ON MISSION AT WORK - LLOYD'S STORY - #5 Praying and developing a heart for your situation
ON MISSION AT WORK is a series of stories by individuals on how they are living out their faith in their workplace.
LLOYD’S STORY - Lloyd is a very close friend who I went to secondary school with in Zimbabwe. He has been based in and around Edinburgh and works in the financial sector. We recently holidayed together and when he told me his story of workplace mission I knew it would be a blessing and provocation.
I hope it blesses and encourages you to do similar,
Hugh.
Jesus prayed a lot
Jesus spent a lot of time talking to his Father, often long into the night and especially before crucial events in his life. Jesus prayed all night before he went out and started gathering disciples to his team. They were truly diverse and not very impressive, so a lot of discussion happened with his Father on the topic. He spent his final hours of freedom ahead of the crucifixion praying desperately in the garden of Gethsemane asking if any other alternative existed apart the cross and his death and separation from the Father, whilst also surrendering to the will of his Father. The garden of Gethsemane prayer event could be termed a failed prayer meeting – all the disciples ended up asleep as Jesus led them away to pray before his impending arrest – may this encourage any who seek to start a prayer meeting, that even Jesus had difficulty kickstarting a prayer meeting. For Jesus, prayer was a weapon of warfare, not gentle chit-chat with his Father. It was urgent, real, authentic and its frequency and necessity like that of breathing.
The emphasis of corporate prayer in the New Testament
There is not a lot of corporate prayer evidenced in the bible involving Jesus and his disciples, the greater emphasis is on individual prayer between the Saviour and his Father and individual prayer is where we most likely settle in our understanding of prayer. Yet in the book of Acts, the dominant theme is that of prayer meetings. A corporate flavour to prayer emerges in every chapter where significant advance occurs. If anything happened to alarm the early church their natural response was to pray. There is a power and an intimacy that is nurtured and grows within our private closet times, but in addition there is something immense and mountain moving that happens when many individuals gather to call out to God in a situation. Simultaneous with the outbreak of corporate prayer in the book in the book of Acts is the pouring out and widespread presence of the Holy Spirit – the ‘Promise of the Father’. The Holy Spirit must be welcomed and honoured for a corporate prayer meeting to catch fire and set its attendees aflame for God’s kingdom and purposes.
How to get a prayer meeting going
How do you get people to not only pray but to love praying and spending time together in God’s presence, longing for powerful and wonderful things to take place that would otherwise be impossible? How do you spark off an unstoppable furnace for people to gather around and warm each other’s hearts in the things of God by calling out for their situation together in the middle of a busy office environment? Or maybe it is your church which is prayerless or has prayer meetings that are not working, evidenced through; no vibrancy, no contributions, few individuals pray, clock watching, dwindling attendance rather than growth…
The prayer meeting can be one of the most difficult meetings to start off in a church setting, let alone in an office where the people you are likely to gather are from diverse church backgrounds. Studying the Bible is an easy win – most people can group around a text and debate and discuss points of interest and encourage one another. Holding a lunch time social event is an easy opportunity to invite colleagues along to and spend a bit of time outside of the Christian bubble, and these too, when we put on an event were just a case of gathering a few people to eat and chat and extend the kingdom whilst deepening the roots of friendship in the group. So how to get a prayer meeting started in the office, one that is meaningful, authentic and God focussed? It is easy to have an average, low bar, time of prayer where it is really just chatting for most of the time with some disjointed prayer requests mentioned at the end and a few clinical prayers offered up covering ‘the world’ in general without leaving space for God to speak and individuals to freely cry out to God what he has laid on their hearts?
Get the leaders praying first
The first step was very crucial; I had to get the leaders praying first to have any hope of sparking in them a passion for the corporate prayer gathering before we went any further to open the times of prayer any wider. To be aflame for the mission of the King, we had to first be fascinated and aflame for the glory of the King himself. I set a simple standard that as a leadership team we would pray and spend time in worship before we engaged with any administration or business discussion. I sensed that unless we deliberately baked in a prayer emphasis at the start it would very quickly descend into pragmatism and decisions by committee rather than what God was leading us to do and opening the doors for. This became one of the most meaningful times – when we would hear from God what he was doing and calling us to do in the near future, then we would spend time discussion how to implement what he had spoken about.
The first few times of prayer I just invited the leaders to, before gradually opening it up more widely when the current began to take it. As is most often the case when you start something; the first meeting was just the Holy Spirit and I, no one else made it. But the time was sweet and there was deep sense that God was about to break out in the organisation.
The next time of prayer, the leaders came along and I spent a bit of time just teaching on the topic of prayer including how Jesus prayed, why we pray and covered topics like ‘unanswered’ prayer and the direct link between prayer, waiting (not getting something), patience and the exponential growth of our faith. Then we began to call out to God on behalf of the business and each other. Something deep and wonderful was stirred within us. Almost immediately there was a sense that it was no longer us as mere humans just giving things a go, but now God Almighty was involved, speaking to us, and changing our hearts and giving us a fresh compassion for those around us. Each person began to ask God to intervene in the lives of those around them and for a wave of favour to come upon us as a small group of individuals. There were several individuals who were facing intense and fiery trials who we prayed for. At the end of our brief time together over a lunchtime, it felt that a large and solid stake had been forced into the ground and we had something (or someone) who was holding us fast as we went our different ways. Something had been moved in heaven and there was an echo of that change in our hearts and faith began to rise. If you are considering starting a prayer meeting at your church or in the workplace – begin by gathering just you and the Holy Spirit as soon as possible, then add people one by one. The crucial step is to start, and then continue in a sustainable way, expecting God to break in and for hearts to be changed each time you pray.
Prayer combined with the mission
Paul lists off the armour of God in Ephesians six and concludes in verse eighteen “...praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints...” indicating that the final weapon that keeps the Christ follower awake and alert for battle (and able to wield the other weapons) is prayer – being in contact with the commander – King Jesus. To see prayer as a weapon of war, needs an acceptance that it is not a peace time setting we are in, but war. If it be war, then we are to contend and persevere in our faith with many hard-fought battles. The war begins the moment you set off on mission to take new territory or hearts for the kingdom of God. John Piper describes prayer as “a wartime walkie talkie.”
John 15:16: “You did not choose me, but I chose and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
This verse links the great call of God on our lives, to the mission of bearing lasting fruit, to asking the Father for Gospel progress on the mission field. The mission is given to make us cry out to our Heavenly Father for help as we go. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to embolden timid and feeble saints to present the Gospel convincingly and open hard hearts. So entwined are the work of the Spirit and the power sought by prayer as described by the Apostle John, that the overwhelming need for prayer-fuelled mission is so vital in our evangelistic endeavours. As Ephesians 6:18 emphasises “praying at all time in the Spirit” – prayer is empowered and enabled most fully by the Holy Spirit.
God has given his people a great weapon in prayer for the great mission which we are on, to go into all the earth making disciples of all nations.
Conference prayer meetings during lockdown
Whilst physical gatherings are not possible right now, prayer meetings have been made easy by tools like ZOOM and Bluejeans that allow easy video conferencing. The key is to ‘actually’ pray and not just talk about praying or spend most of the time discussing the prayer points. Lead out with a psalm, maybe a short praise song on YouTube or Spotify, then get people praying. The most vibrant prayer times are those that are led well, allowing individuals who are not confident praying in front of other people to feel the environment is safe to do so. Create a buzz around the prayer times by encouraging participation by all, the reading of the bible and allowing silence and gaps for others to pray where God is leading. Where possible try to avoid using a list to pray – allow God to lead you in what you should pray for.
Crucially – it is important to use great and wonderful promises from the Bible to be the rocket fuel for the times of Prayer, otherwise the times of prayer will descend into a mere time of praying through a list of requests or worse – having nothing to talk to God about, when there is so much to be thankful for, so great a mission to be on, so beautiful a bride to contend for; and such a ferocious enemy prowling constantly.
The future of gathered times of prayer
When we eventually get back to being able to pray together physically and pray in a large corporate setting, what will it look like? The lockdown has shown how easy it is to get to a prayer meeting via ZOOM – you simply press a link and you are in. This could revolutionise the way we can pray across organisations, multi-sited or international businesses with many office locations or even across a city. Let the holy Spirit lead you to begin a prayer meeting in your church or place of work during lockdown via ZOOM – it may just continue after lockdown ends!
