By Francis Frangipane
God has provided a divine antidote for every ill in the human condition; that remedy is Jesus Christ. When we see a need or a wound in the soul of our communities, we must apply Christ as the cure.
The stronghold that God provides to us as individuals has a divinely inspired, built-in limitation: The Spirit of Christ, which shelters us from the enemy, also makes us vulnerable to the needs of others. As it is written, "If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it" (1 Cor. 12:26). Thus, to perfect love, God unites us to other people; to empower prayer, He allows us to be vicariously identified with the sufferings of those for whom we care. If we cease to love, we will fail to pray. Love is the fuel behind all intercession. Are you weary or vacillating in your prayer life? Remember the love God first gave you, whether it was for your family, church, city, or nation.
Love will identify you with those you love; it will revive your prayer, and prayer will revive your loved ones. Consider Daniel. Daniel loved Israel. He loved the temple. Daniel put on sackcloth and ashes and sought the Lord with prayer and supplication. Although Daniel was not guilty of the sins of Israel, his prayer was an expression of his identification with the nation. He prayed:
Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and loving kindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly, and rebelled, even turning aside from Thy commandments and ordinances. —Daniel 9:4–5
Had Daniel sinned? No. But his love and identification with Israel made his repentance legitimate. Additionally, Daniel was faithful in his daily prayer for Israel, having prayed all his life for the restoration of the nation. Consider our own prayers for our nation and for others: After a year or two our faithfulness begins to wane.
Daniel was faithful every day throughout his life! When Darius passed a law forbidding petitions to any god or man other than himself, Daniel was not intimidated. We read:
Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days. —Daniel 6:10, NKJV
Daniel was one of the first exiles from Israel to Babylon. In the terror and trauma of seeing one’s society destroyed and its survivors enslaved and exiled, we can imagine that Daniel's parents had firmly planted in his young heart Solomon's prayer, which embodied God's requirements for restoration:
When Thy people Israel are defeated before an enemy, because they have sinned against Thee, if they turn to Thee again and confess Thy name and pray and make supplication to Thee in this house, then hear Thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of Thy people Israel, and bring them back to the land which Thou didst give to their fathers. —1 Kings 8:33–34
Thus, Daniel prayed three times a day, every day, since his earliest years. He continued in prayer for nearly seventy years, until the time Jeremiah's prophecy came to pass! You see, the work of God takes time. How long should we pray? We pray as long as it takes. Consider Anna, who ministered to the Lord in prayer and fasting in the temple for approximately sixty years, crying out to God until He sent the Messiah. Or Cornelius, whose "prayers and alms . . . ascended as a memorial before God" (Acts 10:4).
We do not understand the responsibility and privilege God places upon a person who continues in faithful prayer. What sustained these champions of prayer? They loved God and loved the people of God.
Costly Lessons
While the work of revival is often initiated through the love and intercession of one person, there is a time when the prayer burden must be picked up and shared by many. It is not enough that God graces one individual to become a man or woman of prayer; the Lord seeks to make His church a house of prayer.
One way or another the plan of God is to make intercessors of us all. We can learn the indispensable priority of prayer directly from God’s Word. We can also learn of the need to pray from the victories or mistakes of others. Or, we can learn of the necessity of prayer the hard way: We can fail to pray and let the consequences teach us. For some, these will be costly lessons. And we will not be able to blame the devil if the real culprit was our neglect of prayer. In extreme cases, the Lord will actually allow tragedy to reinforce the urgency and priority of prayer.
The following incident from the Book of Acts underscores the need to keep our prayer life strong and sensitive to changes in our spiritual battles. The story also reveals that tremendous power is released when the whole church in a city prays.
Of all Jesus’ followers, three were considered the "inner circle": Peter, James, and John. Yet, Luke tells us of a terrible event in the life of the early Christians: Herod executed the apostle James. Until that time the leaders of the church walked in spiritual protection. However, they failed to discern that the intensity of satanic assault had escalated. As a result, James, an apostle who stood with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, was beheaded.
The appalling murder of James shocked the church. How was it that this anointed apostle died so prematurely? Where was God's protection? Perhaps this is the answer: The Lord suppressed His sovereign protection that He might bring the church into intercessory protection.
The death of James pleased the Jews, so Herod imprisoned Peter also, intending to kill him after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. At this point, the Scripture says, "Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church" (Acts 12:5, NKJV). The New International Version says the church was praying "earnestly"; the New American Standard Bible tells us that the church was praying "fervently." Earnest, fervent, constant prayer was made for Peter by the entire church in Jerusalem!
The outcome of this aggressive intercession was that Peter was supernaturally delivered, the guards who held Peter were executed, and a short time later Herod himself was struck down by an angel of the Lord. When the entire citywide church engaged in continual day-and-night prayer, God granted deliverance!
In the many years I have served the Lord, I have known individuals, prayer groups, and even denominations that have embraced varying degrees of twenty-four-hour prayer. I have participated with prayer chains and prayer vigils. But I have yet to see an entire, citywide Christian community put aside minor doctrinal differences and take God’s promise seriously.
When the local churches in a community truly become a house united in prayer, God will begin to guide the entire church into the shelter of His protection. And, according to Jesus, "He will bring about justice for them speedily" (Luke 18:8).
Lord God, restore us to Your love. Your Word says that love never fails. Master, we know that we have failed often; we faint because we lose sight of love. Master, by Your grace, we purpose to identify those people whom we love and then to be faithful in prayer until You touch them. We also purpose to follow Your leading until all the Christians in the city are crying to You in prayer. Help us, Father, to discern the priority of prayer. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Adapted from Francis Frangipane’s book, The Power of Covenant Prayer available at www.arrowbookstore.com.