I believe that the most important thing you can do, right now, in obeying the Great Commission, is to pray. You don't have to leave your home, spend any money, make any sacrifices (except some time)...just pray! The Bible is very clear that prayer changes things. Jesus, God in the flesh, prayed. If Jesus, who had only three years on earth to do all that He had come to do, took time out of His incredibly busy schedule to pray (Lk. 6:12; Matt. 14:23; Lk. 3:21, 9:28-29; Mt. 26:36-45) then He obviously wants us to pray frequently.
So, why is prayer often seen as the last resort, rather than the first response? Why would we rather take some sort of action to fix a problem rather than go to God first. I believe one of the reasons is that we often don’t believe that prayer will make any difference.
That fatalistic view of prayer comes from our ultimate view of God. Do we truly believe the words of the Bible? Do we believe that He is concerned and involved in every aspect of our own lives and the lives of the lost? Do we believe He has a plan for this world? Do we believe He is still in control, despite the things we see around us that would tell us otherwise?
It really comes down to one essential decision that Adam and Eve were asked to make in the Garden and that we are asked to make every day in our own lives...do we believe the truth of God, as shown to us in the Bible, or the lies of Satan? For every truth of God, Satan counterfeits that with his own lie.
Many people, including many Christians, look at the world around them, even at their own lives, and take on a fatalistic view...that nothing can change; the lies of Satan seem too powerful, too persuasive; that they must quietly accept the way things are, the status quo. Yet, the status quo in our world today is not how God first created our earth or how He desires it to be functioning today. God’s perfect way, that He created, does not include war, killing, divorce, abuse or slavery. Although He allows it, in His sovereignty, to accomplish His good purposes, while He was on earth and today through the Holy Spirit, He battles evil and asks us to join Him.
Jesus shares the story of a widow, in Luke 18:1-8, who was seeking justice. She continued to persistently ask the judge for justice, until finally He gave her what she asked. Jesus shared this story to show that we, as His disciples, "should always pray and not give up," (Lk. 18:1). This type of praying is called petitionary prayer.
Petitionary prayer is “rebellion - rebellion against the status quo, the state of the world in its sin and fallenness. It is the absolute and undying refusal to accept as normal what is completely abnormal. It is the rejection of every agenda, every scheme, every opinion that clashes with...God...a declaration that Evil is not a variation on Good but its very opposite,” (David Wells).
It is prayer that 1) believes that God does not want the current evil status quo to continue on earth, 2) believes that God can change things for the better through His power and 3) believes God will change things in response to the prayers of His people.
"Prayer is not magic; it does not always work; it is not something we do, but a response to what God is already doing within us and the world. Our prayers are the necessary opening that allows God to act without violating our freedom. Prayer is the ultimate act of partnership with God" (Walter Wink). It is recognizing that God is in control, He is acting, He will be faithful to our prayers and He is asking us to join Him through prayer.
While we were living in Seoul, South Korea, attending Jubilee Church, our pastor did something that I had never seen in a church before. After He was finished with his sermon each Sunday, he would ask that we pray, as a congregation, about what we had just heard. He would pick out four or five main points from the sermon. For each point, he would first pray about it and then he would have us, out-loud, pray and talk to God about how we would have Him work in our lives and in the lives of others. This would go on for about 15 - 20 minutes. I can not tell you how thrilling it was to stand amongst my brothers and sisters in Christ as we were all verbally and at the same time, pouring out our hearts to the Lord. I believe it pleased the Lord greatly. And His blessings and use of Jubilee Church are very evident. Pastor David ensured that prayer was not just something that was done quickly at the beginning and the end of the service, as a sort of duty, but that it was an essential part of our time together. And I could almost see the smile on the face of God when He heard our times of prayer.
Prayer is especially significant for missions because in mission work, we come up against so much of the evil status quo and the fatalistic views of so many cultures. Satan desires that the Christians, in missions or in mission support, will doubt God’s power to change. He doesn’t want us to beseech the God of the Universe to bring unreached people groups to Himself because Satan will continue to lose ground. Satan wants us to think that the situation is hopeless, that the people are a lost cause, that God doesn’t care about them.
This is a battle for every soul! We must engage in petitionary prayer on behalf of the lost and in our own lives. We must ask ourselves this question...”Do we really think God would fail to bring about justice for His chosen ones who cry to Him night and day? Will He keep putting them off?” Jesus answered it for us in Luke 18:7-8, “I tell you, He will see that they get justice, and quickly.”
So, what do we do? How do we go beyond a quick "bless the people in China and bring all the lost to you" into true spiritual warfare on behalf of the lost? God has provided a wealth of resources.
The five websites I visit every day during my prayer time are:
The website, Operation World, leads you in prayer for a new country every day, and not only do you pray very specific prayers for that country, but you also will learn a lot about other countries in the process. Unreachedoftheday and prayerguard will lead you in prayer for a different group of people/nation each day who need to know about Jesus. The last two websites help you pray for Iraq and Afghanistan, including our military troops. Your prayers for these people will prepare their hearts to hear the Gospel
There are also a number of other wonderful resources, both books and websites. I have listed just a few of them below. I will list more as I come across them under the "Prayer" tab at the top of the page or along the right side of the blog.
Window on the World (for children) and Operation World (for adults) books
The Prayer Driven Life by Pastor Robert Oh - you can download this for free at www.v2rfoundation.org/resources/PastorOh/ThePDL-E.pdf
Voices of the Faithful by Beth Moore
Voice of the Martyrs www.persecution.com sends out a weekly list of prayer requests for the persecuted church
Prayer is effective and so very necessary...it moves the hand of God!
Col 4:3-4 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.
Matt. 9:36-38 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
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