Moving Heaven and Earth by Prayer

You cannot stop the spiritual victories of a praying person unless you first stop them from praying. That is always the devilÂ’s first line of attack, to stop us from an effective prayer life. The devil does not tremble at our great sermons or our beautiful music; he trembles only when we stay on our faces until we pray with power. Anointed praying is the one and only means of victory, either in our personal life or in the church life. There is no spiritual success without mighty prayer and there is no spiritual defeat with mighty prayer. It is the first line of the churchÂ’s business. We will need very few programs and very little of anything else when our prayer life is in Biblical order.

The primary business of every Bible believing Christian is to pray. When God created Adam and Eve, the first business of their lives was the daily visits with Him. When they sinned, the first thing they did was to hide from those visits. No person can be a Christian who does not pray, and no person that prays (Biblically) is going to fail to be touched by His grace. No marriage can survive without talking with one another, and no Christian experience can survive without talking to God. The heart of God longs to hear from us and the heart of a saint longs to hear from God.

The miracles at the altar of the church actually occurred at someone’s altar of prayer. The Bible could not be plainer; God does nothing in His house or in your life until He first does it at your altar of devotion and prayer. As I review the great things God has done for me, I can go back past those wonderful experiences and identify the moment in prayer that God answered. I will never forget as I prayed for my son when He spoke to me and said almost audibly, “I promise you your son.” Quit looking for miracles on Sunday morning if you have not witnessed that miracle at your prayer altar. Your life is heading for glorious miracles when you pray them through on your knees.

Jesus Christ chose twelve disciples to train as the foundation leaders of the New Testament church. They often saw Him finish the day of miracles only to head for the Judean hills to pray all night. He actually put them in a boat and sent them across the Sea of Galilee while He resorted to talk with God. As they watched Him preach, teach, and perform miracles, they yearned to be ready to follow. They never said, “Teach us to preach, teach us to perform miracles” or even “Teach us to sing or do church.” They said “…Lord teach us to pray…” ( Luke 11:1) This is what made the New Testament church invincible. The disciples, the women and the converts had learned from the Master “how to pray.” They did not need anything else. Prayer was their lifestyle. Pentecost and everything that followed was built on “communion with God.”

When the men from Cornelius’s house got to the home where Peter was a guest, he was praying. The angel that spoke to Cornelius knew where the praying man of God was waiting for instruction. Peter experienced a vision and a visitation and came to the house of Cornelius ready to start a revolution that would open the Gospel door to the gentile world. He did not need a “Church Growth Conference” because he knew how to pray. The church world will be too busy praying when revival comes to listen to the religious pundits that are so busy developing schemes to build religious clubs. Their day is almost finished because God has got some saints praying.

When the “Judgment Seat of Christ” is set, the rewards will not cover the “world’s best singers” or the “world’s best preachers” but the “prayers of the saints”. Look at the raptured saints in Revelation Chapter Five. There is no mention of pulpit skills and great voices of music, but “the prayers of the saints.” The Lord said, “And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.” (Revelation 5:8)

All of the human greatness that is so honored in today’s church will be of no value. It’s the praying saints that have characterized the church during every victory she has ever won. Our God is once again moving men and women to pray. The enemy will try every demonic trick to stop your prayer life. You may feel that you are unnoticed and unneeded but wait on Him. It takes more spiritual backbone to wait on God in prayer than any business of the Kingdom. His promise is unfailing, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)