Introduction
FOR THE CHRISTIAN WHO DESIRES TO ENTER INTO A dynamic and powerful life of
prayer, the Bible is loaded with teachings and models. The Lord’s Prayer is
probably the most well-known example, given directly from the lips of the Lord
Jesus Christ as a pattern of prayer for His disciples. After that, the book of
Psalms, prayer book and hymnal of the Old Testament, dominates the history and
practice of prayer in the Church. There is another group of prayers, though,
that is being recognized and restored in the worship and intercession movements
of the new millennium. These are the powerful prayers offered up by the New
Testament apostles.
Apostles are pioneers. They go before and pave
the way. They break the ground, sow the seeds and lay the foundations for new
churches, ministries and outreaches. They strategize for growth, build up
believers, establish congregations and train leaders. Jim Goll identifies an
apostle as "one called and sent by Christ to have the spiritual authority,
character, gifts and abilities to reach and establish people in Kingdom truth
and order, especially through founding and overseeing local
churches."1
The word "apostle" comes from the Greek apostolos, and
means "one sent forth." Apostles do not go out on their own but are sent forth
by the Lord Jesus Christ with full authority to speak and act on His
behalf:
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very
end of the age. (Matthew 28.18-20)
The Apostle Paul gives us a very
brief description of apostolic ministry in his letter to the Corinthians: "I
planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow" (1 Corinthians 3.6).
Here we find three aspects of apostolic ministry: planting, watering and growth.
Apostles are responsible for planting and watering; God is responsible for
making it grow.
Praying as an Apostolic People
We are not all
called to be apostles, but we are called to be apostolic people. The mandate of
the Great Commission is upon as just as much as it is upon them. Apostles cannot
do this work by themselves. In fact, they are given by the Lord Jesus Christ to
the Church in order to equip us for the work of the ministry.
It
was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be
evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for
works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up, until we all reach
unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature,
attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians
4.11-13)
This is often called the "five-fold ministry." Someone has
summed up very succinctly how it functions within the body of Christ: Apostles
govern. Prophets guide. Evangelists gather. Pastors guard. Teachers ground. The
express purpose of the fivefold ministry is to equip and prepare the people of
God for the work of the ministry. The result is that the body of Christ is built
up, until we all come to unity in the faith and full maturity in Christ.
Apostolic people, equipped for service by the five-fold ministry, help establish
the work of God in others.
Learning to Pray with Apostolic
Power
The apostles of the New Testament pioneered many different prayers for
us, as we discover in their epistles. I have sorted these into five main groups:
evangelistic, pastoral, benediction, thanksgiving and doxology. These are
powerful prayers because they express, not only the heart of the apostles, but
the heart of God. They show His desire to light the world with the Gospel, bless
and strengthen His people, and bring them to completeness in Christ.
* Evangelistic prayers are
ground-breaking prayers. They prepare the fields, and the laborers, for sowing
the Gospel and for laying the foundations of local Christian
fellowships.
* Pastoral prayers are
watering prayers. They help establish Christians in the faith, both as
individuals and as congregations, to grow in grace and in intimate relationship
with God, and become a servant community in partnership with the Lord Jesus
Christ.
* Benedictions are also watering
prayers, pouring forth with the authority of heaven to bless and minister the
promises of God to His people.
* Prayers
of thanksgiving return praise to the "Lord of the Harvest" for what He is doing
in and through His people.
* Doxologies
are prayers that declare the praiseworthiness of God and give Him glory. The
apostolic purpose is all about God from beginning to end, for He is both the One
who sends and the One who gives the increase. Therefore, He deserves all praise
and honor.
These prayers flow easily from the pens of the apostles,
often spontaneously and with great passion. They come out of an intimate
relationship with the Father and a constant reliance upon the Holy Spirit. The
result is that the apostles turned their world upside down (or right side up!)
in the name of Jesus.
How to use these prayers
These are prayers
to learn by heart. By that, I do not mean that you should simply memorize them,
although that can certainly be helpful. Memorization is learning them by your
mind. Learning them by heart means to meditate upon them and begin praying them
out for yourself, for your church, for your pastor, and for anyone else who
needs a work of God in their life. In this way, these prayers will become a
guide for you, and a springboard that launches you out into a prayer experience
that is joyful and effective. To help you in this process, I have included a
little commentary for each prayer, followed by some "action points" you can
do.
When you begin praying, don’t be in a hurry. Take your time and
pray slowly. As you do, you may find that you feel an inward desire to expand
upon some particular point. That is the Holy Spirit prompting you, and if you
listen carefully, He will give you words to pray back to the Father. Go with
this as far as the Spirit leads you. When you come to the end, sit quietly and
contemplate what the Spirit has given you. Then take up your prayer again,
remaining sensitive to what the Lord is showing you. At the end of your prayer
time, give thanks to the Lord for what He has done. Then go out in peace,
enjoying His presence.
NOTES
1 Jim Goll, Kneeling on the
Promises (Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 1999) p. 301.
