“Prayer is the breath of the soul. It is the secret of spiritual power.”
~ Ellen White, Prayer, pg. 12.4
More and more, I have come to realize that my understanding of prayer is very one-sided. In fact, I believe many Adventists have almost entirely missed the other side of prayer. By this I mean, we talk a lot about how “prayer to God is like talking to a friend” and how much, “prayer changes our character.” While this is totally true, there's another aspect of prayer that we have been neglecting. The former deals with our personal growth and development, but the kind of prayer that I will introduce shortly deals with God’s will being done—it deals with waging war against the enemy’s plans. This kind of prayer is intercessory prayer that is fully conscious of the Great Controversy between good and evil. This kind of prayer recognizes that God’s plans will never be accomplished in the church (your local church) unless we are passionate and persistent in prayer. Because of this, my desire is for all of us to grow in our understanding of intercessory prayer, but not only that, for us to also apply the principles that we will discover from the Scriptures.
The only way our church will have that born-again experience and encounter with Jesus is through intercessory prayer. The only way our church will wield spiritual power is through corporate intercessory prayer. God is waiting on us to pray individually yes, but yea, even more so corporately, to give Him permission to break down the strongholds of Satan in our lives and in the lives of our family members and community.
The enemy’s goal is to frustrate the plans of God—this he does successfully when we do not pray. However, God’s will is to derail the enemy’s plans, and this He can do when we pray—personally and corporately. Let’s pray!
In His Service,
Pastors Carvil & Alexandra