Horizontal Prayer

All genuine prayer is vertical. Horizontal prayer, on the other hand, is the giving of information through prayer and is for human consumption and not Divine attention. It would be far better to break into the prayer time and say simply, “I ought to mention this. Mrs. Smith lives just round the corner on Brewery Street, number twelve, on the third floor, in the back room. Her husband fell down the other day and broke his leg, her child is in the hospital with diphtheria, her son is becoming a gangster, and she is in dreadful need. Could we pray for her?”

However, what normally happens is more like this: “Oh Lord, we pray for Mrs. Smith who lives in Brewery Street, number twelve, third floor up in the back room. Her husband has broken his leg, her child is in the hospital with diphtheria, her son is becoming a gangster, and she is in dreadful need.” The Lord could say, “My dear child, I know all of this. Are you trying to identify Mrs. Smith for Me, lest I bless the wrong one? You really do not need to tell Me! Why are you giving Me all this information?”

This is not praying to the Lord; it is giving information to other people, and the prayer time is being destroyed. The more quickly one learns that such prayer is a façade and valueless in the sight of Heaven, the better. The Lord knows all there is to know about Mrs. Smith and her problem. It can be, of course, a real help for others to hear about her condition and need, but to dress it up in prayer is wrong. When we fall into this error we are not praying. We have to learn hard lessons. What point is it when you get to Heaven and say: “I did pray;” and the Lord says: “You did not! You spent most of your time giving information in the guise of prayer to others and with a lot of hot air; and as far as I am concerned, you were a dreadful bore.”

Do you think that our Lord is going to acclaim someone who has destroyed prayer meetings? Never! Our Lord is not a diplomat or a politician. He is not going to say, “You did very well,” when in fact you did the opposite. He is going to say, “You were the destroyer of those prayer meetings. Why didn’t you learn? Why didn’t you allow Me to do something with you?” Horizontal prayer is a plague. Ask God to keep you away from it. All prayer should be directed to God. Be aware that there is nothing that God does not know. It might be of help to share some information with others but not in the guise of prayer.

 Remember what the Preacher said: “Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few” (Ecclesiastes 5:2 NASB). He did not mean for us not to pray much but to remember: God is in Heaven and you are on earth. He knows it all—and far more than you could ever understand. Therefore you can come to the point, be direct, and not use many words.

What did our Lord mean when He said: “For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him” (Matthew 6:8)? This does not mean that we are not to ask, for He taught us to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). But what He meant was: Do not go all around the bush. Your heavenly Father knows it anyway; He knows your need and your condition. It is the same with much greater needs, whether local, national, or international. There is nothing He does not know about those situations; therefore learn to be direct.

Long Prayer

There is nothing that can destroy corporate prayer more powerfully than the endlessly long prayers of some saints. I always remember the words of Golda Meir, who was at that time Prime Minister of Israel, and she said: “We do not need enemies when we have friends like these.” She was speaking of some so-called friends of Israel in positions of great authority in other nations who made much trouble for Israel. Sometimes, one wonders whether the Lord feels the same way. He does not have to blame Satan because left to some saints the prayer meeting and the work of the Lord will be destroyed anyway.

In teaching us the pattern prayer the Lord Jesus said: In praying use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking (Matthew 6:7 author’s emphasis). It is an interesting fact that it has been stated that not a single prayer recorded in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, lasts more than a few minutes! In this connection it is worth noting that the pattern prayer which the Lord gave us lasts no more than two minutes. Nevertheless many Christians pray unbelievably long prayers. Unwittingly, they become agents for the destruction of corporate prayer. By prayer they destroy prayer! In private prayer, of course, in the quietness of one’s own home, one can pray for an hour or more. There is no problem.

However, to hold forth in corporate prayer for such a length of time would kill any prayer meeting! This has been a centuries’ old problem. It reminds me of a story that is told of D. L. Moody, the great preacher, who had such a person in the Church prayer meeting. On one occasion Moody became so distressed over the length of the brother’s prayer that he rose to his feet and said: “Let us all rise to our feet and sing hymn number so and so whilst our brother finishes his prayer.”

Sermonettes

Then there are the little sermons and Bible outlines which are another great destroyer of corporate prayer. Our beloved Lord is more preached at than any other person in the whole universe. If the unsaved were preached at as much as our Lord, no one could ever go to a lost eternity with the excuse that they never heard the Gospel! Sometimes, one wonders why people do not give the Lord a chance to come forward and answer the appeal.

 With such believers there is nothing in the Word that is not rehashed. It would not be as serious or as destructive if it had something to do with the matter in hand. Rarely does it have any relationship to those matters! Marvellous thoughts are expounded from the Bible; from the Law, from the Psalms, from the Prophets, from the Gospels, or from the Letters. The trouble is that the corporate prayer meeting is often the venue for frustrated preachers. There is no other outlet for them; therefore, the prayer meeting becomes their platform. We have Biblical outlines and points one, two, and three—all the points beginning with the same letter.

May the Lord preserve us from such sermonettes. In corporate prayer there is a vast difference in rehearsing the promises, the declarations and the statements of the Word of God in prayer when they are in relation to His purpose and to the matters at hand—and preaching those truths back to God. In fact it is essential and necessary that we stand on the promises and the declarations of God which have much to do with the effectiveness of corporate prayer. However, to preach sermons or give Bible outlines is to preach at God, and that is appalling. It reveals an unawareness of the Presence of the Lord.

Artificiality

Another very bad habit is the idea that we have to put on an artificial voice. W.P. Nicholson once said: “Why do people have to use strange voices when they speak to God?” It is obvious that we should be reverent in speaking to the Lord, but why can we not use our normal voice? We have, of course, to speak up so that others can hear our prayer and say, “Amen.”

The idea that we should use a kind of theatrical voice in speaking to the Lord is ridiculous. One pities the Lord having to hear all these strange voices which bear no resemblance to the normal voice of the person who is praying! As long as we speak up and our diction is clear, we need to be ourselves and speak to the Lord as we speak to one another—only reverently.

This habit is so prevalent that in united prayer times you can almost tell which denomination a believer is coming from. Anglicans and Episcopalians speak about the passion of our Lord and the agony of the cross and other tremendous truths as if they are talking over the fence to a neighbour about the tomatoes and other vegetables in their garden. It always has a level tone without any passion or emotion.

Baptists tend to be very matter of fact and loud. Pentecostals are very much like the old-fashioned plane that revved up its engines before it finally took off. It then rises higher and higher until it loses power suddenly and descends. Presbyterians speak to God with great oratory and aplomb. The greatest need is not to take on some manner or voice which is not ourselves. We should be able to pray as ourselves, from our hearts, to the Lord, without artifice and pretence.

Insensitivity

Insensitivity to the leading of the Spirit of God or the anointing, can be a very great problem. Sometimes insensitivity can take the form of slavishly following through the whole list of prayer requests to the end. Why should we have to pray for every item that is suggested? Maybe the Lord does not want every one of those matters to be taken up in prayer. Some of those items which have been mentioned can be taken home and prayed through in our personal and family prayers.

Another evidence of insensitivity is the fear of a silence or quietness. As soon as a moment of silence comes we are on to the next point, because we are not being led by the anointing. There are times when a good Quaker silence can be greatly used of the Lord to speak to us. It is much easier for us to have a methodology. We have this list of matters and we feel that we have to cover every one of them. As we have said, however, some of those matters can be taken home and prayed through.

 We need always to be sensitive to the Spirit of God and His leading. Sometimes, with some of us who suffer from deafness, there is a tendency to wait for someone who speaks powerfully or clearly and then jump in, but that may not be the Spirit of God. We have to learn even in that condition to be led by the Holy Spirit, and He will lead us in simple and clear ways.