Lausanne World Pulse – Effective Prayer

July 2007

By John Godson

“We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. …What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and noble methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer.” – E. M. Bounds

The Importance of Prayer
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” (Mark 1:35).

Prayer is communion with God. It is that act of going into God’s presence to be with him. It is bringing God and his resources into our earthly realities. It is drawing upon divine resources to influence human reality. It is breathing the breath of heaven. It is the master key to everything we have been called to do. Without prayer, our activities are empty, human and lack the breath of heaven. They are temporal and will never last.

In looking at the life of Jesus, I see a man who prays. If there is an aspect of his life that seems so conspicuous to me, it is his prayer life. It was his habitual practice to wake up early in the morning before day to go to a quiet place to pray. Often, he would depart from the people he was ministering to, and go to a quiet place to pray. Many times he spent all night in prayer. What is this thing called prayer that Jesus loved to do so often? What is in prayer that is so important that Jesus, the Son of God, spent a large portion of his life doing and encouraging his disciples to do? If Jesus, being whom he was, needed to spend so much time in prayer, do we not need to spend even much more time than Jesus in prayer? Why is prayer so important?

1. We get to know God through prayer. One of the most important reasons why we need to pray is that we get to know God better through prayer. Prayer is communion with God. Those who know God better are those who spend quality time in his presence. These are individuals who know the secrets and the heartbeat of God. It is not possible to know God when we are occasional visitors into God’s presence. It is not possible to know God if we are the type of Christian who just pops into God’s presence to say “hi” and “goodbye.” We cannot get to know God if we are the type of Christians who treat God as a “fire extinguisher,” using God for our ends. God reveals himself to those who really care; to those who are willing to pay the price of separating themselves often and long in order to seek him. “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:12-13).

2. We are empowered through prayer. Prayer is like charging your spiritual batteries. Many of you use a mobile phone. What happens to it if you continue using it and never charge it? The answer is obvious. The battery will run down and sooner or later the phone will stop functioning until it is adequately and fully charged. No matter how good or modern a mobile phone may be, it is useless unless it is charged. In the same way, we cannot afford not to pray. God renews our strength when we pray. No matter how strong or gifted you are, if you do not pray, you are on your way to death, destruction and irrelevance. No matter how large and demanding our ministry is, we should spend enough and adequate time in prayer. The task that has been committed to us by God can only be fulfilled by people who are constantly filled with spiritual life.

John Abraham Godson, a native of Nigeria, has been serving as a missionary in Poland for the past thirteen years. He is international director of Pilgrim Mission International. Godson also serves as chair for the Lausanne Intercession Working Group in Eastern Europe/Eurasia and as international facilitator for the Network of Nigerian Missionaries Overseas.