Bad Habits Which Destroy Corporate Prayer

In this chapter we will consider some of the bad habits which destroy corporate prayer. Those bad habits are to be avoided like the plague.

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.

“Shopping List” Prayer

Then there is what we call the “shopping list” prayer or the “world tour” prayer. It is every matter that has been suggested for prayer, and a few more items added. Such believers probably had a great battle in opening their mouths, but when they finally have them open, they take the plunge and go through the whole list of matters that have been suggested. It is like having a shopping list that you tick off as you buy the items. The “world tour” prayers are much the same. You begin where you are and go from continent to continent till you arrive back from where you began; it is a kind of round the world trip!

Let me give an example. A person prays firstly for a Billy Graham campaign in Los Angeles; then he prays for a family in great need in Cape Town, in South Africa. After that he is off to Melbourne in Australia where there is a brother who has gone away from the Lord. Then he returns to London and prays for a group of believers there; and finally he prays for his grandmother’s gangrenous toe. That is his prayer.

The next person comes in and he prays for the person in Melbourne who has gone away from the Lord, and then he comes back to the Billy Graham campaign in Los Angeles. Then he goes to London and prays fervently for the British people. Someone else prays for the grandmother’s gangrenous toe and includes five other sick people, all with very different conditions. Then another one prays for Billy Graham’s campaign in Los Angeles, goes to Melbourne; and then prays for all the believers behind the bamboo curtain and ends in the Czech Republic. Someone else prays for all those suffering everywhere, especially in Islamic countries and then prays for Russia.

What is happening in this prayer meeting? First we are here, and then we are there. We go backwards and forwards, and backwards and forwards. If you prayed like this at home the Lord would say that you needed some healing of the mind because you are in a confusion and all over the place. In fact, when a believer prays in his or her home, he or she would kneel and pray for one thing after another, as one is prompted by the Spirit of God. You do not dodge backwards and forwards between different matters. The corporate prayer time should be the same. We proceed from one topic to the next, only together, and so on to the next topic. Thus we proceed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In such a time we may have seven saints praying on one topic, and five on the next, one on the next, and then twenty on the final topic.

When you have prayer that is all over the place, nobody knows where we are going. One would not dream of doing that privately or personally. In the corporate time, however, that is exactly what we do; we go all over the place and go through a whole number of items with each person trying to cover the whole list. In that kind of prayer time a heaviness and a lifelessness comes down upon it.

The “My,” “Me,” and “I” Syndrome

When we consistently use the personal pronouns in corporate prayer, it becomes a denial of the functioning of the body of Christ. It is obvious that we should use “we,” “our,” and “us,” when we are praying together. If the Holy Spirit is leading us to pray in such a time we become, as it were, the mouthpiece of the rest. The other believers will either agree with the prayer and say, “Amen” or they will not and remain silent. Our Lord never taught us to pray corporately like this. In the pattern prayer which He gave us, He taught us to pray: “Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:9–13).

We need to note that it was to all the disciples and not to one disciple that He gave this pattern prayer. In other words, when they prayed together, they were to use the plural pronouns: “Our,” “Us,” “We.” It is a sad evidence of the prayer time being a gathering of individuals praying individual and personal prayers when we use “I,” “My,” and “Me” rather than the Church at prayer. Furthermore, when those personal pronouns are used, one feels that one is shut out of that person’s prayer. That child of God is praying as if there is only that one believer and the Lord in the room.

There, is, however, a place when personal pronouns should be used, even in a time of corporate prayer. For example, we often hear this kind of prayer when someone prays: “We all feel depressed!” It would be better if that believer said, “I am depressed; touch me, Lord, and revive me.” There are other occasions when the personal pronouns are rightly used. It is normal however in corporate prayer to use, “our,” “us,” and “we.”

When we begin to use the plural pronouns it is a sign or evidence that we are beginning to sense that we belong to the body of the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit is beginning to give us an understanding of what the Church is.

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.

Mechanical Noise

Another very bad habit is a kind of mechanical reaction that has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit. In a time of corporate prayer it destroys the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit, because it is not the Spirit of God but a totally human reflex. However, it can be uplifting when a believer exclaims, “Hallelujah” because that one has seen something by the Spirit; or someone says, “Amen” or another says, “Yes, Lord” out loud, or when a great chorus of “Amens” rises from all of us, because in the Spirit we are all witnessing to some matter.

I remember in a national conference of intercessors, after I had spoken, a lady approached me and thanked me for the message I had given. She then said that she had been greatly blessed by going to a Prayer Clinic.

I was immediately interested because I had led quite a number of Schools of Prayer in different places. I said to her, “But I have never heard of a Prayer Clinic!”
“Oh,” she replied, “it has been very helpful to me in the different courses I have taken there. They have been very helpful to me; however I would like to ask you about the course I am taking at present because it troubles me.”
“What is the present course you are taking, and why does it trouble you?” I said.
“Oh,” she said “it is groaning in the Spirit.”
I then said to her, “Well, I have never heard of such a course. How do they teach this? Does the teacher ask you to groan, and then says that is not good enough, and groans himself, and then says that is how it should be?”
“Yes,” she said, “that is how it happened, and I am not very happy about it.”
So I told her that I thought she was quite right not to be happy about it, especially as the Scripture says these are groans which cannot be uttered, but are trapped within our spirit.
Then suddenly the light dawned and I said, “Are you paying for these courses?”
“Yes” she said, “fifty dollars a course.”

To teach people to mechanically groan is not a ministry of the Holy Spirit, and to make a charge for it is to add insult to injury. On another occasion I was in a prayer meeting in one of the Southern states of the United States. I could not concentrate at all due to a fearful racket in the back of the meeting hall. In the end the pastor leaned over and said to me, “Is that noise disturbing you?”
And I said, “Yes, but what is it?”
“Oh,” he said, “it is our brother who has a ministry of groaning.” At the end of the meeting the pastor said, “Would you like to meet our brother who has this ministry of groaning?” And I said, “Yes, I would, since I have always understood that these groanings cannot be uttered.” In my estimation it was not a genuine ministry, but mechanical hubbub.

Finally, to illustrate further this matter; I was preaching at a meeting in Southern Sweden and a man in the congregation loudly exclaimed every few minutes: “Takk og lov,” which means “thanks and praise.” I was preaching an evangelistic message and when I said, “There are many here who do not yet know the Lord,” he said, “Takk og lov!” I even said, “Some, if they do not find the Lord Jesus, will end up in Hell,” and he said, “Takk og lov.” This kind of mechanical exclamation has nothing to do with the Lord. It is a mechanical reflex; like a sausage machine turning out sausages! This kind of mechanical noise needs to be avoided like the plague.

Making Sure that You Are Heard When You Pray

It is obvious that when one leads in prayer one needs to be heard; otherwise there is no point in having a corporate time of prayer. If a number of believers who are praying are inaudible, it will destroy the whole time, since a large number present will not be able to hear them. What are the reasons for not being audible?

The first reason is the softness of some people’s voices. If you have such a soft voice, it will always help if you stand up to pray. You do not have to use an artificial voice, but you do need to speak up and speak clearly. I have been amazed over the years to discover that powerfully built men often pray with incredibly soft voices. Normally, they speak like a fog horn, loudly and clearly, but when it comes to a prayer meeting you can hardly hear them. I have wondered to myself whether they want to appear before the Lord as humble and modest. Who are they kidding however? Not the Lord! Use a normal voice but obviously a voice that can be heard by all. If you have an inherently soft voice and cannot do anything about it, do not let that stop you from praying, but remember to speak out and keep it brief and to the point.

The second reason is that some people put their hands over their mouth or if they are kneeling, they pray into the seat of the chair. There is no way people can hear you like this. If you want to kneel, and it is a good position to take, straighten up when you pray and pray out clearly.

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.

Lack of Awareness of God

We cannot call this a bad habit, but it is the greatest problem in corporate prayer. If we were more aware of the Presence of the Lord, half of the bad habits we have in prayer ministry would be banished, and they would disappear. In a living awareness of the Lord’s Presence amongst us, we would be delivered from the bad habits we have defined. Elijah used a phrase about himself a number of times: “The Lord before whom I stand” (see I Kings 17:1 cp. 18:10, 15).

No one could see him standing before the Lord. In fact he may have been standing before King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, or someone else, but he had a consciousness or awareness of God. We need that same kind of consciousness or awareness of the Lord, even though we cannot see Him with our physical eyes. The Lord Jesus is in the midst of two or three or more believers. It is recorded in Hebrews 11:27b that Moses: “… endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.” He also had the same experience as Elijah. It was his awareness and consciousness of the Lord that enabled him to endure and overcome.

 
By the Spirit of God we are in touch with the throne of God. If we were really aware of that, it would revolutionise our prayer, and we would be more direct. We would not feel that we have to beat about the bush or go all around a matter, but we will go straight to the heart of it. If we were aware that when the Church is at prayer we are actually in the throne room of God, in the Presence of Supreme Sovereign Authority and Power, such awareness would change our whole attitude to the events and problems we are facing. An awareness of the Lord’s Presence would cause our prayer times to be powerfully effective and deliver us from the bad habits which destroy them.

A word in the ear of the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Ruler of the kings of the earth, is far more powerful than a word in the ear of the President of the United States or the Prime Minister of Great Britain, or the President of France, or anyone else. The Lord said: “And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony” (Exodus 25:22). This was a picture of the throne room of the Almighty; it was the Holy of Holies. There He said, “I will meet with you.” As the redeemed of the Lord, could we have any greater privilege than this? This awareness of the Presence of God, of being in touch with His throne, would surely revolutionise our corporate prayer times and the way we pray together.