Returning to Prayer
by Gene
Easley
“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:36).
If I could
choose one thing that I believe would make the most significant
contribution to the church of the 21st Century, it would be to
send out a call to the church to return to the place of prayer.
This would be to return not to just a knowledge of what the
Scripture says about prayer or of what can be accomplished through prayer.
The doctrine of prayer is still in tact in the church, at least in
some measure. The great lack
today is the practice of prayer.
What we are
missing is God’s people, at home and in church, spending time on their
knees before God, crying out to Him. Unless
we spend quality time and more of it in sincere and earnest prayer, we
(the church or individual Christian) will find ourselves drifting farther
and farther from God.
Luke’s
Gospel records the words of Christ telling us to “watch…and pray
always…” (Luke 21:36). The
prayer to which Christ was referring was more than just bringing petitions
to God for earthly and material needs.
It was, foremost, a prayer to keep our hearts right before God to
be ready for His coming. “Watch
ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape
all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of
man.”
We need to return to the place of prayer to keep ourselves
separated from the world and ready for Christ’s return.
Christ said
that we must “take heed” to ourselves or we will find our
hearts becoming “overcharged” or burdened down with a load that
will keep us from being ready when He comes.
Christ mentioned not only things we consider as open sin, such as
drunkenness, but He spoke of the “cares of this life” that
hinder our readiness to stand before Him.
What was Christ’s answer for victory over this world?
His answer was “pray always.”
Return to the place of prayer!
I was
privileged to be part of a move of God early in my Christian life that
taught me the power of prayer (see article Heaven-Sent
Revival). Our church had
an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that could only be referred to as a
Heaven-sent revival. And
prayer became an important part of maintaining that Heaven-sent revival we
were experiencing. We lingered
around the altars of prayer, not wanting to leave because the presence of
God was so great. It wasn’t
unusual to spend thirty minutes or an hour or longer praying around the
altars after each service.
One can
always tell in any church when people have been praying.
Prayer will bring conviction for sin, and, when a church has been
praying, the power of Holy Spirit conviction will be in the sanctuary.
The power to break chains of bondage from bad habits and demonic
activity will be present in the church.
And an awareness of God’s presence will be felt throughout the
sanctuary.
Rev. 5:8
speaks of golden vials or bowls full of odors or incense which John saw
near the throne of God. This
incense was the combined prayers of saints.
Our prayers help perfume the atmosphere of Heaven.
And if our prayers can change the atmosphere of Heaven they can
surely change the atmosphere of our local church.
The sweet aroma of a praying church will draw the local community
and lost souls to the house of God.
What happens
when the church prays? Lives
are changed, souls are saved, sick bodies are healed, revivals come, homes
are put back together, and people gain victory over the lusts of the flesh
and over the powers of darkness.
What happens
when the church prays? Jesus
said that we will receive those things for which we petition God.
Through prayer we will find the things we seek after, and we will
have doors opened to us that had been closed. "Ask,
and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be
opened unto you"
(Matthew 7:7).
What happens
when saints are on their knees? James
said, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much” (James 5:16b). Elijah
prayed that the rains would be stopped, and for three and one-half years
there was no rain. Again, he
prayed that it would rain, and God sent an outpouring that refreshed a
dry, parched earth. An
abundance of rain came. If,
through prayer, God granted an outpouring of natural rain, how much more
will He grant us an outpouring of His Holy Spirit upon our dry, barren
churches if we cry unto Him!
Likewise,
what happens while the church isn’t praying?
The devil will make inroads into people’s hearts and lives.
Through prayerlessness, our churches begin to lose that touch of
God that distinguishes us from any other and all other organizations on
earth. We lose God’s
presence and the convicting power of the Holy Spirit that draws men to
Christ.
When the
church isn’t praying, Christians lose the ability to discern between
right and wrong. As a result,
the church drifts from the will of God.
Wrong decisions are made. Soon
our teachings deviate from the Holy Scriptures and our lives are not true
examples of what Christ is like.
When the
church isn’t praying, Christians begin to depend on other things besides
Christ to supply the answers to life’s problems.
We look to psychology, to human wisdom, to earthly prosperity, to
education for the answers. Then
we try to counsel people out of all the problems that prayerlessness got
them into.
What happens when
the church isn’t praying? Unbelief
enters our hearts so that we become blind to the value of prayer.
We forget the transforming power that one experiences simply by
being brought into God’s presence through prayer.
Paul told the Romans, “And be not conformed to this world: but
be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is
that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).
We are transformed by the power of the Word of God and by the power
of the Holy Spirit. And we are
transformed by communicating with God through prayer.
Through
prayer we enter into the very heavenly sanctuary of God.
There the Holy Spirit renews our minds, making spiritual things
real to us again. He renews
our hope in the eternal. Our
values are set in proper order. In
prayer, we are set free from the world’s attempt to take away our
heavenly citizenship and give us a worldly agenda.
We need to return to the place of prayer. Christ will build His church through praying people. There are many ways we can add numbers to our congregations, but the powers of darkness will only be brought down through prayer. Our churches have built elaborate fellowship halls, dining areas, and gymnasiums; but how many of our churches include a prayer room? We are eating ourselves to death naturally, but we are becoming skeletons spiritually. We need a revival of prayer in our churches. May God help us to return to the place of prayer!
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