Overcomers

If a good church is one that is filled with overcomers, how do we overcome? Following on from my last two blog entries, prayer and the churches of Revelation, plus the studies I am currently looking at “When God’s people pray”, I cannot overestimate the importance of prayer in both personal life and the life of a healthy church.

Jesus was, and is, jealous for the sanctity of the church. In chapter 11 of Mark’s gospel, we read of Jesus clearing the moneychangers out of the temple. “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Jesus proclaims.

Every new Christian life is birthed in prayer. A conversion may follow many years of intercessory prayer, quite possibly unknown, by someone else. The acceptance of Christ is accompanied by prayers of repentance and faith. Every church service and every ministry project should begin with prayer (and continue with prayer, and be completed with prayer). I firmly believe that there should be the opportunity for personal prayer within every church service. If a person can come to a church with an aching heart and leave without hearing an invitation to have someone come alongside them in prayer, there is a gap to be filled there. As well we need groups of people who will consistently pray for the ministry team and every service.

Revelation 12:11 (NKJV) reads: "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” (“him” in this case refers to Satan). We are overcomers if we know the word of God and apply it to situations of trial, even, in some cases, at the risk of our very lives. In this case our testimony is not our personal story, but our attestation of the gospel. In the same way Psalm 119:11 states “I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

In addition to prayer, fasting is mentioned throughout the Bible as practice which honours God and provides spiritual power. Again there are times for personal fasting and times when the whole church may decide to fast, often accompanying prayer.

The final chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians describes a symbolic suit of armour which equips the Christian to fight against evil. We are to equip ourselves with a belt of truth, a breastplate of righteousness, shoes of readiness to spread the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit – the word of God. In addition we are to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”(v18) We are to cultivate godly attributes, and keep praying.

A sidenote: during the course of writing this piece, I began to think about praise. Do we overcome by praise? I often sing praise choruses while I am working. It is right to worship and praise God, however, for many years I have believed that the scriptures told us that “God inhabits the praises of His people.” I must admit that I, in error, had an almost formulaic approach to Psalm 22:3 – that songs of praise to God would invoke His presence and have an effect spiritually on those who heard them.
There are some interesting articles on the net which refute this concept for example http://www.zachicks.com/blog/2012/1/24/is-god-inhabits-the-praises-of-his-people-really-biblical.html (if you're having trouble opening the link, try Googling "is god inhabits the praises of his people really biblical" and it will appear in the results).
The NIV version of Psalm 22:3 now reads “You are enthroned as the Holy One, you are the praise of Israel.”
This personally has certainly provided some food for thought regarding the priority of praise for many, both personally and within a church service. Often there is a heavy emphasis during services on worship and preaching.  Maybe we should be training “prayer leaders” in addition to "worship leaders" and "prayer teams" in addition to "music teams"?