Movement of Prayer: The Transformative Power of Prayers in Times of Spiritual Warfare

In facing spiritual warfare in our churches, how do we strategize prayer to bring breakthroughs? Ps Ace Cher shares what his church is doing.

The transformative power of prayer in spiritual warfare for the church is vital. There are two defining walls in Christendom, the First is the wall of the Kingdom of God, separating those of the world and belonging to Christ. The Second is the dividing walls within the Kingdom due to different theological positions, doctrinal differences or denominations.

Jesus taught that in Mark 3:24 “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.” While He was referring to Satan’s kingdom, but in modern day Christianity, the Church could be divided, not on fire and not growing.

And REVIVAL will be the evidence, when our churches’ prayer meeting attendance are 80 to 90% of our worship services’ attendance!

Three Views

These dividing walls are embedded in three major conflicting views. The spiritual warfare and hindrances within the Church are:

First and foremost, disagreement on the prayer language. The primary source of contention within the church stems from differing beliefs and practices regarding the use of prayer languages. Disagreements about the validity and application of prayer languages create tensions.

Secondly, disagreement on the range of spiritual gifts, e.g. partial but not full acceptance and acknowledgement of all the spiritual gifts given.

Finally, building individual church’s castle and the lack of unity in building His Kingdom together.

Therefore, the rise of WATCHMEN (Intercessors) engaging the power of prayer will break every dividing walls, it will bring about full manifestation of all the spiritual gifts given and it will unite the prayer of all the saints regardless of their prayer languages. And REVIVAL will be the evidence, when our churches’ prayer meeting attendance are 80 to 90% of our worship services’ attendance!

So how can we, the Church of Jesus Christ in the Assembly of God, prepare ourselves for spiritual warfare, for harvesting multitudes of lost souls and while awaiting Christ’s glorious return?

But we must move on to a deeper sense and purpose of why prayer was being taught to us.

Preparing Ourselves

Humbly allow me to share some strategic platforms and engagements I have learned and currently are deploying.

Phase one – It always has been very challenging to bring the whole congregation to the prayer meeting, so let us bring it to the people instead. Conducting Pre-service prayer with a minimum of forty-five minutes, is a very effective way to get everyone to pray together. Pastors and leaders must be the ones who start and stay committed to this movement so as to model for them.

Phase two – grouping every server into an Intercessory Team. In this team, they can cover one another in prayer for their personal needs whenever it arises. They are also being scheduled to lead the Pre-service prayer as a team, not individually. The more matured ones will lead to pray in words, while newer ones, just support praying in tongues and simple short phrases. The entire team could be seven to 10 people make up of spiritually matured and also young in faith, leading the church in prayer. Imagine the impact of a strong team not merely strong individuals, growing, serving and leading as a team!

Phase three – prayer content must be holistic and comprehensive. There could be four categories of prayer items listed. Beginning with KINGDOM-CENTERED prayer item, followed by CHURCH-CENTERED, leading to PEOPLE-CENTERED and then finally, NEED-CENTERED.

Most of us commonly focus on praying for people’s needs, based on what they wanted in regard to the issue or situation, which is a good place to start. But we must move on to a deeper sense and purpose of why prayer was being taught to us. Allow me to elaborate on the followings.

Perseverance and commitment are the virtues demanded to start this engagement of the transformative power of prayer in the face of spiritual warfare that the churches are facing.

Engaging Deeper

Kingdom-Centered item, it can only be determined when we seek the King on what to pray for His Kingdom. It demands the prayer leader to wait upon God to receive His prayer requests.

Church-Centered ones, it is an all-inclusive prayer for the different denominations, para-church organizations and even certain Christian’s movements in the community. It requires us to be aware of what God is doing in the Body of Christ and not just the church we are attending.

People-Centered items, it is not based on what the people desire or need from God, but rather what God desires for His people. For example, praying for people to live a holy and righteous life or pray scripture directly into another’s life. Perhaps if we pray more of such prayers and God answered us, then most of the pressing concerns could have been dealt with, and the bonus of a victorious Christian emerging out of the turmoil!

Final phase – perseverance and commitment are the virtues demanded to start this engagement of the transformative power of prayer in the face of spirtual warfare that the churches are facing. It will be an uphill task from start till end. It will only get tougher and harder to stay on course to keep this Pre-service prayer going until we see our Lord face to face. But it will all be worth it, just to hear Christ saying to every intercessory team, “Well done! My faithful teams of Intercessors!”

Intercessory prayer is the highest form of prayer, as it was fitting for our Lord Jesus to engage it as He sits on the right hand of God to model for us!