By Dave Butts

There’s a fascinating change taking place in the way the Church perceives prayer. From dusty devotions and meeting personal needs, prayer has taken center stage in our attempts to reach the lost. Prayer seems to have become the Divine Strategy for the completion of the task of world evangelization. Wherever the church is growing the most, you find the Church praying the best.

The explosion of prayer evangelism is happening in Korea, in Argentina, in many places in Africa…and it’s beginning to happen in North America as well. Christians are creatively bringing together prayer and evangelism in ways that are overcoming both natural and spiritual barriers to Christian conversion.

I think it’s important at the outset to understand that prayer evangelism is not some sort of mystical weirdness where we pray and then sit back and do nothing else. It is rather, a releasing of God’s power through prayer that is focused on overcoming barriers to evangelism and on preparing the soil of an individual’s life to receive the gospel. We pray powerful biblical prayers and then our evangelistic efforts follow, with far greater effectiveness.

We shouldn’t be surprised by this. The New Testament speaks of the connectedness between prayer and evangelism in a number of places. When Jesus told His followers to look around them at the white fields (potential spiritual harvest), His first instruction to them was to pray. “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field’” (Matthew 9: 37-38). Later, when Jesus had given His disciples the assignment to go to all people everywhere, teaching, preaching, baptizing and making disciples, their first step was to have a prayer meeting. “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers” (Acts 1:14).

Paul wrote to Timothy that God wanted us to pray…interceding for everyone (1 Timothy 2:1-4). Why? Because God wants everyone saved. The New Testament teaches us much on the power of prayer in evangelism. Somehow the Church has lost the connection. My friend Terry Teykl of Renewal Ministries says that sometime after the first century the great divorce occurred–the divorce between prayer and evangelism. Prayer became devotional and liturgical, but not very practical, while evangelism was more and more a matter of human effort or even coercion at times. Fortunately, this New Testament concept is being recovered as prayer and evangelism are once again wedded together.

It’s happening in many exciting ways. One preacher in Texas asked his congregation to turn in the names of 100 people who needed to come to Jesus. Those names were prayed over by a trained team of intercessors and by the end of the year 92 of those people had come to faith in Christ. This type of focused praying by those who have been well-trained is central to effective prayer evangelism.

One way of praying for the neighborhoods around your church is an innovative method known as prayerwalking. Christians gather at the church building for a time of prayer and preparation. Then they go in groups of two or three through a particular neighborhood, walking up and down the street, praying for each house, that God would be at work in each home. It’s done quietly, without calling attention to those who are praying, but effectively releasing God’s power into people’s lives. There’s a great resource book written on the topic entitled “Prayerwalking: Praying Onsite with Insight” by Graham Kendrick and Steve Hawthorne.

One minister I spoke with some time ago prays for everyone in his church by name every week. To help him remember who is who, he has put all of their pictures on his laptop computer so that he can see their faces as he prays. Oh, did I mention that their attendance has gone from 150 to 1300 and he still prays for everyone by name every week!

Many churches are sending cards to homes in their neighborhood asking if there is anything they can be praying about. They are not asking them to come to church…not asking for money…or advertising a special program…just wanting to know if there is any way they can pray about what is important to them. It’s not long before such a church is attracting people who are looking for a church that cares enough to pray.

The power of blending prayer and evangelism is not something that is limited to local churches. Whole groups of churches and large evangelistic outreaches are beginning to see the importance of prayer. One of the most exciting and ambitious efforts to reach this nation for Christ is called Table Coalition (formerly Mission America Coalition). Its goal? To pray by name for every man, woman and child in the U.S. and to present them with the gospel. It’s a goal that no one group within the Church can do by itself. It will take the cooperation of many organizations, fellowships and congregations.

One of the things I like about Table Coalition is its emphasis on local congregational involvement and voluntary cooperation. There is no monolithic program for everyone to buy into. It is simply a networking of ideas and strategies with a common goal–“The whole church taking the whole Gospel to the whole nation in this generation.”

Another missional way to pray for neighbors and nations is to establish Lighthouses of Prayer. Over one and a half million Lighthouses of Prayer have been established in the United States with many more being added daily. A lighthouse is any person, family or group of people who will commit to pray, care and sensitively share Jesus Christ with their neighbors, co-workers, schoolmates or friends as God directs.

Billy Graham has said of this effort: “The Lighthouse Movement has brought the Body of Christ together in a way that is unique in American history. I am praying that God will use this movement to help bring about a massive nationwide renewal and spiritual awakening in the months ahead.”

It is exciting to see what God is doing in the midst of His people as he draws us to Himself in prayer. Prayer is re-igniting the Church’s fire of evangelism as we reach out to this nation and to the ends of the earth. “Lord, teach us to pray…in your way…and in your will” seems to have become the battle cry of the Church in these exciting days!

(c) Harvest Prayer Ministries

PRAYER, PEACE, and the PRESENCE of GOD by David Butts

As believers, we are supposed to walk in the peace of Christ, yet we all have stressful issues and circumstances that rob us of this peace. Subtitled “A 30-Day Journey to Experience the Shalom of Jesus,” Prayer, Peace and the Presence of God powerfully encourages the reader on how to hold onto that peace in any circumstance.

The author, David Butts (1953-2022), started writing this book and 10 days into it he got word that he was in stage 4 with a rare form of lymphoma. God allowed him to live in a greater way for five additional years of full-strength ministry.  Dave has challenged readers in Prayer, Peace and the Presence of God to seek after His  best life, no matter what it holds.

His 30-day devotional will encourage, inspire and challenge you that you, too, can experience and walk in the peace of Jesus no matter what circumstances you are walking through.

 Learn more about purchasing this book here

God loves every person on the planet and has called us to go and make disciples of everyone we can! We are also instructed by God to pray for the lost in our families, our neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, and to the ends of the earth! Here are seven scriptural ways to begin praying for lost people every day:

1. Pray for the salvation of those who have yet to attain an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

“But don’t forget this, dear friends, that a day or a thousand years from now is like tomorrow to the Lord. He isn’t really being slow about his promised return, even though it sometimes seems that way. But he is waiting, for the good reason that he is not willing that any should perish, and he is giving more time for sinners to repent” (2 Peter 3:8-9).

2. Pray against the powers of evil who fight to keep the lost in darkness.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm” (Ephesians 6:12-13).

3. Pray that God will remove the blinders that the Devil tries to put on the eyes and minds of unbelievers.

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

4. Pray for the encouragement, growth in discipleship and protection of new believers.

“For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light” (Colossians 1:9-12).

5. Pray to the Lord of the Harvest to raise up more workers to send into His harvest field.

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field’” (Matthew 9:36-38).

6. Pray that the Father will draw lost people to Himself.  “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44).

7. Pray for the blessing and peace of God in every person’s life you are praying for to come to Jesus. Pray prophetically that God will work in every new believer’s life, and that the Holy Spirit will enable them to fulfill their redemptive purposes.

“For God is at work within you, helping you want to obey him, and then helping you do what he wants” (Philippians 2:13)

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs, and don’t forget to thank him for his answers. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

“This is what I have asked of God for you: that you will be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love, and that you will have the rich experience of knowing Christ with real certainty and clear understanding. For God’s secret plan, now at last made known, is Christ himself.  In him lie hidden all the mighty, untapped treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2-3).

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27).

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:11-14).

(c) Harvest Prayer Ministries, 2020