Something Everybody Can Do by Lester Roloff

The Power Of Prayer

Power Of Prayer – How powerful is it?
The power of prayer should not be underestimated. James 5:16-18 declares, “…The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.” God most definitely listens to prayers, answers prayers, and moves in response to prayers.

Jesus taught, “…I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20). 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 tells us, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” The Bible urges us, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18).

Power Of Prayer – How do I tap into it?
The power of prayer is not the result of the person praying. Rather, the power resides in the God who is being prayed to. 1 John 5:14-15 tells us, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.” No matter the person praying, the passion behind the prayer, or the purpose of the prayer – God answers prayers that are in agreement with His will. His answers are not always yes, but are always in our best interest. When our desires line up with His will, we will come to understand that in time. When we pray passionately and purposefully, according to God’s will, God responds powerfully!

We cannot access powerful prayer by using “magic formulas.” Our prayers being answered is not based on the eloquence of our prayers. We don’t have to use certain words or phrases to get God to answer our prayers. In fact, Jesus rebukes those who pray using repetitions, “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:7-8). Prayer is communicating with God. All you have to do is ask God for His help. Psalm 107:28-30 reminds us, “Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven.” There is power in prayer!

Power Of Prayer – For what kind of things should I pray?
God’s help through the power of prayer is available for all kinds of requests and issues. Philippians 4:6-7 tells us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” If you need an example of a prayer, read Matthew 6:9-13. These verses are known as the Lord’s prayer. The Lord’s prayer is not a prayer we are supposed to memorize and simply recite to God. It is only an example of how to pray and the things that should go into a prayer – worship, trust in God, requests, confession, protection, etc. Pray for these kinds of things, but speak to God using your own words.

The Word of God is full of accounts describing the power of prayer in various situations. The power of prayer has overcome enemies (Psalm 6:9-10), conquered death (2 Kings 4:3-36), brought healing (James 5:14-15), and defeated demons (Mark 9:29). God, through prayer, opens eyes, changes hearts, heals wounds, and grants wisdom (James 1:5). The power of prayer should never be underestimated because it draws on the glory and might of the infinitely powerful God of the universe! Daniel 4:35 proclaims, “All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?’”

The Weapon of Prayer: God’s Need of People Who Pray

By E. M. Bounds

We proceed now to declare that it demands prayer-leadership to hold the Church to Gods aims, and to fit it for Gods uses.  Prayer-leadership preserves the spirituality of the Church, just as prayerless leaders make for unspiritual conditions.  The Church is not spiritual simply by the mere fact of its existence, nor by its vocation.  It is not held to its sacred vocation by generation, nor by succession.  Like the new birth, It is not of blood, neither of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

The Church is not spiritual simply because it is concerned and deals in spiritual values.  It may hold its confirmations by the thousand, it may multiply its baptisms, and administer its sacraments innumerable times, and yet be as far from fulfilling its true mission as human conditions can make it.

This present worlds general attitude retires prayer to insignificance and obscurity.  By it, salvation and eternal life are put in the background.  It cannot be too often affirmed, therefore, that the prime need of the Church is not men of money nor men of brains, but men of prayer.  Leaders in the realm of religious activity are to be judged by their praying habits, and not by their money or social position.  Those who must be placed in the forefront of the Churchs business, must be, first of all, men who know how to pray.

God does not conduct His work, solely, with men of education or of wealth or of business capacity.  Neither can He carry on His work through men of large intellects or of great culture, nor yet through men of great social eminence and influence.  All these can be made to count provided they are not regarded as being primary.  These men, by the simple fact of these qualities and conditions, cannot lead in Gods work nor control His cause.  Men of prayer, before anything else, are indispensable to the furtherance of the kingdom of God on earth.  No other sort will fit in the scheme or do the deed.  Men, great and influential in other things, but small in prayer, cannot do the work Almighty God has set out for His Church to do in this, His world.

Men who represent God and who stand here in His stead, men who are to build up His kingdom in this world, must be in an eminent sense men of prayer.  Whatever else they may have, whatever else they may lack, they must be men of prayer.  Having everything else and lacking prayer, they must fail.  Having prayer and lacking all else, they can succeed.  Prayer must be the most conspicuous and the most potent factor in the character and conduct of men who undertake divine commission.  Gods business requires men who are versed in the business of praying.

It must be kept in mind that the praying to which the disciples of Christ is called by Scriptural authority and enforcement, is a valorous calling, for manly men.  The men God wants and upon whom He depends, must work at prayer just as they work at their worldly calling.  They must follow this business of praying through, just as they do their secular pursuits.  Diligence, perseverance. heartiness, and courage, must all be in it if it is to succeed.

Everything secured by Gospel promise, defined by Gospel measure, and represented by Gospel treasure are to be found in prayer.  All heights are scaled by it, all doors are opened to it, all victories are gained through it, and all grace distills on it.  Heaven has all its good and all its help for men who pray.

How marked and strong is the injunction of Christ which sends men from the parade of public giving and praying to the privacy of their closets, where with shut doors, and in encircling silence they are alone in prayer with God!

In all ages, those who have carried out the divine will on the earth, have been men of prayer.  The days of prayer are Gods halcyon days.  His heart, His oath, and His glory are committed to one issuance — that every knee should how to Him. The day of the Lord, in a preeminent sense, will be a day of universal prayer.

Gods cause does not suffer through lack of divine ability, but by reason of the lack of prayer ability in man.  Gods action is just as much bound up in prayer at this time, as it was when He said to Abimelech, Abraham shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live.  So also it was when God said to Jobs friends, My servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept.

Gods great plan for the redemption of mankind is as much bound up to prayer for its prosperity and success as when the decree creating the movement was issued from the Father, bearing on its frontage the imperative, universal and eternal condition, Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth for thy possession.

In many places an alarming state of things has come to pass, in that the many who are enrolled in our churches are not praying men and women.  Many of those occupying prominent positions in church life are not praying men.  It is greatly to feared that much of the work of the Church is being done by those who are perfect strangers to the closet.  Small wonder that the work does not succeed.

While it may be true that many in the Church say prayers, it is equally true that their praying is of the stereotyped order.  Their prayers may be charged with sentiment, but they are tame, timid, and without fire or force.  Even this sort of praying is done by a few straggling men to be found at prayer-meetings.  Those whose names are to be found bulking large in our great Church assemblies are not men noted for their praying habits.  Yet the entire fabric of the work in which they are engaged has, perforce, to depend on the adequacy of prayer.  This fact is similar to the crisis which would be created were a country to have to admit in the face of an invading foe that it cannot fight and have no knowledge of the weapons whereby war is to be waged.

In all Gods plans for human redemption, He proposes that men pray.  The men are to pray in every place, in the church, in the closet, in the home, on sacred days and on secular days.  All things and everything are dependent on the measure of mens praying.

Prayer is the genius and mainspring of life.  We pray as we live; we live as we pray.  Life will never be finer than the quality of the closet.  The mercury of life will rise only by the warmth of the closet.  Persistent non-praying eventually will depress life below zero.

To measure and weigh the conditions of prayer, is readily to discover why men do not pray in larger numbers.  The conditions are so perfect, so blessed, that it is a rare character who can meet them.  A heart all love, a heart that holds even its enemies in loving contemplation and prayerful concern, a heart from which all bitterness, revenge and envy are purged — how rare!  Yet this is the only condition of mind and heart in which a man can expect to command the efficacy of prayer.

There are certain conditions laid down for authentic praying.  Men are to pray, lifting up holy hands; hands here being the symbol of life.  Hands unsoiled by stains of evil doing are the emblem of a life unsoiled by sin.  Thus are men to come into the presence of God, thus are they to approach the throne of the Highest, where they can obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  Here, then, is one reason why men do not pray.  They are too worldly in heart and too secular in life to enter the closet; and even though they enter there, they cannot offer the fervent, effectual prayer of the righteous man, which availeth much.

Again, hands are the symbols of supplication.  Outstretched hands stand for an appeal for help.  It is the silent yet eloquent attitude of a helpless soul standing before God, appealing for mercy and grace.  Hands, too, are symbols of activity, power and conduct.  Hands outstretched to God in prayer must be holy hands, unstained hands. The word holy here means undefiled, unspotted, untainted, and religiously observing every obligation.  How far remote is all this from the character of the sin-loving, worldly-minded, fleshly disposed men, soiled by fleshly lusts, spotted by worldly indulgence, unholy in heart and conduct!  He who seeks equity must do equity, is the maxim of earthly courts.  So he who seeks Gods good gifts must practice Gods good deeds.  This is the maxim of heavenly courts.

Prayer is sensitive, and always affected by the character and conduct of him who prays.  Water cannot rise above its own level, and a spotless prayer cannot flow from a spotted heart.  Straight praying is never born of crooked conduct.  The men, what men are, behind their praying, that gives character to their supplication.  The craven heart cannot do brave praying.  Soiled men cannot make clean, pure supplication.

It is neither words, nor thoughts nor ideas, nor feelings, which shape praying, but character and conduct.  Men must walk in upright fashion in order to be able to pray well.  Bad character and unrighteous living break down praying until it becomes a mere shibboleth.  Praying takes its tone and vigour from the life of the man or the woman exercising it.  When character and conduct are at a low ebb, praying can but barely live, much less thrive.

The man of prayer, whether layman or preacher, is Gods right-hand man.  In the realm of spiritual affairs, he creates conditions, inaugurates movements, brings things to pass.

By the fact and condition of their creation and redemption, all men are under obligation to pray.  Every man can pray, and every man should pray.  But when it comes to the affairs of the Kingdom, let it be said, at once, that a prayerless man in the Church of God is like a paralysed organ of the physical body.  He is out of place in the communion of saints, out of harmony with God, and out of accord with His purposes for mankind.  A prayerless man handicaps the vigour and life of the whole system like a demoralized soldier is a menace to the force of which he forms part, in the day of battle.  The absence of prayer lessens all the life-forces of the soul, cripples faith, sets aside holy living, shuts out heaven.  Between praying saints and non-praying men, in Holy Scripture, the line is sharply drawn.  Of Fletcher of Madeley — one of the praying saints — it is written that He was far more abundant in his public labours than the greater part of his companions in the holy ministry.  Yet these bore but little proportion to those internal exercises of prayer and supplication to which he was wholly given up in private, which were almost uninterruptedly maintained from hour to hour.  He lived in the spirit of prayer, and whatever employment in which he was engaged, this spirit of prayer was constantly manifested through them all.

Without this he neither formed any design, nor entered upon any duty.  Without this he neither read nor conversed.  Without this, he neither visited nor received a visitor.  There have been seasons of supplications in which he appeared to be carried out far beyond the ordinary limits of devotion, when, like his Lord upon the Mount of Transfiguration, while he continued to pour out his mighty prayer, the fashion of his countenance has been changed, and his face has appeared as the face of an angel.

God, raise up more men of praying like John Fletcher!  How we do need, in this our day, men through whom God can work!