Is God’s presence felt in a powerful way in your church when it gathers for worship each Sunday? And does your church have a significant impact upon its community? If not, these two things can and will happen if you and your fellow church members regularly do two things: (1) Genuinely pray for them to happen, and (2) demonstrate a willingness to be used by God to make your prayer become a reality.
How long has it been since you prayed with all your heart for the outreach ministry of your church to be successful? Try to answer this question honestly – even if you are embarrassed and convicted. Until you have prayed for your church – its staff, its mission, and its ministries – in great detail and with sincerity, you have no legitimate right to: (1) find fault with anything it does, (2) fail to attend its worship services, or (3) refuse to support it financially. A person who prays for his or her church will do none of these three things.
Francis W. Dixon, an English Baptist minister, once said: “There is only one real problem in the church of God these days, and that problem is its prayer life.” This was not true in the first century church. The book of Acts says, “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (Acts 4:31 NIV).
Something good always happened when the early church prayed. It should be obvious that it was not the building that was shaken. It was the disciples who were shaken, and they went out to shake the entire Roman world with power. The word for power in Greek is dunamis, the word from we get the word dynamite.
First century Christians were conductors of power. Christians today can also become centers of pulsating, dynamic, spiritual power. It can happen in a church only when it is committed to prayer. God’s power is as available to churches today as it was to the early church two thousand years ago.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism says: “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies.” It would be hard to improve on that definition of prayer.
The early Christians, faced with persecution, prayed for boldness: “Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness” (Acts 4:29 NIV). Our request as we face the challenges of our world should be the same as theirs: “Lord, give us boldness to proclaim your gospel.”
Dr. Daniel Poling was editor of the Christian Herald for many years. He had a son who was one of the four chaplains who went down on the Dorchester not far from the British coast early in World War II. Each of the four chaplains had given his lifejacket to another passenger. They stood at the rail, hand in hand, and went down with the ship. Clark Poling had written a letter to his parents shortly before he left on that fateful voyage. In the letter he said, “I know I shall have your prayers; but please don’t pray simply that God will keep me safe. War is dangerous business. Pray that God will make me adequate.”
The result of genuine prayer is that powerful things will happen. If you want your church to be filled with power, commit yourself to the goal of praying for it. Encourage your fellow members to join you in this venture. What happened in the early church can happen in your church. Prayers can be answered only when they are prayed. Nothing lies outside the reach of prayer except that which is outside the will of God.
Remember this: God is still in the business of answering prayers. The tragedy within far too many churches today, however, is not unanswered prayer. It is unoffered prayer. Believe it!
The Paper Pulpit 
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