Sustained Prayer

It was May on an airplane when the Lord began to speak to me about our youth group committing the upcoming summer to prayer. I had just left the International House of Prayer in Kansas City and I knew the Lord was calling us to launch a “Summer of Prayer.” There are two things I know for sure. God is looking for one city in America to be entirely His and He is looking for the church that will believe Him for their city to be saved. I believe Redding will be that city. If we are to pursue the glory of God dwelling in our city then we must give ourselves to prayer. Jesus tells us, “Whatever things we ask in prayer, believing, we will receive.” What a mind-blowing statement! Jesus gives us a blank check and puts the resources of Heaven at our disposal. If, we prayer and believe.

 

So we launched the “Summer of Prayer.” We cancelled office time, gave up our Friday nights, and began to gather young people to pray. The first prayer meeting was incredible. Tuesday morning, just a handful of us, but a definite excitement about what the Lord was calling us to. We could feel that anything was possible in the atmosphere of prayer. So we came, not knowing what we were doing, but ready to press in to prayer for our city. Then, it happened. About two hours into our first prayer meeting, our prayers were turned towards the campuses. As we began to pray for the local high schools, I felt myself enter into a new realm of spiritual authority. But here was the odd thing, the realm of authority I had just stepped into felt unfamiliar - I knew I didn’t live there. Theologically I lived there, just not practically. I began to understand that, through prayer, we must begin to contend for our rightful place of authority in our city.

As with almost everything in life, the learning happens in the midst of doing what you’ve prepared for. It’s kind of like having your first child. You try and learn as much as you can to be prepared for this new little life coming into your world, but the real learning begins the minute your beautiful child starts breathing air. Everything before that was just to prepare you for the real learning process ahead. One thing we found out right away - the cry of our heart had to be consistent if we were to live in a new realm of authority. We began to understand the stories Jesus used to teach about prayer. The story about the widow and the unjust Judge and the story about the neighbor who had no bread for an unexpected visitor at midnight became alive to us. Both stories dealt with how persistence is a key to answered prayer. But then the questions came. How do we sustain prayer? How do we press in and not stop until we get our answer? How do we pray and “not lose heart?”

One can only sustain prayer for so long on human zeal and effort alone. I might start praying because I feel guilty or feel like I have to, but it won’t last long. A disciplined life, as important as that is, will only get one so far if one is going to give him or herself to sustained prayer. We knew we needed to pray until we got what we were asking for, and yet, we knew we couldn’t just “worked harder” for it. Working harder sounded like a recipe for burnout. So how were we to sustain prayer? There are four things, I believe, needed to sustain prayer. There are probably more, but these four we have found have helped us sustain prayer for our city.

First, intimacy. The life of a believer is to be a life of loving God and being loved by Him. Everything must flow from this. Anything that is not motivated from our love for God is unstable. The natural outflow of a life of love is spending time with the one you love. Prayer is hard to sustain if your view of God is anything but that of a loving Father. Many people view God as someone who is angry or disappointed with them. But who wants hang out for a few hours with a God who is just going to let them know He isn’t pleased with them? Nobody. It’s a joy to connect with a Daddy who is crazy in love with you. That I can sustain.

Second, responsibility. The reality is many people don’t sustain prayer for their city because they don’t feel any responsibility for their city. If one lives with a sense of responsibility, one will live differently. Let me give you an example. I have two gorgeous girls, one is six and the other is two. As a dad I have the privilege of late night calls and cries. It might be a bad dream. It might be a request for water. It might be they just decided to wake up at three in the morning. Whatever the reason is, when they call I’m up. However, if I were to stay the night at one of my friend’s house who also had small children, things would be different. If in the middle of the night I woke up to the cries of one of my friend’s children, my response would be different. More than likely, I would wake up and then roll over and go back to sleep. Why? Because those children aren’t my responsibility. My friend will do his “Daddy role” and get up to find out what is going on. They aren’t my children. It’s the same way in our city. If you don’t take responsibility for your city and the people in it then when something happens instead of going to prayer you will roll over and go back to sleep. Not because your heart is evil but because those aren’t your kids. You haven’t taken responsibility for your city. People pray for things they have responsibility for.

Third, theology of breakthrough. Simply put - you’ve got to believe God is going to show up because you are praying. We have a God who is more eager to show up in our city then we are to see Him show up. Many people, without knowing it, go through the motions of prayer but it’s powerless because we really don’t believe our prayers move the heart of God. Isaiah 64 says that God “acts for those who wait for Him.” That means God is moved to action for those who seek Him in prayer. God becomes active around those who pray. Sustaining prayer becomes easy when you really believe God will respond to your prayer. Breakthrough will come because God answers prayer. It may take a while, it may seem like God is slow, but He will answer because I am praying. I will keep pressing in until it happens because I know His character.

Fourth, the prophetic. This one has been huge for us. Dreams, prophetic words, scriptures, and experiences - all of these become the fuel for sustained prayer. When the Lord begins to speak to us prophetically, He’s providing us fuel for our fire. It provides direction, it lets us know we are on the right track; it’s one of the most exciting things we do. In the midst of receiving the prophetic, we’ve had to learn how to carry the prophetic. It’s one thing to hear a prophetic word; it’s a whole other thing to carry that prophetic word in prayer. Any time we begin to feel weary in our prayers, the Lord is faithful and sends us a dream or a prophetic word, a scripture becomes alive for us, and faith to keep pressing in ignites again in our heart.

The Lord is calling us to gain access to another realm of authority over our city. Let’s give ourselves to sustained prayer to see this happen.