PRAYER-MEETINGS
You can tell
how popular a church is by who comes on Sunday morning. You can tell how
popular the pastor or evangelist is by who comes on Sunday night. But you can
tell how popular Jesus is by who comes to the prayer meeting.
It is said
that the weekly prayer meeting is the spiritual barometer for any local church.
You can tell with a fair degree of accuracy what the church is like by the demeanour or substance of the weekly prayer meeting. Is there
genuine evangelistic concern? If so it will be expressed in the prayers. Is
there a heartfelt longing for the conversion of unconverted family members If so that is
sure to surface. Is there a world vision and a fervent
desire for revival and the glory of our Redeemer among the nations of the
world? Such a burden cannot be suppressed. Is there a heart agony about famine
and war and the need for the gospel of peace among the suffering multitudes of
mankind? The church prayer meeting will answer that question. Intercession in
the prayer meeting will soon reveal a loving church that cares for those who
are oppressed and weighed down with trials and burdens. Those bearing trials
too painful or personal to be described in public will nevertheless find comfort
in the prayer meeting, for there the Holy Spirit is especially at work
Erroll
Hulse
The Vital Place of the Prayer Meeting.
Prayer [is]
the genesis of revival. The beginning of a time of revival invariably has been
marked by quickening of the ordinary prayer meetings, resulting in new
vitality, more participation, more sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit,
and more unction in intercession.
Erroll
Hulse
A Call to Extraordinary Prayer for Revival,
Revival Commentary, v. 2, n. 1, p. 3.
The church is
not a democracy in which we have chosen God, but a theocracy in which He has
chosen us. The church is the only society in the world that never loses any of
its members, even by death. The church upon its knees would bring heaven upon
the earth.
E.M. Bounds
The effective
fervent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. But Scripture (Ac.
2:1-2; 4:24, 31; 12:5; 13:1-4) and experience combine to teach that the united
prayers of many righteous accomplish still more.
Oswald Sanders
When thou prayest before others, observe on what thou bestowest thy chief care and zeal, whether in the externals
or internals of prayer, that which is exposed to the eye and ear of men, or
that which should be prepared for the eye and ear of God; the devout posture of
thy body, or the inward devotion of thy soul; the pomp of thy words or the
power of thy faith; the agitation of thy bodily spirits in the vehemency of thy voice, or the fervency of thy spirit in
heartbreaking affections. These inward workings of the soul in prayer, are the very soul of prayer.
William Gurnall
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 214.
A man who
prays much in private will make short prayers in public.
D.L. Moody
Christian History, n. 25.
We
are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great
deal of activity, but we accomplish little; many services, but few conversions;
much machinery, but few results.
R.A. Torrey
Brothers and
sisters, I really feel that I’ve heard from God about the future of our church.
While I was away, I was calling out to God to help us – to help me – understand
what He wants most from us. And I believe I’ve heard an answer. It’s not fancy
or profound or spectacular. But I want to say to you with all the seriousness I
can muster: From this day on, the prayer meeting will be the barometer of our
church. What happens Tuesday night will be the gauge by which we will judge
success or failure because that will be the measure by which God blesses us… No
matter what I preach or what we claim to believe in our heads, the future will
depend upon our times of prayer
Jim Cymbala
Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, Zondervan, 1997, p.
27.
From
the day of Pentecost, there has been not one great spiritual awakening in any
land which has not begun in a union of prayer, though only among two or three.
And no such outward, upward movement has continued after such prayer meetings
have declined. It is in exact proportion to the maintenance of such joint and
believing supplication and intercession that the Word of the Lord in any land
or locality has had free course and been glorified.
A.T. Pierson
There has
never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin
in united prayer.
A.T. Pierson
The
thermometer of a church is its prayer meeting.
Vance Havner
I have known men…who have been utterly, entirely orthodox, but the
churches to which they belonged not only did not have prayer meetings, but they
did not believe in prayer meetings. You could not wish for anything better from
the standpoint of orthodoxy, but they do not believe in prayer meetings. Prayer
has very little place in their lives. Now while they may be orthodox, I take
leave to suggest that they are not truly evangelical. This element of prayer is
essential to the evangelical; it is his life; it is vital to him.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
What is an Evangelical? The Banner of Truth
Trust, 1992, p. 58.
The
true church lives and moves and has its being in prayer.
Leonard Ravenhill
The true man of God is heartsick, grieved at the
worldliness of the Church...grieved at the toleration of sin in the Church,
grieved at the prayerlessness in the Church. He is disturbed that the corporate
prayer of the Church no longer pulls down the strongholds of the devil.
This much is sure in all churches, forgetting party
labels; the smallest meeting numerically is the prayer-meeting. If weak in
prayer we are weak everywhere.
Let the fires
go out in the boiler room of the church and the place will still look smart and
clean, but it will be cold. The Prayer Room is the boiler room for its
spiritual life.
Leonard Ravenhill
No amount of
good talking can make a good prayer-meeting. The impression prevails in some
quarters that little homilies, pious exhortations, interesting anecdotes with a
religious bearing, and well-selected quotations from popular religious writers
are of equal value with prayer in a prayer-meeting. This cannot be true. In the
former case we are talking among ourselves. It may be very edifying and
helpful; but in the latter instance we are doing business directly with God. An
ounce of believing prayer is worth a ton of edifying talk, if the Scriptures
are good authority. To be sure, no prayer-meeting leader should object to a
personal testimony, or to any contribution calculated to edify, but at the same
time there is great need, in the average prayer-meeting, of developing the
volume of prayer.
J.F. Cowan
More Prayer in the Prayer Meeting, New
York, 1906.
What a
company we have here tonight! It fills my heart with gladness, and my eyes with
tears of joy, to see so many hundreds of persons gathered together at what is
sometimes wickedly described as “only a prayer meeting.” It is good for us to
draw night unto God in prayer, and specially good to
make up a great congregation for such a purpose. We have attended little prayer
meetings of four or five, and we have been glad to be there, for we had the
promise of our Lord’s presence; but our minds are grieved to see so little
attention given to united prayer by many of our churches. We have longed to see
great numbers of God’s people coming up to pray, and we now enjoy this sight. Let
us praise God that it is so. How could we expect a blessing if we were too idle
to ask for it? How could we look for a Pentecost if we never met with one
accord, in one place, to wait upon the Lord? Brethren, we shall never see much
change for the better in our churches in general till the prayer meeting
occupies a higher place in the esteem of Christians.
C.H. Spurgeon
Only a Prayer Meeting, Christian Focus
Publications, 2000, p. 9.
If a church
is to be what it ought to be for the purposes of God, we must train it in the
holy art of prayer. Churches without prayer-meetings are grievously common.
Even if there were only one such, it would be one to weep over. In many
churches the prayer-meeting is only the skeleton of a gathering: the form is
kept up, but the people do not come. There is no interest, no power, in
connection with the meeting. Oh, my brothers, let it not be so with you! Do
train the people to continually meet together for prayer. Rouse them to
incessant supplication. There is a holy art in it. Study to
show yourselves approved by the prayerfulness of your people. If you
pray yourself, you will want them to pray with you; and when they begin to pray
with you, and for you, and for the work of the Lord, they will want more prayer
themselves, and the appetite will grow. Believe me, if a church does not pray,
it is dead. Instead of putting united prayer last, put it first. Everything
will hinge upon the power of prayer in the church.
C.H. Spurgeon
Prayer
meetings are the throbbing machinery of the church.
C.H. Spurgeon
The condition
of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So is the
prayer meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we may
judge of the amount of divine working among a people. If God be near a church,
it must pray. And if He be not there, one of the first tokens of His absence
will be slothfulness in prayer.
C.H. Spurgeon
I always give
all the glory to God, but I do not forget that He gave me the privilege of
ministering from the first to a praying people. We had prayer meetings that
moved our very souls, each one appeared determined to storm the Celestial City
by the might of intercession.
C.H. Spurgeon
Quoted in: Prayer Makes History by
David Smithers.
Oh! yes, [the prayer meeting] is the place to meet with the Holy
Ghost, and this is the way to get His mighty power. If we would have Him, we
must meet in greater numbers; we must pray with greater fervency, we must watch
with greater earnestness, and believe with firmer steadfastness. The prayer
meeting…is the appointed place for the reception of power.
C.H. Spurgeon
Prayer Meetings, August 30th, 1868.
Why, see what
accumulated force there is in prayer, when one after another pours out his
vehement desires; when many seem to be tugging at the rope; when many seem to
be knocking mercy’s gate; when the mighty cries of many burning hearts come up
to heaven. When, my beloved, you go and shake the very gates thereof with the
powerful battering-ram of a holy vehemence, and sacred importunity, then is it
that the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence. When
first one, and then another, and yet another, throws his whole soul into the
prayer, the kingdom of heaven is conquered and the victory becomes great
indeed.
C.H. Spurgeon
Prayer Meetings, August 30th, 1868.
I fear that
much of our prayer is lost because we do not sufficiently throw our hearts into
it. It is possible for us to attend the meeting and all the while be thinking
of the home, the infant in the cradle, or the shop, the field, the farm, the
factory, the counting-house, the and I know not what beside. Is it any wonder
then that prayer halts? The brother who prays may be burning with earnest
desire, but his prayer lags because we are not backing it with silent Devour
and passionate longing for God’s blessing. Oh! Brethren and sisters, we have
often spoiled our prayer meetings thus.
C.H. Spurgeon
Prayer Meetings, August 30th, 1868.
Five young
college students were spending a Sunday in London, so they went to hear the
famed C.H. Spurgeon preach. While waiting for the doors to open, the students
were greeted by a man who asked, "Gentlemen, let me show you around. Would
you like to see the heating plant of this church?" They were not
particularly interested, for it was a hot day in July. But they didn't want to
offend the stranger, so they consented. The young men were taken down a
stairway, a door was quietly opened, and their guide whispered, "This is
our heating plant." Surprised, the students saw 700 people bowed in
prayer, seeking a blessing on the service that was soon to begin in the
auditorium above. Softly closing the door, the gentleman then introduced
himself. It was none other than Charles Spurgeon.
Author Unknown
Our
Daily Bread, April 24.
Very many of
our churches not only have no prayer-meeting, but sometimes unblushingly
condemn such meetings, and even ridicule them… And what of those churches where
the old-fashioned weekly prayer-meeting is retained? Would not “weakly” be the
more appropriate word?
Author
Unknown
The Kneeling Christian, circa 1930, ch. 1.
We feel sure
that the weakness in the spiritual life of many churches is to be traced to an
inefficient prayer-meeting, or the absence of meetings for prayer. Daily matins
and evensong, even when reverent and without the unseemly haste which is so
often associated with them, cannot take the place of less formal gatherings for
prayer, in which everyone may take part. Can we not make the weekly
prayer-meeting a live thing and a living force?
Author
Unknown
The Kneeling Christian, circa 1930, ch. 11.
Christians
who neglect corporate prayer are like soldiers who leave their front-line
comrades in the lurch.
Derek
Prime
Practical Prayer: The Why and How of Prayer, Focus Publishing, Used by
Permission.
Here in His
holy House of Prayer we may come on our day of rest, and be safe, if we will,
from any thoughts but those of the world to come. Here we gather together for
no earthly business, but for a purpose of one sort only; and that purpose is
the same for which saints and angels are met together in that innumerable
company before the throne of God. If there is a place on earth which, however
faintly and dimly, shadows out the courts of God on high, surely it is where
His people are met together, in all their weakness and ignorance and sin, in
their poor and low estate, yet with humble and faithful hearts, in His House of
Prayer.
R.W. Church
Village Sermons, 1897.
[Prayer]
is very hard work, why else is the prayer meeting the worst attended meeting in
any church? For that is where the battle is.
Melvin Tinker
Wisdom to Live By, Christian Focus Publications,
1998, p. 180.
Used by Permission.
The
neglected heart will soon be a heart overrun with worldly thoughts; the
neglected life will soon become a moral chaos; the church that is not jealously
protected by mighty intercession and sacrificial labors will before long become
the abode of every evil bird and the hiding place for unsuspected corruption.
The creeping wilderness will soon take over that church that trusts in its own
strength and forgets to watch and pray.
A.W. Tozer
Prayer is an
acknowledgment that our need of God’s help is not partial but total… Yet many
of our church prayer meetings have dwindled in size and influence. Ultimately,
the explanation can be traced to spiritual warfare. If, as the hymn writer
says, “Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees,” then we
may be sure that he and his minions will be working hard to discredit the value
of united prayer. The Evil One has scored a great victory in getting sincere
believers to waver in their conviction that prayer is necessary and powerful.
Alistair Begg
Made For His Pleasure, Moody Press, 1996, p. 52.
Even though
we may not take part audibly in the action, yet if we are there in a right
spirit – there really to wait upon God, we marvelously help the tone of a
meeting.
Author Unknown
Prayer
meetings were the arteries of the early church. Through them, life-sustaining
power was derived.
Author Unknown
The simple
fact is, we are too vague and, as a consequence, too indifferent in our prayers
and prayer meetings. We do not seem like people asking for what they want, and
waiting for what they ask. This is what destroys our prayer meetings, rendering
them pithless, pointless, powerless;
turning them into teaching or talking meetings, rather than deep-toned, earnest
prayer meetings.
Author Unknown
Do our
churches that have a prayer meeting have a weekly prayer meeting or a weakly
prayer meeting?
Author Unknown
After my return
to London, I decided to do something to help my brothers in the seminary. I
suggested we meet together every morning from six until eight to pray and read
the Scriptures. After the evening prayer, my communion with God was so sweet
that I would continue praying until after midnight. Then I would go to a
brother’s room, and we would pray together until one or two in the morning.
Even then, I was sometimes so full of joy that I could not sleep. At six in the
morning, I would again call the brethren together for prayer.
George
Muller
The Autobiography of George Muller, 1984, p.
27. All quotations taken from books published by Whitaker House are used with
permission of the publisher. Whitaker House books are available at Christian
bookstores everywhere.
Public prayer
will never make up for closet communion.
George
Muller
The Autobiography of George Muller, 1984, p.
47-48. All quotations taken from books published by Whitaker House are used
with permission of the publisher. Whitaker House books are available at
Christian bookstores everywhere.
Our prayer
meetings have been a blessing to us and united us more than ever in the work.
George
Muller
The Autobiography of George Muller, 1984, p.
127. All quotations taken from books published by Whitaker House are used with
permission of the publisher. Whitaker House books are available at Christian
bookstores everywhere.
The
prayer meeting furnishes a very accurate discriminating test of character. The
live Christian loves its enjoyments; the spiritually dead have no delights
there.
J.B. Johnston
The Prayer Meeting and its History, 1870, p.
209.
Every
converted sinner is a soul revived to prayer. Every saint restored from
backsliding is a soul returned to the life and power of prayer. Every congregation
enjoying an outpouring of the Spirit is a congregation revived and alive to the
prayer meeting.
J.B. Johnson
The Prayer
Meeting and its History, 1870.
The prayer
meeting answers to this demand of the spiritual brotherhood, with more
exclusiveness and direct fitness than any other ordinance of religious worship…
There is a power in conferring and covenanting, on the part of kindred spirits,
to come before God, and plead together some special promise… The prayer meeting
is a divine ordinance, founded in man’s social nature… The prayer meeting is a
special means of developing and cultivating Christian graces, and of promoting
individual and social edification.
J.B. Johnson
The Prayer
Meeting and its History, 1870.
As prayer
meetings fail in a congregation, so will the ministrations of the pastor become
unfruitful, the preaching of the word fail to convert sinners and promote
holiness in the professors of religion… History confirms the truth that
wherever evangelical and vital religion flourish, there lives the earnest gatherings for social prayer.
J.B. Johnson
The Prayer
Meeting and its History, 1870.
The prayer
meeting is the pulse of the church… The prayer meeting is the rallying point
where the power of faith in the church concentrates, and takes hold on the arm
that moves the world… The spirit of prayer, and the love and practice of the
prayer meeting, will so give organic strength to the church as to make her
terrible as an army with banners.
J.B. Johnson
The Prayer
Meeting and its History, 1870.
Prayer is an
acknowledgment that our need of God’s help is not partial but total… Yet many
of our church prayer meetings have dwindled in size and influence. Ultimately,
the explanation can be traced to spiritual warfare. If, as the hymn writer
says, Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees,” then we
may be sure that he and his minions will be working hard to discredit the value
of united prayer. The Evil One has scored a great victory in getting sincere believers
to waver in their conviction that prayer is necessary and powerful.
Alistair Begg
Made For His Pleasure, Moody Press, 1996, p. 52.
When God is about to bestow some great blessing on His
church, it is often His manner, in the first place, so to order things in His
providence as to show His church their great need of it, and to bring them into
distress for want of it, and so put them upon crying earnestly to Him for it.
Jonathan Edwards
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 T. Blackaby
Revival Scenes, Revival Commentary, v.
1, n. 1.