SEVEN PRAYERLESS DAYS MAKE ONE WEAK

How has it become possible for such a decline to happen in the church? It is because churches have become activity houses instead of prayer houses; everything happens except prayer. Kjell Sjoberg

I started with this quote because it is very evident that the church today is a house of activity. I remember a church I was attending which had a new ‘pastor’. One of the first things he did was to shut down all the prayer meetings. Over a period of four years, the membership declined by 50%. The only people left were those who has a position of power or those who were happy to be controlled by the so called ‘pastor’.

The New Testament Church prayed daily. The New Testament Church performed miracles. The New Testament Church could not be controlled by the religious authorities of the day or the civil government. The New Testament Church was out there bringing new people into the kingdom on a daily basis.

It is utterly foolish to think that you or I or any church is going to have the same impact unless we are totally committed to prayer. It is a sad reflection on the church that when it does have times of prayer, it is the least attended meeting.

Is it the people’s fault? Are they luke warm? That may be the case, but I have a feeling that it is more a failing of leadership. A survey done in the USA found out that the average ‘pastor’ prayer for five minutes a day.

If the leadership doesn’t see the need for prayer, the membership is not going to. Good leadership leads by example. If a church is going to make a priority of prayer, the leadership has to. It is no use the secretary announcing the prayer meeting if he doesn’t attend it. It is no use the pastor encouraging the members to attend a prayer meeting if he isn’t a man of prayer. It is no use having a prayer meeting unless the people are taught the importance and purpose of prayer.

I know that some people are going to say that they pray at home for the church. This is a pointless excuse and exercise when you think about it. On the basis of that argument, a person can say they don’t attend other meetings because they can worship at home, or study the bible at home etc. in other words, we don’t need meetings of any kind because we can do things just as well at home.

If the New Testament Church prayed daily together, not at home by themselves, there must be a reason for this. To know what it was we only have to look at the outcome which is as good an argument against people praying at home by themselves.

The time to pray at home by yourself is after you have prayed together with the other believers.

Today, there is a growing awareness that for evangelism to be effective we need what is known as ‘prayer evangelism’. This involves the church praying together to deal with territorial spirits that are blinding the eyes of the people who you want to reach with the gospel.

When the church commits itself corporately to prayer evangelism, it can break open a city and change it for the good and add many to the Kingdom of God. Without this we are nothing more than activity houses playing in the sandpit of life.

Without this satan will continue to play havoc with people’s lives and we will be responsible for it happening because of our corporate prayerlessness. Prayer happens because we want it to happen. It doesn’t happen because we don’t see the need for it. There isn’t much room in our lives for prayer if we are luke warm.

Jesus said his house was a house of prayer. What makes us think that we have the right to make it anything else?