Blog

Written by Lisa Mason
on 21st March 2022

Those who study movements of God around the world reliably inform us that before every movement of God, before people start turning to him, there is a movement of prayer. A phrase that Chris and I have often heard repeated is that, when it comes to making disciples, ‘the prayer is the work.’

I find this such a helpful reminder, as I seek to be obedient to God’s word, to go out among the lost and take every opportunity to share his word with the people I meet. These are all good things, but without prayer, they are just my own work and there is a limit to how much one little person can do.

Last night, in our ongoing coaching session with River City Church, Abi shared a story of a church planter in another nation. He lived and worked in the northern territory of his host nation and was physically unable to access the people living in the southern territories. Because of this, he prayed faithfully, every day, for the people in the southern territories to come to know Jesus. After his departure the number of new believers in the southern territories was exponentially greater than in the north. What an incredible story - why not take a moment to pause and pray about how God is speaking to you through it.

I recently attended a talk by theologian Harvey Kwiyani who brought a challenging perspective on our western view of the spiritual world. He explained how the spiritual world is greater and more powerful than our created, physical world. So when we pray something into being spiritually, it is then easy for it to happen physically. This causes me to ask how many of my prayers focus on physical problems that I want God to fix - I am asking God to open my eyes to see what is happening in the spiritual realms as I pray and to teach me to pray for and against the spiritual forces at work around me.

Or as Suzie Judd challenges us in this great video - how could we spend more of our time praying ‘fulfil it’ prayers instead of ‘fix it’ prayers? Fix it prayers focus on our physical needs, fulfil it prayers are us bringing the promises that God makes in scripture to his throne and asking him to do what he has said he will do. 

Want to pray more, but don’t know where to start? We’re with you. One of my most frequently prayed prayers right now is simply ‘God, teach me to pray.’ Get in touch with us or anyone else from the team if you’d like to learn together and pray together.

Want to join our ongoing coaching meetings with River City? Message Chris or me and we’ll figure out your next steps together.