An Unnegotiable Need

Why isn’t our spiritual warfare effective? Why don’t the children of God walk in the power and authority provided to them? Why do we see so many ministries stagnating or on the brink of failure? Why doesn’t the Church move today with the same power it had in its beginnings? What causes believers to live in such defeat in the present day?

These and many similar questions are being discussed by numerous leaders in the 21st-century Church, yet convincing answers seem to remain out of reach. However, there is a response and the common thread weaving through the answer to this enigma is this:

The absence of prayer in the spiritual lives of the children of the Kingdom.

Jesus prayed constantly. He prayed in the morning (Mark 1:35), at night (Luke 6:12), and in the afternoon (Matthew 14:23). He prayed alone and with His disciples (Luke 9:28–29), in deserts and on mountains (Luke 5:16), for an hour and sometimes all night (Luke 6:12). Likewise, the apostles dedicated themselves fully to prayer and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4), and the early Church remained steadfast in prayer (Acts 2:42).

In the ministry of our Lord Jesus, prayer was not just a non-negotiable spiritual discipline; He also insisted that His disciples remain committed to this practice. He told them in Matthew 26:41:

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Moreover, Jesus took the time to teach his disciples how to pray and what to pray for (Matthew 6:5–15). He even expressed His expectation regarding how long they should pray (Matthew 26:40). If Jesus, the apostles, and the believers of the early Church prayed, what makes us think we can bypass the ministry and practice of prayer in our spiritual walk? Why would we consider it unimportant?

Despite such a model, warning, and teaching established throughout the Bible, the truth is that we often dislike praying, and if we do, many would agree that it feels tedious.

Recently, I heard statistics revealing that 95% of the Church today lacks a prayer life. Given the current effectiveness of Christians, I find it difficult to doubt these figures. This apathy toward prayer has resulted in a fruitless and powerless Church. It has caused many men and women who were once called by God to falter in their pursuit of their calling. Weariness has overtaken many laborers in the harvest, and the jaws of frustration have swallowed many of them.

For nearly my entire life, I have been involved in the work of the Lord, and I am astonished to see new generations rising up with zeal to serve God while trying to find shortcuts to avoid a life of prayer. The Church today is filled with activism, programs, and human strategies.

A cursory look at its machinery would suffice to realize that it resembles more of a worldly enterprise driven by the gears of carnal efforts than by the inertia produced by the manifestation of God’s presence within it. If we are to know God in a tangible way and be used in the expansion of His Kingdom, it is necessary for the Spirit of Prayer (Zechariah 12:10) to be poured out upon us, the children of God, stirring in us the desire to pray, making it both a discipline and a delight—an indispensable need as essential as water.

No significant move of God has ever occurred without being preceded by prayer. Perhaps the “movements” of men impress us, but their effects will never be eternal nor comparable to those born of God Himself (John 3:6).

It’s long past due for the Church to pray. The Church must refrain from being too busy to pray and, once again, take care of Kingdom business, beginning with daily times of individual prayer in the secret places of our homes and holding weekly meetings that call the Body to gather together for times of calling down heaven to earth.