“The House of PRAYER” is a forthcoming book. The inward house of prayer is the believer’s spirit where the Holy Spirit comes into contact with the spirit.
Then there is the outward place of prayer. A praying believer then establishes a house of prayer. It is established and constantly used. It is established to strike for souls to be won to Christ, churches planted and disciples made. It is established to pray for funds. To acquire a place of prayer is one of the early things the successful missionary will go for. When you get to a place, ask where the place of prayer is. When you meet a man of prayer, ask, “Where is your place of prayer?” If it is not there, he is a tragedy. I am totally convinced that without the room at Nkolbisson1, I would not be where I am today. It is there that I have shut myself up, prayed and waited before God constantly.A place cultivated by fasting, prayer, and waiting on God must be established so that when you are there, you plug into God easily.That is why our house in Bamenda2 has become “The Bamenda House of Prayer for all Nations.” All the eleven rooms will become prayer rooms. Our prayer is that each of the provinces should have a house of prayer. The site of the School of Knowing and Serving God will be primarily for prayer. We are thinking about buying a plot here to cover all we are doing in prayer.
When people want to pray and there is no place to pray, it is a great handicap.Every step ahead is taken against mighty resistance from hell.When brethren are withdrawing from the place of prayer or running away from it, they do not know that hell has wrought victory and that demons have been promoted. To which place of prayer are you a regular participant? What has your church provided as to prayer? Do you have full time prayer people? Do you have a distinctive prayer ministry? May it be written in your life that either you pray or perish.To provide a place to meet and not a place to pray is tragic. To provide a place to sleep and not a place to pray is to make yourself a permanent sleeper.In prayer, man deals with God and the devil.
The Bible says,
“In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, ”It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:1-4).
Priority number one of the apostles was prayer. When a man fails in prayer, he has failed totally. Unless a man is firstly, secondly and lastly a man of prayer, he is of no consequence before God; he cannot be God’s achiever in the world. If there is one thing the apostles did, they prayed. If there is a second thing they gave themselves to, it was the ministry of the Word. If a man does not pray and others pray for his work, it will collapse because he is a dishonest man at the top. He is just a crook. If he does only one thing, it should be prayer. The second thing is that he mobilises people to pray. If he does a third thing, it should be the ministry of the Word. All the other things should be delegated to others. Unless a man is a man of prayer, he is a nobody. If all he does is to pray, he has done a major work.
>span class=”Apple-converted-space”> Normally, the leader must be that man of prayer. The first officers to be appointed are those of prayer before anything else. I look at the female aspect of the work with gratitude to God. God has raised a number of women of prayer in our work. A woman of prayer prays as a priority. She prays massively. She has no time for niceties. She puts everything into prayer. All her life turns around prayer.
S.M. = Serious Man
A growing man of prayer has a growing prayer army.How do you know that a man is backsliding? His personal prayer life, group prayer life, prayer leadership and prayer places provided starts and keeps declining. The Moravians who were the precursors of the Methodists started a prayer chain that went on for 100 years. When the praying stopped, the work stopped.If your ministry is growing, it willbe reflected before everyone. Speed should increase with pressure.
A remark to the men:There are women who have prayed with me every one of the forty-two plus twenty-four nights of crusading. There are very few men, certainly none in the leadership, who have prayed with me every one of those nights. A prayer crusade is building endurance. When you relax for a night, it is no longer the same. Those who do not relax go very far ahead of you. Whether it is a weak will or lack of consecration, there is a big problem there. The devil always ensures that people should not be there when being there is of the greatest importance. The key women have been there, night and day. When women provide more vision, endurance and determination, we are before a bad day. Either I do not get involved in the crusade or I go in full swing. The one who is there today and is absent tomorrow weakens the army; better stay at home. A leader is permanently on duty. He knows he should not relax. He says, “If I relax, will the enemy relax?” He cannot go with the enemy to rest either. Satan, our enemy, prowls around looking for whom to destroy. You may not watch but he watches. Has Satan ever said he is going on holiday because he is tired? Can he say he has worked too hard and was distracted? Can he say, “My child was not well,” or “My wife needed me?”We know the seriousness of a thing by its priority in prayer.
The more serious an event, the more the praying. The most critical an activity, the more praying. People do not bother praying about things of no consequence. When you look at the ministry of our Lord Jesus, as a baby, he was dedicated at the place of prayer. At the age of twelve, He was at the place of prayer: ‘Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ In three days, as a young convert, Saul of Tarsus had done a three-day fast, which many have not done for ten years. In his first three days in the Lord, he had seen a vision and he had established a reputation as a man of prayer. The Lord could tell Ananias to go identify Saul by the man he found praying on Straight Street. The Bible says,
“In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, ”Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered. The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul for he is praying” (Acts 9:10,11).
The thing that we know is that as people pray good things happen. As people pray, there is more giving. When they relax, everything drops. Giving has increased with the months this year because of the nights of prayer we started having on February 26th 1997. As the things are brought to God in prayer, things happen. Prayer moves the Hand that moves the universe. About church planting, a weak man who pays the price in prayer, fasting and holiness will produce results thatcannot be explained based on his abilities. A man who fasts, prays and givessacrificially, in spite of the fact that he may have few gifts, talents or abilities willproduce results that cannot be ascribed to his abilities. A man with great gifts,talents, or abilities who fails in prayer and fasting and holiness will fail woefully in church planting.
The importance of an event is demonstrated by the prayer investment. I went to China, I was prayed for, for 24 hours of everyday I was there. I was fasting. There is a day I prayed for more than 20 hours. There is a day I sat on one spot and before long, it was 8 hours. It was because of the brethren’s praying, which carried me to new heights. I planted 580 churches in an average of 16 hours a day. When prayer isfocused, the unusual happens. It may be weak people praying but as they continuepraying, the devil is knocked out. Qualitatively and quantitatively, my prayer life has continued to increase since Sister Emily made praying for my prayer life her priority number one. Since she and her team began to pray for books on prayer, nine have been written and it is now a possibility that 36 books on prayer will be written.What does not happen in prayer may not happen andwe have been called to pray. If you are to succeed, it is in prayer.
Prayer is not optional. When God says, ‘Pray without ceasing,’ is He joking? And God commands us to pray, ‘for he ever liveth to intercede.’>span class=”Apple-converted-space”> We have got to live by the admonition,“Pray without ceasing” (l Thessalonians 5:17). The Bible says,
“Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them”(Hebrews 7:25).
1A neighbourhood in the city of Yaounde, Cameroon
2The capital city of the North West province of Cameroon