Media Outreach

4. Study yourself to death, and pray yourself back to life again.

At every juncture in sermonic preparation, a “spirit of prayer” should be in the minister’s heart. A preacher who is not praying in the ministry is playing in the ministry. The minister is to be a person of prayer. He does not stop to pray; he simply does not stop from prayer. The preacher should learn how to pray. Jesus did not teach His disciples how to preach but how to pray. However, today the emphasis is more on how to preach rather than how to pray in order to preach. This is a missing element in effective evangelistic preaching. Ministers should pray for:

• more workers
• empowerment
• boldness
• miracles
• open doors
• the right message
• clear communication
• expansion of the gospel
• deliverance
• local church involvement
• finances
• salvation of the lost

Pray over and through all the steps of preparation for effective evangelistic preaching.

• Pray for the lost who will hear your sermon.
• Ask the Lord to direct every thought during your sermon preparation for the purposes of connecting, communicating, and converting the lost to Christ.

The priority of the evangelist’s or pastor’s prayer life will determine the power of his or her evangelism. When the biographies of preachers God used in the past are studied, the common denominator of prominence was their priority on prayer. Mighty men and women of God will have a consistent quiet time with God.

The first area of the evangelist’s and pastor’s ministry to be developed should not be the “public life” before crowds but the private life before God; however, many ministers do not have a deep prayer life with God.

• The prayer life is for spiritual conditioning. The spiritual muscles of the preacher grow as he or she “stretches” and “works” them out through supplication before God. The quality of the evangelist’s quiet time will result either in spiritual strength or spiritual weakness. It is hypocritical to preach to people before first praying for them.

• The prayer life is for spiritual cleansing. Ministry travels are made up of dirty, muddy roads. Each day the soul of the evangelist is soiled by the world. Non-Christian attitudes can creep into the heart. Sin can be committed even in the ministry. Thus, the prayer life becomes a time of spiritually washing the heart, mind, emotions, and will before God. The more time the preacher spends each day in prayer, the more adjustments will be made in attitudes and actions in ministry. The heart becomes pliable. The spirit becomes teachable. The will becomes responsive.

• The prayer life is for spiritual conflict. The preacher is in a spiritual war for the souls of men and women. Preachers must resolve to protect their quiet time with God regardless of the daily pressures of life and ministry. The twenty-first century minister faces the “tyranny of time.” The most difficult thing to do is to prioritize prayer time every day.

John Bunyan said,

“Prayer will make a man cease from sin, and sin will make a man cease from prayer.”

Leonard Ravenhill said,

“No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. … We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.”

Preachers must pray when they feel like it, when they do not feel like it, and until they do feel like it. It is not about the arithmetic of prayer or the number of times of prayer. It is not about the geometry of prayer or how long the prayer is before God. It is not about the rhetoric of prayer or the words used to impress God or others. It is not about the music of prayer or how sweet the sound of one’s voice is to the ears of God. It is not about the logic of prayer or the kind of argumentation used in order to try to persuade God. It is about the passion of prayer. Instead of being “through praying,” preachers need to “pray through” and touch the heart of a loving God.

By: Dr. James O. Davis, Founder of Cutting Edge International and Second Billion Network

Tune-in Monday for the fifth law of communication.