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Powerless
October 11, 2006

Greetings in the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ,

In a couple of recent articles, we talked about sin that polluted our “fuel” with God. That diluted or polluted fuel robs the engine of a machine of its power. In the human case, we are robbed of our direct connection with God. We serve a supernatural God on a natural plane. Therefore, we really do not know Him at all!

Now imagine for discussion’s sake that we have removed the impurities of pride and pornography and other sins from our fuel. If you are or would like to be a pilot, imagine you are sitting in the cockpit of an American fighter jet: over 60,000 pounds of thrust, some of the most sophisticated flight controls and weaponry known to man, and your plane is all but invisible to radar. If you love NASCAR and are part of its recent surge in popularity, imagine that you are sitting at the wheel of a car that races at 200 miles per hour with cars only inches on every side once the flag man signals the start of your race. If you love making plants grow, imagine that the harvest is ready and there you sit atop a half million dollar plus combine that can do a square mile of crops in just hours, hundreds of horsepower, with enormous torque driving your 20 foot plus mowing head.

Now, no matter which technological marvel you can picture yourself in, what would happen to your adventure if there were no fuel in the tank of your powerful machine? For sure, the gasoline farm has lots of very pure gas or diesel, but NONE of it is in your tank. What would happen to you? Why, you’d sit there! In every case, atop one of the most powerful machines ever devised and NOTHING would happen. Why? Because without fuel, you have no power. Literally tons of potential, but not one ounce of power.

Guess what folks? After the problem of impurities fouling our fuel, the biggest problem with the American church, and the Assemblies of God in particular, is that we have no power because we have no fuel. And the fuel, brothers and sisters, is PRAYER!!! The American church has been richly blessed and so has become lazy. Effective prayer is work! We sit atop the biggest gold mine of power ever: God Himself—the Creator of the Universe. But without prayer, we are the empty tank and He is the bottomless reservoir of fuel.

I have to commend the pastors of my two home churches. Both hold prayer services on Wednesday. Just prayer. Perhaps a devotional encouraging the members of the congregation regarding the power of prayer. But, that’s pretty much it. Do you hold a prayer-only service at your church? Do you have weeks of fasting regularly throughout the year? If not dear shepherd, your church’s “engine” is sucking on a dry tank. You are leading your flock no where. And what a shame! All those marketing gadgets, the latest video and audio system in the sanctuary, cool graphics on your weekly bulletins, cute sayings on your lit marquee—all wasted. Just like the American fighter jet that could hit the chimney on a house from 40,000 feet going over 500 miles per hour with a guided bomb—IF it had gas.

As the dearly departed preacher Adrian Rogers once said, “Prayer is the battle! PRAYER is the battle!! PRAYER IS THE BATTLE!!!”

And as God Himself said in James Chapter Five, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Do we cover our own ministry in prayer? Have we institutionalized prayer in our churches? If not, please allow me to remind us of some battles we are losing as a result of prayerlessness: divorce in Christian homes, a Christian witness in the public arena (schools, city halls, houses of congress at the state and federal levels, colleges and universities, including our own A/G sponsored schools), the murder of innocent unborn children (over 40,000,000 in America alone and counting), special status for the homosexual community, AIDS destroying the peoples of Africa, violence in public schools, the violent advance of Islam around the world, the content of network television, pornography use by Christians, biblical illiteracy in Christian homes, New Age invasion of the Church, being unequally yoked together with unbelievers in denominations that are Christian in name only, increasing use of new illegal drugs, jails filling past capacity. I could go on and on. We are not enough to solve these ills. But, God is…IF we take the time to ask Him.

And one final thought. There’s no such thing as a relationship with someone to whom we don’t speak or listen. Prayer is how we commune with God…

For the Gospel’s Sake,

Brother Mike

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