School of Prayer—Time for a Revolution!

If you were wondering if another book on prayer is even necessary, I’d agree that is a valid concern. One of the reasons I’m writing this book is because I was beginning to seriously question if believers even still believed in prayer! I mean “real prayer”, not the “Now I lay me down to sleep” kind of praying we do on autopilot. Do we actually believe prayer is important? Do we still believe the Scripture that says the effectual, fervent prayers of righteous people have power to bring about miracles? Do we even still believe in miracles, or do we think they were only given by God to set up the early church?

If we do still believe in prayer and miracles—of course, neither are possible by human merit or willpower, but only through Christ—please explain to me why prayer ministry has almost disappeared as a vital ingredient in the overall ministry of many local churches. How is it that we have allowed ourselves to become so busy doing “churchy stuff” that we now ignore or even avoid prayer?

Has prayer become old school? Is prayer viewed as something the old saints used to do back in the day? Every Wednesday night, you’d find them in tiny churches with hard wooden pews, tarrying at the altar on their knees or bowed low on dusty floors. They’d be weeping and calling on the name of Jesus with all their hearts because they knew they needed His help to survive. They believed in the power of prayer and knew how to get a prayer through to God.

But today, here we are, proud as can be in our huge, magnificent edifices, sitting all comfy in row after row of individual, cushioned seats, with our feet casually crossed over thick, matching, wall-to-wall carpeting. Thanks to our cutting-edge technology, some of us don’t even bother bringing our Bibles to church anymore. No need to bother lugging those bulky things around. The media department will put the sermon text and Scripture references up on the screen for us, or if we want, we can look them up on our smart phones. They’ll even display the modern choruses we like up there so we can sing along with the worship team. We don’t need those old pew songbooks anymore. Besides, younger people don’t like singing those old songs. They bore them, so we decided if we want to draw them in, we better keep the music in step with the times.

I’m suspicious that all of our “progress” and modern “improvements” have caused some to think prayer is another one of those things we don’t need as much as they did in the past. And now that we’ve made it through (on Grandma’s prayers, I hope you know), the concept of something like the prayer band she was in sounds rather archaic. Oh no, we don’t do prayer in church like that nowadays. Even in many of our personal lives, we prefer to reach out on the Web through social media with a prayer post than go to all the trouble to do it face-to-face or call people on the phone. Call me cyber-challenged if you will, but in my opinion, cyber prayer is a pathetic, plastic substitute for real prayer.

Things like prayer bands have been phased out along with ripped-up old King James Version pew Bibles with missing covers and congregational songbooks full of Grandma’s favorite hymns. All that dated stuff has been boxed up in a big stack next to the church organ, covered with a dingy sheet of plastic in a dark, dusty storage corner somewhere.

Is it any wonder that many Christians today see prayer as a perplexing puzzle, with too many misunderstood pieces in confusing disarray to be functional? Due to disuse and loss of some of the key pieces, we can no longer put the big picture of prayer’s power back into place. And if we can’t put it together, how can we use the power of prayer in furthering God’s last days’ kingdom agenda?

Without seeing the big prayer picture, how can we grasp the importance of promoting prayer in our churches? The Bible says God’s people perish because of a lack of knowledge. Could all this confusion on prayer possibly be because churches aren’t providing significant teaching about prayer? Without being taught, how can the saints in today’s grace-age church know how to get a prayer through to God? Trial and error is very frustrating, not to mention time consuming, especially when you need an answer to prayer right away!

I’m sorry if I am being offensive or stepping on anyone’s denominational toes with my nosy questions and critical observations. I apologize, halfheartedly, but I have to ask the questions. Could the answer possibly be that some of us in the body of Christ have lost our passion for prayer? Are we confused and wandering around in circles in a spiritual desert, without direction or confidence, because we’re suffering from prayer deficiency? Are we in a prayer drought; all dried up and parched in our personal and corporate prayer ministries?

Still not convinced? Well, if you consider the body of Christ as a whole, how would you evaluate our spiritual condition? I ask that because some Christians are concerned that the church is sliding into a state of serious spiritual imbalance. I also believe there’s an imbalance. The imbalance I see is between teachings on the vital importance of believers seeking to live sanctified, holy lives and teachings that Christlikeness is an ongoing and progressive process through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This natural-to-spiritual transformation can only happen by grace through faith, and it takes place in such a supernatural way, it’s no wonder a clear understanding on how to best cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the process eludes many. I’m hearing a huge debate going on as to whether we need to believe and do something or just believe and let it happen on its own.

I wholeheartedly believe that any kind of spiritual imbalance in the body of Christ has more to do with what’s happening—or better, not happening—with our prayer lives than anything else. I’m not self-righteously standing on the outside of the problem looking in as I point a bony finger of harsh criticism. I’m standing on the inside, right in the thick of it.

My unremarkable prayer life and developing bipolar spirituality left me even more stuck, until my pain finally reached the point of despair. Desperation forced me to come out of denial about my condition and ask the Lord for help. God, in His omniscience and grace, put it in my heart to begin journaling about prayer. When He did, the Spirit quickly began showing me my prayer life was both the cause of and the answer to my problem. Hearing from Him was the only way I would find direction for my life.

A serious thirst for prayer stirred in me, but due to my ignorance on the subject, I didn’t come close to having any kind of real confidence in prayer. I needed a revelation on the spiritual principles of prayer and how to get a breakthrough. One journal entry read, “I want to pray the kind of prayers that reach God’s throne room and don’t just stop at my ceiling.” I felt deeply in my heart this was the key to experiencing a fresh anointing of His purpose in my life. If I could learn these powerful principles, I could effectively use prayer as a co laborer with God to see that His will was done not only in my life but also in the lives of others.

Jesus promises me in His Word that the Holy Spirit was given to guide me into all truth. His Word also promises me that if I seek Him, I will find Him if I search for Him with all my heart. He hears and answers effectual, fervent prayers, and they accomplish much for the kingdom of God. Based on these promises, I embarked on a quest to carefully search through the Bible for deep insight on prayer. With a committed heart and the Holy Spirit as my guide, I made careful journal notes of everything I learned.