The Necessity of Prayer
"If prayer isn’t vital for your church, then your church isn’t vital…If you can accomplish your church’s mission without daily, passionate prayer, then your mission is insufficient, and your church is irrelevant."
– Francis Chan
"When God has something very great to accomplish for his church, it is his will that there should precede it the extraordinary prayers of his people."
– Jonathan Edwards
"The greatest workings of God come by corporate prayer, and we will not see the power of God in sufficient measure to transform the world around us until we pray together. As a leader you must make praying together a priority equal to preaching and teaching. If I sound a little melodramatic, good. Then you caught just how monstrously important it is...Personal prayer lives alone will not result in the working of God to the degree needed for spiritual transformation in our lives, our churches, our cities, or our nation. God in his sovereignty has determined that something happens when we pray together that transcends praying separately. His working increases exponentially."
– John Franklin
"Hear me clearly. I have never seen successful and sustaining change take place in a church without prayer. Never. Not once."
– Thom Rainer
"Have you ever thought to yourself, “I’m praying to the exact God Elijah prayed to”? Do you genuinely believe that Moses, Esther, David and Daniel had no advantage over you spiritually? In fact, some would argue that you have the advantage of both the risen Christ and the indwelling Spirit. Let’s stop looking at the godly men and women in Scripture as though their prayer lives are unattainable!"
– Francis Chan
"Prayer is our strength; prayer generates strength…and the devil will drive you away from the prayer closet more than anything."
– Leonard Ravenhill
"Prayer is expressed helplessness. When we’re not engaged in prayer, it’s because we feel like 'we got this.' The extent to which you are not engaged in prayer is the extent to which you are relying on your own strength."
– Jared C. Wilson
"Prayer is one of the primary demonstrations of our selflessness and God’s self-centeredness. In our selflessness, you and I realize that it is impossible for us to accomplish his purpose in our own strength. So we express our dependence upon God in prayer, and he delights in showing his glory by giving us everything we need for the accomplishment of his purpose. Through prayer, God gives grace to us in such a way that he receives glory for himself. Prayer is a nonnegotiable priority for selfless followers of a self-centered God."
– David Platt
"There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer."
– A. T. Pierson
"History is full of exciting results as God has worked through concerted, united, sustained prayer."
– J. Edwin Orr
"The coming revival must begin with a great revival of prayer. It is in the closet, with the door shut, that the sound of abundance of rain will first be heard."
– Andrew Murray
"All revival begins, and continues, in the prayer meeting. Some have also called prayer the ‘great fruit of revival.’ In times of revival, thousands may be found on their knees for hours, lifting up their heartfelt cries, with thanksgiving, to heaven."
– Henry Blackaby
"The prayer meeting is really a very excellent barometer of the spiritual maturity of any given church. That's just a matter of fact. You can tell how popular the church is by who comes on Sunday morning and how popular the pastor or guest speaker is by who comes on Sunday night or for a special meeting. But you can really find out how much the people really know God and love Jesus by who will come just to wait on the Lord in prayer."
– Jim Cymbala
"God answers an individual or a church in proportion to how they are walking with him. He never differentiates between the thing requesting and the one making the request. God doesn’t answer prayer; he answers you. No amount of education, mastering a formula, or learning a certain skill set determines spiritual power in a prayer meeting; rather, God moves based on the hearts of the people praying."
– John Franklin
"When someone is born again, the Holy Spirit gives that person new Fatherward desires, a new heavenward orientation whereby we cry, 'Abba, Father!' In other words, all those indwelled by the Holy Spirit really want to pray. The Holy Spirit causes all the children of God to believe that God is their Father and fills them with an undying desire to talk to him."
– Donald Whitney
"I know the idea of a prayer meeting doesn’t sound very glamorous. The trouble is, churches and pastors feel the pressure of innovation constantly. Our society is obsessed with innovation, so the common and plain are regularly devalued. People want something fresh, new, and exciting. Pastors like me are tempted to think we need to create exciting events that people will want to attend. Yet prayer meetings are seldom exciting. People come into a room, share their burdens with each other, and together take them before God with eyes closed and heads bowed.
"The truth is, we don’t need to innovate. We only need to be intentional. The prayer meeting isn’t meant to be a theme park. It’s more like a storage facility, and we are all cars without trunks. We were never meant to store up our concerns within ourselves. We were meant to off-load those things to God. The prayer meeting isn’t a place of attraction, but a place of necessity. It’s a place where people come with burdens and leave without them because they’ve been placed in God’s hands. Here, we come together to lean on God with each other, for the sake of each other."
– John Onwuchekwa
"Prayer can accomplish what a willing God can accomplish…Prayer can do anything. Because with God, 'all things are possible' (Matthew 19:26). It can reach out and address any issue that anyone is facing anywhere on the earth. It can be silently engaged without the enemy ever hearing the life-changing conversation going on in our heads and hearts with our Commander in Chief.
"So this is not just a harmless little church ritual we’re talking about. Nor a pitiful beggar asking for a handout he’s almost sure he won’t receive. There’s raw power here. There’s access to God Almighty. There’s a certainty of His sovereignty. There’s a boldness that no amount of enemy resistance can steal from us unless we give it away. And that only happens when we don’t pray."
- From The Battle Plan of Prayer
"The great work of intercession is needed for this returning to the Lord. It is here that the coming revival must find its strength. Let us begin as individuals to plead with God, confessing whatever we see of sin or hindrance in ourselves or others. If there were no other sin, surely the lack of prayer is matter enough for repentance, confession, and returning to the Lord."
- Andrew Murray
"I have joyfully dedicated my whole life to the object of exemplifying how much may be accomplished by prayer and faith."
– George Muller