Like Maple Ridge, that kind of prayer often takes a church way beyond its personal ministry to influence regions, its nation, or nations. Why does this happen? I think it has something to do with what I call the “Forceful Men Lay Hold of It” principle. Mt. 11:12 tells us that “the kingdom of God has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” How do forceful men lay hold of the kingdom of God? Through prayer—they begin to first pray--and then live out—“your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt. 6:10).

When a church starts focusing a greater portion of prayer on the kingdom rather than needs-based prayer that seeks the comfort of its members something starts to happen—it becomes a kingdom church and its people become kingdom minded.

That’s what happened to Jefferson Baptist Church in Jefferson, Oregon a number of years ago. When its pastor, Dee Duke became convinced that prayer needed to become a more significant part of his ministry, I’m not sure he was prepared for what would eventually happen. Today, Jefferson Baptist is known in its community and county as a praying church. Its people seek God’s power and blessing for the county’s schools, government, safety officers and beyond. And over the years it has become an international reaching church, establishing ministry in Vietnam and Afghanistan.

Or Christ Community Church in western Indiana. Situated in the state’s poorest county, Christ Community’s prayer efforts have moved it to become a force to help the poor in its community—especially ministering to children. It just continues to pray for God’s power and glory to be displayed in its people, ministry and services. As its people lay hold of the kingdom through prayer, it becomes a spiritual force.

Or Menomone Alliance Church in Menomonie, WI. When its men especially began praying decades ago, no one could have foreseen what ministry the church would have in the future. Today, this small town church has a reach into Mongolia; because a prayer leader used it as a guinea pig to see what would happen if its children learned to pray kingdom things, through this curriculum, it now has a reach into multiple churches around the country, teaching its kids to pray. Recently the church has established a College of Prayer to train pastors and church leaders on the power of prayer in their lives and ministries.

Sometimes when we think about prayer, we forget what potential it has to grow people in their faith. As church leaders, we want our people to be kingdom minded with a biblical worldview. We work at discipleship and motivation. We institute programs to give our people opportunities to get involved in ministry. All that is good. But a lot of striving and effort goes into things that may or may not see the desired results. Prayer is the absolute key to people becoming kingdom minded. Like these churches, the more we can encourage prayer for the broader kingdom things of God, the more we will see changes in the mindset of our people. Striving stops at that point, and we just let God do the work He desires to do.

Jonathan Graf is the president of the Church Prayer Leaders Network and a popular motivational speaker on prayer. Email him at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it for information on his speaking ministry.