Prayerlessness, is it a sin?

1 SAMUEL 12:23, "Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way:"

One of the things that a Christian should have an hatred for is sin. If we do not realize that prayerlessness is a sin with a capital S, we will not have the intensity of desire for deliverance. If Christ abides in us and we abide in Christ, we will desire to sin against God in nothing.

If we are to deal effectively with the prayerlessness we must recognize it as sin. Since it is sin, how can we overcome it, that sin must be discouraged, confessed, cast out, and cleansed.

To see that our prayer-sins are indeed sins, is the first step toward true and divine deliverance from them.

The sin of prayerlessness separates us from the manifested presence of God. The presence of God is the great privilege of God's people and the only power against the enemy. Defeat and failure are always due to a loss of God's presence. We must see prayerlessness as a greater sin then we have been willing to admit. What does prayerlessness mean? It means that we have little desire for fellowship with God. It shows that our trust rests more on our own works and efforts then on the power of God. It shows that we have little desire for God's blessing. It shows that we are not ready to sacrifice the ease and confidence of the flesh, for waiting on God. It shows that our spirituality and our abiding in Christ is to feeble for us to prevail in prayer. It shows that we are controlled by the flesh and not the Spirit. It shows, we believe that we can accomplish the work of God in our own strength.

The bible tells us to confess our faults one to another that we may be healed. If we are guilty of prayerlessness we need to confess and own up to it, then we need to come before God in repentance and destroy this sin. If we really want God's presence and power, this sin must be eradicated from our lives.

Why is it that so many Christians fear to face up to their faults? We need not fear facing up to our failures. Let us not cling to the excuses and explanations which circumstances suggest. Let us stop putting the blame on something or somebody else, when it comes to prayer the buck stops with you. Let us simply confess, "we have sinned; we are sinning; we dare not commit this sin any longer." God will give us the grace to pray, if we will confess prayerlessness as a sin, for confession is the only way to repentance and restoration. We lack spiritual power because we do not pray. Prayer is the heartbeat of the spiritual life.

The reason we do not pray is because we do not have the relationship with God that the bible talks about. Our relationship with God is substandard because we do not pray and be obedient to God's word. Our number one priority is to develop a right, consistent relationship with God that is second to none.

If our relationship with God is not right, praying, unless it is the prayer of confession, is useless.

We must develop our relationship with God to the degree the bible says is possible. Our desires, our will, our mind, our cares, our struggles, our families, our entire lives must be given over entirely to the control of the Holy Spirit.

We must cease to tear down, backbite, and criticize, other people, no matter what they have done to us. If we are continuing to do these things, it is proof positive that our relationship with God is not right. That is not to say that we cannot disagree with or question what is being done or said. We are to search the scriptures to see if what is said is in line with the bible or not. If it is, praise God and heed what is being said. If it is not, we are to pray about it, talk to the individual about it, instruct others as to the untruth of it, but we are never to discredit the character of the person who said it. We must pray that God will somehow get through to them, and if they refuse to listen to God, then pray that God will remove them.

If our relationship with our family and the family of God is not right, that is an indication that our relationship with God is not right. Peter tells us that our prayers will not be answered if our family relationships are not right.

If we are to be a people that God uses, our number one priority should be to develop godly relationships.

We must not shun those who do not know, or have failed God, we must develop a relationship with them, love them, and pray for them. If our relationship with God is right, this will be the natural outgrowth of the Christian life.

We cannot hold grudges.

We cannot harbor forgiveness.

We must refuse to look on the negative side of things.

We must not worry.

We must not have a lose tongue.

We must love every believer in Christ, no matter what name tag they carry.

We must search the scriptures to see if what is being taught is true.

We must stand for truth, not for traditions of denominations or men.

We must be obedient to God's word and not denominationalism.

We must submit ourselves to God and to each other.

We must be submitted to, controlled by, and led by the Holy Spirit.

We must preach against sin, whether in the world or in the Church.

We must be a praying people.

We must deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Jesus.

We must not only talk our Christianity, we must live it.

We must walk our talk.

To be the Christian that the bible talks about, to accomplish the work that God has for us to do, to be a light in this dark world, all depends upon prayer. Now it is not enough to pray, we must then act on our prayers by being obedient to the Word.

In order for our conscience to do its work and for our heart to be fully repentant, it is necessary for us to do as John tells us "If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin."

We have to develop an honest desire that from this point on, the sin of prayerlessness will be to us truly sinful.

Why is prayerlessness a sin?

(1) It is an admission that we don't need God.

(2) We are being disobedient to God and that is a reproach to Him.

(3) It is the cause for the lack of spiritual life.

(4) It is the cause of dead preachers preaching dead sermons to dead saints. It is fellowship with God in prayer that we will be clothed with power from on high.

(5) It is the cause of unbelief and doubt.

It is of utmost importance for us to admit the sad condition of our spiritual deadness is due to our failure to pray in the inner chamber, which, by the way, should be a blessed place for us.

Scripture teaches that there are but two conditions possible for the Christian. One is to walk according to the Spirit, the other a walk according to the flesh. I am convinced, that in the case of most Christians, while we thank God that they are born again through the Spirit and have received the life of God--yet their ordinary daily life is not lived according to the Spirit, but according to the flesh. Gal. 3:3 says, "Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh." Where the flesh is permitted to influence service for God, it will soon result in open sin. What is meant by the flesh is, the carnal nature man.

The Holy Spirit must be honored not only as the author of a new life, but also as the Director of our entire walk. Otherwise we are carnal.

Rom. 8:7 tells us that "the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be." There is no way to deal with the flesh other than crucifying it daily. We need the flesh on the cross, to allow the Spirit in the heart controlling our lives.

The flesh can say prayers well enough, to satisfy our minds into believing we have done our Christian duty. But the flesh has no desire or strength for the prayer that strives after an intimate knowledge of God, that rejoices to fellowship with Him and that continues to lay hold on His strength. So the flesh must be denied and crucified. Now remember, I am not talking about this flesh and bone structure, but I am referring to the Adamic nature that is in all of us.

Everything that prevents the reception of the Spirit is nothing more than a secret work of the flesh.

It is time that we stopped blaming circumstances and making excuses for our prayerlessness. It is time to confess that it results from an hidden aversion of the heart to a Holy God. We place more importance on other things then we do on being obedient to God.

When a Christian does not yield entirely to the leading of the Holy Spirit, (and there is no doubt that this is certainly the will of God for our lives) he lives without knowing it, under the power of the flesh.

How does the flesh manifest itself?

(1) Hastiness of spirit, not taking the time in prayer to be endued with power to be equipped for the task.

(2) Anger.

(3) Lack of love and an abundance of unforgivness,

(4) Seeking to do your own will.

(5) Backbiting.

(6) Doing religious service in order to please God without a heart for Him.

(7) Confidence in your own wisdom and power.

(8) Over indulging in eating and pleasure.

(9) Reveling in the pleasures and sin of the world.

(10) Spiritual apathy.

(11) Spiritual insensitivity.

(12) Prayerlessness.

THE CARNAL LIFE CANNOT WALK IN THE SPIRIT OF GOD!

It is in the inner chamber that the victory is obtained in the spirit world, then as we act on the word, which is the will of God, that victory will be manifested in the natural world. When a person or a church shuts themselves up to the power of the inner chamber, and the saints of the Lord have received on their knees, "power from on high" then the powers of darkness will be shaken, sinners will be saved, the deaf will hear, the dumb will talk, and the lame will walk as the saints move forth in faith to do the works that Jesus did.

As soon as we become convinced of the sin of prayerlessness, we must with God's help gain victory over it. We must confess that our striving lasts only a short while, then we get the discouraging thought that such a life is not for us, because we fail so many times in this endeavor. Let's take authority over this devilish thought and tear down this vile thinking and think the word of God.

It does no good for you to hear, you must pray, if you do not act on what you hear and pray. Listen all of our self efforts and struggles are useless, we must first learn how to abide in Christ by faith. By the way, anything that is not of faith is sin. If your praying, your praising, your worship, your giving, your living and your doing is not of faith, it is sin, and all these sins need to be confessed. It is a sin because whatever is not done in faith is done in the flesh and whatever is done in the flesh (Adamic nature) is sin.

What we must do to ensure that our relationship with Christ is what it ought to be, is to live in His presence, rejoice in His love, rest in Him while acting on His word. If your relationship is right with God, then no matter what the circumstance, you will have the peace of God.

A life of prayer is only possible from a right relationship with God. A right relationship with God must include prayer, with both the desire and power to pray according to the will of God. In order to pray in the will of God, we must know the Word of God, because His Word is His will.

Discouragement in the area of prayer will be the natural result of self-effort, and will shut out the victory.

Do you want to be delivered from prayerlessness?

The first step is to stop trying to conquer prayerlessness in your own strength. We need to give over our restlessness and efforts, fall helplessly at the feet of Jesus and confess that we cannot do it in and of ourselves. We must rid ourselves of the doubt that we have because of our failure in overcoming this sin. Old habits and the power of the flesh, our surroundings with their attractions have proven to be to strong for us to overcome in our own strength. We throw up our hands and cry, "what is the use, I've tried so many times and have failed. What good is it to try again?"

We have failed because we have received the call to pray only as a command of the law. If we do it only because the bible demands it, we will work ourselves up to obey and we will never receive the power to overcome the distractions.

Do you really want to believe that deliverance from the sin of prayerlessness is possible? Then we must abandon ourselves to the fact that such deliverance is included in the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. We must realize that it is one of the blessings of the New Covenant that God will impart to us through Jesus Christ. As we begin to understand this we will find that the exhortation, "Pray without ceasing" will take on a new meaning. Hope will spring up in our hearts that God's Spirit (who by the way is the Spirit of prayer) who is in us, will make a true life of prayer possible for us. Then we will heed, not in the spirit of discouragement or in the flesh, but in the gladness of hope to the voice that calls us to repentance.

We must be truthful and admit, "Lord you know how cold and hardened my heart is toward prayer, I know that I must pray, but I feel that I cannot do so, I lack the urgency and the desire to pray, I give myself over totally in your hands so you will help me in this area, I want the Spirit of prayer that is in me to teach me to pray."

We must realize that prayer is a blessing from God as any other blessing is from God. It is not something we do from our own personal effort, we must receive this blessing in faith from God.

We are deceived if we think we can have a successful prayer life if our spiritual life is not what it ought to be, by maintaining a proper relationship with Jesus. If we fail to maintain a proper relationship, every time we go to prayer we will be praying the prayer of repentance. We need heart felt repentance to take place, then we need to maintain a right relationship with God, so when we go to prayer we can pray the blessing of God on others.

Our whole relationship to God must become a new thing. We must believe in His infinite love and that He longs to have communion with us every moment of the day and that He longs to keep us in the enjoyment of His fellowship. I must believe in His divine power which has conquered the sin of prayerlessness and will truly keep me from it. I must believe that He is the Spirit of prayer and through the Spirit, will inspire each of us with joy and power for communion with God in prayer. My prayer life must be brought entirely under the control of Christ and His love. Then prayer will become what it really is, that natural and joyous breathing of the spiritual life, by which the heavenly atmosphere is inhaled then exhaled in Christian service.

When the fear of failure comes, rebuke it in the name of Jesus and go to Him in prayer. Take the freedom and authority that belongs to you and use it to quench the fiery darts of the devil. If we live a life of prayer we will not find it hard to have seasons of prayer. We must appropriate this to our lives by faith, if not, prayer will be a dead work and not pleasing to God.

Nothing can keep you from carelessness, or make it possible for you to continue in living a powerful life of prayer, except a daily close fellowship with Jesus our Lord.

Prayer is not merely coming to God to ask for something. Prayer is, above all else, fellowship with God and being brought under the power of His holiness and love until He takes full possession of us and stamps out our old nature with the lowliness of Christ so we will be obedient to Him, which is the secret of all true worship. This life of prayer will not happen to us overnight, we will make mistakes, Satan will see to that, but God has great patience with His children, He bares with us in our slow progress. But as we set our face like flint, and as we rise from our failures and persevere in disciplining ourselves, the stronger our faith will become, our desire to pray will grow stronger until it becomes a delight to go to Him in prayer. For then our prayers will be answered because we are now praying the will of God and God delights to answer the prayers of His people.

Every born-again believer has received the life of Christ but many of us have never experienced the abundant life because of our lack of prayer and obedience to Him.

As we pray the word will become life to us and we will be able to pass that life on to the people we come in contact with. What is it that constitutes the abundant life that Christ offers? It is nothing less than Jesus having full control over our whole being through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The connection between the prayer life and the Spirit life is indissoluble. It is not enough just to receive the Spirit through prayer, we must give ourselves over 100% to the Spirit of prayer in order to maintain a continuous prayer life. I can be led and controlled by the Spirit only as I am obedient to His Word in giving myself continually to prayer. If anyone wishes to work with God, he must take time to fellowship with Him to receive His wisdom and power.

The Word admonishes us not to grieve the Holy Spirit, but is it not a fact that He who dwells in us to comfort us, to empower us, to equip us, to guide us, to teach us is often grieved because we do not allow Him to accomplish His work of love in us. How much grief do we cause the Holy Spirit because of prayerlessness in our own lives as well as in the church. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of prayer, we must allow Him to accomplish that work in and through us.

We need to understand something of the connection between Christ's wondrous, miraculous, overcoming, life and His secret life of prayer.

We have read about the power that men had with God under the old covenant because of their praying. We have read about the mighty wonders that were done because of their prayers. The bible tells us that we have a better covenant built on better promises, so how much more does God long to manifest Himself under the new covenant?

God is the same yesterday, today and forever! But men are not men of prayer as they were back then. We need to lay ourselves on the alter of God until we know how to pray. We will never know how to pray simply by talking about it, it is the practice of prayer that will make us pray-ers.


Leaders today need to bring a halt to all of their programs in order to get on their knees for seasons of prayer. People need to shut off their televisions and computers in order to spend time in the inner chamber.

Do you know that Jesus never taught His disciples to preach, but He did teach them how to pray. Knowing how to speak to God in pray will empower a person to speak with men. One of the terrible marks of the sick state of the church today is that there are so many believers who are content in their spiritual life without the distinct experience of answer to prayer, they know little of a direct definite answer to pray as a rule of daily life. I mean, if you were praying and receiving direct answers to your prayers, would you find it hard to pray? Of course not, it would be a delight for you to pray.

We have let human reasoning replace faith and because of that we are lacking in prayer and if we do pray we are lacking answers to our prayers. If we wholly lived as a child of God, we would be able to pray and most assuredly heard as a child.

Matt. 9:37,38 assures us that prayer is the power to which blessings can come to others. It says, Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. "Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."

God has given His work to the Church, a Church that is supposed to be empowered and controlled by the Holy Spirit. We are the body of Christ and we are to do what Jesus the head wants done. He has made Himself dependent on His Body, through whom His work must be done. The quality of the laborers and the measure of the harvest does actually depend on our prayers.

Why don't we obey the Masters instructions more faithfully and cry more earnestly for laborers? I believe one of the reasons is: we do not have the compassion of Jesus for lost humanity. Oh we have pity for the lost, but do we really have compassion. Compassion without action is pity. Oh we talk about it, but how much prayer action do we put into it. Another reason is: we believe to little in the power of prayer to bring about definite results, we do not have a relationship close enough with God to be confident that He will answer. We have not surrendered entirely to His service and kingdom.

Why do so many people pray, preferencing it with "Lord if it be thy will." It is because they do not know what the will of God is. They do not know the will of God because the do not study the will of God (the bible), or if they do study it, they use the tunnel vision of their denomination to interpret it, making it of none effect because of their traditions.

If we do not know what the will of God is concerning a certain matter we cannot pray in faith about that matter. That is a reason why so many prayers are not answered. God will not give faith for something that is contrary to His will.

If God's word says something then believe it, never mind what your denomination believes. What God says in His Word is His will. It is through faith and patience that we inherit the promises.

"...Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them" (Mark 11:24).

Know that "whatever things you ask", must be in line with God's will, thus in line with God's word. "When you pray" is always in the now, when I pray tomorrow at seven a.m. at that time it will be now, when I pray next week, when I pray it is in the now. So when you pray it is always present tense. "Believe that you receive them." When are you to believe that you receive them? When you pray or now at the time I am praying. Notice that receive is also in the present tense. So whatever I am praying that is in line with God's will, I am to believe that I receive what I am praying for at the time I am praying. You see, I am to believe that I receive what I am praying for in the spiritual realm, now if I believe that I receive, then I should be thanking God that I have received it. Notice the next phrase says, "and you will have them." Will is in the future tense, what you received in the present in the spiritual realm will be manifested in the natural realm sometime in the future.

God wants to bestow upon us, but we need to walk and live in Him and He in us. We seek God's gifts, but God wants to give Himself to us and we give ourselves to Him first. We need to spend time in prayer before Him and wait for Him to reveal Himself to us.

Prayerless Christians cannot be Christlike.

Prayerless preaching cannot be Holy Spirit anointed.

Prayerless preachers are not Holy Spirit fed and therefore, are not Holy Spirit led.

Prayerless preachers produce prayerless saints.

Prayerless preachers are hired hirelings.

Prayerless preachers are wolves in sheep's clothing.

Prayerless singing cannot impact the heart for God.

Prayerless Saints do not worry Satan.

Prayerless officers put off programs.

Prayerless board members are a bunch of yes people.

Prayerless church members are playing church.

Prayerless churches are no more then social clubs.

Prayerless giving will never evangelize the world.

If the Church is to rise above the sick, and powerless condition she finds herself in today, it will be by her members getting back to prayer and being obedient to the word of God.

Are we concerned about the coldness of the church? Are we concerned about the lack of new births? Are we concerned about the lack of the Holy Spirit's anointing? Are we concerned about the hoarding of money in churches? Are we concerned about Christlike living? Are we concerned about being controlled by the Holy Spirit? Are we concerned about dead preachers preaching dead sermons to dead saints? Are we concerned about a powerless Christianity? Are we concerned about young people that grew up in the church now having no concern for the things of God? Are we concerned that the sick are dying and not being healed? Are we concerned that people are on a roller coaster ride to hell? If not we are surely are a prayerless people! We surely are in need of repentance!

Around us are people lost in sin, above us is a God who is willing and able to save; it is up to us to build the bridge that allows God to do His work on this earth and prayer is the instrument that will build this bridge.

Prayerlessness is indeed the greatest sin of the God's people!

Having been given free access to everything we need, the majority of Christians today have failed to receive what they need and desire from God because of their prayerlessness.

Church it is time to repent of our prayerlessness and unbelief.

There are Christians today who have so neglected their prayer life, they no longer have a desire or a will to pray...there is no real joy in spending time with God alone. When they do pray it is only from a sense of duty.

Many use pray only as an escape mechanism. They wait until they are in trouble to cry out to God. Others pray only as a last resort. They don't pray until there is just no way they can accomplish the task by themselves...until their way doesn't work.

Why is it that so many Christians find it easier to obey Satan than obey God? Satan does everything in his power to stop Christians from praying. He places temptations in our way to cause us to postpone our time of prayer. Some of the excuses we use are, "There is just not enough time in the day to do what I have to do, if there was I would spend more time in prayer," or "after five minutes of praying i can't think of anything else to say. By the time I am ready for bed I am to exhausted to pray." Yet we will find time to do the things we want to do.

Christians have time to watch television for hours during the day, polluting their minds with the soap opera and talk show filth, but no time to pray! Christians become so involved in the cares of life...their jobs, their homes, their children...that they fail to set aside time to get alone with God in prayer.

There are pastors, leaders, teachers and Christian workers who have become so involved in the work of the ministry...preaching, teaching, visiting, singing in the choir and other church activities...that they fail to take time to pray. Instead of operating in the power that is available through prayer, they begin to operate in their own strength.

Regardless of what type of Christian service you become involved in, it will be ineffective and unfruitful if prayer is neglected. One reason so many pastors come to a place of "spiritual burnout" and "stressed out" is because of prayerlessness!

The power from on high can only be received on our knees and as we are obedient to God's Word.

We must stay in communion with God...get His Word down in our hearts and make it a part of our daily lives by living according to it. Otherwise our prayers will only be words...vain repetitions. True prayer involves the whole person, coming before God with our whole being because we are in a right relationship with Him. Anything less is just the repeating of hollow words or following a "formula" for prayer.

The first step to regaining the unrealized power in the church today is prayer.

Peter and John were on their way to the temple to PRAY when the crippled man was healed. It was "at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour" (Acts 3:1). This hour of prayer was one of the three hours appointed by the Jews for public worship. The ninth hour was three o'clock in the afternoon; nine in the morning and twelve noon were the other two.

Think about it, the believers in the early Church devoted themselves to three hours of prayer, in addition to their own private times of prayer and communion with God. Is it any wonder that they walked in such power, and sings and wonders were manifested through them! Peter and John had already spent two hours that day in prayer, when Peter commanded the lame man to walk in the Name of Jesus.

After Peter and John had been thrown in prison and threatened not to preach or teach in the Name of Jesus, the Church did not meet together or call a board meeting to plan their strategy. They joined together in PRAYER with one accord. The place was shaken by the power of God, and those assembled were filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:23-31).

The leadership in the Church...the 12 apostles...dedicated themselves to Prayer. When the responsibilities of the administration of the Church grew they appointed men to take care of these responsibilities, so they would be able to devote their time to prayer and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4).

Can you imagine what would happen today if all leadership throughout the body of Christ would join together and make this same commitment and dedication to devote their time to prayer and the ministry of the Word, instead of becoming bogged down in the administrative affairs of their churches. We would see one of the greatest manifestations of the power of God that we have ever witnessed. The glory of God would fill our churches as the leaders stayed on their faces before God in prayer, then rise to act on the Word of God. Then the people would hear a word from the Lord instead of hearing from the files of the pastor's sermons.

The power of God was released as the disciples prayed and prayer is the same key that will release the power of God in our lives.

As believers in Jesus Christ, our lives today are to be surrendered in a life of prayer. There can be no substitute. Prayer is our lifeline to God. Without it our communion with God is cut off. We become weak and powerless and are unable to face the onslaughts of the enemy.

A praying man will accomplish great exploits.

Prayer produces power.

Prayer brings brokenness

Prayer opens the door for us to obey the word of God.

Prayer brings the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer creates spiritual sensitivity.

Prayer brings physical and spiritual health.

Prayer empowers the Church.

Prayer will allow us to live the gospel by producing the proof of the resurrection life of Jesus Christ in us and through us to meet the needs of humanity.

Preacher to your knees.

Saints to your knees.

Church to your knees.

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