Prayer is the Strategy that Powers the Mission of God. The problem we have with prayer is we have it in the wrong category. When we hear teaching on prayer, we react to it just like we do to running. The preacher says, “Brothers and Sisters, run without ceasing.” And we say, “Pastor, I know I should, but I’m just so exhausted I don’t have the energy. I’m not really good at it. I’m not disciplined enough.” It’s like running.
But what if we moved it into the same category as eating? “Brothers and Sisters, eat without ceasing.” Finally, something I’m qualified for. Lately I’ve been over-praying. I’ve been stress-praying lately and I just go on a binge. I’ve been snacking a lot in between prayer times--I just get so hungry. The other night at church it was all you can pray buffet. See, it’s just in the wrong category. Because prayer is not a discipline like running. Prayer sustains the body of Christ like food. Jesus feeds his people and his church through prayer.
Prayer is the Strategy that Powers the Church
Jesus taught that prayer is the purpose for gathering his people:
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written:
“ ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’?
But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’ ” Mark 11:15-17
Jesus says: “You don’t understand why my people gather together. My house will be called a house of PRAYER! It’s not a business model for entertaining large crowds.” Prayer is at the core for Jesus. But it seems that we have neglected prayer in the church. I think we don’t pray much together because we find it boring. What could be boring about a torrent of God’s power rushing into your life? What would it take for this house to be a house of prayer? What about you? Are you prayerful?
I know I didn’t rely on prayer much 20 years ago when God called Rebecca and me to translate the Bible for a Muslim people and start a church planting movement.
We moved into a dusty, tin-roofed shack in a small village. We didn’t even have a car just two bicycles with us. One morning, the chilling wails of a mother in distress woke us. They told us her three-year-old son was dying. I felt so sad for this mother that I asked, “Could we see the child?” He was out being treated by a witch doctor so they went and brought him back. When Rebecca and I were finally brought to the boy, he was lying on the earthen floor of a grass-roofed hut belonging to one of his relatives in the village. His breathing was labored, and his pupils, wide like inky wells, did not respond at all to my flashlight. The words “pupils fixed and dilated,” which I’d heard countless times on TV hospital dramas, echoed in my memory. Hopelessness crept into me as I realized that his mother was right; her son might not live long.
In hushed tones, Rebecca and I talked with the local pastor about what medical procedure might save the boy. “It can’t be meningitis because we don’t have any medicine for that,” I mused, applying dubious diagnostics. “It could be cerebral malaria, but I don’t know how to get an unconscious child to take the malaria tablets.”
At some point I suggested, “We should pray for the kid. After all, we are missionaries.”
At the simple mention of prayer, I saw the boy blink, and his eyes began to wander around the room focusing here and there.
I said, “We had better hurry up and pray, because I think God is healing him!” By the time we had finished praying, the boy’s breathing was normal, and we were able to give him a dose of malaria medicine. That’s when I first started to realize, God is real, and he wants me to rely on him first, not as a last resort.
Back in 2006 I was minding my own business working as a missionary in West Africa when disaster struck. The board of Pioneer Bible Translators made me the president of our mission. I realized that everyone would be looking at me expecting me to have a plan. I’m a bush missionary not a CEO. I had nothing. So I started begging God for help. And I thought, you know, I am a Bible translator. What if I look in the Bible? There I found Jesus’ promises that God would answer certain kinds of prayer with infinite power. I said, “Hey, what if this stuff would actually work? What if instead of praying about our strategies we make prayer the strategy! Jesus said: I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. –John 14:12-14
Jesus didn’t say, anyone who is an apostle. He said anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. Raise your hand if you have faith in Jesus. Turn to the person next to you and say, “Jesus is talking about you.” You will do even greater things! Because Jesus will do whatever we ask “in his name.”
So what does praying “in Jesus name” really mean? Is that where we say, “Dear God, please give me a Lamborghini; In Jesus Name.” No, in the Bible names represent the nature and character of the person. And Jesus’ name means “salvation.” So whenever we pray things consistent with the passion and the nature and the character of the name of Jesus—prayer for his Kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth, that’s praying “In Jesus Name”. Jesus said: If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. --John 15:7
Jesus said: I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. –John 15:15-16
The bad news is that we might never get that Lamborghini. But the good news is that the mission of Jesus is at the heart of the character of Jesus so we have Jesus’ promise for unlimited power when we pray about what he wants to do through us in our neighborhoods and in the world. What is “the master’s business” in your life? Pray about that because…
God Answers Prayers in Jesus’ name with Unlimited Power
Maybe you’ve never really prayed anything “in Jesus name.” Jesus said: I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. --John 16:23-24
Jesus also taught us to persevere in prayer. He told 2 stories about prayer to teach us to always pray and never give up! (Luke 18:1) One of them is about a guy who’s laying in his bed at night when all of sudden there’s a pounding on the door. He’s rushing to the door in his P.J.’s fumbling with a shotgun and some shells. In Texas, that’s how we roll. His wife’s got 911 punched into the cell phone ready to hit dial. He looks through the peephole and, “Oh. It’s our crazy neighbor.” He won’t go away. He’s just pounding the door like a lunatic. So just to make him stop you answer the door.
Then Jesus says YOU be the crazy neighbor. Pray like that guy!
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Luke 11:9-10
God Answers Persistent Prayer
Why does God wait until we shamelessly pound the door of heaven all hours of the night before he answers? I would prefer to calmly knock once at midday like any decent person. Here’s why:
What would happen if someone in this church prayed once and God worked mighty miracles and this church doubled or tripled and the budget went through the roof. People would say, “We’re a great church!” We would take credit and pride would ruin us. But if God withholds his power until our entire church is united in prayer persistently over and over for years and then he blesses us. What would we say then? We say, “We have a great God! Praise God!”
Jesus teaches us to pray in unified groups:
19 “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:19-20
The word “Agree” in this verse is where we get the word, “symphony.” The same word is used in another verse for music at a party. Unified group prayer is like a beautiful symphony for God.
God answers unified group prayer with unlimited power
Back in the middle of 2008 at the start of the “Great Recession,” I had just become president and I was feeling the financial heat. Pioneer Bible Translators’ financial report for July hit my e-mail in-box like a grenade. I didn’t know much, but I could tell the number was below zero every month. I hear that’s bad. Basically, I was riding a bobsled to bankruptcy.
We had already decided to make prayer the strategy, so I wrote a note to my teammates worldwide in July:
“Please pray that God would pour out his blessings on our finances.” We all prayed together all over the world.
The rest of the year shot into the positive like a rocket. If a financial expert were to analyze this graph, they would put their finger on the month of July and say, “What did you do right here? Whatever it was, you need to do a lot more of that.” After we made prayer the strategy for our mission, our annual income well over doubled in just 7 years. People ask us to explain the business model that overcame the Great Recession, and we have to say: “We prayed the kinds of prayers Jesus promised to answer with limitless power.” They never look at you the same after that.
-God answered prayer just as powerfully increasing the number of missionaries. People told us that this generation wouldn’t commit to long term ministry. And worse, we go to them and say, “Hey, how would you like to live in a war-torn tropical malarial zone just teaming with Islamic extremists? We’ll let you raise all your own money!” That’s a hard sell. So, we all started praying together over and over for years for God to send us the right new missionaries. The number of overseas career missionaries doubled in just 5 years. Can you find the place on this graph where we decided to make prayer our strategy?
If God can do that, what is impossible for God?
Prayer is the strategy that powers the mission of God!
So here’s what I suggest:
1. Ask God to show you what he wants you to do
2. Listen for God’s assignment It’s going to sound impossible. Maybe even terrifying. That’s how you know it’s God talking.
3. Keep specific, strategic prayer request lists for the people you influence and the work of God’s Kingdom around you so you can be persistent in prayer. Write a list with this question: What are the impossible things that have to happen to do God’s assignment?
4. Gather together regularly for unified, persistent group prayer
5. Pray expectantly. Keep a pen handy to write down ideas and instructions you get from God. Act on the marching orders you receive.
In my experience, God answers these kinds of prayers for anyone
One year while I was here in the states, over in West Africa thieves began stealing solar panels in the whole region. They stole the panels off of the hospital, the governor’s office, and even the police station itself! Every solar panel for hundreds of miles was stolen. And of course, they stole the solar panels off of my house way out in the village. The church was furious. They said, “No way! I don’t care who else lost solar panels, these bandits will absolutely not get away with steeling Jesus’ solar panels!” And they got together regularly to fast and pray that they could catch the thieves. There’s no way that can happen. One night they had just been holding a special catch-the-thieves prayer meeting. They walked out of the church and there was a man walking by out on the road and one church leader just somehow knew this was the guy. They found wires and wire cutters in his pocket. He admitted he had come to the village to steal the last solar panels off of the home of a church leader—while they were busy praying. So, they tied him up and took him into town to the police. In town they somehow found out that the thieves were reselling the panels in a distant city. They took a policeman to that city and cruised around town confiscating stolen solar panels. I lost 8 panels and I got 8 panels back—and some of them were actually mine! A pastor in town stood up at a huge meeting and testified that out of all the solar panels that were stolen even from the police, only the people praying in Jesus’ name got theirs back. The Muslim leaders of the whole region learned that that God answers persistent, unified, group prayer in Jesus name! Now, nobody steals from that church anymore. A few years ago, they began fasting and praying together every month for God to help them evangelize their own people. They are now teaching people how to follow Jesus in 20 villages in 2 different languages. I believe they are in the process of planting a church in every major Yalunka village. If God can do that among Muslims, what is impossible for God?
Prayer is not about getting whatever you want. It’s how God releases power in you to get whatever he wants.
God Answers Persistent Unified Group prayer in Jesus name
I wish I could find a way to make prayer, “the next big thing.” At least as big a deal as like essential oils. It’s our source of unlimited power from Jesus to serve him. Jesus promised he would do anything you ask, whatever you ask! No limit. I only know one way for you to find out if it will work in your life: I dare you to try it!