Most of us have heard the phrase “less is more.” Well, when it comes to learning to pray or growing in prayer and using resources to help you do so, that phrase is very true!

We might get inspired by reading a 300-page book on prayer, but it also can fill our brain with so much information that it might not practically help us as much as just gaining knowledge of a few principles in a smaller resource.

With that in mind, Church Prayer Leaders Network has a series of 32 to 48-page topical resources on prayer that can provide both inspiration and very practical help to grow your prayer life in a specific area of prayer.

There are 59 topics in this series, called Prayer Connect! Most of these topics are offered both as a PDF download or as a print product.

For the next few months, we are offering every topic—print or PDF—for $1.50 each (Regular price is $8.00.)

You can check them all out at prayerleader.com/shop

But here are some favorite topics available:

Solid Foundation (The Power of Praying Scripture)
The Place Was Shaken (Corporate Prayer)
Stand Firm & Strong (Spiritual Warfare)
Open Hearts, Open Doors (Prayer Evangelism)
Releasing Children to Pray (Teaching Children about Prayer)
Help! (Prayer in Desperate Situations)
The Power of Praise
Faith and Prayer
Embracing Intimacy (Prayer and Intimacy)
Prayer 101 (Basics of Prayer)
Supernatural Partnership (Prayer and the Holy Spirit)
Where Are You God? (Prayer and Suffering)
Prayers of Blessing
Revival in the Next Generation

. . . and 45 more topics

Jump start or tweak your prayer life in a specific area.

Great to make available in church prayer rooms!

Here Is a Sample Article to Enjoy from the Topic: Prayer for the Glory of God

Beholding Jesus: Prayers of Fascination and Intimacy

By Cristina Baker

I was standing at a crossroads in life. I had just been released from jail and was facing a possible conviction. At that crisis moment, I was invited to a prayer meeting at my job. Reluctantly, I decided to go. It was my last resort.

And it forever changed my life.

I was at the end of my rope and couldn’t see a reason to even live any more. Before I reached out my hand to open the door to the prayer meeting, I could hear the sound of people praying. But it was unlike anything I had ever heard before. It was a mix between a humming and a roar that sounded like a song.

It was like Someone was pulling me in.

When I walked into the room, a thought crossed my mind: If there is a God, these people have come face to face with Him.

That day, the atheist who stuck her fist up at God and denied His existence her whole life came face to face with the beauty of the King. This group of intercessors, immersed in their fascination with Jesus, introduced me to Him. I invited Him into my heart and began my journey of walking with Him.

I’d love to tell you that everything was a cakewalk after this experience many years ago. But it was quite the opposite. Many times, when we first come to the Lord, we go straight into a wilderness where God deals with all the things that first entangled us in sin.

I was lost, addicted, confused, and unsure of what the future held for me. But it was in this wilderness where God began to teach me about the power of prayer and pursuing the face of Jesus and His heart during the storms.

God taught me about intimacy with Him during this season of my life.

Remember What He Has Done

Whether you have been walking with Jesus for many years or have just begun your journey with Him, your life is marked with moments when the Lord intervened, protected, and showed Himself strong to you. Remembering our history with God will unlock breakthroughs in the Spirit. The power of thanksgiving and praise is released over your life and in the world around you when you remember the words of Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

When I walked into that prayer meeting many years ago, I didn’t have a history of walking with Jesus. But I can look back on my entire life and see how He was always there, even when I denied Him. The compassion in His heart ravished me and I was never the same. The more I reflected on the goodness and faithfulness of God, the deeper I fell in love with Him. The deeper I fell in love with Him, the more I wanted to be with Him and spend time in prayer and in His presence!

Jesus gave it all for you. He suffered, died, and gave Himself up so that you can spend eternity with Him. What greater history do we have with God than this?

We have so much to be thankful for, and as you reflect on all that you have walked through with the Lord, your spirit will be moved with a passion for Jesus. You will be filled with the oil of joy that only He can give!

Passion for His presence moves us to pray and seek His face. Remind yourself of what He has delivered you from, every moment you thought it would be the end—and somehow, someway, God showed up in the 11^th hour and broke through in your situation when you thought there was no way.

This is the God we serve. He creates beauty from ashes. And what has been impossible for us, He makes possible. He loves you and has a wondrous plan for your life that He longs to fulfill in you.

I pray that as you read these words today, God will bring to remembrance the moments you have shared with Him. May you be stirred to seek Him and pray with passion!

Rising Above the Storm

In Acts 7:55-56, we read about Stephen’s death:

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

Stephen was nearing the end of his life. He was about to be stoned to death, making him the first martyr of the early Church. At this moment, he shifted his focus from the world around him to the open heavens where he saw the Lord Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of the Father. As Stephen beheld the face of Jesus and His glory, he became like Him—and even prayed for the very ones who were stoning him!

There is something supernatural and powerful that happens when we pray and fix our eyes on Jesus no matter what is happening in the world around us. The cares and the weights of life fade into the background and the very light of His face, the kindness of His eyes, and the love of His heart for you begin to transform you from the inside out.

Today, despite whatever you’re facing or the challenges surrounding you, choose to look away from the cares of this world. Fix your eyes on the One who loves you, sees you, and has your entire world in His hands. Beholding Jesus is what transforms us. Striving will not.

When you connect with His heart and pray, God will shift your perspective from what you see, to what He sees. You will rise above the circumstances and storms that surround you.

Loving God, Loving People

As you seek out the heart of God in prayer, your heart changes. His passions become yours—His passion for people. Jesus demonstrated this while He walked the earth. The heart of the Father was on display through His Son, and Jesus lived His life serving and loving people.

God’s heart has always been about people. He came to the earth for people. He laid His life down for people. The greatest love story of all time—the cross—has always been about people. Connecting with God in prayer changes us. The more you see life through His eyes, your desire to love others the way He loves people becomes your passion!

Over the years, I have found great joy as I connect with His heart in intercessory prayer for others. Jesus said that the expression of our love for Him will be displayed in feeding His sheep (John 21:15-17). Loving people, sharing joy, praying for and serving others, releasing His peace, and sharing what He has given to us—all these are examples of feeding His sheep. They bring great joy to the heart of our Father!

As you seek the Lord, He fills your cup to overflowing. Share what He has given to you with others. The Father will reward you with the greatest gift that we could ever receive—the fascination and intimacy of His presence.

CRISTINA BAKER has a deep desire for people to find victory and freedom through the power of prayer. She also creates video content on social media. Her book, Hope in 60 Seconds, is available at any online bookstore. She resides in Austin, TX, with her husband Ryan and their son Evan.

To purchase a hardcopy of Prayer Connect Issue 48 – Prayer for the Glory of God, click here. If you would like a PDF of this issue, click here.

I have often wondered why so many believers do not pray much, if at all. (Statistics show that more than 70% of western believers would say they have a poor prayer life.) Before I go any further I need to get right out front, that I am not a great man of prayer either. I have certainly improved greatly over the years, but I struggled for the first 30 or so years as a believer to pray almost anytime other than when a crisis was in my life (or the life of someone I cared about).

Prayer has always been something that easily gets forgotten in the church and in the lives of believers. Only decades after the early church was birthed in a prayer meeting in Acts, leaders were challenging, even begging, people to pray. James has to remind people to pray when they are in trouble and when they are sick. Paul tells them to pray for each other, to pray with thanksgiving when they are anxious.

Why does prayer get lost in the shuffle at church and in our lives? Why don’t we pray more? There are lots of reasons—in a discussion on this topic with several national prayer leaders a few years ago we came up with more than 15. But I want to focus on four major reasons.

1. Many believers do not pray because they are not really converted. In any church today—no matter what the denomination—there are people who at one point in their life prayed a prayer, went to a confirmation class and/or were baptized, but it “didn’t take.” They did it because it was the right thing to do, not because they were truly surrendering and giving Christ their lives. With no Holy Spirit indwelling them, they only pray when desperate, out of guilt, because it is expected or for show.

2. Other believers do not pray because they are no longer surrendered to God. They maybe once truly gave their hearts to Jesus Christ, but now they are back in control of their lives. An unsurrendered believer will not pray much. Why? Because all true prayer is an act of surrender. It is saying “I can’t do this; I need You to do something.” And when we say that, we are giving the Spirit the right to take over. An unsurrendered person finds that difficult to do.

3. Still other believers stopped praying out of disappointment with God. They prayed for something they wanted to see happen—perhaps even desperately prayed—but what they prayed for never came about. So they got angry or disappointed with God. That disappointment and confusion caused them to walk away from prayer.

4. Finally some believers do not pray because of the attack that comes. This often happens to people who have been at times strong intercessors or people of prayer. But the relentless attack of the enemy on a praying person has taken its toll on them. It is easier to pray less and let things stay “quieter” around them. I once had a believer tell me she did not want to pray in a situation because “that just riles up Satan.”

Actually, Satan uses numbers two through four in every one of our lives from time to time to keep us from prayer. As believers who want to pray more effectively, we need to continually stay aware of the things that are keeping us from it. I encourage you to regularly ask the Holy Spirit to draw you to prayer. Encourage others to get past these hindrances, too. Despite the struggles, the rewards are worth it!

Jonathan Graf is the president of the Church Prayer Leaders Network, and the author of The Power of Personal Prayer and Praying Like Paul.

A great resource for an individual or better yet, an entire congregation, to help people break through the barriers to prayer is Love to Pray! In my 30 years of prayer ministry, along with reading hundreds of books on prayer, I consider Love to Pray to be the best book on prayer ever written for a struggling pray-er!

Now it seems this move of God is being hugely increased. Stories of thousands of callege students coming together to worship, repent, be baptzed on campuses across the country are coming weekly!

The big question for pastors and prayer leaders is what should we expect in the coming days and how should we respond.

Pastor Bill Elliff of Summit Church and OneCry, recently shared 5 Simple Truths to remember about revival and awakening.

5 Simple Truths by Bill Elliff

If God sends a mighty, sweeping revival and spiritual awakening which most have never seen in our lifetime, remember these five simple truths:

1. GREAT, SURPRISING MOVEMENTS OF GOD ARE NECESSARY.

We know this must be so because GOD KEEPS DOING IT! He did it all through church history. Our nation has seen at least five NATIONWIDE movements, coming every 30-60 years to bring a needed course correction and an acceleration of the work of God. This is easily historically provable.

2. SPIRITUAL AWAKENINGS ARE ALWAYS GLORIOUS AND MESSY AT THE SAME TIME.

There are miraculous interventions from God, both in kind and in number. (In the First Great Awakening, 15% of the entire population of the US came to faith in Christ. Today’s equivalent would be over 50 million people coming to faith over the next few years.) But why would we expect to not see Satan’s imitations and distractions? We should be open-hearted but “examine everything carefully.”

3. THERE ARE SURPRISING LEADERS AND SURPRISING CRITICS.

God chose to use a 26-year Bible college student in the Welsh Revival. Jonathan Edwards was in his early 30s. Asahel Nettleton, mightily used in the 2nd Great Awakening, was 17 years old when the Awakening began in 1800. The Jesus Movement of the 70s (of which some of us participated) was fueled greatly by college students.

4. THERE ARE THEOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES, BUT GOD MEETS ALL WHO RESPOND IN SIMPLE SURRENDER AND FAITH.

Notice the works that Jonathan Edwards was compelled to write to silence the critics of the First Great Awakening. A wise leader will never deviate from the infallible Word of God, but will also recognize true passion and piety when he sees it and love and embrace the fervor of new, young believers.

It would seem to me that we must be careful not to be pharisaical at all, not instant critics, claiming that everything must pass through our very narrow grid. Rather we should be but gracious, kind men and women of God who come alongside, if needed, and explain the way of God more fully to young believers. But also, stand back in awe of their boldness and passage. AND LEARN FROM THEM.

And finally . . .

5. REVIVALS AND AWAKENINGS CAN BE MISSED AND NEVER EXPERIENCED BY ANY WHO QUENCH AND GRIEVE GOD’S SPIRIT.

I personally watched this happen in the Jesus movement. Some pastors instantly reacted, condemning the “hippies” who were being saved and who brought their guitars into worship. Instead of welcoming, discipling, lovingly helping, they were instant in their judgments, and missed the activity of God.

Father, help us discern the false from the true, but follow You with boldness and faith and instant obedience. And, above all else, God send sweeping revival and awakening to our nation and world for Your glory and the salvation of millions. Do not pass us by!

For further resources by Bill Elliff, go to the OneCry section of our CPLN store.

So they invited me to come in to fire up their people to begin praying beyond just personal needs, but to pray for First Baptist to be used to spread the gospel through “Dinner Church.” They were going to start having a free dinner each Wednesday night in a non-church location where they invite the community to a different kind of church. First Baptist had not tackled such an outreach likely before in its history.

To help fire up their people before I arrived, they had them participate in a 40 days of prayer initiative using Love to Pray by Alvin VanderGriend. This church of 125 or so saw 78 people purchase the book to use. The 40 days ended on the Saturday I arrived in town.

Needless to say, when I stepped up to preach Sunday morning the room was palpable with excitement. My message: “Get into the Battle,” which challenges and encourages people as believers to start attacking the enemy through prayer in their spheres of influence.

I then taught a joint Sunday school class and a Sunday evening seminar that further pushed home practical ways they could become Kingdom pray-ers who wanted to see Jesus transform their lives, church, and community. Both were well attended and included a number of people who never normally came to Sunday school or an evening service.

The results of all this prayer? Dozens of people are volunteering to help with Dinner Church—many more people than have ever volunteered to help with an event before.

When they launch the first dinner on September 7^th, I know they will see God’s hand at work!

Why do I share this?

Because it is an example of what can happen in any church, of any size, of any average age of congregation, if it makes a concerted effort to begin to pray outwardly—for outreach and its community and then begin to make plans for an outreach ministry or event.

Stuck in Personal Needs

When it comes to prayer, most churches are stuck in personal-needs praying. They only use prayer to bless the people of their congregation by lifting up the concerns on their hearts. While that is certainly an important part of the body life of a church, if a church does not teach its people to pray beyond that and provide them the tools to do so, it will likely stay pretty stagnant with no growth in numbers of people or depth of spirituality of its people. So what is the solution?

Give them something meaningful to pray, and equip them with the tools to do it!

If you want people to pray beyond personal needs, you need to engage them to do so. They need something close to them that is important to them–friends/neighborhoods, their church, their schools, their community. If you can encourage them with a church-wide ministry emphasis and provide a guide to help them pray, you will see a number of your congregation get excited about it . . . and will stay with outward praying even after the initiative is over.

Here are a few suggestions of initiatives to use:

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The first time you shop at our resource store, you can receive a 25% discount off your purchase. Use Code PPMWelcome at checkout to get your discount.

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Kids and Schools

Reclaim a Generation Volume 2: 21 Days of Prayer for Schools. What people, whether parents or grandparents, are not concerned today about their kids and the schools they attend. Engage your congregation in an all-church initiative that focuses on kids and schools. While Reclaim a Generation can be used anytime, a great time is either before or just as kids in your community go back to school, or before or after See You at the Pole on September 23rd.

Neighborhoods and Friends

Be Jesus in Your Neighborhood is a 30-day initiative that focuses on praying for neighbors and developing a prayer-care-share lifestyle (pray first for neighbors, then care for them with acts of kindness, and finally share Jesus with them).

Transformation of Community

Praying God’s Word Over Your City is a 40-day devotional prayer guide that looks at 7 key areas for prayer in a community and then offers prayer points and prayers to pray over your city.

Praying for Your Church

Pray the Word for Your Church has 31 Scripture-based prayers to pray over your church, plus a journal for the user to write down the scriptures and thoughts God gives them to pray over the specific ministries of your church.

General Outreach and Intercession

Revolution on Our Knees is a 30-day prayer devotional that focuses on everything outreach—local, nation and world. It will give your people a heart for seeing God’s Kingdom purposes released through them and your church.

Love to Pray is a 40-day prayer devotional that teaches people about the importance of interceding for what is on God’s heart. It will get your people excited about praying for more than the needs of people, moving them to pray for God’s desires for people. If your church has never used Love to Pray, I highly recommend starting with this resource. Thousands of churches have seen it move the hearts of their people toward prayer.

If you want to see your people start to pray for more than personal needs, engage them to pray kingdom prayer toward outreach, and watch what happens!

–Jonathan Graf is the president of Church Prayer Leaders Network, and the author of 6 books on prayer including The Power of Personal Prayer and Restored Power: Becoming a Praying Church One Tweak at a Time.

Note to International Subscribers: While we do not ship products internationally, almost all of our books are available as e-books or from the Amazon that serves your nation.

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Our April Special: 50% off Pray the Word: 31 Prayers That Touch the Heart of God. No code needed. With our multiple copy discounts, depending on quantity purchased, you can get them for as little as $1.99 each.

The Church Prayer Leaders Network is so excited that we have merged with Presence Pioneers Media. We believe this new partnership will bless you and be used mightily in the Kingdom.

I bet most of you subscribed to our Prayer Leader Substack due to the merger announcement. Welcome.

Many of you may be wondering “What is the Church Prayer Leaders Network"? The CPLN is exactly what its name implies. We exist to help individuals (pastors and lay people) who are working to raise up more prayer in their churches. We want to encourage, challenge, inspire, and resource you as you seek to motivate and mobilize your church toward deeper levels of prayer.

While our substack site will grow with content, most of our content and resources are on our primary ministry site prayerleader.com. That site has more than 700 articles both to encourage individuals in their personal prayer lives and to assist pastors and prayer leaders in developing a culture of prayer in their church.

I want to encourage you to check out our site. We have more than 700 articles and more than 100 resources for download or sale in our store—all focused on prayer. Click on Store on the top toolbar to see our resources. As a special gift for checking us out, we will give you a 20% discount off your first purchase with us. Use code PPMWelcome (upper and lower cases are important). Just enter it in the Coupon window at checkout to receive the discount.

May our content and resource equip and encourage you and your congregation to go deeper into prayer!