Pray: The Power Behind it All

In this episode, we explore the fourth of the Five Behaviors of a Disciple—PRAY—and why prayer is not a side ministry, but the power behind all ministry. You’ll discover how prayer deepens dependence on God, aligns our hearts with His will, and fuels lasting spiritual impact. This conversation will challenge you to move beyond prayer as a last resort, cultivate daily rhythms of prayer, and embrace both personal and corporate prayer as the foundation of a vibrant relationship with God and effective discipleship.

Transcript

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Hey, welcome to the Discipleship Tool Podcast. I'm Andy George and I'm so grateful that you decided to listen to this episode. You know, we've been on this journey around discipleship and really focusing in on the behaviors of disciples. There are five behaviors of disciple, connect, grow, serve, pray, give. And what I mean by behaviors is that if we're asking the question, how do we know whether or not we are heading in the right direction when it comes to discipleship? Are we actually not only becoming disciples, are we actually multiplying? Are we growing in our faith? I would say that to the degree that we're growing in these five behaviors. So we've already discussed connect and grow and uh serve. And so today I'm real excited to jump into prayer because prayer, for those of us that know this in our own life, prayer is the bah'a. It's the power behind all that we do. It's the bower behind ministry, and it is the power behind your success in your daily journey with Jesus. And so again, glad that you're here with us. And we're going to continue our series through these five behaviors. Today we're going to focus on the fourth behavior, which is prayer. And uh, here's the truth we need to start with. Prayer is not a side ministry. Come on, prayer is not. Uh, prayer is not just something we do off to the side. Prayer is not just something we do uh when all else fails. Prayer is the power behind all that we do. Prayer is not only what we do when everything else fails. It's not a spiritual add-on. It's not reserved for crisis or quiet moments alone or driving in the car or taking a test or, you know, going into a meeting. Those are all fine and good to pray for, but prayer is not reserved for that. Prayer is the engine that constantly drives a vibrant relationship with God and fuels everything that we do for him. And I think that's the key statement that it's a vibrant, it has that vibrant relationship to it. It's that, it's that personal relationship we have with Jesus. And so here's the big idea. The big idea for this episode is pretty simple, but it's extremely foundational, and that is that prayer aligns us with God's heart and fuels our dependence on him. Philippians chapter 4, verse 6 to 7 says, do not be anxious about anything. You know, every time I read that verse, I always stop there and oh boy, scratch my head a little bit. I know what it says. I know that's true. Uh, I know that it's true that the Bible says not to be anxious about everything, about anything. And uh boy, yet that's a struggle sometimes. But this is where the prayer kicks in, right? So prayer is powerful because the way that you and I are not anxious about anything, it says, as it continues, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And then the peace of God, that peace of God that passes all understanding will guard our heart and our minds in Christ Jesus. So prayer does more than just change the circumstances, it changes us. I think there's a question that often comes up about if God already knows our prayer, then why do I need to pray? And I think that's a fair question. And I think that part of the answer is oftentimes prayer changes me. That's probably one of the most powerful things about prayer. It recenters my heart, it reminds me who's in control, it positions me to receive God's peace and his wisdom and his power. And so, why does prayer matter? Well, first of all, let's just start with this. Prayer matters, first of all, because Jesus modeled it. So let's just start with him. Jesus himself prayed. How in the world do I think my life is going to go if I don't do the thing that Jesus actually needed to do? So, first, prayer matters because Jesus modeled it. Luke 5.16 tells us that he would withdraw and go to isolated places and he would pray. So Jesus is fully God and fully man, but yet he still regularly stepped away to pray. I am 100% man. Uh, how much more do I need to step away and pray? Praying before major decisions, praying before miracles, praying before suffering, praying before the cross. I mean, you see Jesus praying in all those ways and in the same way that if Jesus depended on prayer, I can't afford to neglect it. Uh secondly, why does prayer matter? Prayer matters because it builds spiritual power uh through dependence. Now, not a not an unhealthy dependence, but a real dependence on the one that we pray to. Prayer is an admission that I can't do this on my own. Prayer is an admission that I need God's wisdom. Prayer is an admission that I'm trusting his strength and not mine. That is not bad things, though, by the way. Uh, prayer done without ministry may look productive, but it eventually is gonna lead to burnout. That is just my 30 plus years of experience in ministry that, you know, you can do ministry without prayer, certainly. And you could put on the show. Absolutely. You can you could do all the great things, but eventually you're gonna burn out. And one of the reasons, not the only reason, one of the reasons may be because you're really not dependent enough on God. We're way too dependent on ourselves. So ministry fueled by prayer leads to endurance, it leads to clarity, it leads to spiritual fruit. Now, there's a couple expressions of a praying disciple. In the Disceptual Tool, we talk a lot about prayer as a way of life, not just a moment of life. And there's three key expressions of prayer that I want to cultivate and talk about. The first expression is prayer as a spiritual discipline. So the first expression of what prayer as a disciple means is that prayer is a spiritual discipline. Prayer grows through daily rhythms, in other words. This includes setting away time to pray. It includes uh spiritual guided prayer, journaling, fasting, retreats, extended time with God. These practices don't earn God's love, by the way. We don't do them in order to have God love us more. It's because they deepen our awareness of God's love. And I want to say that again uh that the practices that I just said about spiritual discipline of daily rhythms of prayer, we're not earning God's love, but they definitely make me more aware of it. Prayer becomes less about perfect words and more about consistent presence. That's the beautiful thing about prayer. Uh, the second expression is that prayer is for wisdom and strength. Prayer is how we seek God's guidance. You know, we pray in order to have discernment and decisions. We pray for strength and leadership. We pray for wisdom in relationships. We pray for the global church and God's overall mission. You know, James 1.5 reminds us that God gives wisdom generously to those people who ask. And prayer keeps us from relying on experience alone and invites God into every decision. What a great way to look at prayer, not just asking God for stuff. I think sometimes we look at prayer and often we think that this may be just the opportunity we have to give God a bunch of prayer requests, but but what if what if it was more than that? What if it was like, God, I want wisdom. I want strength. Give me wisdom in how to navigate relationships, how to navigate my job, my friends, my career, my leadership ability, you know, making decisions, all those things. And prayer keeps me from relying on my own experiences and invites God into every decision I make. Prayer is not meant to be just about those prayer requests, although those are fine. It's more than that. And and the third uh expression of a praying disciple is that prayer is a corporate dependence. So prayer is not meant to be practiced only in isolation. Certainly, there is a personal prayer life that is so critical. But the church prayed together constantly. That early church you read in Acts, they were constantly united in prayer. There is corporate prayer unites the church. Corporate prayer strengthens our ministries together. It invites God's presence, it declares dependence on Him as a church. So this includes things like prayer gatherings, your prayer team, you know, prayer walking neighborhoods together, praying with each other in everyday moments. And and a praying church, by the way, is a powerful church. I believe that. I believe that when we as a church pray together, it is so powerful. So, how do we apply this in our life? When it comes to prayer, prayer, prayer is one of those things that is so massively critical in all that we do. And so let me invite you to honestly reflect on a few questions. So here's a couple questions, just a personal reflection, uh, maybe some application. What does your current prayer life look like? Are you praying with and for other people regularly? Do you rely on prayer as a foundation or use it as a last resort? You see, prayer doesn't require perfection, it requires availability. And I think that's so powerful about prayer is that you and I don't have to be perfect, we just gotta be available. And that's what God is looking for. Are we available? So here's the challenge as we close. Don't reduce prayer to a habit, embrace it as a lifeline. Yes, get in the habit of prayer 100%. Get into the habit of prayer. But don't just reduce it to, well, it's two o'clock, uh, this is my habit, time to pray. That's fine. Like we we see in scripture elsewhere, people set aside time to pray. I am not saying not to do that. What I'm saying is don't just reduce it to that. Let it be a lifeline. Prayer doesn't just prepare us for the work, prayer is the work, it is part of what we're doing. And so as we think about prayer, my encouragement to you, and I'll I'll kind of close with this. This is kind of like the personal thing that I have with prayer. And that is that when I was young in ministry, uh, I'll just be honest with you, when I was young in ministry, I struggled with praying for people. Not because I didn't value it, not because I didn't think it was powerful, not because I didn't think it would it would uh you know be meaningful. I was so worried on whether or not God would answer our prayer. So just uh an example, right? This is an example that would happen many, many times. As a pastor, uh of course, I I I want to pray with people. And people would ask me for prayer, and and yeah, I'm gonna pray for them. But there would be this fear, uh, like let's say somebody came up and said, Hey, can you pray for you know my kid who is struggling? Sure, let's pray for your kid that's struggling. But I'd be so afraid that nothing would happen. And especially when it came to pray for people who were dealing with physical needs, like uh they're unhealthy or they're sick or whatever, in a hospital. And I I was so worried about whether or not God would answer the prayer that it actually caused me to be hesitant in that. Now that might sound ridiculous, but but you gotta think, like if somebody comes up to you and says, Hey, I need you to pray for me, I believe that that you know, you're called to ministry or whatever, and and uh you're a Christian and and you know God, will you pray for me and and we say yes? There was a part of me that said yes and was worried that God wouldn't answer. And then I remember having this revelation around this, which uh revelation that I probably oversold it. It it was just an awareness where God just had to nudge me, like, hey man, like listen, you you do you your job and I'll do my job. And and I've learned from that moment, and I want to encourage you with this. This is this is why now today, and again, that was many, many years later, young and young in my faith, young in the ministry. Now I I love praying for people because here's the thing my job is to pray, God's job is to answer. And I love that about prayer. Our job, I can't, I I can't physically heal somebody or deliver somebody, or I I'm not God, I'm not the Holy Spirit. My job is to pray. It's God's job to answer. And once I settled that in my heart, it made it made prayer just so much more alive because I'm just doing what I'm called to do. This is my part as his child, as a Christian, not as a pastor, not as somebody that is a spiritual figure. Just as a child of God, I get to talk to him and I get to ask him and bring to him and cry to him and rejoice with him and bring my hurts and my pains and my struggles and all those things. And I don't have to be the one that has to heal it. I don't have to be the one that provides the miracle. That's God's job. And and I love that. So my hope and prayer to you is that your prayer life will come to life, not just because it's something that you should do or something because you have to do, but it's because it's something that you get to do and you get to talk to the creator of the universe. So if we're gonna grow as a disciple, we've got to incorporate prayer more and more into our life and really trust that God's gonna be who God says he is. So listen, thanks for being with me on this very, very important episode, as prayer is the most important thing that you and I will do. It is the power behind all that we're gonna do. In our next episode, we're gonna look at the final behavior, which is give, because prayer shapes our heart and then generosity reveals it. I like that a lot. Prayer shapes my heart, but generosity reveals my heart. So thanks for listening to the Discipleship Tool Podcast. Until next time, keep praying and look forward to having you join us on our next episode around the behavior of giving.