Australian College of Ministries

Student’s Name: Grant Mitchell

Student’s ID: C9901028

Item Of Work: Assignment B, 1500 words:

Words: 2323

Worth: 40% of subject mark

Date Submitted:

Due Date: Friday 26^th May 2000

Signed:_____________________________ Date:______________

Table of Contents *

Jesus sets out what effective ministry is when he makes his mission statement in Luke 4:18-19. To sum up, effective ministry involves preaching, healing, and deliverance. All of these areas of ministry are at the heart of God, as it is His ministry. Hence prayer is vitally important to these ministries, because it is the action of God that is necessary for all of them to be effective, and as Peterson explains:

God is already acting to bring about effective ministry. It is through prayer that we engage in discovering how He is wanting to act, and release the prevailing power of God to take effect. Prayer is of high priority to effective ministry.

Why is prayer important to the ministry of preaching?

Preaching, and the proclaiming of the gospel of Jesus, still has a prominent place in the contemporary church today. However, often there is an emphasis on preparation through study, good exegesis, and lively examples. These are important to the preparation of preaching a message, but Eugene Peterson points out that there is an even higher priority in preparation:

For the ministry of preaching to be effective, it must involve prayer.

When prayer is involved in the ministry of preaching, the proclaimer will hear what God is wanting to say or do, and they will be submitted to God's supernatural power to proclaim supernatural words.

Elijah on Mount Carmel confronted the prophets of Baal and Asherah with a sacrifice to the Lord (1 Kings 18:16-40). It was not any fancy words, songs, or actions that Elijah proclaimed that revealed the Lord as God (as the prophets of Baal had attempted), but a prayer for God to reveal himself and turn the people's hearts back to Him. His prayer was answered, the prophets of Baal were rejected, and the people returned to the Lord.

Isaiah is an example of a prophet to Israel before the exile. His words of Isaiah 61:1-2 were future telling of the ministry of Jesus, and the only way Isaiah was able to proclaim these words of good news was because he was in prayer with the Lord, listening to what he said, responding to the Lord, and then proclaiming what he heard (this is distinctly shown in Isaiah's commissioning in Isaiah 6).

Jesus involved himself in prayer before a time of preaching and deliverance in the region of Galilee, needing to hear the Father's directions and words (Mark 1:35, 38). As Yonggi Cho states:

Paul found it necessary to request prayer in a few of his letters, asking for prayer to fearlessly proclaim the gospel (Eph. 6:19), for God to provide opportunities to proclaim and clarity in proclaiming the mystery of Christ (Col. 2:3-4), and that the message of the Lord would spread rapidly and be honoured (2 Th. 3:1). Paul knew the importance of asking the churches for their support of his ministry of proclaiming the gospel through their prayers. As Peter Wagner expands:

When prayer is not involved in the ministry of preaching, we do not seek God's direction, action, and power to proclaim His word. This will mean that a preacher will use human strength, human words, and human timing. In short, preaching will be ineffective for its purpose - to bring people to know Christ, and to grow in Christ.

Paul warns what this type of false teaching will produce. It will not promote God's work (1 Tim. 1:3-4), it will bring destruction on the teacher, deceive many into shameful ways, bring the truth into disrepute, and exploit the hearers (2 Pet. 2:1-3). Without God's leading in prayer, preaching will be ineffective, and even worse, destructive. Prayer has a high priority to the ministry of preaching.

Why is prayer important to the ministry of healing?

There are a few priorities for the ministry of healing,[5] and prayer is one of them. Prayer is important to the ministry of healing, not just for the request of healing, but also to know God's purpose and timing for healing, for the faith to perform the healing and trust the outcome to God's grace, and for God's supernatural power to perform the supernatural act. As Bill Hybels succinctly explains:

For the ministry of healing to be effective, it must involve prayer.

When prayer is involved in the ministry of healing, the healer will know God’s will, whether he will heal now or later, and the healer will be submitted to God’s supernatural power to perform supernatural acts.

Two of the patriarchs prayed for healing. Abraham prayed for the healing of Abimelech and his family so that they could have children again (Gen. 20:17-18). God healed them in response. Isaac prayed for his wife, Rebekah, that she would be healed of her barrenness, and the Lord answered his prayer, giving them twins (Gen. 25:21ff). These men knew their dependency on God to bring about supernatural healing, and so they asked for it in prayer.

Jesus withdrew to a solitary place outside of Nazareth, before a time of healing, and miraculous feeding (Mat. 14:13-14). Both these acts are primarily motivated by compassion (one of the key priorities for the ministry of healing), but it is also significant to see the timing of the healing occurring after a time of Jesus' solitude, which was typically spent in prayer (as in Mark 1:35).

Peter and Paul both prayed before moments of healing. Peter prayed for Dorcas, who had become sick and died. Peter's prayer was answered, and she was restored to life (Acts 9:40-41). Similarly, Paul prayed for the healing of the father of Publius, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul's prayer was answered, the father healed, and many others also came to be healed (Acts 28:8-9). This is the kind of ministry that Yonggi Cho experiences and talks about:

It is the power of God released in prayer that contributes to the ministry of healing.

James also speaks of a ministry of the elders to pray for the sick (James 5:14-15). This prayer, offered in faith (another key priority for the ministry of healing), will bring about healing. This is a command from God that puts prayer at the forefront of the ministry of healing. Jack Deere takes this one step further:

When prayer is not involved in the ministry of healing, people usually remain sick. The tendency to rely on man's medical skills, or man's timing for healing becomes paramount, instead of relying on God. As Jack Deere explains, you will not get what you want because you never asked God.[9]

Sometimes people will remain ill, irrespective of man's skill, because they are under Satan's attacks, as with the man demon-possessed who was blind and mute (Mat. 12:22). Other times, people will remain sick because the person can only be healed by God, as with the woman bent over for eighteen years (Luke 13:10-13), and the woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, whom no one could heal (Luke 8:43-44). Without God's leading in prayer, healing will not occur, and thus the ministry of healing will be ineffective. Prayer has a high priority to the ministry of healing.

Why is prayer important to the ministry of deliverance?

The ministry of deliverance, seeing prisoners given freedom (whether in the physical realm, or the spiritual realm), and the releasing of the oppressed, involves a high level of God's supernatural power. This means that prayer is vitally important, as we call upon God to release his supernatural power to perform supernatural acts of deliverance. As Yonggi Cho points out:

It is also at the heart of God to bring deliverance,[11] and so it is necessary to know God's direction and purposes for effective deliverance ministry. Even Steps To Freedom In Christ, a tool used for deliverance ministry, begins with prayer.[12] For the ministry of deliverance to be effective, it must involve prayer.

When prayer is involved in the ministry of deliverance, people will be set free from physical and spiritual oppression, as the deliverer submits to God’s will and power to perform supernatural acts.

The people of Israel, during their time in the desert, grumbled against God and against Moses on a few occasions. In one particular incident, the Lord sent venomous snakes to punish them (Num. 21:6-9). In response, the people confess their sin and call upon Moses to pray that the Lord would take away the snakes. Moses prayer, and God's guidance as a result, brought about their deliverance. Even though this situation was brought about by God as punishment, it is prayer that turns the situation around to bring God's delivering power through a bronze snake on a pole.

Jeremiah prophesied that after seventy years in exile Israel would call upon the Lord, pray to Him, and that He would respond by bringing them back from captivity (Jer. 29:10-14). It is the prayer of the people that brought about God's prophesied deliverance.

On one occasion Jesus encounters a man and his son, who was demon-possessed, and whom the disciples could not heal. Jesus delivers the boy from the evil spirit, and when questioned by the disciples why they could not drive it out, Jesus replies, "This kind can come out only by prayer." (Mark 9:17-29) Jesus acknowledges the necessity of seeking the Father in prayer, and the Spirit's power, to bring about deliverance.

Peter and Paul were delivered from prison on separate occasions, with prayer being the turning factor. When Peter was imprisoned by King Herod, the church is described as "earnestly praying to God for him." (Acts 12:5) In response, he is miraculously freed from prison by an angel, and restored to the church, to their amazement. On a different occasion, Paul and Silas are imprisoned after casting a spirit out of a girl in Philippi. They are praying and singing hymns to God, when a violent earthquake occurs, freeing them from the prison. They do not flee, but instead are then used by God to bring salvation to the jailer and his house (Acts 16:16-34). The prayers of these men brought about their freedom, and even more, gave them opportunity to share the gospel as a result of their deliverance. As Wagner puts it:

When prayer is not involved in deliverance ministry, people remain captive. This is predominantly seen in the spiritual realm, as Paul describes:

People are held captive to the deceptions of Satan, and are unable to receive salvation in the gospel of Jesus. People may also remain captive physically, as the oppression of demonic powers remains in their lives.

Wagner also describes that the purposes of God can be thwarted when prayer is not involved in deliverance ministry:

This implies that although God wills that deliverance should occur in certain situations, He will not act unless His people pray into that situation. Without the people of God seeking Him in prayer, deliverance will not occur, and thus the ministry of deliverance will be ineffective. Prayer has a high priority to the ministry of deliverance.

Prayer is of high priority to effective ministry. Although there are other elements to effective ministry, it is prayer that allows us to know God's purposes, will, and timing. It is through prayer that we submit to God's power to perform supernatural acts, and it is in prayer that God's prevailing power is released in ministry. The components of effective ministry, preaching, healing, and deliverance, are released and realised through prayer.

All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version. Copyright Ó 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.