Power of Prayer

1986

I’d like to mention five aspects of prayer as a supernatural weapon. We discussed last week the position and the prominence of prayer and actually, if you will, the theology of prayer. What is prayer all about? Is it just some kind of mental game or is there something very potent and very real about it? This week we’ll talk about the power of prayer and the priority of prayer, number three: prerequisites to answered prayer, number four: passionate prayer, and number five: people of prayer. We’re gonna talk about the fact that there are real people that really can pray like they really did in the Bible. I’m gonna give you some examples of that that were very encouraging to me and I think they will be to you too.

First of all, the power of prayer. I think it’s an understatement to say, “There’s nothing more powerful in all of the universe than prayer.” Now I realize we live in an atomic age, and we think of power as being large in scope. But the prayer of a child or the prayer of a ninety-year-old widow is more powerful than an atomic bomb. It has more power to influence the course of history than an atomic bomb does, and that is the literal truth. That’s an awesome thought! Why is that? Because God is the one that answers prayer, and God is the one that invented the atom! So, that’s nothing to Him. Prayer is very, very important. I mentioned the prayer of a child—a lot of times if I have something really important on my heart, I’ll ask my children to pray with me because there’s nothing more precious in the sight of God than a child. There’s no prayer in the universe that has more likelihood to pierce into the heavens and to find the heart of God than the prayer of a child. So, I’ll ask them to pray with me, and probably Sadie would be a good person as well to ask to pray with you sometime if something very important is going on in your life.

The fervent prayer of faith by a man or woman sold out to God can move a mountain, Jesus said in Mark 11. The fervent prayer of a man or woman sold out to God can move a mountain. Now Jesus, again, He invented mountains. He knows all about those things. A couple of days ago we were trying to decide whether we were going to move Mt. Mansfield or Camel’s Hump out to Indiana. You guys have any suggestions which one you’d like to part with? Can you imagine the Hoosier flatlanders looking out their window one morning and Camel’s Hump is out on the horizon all of a sudden? I say that obviously, at least marginally facetiously, but there is tremendous and awesome power in prayer that I dare say most of us have never tapped because we don’t really believe it. In our heart, we really don’t even believe it, and therefore, it’s impossible that the prayer will be answered Jesus said and James echoed that.

Benjamin Franklin said to the Constitutional Convention all the way back in 1787, “I’ve lived, Sirs, a long time, and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth…” Now Benjamin Franklin was not an ignorant person. “The longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: God governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, it is probable that an empire cannot rise without His aid.” Now that was a rather intelligent person, and he said, “I have proof of this! And the longer I live, the more proof I see that God rules the nations”—For the Church (Ephesians 1:22). That God is, in fact, the Omnipotent One, the Sovereign of all and nothing can rise without His notice and nothing can fall without His notice. That He is in all and He is over all and all things consist in Him. And that’s why prayer is such an awesome thing because it puts us in communion with God. Not some kind of mechanical thing that we present to God this prayer, and He’s bound by the Word of God to answer prayer. That’s all true, but that’s not the reason why—because then that makes us gods. That makes us the ones that have sway over the universe, and that’s not what prayer’s about.

Prayer is the purpose of putting us in communion with God so that we have the mind of Christ. And if we have the mind of Christ, anything is possible. Have the faith of God, it says in Mark 11, and if you believe without doubting, it will be done for you. That’s because if we have the faith of God, we have the mind of Christ and we are praying for things that are within His will. And then there’s no question that those things will be done. God’s not lying, God’s not hedging. There’s no secrets there in the Greek. Those things WILL be done! It’s a promise of God! If we have the mind of Christ and a life that is sold out to Him, those things ABSOLUTELY WILL BE DONE! There’s no hedging there.

It’s been said that God does everything by prayer and does nothing without prayer—and that’s a truism. God does everything by prayer and nothing without prayer. Prayer is that second key in the lockbox as we talked about last week. You can’t open the lockbox with just one key. God’s key is already in there, but He’s not gonna open that box apart from our key. That’s why prayer is so very important. And our battle’s a supernatural one. If we’re gonna be a mighty army with the banners raised over us, an awesome army, then it’s gonna be imperative that we use supernatural power to accomplish God’s purposes. Maybe that’s why a statement like, “All the learning in the world will never do one single thing for the cause of Christ,” is accurate. All the sincerity in the world, all the desire in the world, all the gifts and the talents in the world, even if those talents and gifts are God-given, all of those things in the world won’t do anything long-term for the cause of Christ.

In John 15 He said, “You can’t do anything apart from me. I can’t do anything apart from my Father, and you can’t do anything if you’re disconnected from the vine. But if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will bear much fruit,” and He goes on to say, “fruit that will last.” Now that’s an important part because we can cause some supernatural—or cause some superficial, rather— some superficial effects by doing the right things. And yet apart from prayer and supernatural weaponry, we cannot take satan’s possessions. It’s impossible without binding up the strong man. And so therefore, without prayer, we have no ability to accomplish anything long-term. It’ll look good for a few minutes or a few weeks or a few months, but it’s all gonna fall apart. Because we don’t have the ability to change the universe. Only God has that. Sincerity won’t do it. Scholarship won’t do it. Cassette tapes are not gonna do it. We’ve got to break the shackles of sin and bind supernatural principalities and powers.W e’re not gonna do that by taking it casually or by playing church. That’s just not gonna work. We’re gonna be devastated. Satan is far bigger than we are. It’s important that we do battle on his level with the weapons that God gives us.

Essentially what I’m saying is that we are powerless to live a Christian life without prayer. All the self-discipline and self-denial and goal-setting in the world will not allow you to live a Christian life apart from prayer. You’re never going to win anybody to Christ; you’re never gonna win their heart to Christ. You might be able to intellectually convince them that they need to follow five steps, but you’re never really gonna win their heart to be sold out to God apart from prayer. It’s just not gonna happen. Prayer is the thing that changes cold, stony words into the bread of life. “Did not our hearts burn within us as we walked along the way?” That’s the result of the supernatural word of God being brought to a person’s heart. And that happens as we pray and are totally devoted to doing battle with satan on his level.

If you’re a prayer warrior and an active soldier, then all of hell knows you by name. They know your first name, your middle name, your last name, your social security number. They know everything about you if you are a prayer warrior. Not only that, you are a soldier of Christ living the cause of Christ and advancing His kingdom. All of hell knows your name. In Acts 19:15 all the demons in hell knew Paul’s name. “Jesus we know, Paul we know, but who are you?” See, they didn’t know the people that were really separated from Christ. So hell knows your name, and they tremble when you bend your knee to God. That’s how important prayer is.

E.M. Bounds said this, “Salvation never finds its way into a prayer-less heart. The Holy Spirit never abides in a prayer-less spirit. Preaching never strengthens a prayer-less listener. And Christ knows nothing of prayer-less Christians.” The power of prayer is unmistakable because the power is in a relationship with God and apart from prayer there is no relationship with God, only intellectual pursuits. Christianity becomes just a system of truth to us. There’s a system of truth in Confucianism. There’s a system of truth in Buddhism. There’s a system of truth in conservative politics. There’s a system of truth in no matter what you want to call it. There’s a system of truth there. But the only thing that separates this system of truth from everything else is prayer—it’s supernatural weapons—that exalts it above all of satan’s devices and demolishes satan’s strongholds as you read in 2 Corinthians10. There is no power apart from prayer. That’s the conclusion of that matter.