Page 1 - Good News February 2014 paper
P. 1

hristians  around  the  world  agree   Scriptures like these ones:
                 that prayer is essential to see God    + “If My people who are called by My Name
          Cmove  on  our  behalf,  win  the  lost       will humble themselves, and pray and seek
          world to Christ, and build God’s Kingdom.     My face, and turn from their wicked ways,
          Yet, studies show pastors spend about 12      then  I  will  hear  from  heaven,  and  will
          minutes in prayer a day, and the average      forgive  their  sin  and  heal  their  land”
          believer spends only eight minutes. At the    (2 Chronicles 7:14).
          same  time,  they  don’t  mind  engaging  at   + “And whatever you ask in My Name, that I
          length in other Christian activities, such as   will do, that the Father may be glorified in
          Bible  studies,  concerts,  retreats,  evan-  the Son. If you ask anything in My Name, I
          gelism, and charity work. Why does prayer     will do it” (John 14:13-14).
          come last on our list of priorities?  Could it   Since our prayers will activate heaven, the
          be that the enemy succeeded to convince       devil  does  all  he  can  to  prevent  us  from
          us that all those other activities are easier   praying  and  seeing  God’s  promises
          and produce better results than prayer?       fulfilled.
               The  truth  is  the  devil  knows  the         When Jesus, the Son of God, took on
          Almighty God restricted Himself to act on     human form and lived among us, He made
          the prayers of His people.   Just consider    prayer His highest priority.  This gave God
                                                        the  Father  complete  freedom  to  work
                                                        unhindered through Him.                        battle instead of using the weapons of warfare God
                                                              The  Gospel  of  Luke  points  out  that   gave  us  and  the  power  of  prayer  to  defeat  the
                                                        Jesus was in prayer when the Holy Spirit
                                                        descended on Him. He prayed and fasted
                                                        40  days  before  starting  His  ministry.  He
                                                        prayed  all  night  before  He  chose  His
                                                        disciples. He prayed before He faced each
                                                                                                                         Continued on p. 2
                                                        busy day of ministry. He prayed before He                        Continued on p. 2
                                                        fed the 5 000. He prayed before He raised
                                                        Lazarus from the dead. He was in prayer
                                                        when  He  was  transfigured,  and  He  still
                                                        prayed when He was hanging on the cross.
                                                        Jesus’ prayer life was so powerful that His
                                                        disciples asked Him to teach them to pray
                                                        like Him - and He did. If Jesus, Who is our
                                                        Example, and the apostles after Him, found
                                                        it necessary to spend hours in prayer, what
                                                        about us? Why do we pray so little even
                                                        after studying the New Testament, reading
                                                        books  on  prayer  and  attending  confe-
                                                        rences on prayer?
                                                              I believe it is because
                                                        we don’t realize that we
                                                        are engaged in a real war
                                                        where  the  enemy  is
                                                        shooting  deadly  bullets
                                                        with the intent to kill us
                                                        and destroy the work of
                                                        God.  Therefore, we react
                                                        with  physical  activities
                                                        and  human  wisdom  to
                                                        the  unseen  spiritual
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