One of the reasons a lot of believers do not pray much is because they do not understand the Kingdom purpose of prayer. In His sovereign plan, God has chosen to work through the prayers of His people.
The Apostle Paul tells us that “though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:3-4).
The primary weapon he is talking about? Prayer!
In Matthew 16, Jesus has a conversation with His disciples about who people say that He is. Then He asks who they think He is. When Simon (Peter) answers that He was the Christ, the Messiah, Jesus praises Him:
“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades [Hell] will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17-19)
When I was a kid I thought that these verses meant that when we become a believer we enter a war—the war of forces of Hell vs forces of Heaven. Satan is going to attack us, but don’t worry, we win in the end.
But this verse talks about the Gates of Hell. Gates are a defensive weapon built to hold out an enemy. The verse wasn’t talking about Satan attacking us. It was talking about us attacking Satan! And we do it primarily with prayer!
Every time we pray for a lost neighbor to come to Jesus, we pound those gates. Every time we pray for the transformation of our community, we pound those gates! Every time we pray for missionaries and their work, we pound those gates. Every time we pray for a marriage to be saved, we pound those gates.
As followers of Jesus, we are not meant to sit back at camp and not get into the battle. We need to pray kingdom-changing prayers over the situations and things around.
All believers need to pound the Gates of Hell with prayer!
How can you get your congregation to pound the gates with prayer? Here are three very powerful prayer initiatives with a kingdom-changing outward focus that you could put in the hands of your people!
Pray for Our Nation: Use We Declare: 31 Days of Intercession for America by Dave Kubal and Intercessors for America. We recommend using this guide starting near the National Day of Prayer (May 2), July 4th or prior to the November Election.
Pray for Schools and Kids in Your Community: Use Reclaim a Generation Volume 2: 21 Days of Prayer for Schools as your children are going back to school in August or September. Many churches and believers are praying through this together August 1-21, 2024.
Pray for Revival: Do It Again, Lord! 30 Days of Hope-Filled Prayer for Revival is an excellent resource to get your people praying for spiritual revival in their hearts and your church, and for spiritual awakening.
These resources would help powerfully to get you people in prayer-attack mode and help them to participate in a kingdom way to pound the Gates of Hell.
–Jonathan Graf is the president of Church Prayer Leaders Network and the publisher of PrayerShop Publishing.
