by John Piper
God Was Sought in Everything
They called on God to exalt his name in the world: “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name’” (Matt. 6:9).
They called on God to extend his kingdom in the world: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).
They called on God that the gospel would speed ahead and be honored: “Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you” (2 Thess. 3:1).
They called on God for the fullness of the Holy Spirit: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13; cf. Eph. 3:19).
They called on God to vindicate his people in their cause: “And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night?” (Luke 18:7 RSV).
They called on God to save unbelievers: “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved” (Rom. 10:1).
They called on God to direct the use of the sword: “Take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication” (Eph. 6:17–18).
They called on God for boldness in proclamation: “Praying at all times in the Spirit . . . and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel” Eph. 6:18–19). “And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness” (Acts 4:29).
They called on God for signs and wonders: “And now, Lord, . . . grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29–30). “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit” (James 5:17–18).
They called on God for the healing of wounded comrades: “Let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up” (James 5:14–15).
They called on God for the healing of unbelievers: “It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery. And Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him healed him” (Acts 28:8).
They called on God for the casting out of demons: “And he said to them, ‘This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer’” (Mark 9:29).
They called on God for miraculous deliverances: “So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. . . . When he realized [he had been freed], he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying” (Acts 12:5, 12). “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake” (Acts 16:25–26).
They called on God for the raising of the dead: “But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, ‘Tabitha, arise.’ And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up” (Acts 9:40).
They called on God to supply his troops with necessities: “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11).
They called on God for strategic wisdom: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5).
They called on God to establish leadership in the outposts: “And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed” (Acts 14:23).
They called on God to send out reinforcements: “Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matt. 9:38). “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off” (Acts 13:2–3).
They called on God for the success of other missionaries: “I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints” (Rom. 15:30–31).
They called on God for unity and harmony in the ranks: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20–21).
They called on God for the encouragement of togetherness: “We pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith” (1 Thess. 3:10).
They called on God for a mind of discernment: “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (Phil. 1:9–10).
They called on God for a knowledge of his will: “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Col. 1:9).
They called on God to know him better: “[We have not ceased to pray for you to be] increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10; cf. Eph. 1:17).
They called on God for power to comprehend the love of Christ: “I bow my knees before the Father . . . [that you] may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:14, 18–19).
They called on God for a deeper sense of assured hope: “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers . . . that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:16, 18).
They called on God for strength and endurance: “[We have not ceased to pray for you to be] strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy” (Col. 1:11; cf. Eph. 3:16).
They called on God for a deeper sense of his power within them: “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers . . . that you may know . . . what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe” (Eph. 1:16, 18–19).
They called on God that their faith not be destroyed: “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32). “But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).
They called on God for greater faith: “Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:24; cf. Eph. 3:17).
They called on God that they might not fall into temptation: “Lead us not into temptation” (Matt. 6:13). “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41).
They called on God that he would complete their resolves: “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power” (2 Thess. 1:11).
They called on God that they would do good works: “[We have not ceased to pray for you that you] walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work” (Col. 1:10).
They called on God for forgiveness of their sins: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (M
att. 6:12).
They called on God for protection from the evil one: “Deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:13).
Since the Giver gets the glory, what all this prayer shows is that the early church meant to make God supreme in the mission of the church. She would not live on her own strength or her own wisdom or even her own faith. She would live on God. God would be the one who would give the power and the wisdom and the faith. And therefore God would get the glory.
God’s Ultimate Goal Will Come Only through Prayer
This crucial place of prayer reaffirms the great goal of God to uphold and display his glory for the enjoyment of the redeemed from all the nations. God has made it the ground of his oath: “All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord” just as surely as that the Lord lives (Num. 14:21). The missionary purpose of God is as invincible as the fact that he is God. He will achieve this purpose by creating white-hot worshipers from every people, tongue, tribe, and nation (Rev. 5:9; 7:9). And he will be engaged to do it through prayer.
But the Work of Missions Is Not Prayer
Therefore, it is almost impossible to overemphasize the awesome place of prayer in the purposes of God for the world. But a caution is needed here. I sense the danger of overstating the role of prayer in relation to the Word of God and the preaching of the gospel. I am not comfortable, for example, with calling prayer “the work of missions.” We will not jeopardize its awesome indispensability if we deny this claim. I do not deny it because of any desire to minimize the place of prayer but out of a zeal for the place of the Word of God in world missions. So let me say loud and clear that I believe the proclamation of the gospel in Word and deed is the work of missions. Prayer is the power that wields the weapon of the Word, and the Word is the weapon by which the nations will be brought to faith and obedience.
The frontline work of missions is the preaching of the Word of God, the gospel. If this public act is displaced by prayer, the supremacy of Christ in the mission of the church will be compromised. Jesus said, “When the Spirit of truth comes . . . he will glorify me” (John 16:13–14). This is why the Spirit becomes active to save people precisely where the gospel of Jesus is preached. His mission is to glorify Jesus. Where Jesus and his saving work are not proclaimed, there is no truth for the Holy Spirit to empower and no knowledge of Christ for him to exalt. Therefore, it is vain to pray that the hearts of people will be opened where there is no gospel portrait of Christ to see.
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching. . . . Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Romans 10:13–14, 17
God has ordained that saving faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ because faith is a response to Christ. If Christ is to be glorified in the mission of the church, he must be heard and known.14 This happens only through the Word. No prayer can replace it. Prayer can only empower it.
The New Testament pattern is: “Take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying . . .” (Eph. 6:17–18). “When they had prayed . . . they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).
Prayer Releases the Power of the Gospel
But even the power that comes from the Holy Spirit through prayer is in some sense the unique power of the Word of God itself: “The gospel . . . is the power of God for salvation” (Rom. 1:16). Perhaps we should speak of prayer as God’s instrument to release the power of the gospel, for it is clear that the Word of God is the immediate regenerating instrument of the Spirit: “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). “[God] brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creation” (James 1:18).
The central promise of world missions in the teaching of Jesus concerns the spreading of the Word: “This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14). In his parable about sowing, Jesus said, “The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11). When he prayed for the future mission of his disciples, he said, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word” (John 17:20). And after his resurrection in his risen lordship over the mission of his church, he continued to exalt the Word: “The Lord . . . bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by [the apostles’] hands” (Acts 14:3).
As the Christian movement spread, Luke repeatedly described its growth as the growth of the Word of God. “And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem” (Acts 6:7). “The word of God increased and multiplied” (Acts 12:24). “The word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region” (Acts 13:49). “The word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily” (Acts 19:20).
This is why I am jealous to say that the proclamation of the gospel is “the work of missions.” It is the weapon that God designed to use in penetrating the kingdom of darkness and gathering the children of light from all the nations (Acts 26:16–18). His whole redemptive plan for the universe hangs on the success of his Word. If the proclamation of the Word aborts, the purposes of God fail.
The Word of God Cannot Fail
But that cannot happen:
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:10–11
God is sovereign. Yes, he has made all his plans hang on the success of his Word proclaimed by frail and sinful men and women; nevertheless, his purposes cannot fail. This is the essence of the new covenant oath: “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes” (Ezek. 36:27). “The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deut. 30:6). The Lord will work in his church “to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). A generation may be passed over in their disobedience, but none can undermine the plan of God. Job learned this long ago: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). Whenever God wills, his Word stands, and none can stay his hand.15
Victory Even from Inside the Tomb
It will often look as though Christ is defeated. That’s the way it looked on Good Friday. He let himself be libeled and harassed and scorned and shoved around and killed. But in it all he was in control. “No one takes [my life] from me” (John 10:18). So it will always be. If China was closed for forty years to the Western missionaries, it was not as though Jesus accidentally slipped and fell into the tomb. He stepped in. And when it was sealed over, he saved fifty million Chinese from inside—without Western missionaries. And when it was time, he pushed the stone away so we could see what he had done.16
When it looks as though he is buried for good, Jesus is doing something awesome in the dark. “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how” (Mark 4:26–27). The world thinks Jesus is done for—out of the way. They think his Word is buried and his plans have failed.
But Jesus is at work in the dark places: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). He lets himself be buried, and he comes out in power when and where he pleases. And his hands are full of fruit made in the dark. “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possibl
e for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:24). Jesus goes about his invincible missionary plan “by the power of an indestructible life” (Heb. 7:16).
For twenty centuries, the world has given it their best shot to hold him in. They can’t bury him. They can’t hold him in. They can’t silence him or limit him. Jesus is alive and utterly free to go and come wherever he pleases. All authority in heaven is his. All things were made through him and for him, and he is absolutely supreme over all other powers (Col. 1:16–17). “He upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3). And the preaching of his Word is the work of missions that cannot fail.
The Truly Awesome Place of Prayer in the Purpose of God
Now we can say again, safely and stunningly, what the awesome place of prayer is in the purpose of God to fill the earth with his glory. Not only has God made the accomplishment of his purposes hang on the preaching of the Word, but he has also made the success of that preaching hang on prayer. God’s goal to be glorified will not succeed without the powerful proclamation of the gospel. And that gospel will not be proclaimed in power to all the nations without the prevailing, earnest, faith-filled prayers of God’s people. This is the awesome place of prayer in the purpose of God for the world. That purpose won’t happen without prayer.
This accounts for Paul’s repeated call for prayer in support of the Word. “Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored” (2 Thess. 3:1). Pray “also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel” (Eph. 6:19). “Pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word” (Col. 4:3). “[God] will deliver us [to go on preaching the Word, if you] help us by prayer” (2 Cor. 1:10–11; cf. Phil. 1:19).
