In April 2012, I was sitting in a prayer room seeking the Lord. I was at a crossroads in my life. I had more questions than answers.
As I sat still before the Lord, I heard Him say, “Make prayer your life’s work.” It struck me. I never considered myself much of an intercessor. I talked to God, but I was not a prayer warrior.
Mind you, I didn’t start my morning prayer broadcast until January 2014. My publisher asked me to do a 10-day prayer campaign based on my Mornings with the Holy Spirit devotional. After 10 days, the people were literally begging me not to stop. We’ve been doing the broadcast ever since.
But I didn’t know what it meant to make prayer my life’s work. I said nothing to anyone, but I felt like one aspect of it was to start a house of prayer. I didn’t say anything to anyone for 40 days, then we launched on Pentecost Sunday 2012.
Today, we have prayer hubs in almost every nation of the world.
You may not be called to make prayer your life’s work, but you are called to pray. Let me ask you something. How is your prayer life?
Not your church attendance. Not your Bible reading plan. Not your podcast queue. Your prayer life.
I’m talking about the actual time you spend talking to God and listening for His voice. The time you spend interceding for God’s will in your family, your church, your city and nation?
If we are honest, most of us will admit that our prayer life could be stronger.
Only 10% of Christians aged 18 to 30 pray daily.
Only 37% of Christians over 50 pray daily.
A large percentage of Christians in another study so when they pray, they pray for less than one minute.
And we wonder why the church is so powerless.
Jesus said in John 14:12, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”
Jesus was a man of prayer. He modeled prayer. He taught His disciples to pray. And catch this. Oswald Chambers, a Scottish evangelist and author of the famous devotional My Utmost for His Highest, once said, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.”
This is the bottom line: We cannot have upper-room power without an upper-room prayer life.
James 5:16 AMPC. “The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].”
I unpacked this further in this week’s message. Go watch it now at www.ahop.online.
And if you are hungry for more, join the webchurch membership. You will get all my teaching archives, online ministry, a connect group, and so much more. It is your home base for going deeper in God. Join us at www.ahop.online/webchurch.