DIVE INTO EXTRAORDINARY PRAYER

 

Sitting in my car at 5:30 on a cold, dark Friday morning, I struggled to stay awake and keep warm. I blew smoke rings with my breath and played tic-tac-toe on the foggy windshield until finally I saw the headlights of another car through the fog. Zach, a friend and fellow youth leader, parked and stepped out. Our most important appointment of the week was about to begin.

            

We had consistently come to the school to walk around it and pray for God to move on the campus. We had learned through frustration and failure that just spending time on campus, even with a clear plan and strategy, wasn’t getting the job done. We were convinced that to have a significant influence on this campus we needed to engage in “extraordinary prayer.”

 

John Bunyan once wrote, “You can do more than pray after you’ve prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.” Or, as the psalmist put it, “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1). We can do all kinds of work in planting seeds and cultivating them, but only God can make things grow (see 1 Cor. 3:6-7). 

            

For God to work on a campus, youth workers must commit to prayer—not just any prayer, but sacrificial, “extraordinary” prayer. We pray ordinary prayers all the time—in worship services, before meals, and whenever we need to ask God for something. But the kind of prayer that precedes great movements of His Spirit is usually different. When people get up at 6 a.m., stay up until midnight, or give up their lunch time to pray, that’s extraordinary!

 

Start with Prayer Dependence 

People don’t pray “extraordinarily” unless they come to realize how dependent they are on God and how desperately they need Him to answer. We are generally driven to extraordinary prayer by desperation that results in a humble attitude, just as we noted earlier in 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 

            

“Pray” in this verse means to intervene, to stand in the gap for someone. It has two emphases: (1) meeting with God and (2) doing so on behalf of someone else. The pray-er carries a burden to partner with God to make a difference, knowing that the only real difference-maker is God Himself.

            

Only this strong prayer burden will cause changed lives on a campus. If the good news of Jesus is going to make an impact there, it will be because those who carry that news are urgently and consistently coming to the Lord on behalf of students. 

            

This has happened again and again throughout history. Often in particularly dry times of ministry impact, leaders have made only one adjustment: adding extraordinary prayer. Where students were once apathetic toward Jesus or turning away from the faith, they were soon turning to Jesus in encouraging numbers. It didn’t happen because of programs and gatherings—though those do have some value. It happened because people prayed intensely and persistently.

            

History is filled with examples of this kind of humble prayer that leads to ministry impact. Jeremiah Lamphier, a 19th-century missionary in New York City, prayed daily during the lunch hour for businessmen. He invited others to join him, but no one came. He kept on praying and inviting, and eventually a few gathered to pray with him . . . then more . . . and eventually 10,000 men were meeting daily to pray. That resulted in movements across the region and thousands of conversions to follow Jesus. 

            

Many similar “extraordinary prayer” movements have resulted in God’s Spirit moving extraordinarily—in Europe, China, Korea, and around the globe. The bottom line is that Christian history has been shaped by extraordinary pray-ers. If we want to shape history at this critical moment, extraordinary prayer is a vital first step.

 

Take One Prayer Action Step 

Start a Prayer Triplet. Follow the model Jesus gave us in Matthew 18:19-20—“Again I say to you, if two or three of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” 

 

A “prayer triplet” looks like this: 

 

3 Christians praying

3 times a week for 

3 non-Christian friends

 

3 Christians praying. Find two other people who have a heart for students to pray with you. It will work best if all of you have a concern for the same campus. These can be people on your church’s leadership team, students in your youth group, and/or youth leaders at another church. Praying with two others will keep you accountable. If more people express interest and want to get involved, start more prayer triplets. This can spread across your entire ministry! 

 

3 times a week. Your prayer triplet can decide when, where, and how you will meet. You can choose to meet three times in person, on the phone, through text, or in any combination of those methods. When you meet in person, search for a good location. If you are close to a campus, that’s a good place to meet. 

 

3 non-Christian friends. Ask the Lord to show you three nonbelieving students He wants you to pray for. Once all three of you have done this, nine nonbelievers will be prayed for. 

 

This has proven to be a very positive, powerful, and fruitful experience for the many prayer triplets I have initiated or known about. The one I participate in now is making a significant impact on each of us and on the nine people we pray for.

 

Once this begins and spreads, hundreds of non-Christian students will be lifted up to the Lord every week. And the Lord has promised—if you ask, He will answer! 

 

Kevin Miles' Prayer Triplet Experience:

 

We challenged our students to begin praying, not just for their campuses but for specific friends. We              launched by allowing time for them to pray in their Prayer Triplets and urged them to PUSH—Pray Until Something Happens. My role became to encourage them to keep praying and not give up. Their goal was to pray for each person until he or she accepted Christ. 

 

The students’ prayers were not answered overnight. Some prayed for weeks, months, and even a year, but eventually they began seeing the friends they were praying for accept Christ.

 

One of our students, Hannah, was praying with two of her friends for a girl named Katie. Little did they know that in addition to being a non-believer, Katie was also thinking about ending her life. They prayed for Katie for months. Katie accepted Christ, began to be discipled by Hannah, and even joined the prayer triplet when she found out that they had been praying for her. She wanted to be a part of praying for her non-Christian friends!

 

Prayer Triplets marked the beginning of a movement in our youth ministry. Students did not just see someone accept Christ at church or at an event. It became personal. They were empowered to pray and share the gospel with their friends. 

 

Some students carried the Prayer Triplet card with them as a visual reminder of their prayer partners, prayer times, and people they were praying for. Some attached luggage tags to their backpacks, with the names of their Prayer Triplet on one side and the names or initials of the people they were praying for on the other. And we added a visual element of a Prayer Target. We let students put each person’s name on a target bulletin board—red for those who had not heard the gospel, yellow for those with whom they had shared the gospel, and green for those who accepted Christ. As names were moved to show they had accepted Christ, we noticed that every name of someone who accepted Christ had two or more people praying for them.

 

Do not compromise your time to pray. Many demands will compete for that prayer time. Don’t let them. The enemy will also try to derail you. Don’t let him. Repeat often the following prayer of your commitment to intercede for your students: “Lord Jesus, with your help, I will intercede for specific students on this campus.”

 

Finally, remember that God honors the desires and petitions of those who love Him. No matter how long it takes, success is only a bent knee away.

 

Your Next Steps

• Commit to establishing prayer triplets for yourself, your leaders, and students.

 

Resources

• Download free An Awesome Way to Pray—Leader’s Guide and Student's Guide, two in-depth resources to implement the Prayer Triplet strategy in your youth ministry and church.

 

–      An Awesome Way to Pray—Student’s Guide

 

–      An Awesome Way to Pray—Leader’s Guide