Can You Hear Me Now? Why Ministers of God Must Connect with God, Part Four

  • James Merritt
  • Oct 10, 2009
  • Series: Can You Hear Me Now?

Reliable Service

My last three articles have addressed both need for ministers to connect with God and the nuts and bolts of how that works in the real world. The subjects I touched on were "Dropping Calls with The Divine," "Making the Connection" and "Expanding Your Network." If you missed any of those newsletters, you can find them in the Articles section of PastorsEdge. In this article, I want to bring you my final thoughts on this subject by talking about "Reliable Service."

The famous preacher, Charles Finney, took jesus at his word. He would often slip away for times of intense prayer and fasting. After having a particularly passionate time of prayer, God brought great blessing on Finney's ministry. Convinced about the necessity of prayer, he said:

“Without this you are as weak as weakness itself. if you lose your spirit you will do nothing, or next to nothing, though you had the intellectual endowment of an angel…. The blessed Lord deliver, and preserve His dead church from the guidance and influence of men who know not what it is to pray.”[i]

I am struck anew each day with the importance of a vibrant prayer life in ministry. Without prayer, you will be as weak as weakness itself, but with a robust prayer life you will be as strong as the strongest cell tower. It is no surprise then that when Billy Graham was asked by a reporter what one thing he would change about his ministry if he could turn back the clock, he replied, “Pray more.”

I encourage you to go back through this series of encouragements and begin to think about what God might have you do to shore up your personal prayer life. Ministry is hard enough without connecting with God regularly, personally, and successfully. Let your prayers be preoccupied with The Father—His worship and His will—trusting him to get to your “to do list” and do what is best at the right time. Then your prayers will spew passion and power like ever before and your ministry will reap the innumerable benefits.


[i] Parkhurst, L.G. Charles G. Finney’s Answers to Prayer (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1983), 126-127.