One of the influential books I’ve read for my personal and ministry growth was Wesley Duewel’s Touch the World through Prayer. I come back to this book over and over to remind myself of the power of prayer. If you have not read it, may I encourage you to pick up a copy and read it. It will change your view of what prayer is and how you can use it to get involved in God’s kingdom work. In his small book, Dr. Duewel touches on biblical teachings on the importance of prayer and you, and how God expects you to use it to get involved in His kingdom work. Here are couple of my favorite parts:

First, we have sacred partnership with God in prayer. We have Jesus as our “enthroned prayer partner (Rom.8:34),” the Holy Spirit as our “indwelling prayer partner (Rom.8:26-27),” and God’s angels as our “prayer expediters” who helps us along the way (Heb.1:14). How can we fail when we have such powerful divine prayer partners to help us.

Second, I love the idea that you don’t have to be a super-Christian to be a prayer warrior. James 5:16-18 says, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit.” In other words, any believer who is a child of God and has the Holy Spirit indwelling him can be a prayer warrior. All it requires is for us to walk humbly and obedient with God and seek to pray according to His will. If we do, we can pray mighty prevailing prayers that can move mountains and go anywhere in the world and lift up anyone with our prayers.

Third, I love Dr. Duewel’s challenge that we need to have prevailing prayer. Jesus’ key word to the seven churches is that he will reward those who “overcome” (Rev.2:7). To have a prevailing prayer, we must learn to prevail over ourselves, prevail over Satan, and prevail before God. As Christians, we have the potential to do this as we are willing to take time, pray in the Spirit, and have persistence in prayer.

May this book encourage your prayer life as it did mine.