The Importance of the Prayer Meeting

Pastor Rodney A. Gray

In The Holy War, John Bunyan has a character by the name of Mr. Carnal-security. Carnal-
security was the chief cause of Mansoul’s offending her rightful Prince, Emmanuel. He became
influential in the town by making much of the power and strength of Mansoul. He boasted of its
security and bragged that it could never fall. Eventually Mansoul came “to dance after his pipe
and grow almost as carnally secure as himself.” And how was this carnal security manifest in the
town? “They left off their former way of visiting him (their Prince); they came not to his royal
palace as afore. They did not regard nor yet take notice that he came or came not to visit them.”
In other words, their affections cooled toward him, they did not seek him at his throne of grace,
and they did not care whether he was present among them or not. Bunyan’s description of the sad
state of affairs in Mansoul can well apply to the condition of many of our churches today.
Bunyan writes that they “were so hardened in their way and had so drunk in the doctrine of Mr.
Carnal-security, that the departing of their Prince touched them not, nor was he remembered by
them when gone.” Carnal security is the great enemy of prayer. To the extent that carnal security
increases, prayer will decrease. Because of carnal security people do not pray and the prayer
meeting is neglected. But in the beginning it was not so.

On the day of Pentecost, the church as a new covenant community was born out of prayer. But it
was also born to pray. The apostles and other believers all joined together constantly in prayer as
they waited in Jerusalem for the promised baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:14). When
Pentecost came, they were together in one place. The Holy Spirit was poured out upon the people
of God in fulfillment of the promise of God. God’s people are empowered to preach a gospel that
is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Jews from every nation under
heaven were hearing declared in their own language the wonderful works of God. God was
summoning his people who had been scattered abroad, even all who are far off, to submit to the
one and only name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. In great
numbers they responded to Peter’s message asking, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Those who
repented and believed his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their
number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ doctrine, and to the fellowship, to the
breaking of bread, and to the prayers. That which was borne out of prayer became a praying
people. They devoted themselves to prayer, to the times when they prayed and to the places
where they prayed. It was not that they were given prescribed prayers to memorize and recite
privately. Rather, they immediately realized that the prayers were an essential expression of their
identity. Just as the apostles’ doctrine, the fellowship, and the breaking of the bread were their
hallmarks, so was their devotion to prayer. They could not stay away from the meetings for
prayer lest they deny their very identity.

So it was quite natural that in Acts 4 corporate prayer was their response to the threats of the
Sanhedrin. “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with
great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through
the name of your holy servant Jesus. After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was
shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”

In chapter 12, “Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.”
The result was Peter’s miraculous release. In chapter 13, the praying church in Antioch launched
Paul and Barnabas into the work to which the Holy Spirit had called them. In chapter 16 the
church in Philippi was taking shape, a group of believers to whom Paul would later write,

1
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6).

In chapter 17 the church in Thessalonica appears, and Paul would later write to them, “Pray
without ceasing; Brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be
honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men,
for not everyone has faith” (I Thess. 5:17,25; II Thess. 3:1,2).

Peter Masters, in a message appearing in The Gospel Witness in the centennial year of Jarvis
Street Baptist Church, viewed the situation as having fallen away from the New Testament model:

“Down the running centuries there has been an unmistakable factor in every true and lasting
spiritual awakening – the Prayer Meeting – the Prayer Meeting has called down the power of God
to turn worldly churches into fervent, sacrificial ones, and weak preachers into invincible soul-
winners.

Yet, all the world over, the poorest department in the Lord’s churches is invariably the Prayer
Meeting. The enemy of souls is ever successful in casting a blanket of lethargy and apathy over
Prayer Meetings. There they are – once rightly described as the power-house of the Church – but
look at them! Almost invariably they are stunted, impoverished meetings. Desperate pastors
have combined them with other meetings rather than face the tragic spectacle of half-a-dozen
people. Others have found that the only way to cheer up the dour petitions and long silences is to
‘stage manage’ the meeting. So the hour is bustled along with songs, solos and other interjections
from the platform to avoid near farce. Seldom do we find a real New Testament Prayer Meeting,
where the tidal-wave of earnest prayer cannot be held back. Oh may we take the theme of
watchfulness and apply it to our church Prayer Meetings.

Here is the ministry of the whole local church – every born-again member of the family. Pray
God that men and women among us who disdain the Prayer Meeting may be deeply shamed
today by the Holy Spirit even as I speak. Pray God that we may all be so filled with a new
incentive and inspiration from God’s Word that we may go to prayer together with a renewed,
vital spirit.”

In the Book of Acts, a true gospel church was known to be a praying church. They devoted
themselves to prayer and they continued steadfastly in prayer. How do we account for this
spontaneity? Why was it so much the habit of those early assemblies to pray together? And what
did they hope to accomplish through prayer which could not be accomplished without prayer?
Many churches now believe that they can get along quite well whether they pray or not. But the
question is, What is the church? How do you recognize one when you see it? It appears that
early believers were less confused about their identity than some today. They knew they were the
product of a mighty exertion of the Spirit of God. God had called them to himself. And they
understood that if they were going to fulfill their calling, they simply could not get along without
prayer. The saints were committed to the idea of being a called-out body of people. They were
devoted to establishing that identity in the world. Did they succeed? Yes they did, and their
success was due in part to their commitment to corporate prayer. What benefits did they derive
from corporate prayer? Benefits and blessings there were, and these may be ours today.

I. Corporate prayer demonstrates that we are the people of God.

2
Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are the new covenant people of God. In Antioch the gospel
was preached to the Gentiles. “The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people
believed and turned to the Lord.” Barnabas was sent there by the church in Jerusalem to examine
the evidence of the grace of God, and through his ministry “a great number of people were
brought “to the Lord.” Barnabas then enlisted the help of Saul, and the two of them met with the
church and taught a great number of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch
(Acts 11:21,24,26). Thus, those who belong to the Lord in Antioch are the disciples in Antioch,
the Christians in Antioch, and the church in Antioch. And, need I remind you, it was the praying
church in Antioch that launched the greatest missionary effort the world has ever seen? Truly,
here were a people who belonged to the Lord.

The apostle Paul applied this new covenant language to the church in Corinth and reminded them
that they were the people of God. On the question of separation in II Corinthians 6:16, the
foundational principle is the new covenant – “I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
Indeed, during his early labors in Corinth the Lord assured Paul, “I have many people in this
city” (Acts18:9). John in the Revelation of Jesus Christ declares the principle of separation in no
uncertain terms in Revelation 18:4: “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in
her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues.” Babylon the great, the great city, the
city of man, will never be the New Jerusalem, when “the dwelling of God is with men, and he
will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their
God” (Revelation 21:3). In similar language Peter had declared how that God was taking “from
the Gentiles a people for himself” ( Acts 15:14). He freely applied the Old Testament people-of-
God descriptions to Christians and wrote, “Once you were not a people, but now you are the
people of God” (I Peter 2:9,10). In Titus 2:14 Paul said that our great God and Savior, Jesus
Christ, “gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people
that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” And what is the heart and soul of the new
covenant, if it is not captured in Hebrews 8:10 –

“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will
put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be
my people.” The local church, the corporate body of believers, is the people of God.

John Gill wrote on the subject of Public Prayer, “Prayer is the breath of a regenerate soul; as soon
as a child is born into the world it cries, as soon as a soul is born again it prays.” Jesus taught his
disciples to pray to their Father in heaven. The pattern of prayer is corporate prayer. If he is our
Father, we belong to him as his children. The children approach the Father together. As the new
covenant people of God, gospel churches are visible manifestations of the kingdom of God. They
represent God’s rule, God’s domain. Every true gospel church is an embassy of the kingdom of
heaven, and every true disciple is an ambassador of Jesus Christ. All the power and resources of
God’s kingdom are available to the church. By what means shall the church access these
kingdom riches if not through prayer? How shall the embassy communicate with its government,
if not through prayer? How shall its ambassadors request instruction, counsel and authority to
act, except through prayer? A clear understanding of our identity as God’s people will find a
voice, a corporate voice, which cries to the heavens, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on
earth, as it is in heaven.” Gill argued that “The several directions and exhortations to the churches
to attend to the duty of prayer, does not regard them merely as individuals, but as bodies and
communities, joining together in that service.” Spurgeon wrote to his congregation one summer
as he was confined to his bed, suffering from sickness and unable to preach:
“Pray for me, I entreat you. Perhaps if the church met for prayer I should be speedily restored. I
know thousands do pray, but should not the church do so as a church!” (italics added)

3
On July 9, 1876, in a sermon on Ezekiel 36:37,38 (“I will yet for this be inquired of by the house
of Israel, to do it for them”) Spurgeon asked,

“How should this duty be performed? First, it should be by the entire body of the church. Let us
turn to our Bibles and read the text again: ‘For this will I be inquired of by’ – By the ministers?
By the elders? By the little number of good people who always come together to pray? Look!
Look carefully! ‘By the house of Israel;’ that is by the whole company of the Lord’s people. To
obtain a great increase there must be unanimous prayer, prayer from the whole house of Israel;
every one must join, without exception. Where two or three are met together there will be an
answer of peace; the prayer of one prevails; but if ever the house of Israel, the whole company of
the faithful, shall get together in prayer, ah, then we shall see the multiplication of saints as the
flock of Jerusalem on her solemn feasts; and it will not be till then. When Israel was defeated at
Ai, one of the reasons of their failure was that there was an abominable thing in the tent of Achan,
but another cause of defeat was this, that they said, ‘Let not all the people labor thither.’ A part of
the people were to go and take Ai, and the rest were to lie at ease. The church of God will always
have ill times so long as a few people are left to do what should be done by all the redeemed..
The whole house of Israel must besiege Ai if Ai is to be taken; the whole army of the living God
must bend the knee together, and together plead with God if any great victory is to be achieved.”

Baptists have had to admonish one another about this in every generation. The Circular Letter of
the Philadelphia Baptist Association meeting in October 1804, was sent to the churches with the
minutes of the annual meeting. The subject was the importance of prayer and it was written by
Burgiss Allison.

“The IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER. . .will appear from various considerations, amongst which,
that of our great need is worthy of attention. We are in a moral sense, poor and blind, and naked,
and destitute. Grace hath provided a rich store of every thing requisite to supply our deficiencies;
and prayer is the instrument by which we may obtain the needful supply. We are hungry, and
prayer supplies the heavenly manna as food for the soul: we are sick, and prayer administers the
never-failing restorative, prepared and furnished by the best of physicians. Its consequence will
be enhanced in our apprehension, when by faith we behold the inexhaustible store of sacred
treasure deposited in Christ for us, notwithstanding our utter unworthiness, and abject
debasement by reason of sin. Again, prayer is the most effectual means of delivering the
Christian from darkness of mind and deadness in the exercise of duties. . .We derive another
argument in favor of the importance of prayer, from the blessing frequently attendant on the
united prayers of God’s people, in times of declension in vital piety, and a general deadness in
religion. When the people of God say to each other, ‘O come, let us worship and bow down, let
us kneel before the Lord our Maker,’ Psalm 95:6; when we see them forming concert in prayer,
and uniting in the petition for a revival, a revival generally follows. Hence our Lord says, ‘Where
two or three of you shall agree touching any thing, and ye shall ask it, I will do it.’”

II. Corporate prayer demonstrates that we are a building of God.

The New Testament utilizes the language of temple and house building to describe the corporate
body of believers. As God’s people we are also God’s temple. No other body of people, whether
organized, unorganized or disorganized, can be the temple in which God dwells by his Spirit.
Every true gospel church is called to be the temple of God. Without the presence of God a church
becomes nothing more than a worldly institution. But the gathering together of a gospel church
has the air of another world about it. It is something extraordinary and unique, not of man’s
making but of God’s design. His temple is his house and it must reflect the character of its owner.

4
Thus, to the church in Corinth Paul could write, “. . .you. . .are God’s building. By the grace God
has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But
each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one
already laid, which is Jesus Christ. . .Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and
that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s
temple is sacred, and you are that temple” (I Corinthians 3:9-17).

His word to the saints in Ephesus was similar. “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and
aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the chief cornerstone. In
him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in
him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit”
(Ephesians 2:19-22).

Paul’s instruction to Timothy was designed to uphold the identity of the local church as a building
of God. “Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I
am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which
is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth” (I Timothy 3:14-16).

In God’s household there is appropriate conduct and there is inappropriate conduct. Norms of
proper behavior are dictated by the head of the household. Paul has written these instructions to
Timothy so that people would know what those standards are. Among them was this:

“I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for
everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all
godliness and holiness” (I Timothy 2:1,2).

Because the church of the living God is God’s household, he alone presides over it and he invites
us to reside in it. The corporate life of the residents must be oriented toward the glory of the
president as its greatest object of interest and concern. This cannot be accomplished apart from
corporate prayer.

Furthermore, the temple imagery means that God’s people are called to serve as priests before
God. Such is the message of I Peter 2:4-10:

“As you come to him, the living Stone. . .you also, like living stones, are being built into a
spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ.”

Indeed, Christ “has made us a kingdom of priests to serve his God and Father” and “they are
before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple” (Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 7:15).
“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips
that confess his name” (Hebrews 13:15).

In I Kings 8 and II Chronicles 6 Scripture records King Solomon’s prayer when he dedicated the
temple in Jerusalem. He understood that no physical structure, no matter how ornate, could
contain the God of Israel. Even the highest heavens cannot contain God. Yet he has said that his
name would dwell in this place. So Solomon’s prayer speaks for all God’s old covenant people.
He asks that the Lord would hear from heaven and answer their prayers when they pray in the
temple or toward the temple. He pleads that wherever any of his people may be, and in whatever

5
circumstances they may find themselves, when they pray toward this temple, God would hear
them. “Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward
this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive”(I Kings 8:30).
When it is necessary to judge between the innocent and the guilty; when Israel is defeated by an
enemy; when drought, famine, or plague descend upon the land; when an enemy besieges a city;
when any disaster strikes; when even a foreigner prays toward this place, when Israel goes to war;
“when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel. . .then hear from heaven your
dwelling place.”

Now the church consists of people who form a spiritual house and who function as a spiritual
priesthood. Neither form nor function can be realized apart from corporate prayer. Public prayer
together with those who form this spiritual house is a function of a spiritual priesthood. Samuel
Miller in his Thoughts on Public Prayer admonished nineteenth-century pastors to become as
accomplished in their pulpit prayers as in their preaching. He understood that the flock tends to
follow the shepherd in response to both precept and example. Pastors will find it time wisely
invested to peruse Miller’s chapters on “Frequent Faults of Public Prayer” and “Characteristics
of a Good Public Prayer.” John Newton’s letter, “Thoughts on the Exercise of Social Prayer,”
offers wise and practical counsel. Prayer is an essential part of the service God’s people are
called to render in God’s house. It cannot be otherwise, since God in Christ by the Spirit is at the
center of it all. The service of God’s house is not for us, but for God. As his people we are both
temple and priesthood called and qualified to serve the Lord.

III. Corporate prayer demonstrates that we are doing the work of God.
A whirlwind of activity does not guarantee that God’s work is being done. The Lord Jesus Christ
could say, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working” (John 5:17).
His work is always the Father’s work. But how much that goes under the name of God’s work
today is really the work of God? Noise and excitement, attractions and amusements, do not add
up to the ministry of the gospel. And it would be the height of presumption for us to claim that
our work is God’s work if it is not cradled in prayer. A church at work for God must be a church
at prayer to God. A church on the move for God must be a church on its knees before God.
Much is done apart from prayer, but is God interested in it? Much is done that even displaces
prayer, as Mr. Carnal-security works his charms. But mere activity is not ministry.

According to I Kings 19, Elijah the prophet had to learn that the Lord was not in the powerful
wind that tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks. He was not in the earthquake or the
fire. Elijah found the Lord in the gentle whisper, the still small voice. And he pulled his cloak
over his face and went out to meet with the Lord. Yet this is the same Elijah who was a man of
like passions with us. James tells us that “he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not
rain on the land for three and one-half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the
earth produced its crops” (James 5:17,18). Here was a giant among the Lord’s prophets, whose
ministry was rooted in prevailing prayer.

On this text Alexander Whyte comments:

“The translators of the NT tell us that they have preserved the Apostle James’ passionate idiom in
the margin of the text, ‘Elias with all his passions prayed in his prayer.’ And I, for one, am forever
deep in their debt for their so doing, for the prophetic and apostolic idiom in the margin takes
possession of my imagination. It touches my heart; it speaks to my conscience and that because,
after all these years of prayer, how seldom it is that we really ‘pray in our prayers,’ as the apostle

6
tells us that the prophet prayed. We repeat choice passages of scriptures in our prayers. We recite
with studied pathos classical paragraphs out of Isaiah and Ezekiel. We praise one man and we
blame another man in our prayers. We pronounce appreciations and we pass judgments in our
prayers. We do everything in our prayers but truly pray.”
In Elijah we see a man who had trained himself to pray; to rally all the emotions he felt, all the
inner drives that moved him, harness the whole, and put it to work productively in the toil of
prayer. He was the servant of the Lord, doing the Lord’s work. So he prayed in his prayer. Such
praying as this is powerful and effective. It is the prayer that moves heaven, that dries up the
clouds, and fills the earth with rain, that influences the course of events when all else is sure to
fail. I do not say that prayer changes things. If prayer changes things, then prayer changes God.
But I do say that a sovereign God acts in response to the prayers of his people.

Zechariah had a vision of the lampstand and the two olive trees. The revelation of God came to
him in the days when the work of God was apparently at a standstill. As Haggai put it, the house
of the Lord was in ruins while the people were upgrading and remodeling their own houses.
God’s work was not to return to Jerusalem and go on with your life. God’s work was to rebuild
his house. And what did Zechariah see? He saw that the work of the Lord God of Israel goes
forward as God’s people trust in him. It depends on the Spirit of almighty God, not on human
strength. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty” (4:6).

The apostle Paul enlisted the prayers of the churches for himself and his helpers in the gospel. He
no doubt was convinced that when the churches assembled to devote themselves to the apostles’
doctrine, the fellowship and the breaking of bread, they would also devote themselves to the
prayers. And he depended on the prayers of the churches to sustain him in the work to which
God had called him. He habitually solicited their prayers (Romans 15:30-32; II Corinthians 1:8-
11; Ephesians 6:18-20; Philippians 1:19,20; Colossians 4:2-4; I Thessalonians 5:25; II
Thessalonians 3:1,2).

God’s people demonstrate that they are committed to doing God’s work God’s way when they are
a praying people. God is absolutely sovereign in all his ways. His purpose is an eternal one and
it comprehends all things. And in that purpose he has determined that his people should pray and
that he would act in response to their prayers. The Book of Revelation proclaims this on a grand
scale. In Revelation 8:1-5 the prayers of all the saints are seen by John to ascend from the altar to
the throne of God. Those prayers are mingled with much incense from the angel’s golden censer.
There is silence in heaven for half an hour. Then the same censer is filled with burning coals
from the altar and cast down upon the earth, and the trumpet judgments begin to unfold. God acts
in response to the prayers of the saints, and thus they demonstrate that it is God’s work, not
man’s.

Andrew Murray, the great Dutch Reformed pastor, wrote in 1885,

“Who can say what power a Church could develop and exercise, if it gave itself to the work of
prayer day and night for the coming of the kingdom, for God’s power on His servants and His
word, for the glorifying of God in the salvation of souls? Most Churches think their members are
gathered into one simply to take care of and build up each other. They know not that God rules
the world by the prayers of His saints; that prayer is the power by which Satan is conquered; that
by prayer the Church on earth has disposal of the powers of the heavenly world. They do not
remember that Jesus has, by His promise, consecrated every assembly in His Name to be a gate of
heaven, where His Presence is to be felt, and His Power experienced in the Father fulfilling their
desires.”

7
Spurgeon urged his people to faithfulness in prayer as much as to anything else. He truly
believed that God’s work depended on it. He said in 1864,

“I am persuaded we only want more prayer, and there is no limit to the blessing. . .Prayer can get
anything of God, prayer can get everything: God denies nothing to the man who knows how to
ask; the Lord never shuts his storehouse till you shut your mouth; God will never stop his arm till
you stop your tongue. Cry aloud and spare not; give him no rest till he sendeth forth his Spirit
once again to stir the waters, and to brood over this dark world till light and life shall come. Cry
day and night, O ye elect of God, for he will avenge you speedily.”

IV. Corporate prayer demonstrates that we are dependent on

the power of God.
As a body the church lives in vital union with Christ, its head. The members live in communion
with one another, but the body derives its life from God. Prayer is the lifeline of the church. It is
the voice of the child asking his father to do for him what he cannot do for himself. Prayer is
God-centered because we are entirely dependent upon our Father who is in heaven. And true
prayer is the cry of the true saint. It says that we have been born again unto a lively hope. Prayer
is a hollow sound when it comes from the hypocrite, the nominal Christian. Prayer is not the
language of the self-righteous and the self-sufficient. And it is to be feared that many disregard
the corporate prayer meeting of the church because they have no need for it. In all candor, many
would say that they have never felt the need to be present when the church prays. They have a
form of godliness but deny the power of it.

Jonathan Edwards addressed this problem in a sermon he called “Hypocrites Deficient in Prayer.”
He preached in June 1740.

“When a hypocrite hath had his false conversion, his wants are in his sense of things already
supplied, his desires are already answered; and so he finds no further business at the throne of
grace. He never was sensible that he had any other needs, but a need of being safe from hell.
And now that he is converted, as he thinks, that need is supplied. . .He is out of danger; all that he
was afraid of is removed: he hath got enough to carry him to heaven, and what more should he
desire? – While under awakenings, he had this to stir him up to go to God in prayer, that he was
in continual fear of hell. This put him upon crying to God for mercy. But since in his own
opinion he is converted, he hath no further business about which to go to God. And although he
may keep up the duty of prayer in the outward form a little while, for fear of spoiling his hope,
yet he will find it a dull business to continue it without necessity, and so by degrees he will let
drop the practice. The work of the hypocrite is done when he is converted, and therefore he
standeth in no further need of help.”

“But it is far otherwise with the true convert. His work is not done; but he finds still a great work
to do, and great wants to be supplied. He sees himself still to be a poor, empty, helpless creature,
and that he still stands in great and continual need of God’s help. He is sensible that without God
he can do nothing. A false conversion makes a man in his own eyes self-sufficient. He saith he is
rich, and increased with goods, and hath need of nothing; and knoweth not that he is wretched,
and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. But after a true conversion, the soul remains
sensible of its own impotence and emptiness, as it is in itself, and its sense of it is rather increased
than diminished. It is still sensible of its universal dependence on God for every thing. . .So that
he hath business enough still at the throne of grace; yea, his business there, instead of being
diminished, is rather increased.”

8
This conviction of an ongoing need of God’s sustaining grace will not be silent. It will find a
voice, for example, in the Psalms, which are the prayers of God’s people. If the Lord is our
shepherd, we shall lack nothing because we shall ask everything. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song. Praise the Lord O my
soul. Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. O Lord, the God who
saves me, day and night I cry out before you. Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel. Help us, O God our
Savior, for the glory of your name. Why have you rejected us forever, O God? Hasten, O God, to
save me; O Lord, come quickly to help me. You see, this is the language of dependence. These
are the cries of those who wait upon the Lord as his servants.

Such conviction of our dependence on the Lord will call upon him who by the gift of the Holy
Spirit has indwelt us and made us his people, and will ask for ever greater influences of that Holy
Spirit – the Spirit of truth, illumination, wisdom and power. Spurgeon preached to his
congregation Sunday morning June 12, 1864 on John 16:7 – “Unless I go away, the Comforter
will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

“We know, brethren, that we as a body of people, seeking to adhere to Scripture and to practice
the ordinances and hold the doctrines as we have received them from the Lord himself, are but
poor and despised; and when we look at the great ones of the earth, we see them on the side of the
false and not of the true. Where are the kings and the nobles? Where are the princes, and where
are the mighty men? Are they not against the Lord of Hosts? Where is the gold? where is the
silver? where is the architecture? where is the wisdom? where is the eloquence? Is it not
banded against the Lord of Hosts? What then! shall we be discouraged? – our fathers were
not. . .Why? because they knew. . .that the Spirit of God is mighty and will prevail. Better to
have a small Church of poor men and the Spirit of God with them, than to have a hierarchy of
nobles, to have an army of titled princes and prelates without the Holy Spirit, for this is not
merely the sinew of strength, but it is strength itself – where the Spirit of God is there is liberty
and power. Courage then, brethren, we have only to seek for that which God has promised to
give, and we can do wonders. He will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. Wake up,
members of this Church, to earnest prayer; and all believers throughout the world, cry aloud unto
God to let his bare arm be seen. Wake, children of God, for ye know the power of prayer. Give
the covenant angel no rest till he speak the word, and the Spirit worketh mightily among the sons
of men. Prayer is work adapted to each of you who are in Christ. You cannot preach, you cannot
teach, but you can pray. . .”

In the town of Mansoul, Mr. Carnal-security was eventually overcome by one Mr. Godly-fear.
Mr. Godly-fear was the man who didn’t know how to have fun. He was the wet blanket on all the
good times in Mansoul. We might expect that behind his back they called him Mr. Stinkin
Thinkin. He was the one who asked the question, “Where is the Prince Emmanuel? When did a
man or woman in Mansoul [last] see Him?” The citizens of Mansoul were annoyed at this, as are
many church members. The bills are being paid, missionaries are being supported, there’s a
healthy nest egg in the general fund, the air conditioning works, the pastor officiates pretty much
to our liking, the Sunday school is organized, the deacons’ fund doesn’t get used too often, the
building and grounds are picture perfect, we have the respect and admiration of the community.
What is all this urgency about the prayer meeting? But the question is, Where is the Prince
Emmanuel?

When it became clear that Godly-fear was right and Carnal-security was wrong, the town of
Mansoul was in a panic to know what to do. The Holy Spirit (The Lord Secretary) had been
grieved by their sinful presumption, and would not readily help them. “And now was it a day

9
gloomy and dark, a day of clouds and of thick darkness with Mansoul. Now they saw that they
had been foolish and began to perceive what the company and prattle of Mr. Carnal-security had
done and what desperate damage his swaggering words had brought poor Mansoul into.” They
began to learn anew that it was by the principle of Godly-fear that they must live and conduct
their affairs. The subordinate preacher delivered a thundering sermon, not only showing Mansoul
their sin, but trembling before them under a sense of his own sin. There was a great sickness in
the town about this time. They began to realize that, though they had come to think that they
were rich and didn’t need anything, they were actually wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
They eventually came to embrace the advice of Godly-fear, who counseled them to send a
humble petition to their offended Prince Emmanuel. They found that their Prince seemed slow to
accept their petition, and many more appeals were sent to the court of Shaddai. In their great
distress they again consulted Mr. Godly-fear, who assured them there was nothing better to do
than what they had been doing. “Then they took courage and sent again, and again, and again,
and again. For there was not now one day nor an hour that went over Mansoul’s head wherein a
man might not have met upon the road one or other riding post, sounding the horn from Mansoul
to the court of the King Shaddai; and all with letters petitionary in behalf of, and for the Prince’s
return to Mansoul. The road, I say, was now full of messengers going and returning and meeting
one another; some from the court and some from Mansoul.” Bunyan is describing a backslidden
saint who is on the road to recovery. Even so, the road to recovery for a church is a road that is
paved with prayer. If our people were jamming the road with petitions sent to the court of El
Shaddai, God Almighty, calling upon him for a sense of his felt presence and power, what would
be the result?

The church that prays together, stays together. God’s people discover that there is something
about praying together that forges a special bond among them. It is something they cannot get by
just attending Sunday morning. It does not come from casual conversation after services. Those
who devote themselves to praying together soon begin to learn about fellowship. They become
aware of a deepening relationship among themselves, a relationship that is more spiritual and
more substantial. You get to know a person in a different way when you pray with that person.
Those who make it a habit of praying together form a close circle when they pray, and that circle
is not easily broken. It holds and grows stronger. But it also grows bigger, because there is
always room for one more at the throne of grace. What are the benefits of corporate prayer? God
only knows what he might do with a body of believers who pray as if they are the people of God,
serving him in his house, doing his work, and living in complete dependence on him.

“Prayer was appointed to convey

The blessings God designs to give;
Long as they live should Christians pray,
For only while they pray, they live.”
(Joseph Hart)

“Thou art coming to a King,

Large petitions with thee bring;
For his grace and power are such,
None can ever ask too much.”
(John Newton)
Works Cited:

10
Bunyan, John. The Holy War. Reprint. Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1978.

Edwards, Jonathan. Works. Reprint. Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth Trust, 1974.

Gill, John. A Body of Divinity. Reprint. Grand Rapids, MI: Sovereign Grace Publishers, 1971.

Gillette, A. D. ed. Minutes of the Philadelphia Baptist Association, from 1707 to 1807; Being the
First One Hundred Years of Its Existence. Reprint. Atlas, MI: Baptist Book Trust, nd.

Masters, Peter. “The Watchfulness of the Church in a Faithless Age – The Prayer Meeting.” The
Gospel Witness. 2400 (1975).

Miller, Samuel. Thoughts on Public Prayer. Reprint. Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications,
1985.

Murray, Andrew. With Christ in the School of Prayer. Reprint. Westwood, NJ: Fleming H. Revell,
1969.

Newton, John. “Thoughts on the Exercise of Social Prayer.” The Works of John Newton, Vol. I.
Reprint. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1985.

Spurgeon, C. H. various sermons from New Park Street Pulpit and Metropolitan Tabernacle
Pulpit.

Whyte, Alexander. Bible Characters. Reprint. London, UK: Oliphants Ltd, 1959.

11