Prayer: The power of prayer

The place of Prayer

I was sent this article which was written a number of years ago. I found it helpful so I thought I would pass it on. Because of the length and the way the article is divided I have spread it over three days.

I hope you find it as helpful as I have:

ARE WE PREPARED TO PRAY THE PRICE TO SEE GOD MOVE IN OUR NATION?

by Stuart Robinson. At the time of writing this article The Rev Dr Stuart Robinson was the Senior Pastor at the Blackburn Baptist Church in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Luke 11:1 Lord teach us to pray

Introduction

In 1952 Albert Einstein was asked by a Princeton doctoral student what was left in the world for original dissertation research? Einstein replied, ‘Find out about prayer’. English preacher Sidlow Baxter, when he was eightyfive years of age, said, ‘I have pastored only three churches in my more than sixty years of ministry. We had revival in every one. And not one of them came as a result of my preaching. They came as a result of the membership entering into a covenant to pray until revival came. And it did come, every time’ (Willhite 1988:111).

Chaplain of the United States Senate, Richard Halverson, advised that we really don’t have any alternatives to prayer. He says, ‘You can organise until you are exhausted. You can plan, program and subsidise all your plans. But if you fail to pray, it is a waste of time. Prayer is not optional. It is mandatory. Not to pray is to disobey God’ (Bryant 1984:39). Roy Pointer, after extensive research in Baptist churches in the United Kingdom, arrived at the conclusion that wherever there was positive growth, there was one recurring factor: they were all praying churches.

In the United States of America, at Larry Lea’s Church on the Rock in Rockwall, Texas, numerical growth was from 13 people in 1980 to 11,000 people by 1988. When he was asked about such amazing growth, he said ‘I didn’t start a church I started a prayer meeting’. When David Shibley, the minister responsible for prayer in that church was asked the secret of the church, he said, ‘The evangelistic program of our church is the daily prayer meeting. Every morning, Monday through Friday, we meet at 5.00 am to pray. If we see the harvest of conversions fall off for more than a week, we see that as a spiritual red alert and seek the Lord’ (Shibley 1985:7).

In Korea, where the church has grown from almost zero to a projected 50% of the entire population in this century alone, Pastor Paul Yonggi Cho attributes his church’s conversion rate of 12,000 people per month as primarily due to ceaseless prayer. In Korea it is normal for church members to go to bed early so they can arise at 4.00 am to participate in united prayer. It is normal for them to pray all through Friday nights. It is normal to go out to prayer retreats. Cho says that any church might see this sort of phenomenal growth if they are prepared to ‘pray the price,’ to ‘pray and obey.’

Cho was once asked by a local pastor why was it that Cho’s church membership was 750,000 and his was only 3,000 when he was better educated, preached better sermons and even had a foreign wife? Cho inquired, ‘How much do you pray?’ The pastor said, ‘Thirty minutes a day.’ To which Cho replied, ‘There is your answer. I pray from three to five hours per day.’ In America one survey has shown that pastors on average pray 22 minutes per day. In mainline churches, it is less than that. In Japan they pray 44 minutes a day, Korea 90 minutes a day, and China 120 minutes a day. It’s not surprising that the growth rate of churches in those countries is directly proportional to the amount of time pastors are spending in prayer.

Growth a Supernatural Process

The church is a living organism. It is God’s creation with Jesus Christ as its head (Colossians 1:18). From Him life flows (John 14:6). We have a responsibility to cooperate with God (1Corinthians 3:6). We know that unless the Lord builds the house we labour in vain (Psalm 127:1). The transfer of a soul from the kingdom of darkness to that of light is a spiritual, supernatural process (Colossians 1:14). It is the Father who draws (John 6:44). It is the Holy Spirit who convicts (John 16:811). He causes confession to be made (1 Corinthians 12:3). He completes conversion (Titus 3:5). It is the Holy Spirit who also strengthens and empowers (Ephesians 3:16). He guides into truth (John 16:16). He gives spiritual gifts which promote unity (1 Corinthians 12:25), building up the church (1 Corinthians 14:12), thus avoiding disunity and strife which stunt growth.

This is fundamental spiritual truth accepted and believed by all Christians. However, the degree to which we are convinced that all real growth is ultimately a supernatural process and are prepared to act upon that belief, will be directly reflected in the priority that we give to corporate and personal prayer in the life of the church. It is only when we begin to see that nothing that matters will occur except in answer to prayer that prayer will become more than an optional program for the faithful few, and instead it will become the driving force of our churches. Obviously God wants our pastors, other leaders and His people to recognise that only He can do extraordinary things. When we accept that simple premise, we may begin to pray.

(c) Stuart Robinson. First published by the Australian Baptist Missionary Society, 1992.

More tomorrow…