by Angel Manuel Hernandez
John Wesley founded various type of groups to disciple the multitudes. One of those groups was called “bands.” The bands met each week, began with an opening song or prayer, and shared difficulties. Wesley developed other groups as well to help people to grow in faith after conversion. Wesley had an entire plan or route for helping new believers stay on the right path. God also allowed Wesley to reach one-hundred thousand people in 10,000 groups. But despite all his dedication and success, Wesley lived by the principle, “God seems to do nothing until one prays.”
Apostle James said something similar, “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2). The word ask in this verse has the meaning of leaving in the hands of someone else. Prayerlessness is doing God’s work without God. In the Encyclopedia of the Bible, Ed. Garriaga, says that the nature of prayer “is born in the instinctive feeling or conscious that man has faith in an almighty, wise, righteous and good God, creator of all things and present in the creation and in His providential history”.
Prayer is a mighty weapon; prayer brings heaven’s power to the earth. Not any prayer, but the prayer based in attention and passion. Some believers pray without thinking. They think that they can simply release a set of words that will make God respond. Scripture says we should pray passionately and persistently. In Luke 18:11, we are told that “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself…”. There are believers that are only praying within themselves. They are not diligently pursuing God with faith (Matthew 21:22) nor applying conviction in their prayers (James 1:6). The church has an arsenal of powerful spiritual weapons that can only be used through committed prayer. The cell group that prays steadily (1 Thessalonians 5:17), with attention and feeling, becomes a lethal weapon against the works of the enemy. The cell group or the believer that does not pray lives on the crumbs of God’s Kingdom (Luke 16:20-21), receives only minimal blessings (Matthew 6:25-33), and lives under constant temptation (Matthew 26:41). God always answer, as promised in Jeremiah 33:3 “Call unto me, and I will answer you, and will show you great things which you don’t know about.”
Pray fervently to God and watch what he does. .
