Prayer is the great complement to biblical knowledge, without which there can be little life or power in the missionary, his preaching, or his missionary endeavors. Every triumph of the church in the last two thousand years has been birthed, cultivated, and matured by God leading and empowering His people to pray. If there is one thing that all the great missionaries and preachers of church history have in common, it is their dependence upon God in prayer.
The importance of prayer in the missionary endeavor cannot be exaggerated. Global missions is an impossibility apart from the power of God. The Apostle John tells us that “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (I John 5:19). Therefore, it would be easier to lift Mount Everest and cast it into the sea than to take one inch of Satan’s domain in our own power. Satan laughs at our endless strategies and mocks our clever schemes. But when one man lashes himself to the Word and wears out his knees in prayer, all of hell shudders.
All the Christians, churches, missionary societies, and institutions combined cannot win one soul. All our conferences, campaigns, and desires to give our lives away cannot advance the kingdom. Even if there were no devil, the radical corruption of one sinner’s heart would bring to nothing all our efforts and make us a laughingstock of impotence. The lost world and the lost soul are like Jericho. They are tightly shut up; no one can go out and no one can come in (Joshua 6:1). We can march around the wall until we are utterly worn out. We can lift up our voices and blow our trumpets until we are blue in the face. We can throw ourselves at the wall until our bodies are broken and lying in heaps on the ground. But the wall is not going to fall by any human effort. It requires the power of God. He can make quick work of the wall and destroy in seconds what we could not bring down even if we were granted ten thousand eternities!
Commit to Pray for the Nations
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