July 2008

Vol. 5, No. 7 

Introduction

A number of exciting things are happening within the CPLN.

First, we are welcoming a new regional representative to CPLN. Mark Mirza of Common Thread Ministries will cover Metro Atlanta. His particular area of expertise is motivating and mobilizing men to pray. He leads a signifcant men's prayer ministry at First Baptist in Atlanta.
 
Second, we are excited by our fall line-up of regional conferences. But we are also starting to have topical conferences. For example, our August 15-16 conference is on Praying with Faith for Healing. Next year we will hold a conference on prayer and missions (Columbus, IN) and on mobilizing men to pray (Atlanta, GA). Perhaps your church would like to host an event. Click here for information.

Finally, we are very excited by our partnership with Harvest Prayer Ministries in establishing PrayerShop Publishing and www.prayershop.org, the largest prayer-only store on the Internet. Our published resources are expanding. In just a few days our most significant book to date, Giving Ourselves to Prayer will be released. Click here for information.

Our desire is to continue expanding how we can come alongside you in your quest to see your church become a house of prayer.

Jon Graf
President

Unique Healing Conference
 

Praying for the sick--and actually expecting God to heal--is out of vogue these days. Somewhere we have lost our ability to believe God for healing in the lives of people. That shouldn't be!
 
The CPLN is holding a Healing, Faith and Prayer conference August 15-16 in Terre Haute, IN that will seek to help people regain their ability to pray effectively for the sick.
Led by Ted Kallman, a businessman who is seeing hundreds healed in a local church prayer ministry he leads, "Healing, Faith and Prayer" will challenge you again to believe God for miracles. While the conference is open to anyone, pastors, elders and deacons and prayer leaders need to be there. This could change both how you pray . . . and your ministry.

For more information, click here. 

It Seems to Me . . .

. . . we need to replace the sign on the pastor's door!!

Recently I read an article in Entrepreneur magazine that made  an astounding assertion: “According to a number of studies (US Department of Labor, Yahoo! survey, and others), leaders who read at least 7 business books a year earn over 2.3 times more than people who read only 1 book per year.”

Not surprising. We all know that "readers are leaders" since the very act of reading becomes an investment in self development. And, frankly, whether the ideas are new or old, relevant or not, the reader is once again challenged to analyze and apply what they read - leading, usually, to renew motivation and new goals.

The astounding part is how pastoral leadership has become absorbed with reading the latest top selling business books, presumably searching for insight and instruction.

Several observations: (not based on a statistical study):

• I find more and more secular books on business on pastors' desks and in their libraries
• Most well attended leadership conferences include messages or models based on recent business books
• Some conferences invite business or civic leaders to speak to pastors and ministry leaders
• The Pastor's Study (prayer, exegesis, meditation) has become the Pastor's Office (corporate models, counseling, consulting)

Pastoral leadership can learn much from business books and magazines written for the marketplace. That is not my concern (after all, I found the opening quote in a business magazine that I was reading!). But, if church leadership has better ears to hear what the managers and business trend setters are saying than ears to discern the leading of the Holy Spirit, we are in trouble. If our ministers hunger to learn more from the marketplace than from the scriptures, then we have leaders who may be able to relate to our times but are largely unable to discern the times. Our rudder must be that which is biblical and spiritual to guide us through the options and cycles of that which is cultural and practical.

Are we revising Acts 6:4? Has "we will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word" become "we will be faithful to our values statement and the Board of Directors' strategic plan?” It is possible many of our leaders know more about corporate systems than the dynamics of corporate prayer.

Purpose and plans are best received from the Holy Spirit in the context of scriptural application and prayer. How many of the "seven business books" point us back to our foundation of faith? Even if a business theory has application to the human dynamics of the Body of Christ, it must never become the chief operating system of the chief executive officer!

I enjoy reading Business Week and am glad to use insights from The Tipping Point and other business related books when I teach on the need for change in our churches . . . but may I never allow the components of Acts 6:4 to get out of order (or worse yet, out of style). Read. Read the marketplace and business gurus. But always submit their insights to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as you pray and study God's word.

It seems to me many of us should place a new sign on our door - Pastor's Study.

Pastor Phil

If God Is God, Why Pray?
(Overcoming the Devil’s “Logic”)

By Dennis Conner

Having been a Christian—and one who believes in and practices prayer—since January 1969, I have experienced the full spectrum of emotions related to: 1) Answered prayer, 2) Persevering prayer, and 3) Un-answered prayer. It almost never fails, that the enemy (Satan) is ever-ready to confront my belief in “God-answering-prayer” in the latter two scenarios, with his doubt-deceiving question: “If God is really Who He says He is, then why bother to pray?” How about you? Has the devil ever fired this kind of “doubt-creating” question through your mind, just as you were beginning to pray? Even the proverbial “man-on-the-street” asks the same question! How do we combat this?

In this issue and the next issue, I want to share with you the three most highly acclaimed attributes of God--identified in the first 16 verses of Psalm 139--and how to defeat the devil’s “logic” attack upon each one!

Psalm 139’s author, King David, clearly identified them as: 1) OMNISCIENT (All-Knowing), 2) OMNIPRESENT (Ever Present), and 3) OMNIPOTENT (All-Powerful). Of course, not only does the Bible confirm these same attributes of God, but so does the Holy Spirit reveal these attributes to the believer’s heart as we encounter God during the daily living of the Christian life!

With every believer today--just as with Adam and Eve in the Garden (Genesis 3: 1-5) and with Jesus in His 40-days of temptations in the Wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11)--the enemy’s strategy is to create distraction, doubt and discouragement. He hopes this will ultimately result in our disobedience. And have you noticed that his “logic” (humanly speaking) attacks come especially hard as we begin a time of prayer with the Lord? The primary difference between Satan’s success with Eve and Adam and his lack of success with Jesus was the response given to his deceptive “logic” expressed to each. Likewise, the same holds true for Jesus’ disciples today.

Let’s look at the first of God’s divine attributes--omniscience (all-knowing)—identified in Psalm 139:1-6. Have you ever had this logical thought run through your mind as you began to pray: “If your God is all-knowing, then He already knows what you want or need. Even His Word tells you that (Matthew 6:8). So, why should you bother Him with asking for anything in prayer?” When that distracting and deceptive thought is thrown at me by the enemy of my prayer-life, I know my best defense to ensure victory is NOT try to “out-logic” him, but simply rely on the power of God’s Word to defeat Satan.

Even though I do believe God already knows—before I speak the first words of prayer—what I have need of, I believe my sincere praying matters because Jeremiah 33:3 tells me that God is simply waiting for me to come to Him and ask, and He is more than willing to tell me many things that I currently don’t know, but need to know!

Isaiah 55:8-9 tells me that God’s thoughts and ways are much different and higher than my own thoughts and ways!

Thus, it matters that I seek God “in prayer,” because what He knows that I don’t and what He wants to do in my life that I haven’t yet discovered may totally change my prayer request to Him. Since His wants, desires, and plans are purposely focused on prospering me and giving me a future and hope (Jeremiah 29:11) that exceeds my own thoughts, I would be foolish to do this “life-thing” on my own!

Besides that assurance from God’s own Word, I know from personal experience that my seeking God in prayer, on a regular basis, protects my relationship with Him because it:

Keeps the communication line open and fosters a closer relationship with Him; thus, enabling me to get to know God much better. Isn’t that what Jesus’ prayer focus in the garden (John 17:3) was: that “eternal life” is all about knowing the Father and Jesus Christ (i.e relationship)!

Increasingly reminds me of my absolute dependence upon God; that He is God and I am not; and that I must decrease my (flesh-driven) self-reliance, while increasing His sufficiency for me in all matters (John 3:30).

So, this fiery dart launched by Satan against God’s divine “omniscient” attribute is successfully extinguished; and my personal commitment to daily praying is even stronger now than before. While I am thanking God for another victory He has given me through Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57), the only one who ends up discouraged is the devil himself!

Dennis Conner and his wife Betty Jo are the directors of member relations for the Church Prayer Leaders Network. They are also the co-founders of Called to Serve, a ministry that seeks to coach pastors and churches in becoming houses of prayer.

The Characteristics of Praying Churches 

Authors Daniel Henderson and Elmer Towns have recently released an exciting new book, The Church That Prays Together. The book profiles ten churches--each with a different prayer focus--and offers insights on the impact a praying church can have.

The Church That Prays Together (released by NavPress in June) retails for $9.99, but it is currently our July Super Special. You can purchase it for $6.99. But that's not all. For $6.00 more ($12.99), you can also purchase a DVD of a keynote session from Empowered 2008, where Jon Graf  has a discussion with Drs. Henderson and Towns about the characteristics of a praying church.

Click here for more information.

What Did Paul Know?

In his second epistle to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul said some interesting things about prayer. He begins the book by reminding the Corinthian believers that they share in his sufferings. Then he fills them in a little on the ways he has suffered in his latest missionary journey:

“We do not want you to be uniformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-11, emphasis added)

This was not a missionary writing his supporters, saying how blessed he was knowing that people back home were praying. No, Paul knew that prayer literally had an affect in the kingdom; that prayer brought results; that prayer did something in the heavenlies that moved the hand of God and beat back the kingdom of darkness’s attempt to thwart his ministry. He recognized that they were literally joining his journey through their prayers. Without them, Paul would not have made it!

The Essential Aspect

Prayer is the most vital aspect of a believer’s walk with God. Bible reading and memorization is extremely important for our spiritual health and growth. But there are many believers around the world who do not have a Bible, and while significantly hampered, they can still grow. Fellowshipping with other believers in community is certainly necessary for our spiritual life. But there are believers who cannot participate in meaningful fellowship, and they still grow. Listening to preaching and teaching can stimulate us to go deeper in our faith. But again, many believers do not have the wealth of teachers we in the West have, but they still mature in their faith. Without prayer, however, real growth does not occur much.

Out of every 100 believers in a given church there are believers who are growing deeper in their faith and those who are not. In most churches the ratio of growing believers to non-growing ones is probably 1 out of 5 or worse. The difference? Those who are growing probably have a prayer life, or at least are working to develop one. Or another possibility: they have someone who is significantly praying for their spiritual growth.

And that’s what Paul knew. He realized the importance of praying key spiritual growth principles into people’s lives. Paul had lots of people he was concerned about, people all across Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and throughout Greece and Rome. Despite the great physical and material needs these folks must have had, Paul doesn’t seem to focus on those things in his prayers for them. Instead, Paul focused on spiritual health and growth in these believers. Things like that they would grow in wisdom and understanding, revelation, and love dominated his prayers for them.

Paul also did something that is to me very intriguing. He did something I call “pray the process.” That is, he seemed to pray more for the process of growth in people’s lives than the end results. In most of Paul’s prayers recorded in the epistles, we see two little words near the middle: “so that.” Paul prayed something so that something else would happen. For example, look at these two prayers

I pray “that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11, emphasis added).

“I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ” (Philemon 6, emphasis added).

He had some results in mind (be more discerning, live pure and blameless lives, understand who we are in Christ), but he focused more on praying the path toward those things (love, active in sharing what God was doing in your life). He prayed the process, not the results.

I am sure in some of Paul’s non-recorded prayers, he prayed for specific things; but in the ones God chose to record, he prays for spiritual development. What should that say to us? Not that we should never pray for specific results, but maybe that a significant part of our prayer agenda—for ourselves and those we love—should focus on spiritual growth.

What’s in it for us?

We need to learn to pray the themes Paul prayed—both for ourselves and others. That’s what praying the process is all about—learning to focus a lot of prayers on spiritual things rather than earthly concerns. Learning to pray more for spiritual growth and health in the lives of people, then be concerned that their lives are normal and problem free. Focusing less on the “little answerables” and more on the “kingdom getting glory results.”

Jonathan Graf is the president of the Church Prayer Leaders Network. This article is adapted from his yet to be published book, Pray the Process: Letting the Prayers of Paul Shape Our Intercession.