THE PIONEERING SPIRIT (BREAKING THROUGH THE BARRIERS) - 4

Pioneering is breaking through barriers. Pioneering families who daily pray together will experience many breakthroughs. The devil fears the families that agree together in prayer because their praying has awesome power to bring destruction to the devil's evil kingdom.

Family prayer must be re-pioneered. The twice daily Family Devotions is without a doubt a great assistance to prayer.

Prayer should be spontaneous, but it should also be ordered. We love to eat spontaneously. However, what would life be like if we did not order our families to eat together at the table? It would be a hopeless task for the mother to prepare food and organize cleanup if we do not have such a thing as order.

Prayer is quickly crowded out of our lives if we do not order it. The same happens to the daily habit of reading the Bible to the family. It is speedily overtaken with less important things if we do not apply the rule of order. The Scripture says we should "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). This inspires continuous and spontaneous praying. However this does not negate the daily order of prayer. 2 Chronicles 8:14 talks about the morning and evening praise and prayer to the Lord, "as the duty of every day required."

The disciples, Peter and John, went up the temple at the hour of prayer (Acts 3:1).

Lydia, a seller of purple, was converted to Christ at a riverside ordered prayer meeting (Acts 16:13-15).

Matthew 18:19, 20 reminds us, "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Ordered times for prayer and reading the Bible are appropriate for even small families who desire God's presence in their midst.

How can two or three get together on a regular basis in order to have the prayer of agreement if no one has ordered it? It would soon become haphazard and die out.

Our God is a breakthrough God and He has ordained prayer to accomplish every breakthrough.

Be encouraged.

Colin Campbell