Prayer and peace

We all need peace – parents with crying infants, white collar workers rushing to meet deadlines, teenagers attacked by friends and enemies – all of us.

The apostle Paul says Jesus is the answer.  And thankful prayer is the way we find him.

One of my favourite Bible passages is Philippians 4:4-7.

There, Paul begins by calling on us to “rejoice in the Lord always”. 

I may be overwhelmed by family problems or work problems, but I can rejoice in being a child of God.  He chose me, unworthy though I am.  He tells me he will never let me go.  He assures me that everything will work out for my good in his eternal plan.  He loves me.

Then, Paul gets to the heart of the matter.  I am not to be anxious about anything, but “in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving”, I am to present my requests to God.

Is Paul asking for the impossible?  Is it possible to stop being anxious by praying to God?

I look to the life of Jesus for my answer.

Jesus faced his greatest test in the Garden of Gethsemane.  There he sweat drops of blood as he asked the Father to spare him from the cross.  He knew he was going to bear the sins of everyone on the cross – and, worst of all, the righteous Father was going to turn away from him as the sin-blackened sacrifice.

But, Jesus then spoke these amazing words: “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

From then on, he had inner peace.  His resolve to go to the cross was firm and unshakeable.

I will not have peace if I insist that I get exactly what I want.  Clearly, none of us gets everything that we want.  For good reason.  If we did, we would be spoiled children – self-centred.

But Jesus wants me to be more like him, loving God and loving others.

Jesus found inner peace by doing what the Father asked him to do.  He knew that the Father’s plans were for good.  He found joy in carrying out the Father’s will.

Paul finishes the passage about prayer and rejoicing in Jesus with these words: “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

I will find the peace I crave by giving everything into God’s hands and trusting him to do what is best for me

Fighting for the kingdom

Our church is planning a significant outreach to the community this year.

I'm betting that Satan will fight our efforts.  We must fight back in prayer.

"We are in a battle of cosmic proportions," says James Banks, "and eternal souls hang in the balance."

Banks, author of The Lost Art of Praying Together, says that the best way of advancing God's kingdom is to pray together.

"United prayer is the most effective weapon God has given us, because through it, we call down his power and blessing."

Like many others, he points to Jesus' powerful statement in Matthew18:19: "If two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven."

And he notes the apostle Paul's words in Ephesians 6 where he says that our struggle is against the "spiritual forces of evil" and prayer is our key weapon.

We are told that if we ask according to God's will, the Lord will respond.  So, it is vital that we seek what God wants - and we seek it together as a praying people.

Our church is reaching out to the community so that people will enter the kingdom of God.  We know that is what God wants.

Banks quotes Billy Graham's statement: "There are three things necessary for a successful crusade.  The first is prayer, the second is prayer, and the third is prayer."

Prayer has been a central part of every Graham crusade.  The results testify to the importance of prayer.

So, prayer will underlie our efforts to serve and to speak to our neighbours, friends and family in the name of Christ.

Jesus prayed before speaking to the great crowds.  What an impact he had!

May the Lord work through our prayers as we make our own efforts to advance his kingdom in our community.

Reflecting God's glory

Moses met God and came away with his face shining so brightly that the people of Israel could not look at him.

Moses was changed when he had intimate communion with God and so can we.

Daniel Henderson talks about Moses' experience in his book Transforming Prayer and adds: "As Christians we have free . . . access to the transforming presence of God."

He points to the great statement by the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:18: "But we all . . . beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed."

"Paul's point is this," says Henderson, "we can enjoy the life-changing gaze of prayer as we commune with our incredible Savior."

He goes on to say: "We are captivated by Christ, changed by Christ, and conformed to Christ."

In effect, the more we contemplate Christ through the scriptures, the more we become enamoured of him.  And we desire to become like him.

In Henderson's eyes, "there is nothing so attractive and captivating in this sin-darkened world as a Christian who experiences and exhibits the glory of Jesus through the power of face-to-face intimacy".

That's why Henderson urges people to focus their eyes on God in prayer, putting aside their prayer lists to simply adore the Lord in worship.

Out of this worship springs confession, praise and heartfelt prayer.  Prayer requests flow naturally from worshiping the Lord.  The Holy Spirit prompts our prayers.

Henderson has used this approach - basking in the presence of God - for many years and many pastors and laypeople have come away from his conferences with renewed faith and energy.

As the song says, "our God is an awesome God".  We can't help but be inspired when we look at him.

Enforcing Christ's victory

I like Dutch Sheets' way of looking at intercessory prayer - enforcing Christ's victory on the cross.

Sheets says in his book Intercessory Prayer that when we pray for others, we are asking God to implement Christ's victory over Satan in the particular case we are praying about.

Sheets makes this point in an interesting way: "Our calling and function is not to replace God, but to release him."

"We don't deliver anyone, we don't reconcile anyone to God, we don't defeat the enemy.  The work is already done."

Our job as intercessors is to "ask for the release and application of these things".
Jesus empowered us to be his representatives or ambassadors.  It isn't our ability that is at issue, Sheets says, but Christ's - and Christ has already been victorious against the power of sin and death.

"Our challenge is not so much to liberate as to believe in the Liberator; to heal as to believe in the Healer."

 When we intercede for someone, we meet with God and ask him to meet with someone else in all his power.  We have been given "the ministry of reconciliation" between God and man - releasing the power of the resurrection into the lives of people.

Among the examples he gives, Sheets tells of a trip to Guatemala where he visited an elderly woman who had fallen and broken her ankle months before.  The ankle had not healed and she was in great pain.

He began to pray but only managed to get out the word "Father" when he froze, was unable to speak, and began weeping.  The power of the Holy Spirit entered the room, her foot began bouncing up and down, and she met the Spirit.  She was healed.

Not only do we ask God to release his power, we are to enforce Christ's victory as we meet the powers of darkness, Sheets writes. He points to the apostle John's words in 1 John 3:8: "The Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil."

He mentioned that a friend of his faced a situation in Guatemala where a witch doctor had cursed a young woman because she refused to have sex with him.  She was paralyzed from the neck down and couldn't speak.  She had been in a wheelchair for six months when this friend of Sheets met her.

Sheets' friend whispered into her ear these words: "Satan, I break your hold over this young lady in the name of Jesus.  I command you to loose your hold over her and let her go."

Nothing happened immediately.  But a week later she was able to move her arms a little.  The recovery continued for a month until she was completely healed.

This is a good reminder for me that Christ has defeated Satan and that my job is to ask God to apply that victory in the lives of the people I am praying for.

Arguing your case with God

 Like Moses, we can argue our case before God in prayer.

But, like Moses, we must be sure of our grounds before we make our case.  If we make a convincing case, based on God's word, we can be confident he will say "Yes".


In Exodus 32, God was furious with the children of Israel after they created a golden calf to worship, implicitly rejecting the Lord who had brought them out of captivity in Egypt.

In verse 9, God threatens to destroy the people of Israel because of their actions.

In the following verses, Moses:

• Suggests God's reputation will be battered because people will say that he delivered the children of Israel from Egypt only to wipe them out at Mount Sinai (verse 12);
• Reminds God that he promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that their descendants would inherit the land of Canaan and be a great nation (verse 13); and
• Calls on God to change his mind and allow the children of Israel to live (verse 12).

Amazingly, God agrees.

Does this mean God's plan can be altered?  On the surface, it seems so.

My own interpretation, though, is that God wanted to get across to Moses how seriously he viewed this act of disobedience.  And he wanted to see how Moses would respond.  Moses grew enormously as an intercessor and champion of his people through this exchange.

How does this apply to me and you?

A.T. Pierson, author of George Muller of Bristol And His Witness to a Prayer-Hearing God, says that Muller noted this example of Moses and used this approach when he prayed for the thousands of orphans under his care.

He would search the scriptures for the promises God has made that could be linked to the needs of the orphans.  Then, he would assemble arguments - based on scripture - to present his case to the Lord.

Pierson says that Muller developed this method during a particularly bad time when the future of the orphanages was in doubt.  He noted that God said he was "the Father of the fatherless" and prayed in faith that God would provide for the orphans, supporting his plea with 11 arguments.

The need was met without a public appeal for money.  And Muller was to repeat this again and again throughout his life.

This tells me that I need to look through the scriptures with the help of the Holy Spirit for the promises of God that relate to the dreams God has given me.

Once I find them, I can pray with assurance that God will welcome my prayers and move in response.

Praying through pain

What do you do when you are so overcome with pain and sorrow that you can't pray?

Think about Jesus on the eve of his crucifixion.

He knew he was going to be betrayed.  He knew his friends were going to abandon him.  He knew he was going to die.

In his agony, he prayed prayers that reflected his agony.  But he prayed in faith.

John White, author and Christian psychiatrist, discusses Jesus' final prayers in an absorbing chapter in his book on prayer - Daring to Draw Near: People in Prayer.

White notes that Jesus called some of his disciples to join him in prayer because his soul was troubled "even unto death".  He wanted human companionship as we often do when we are suffering - sympathetic companionship.

We know that he prayed repeatedly to the Father, asking him to take the cup of suffering away from him.  Again, that's what we often do when we are in pain.

At that moment, he was in such distress that he sweat drops of blood.

But his next prayer was so powerful that it has been quoted throughout the ages: "Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done."

That seems beyond me - beyond most people.  But we can do it - we can pray those words.  I speak from knowledge - a good friend prayed those words when he learned he had cancer that would take his life.

The Father, whose heart must have been pierced by what Jesus was going through, responded lovingly to that momentous prayer struggle by sending an angel to strengthen him.

God is aware of our struggles, too, and offers us support and strength to carry on.

Then, think of the prayers Jesus spoke on the cross.

He thought of others, something that is very hard for us to do when we are preoccupied by heartache.

Yet his prayer "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" is a prayer we need to make for ourselves as much as for those who hurt us.  We will not be free of our pain if we refuse to forgive.

In that prayer, Jesus is asking the Father to withhold justice for the people who are killing him and mocking him.  Can we do that?  Perhaps not in our own strength.  But we can ask God to give us the strength and the power to forgive.

Then, one of the most heartbreaking cries ever uttered: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"

Did Jesus lose his faith with that shout?  No, for what he says later makes it clear his faith remained strong.

For me, it is a cry of pain, of bewilderment.  As White says, we often cry out "Why?" to God when we don't understand.  Jesus knew he was fulfilling his mission, but he also knew that the Father had to turn away from him when he took on the sins of the world.

Even knowing that some things must happen doesn't prevent us from asking: "Why?  Why can't there be an easier way?  Why does it have to happen this way?"

Jesus was human as well as God.  We, too, may cry "Why?" when we don't understand.  It is a release and it is far better than turning away from the Lord.

And, finally, Jesus made the ultimate statement of faith: "Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands."  He knew where he was going and he gave everything up to the Father.

Throughout, Jesus never lost his grasp on the Father.  Even in our grief and pain, we must hang on to God, too.

Think of Jesus.

Spotlight on God

There is dynamism in prayer when the spotlight is on God.

So says Dennis Fuqua, author of United and Ignited: Encountering God Through Dynamic Corporate Prayer.

"I have learned that when we focus on God and his priorities, He will lead us to the specific ways He wants us to be praying for one another and for the needs around us," writes Fuqua.

Fuqua quotes Phil Miglioratti who describes what the focus should be of a "prayer summit", a gathering of people specifically to immerse themselves in an intensive time of prayer to God:

"Our focus is Jesus Christ.  We come to the Prayer Summit to seek Him, see Him, meet Him, hear Him, and obey Him."

In effect, Miglioratti says, we must listen to God through what he is saying to us in scripture and in our hearts, but also through others who are praying with us.

In this style of praying, people may pray about themselves, or missions, or the church, but "that is not its starting point," says Fuqua.

"The priority is the exaltation of God and the glory of His Son."

Daniel Henderson makes the same point in his book Transforming Prayer: Everything Changes When You Seek God's Face.

Henderson says that we must first "seek God's face" - in effect, worship Him and deepen our relationship with Him.  This leads to intimacy with God and then we can "seek God's hand", his provision for our needs.

Fuqua and Henderson talk of a free-flowing prayer gathering where worshiping God leads naturally to confession, repentance, and requests.

Both say the Holy Spirit works with power in meetings like that.  Pastors who come to "prayer summits" burdened with worries and ready to quit the pastorate leave with their ministries renewed.  Anything can happen, including healings.

King Solomon's great prayer of praise to God at the dedication of the new temple in 2 Chronicles 6 ends with a demonstration of God's power through fire on the sacrifices presented to him and his glory filling the temple.

In Acts 4:23-31, the believers in the young church react to persecution of their leaders by exalting God and his sovereign plans.  They appeal to him to carry out his will by giving them boldness to preach the Good News.  Again, God reveals his power by shaking the place where they were praying.

In his book The Deeper Life: The 8 Vital Longings of Your Soul, Henderson says he begins his day by worshiping God, reminding himself of who God is and what he has done.

So, turning the spotlight on God is sure to shed light in the dark places in our lives - our problems and concerns.  We gain faith and insight into what he wants us to do.