Prayer and Evangelism

Prayer and evangelism go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other. If you don’t pray you have no power, no open doors for effective evangelism, and no laborers to bring in the harvest.

My Testimony

The Lord’s prayer (Matt. 6:9-13) and the prayer for laborers (Matt. 9:38) have become an important part of my prayer life. I graduated from Western Conservative Baptist Seminary in Portland, Oregon and was on staff at a fairly large church serving as one of the assistant ministers. One day at a Wednesday night prayer meeting we had a guest speaker who spoke on the need for men to accept their responsibility to pray for their city. He challenged the men to pray at the church for 30 days from 5 to 7 every morning. The first hour they were to pray individually for the city and in the second hour, have corporate prayer time. The lead pastor asked me to be responsible to open the door if anyone showed up.

Thirty men came. We soon learned we didn’t know much about prayer. In 10 minutes we were running out of things to pray. How were we going to pray for two hours? But we were committed for the 30 days. I found myself praying the Lord’s Prayer during that first hour again and again. After about two weeks, we began to realize that we were trying to pray for revival for our city but we didn’t have it ourselves. For the first time I saw men cry because of their sin of pride and stubbornness. As we humbled ourselves we found that God showed Himself in a powerful way. The presence of God filled the room. We felt as though we’d entered the school of the Holy Spirit, learning how to pray, to worship. We didn’t want to stop after 30 days. This discipline of prayer became so exciting and so important to us that the 30-day commitment extended into three years providing many open doors for evangelism. Many came to Christ and many were healed.

When you pray for laborers you may also get called yourself. During this season of revival one of the other pastors said I should pray about my future. As soon as I did, God said one word, “Tokyo!” This led to 30 years of ministry here in Japan.

An important part of praying the Lord’s Prayer is to have the message of the kingdom of God active in our own lives. When CPI (Church Planting Institute) first started in Japan we were asked a question during one of the sessions that caused great conviction in my heart: “What is your greatest need since you first believed in the Gospel?” I knew I should be answering that my greatest need is still to believe in the Gospel but I could not say that. So I asked the Lord why and He showed me that my heart was divided.

God wants an undivided heart to worship Him. My strong will was the problem. I would seek God, but also I would use my strong will to make things happen. I was shy as a child, so I tried to figure my problems out myself. I stifled my emotions. Even years later as a minister I did many funerals but could never identify with the hurting people because I had suppressed my emotions. I saw my strong will as an idol and repented and turned to the Gospel. No longer afraid of my emotions, I could trust the power of the gospel to heal me and I found tears again. Christ rules in my heart with the scepter of His righteousness.

Two Important Prayers

The Lord taught His disciples to pray in Matthew, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (6:10).” God wants to give us what is in heaven. We must not settle for anything less. The second prayer is for God to prepare people to do their part in bringing in the harvest.

Jesus would do no teaching, preaching, healings, deliverances, or miracles unless He first knew what the Father was saying and doing (John 5:19). Jesus saw what was in heaven and proclaimed it on the earth. He saw these things by spending time with His Father in prayer. Jesus’ ministry was the demonstration of what was in heaven being done on earth. Everything He needed to fulfill his ministry, do the miracles, and make disciples was already available in heaven (John 5:19). Jesus spent all night in prayer before picking the twelve disciples (Luke 6:12). He depended on the Father to raise up these laborers.

An important part of the disciples training was learning the Lord’s prayer (Luke 11:1-4). And they got kingdom results. They proclaimed the kingdom of God, healed the sick, and cast spirits out of the oppressed. The disciples were also taught to ask the Lord of the harvest for laborers for the harvest (Matt.9:38).

Standing in the Gap

The Gospel must be captured in our hearts so we can know the authority that comes through praying the Lord’s Prayer. We need God to rule in our daily lives. It can only happen by daily surrender to the Holy Spirit. Our message must be the kingdom of God and the authority that is expressed in the Lord’s prayer of expecting what is in heaven to be manifest on earth must be at the heart of our prayers. We are called to rule, to lead, to be who God has called us to be: sons and daughters of the King who know they are royalty and priests (1 Peter 2:9-10).

The Israelites were given the Promised Land but they had to take it city by city. High places needed to be removed (e.g. Numbers 33:52) and the Lord honored instead. When we began pioneering a Japanese church in Tachikawa, prayer walking was an important part of building the church. Strongholds existed in the area where people had dedicated land for idol worship, unclean entertainment, or shedding of innocent blood.

One day in my prayer walking I found a very active stronghold, a Sōka Gakkai Temple. Many people were going in and out, some walking like zombies out of the temple area. At first I struggled with my prayers because I cast judgment upon the priest for leading the people astray. Then I repented of my judgmental attitude and stood in the gap for the priest and asked God to forgive the priest and draw him to Himself. I sensed the authority to declare the kingdom of God in this area. The next week the active evil power was gone and hardly anyone entered the temple.

Ezekiel 22:30 says, “So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one” (NKJV). When the Holy Spirit made this real to me I surrendered to be that man to stand in the gap on behalf of Japan. I began to go down to pray at the Palace Grounds of the Emperor of Japan.

The emperor is the high priest of Shinto. When he gives himself over to the sun goddess he opens the door for the devil to strengthen his stronghold in Japan. It is important not to judge the emperor but to stand on his behalf before God, asking for forgiveness for leading this nation into idolatry.

This is Japan’s hour! It is time for the Father’s sons and daughters to be who they are called to be: kings and priests who bring in the harvest.