ABC of prayer... With Brian Mills.

U is for Upper Room & Underground

The Upper Room ministry of Jesus is reported in John 13–17. Much of what He shared with His disciples was about prayer. Five times Jesus said His disciples could ask for anything in His name and He would grant their requests. In His High Priestly prayer in chapter 17, Jesus prayed for our protection from the evil one and our oneness with God and each other, so that we could share in His glory.

It was in an Upper Room that Jesus celebrated Passover with His disciples and instigated for the Church the memorial feast that we call ‘communion’ or ‘the breaking of bread’.

The disciples were meeting in an upper room for extended prayer when the Holy Spirit was poured out on them on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2).

Paul was preaching until midnight in an upstairs room when a young man dozed off and fell through a window (see Acts 20.7–12)!

Peter went on to a roof-top to pray. He too fell asleep! But God still met with him, as He spoke to him through a vision about being ready to go to a Gentile home (Acts 10.9–20).

Upper rooms have been used extensively throughout the history of the church. Many churches have followed suit and converted upper rooms into creative prayer rooms, open 24 hours a day. In earlier centuries monasteries and churches were often located on tops of hills and mountains. This gave them good vantage points from which to pray, occupied the high places that pagans often used for sacrifices, and meant that they were nearer heaven!

David wrote Psalms 57 and 142 when he was in a cave, fleeing from Saul. Elijah was in a cave, fleeing from Jezebel, when God revealed Himself to him (1 Kings 19.9–12). In Cairo, Egypt, there is a cave church (in fact four cave churches), built where the Pharaohs obtained rock to construct the pyramids. Today the church is home for thousands of rubbish-dump dwellers, and prayer goes on there every day!

No matter where God’s children meet to pray, Jesus is right there with them.

V is for Victory

Conjuring up visions of battles won, of enemies overcome, of conflicts being resolved. Two of David’s mighty men stood their ground against the Philistines, against all the odds, and “The Lord brought about a great victory” (2 Samuel 23.10–12). David wrote about God’s glory being associated with victory (see 1 Chronicles 29.10–13). The death of Jesus on the Cross is seen as the means of victory over all the power of the enemy. He triumphed over the powers and authorities through the Cross (see Colossians 2.13–15) Jesus snatched victory from the jaws of apparent defeat, when, through His resurrection from the grave, He showed that had conquered (won the victory) over death. So, “death is swallowed up in victory” and God gives that victory to us (1 Corinthians 15.54–57)!

In prayer we apply that heavenly victory over the works and influence of the evil one in all kinds of situations. The only way we can engage effectively in spiritual warfare is on the basis of this victory of Jesus against the devil. Whatever the modernday expression of evil may be – personal sin and bondages, deionization of people and places, witchcraft covens and rituals, spiritual strongholds of areas, Masonic control, new age practices, idolatry, corporate and continuing sin by Christians, blatant Satanism—the only way that we can begin to win through is on the basis of the victory that Christ has already accomplished over Satan and sin.

Repentance, Forgiveness and Reconciliation— both God-ward and between us as Christians—takes away the ground on
which Satan builds strongholds of evil in lives and in causing and then maintaining division. God wants us to be in harmony with Him and with one another. Satan will do his utmost to contest that and bring about the opposite. So, that battle sometimes is not so much against Satan as with and within our own selves. Are we willing to humble ourselves, confess our sin, apologize for its effects, and be reconciled with those from whom we have been divided?

That for us is the message of the Cross. Only as we humble ourselves before God and one another, will we demolish the basis on which Satan can continue to keep us divided. Then the victory of the Cross is appropriated.

We used to sing “Victory is on our lips and in our lives”—let’s pray to see that in reality!