tank. The prospect of being able to move actively and thunderously toward the enemy, while being protected during the ride, spelled the end of merely digging in and hoping for the best. Prayer is our armored tank! And when put into action by God’s people, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt 16:18). Prayer is our major assault weapon in battle.
Paul was a great example and champion of prayer and how it works for us. He authored several scriptures indicating to us how important prayer is! Eph 6:13, 18-19 is just one. Consider Paul was writing this request from prison as an “abassador in chains” (v. 20). Think how many layers of stone-cold reality stood between him and anything resembling the continuation of his ministry. To be locked up hand and foot, yet be bold enough to consider yourself free and ready to engage in whatever God has in store…that’s NOT how normal people think. Unless we’re people of prayer.
Prayer can do anything. With God all things are possible. Prayers are not some token words muttered in haste. Don’t treat prayer like some harmless church ritual. Don’t approach prayer as a pitiful beggar asking for a handout but not expecting to receive it. There is raw power in prayer. Access to God Almighty! There is certainty of His sovereignty. There is boldness that no amount of enemy resistance can steal from us. James 5:16 says “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”
Even when the truth means confronting us with our sin, it also means reminding us of Christ’s righteousness, which covers it all with His grace and mercy, in addition to the truth about satan’s demise. No need for secrets in prayer. Enjoy perfect honesty, freedom, forgiveness and perfect confidence.
So…..Why do we so rarely do it? With all it can do for us why do we so often choose not to do it?
I am a hard worker. I pride myself in being responsible. I believe hardworking responsible people make something of themselves in life. While I believe God honors me for these qualities I also believe that he gets very frustrated with me for thinking I’m so capable. Sometimes I picture him up there laughing at me, like I might my own children for not letting me help them with something that it is virtually impossible for them to accomplish on their own. I want to help them, I could make it so much easier and better for them, but my they are so stubborn they refuse to allow me to help! (Can you just imagine Lexie or Clint being stubborn? Surely not right?) Anyway I feel the Lord often times urging me to depend on him more. Stop trying to control my circumstances and my success by my own might and my own power. Let God do the work he has promised to do! Prayer is what infuses all our efforts and the genuine concerns of our hearts with God’s boundless ability. Prayer frames our pressing, short-term issues with God’s eternal perspective, showing us just how temporary and endurable and winnable even our most intense battles truly are.
PRIORITY
Prayer is like oxygen to our spiritual lives. Wow how far would you make it in your physical life without oxygen. I would venture to say about as far as you would make it in your spiritual life without prayer…..YOU WOULD DIE!
Prayer was and still is sometimes hard for me. It sometimes feels counter productive to stop and pray when I have so much to do. It feels strange to say no to my selfishness and self-sufficiency and humble myself before God. It seems easier to just go out and attempt to fix things myself rather than to stop and pray. (Let’s get real for a second, if everyone would just listen and do what I say, wouldn’t all family, work, and world problems be solved? Me in all my infinate wisdom could fix it all I am sure! How stupid am I really, to think I could fix any of it on my own. With my short sided unenlightened view?) I used to put prayer off and only use it on an emergency basis. God knows ever detail of everything in all places at all times, while I don’t know what will happen tomorrow and am already forgetting what I did yesterday. Why would I not seek and pray to the One who knows every detail of everything rather than depend on my own pitiful knowledge of things?
Jesus said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.” Jesus well knew, everything else that occupies the church’s (my) time and energy will be lacking in power and blessing and the fragrance of God’s presence if prayer is not kept first.
I love this part…. Too often, however, we put the cart before the horse by making prayer an add-on. An afterthought. A bonus feature to what we’re already doing, placing our own work ahead of God’s. God never intended for us to live out the Christian life or accomplish His work on the earth in our own wisdom or strength. His plan has always been for us to rely on the Holy Spirit and live a life of obedience in prayer.
Scripture specifically ties each of these things to prayer. A sneak peak of what will happen in us and in our churches if we truly become devoted to prayer.
- evangelism of the lost
- cultivation of discipleship
- true christian fellowship
- wise decisions
- obstacles overcome
- needs met
- true worship ignited
- revival sparked
All of us want to be in a place where true friendship and love abounds, where God is honored, and where His power is being made known in and through our lives. Let’s pray this happens in US and in in the body of Christ again. It will ……if we will devote ourselves to prayer!
Father, forgive us for relying on our wisdom, strength, energy, and ideas rather than abiding in You and seeking You first. Help us lay aside anything that hinders us from pursuing Your best. Help us prioritize prayer and devote ourselves to it in our personal lives, our families and our churches. Make our churches truly houses of prayer for all nations. Revive us again, O Lord. Help us walk by Your strength, and bring You great glory in our generation. In Jesus’ name, amen.