Principles for a Powerful Prayer

I. Principle 1: God-focus

I want to break this down into two principles that are related to one another: Tune to God's agenda, and follow God's lead.

A. Tune to God's agenda

Have you ever done a comparison between the way the apostles approached Christ in the Gospels and the way they approached Him in the book of Acts? In Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, their requests included calling fire down from heaven to consume those who rejected Christ, sending people away hungry, and sitting on the right and left hand of the throne when they got to heaven. Their actions were also telling. They constantly demonstrated a lack of faith, prohibited children from coming to Christ, and tried stopped someone from casting out demons. Now and then, they would get it right, but most of the time they were out in left field when it came to Jesus and His mission. Consequently, our Lord rarely ever did what they asked.

But when you turn to the book of Acts, you find a completely different focus in their lives and in their asking. Acts records no account that they ever failed in their faith again. When God looked on their prayer meetings, 3000 were converted in a single day, the place where they prayed was shaken, and prison doors swung open. Obviously, some tremendous transformation, some radical change had occurred. What made the difference?

Very simply, they went from being on their own agenda to being on God's agenda. They quit seeking a seat on Jesus' right and left and began praying for boldness to testify in the face of persecution. They quit flirting with a return to fishing and focused on shepherding the people of God. They stopped tripping over their circumstances and started seeking an endowment of power from on high to preach the Gospel. They changed from being self-centered to being God-centered.

In , Peter and John were released with threats of what would happen to them if they spoke in the name of Jesus again. They reported this to their friends who immediately, reflexively went to prayer: 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices to God unanimously and said, "Master, You are the One who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You said through the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father David Your servant: Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot futile things?

Why are they praying these things, quoting Scripture back to God and reflecting on the history of God's purposes? They spend five verses telling God who He is and two verses asking Him for boldness. Why didn't they pray, "Thank you Lord for getting our friends out of this mess. And Lord we want to be honest and tell you we're scared. Please protect us"?

Their concern was not their protection but God's purposes being secured above and beyond and through their suffering; not for their reputation to be vindicated but for His Son's; not for shelter, but for boldness. And the result was the place where they were praying was shaken as a physical sign of the power of God falling on them and they were all empowered by the Holy Spirit for Gospel purposes. (Adapted from John Franklin, And the Place Was Shaken, p. 32-33.)

Folks let's be honest here: we spend a whole lot more time praying for God to keep Christians out of heaven than for Him to get the lost out of hell. "God heal and help us" is prayed far more often than "save and sanctify."

When most of our praying is about our wants, our needs, and our concerns, we will see the working of God in trace amounts. And oh how our culture needs to see His mighty power manifest through His church!

B. Follow God's lead

Have you ever wondered about this like I have: How is it that Elijah could believe that God would actually respond to His prayer to send fire from heaven and consume the water-soaked sacrifice? How could Moses actually think that God would split open the Red Sea when the Egyptian army was bearing down on the people of Israel? How could Joshua have the audacity to ask the sun to stand still? What made Jesus think a four-day-old corpse could live again?

They asked for the impossible because they were so God-oriented that they knew what He was doing and what it meant. Elijah explained before the fire fell that God was turning Israel's heart back to Himself through the answer to prayer. Moses had spent private time before the Lord until God told Him what He was going to do. Joshua recognized that God was fighting for them, so he asked for more daylight to finish the job. And Jesus declared, prior to raising Lazarus from the dead, that God was going to save those who were watching. (Adapted from John Franklin, And the Place Was Shaken, p. 34-35.)

In each case, they were able to discern the activity, the intent, or the heart of God prior to asking. They knew what God wanted, so they asked Him for it. How did they know? Notice that in each case, that discernment and knowledge flowed from their relationship with Him. They had paid the price in time with the Lord in Scripture and prayer so that they understood God's perspective on their life and work. Once they understood it, they set about their Father's business. They sensed God's power working through them as they joined Him in His work. They knew what God wanted done, they asked Him for it, and God answered.

We believe that Jesus could do all that He did because He was the Son of God, and rightly so. But our Lord Himself wants us to understand this connection between discerning the heart of God and asking for what God already wants to give. Listen to what He says, in

John 5:19–20 KJV 1900

Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.

He comes back to this theme repeatedly. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work... For I have not spoken on My own, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a command as to what I should say and what I should speak. ... Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on My own. The Father who lives in Me does His works. (; ; )

Jesus discerned the heart of God and then acted. He walked with His Heavenly Father and asked for what He already knew the Father wanted. And it was done. And He calls us to that same kind of walk.

Look an incident from Daniel Nash's life. On one occasion, when meetings had begun in a particular city, a group of young men confronted Charles Finney, openly announcing that they were going to break up the meetings. Finney and Nash decided this was best combated with prayer, so they found a grove of trees and gave themselves to prayer until, in Finney's words, "we felt confident that no power which earth or Hell could interpose, would be allowed permanently to stop the revival."

That night, the group of young men arrived to find a packed house to hear Finney preach. And Daniel Nash, who was ordinarily a quiet man, was sitting on the back row. He stood and faced them with these words, "Now mark me, young men! God will break your ranks in less than one week, either by converting some of you or by sending some of you to hell. He will do this as certainly as the Lord is my God!" Having said that, Nash dropped to his seat, bowed his head and groaned in prayer.

Finney admits that by the next Tuesday, the leader of the group suddenly showed up, and in tears and confession, broke his ties with this world and trusted Christ. Before the week was out, almost all of those young men were converted. (Adapted from "Daniel Nash: Prevailing Prince of Prayer")

That kind of discernment comes to those who have a lifestyle of prayer focused on God's glory and God's ways and God's purposes, so much so that you begin to see things from God's perspective. And listen: every time that kind of God-centeredness has come to God's people, the power of God was unleashed.

Oh how I resonate with Paul's longing, expressed like this: [My goal] is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.

Philippians 3:10 KJV 1900

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

Will you join me in that journey, taken daily in time with Him?

I. Principle 2: Deep koinonia

There are three episodes from the life of the Early Church that I want to show you. In each scene, a common reality emerges that sets the stage for power in prayer.

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In each instance, believers are loving one another. They shared their possessions, cared for those struggling financially among them, met daily in one another's homes and in the temple, were together in one accord, and brought out the sick and demon-possessed. As a result, the Lord added daily those who were being saved, filled them with great power, great grace was upon them all, and they were all healed.

If the foundational principle of powerful prayer meetings in the church is God-focus, the second principle flows from it: it is deep, authentic, loving fellowship among God's people. John Franklin concluded from his study of how the believers in Acts cared for one another that "God worked in their lives in proportion to the degree of their koinonia, the quality of love between believers. Their favor with God flowed from His pleasure in their depth of fellowship." (John Franklin, And The Place Was Shaken, p. 40.)

All of us sense the need and the value of this principle in prayer. We want people in our lives who truly care. Years ago, when speaker of the house Sam Rayburn heard he had terminal cancer, he shocked everyone when he announced he was going back to his small town in Bonham, Texas. People said to him: "They have got the finest facilities in Washington, D. C. Why go back to that little town?" Rayburn's response resonates with something inside us all. He said, "Because in Bonham, Texas, they know if you're sick, and they care when you die." (Submitted by J. R. Love, Ruston, Louisiana, PreachingToday.com.)

You and I will pray with more fervency when we can trust those with whom we're praying. And trust is built when our lives brush up against one another; when we share our burdens and troubles, and we walk the hard miles together. The second principle that fuels fervent, effective praying together is being real, binding wounds, and sharing our stories with one another so that care rises. Without it, our praying together will be surface only, and our pleading will be restrained.

II. Principle 3: Clean hearts

We highlighted this principle last week, but it bears repeating in this context. God has always required a right heart from those to whom He will reveal Himself. All who miss this point miss God. In the first pages of Scripture this was established. In , Cain and Abel bring their offerings to God. The Bible reports that God respected Abel and his offerings, but He did not respect Cain and his offerings. The Bible makes it plain that God's accepting or rejecting of their offering followed His acceptance or rejection of the person making the offering. God's willingness to respond was directly linked to the condition of the heart of the one worshipping.

What was established in this early incident rings true throughout Scripture: God answers an individual or a church in proportion to how they are walking with Him. He never differentiates between the thing requested and the one making the request. Another way to say that is this: God doesn't just answer prayer; He answers you.

A classic example of this occurred in a prayer meeting in the Hebrides Islands off the coast of Scotland. Christians there had been imploring God for some time to send revival and awakening. Finally, during a Friday night prayer meeting, a youth of sixteen prayed from

Psalm 24:3–5 KJV 1900

Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, Nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Psalm 24:3 KJV 1900

Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place?

: 3Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? 4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not set his mind on what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully. He then began to ask God if his heart was pure.

He then began to ask God if his heart was pure.

Others in the room began to inspect their walk with God, to confess their sins, and to renew a right relationship with God. God began at that moment to transform those islands. In fact, as they were praying God woke up most of the town at midnight, and they gathered at the village square asking how to be saved. Once the hearts of those Christians were cleansed, God worked mightily through them.

The spiritual condition of the hearts of those in attendance affected the freedom of the Spirit of God to work. The psalmist was absolutely right when he said,

Psalm 66:18 KJV 1900

If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear me:

, KJV) You help or hinder the movement of God's Spirit in accordance to the depth of your repentance.

You help or hinder the movement of God's Spirit in accordance to the depth of your repentance.

III. Principle 4: One accord

Five times in the first five chapters of Acts, the Bible tells us that the disciples were in "one accord." Each time, it's the Greek word "homothumadon," a compound word that basically means "same passion, combined heat, shared glow." There was among them a mutual experience of the same burning heart, the same heart passion. This ardor of heart unity, fellowship, and agreement in purpose, desire, attitude and action marked the dynamic nature of their praying together.

How important was unity to Jesus? In the last moments with His disciples, He prayed earnestly for that oneness. Listen to His heart-cry to the Father, not just for those immediate disciples, but for you and me:

John 17:20–23 KJV 1900

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

We reflect God's glory to the lost and hallow God's name through our loving, selfless, servant like attitudes toward one another. This harmony is directly connected to God's manifest presence and power in the pages of Scripture. God reserves some of His strongest words for those that traffic in discord.

Proverbs 6:16 KJV 1900

These six things doth the Lord hate: Yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

. Paul issued this call to the church in Ephesus 4: 1 I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love, 3 diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds [us]. May we make that call our pursuit as we move closer to what God intended when He called us "a house of prayer."

Paul issued this call to the church in Ephesus

Ephesians 4: 1I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love, 3 diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds [us]. May we make that call our pursuit as we move closer to what God intended when He called us "a house of prayer."

Ephesians 4:1–3 KJV 1900

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

May we make that call our pursuit as we move closer to what God intended when He called us "a house of prayer."

2 Chronicles 7:1–3 KJV 1900

Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house. And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.

There is demanding evidence that we pray together, there are foundations for dynamic corporate prayer.

Now for a final word from my heart. We desperately need revival. Prayer is not the last step before revival; repentance is. However, we will not repent if we are not in a position to hear God. That's one of the critical functions of corporate prayer. It will place two or more in that position. Then God's voice will be heard. Then hearts will respond. Then tears will fall. Then we will fall down trembling together at the voice of the Holy One. Our broken souls lying prostrate before the Almighty will be raised to stand in the gap for this generation.

Franklin, John. And the Place Was Shaken: How to Lead a Powerful Prayer Meeting (p. 191). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Franklin, John. And the Place Was Shaken: How to Lead a Powerful Prayer Meeting (p. 191). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

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Ephesians 3:20–21 KJV 1900

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

Franklin, John. And the Place Was Shaken: How to Lead a Powerful Prayer Meeting (p. 191). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.