A Prayer Culture is Essential to Save the Church!!

A prayer culture is essential to change a declining church today and requires a dramatic shift. It is safe to say that every church prays. It is also safe to say that a prayer culture in the church is exceedingly rare.

When a prayer culture exists, a change of prayer emphasis is obvious. Prayers become kingdom focused. What I mean is that we begin praying to connect with God in increasing intimacy and power.

Intimacy

God desires an intimate relationship with his people. After all, he sent his Spirit to dwell with us and in us! An intimate relationship means we desire to know God better and for him to know us better.

Knowing God means being deeply engaged with him. It means we are constantly learning more about him – in knowledge and experience. As we read the Bible, we enter into a progressive revelation of who God is, how he thinks and what he desires.

God has hopes, aspirations and dreams! That is not to say that God is not self-sufficient and omnipotent. It means that he has hopes, aspirations and dreams for us! He reminded his people that he had a plan for them for a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). He had a defined hope that he wanted them to discover and realize!

We discover God’s hopes and dreams and aspirations for us as we read his Word! In prayer, we can then enter into these hopes and dreams and aspirations, asking him to help us realize them.

Intimacy also means that we allow God to know us more deeply! Of course, once again we can point out that God knows us better than we know ourselves. Yet the Psalmist asked God to search him, to know his heart and thoughts and see if there was any offensive way in him (Psalm 139:23-24). This kind of prayer is for our benefit, to open our own eyes with God’s help so we know ourselves as he knows us. We can be blind to our weaknesses and failures. God is not.

Allowing God to fully discover everything about our lives is also a voyage of self-discovery guided by God’s Spirit that is realized in humility and prayer.

Even more!

But this is only the first step in intimacy that is required to create a prayer culture in the church. The second step is for the entire church to realize these things apply not to just individual followers of Jesus but to everyone in the church. Jesus prayed for unity in the church (John 17:20-21).

Even in a small church of 20 or 30 people there are hundreds of individual relationships that must be woven together in unity. We are to have an increasing spiritual intimacy in all these relationships if we are to be the church Christ envisioned! Think of Jesus words to his followers that they were to love each other as he had loved them! He gave his life for them – and for us. This is challenging for our relationships in the church.

Love is a profound expression of God’s work in our lives and it applies to every relationship we have. While we make a decision to love, in obedience to God’s call on our lives, we can only love as we pray and ask him to help us.

And so we pray to connect with God in increasing intimacy, not only in our individual prayer but in our corporate (whole church) prayer.

Power

Praying for an increase in intimacy is part of the movement of the church towards a prayer culture. The other part is praying for an increase in power. Paul reminded us that the church is not a matter of talk but of power (1 Corinthians 4:20). Experiencing the power of God is closely related to experiencing the presence of God. In fact, if we seek and experience God’s presence, we will experience his power.

God’s power is clearly illustrated in the Bible. From the creation to the exodus, from the dedication of the tabernacle to that of temple we see God’s presence and power linked.

But in the New Testament we see a far more comprehensive view of God’s presence and power. They were perfectly manifested in the life of Jesus.

Reading the New Testament, we see the power of God in many miracles. But focusing on prayer we see power manifested in the disciples at Pentecost, again in Acts 4 following a time of persecution.

The church moved forward in the early days by the power of the Spirit working through the lives of the apostles and the thousands of followers of Jesus.

Another aspect

When we turn to the epistles another aspect of power becomes evident. It is the power to continually change the lives of those who pray. Every letter includes exhortations on how we are to live. Any reasonable individual must confess that we cannot live up to God’s holy standard by effort alone. While it is true that we must decide to be obedient to the various directives given, we must have the power to do it!

When we pray to connect with God for an increase in power, we are praying for the power to be obedient to his standard for our lives. Consider this short list: love one another, forgive one another, encourage one another, build one another up, pray continually, rejoice in all circumstances, be strong. These are a few of the things we are told to do. It is only by God’s power in increasing measure we can do these things. And so, we seek God in prayer to help us be continually transformed into the people he wants us to be.

The church is relational, and it is to be a place where the presence and power of God are manifested regularly. That is something we cannot program, nor is it something we can create through an atmosphere of special effects or sentimental memories. It only happens when the church joins together in prayer for the manifest presence of God. His power accompanies his presence.

Then, once again, his power changes us, unifies us and helps us live out his standards in all our relationships.  

Together

The church moves forward on the united work of his people empowered by the Holy Spirit. We know what we are to do as we grow in our intimacy with God, learning about his will and his ways, understanding the work we are called to do. Knowing God is essential to being the church he wants us to be. But our efforts are useless without his power! It is the power of God that turns our efforts into life change. His power works in us and through us.

And so we must pray fervently that we connect with him in increasing intimacy and power.

Your Turn

Taking this reality seriously is important. What can you do? You can begin to pray for increased intimacy and power in your personal life and in your church. Then, you can share this post with others so they can join in the kingdom work of creating a prayer culture in every church. You can find someone else who will join you in this type of prayer.