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