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The Power of Prayer in a Ministry
Episode #621
10-28-2018
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
The Lord continues to unfold new and deeper revelation on the role of prayer in powering a ministry and in manifesting God’s will for that very ministry.
John:
Well today we’re coming and it’s fall in the air and it’s really nice. It’s nice and crisp. You know that feeling when you bite into an apple and it’s got that crisp pop and snap and it’s cold and it’s nice? Well, that’s kinda how the air feels today. It’s crisp and it’s clean and it’s clear looking. The sky is perfectly blue. There’s none of that kinda haze from heat. And so after a long summer that’s been hot and wet we’re very much looking forward to this. The leaves are changing and it’s really wonderful. And, and you were doing some pretty amazing things over there in the, in your a little fireplace. What were you doing?
Martha:
(Laughs) What I was enjoying was the first fire of the season. And I forget how much I love a cold day and a warm fire and to sit by it. And two of us came to pray and we had a marvelous morning of prayer.
But I wanted to talk about something first, John. It’s real dangerous to be spontaneous in speaking about the things of the Lord because you find yourself sometimes chewing on your own shoe leather with your foot in your mouth. And so I wanted to correct something or expand on something I said last week. I said that we aren’t praying. But I was referring to the ministry, praying for the ministry because we pray for others who write. We pray for each other in this body. We pray for those who write to us. So it wasn’t as if we were without any prayers. It sounded like we don’t pray.
John:
And we’re very much into prayer. We’re praying all the time.
Martha:
Yeah. And we spent, three of us spent hours this morning praying. And I thought it was eleven o’clock and it was one something. So I did want to correct that.
But what I meant was we don’t pray enough for the ministry. And so I had a reason for mentioning that because I want to ask… What I’ve wanted to ask for some time is will people who listen to us and find the presence of Christ with us and the word of His revelation, would you be committed to pray? I know there are many people that pray for us. They tell me. They tell me they pray every day and I’m blown away by that. But we need prayer for the ministry.
And I’m going to give you…there are two heroes I have and I’m so sorry. I apologize. You’re going to hear about those anytime I speak almost. Of course, one is Billy Graham. But this time it’s Dick Eastman. And I’ve told you about him. It’s Every Home for Christ. His goal was set out thirty years ago to reach every home in the world for Christ with the gospel. And he’s done it. And he’s had in some years two hundred thousand professions of salvation. So he’s…and he’s done it by prayer. He has proven the power of prayer. And I follow everything he’s in.
But I want to address also the Circle Prayer book that I mentioned (The Circle Maker). And it’s a wonderful book and I do recommend it. But please be patient with the Shulamites as we go from one thing to another and discover that Lord brings us to point A in order to get us to point M. And we go from one thing to something better. And that’s a wonderful book. I recommend it. It’s about mighty prayer and vision. But I have this dear friend, a pastor, who sends me the most wonderful books of people and he gave me a book called The Attack Lambs; very challenging title and the subtitle is Prayer that Changes the World. And the writer is Mark Geppert, G-E-P-P-E-R-T. And John will tell you where this book can be found. It’s a little bit expensive on Amazon.
But the forward is by Dick Eastman. And Dick Eastman walked with this man so he knew the power of his prayers. And basically I’ll tell you that the Circle book prayer is simply Luke 11. Luke 11 is the huge lesson on prayer. When I talked about this on the last podcast, a dear friend of mine sent me a picture of my book entitled The Secret of Answered Prayer and he said, “This is my prayer book!”
But Luke 11 is Jesus… It’s the friend awakening his friend at midnight to get bread for someone who didn’t have it. And the friend says, Luke 11:6 “Why are you bothering me? The door’s locked and we are in bed. Do you expect me to get up?” Then he says, “But listen, because of your shameless impudence, even though it’s the middle of the night, your friend will get up out of his bed and give you all that you need. So it is with your prayers. Ask and you’ll receive. Seek and you’ll discover. Knock on heaven’s door, and it will one day be open for you. Every persistent person will get what he asks for. Every persistent seeker will discover what he needs. And everyone who knocks persistently will one day find an open door.”
And I was going to my house one day and two friends were there and they said, “Martha, this is what you, the circle prayer is what you’ve done for us all the, all our lives.” So it’s just persistent prayer. Throwing prayers at situations unendingly.
But I read to you from The Passion Translation, which we’re fallen in love with, and its foot—the footnotes of it are equal to an excellent study Bible of Greek and Hebrew, isn’t it John?
John:
Absolutely! I love this book. It’s just amazing, The Passion Translation. It’s bringing a freshness to the scriptures to me and it’s not like it’s going off into weirdness and, you know, several other things that other translations… They become almost a personal doctrine rather than doctrine. And, but this is Greek and Hebrew. It’s actual. It’s just spoken in a way that and translated in a way that’s just amazing.
Martha:
It captures the passion that’s in, buried in the Hebrew and Greek languages.
John:
So it makes it a perfect name for the Bible: The Passion Translation.
Martha:
Wonderful. It’s really, really wonderful. So the book that I want to talk about today is very high and holy. It’s called Attack Lambs. And I don’t want to divulge the whole thing because it’s fantastic stories of prayer initiated by the Holy Spirit and answered by God. But it’s having the nature of a lamb but being, attacking with the word and with the victory of Jesus. And it’s more about worship and prayer, and worship before prayer. The emphasis is on worship. So this book is one that I highly recommend and I’ve given you the name and John will tell you the website to find the book.
John:
I’m hoping to be able to carry that at LivingChristianBooks.com. If we’re not, I mean, Amazon’s selling it for $50 and $60 and $80 like they do with some of their books. They’re actually are not doing it. It is actually the MarketPlace sellers that are, that are doing it. And I don’t understand why they do it that way but they do. And, but there, but this book is available and we’re going to see what we can do; if we can get it this week and get it in.
Martha:
And the forward in it, the introduction into it is by Dick Eastman. And since I’m asking today for prayer, this is how Dick Eastman taught his followers to pray for their ministry which is… If you haven’t gotten involved with Every Home for Christ, please, at least look it up. It is phenomenal; miracles they experience; the people that are willing to go out and walk in remote, remote places.
And the great commission is that every, that the gospel would cover the earth and then the Lord will return. Well, Dick Eastman is more than anyone I’ve heard about, Dick Eastman is fulfilling that. And these are the four things he, they pray for their ministry. Number one, workers for the vineyard. He said, “We are called to pray and ask for workers.” And we’re, we are beginning to see that happen with us, a bit. The second one is: Open doors. And what we, what we haven’t prayed for at Shulamite Ministries is really for the message. We’ve longed for it to go out because we believe in it. We are called to publish and distribute the testimony and we… It’s not that we don’t value what God gives us as a group.
The Power of Prayer in a Ministry – Episode #621 – Shulamite Podcast
The Lord continues to unfold new and deeper revelation on the role of prayer in powering a ministry and in manifesting God’s will for that very ministry. It is humbling and inspiring at the same time. Listen and let the Spirit fire up your heart, too!
Dearest Martha, dearest Shulamites,
I’m not too afraid people might think you don’t pray :).
Whoever met you once will have realized: You do! Whoever read one of your books will.
But thank you for exploring the grounds of prayer for us over and over. It is vast grounds!
We never “know”. We never come to an end in exploring what prayer might be. There is more and ever more.
But this is good stuff you recommend!
much love and many blessings, gaby