Prayer plays key role in people’s lives

It is also enabler of Christian service and the lifeline of the body of Christ in every locality

Prayer is the lifeline of the Christian journey.

Prayer is what engages and obligates God to do most things for the believer in Christ Jesus. In life, things don’t just happen. Until we move certain things at the place of prayer, nothing would move in our lives, in our ministries and in our destinies. It is therefore imperative for us to understand the rules of engagement and the spiritual technicalities that govern the move of God either in our personal lives or as the body of Christ on the earth today.

The first task of the Christian journey, the on-going task of the Christian life and indeed the cornerstone of the effective Christian life, is the prayer closet of the individual believer.

Prayer is the enabler of Christian service and the lifeline of the body of Christ in every locality. The church that prays is the church that wins and takes territories for the Lord. In fact, when the church is not praying, spiritual and natural territories that ought to be guarded from impostor spirits and localized demonic princes are overrun by the enemy.

As a church, we can’t take cities until we recognize, apprehend and dislodge satanic stooges. We win this war by declaring war on Satan’s war over our cities. In the ministry of the local church, our services and ministry would be ineffective without it being watered by consistent and effectual prayers (James 5:16).

We must also realise that, ministry is first spiritual before it is activity driven. If we examine the prayer life of Nehemiah closely in the scriptures, we discover that he prayed every morning and evening for four months. He thus prayed for at least 120 days but, interestingly, when it was time to build the walls of Jerusalem, it took just 56 days to complete the project. Prayer is therefore the work that makes ministry work, prayer works. In Luke 6:12-13, Christ, our perfect example, prayed all night (a period of about 12 hours) and in the morning he picked his disciples from among the crowd that followed him. Christ prayed one hour for each of the 12 that he picked. Prayer is thus pivotal in our work for God and his kingdom because we can’t use the power of the flesh to accomplish a divine objective.

As we tarry in prayer we are changed, we are rid of besetting sins and made fit for greater use in the kingdom. Prayer changes you into another man. Paul prayed more than the believers of his days, the former aggressor becoming a champion of the same faith he once tried to destroy. It is at the place of prayer that God breaks you and breaks your heart with what breaks His own heart too. It is prayer that gives us the heart of God.

What are other things that happen as we pray? Satanic limits is broken off our lives and divine assignments (Acts 16:25-34). Prayer subdues the flesh and brings humility into our service for God irrespective of the quality of our gifts and talents (2 Chronicles 7:14-15). Prayer is the key to our consecration (Romans 12:1-2). The Christian is a house of prayer and we have been commanded to pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

We would never graduate from the prayer closet until the end of the age, but the longer we pray and tarry, the stronger our spirit man becomes.

‘Prayer does not fit us for the greater work, prayer is the greater work.’ – Oswald Chambers

Abi Olusoji is a pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Charlottetown. A guest sermon runs regularly in Saturday’s Guardian and is provided through Christian Communications.