During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him .... (Hebrews 5:7-8, NIV)
Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. (Romans 15:30 NKJV)
Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. (Colossians 4:12 NKJV)
The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (James 5:16 NKJV)
It is nothing short of tragic that so much of the church today is either too passive or too preoccupied to study the nature of intercessory prayer and make the necessary commitment for the unleashing of its glorious power. Frank Laubach believed prayer to be the greatest force in the universe available to man. John Wesley believed that God does nothing except by prayer. When Andrew Murray was asked why so many Christian ministers and workers had so little influence in their communities and over the world, he answered, "Nothing but the sin of prayerlessness is the cause of the lack of spiritual life." Leonard Ravenhill wrote, "The Cinderella of the church today is the prayer meeting. This handmaid of the Lord is unloved and unwooed because she is not dripping with the pearls of intellectualism, nor glamorous with the silks of philosophy; neither is she enchanting with the tiara of psychology. She wears the homespuns of sincerity and humility and so is not afraid to kneel!" E. M. Bounds wrote, "Prayer is humbling work. It abases the pride of intellect, crucifies vainglory, and signs our spiritual bankruptcy, and all these are hard for flesh and blood to bear. It is easier not to pray than to bear them. So we come to the crying evils of these times, maybe of all times -- little or no praying. Of the two evils, perhaps little praying is worse than no praying. Little praying is a kind of make-believe, a salve for the conscience, a farce and a delusion."
But those who engage in intercessory prayer are not participating in religious fun and games. Those who prevail in prayer are not interested in consciousness-raising experiments. They are not relying on emotional therapy techniques. Prayer warriors are not concerned about trying to get in touch with their inner beings. They are after far more than deliverance from the stress of the fast lane. Spirit-anointed prayer warriors are out to wage war, and they know how to do it. "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (II Cor. 10:3-5).
The apostle Paul did not shy away from the struggle of prayer, and he begged his fellow Christians to enter the conflict with him (Rom. 15:30). Martin Luther questioned any Christian's interest in the salvation of souls if they did not agonize in prayer over the lost. Kierkegaard defined true prayer as a struggle "in which one triumphs through the triumph of God." P. T. Forsyth taught that toiling in prayer is what truly feeds our souls.
I know that many will shudder over this kind of radical emphasis on sacrificial prayer. But if you think I've gone overboard, just get a close-up of Jesus in Gethsemane: Mark shows Him "deeply distressed and troubled," saying, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death" (14:33-34). Luke reports the same experience, "And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground" (22:44).
Most of the men and women who pastor our churches in North America are not hirelings or false shepherds. They are not "predators in our pulpits," as some charge. The average pastor prays to become a better leader, wants to deliver God's Word to the people, hopes for renewal in the church body and seeks to be open to divine direction for a more effective ministry. He or she is willing to make sacrifices, attend seminars, go back to the university and get another degree, relocate and even move into another culture -- they'll do almost anything to get their churches out of the cemetery. Believe me -- it is this very same great majority of good leaders that Satan has set out to deceive. He calls their attention to some wild, silly, flaky preacher who says a lot about praying in the Spirit, and he has a strange fascination with evil spirits, seeing a demon behind every bush, every rock, and every pulpit. With this distraction, skepticism is deepened and it is easier to conclude that the actual work of evil spirits was limited to the times of Jesus and His apostles. Satan will do almost anything to keep pastors and evangelists and teachers from discovering the need for spiritual warfare. One of his most effective strategies is to keep them preoccupied with reading, calling on the faithful few, administration, counseling and putting out the fires of opposition and criticism so that every week is a prayerless one. Such otherwise intelligent leaders would never dream that they are themselves already casualties in a spiritual war.
Our Lord Jesus Christ understood clearly and taught repeatedly concerning the clash of two kingdoms -- the kingdom of God against the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of righteousness against the kingdom of evil, the kingdom of light against the kingdom of darkness. Our Lord and His apostles often spoke in military terms and symbols when describing this conflict. They knew how easy it is for Christians to forget that behind the symptoms of the times an invisible war is raging. Oh, how we all must become aware that the sweeping changes now taking place socially, morally and spiritually are the signs of a fight of cosmic proportions. The answer to it all is the kind of awakening that will bring forth Spirit-anointed prayer warriors who know their main calling is to enforce the mighty victory over Satan and darkness which Jesus won at Calvary through His voluntary death on the cross.
I believe this army is now forming. I believe that our Sovereign Christ is now calling out those whom He will restore to apostolic power. He will grant them the gifts and graces and resources and anointing for a season of unparalleled revival during which there shall be amazing signs and wonders such as were demonstrated in the Early Church. I believe that God's Spirit will be poured out on men and women, old and young, laity and clergy, rich and poor, known and unknown, educated and illiterate. These anointed ones shall give themselves to the struggle of prayer and God shall arm them to overcome. These armies shall form to follow the Faithful and True One who strikes against the flood of evil perpetrated by the wicked one who knows that his time is short. But the King of kings and His armies shall overcome the plagues that curse the earth and cast out the unclean spirits of blasphemy, immorality and violence. And throughout this period of mighty prevailing prayer there shall come about the greatest harvest of souls ever brought into the kingdom of God in all of the history of the Church.
Dear reader, the hour is too late and too dark for trivial and timid religious experiments. We must have several people in all of our churches who will return to the divinely-ordered, time-tested Upper Room means of releasing God's power to and through the Church. Prayer is the ultimate weapon, God's means by which He releases power for worship, revival, evangelism, vision and every kingdom-advancing ministry.
Allow the Lord to stir up your heart to pray! Rebuke the spiritual paralysis, and the evil one who seeks to prevent your praying, and begin today with a season of consecrating prayer. Spend an hour or half the night getting your spiritual bearings and learning God's agenda for your own intercession. Ask God to set your heart on fire in order to enter into the struggle of prayer. Then rely on His periodic refillings of the Spirit in order to continue and prevail in prayer.
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