Imagine being a church where God is answering prayers for salvation, healing and all kinds of needs. Where God is adding to our numbers those who are being saved. Where there is strong internal life—love for one another as the body of Christ.
Imagine being a church with strong outward focus—mission to the world by proclaiming Christ.
Imagine a church that is prevailing! A church that deals with internal conflict with wise and humble solutions. It overcomes external pressures with room-shaking prayer meetings. This is the kind of church we read about in the book of Acts. God took a small group of 120 people, who were once timid, fearful and hiding, and made them bold, clear, unified and powerful. God took a group of ordinary people and empowered them to do extraordinary things.
Here’s an amazing perspective: God could start with any group of Christians anywhere in the world (even if there were no Christian witnesses anywhere) and make his gospel fill the earth again! Why? Not because of those special people, but because of the special work of the Holy Spirit. Do you realize Christian that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, the same power that filled the first Christians, is the same power with us as his church today?
Do you want to be like the believers in the book of Acts? Do you want to be a prevailing church, a church that is reaching the lost? The first key is prayer.
If we want to act like the Acts of the Apostles, we need to pray like the Apostles did. We cannot think that we in our own strength in our own power are going to do it. We become empowered like them, when we pray like them. Prayer is essential to the life of the church. It is our direct communication with God, and it is through prayer that we receive guidance, strength, and power to accomplish the work that God has called us to do. Prayer is not just a religious exercise or a routine ritual. It is a powerful weapon in the hands of the believer, and it is through prayer that we can overcome every obstacle that stands in our way. But prayer is not just a means to an end but an end in itself. It is through prayer that we connect with God and experience his presence and power in our lives. It is through prayer that we grow in our relationship with him and become more like him. It is through prayer that we are transformed and empowered to do his will.
Prayerless Christianity is powerless Christianity. And powerless Christianity devolves into fake Christianity, which is either hypocritical and small, or hypocritical and worldly. And this is not the church Jesus came to build. He came to build soul winning, a world changing, prevailing movement of devoted followers that never stops proclaiming Christ and advancing his kingdom until he returns for a church that has been forged in fire, purified like gold, and sweet like honey.
Listen now:
