DAY 21

WHEN PRAYER BECOMES OPTIONAL

JOHN MACDONALD, LEAD PASTOR

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and

mighty things, which you do not know. —Jeremiah 33:3 (NKJV)

When prayer is viewed as optional, the Church becomes passive. The lack of prayer in the Church has taken a massive toll on the advancement of God’s kingdom. What God does and how God moves are in direct response to the prayers of His people. When God’s people fail to pray, a vacuum of spiritual maturity, ministry, and discipleship sweeps through the Church, sucking the very life out of it. Not to mention the poverty of power that is all too evident. What remains is strife, conflict, division, sin, and a selfishness that causes people to think church is all about them.

As the Church we have lost so much ground and influence over our communities and cities the past several decades due to our prayerlessness. Let me remind you of the words Leonard Ravenhill writes in his book, Why Revival Tarries:

Poverty-stricken as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.

This statement is true! When we fail to pray, we will fail at everything else because everything will be done in our own wisdom and strength instead of through the power of the Holy Spirit.

What has robbed us of this most sacred of calls, the call to pray? When church leaders see prayer as an alternative rather than a necessity, the people will blindly follow. This comes from the thought that “God is going to do what God is going to do whether I pray or not.” This is simply another lie from the pit of hell that our enemy feeds us in order to stop us from praying. The truth is God has chosen to move and work through his people. When God’s people pray, heaven moves, but when we fail to pray, we actually give our enemy an opportunity to advance his cause. There is no kingdom resistance when we fail to pray. Without heavenly resistance, the Church and its people become the enemy's playground.

What we have to understand is that Satan hates prayer and will do whatever he can to dislodge it from our lives. Take a quick glance at our culture today, and you can immediately see that the enemy has us running here, there, and everywhere so that we will avoid prayer. Why? Because it is the one thing that has the power to defeat every one of his schemes and tactics. We are a busy culture. We have meetings, work, lunch appointments, and hobbies to attend to. We have kids in dance and sports, with many performances, practices and games to attend. We have families, friends, chores, pets, and other duties to attend to as well. With all this attending, we have no time left to attend to the Lord. So we don’t. Prayer is the first to go when it should have been our first response of the day. Lord Jesus, forgive us!

Pastor Ronnie FLoyd, in his book How to Pray, said there are two major statements about prayer that we must understand: “Prayer occurs when you depend on God, and Prayerlessness occurs when you depend on yourself.”

Todd Smith wrote in his book Unless We Pray, “The prayer level of the church determines the fire level in the church. That is why some churches are cold and frigid—no prayer! No Fire!”

Individually, we have to fight for time in prayer and make it a priority once again. Corporately, we must build our church from the place of prayer. Building from any place else leaves us deficient and lacking. Let’s not forget that the early Church was born out of a prayer meeting (Acts 2). Peter was supernaturally walked out of prison by an angel when the church spent the night in prayer (Acts 12). A great earthquake came when Paul and Silas were praying in prison, and the doors to their cells flew open (Acts 16). When the believers pray, it releases God’s will; it releases heaven to invade the earth. Oh, the revival that would be unleashed in the world if the Church and God’s people would give themselves to prayer once again.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, forgive me for placing so many trivial and unimportant things before my relationship and intimacy with You. I confess my failure to put You first in my life, to put You first in family, and first over all my life. I commit to radically carve out time to meet with You every morning. And as I meet with you, may the discipline of getting up early be transformed into a hunger for You that causes me to long and cry out for more, amen.