"I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession
and thanksgiving be made for all people.
This is good, and pleases God our Savior."
1 Timothy 2:1,3 NIV
I was speaking on the phone with a friend of mine who lives in another city this morning. She called to catch up on life and to pray. As we were talking, she was sharing with me how at her church they do not have a prayer ministry, prayer services, or really prayer of any kind. She was really hungry and wanting someone to pray with her.
When I started asking her more about the culture at her church she said that they don't really pray or teach on prayer other than a quick prayer before and at the end of their services. She was telling me that many in her church were afraid that if they started to mobilize their people to pray, that it would "get weird".
Now, I have been in ministry for 15 years and on staff in three different churches. As a result, I have done a little bit of everything and have seen a few things. I am also an intercessor and I love to pray, and to teach people how to pray. I love to talk with the Lord about life, and about things going on in people's lives. Talking with Him is the greatest joy of my life.
What I have found in leading prayer related ministries is that this fear should not prohibit us from mobilizing people to pray. What I have found is that this fear can easily be dissolved with good Biblical training and discipleship.
As her and I talked and prayed this morning, it really hit me. It gets weird as she put it, because people lack the training and the accountability needed for a thriving prayer culture within a church, ministry and even in our families.
If Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 2;1-3 (above passage), that ABOVE ALL things, to pray, then why are we as God's leaders not walking in obedience to this exhortation?
Today, when I got off the phone with my friend, I began talking with the Lord about this in my life, and asking him if I was in sin for not taking this passage seriously.
There is something significant Paul is trying to tell his spiritual son. "Timothy, prayer is important to the life of the church!" Never did I hear Paul telling Timothy - "do not pray, because it might get weird or turn people off to God". Where did we get this thinking from? Not from God's Word.
Prayer also greatly pleases the Lord, because it keeps us intimately connected to Him. Humble and dependent; bearing fruit (John 15:5).
There is something significant Paul is trying to tell his spiritual son. "Timothy, prayer is important to the life of the church!" Never did I hear Paul telling Timothy - "do not pray, because it might get weird or turn people off to God". Where did we get this thinking from? Not from God's Word.
Prayer also greatly pleases the Lord, because it keeps us intimately connected to Him. Humble and dependent; bearing fruit (John 15:5).
When I got off the telephone with my friend today, I was very grieved at just how subtle and deceptive the enemy is. The enemy has come in and deceived this church into thinking it would be "too risky" to open up the doors to prayer for worry and concern that is might get weird. And thus, it is robbing hundreds of people of a deep and abiding relationship with God. Oh Lord, have mercy on us. Help us.
The question I started pondering with the Lord, if this church is truly afraid that prayer will turn weird, then where is trust in God? Where is faith? Where is the intimate relationship with God that we are called to walk in?
Can prayer get weird? Absolutely! I have seen people praying and speaking words from their own soul, from their own desires and I have seen the harm this can bring to people and to an organization. Proverbs 18:21 tells us that life and death is in the power of the tongue, and this is true in our speech as well as in our prayers.
But this should not stop us from teaching people and training people in how to pray. This whole topic with my friend today is really an issue of leadership and discipleship. If there was Godly coaching, training and modeling of a healthy, Biblical prayer culture then this fear of it becoming weird would be much less.
The more time I spend in bed due to this recovery, the more I am seeing God's heart for prayer and how the enemy truly contends against prayer more than anything else.
Prayer is the conduit in which the Holy Spirit flows through God's people to touch others. Prayer is the place where we touch God and we hear His heart for others. Prayer is the place where we see and know what it is that the Father is desiring to do in any given circumstance (John 12:49-50).
EM Bounds, one of my favorite authors on prayer wrote:
"Much prayer, much power. Little prayer, little power. No prayer, no power".
As I prepare to lay my head on the pillow tonight, my heart is deeply grieved at how the enemy has deceived this church and convinced her not to pray for fear that it will get weird, or that somehow it will prohibit or limit the lost to come to know Christ.
If this reasoning were true, then WHY would we see all over the gospels and in the book of Acts, that prayer was the fuel that turned the world upside down? Prayer brought in the Holy Spirit at Penecost and empowered Peter to convert thousands on his first day of preaching!
And it was a praying church that freed Paul and Silas from prison! Just go to www.biblegateway.com and do a word search on "prayer or pray" - and you will see just how powerful prayer is! All throughout God's Word from Moses, to Nehemiah, to David, to Jesus, to Peter and Paul - God moved upon the earth through the power of prayer, and through people who were deeply connected to God through prayer!
We as God's leaders seriously need to stop and understand the enemy's plans and strategies if we are to lead well. We need to know when he is making us think thoughts that are contrary to God's Word. If Satan knows the power available to Christians who are praying, do you think he will do whatever is necessary to get us not to pray? To be fearful of prayer?
I have a friend who I love, and she often tells me whenever she is afraid of something, she says she runs right into it. She says more times than not, fear is always present in the place where God most wants her to go. So, she sets her heart and mind to walk through the very thing that is resisting her.
I remember Winston Churchill, one of my favorite war heroes, talk about how important it is for us to understand our enemy in order to outwit him and to overcome.
As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit to empower us and to give us wisdom. We need to be aware of the enemy's tactics and we must be aware of places where we are being deceived and buying into his lies.
"Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8 NIV
My heart goes up in prayer tonight for my friends church, that they would understand that prayer is relationship with God. I mean, ponder this. Prayer = walking intimately with the most amazing, wonderful, delightful, all-powerful, majestic God! Why on earth would we not want to lead people to Him - to Jesus?
Talking to Jesus, to the Father and to the Holy Spirit is the most amazing journey there is. Who else knows everything? Who else can handle every problem and concern that we have? Who else can give us wisdom and understanding to the things going on in our lives? Who else knows what our friends need most in the inner parts of their hearts? Who else knows how to reach the lost?
Prayer is talking to God for those we love. It is asking Him to come and move in the lives of those we love and those we are yet to love. So, why do we then at times resist the call to pray? Could it be because we have an enemy who does not want this?
Dear Lord,
I pray tonight for my friend's church. I pray Lord for churches everywhere that are afraid that if they mobilize their people to pray, it will get weird. Lord, this is a leadership issue, a teaching issue, and a training issue. Lord, I pray you would raise up Godly, Biblical leaders who can equip and train your body how to pray. Lord, that they would know how to talk with you, how to do life with you just as your disciples did.
Lord, help us both individually and corporately learn how to pray. Help us Jesus. Remove the lies, the deceptions, the fear, the unbelief that is keeping your church immobilized. Help her to once again become a house of prayer.
Let us not be afraid of what people might think, but help us to walk in obedience to your Word, which exhorts us to above ALL things; to pray. Lord, help us to trust that as we as your leaders and people step into this, you will bring all things together. Lord, help us to SEE in your Word how you moved in power upon a church that was praying (book of Acts). Jesus, help us. Empower us. Pour out your grace upon us. And help us to be people, ministries, and leaders of prayer.
Forgive us for where we are not being obedient to this exhortation in 1 Timothy 2:1-3. Forgive us for worrying about what man will say, and not caring about what your Word says about prayer. Help us to not bow down to worry, fear, or concern. Help us to know that prayer is simply talking with you.
Raise up leaders, people willing to train and disciple your body in the way of prayer. Help people to see prayer as a wonderful adventure with you and it is not to be feared. Oh Lord Jesus, remove the deceptions that have kept people from talking with you.
Come, and do a work among us. Come Jesus, and teach us to pray.
In your name we pray,
Amen.
