The habit of prayer is good, but the spirit of prayer is better. - Charles Spurgeon
Prayer is the sweat of the soul. - Martin Luther
Prayer should pervade every aspect of the church. The church should nurture the habit of prayer and even more, the spirit of prayer. The spirit of prayer should be a distinctive mark of a community of faith. A church postured this way is open to the true business of the church: lives changed, united, and sent by the gospel.
I used to give a mere intellectual ascent to the importance of prayer. That is until I hit a wall in ministry that I could not overcome on my own. It became clear as day that what Jesus said was true; apart from him, I can do nothing (John 15:5). I realized that the chilling words of Ben Patterson ring true, “Churches can run without prayer. Whole denominations can run without prayer. The question is: Is what they’re doing worth doing if they can do it without prayer?[1] I was also struck by Paul’s small phrase: “in everything by prayer” (Phil 4:6). Paul was revealing to the Philippians that is the best antidote to anxiety. He was aware of how the tendency to forget the nearness of God tends to plunge people into hopelessness. God is always near. Although he already knows what we need, he wants us to make our request known to him. He wants us to invite him into our circumstances. He wants us to call on his name in our distress (Ex. 2:23-25; Ps. 120:1). I now see it as paramount to set aside times to pray daily, weekly, and monthly; to pray alone and corporately with other believers; to pray while fasting.
Why should the pastor adopt a prayerful posture for preaching? Not only in the act of preaching, but also in preparation, exegesis, delivery, and even after the sermon is preached, why should the preacher be prayerful? Why should prayerfulness be maintained in all activities of the church from the counseling room to meeting rooms? Why should the church pray for their pastor daily? Why should they maintain a prayerful posture while they sit and listen to the word preached? Why is prayer so important? The answer to these questions will depend on where people believe change comes from. Is gospel change something one can bring about on their own or it is something God does through the Spirit? Scripture is very clear. Apart from Christ's work, you and I were dead in sin (Eph 2:1). We were unresponsive to his voice until God awakened us through the work of the Spirit to hear and believe the Good News of the gospel. And not only that, he is still the one who continues to change us. He began a good work in us and will be faithful to bring it to completion (Phil 1:6). Although we might work out our salvation with fear and trembling, scripture reminds us that it is God who also works in us (Phil 2:12).
Spurgeon was spot on when he said:
Prayer is a living thing—you cannot find a living prayer in a dead heart. Why seek you the living among the dead, or search the sepulcher to find the signs and tokens of life? No, Sir, if you have not been made alive by the Grace of God, you cannot pray![2]
Considering these truths, it makes sense why Paul asked over and over for prayer from the churches he wrote to. He recognized–as we should also–that change is something God does, and it drove him to desperate prayer.
Look at the way Paul frequently asks for prayer in the following passages:
In Romans 15:30-33 Paul appeals for believers to strive together with him through prayer that he would be delivered from unbelievers and for ministry to be acceptable to the saints and ambitions to come true.
In 2 Corinthians 1:10-11, Paul asks for help by prayer for blessings on his ministry.
In Ephesians 6:19-20, Paul urges the church to make prayers and supplications for ministry effectiveness as the gospel is proclaimed.
In 2 Thessalonians 3:1-2, Paul asks that God's word may speed ahead and be honored and for protection from opponents.
In Philippians 1:19-20, Paul believed that prayer put alongside the help of the Spirit could aid his release from prison.
In Colossians 4:2-4, Paul urges the church to continue steadfastly in prayer, specifically praying that God would open doors for the word and clarity of proclamation.
1 Thessalonians 5:25 is a sincere request for prayer to siblings in the faith.
In Philemon 22, Paul is hopeful in the power of prayer to set him free from prison. Prayer has a way of infusing hope for leaders to endure and remain hopeful even in adversity
Do pastors need to make prayer a priority? Do pastors need your prayers? Paul would answer with a resounding YES. EM Bounds echoes this sentiment when he says, No man can do a great and enduring work for God who is not a man of prayer, and no man can be a man of prayer who does not give much time to praying.[3]
Should the church make prayer a priority? Again Christ, the apostles, and Paul would answer with a resounding YES! Paul Miller rightly notes that without the 'spark' of prayer, the church quietly loses energy, doing only what's humanly possible.[4]
A prime example of where prayer is crucial in the life of the preacher and the church is in preaching. Is a pastor ready to preach a sermon without prayer? Is the church ready to hear the word and be changed without prayer? As Paul would say, “By no means!”
Henry C Fish (1820-77) skillfully defends the power of prayer and dependence on the Spirit:
"But let us do honor to the Holy Spirit. The preacher, while, like other speakers, has power to inform and excite an audience, has not power in himself to compass the great aim of preaching. The aim of preaching is different from that of other public speaking. It looks deeper. It would renew and cleanse the heart. If it fails here, it fails entirely. And fail it will without the accompanying 'power from on high'. The renewal of the soul is what no man, with all the wealth of learning and scholarship, and of cultivated taste and oratorical power, can accomplish. It is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord ( Zech 4:6).
“A sermon may be constructed after the best models; it may conform to all the rules of homiletics; the text may be suitable and fruitful; the plan may be faultless; the execution may discover genius and judgment; there may be accurate analysis and strong reasoning; proof and motive; solidity and beauty; logic and passion; argument direct and indirect; perspicuity, purity, correctness, propriety, precision; description, antithesis, metaphor, allegory, comparison; motives from goodness, motives from happiness, motives from self-love; appeals to the sense of the beautiful, the sense of right, to the affections, the passions, the emotions; a sermon may be all this, and yet that very sermon, even though it fell from the lips of a prince of pulpit oratory, were as powerless in the renewal of a soul as in the raising of the dead, if unaccompanied by the omnipotent energy of the Holy Ghost.”[5]
Do you see how important prayer is for both the preacher and the listeners? Only the Spirit gives life. No matter how prepared we are, the flesh profits nothing (John 6:63). When I came to grips with the power and importance of prayer for the local church, I remember gathering a group of older saints together and asking them to commit to praying for the church weekly. I insisted that we should pray before the service every Sunday. I fought to see monthly corporate prayer established again. These spaces have become my favorite places to be in our church. When I take my spiritual temperature after every prayer meeting, I’m always filled with incredible heart satiety and expectation because I know that we have engaged in an exercise whose goal is God’s ear and that we have invited him to be the main builder of his church, not our weak arm of flesh. (Jer 17:5-7)
So then, how should we see prayer? We should see prayer as our chief work. We should see prayer as true ministry partnership, for in prayer, we strive alongside and help each other both leaders and the church. We should see prayer as an irreplaceable catalyst, for in prayer, we aid in effectiveness for ministry and godliness. We should see prayer as a necessity, for in prayer God provides doors, the right words, honorable reception, clarity, and boldness in proclamation. Our prayers can impact the gospel quality and the boldness of our leaders. We should see Prayer as an instrument of caring for one another, for in prayer, we can join our leaders in asking for the fruition of Godly ambitions that God has laid bare in the scriptures.. We should see prayer as protection, for in prayer we can seek the deliverance of leaders from trouble and evil. Our prayers have the power to deliver. This is why John Bunyan urged people to "Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan. Prayer will cease a man from sin, or sin will cease a man from prayer."[6]
May the phrase “Let us pray” be the common thread that pervades every aspect of our churches.
Questions for reflection:
What does your prayer life reveal about what you really believe about prayer?
In what aspect of your life do you tend to engage in without prayer?
What is your plan to make prayer a priority?
What obstacles will you have to overcome to cultivate the spirit of prayer.
[1] Ben Patterson, Deepening Your Conversation with God (1991)
[2] Prayer Found In The Heart, Volume 50, Sermon #2869 - 2 Samuel 7:27
[3] EM bounds “Power Through Prayer”, p.32, Delmarva Publications, Inc.
[4] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/open-letter-prayerless-church/
[5] Henry C. Fish, Power In The Pulpit, 4
[6] "John Bunyan: Mender of Pilgrim Souls" by Joe Thomas, PhD, published on Christianity.com on April 28, 2010
Another great article that should challenge us to dig deeper into prayer. Pastor Mnkandhla hits on something very important in emphasizing that as much as we should pray personally, there is a great need for corporate prayer in the church. His listing of Paul’s admonishment for corporate prayer to the churches at Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Thessalonica, Philippi, and Colossae clearly shows that church prayer should be of very high priority. We should encourage personnel prayer, of course, but we should also exhort our congregations to pray corporately.