Is There Really Power in Prayer?
No. There is no power in prayer. Let me repeat that in case you missed it: there is no power in prayer. None.
While at first blush such a statement might seem offensive – even blasphemous, a little explanation will reveal that in reality the claim is not at all outrageous. In fact, it’s almost basic.
Allow me to elaborate on the point this way: do not most major religions promote the discipline and practice of prayer? Of course they do. For example, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, those core religious obligations that summarize Muslim worship and practice, is prayer. Likewise, high-caste Hindu men are instructed to perform prayers of devotion three times a day: at sunrise, noon and sunset. The youngest religion in the world, the Baha’i faith, enjoins its devotees to pray once, thrice, or five times daily depending on one’s personal plan of devotion.
So you see that prayer is a universal practice among religious observers. It is almost intuitive to associate religious observance – whatever the religion – with some form of the practice of prayer. But are we to believe on that basis that there is power in prayer, regardless of who is doing the praying or to whom the prayers are directed? Are we to believe that other-worldly, trans-human power attends the very act of petitioning the god of one’s choice simply owing to the nature of the act of prayer itself?
I submit that for the Christian, for one who abides by the supernatural revelation of the One and only true God, the answer is obvious and negative. The truth is, there is no power in the act of prayer. Instead, the power resides in the One to whom we pray. It is the God revealed in the pages of the Bible, the God who is both Creator and Sustainer of all that has come to exist, the God who is the Author and Finisher of our faith – it is in that God that all power originates and flows, including the divine power released through the act of prayer. We can turn to God’s word as well and witness firsthand the futility of God-less prayer.
In one of the most dramatic scenes in all the Bible, recorded in 1 Kings 18, the prophet Elijah, giving bold testimony to the one true God, openly challenges the false prophets and followers of Baal to demonstrate whether there is any power in their prayers or, more importantly, in the god to whom they pray. Elijah cried out, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”
After outlining the provisions of his daring challenge, Elijah instructed the followers of Baal, “then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.” Notice what Elijah is doing: he is forcing the wavering Israelites to concede that there is a clear connection between what is true about reality, and what is true about prayer. If Baal is the true God, then of course he should be able and willing to demonstrate as much when called upon by his devotees to provide such awe-inspiring evidence. If, however, Baal is a false and non-existent deity and instead it is the God of Israel who actually exists and is as He has revealed Himself to be, then He will demonstrate that before the eyes of all in a compelling display of raw and supernatural power.
Now the point of the story for us today is not that we are to challenge everyone who adheres to a non-Christian view of reality to prove the truth of their religion by means of a public display of power. Nor are we to put God to the test to perform such acts at our behest. The story of Elijah is informative, not normative. It does not provide a prescription for how we can get God to prove that He is indeed God.
But what we do want to gain from recalling this historic event is the clear illustration that there is no power in prayer as prayer, but only in the true God who responds to our prayers and displays His power through them. The prophets of Baal cried out to their god: “O Baal, hear us!” They cried out all day; they ritually cut themselves with knives and lances, desperate to coax a response from their god. “But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.” If ever there was power in prayer itself, this would seem to have been an excellent opportunity for an impressive display of that power. But there is no power in prayer itself, only in the God of Power and Might who works through our prayers. And that is exactly what happened on Mount Carmel. We read in the text: “And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, ‘LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.’”
What happened next is both familiar and remarkable: “Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, “Wow, there is power in prayer!!”
Well, not exactly. Of course that is not what they said. Instead, they exclaimed with fearful trembling, “The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!”
No: there is no power in prayer itself. Otherwise, in all likelihood, the prophets of Baal would have carried the day. After all, who can question their sincerity and devotion? Who doubts their discipline and commitment to the practice of prayer? Who wonders whether they were “true believers” in the alleged power of their petitions? They prayed all day and even drew blood from their own bodies just to prove their sincerity. But in the end, we discover this indispensable and timeless truth: power is not ultimately in prayer itself or in the practice of prayer, but in the God of Power and Might who is real and true. The LORD, He is God!
Thus, while prayer might be a discipline practiced near universally, unlike other common human practices it is not done so with equal efficacy. For instance, the habit of healthy eating generally contributes to the physical well-being of an individual regardless of what religion he happens to practice. In a similar way, the discipline of regular exercise typically enhances the health of an individual – irrespective of her religious convictions. The discipline and habit of prayer, on the other hand, while perhaps making a person more ceremoniously religious or even self-disciplined, is not attended with divine power unless it is prayer that is submitted unto the only true God in heaven and in accordance with His revealed will. To repeat: as the prophets of Baal discovered, there is no power in prayer itself; but there is unimaginable power released through prayer when the omnipotent God, the One who breathed out the heavens and the earth and holds all creation in sustained existence, acts on behalf of our petitions.
There are many things to consider along with this point. First, when we realize that the power is not in the act of prayer itself but in the Eternal and Omniscient God who acts through our prayers, then our focus is shifted from ourselves to our Lord and Savior. James chastised his readers: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” (4:3) By remembering that the power of prayer is none other than a Person – the all-powerful God Himself, our minds are turned to contemplate His perfect will and not just our immediate pleasures.
Second, when we realize that our prayers are powerful only when they become an instrument through which God displays His glorious power, then we can begin to grasp that prayer is not about us getting our will done in heaven, but about the Sovereign God revealing and performing His heavenly will through us on earth. Recall Jesus’ instruction to His disciples: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:9-10)
There is one final idea for us to contemplate this morning. We might be tempted to question, if God is sovereign over all the earth and if, as the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians, God “works all things according to the counsel of His own will,” then why should we bother to pray at all? If God’s will is going to be done, then why pray that God’s will be done?
We could answer: “because God said to pray.” But this answer seems unsatisfactory. It is certainly true that as the Sovereign of the universe, God could plausibly command His creatures to do things without offering an explanation of His purposes. But the Bible does not reveal a demanding God who is concerned only with us obeying His sovereign and omnipotent will. Rather, the Bible reveals a loving God who desires to relate to and with His creation in an intimate and meaningful way. Recall what King David wrote in Psalm 103:7: “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.” God displayed His powerful acts of deliverance and sustenance before the children of Israel as He miraculously delivered them from Egyptian bondage and led them through the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. Yet, while Israel witnessed these mighty acts, Moses was privy to the ways of God! He knew the very heart of God, not just that the manna, as promised, was delivered on schedule every morning except the Sabbath.
Dear Christian, what we have in Christ – the intimacy we can have with God in Christ – is greater than anything Moses could experience because we have the permanence of the indwelling Spirit of God who “also helps in our weaknesses, making intercession for us with groanings too deep for words.” Even though the face of Moses was radiant as a result of his intimate contact with the God of Israel, his glory faded – it passed away. But, for us, “the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.” In this New Covenant, as we are in Christ and Christ is in us, we have a glory that exceeds even Moses, the one who knew the very ways of God while most others around him only saw God’s acts.
So back to our question: why does a Sovereign God call us to prayer? Is it merely because “God said so”? Of course, we should not and must not dismiss the fact that we are exhorted to prayer by the inspired and inerrant word of God. But could there be another reason – one in keeping with the loving nature of God and His desire to involve us in His work?
As the Sovereign God, our Lord declares the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. (Isa 46:10) But God not only declares the ends; He also prescribes the means. And for much of what God desires to accomplish on this earth, He has prescribed that His will be accomplished through the means of prayer.
For our prayers to be filled with power, they first must be addressed in the Name of the one true God and none other. Prayer itself is not powerful; the God who answers our prayers, however, is infinitely powerful. And, like the practice of the early church in Acts, let us remember that prayer is not so much about us getting our will done in heaven; it is really about God inviting us to be instruments through which He accomplishes His will here on earth.