SERMON

The Importance of Prayer

We have had it said to us, as a church, that prayer is the most important activity we can do if we want to see our church grow.

But what exactly is prayer?

      We know in theory that it is the way we communicate with God.

              Actually, it is the only way we can communicate with Him.

The elders gather in a group and pray before the start of each service.

       We all pray an opening prayer.

       We pray for God to bless the offering.

       We have prayers for others.

                                        We believe that we know what prayer is and how to

                                         practice it.

Jesus said in Luke 18:1:  Men (and women) ought always to pray and not faint.”

   This means to pray and not give up – or cave in.

Basically, prayer is our need crying out for help.

    We approach God in faith, and we speak words of faith to our Father.

Prayer is having an executive meeting with the Father and the Son, and presenting our needs and desires before Him.

               To be able to achieve that, we need to know that we can come boldly

                into His presence and stand before Him with confidence and no sense

                of inferiority.

But what is the presence of God?

                  And where is it?

    There is a Scripture that says:

But the righteousness based on faith speaks thus, “Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven (that is to bring Christ down), or Who will descend into the abyss?  (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).  But what does it say?  The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.’  (Romans 10:6-8)

The presence of God is not in an actual physical place where we need to go to be close to Him.

        The presence of God is within you.

        The Scripture says that you are the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

        The Holy Spirit lives in you.

This is why we can say that when two or three are gathered together, there is Jesus in our midst.   How is He here?     He is within us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us.

This means that when we pray, we are not directing our prayer toward a person a long way away from us.   We are fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit within us.

            The Holy Spirit is the executive officer of Jesus.

            When the Holy Spirit speaks to us, it is as if Jesus is speaking.

                     When the Holy Spirit speaks through us, it is as if Jesus is speaking

                      through us.

                                  When we pray in the Holy Spirit, it is as if Jesus is speaking

                                  to the Father on our behalf.

Therefore prayer is a spiritual exercise.

    When we pray, our spirit is fellowshipping with the Spirit of God.

                     When we pray in the will of God, our spirit becomes one with the

                     Spirit of God.

                                  This is a difficult concept for our natural minds to grasp.

                  When we pray in the will of God, the very life of God flows out through

                  our lips.

                                    Now we can understand John 7:38-39 where Jesus says:

                                           He that believes on me, as the Scripture has said,

                                                from within him shall flow rivers of living water.

This is speaking of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence, and how from our inner life of prayer there flows out a stream of the very life of God that speeds on its way that that one who is in need.

Our prayers bring the very presence of God to those in need in any part of the world.

Now we can understand 2Cor 6:1:

     ‘Labouring together with Him.’

How do we do this.   Through our prayer life.

Through prayer, you can be God’s spokesperson, His ambassador.

Part of the Lord’s prayer says “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.”

This is how we accomplish the will of God on earth.   Through our prayers.

When we pray, we are bringing the authority of Jesus into the world.

   Look at this scripture:

                        ‘All authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth.  Go

therefore and make disciples of all nations…and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of this age.’   (Matt 28:18-20)

When we pray, we join forces with Jesus.

He is with us in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

If we are to start winning victories in our community, breaking down the barriers that are stopping people coming to Christ in Conifer Grove and Takanini, we need to know the power that we have through prayer.

The church is the sleeping giant.

              We have not fully grasped exactly who we are in Christ,

                           And how much power we actually have with God.

Every person in this congregation who has accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour has a place in the prayer life.

               There is no useless member in the body of Christ.   We all have a role

                 to perform.

You have a place in the family of God, and with that place comes responsibility.

God has not called you to become a sleeper in church.

             Your business is to find your place and fill it.

To find your place, it is important that you give yourself to meditation, prayer, and the study of God’s Word.

Don’t allow anything to stand in the way of your finding your place.

Life will not mean much to you outside of His will.

Do you think that you have a call to prayer?

     If you see a need, then you have a call to prayer.

There are people who are utterly lost until you take your place in prayer.

To have a powerful and effective prayer life, you need to know where you stand with Christ.

When you accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, you became a special type of person.

                         You became a new creature;  old things passed away and

                          all things became new.

                             Before, you had no approach to the Father,

                          But now, you are brought very near.

You may have come to an acceptance of Christ as Lord through a slow development of realization.

    Or you might have had a sudden, dramatic realization.

                  It doesn’t matter about how you came to Christ.

The important thing is that at this moment you acknowledge Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.

You can now come boldly into the Throne Room as a child of the Father.

Servants and outsiders do not have that privilege.

But sons and daughters can come right in and fellowship with their Father anytime.

You are no longer servants and outsiders.

            You are members of God’s family.

                        God is your Father

                                  Jesus is your Brother, the First Born of many brethren.

Therefore you can stand before The Father and fellowship with Him without any fear, guilt or sense of inferiority.

      You don’t see a King’s children bowing and scraping before Him in the same

       way that the courtiers and servants do.

Old Testament people saw themselves as servants of God.  They never knew Him as their Father.

     We are no longer servants, but sons and daughters.

                    This makes our relationship with God exciting.

                              It makes our prayers very personal and meaningful.

We can tell the Father our deepest secrets – our dreams and ambitions.

We can share our deepest desires with Him.

          We can bask in His love.

                       As we develop our prayer life, we will have a new experience.

                                 We will start to sense God speaking to us.

                                           We will start to recognize his voice.

                                                     It will comfort and strengthen us.

                       We will sense a thrill, that God is taking the time out to share His

                       heart with us, as if we were the only ones He cares about.

We will then discover what prayer really is.

There are all kinds of prayer.

Look at this Scripture:

Ephesians 6:10:

“Hold your ground, tighten the shield of truth about you, wear integrity as your coat of mail, have your feet shod with the stability of the gospel of peace, above all, take faith as your shield to enable you to quench the fire-tipped darts flung by the evil one.  Put on salvation as your helmet, take the Spirit as your sword, (That is, the Word of God), praying at all times in the spirit, with all manner of prayer and entreaty…be alive to that, attend to it unceasingly.”

This scripture shows that the object of the Christian’s armour is to enter the prayer fight.

The failure of all Christian enterprises is a prayer failure.

Prayer alone gives success.

There are many different kinds of prayer.

           The simple petition

            The persistent tenacious prayer

             Prevailing prayer that overcomes every obstacle

             Battle prayer with tears and agony

             The quiet prayer of faith

                Prayer without ceasing

Then the unconscious prayer attitude that practices the presence of God wherever you may be.

Nothing can take the place of prayer.

There is the prayer of intercession.

           This is the prayer for another person and not for self.

                   This can be a prayer that cannot be uttered in words.

There are times when we are depressed;  we cannot understand it or see any reason for it;  it is the Holy Spirit in agony reaching through us to the Father.

Many of us lead busy lives – too busy to pray.

If we are too busy to pray – we are too busy.

Sometimes, the whole prayer life of a church can be shouldered by one or two willing people.

A person cannot spend an hour in conscious fellowship with the Father, the Son, the Spirit and the Word without carrying away from that place the fragrance that fills the atmosphere.

There is a heavenly fragrance that lingers with people who pray.

                        They are slow to speak

                      They are slow to judge

                       They are quick to love and quick to help

       There is a holy calmness about their lives that challenges the restless ones.

                     They crave that quietness of spirit.

You can’t sit with the God of all Faith and all Love, for one half hour each day, without unconsciously breathing in the Faith of God.

When we pray we open channels of grace to reach others around us.

         We are building roads for others to walk on.

              We are the branches that are bearing real fruit from the vine.

Our ministry is not a failure.  We are winning.

We are making successes out of failures.

Those in bondage to drink, family violence, poverty, sickness, depression, hopelessness reach out their hands for help and our Father grasps them and lifts them up onto the solid rock.

Our prayers enable this to happen.

Remember, there is always someone waiting on the other end of your obedience.

If you have never before made prayer your business,

            Will you invest your time?

            Will you learn the art?

Will you throw yourself open and let Him pour Himself through you until your home and your business and your associates feel the throb of His mighty life and the lift of His love?

The ball is in your court.

When this house becomes a house of prayer – of praying people,

            Then it will become a house of rejoicing for those who are drawn to it.

Take up the Spirit’s challenge this morning.

               You will never regret it.