The single, most underestimated way to reach God’s world with the gospel of Jesus Christ is prayer. The emphasis upon prayer prevails over any means to accomplish the work of the Kingdom of God.
Take the Jesus’ following comments:
Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.
— Matthew 21:21-22 (ESV)
Or, the apostle John:
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
— 1 John 5:13-15 (ESV)
Regardless of attempts to qualify and contain passages such as these in a neat little box to avoid heretical prayer, you cannot avoid the fact, if all the godly and righteous conditions are met, these passages indicate that prayer is effectual and effective in the human realm for the Kingdom of God. Or, more simply, ask and you will receive.
The power to reach God’s world
I’m not at all advocating selfish, individualistic prayer. A careful study of the passages quoted will indicate as such, however, I cannot get around the fact that Jesus makes clear that under godly, righteous, and holy motivations God will hear and answer our prayer. If we seek to reach God’s world, surely a godly, righteous, and holy motivation, should we not take Jesus’ words seriously?
6 Ways to Reach God’s World – PRAY
Let me ask you this: what would you do if you were a superhero, you had a superpower, and you could use it for the good of people?
With prayer, we have something that is so much more valuable than any superhero’s superpower. We have the ability to take our petitions, put them at the feet of the living God, He listens to them and He acts on them.
— Greg, prayer group leader (video)
Prayer makes a difference. Prayer is God’s chosen instrument to reach His world. Yes, people need to go and share the gospel, those people need training to share the gospel, those people need support to share the gospel; but fundamentally underlying all of those efforts is prayer. Without prayer, those efforts are powerless and fruitless, unprotected from the attacks of the enemy.
How can you reach God’s world with prayer?
Here’s a few ideas on how you can pray:
- If your church supports missionaries, sign up to their newsletter and pray for them.
- Go to mission prayer websites:
- Contact a mission agency and ask for prayer resources
- Get a group of people together:
- Pray for 5 minutes, 5 days a week
- Meet up and keep each other accountable
- Adopt and pray for a people group/country
If you have any other great resources, why not share them with a comment below.
