The more we pray the more God works. The more God works, the better everything will ultimately be. In many ways, prayer is the determining factor. Too often we fail to realize the astounding way our sovereign God has sovereignly chosen to limit His activity on this earth to the prayers of His people.
Through the years I have found that I was not alone in my belief that prayer was the determining factor. This truth is echoed from one end of the theological scale to the other. On one pole of the theological continuum we have John Wesley who wrote, “God will do nothing on earth, except in answer to believing prayer.” On the other pole we have John Calvin who in his Institutes states, “Words fail to explain how necessary prayer is . . . while God never slumbers or sleeps, He is inactive, as if forgetting us, when He sees us idle and mute.” 1
Billy Graham has observed, “Today the world is being carried on a rushing torrent of history. There is but one power available to redeem the course of events, and that is the power of prayer…” 2
Others have agreed. Slowly read their words:
When we pray we are working with God to determine the future. Certain things will happen in history if we pray rightly. 3
When God finds a person who will place as his priority a life of intimate, personal, dynamic fellowship with Him, He directs His power, guidance, and wisdom into and through that person. God has found a man through whom He can change the world. 4
You and I can help decide which of these two things – blessing or cursing – happens on earth. We determine whether God’s goodness is released toward a specific situation or whether the sower of sin and Satan is permitted to prevail. Prayer is the determining factor… If we don’t, He won’t.5
God has of His own motion placed Himself under the law of prayer, and has obligated himself to answer the prayers of men. He has ordained prayer as a means whereby He will do things through men as they pray, which He would not otherwise do…man has it in his power to by prayer, move God to work in His own way among men, in which way He would not work if prayer was not made. 6
I don’t fully understand it, but I know that the more we pray the more God works. The more God works, the better things end up being. On many levels prayer is the determining factor.
At Grace City Church
- We actively value the power of prayer by praying three times a day.
- We determine to pray much, pray often, and pray well.
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Much of this material adapted from Dave Earley, Prayer: Timeless Secret of High Impact Leaders, Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2008
Notes
- John Wesley and John Calvin, quoted by Peter Wagner in Prayer Shield, (Ventura, CA: Regal books, 1992), p. 29
- Billy Graham quoted by Cort Flint, editor, The Quotable Billy Graham, (Anderson, SC Dort House, 1966), p. 154
- Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992),
- Leroy Eims, Be the Leader You Were Meant to Be, (Carol Stream, IL: Victor Books, 1975), p. 19
- Jack Hayford, Prayer is Invading the Impossible, (Orlando, FL: Bridge-Logos Publishers, 2002),
- EM Bounds, The Weapon of Prayer, (Grand Rapids, Baker Book, House, 1931), p. 21
