One reason many believers do not pray much is that 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 Cor. 10:3–4).
What is this primary warfare weapon? Prayer!
In Matthew 16, Jesus has a conversation with His disciples about who people say that He is. Then He asks the disciples the same question. When Simon (Peter) answers that He is 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” (Matt. 16:17–19).
When I was a kid, I thought 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 I got those verses wrong.
Verse 18 talks about the gates of hell. Gates are a defensive weapon built to hold out an enemy. The verse is talking about us attacking Satan—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 a marriage to be saved, we pound those gates.
As followers of Jesus, we are not meant to sit back at camp and stay out of the battle. We need to pray Kingdom-changing prayers over the situations and things around us. All believers need to pound the gates of hell with prayer!
Powerful Prayer Initiatives
Here are three powerful prayer initiatives with a Kingdom-changing outward focus:
- 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 July 4th or sometime prior to the November elections.
- Pray for Schools and Kids in Your Community: Use Reclaim a Generation Volume 2: 21 Days of Prayer for Schools as your children head back to school. Many churches and believers are praying through this together August 1–21.
- Pray for Revival and Spiritual Awakening: Do It Again, Lord! 30 Days of Hope-Filled Prayer for Revival is an excellent resource to get your people praying for revival in their hearts and for spiritual awakening in our nation.
Jonathan Graf is the president of Church Prayer Leaders Network and publisher of Prayer Connect magazine. To subscribe to Prayer Connect, click here.
