Why Are Prayer Meetings So Different?

 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. (1 Cor 14:33)

Prayer meetings are the beating heart of the church. You can be sure that anything you experience in church through your five senses, started life as a prayer on someone's lips. From the PA that you are hearing the sermon through to the seat you sit on to the coffee you are drinking. Prayer is the foundation for success and the driving force behind all godly action.

So why are prayer meetings are the least attended meetings in every church? And why (when you do arrive), can they get a little odd?

If the enemy can stop us praying then he can stop us winning (or at the very least slow us down a bit). So he works very hard to ensure that saints who have the earnest intention of getting to the prayer meeting every week, never do. Something comes up. They are tired or depressed when the prayer meeting rolls around. Or there is a family crisis. Or they develop a headache. Or any one of a thousand other issues is presented and they compromise and promise themselves that they will attend the prayer meeting next week for sure. Prayer is important. They know this. But for just this week, there is no way that they can make it. 

They never will. 

The only people who regularly attend prayer meetings are those for whom prayer is not an optional extra but the very pinnacle of Christian devotion. If they had to choose between Sunday morning church or the prayer meeting, they will chose the prayer meeting. No excuses, no higher priority. This is because they understand that prayer is the fuel that gets the church jet into the air. Once up there it can glide just fine. But prayer will be needed again once it needs to make stops. Prayer is the key to power, and they know that we neglect it at our peril. Christianity in the west has sadly become the religion that does not pray and we are living in the wasteland that has resulted from this sad reality.

If the Satan can't keep us away from prayer meetings then he will try to make our prayers as vacuous and empty as he possibly can. Making sure that what is going on is a calisthenic exercise in the flesh and nothing more. A group of people speaking out 'sweet nothings' into the air. Wishing and hoping because they lack any ambition or ability to take charge and actually change situations. As long as no actual prayer occurs in the prayer meeting, the devil has very little to fear. It is entirely possible to actively attend an hours prayer meeting without every having actually engaged in what the bible would understand as prayer.

I am sad to say that I have encountered a great many prayer times like this over the years.

Jesus  said that hypocrites 'love to pray'. Meaning that, not all prayer is actually God inspired. Sometimes it is just our flesh ( our carnal desires ) wanting to show off. 

But lets say that everyone attending has humbled their hearts and gotten the flesh into its rightful place (the grave). Prayer starts to happen, gradually at first and then with more and more confidence as people begin to flow along with the theme that is on Holy Spirits heart. Songs begin to arise from the most unlikely of places and the least musical of lips. But they carry the very heartbeat of heaven and soon worship, real worship starts to occur. 

At this point, the enemy probably just leaves feeling unwell and tries to find something else to do. 

But sometimes, he is able to create enough distraction to take believers eyes off of Jesus for long enough to scupper prayer and make it unfruitful again. Often he does this using human beings (as he has no power of his own and so must rely on 'duping' humans to get his will done). Some poor brother or sister who has appeared in the meeting (and  who never appears in any meeting where submission to authority  or Godly doctrine is required) suddenly decides that they have a burning message that needs to be shared at full volume.  They don't prayerfully wait for holy spirit to make room. They never stop for even a moment to consider whether what they are about to bring has any relevance or is from the spirit. Whether what they bring is from the pit of hell or the bosom of heaven; it is delivered in such a way as to ensure a complete break down in the reverent and peaceful atmosphere that Holy Spirt has been leading.

At this point, the best thing to do (unless you are leading the meeting), is to vocally turn all attention back to worshipping the person of Jesus. Take all attention away from any other issue and start to praise him quietly and reverently. If you can, speak quietly or pray quietly in tongues, this will be good. But whatever you do, bring the focus back to Jesus and his glory. God is not an author of confusion. If meetings are becoming confused, it's not a sign that Holy Spirit is in the room (quite the reverse). As the author Adrian Plass put it, 'God always fits into his own world very naturally'. I usually find that, when attention is properly focused back in the person of Jesus, distractions fizzle out and (often), that same disruptive brother or sister is able to flow with Holy Spirit and be a genuine blessing to the meeting (and to be blessed which is after all, what we all want for them). If distractions continue, a good leader will have to remove them but let them worry about when and how to do this.

You just concentrate on worshipping your Saviour.

So I implore you, make no excuses to stay away from prayer. Prioritise it. And when you do get there, scramble over the rocks and uncomfortable terrain until you find the honey hidden within. There is always honey in the rock where Jesus is concerned.