If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
God was on His way down to Sodom and Gomorrah. The outcry against the city had become so great that He was determined to intervene (see Genesis 18:20–21). The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah would be destroyed along with everyone in them. But on His way to those cities of sin, God decided to inform Abraham of His intentions. Abraham lived near those two cities, and God took the time to share His plans regarding Sodom and Gomorrah with Abraham. God had placed Abraham in that land and had promised that his descendants would be great in number. They would fill and inherit that land. So it was that Abraham already bore a responsibility for that place. He was the bearer of God’s future plans for that land. In a sense, he was its God-ordained owner.
God’s plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah was also personal for Abraham. His beloved nephew Lot was living there. Abraham must have understood the risk Lot was in, but it also mattered because God had given Abraham authority over the land. The land was already his by God’s promise. It belonged to him and his descendants. We must step into the authority God has given us by taking responsibility for what is ours. Abraham did that by prayer.
You may not realize how much authority God has given you. Certainly, most of Abraham’s neighbors didn’t consider him an authority. Nobody in Sodom or Gomorrah was paying him any attention. But Abraham’s authority was spiritual, not physical. Often spiritual authority and physical authority do exist together. But not always. You do not have to have a physical position of authority to be entrusted with spiritual authority. Abraham had a divine authority because of the promise God had given him. It was his responsibility to remain faithful to that promise and to step into the authority it gave him. It was his job to pray.
As God moved toward Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham took up that spiritual authority. He went to God in prayer. He prayed boldly. He began to intercede for the few righteous still living in those sinful cities. Abraham prayed, “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city?” (Genesis 18:23–24). He continued by prayer to press God for more. “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” (verse 32). Abraham understood the power of prayer. He understood how much prayer could change circumstances. Through Abraham’s intercession, Lot and his daughters were saved.
I believe God warned Abraham so that we might see Abraham’s faith and willingness to pray. For Abraham, prayer came immediately. It was his natural reaction. He understood his responsibility. He understood the spiritual authority he carried. He understood that by prayer he could affect the land around him. God warned Abraham so that we might have an image of how a person of faith stewards the responsivity of their altar. It was by Abraham’s altar of prayer that he had an impact on the outcome.
Abraham wasn’t the only one who bore the responsibility of prayer. Consider Moses. When the people turned against God, cast golden idols, and risked God abandoning them, Moses went up the mountain to pray (see Exodus 32). He interceded for the rebellious people, and his prayers preserved their relationship with God. Or consider the prophets whose prayers averted war, revived the people, and broke famines in the land. All of them changed their outcomes by prayer.
All over Scripture, we find believers who are quick to pray. God often found them waiting at their altars. We witness them step into their spiritual authority by taking up the responsibility of prayer. By prayer, they participated in what God was doing. By their altars, they controlled the outcome.
Where will God find us? Where is God most likely to find you? When God moves again through our land, will He find us at our altars? When destruction is upon our land and our nation, will God find us ready to pray? Will He find a people willing to take up the responsibility of the altar? Or will He find us prayerless, distracted, apathetic, lazy, or indifferent?
By prayer, God invites us to participate in the outcomes of our world. That is a profound and humbling truth. You need to recognize the responsibility of the authority God has given you. He has called you to lead your family, to honor parents, to love your spouse, to serve a local church, to be a good neighbor to your city, to bless your nation, and to spread the Gospel around the world.
Whenever God calls you to do something, He gives you the authority to do it. You must accept the fact that you play a role in the outcome of your family, your church, your city, and the world. You bear responsibility for it. The future of all you are responsible for is determined at the altar. It is determined by your willingness to go there and pray. You and I are called to pray. When we neglect to build altars and to dedicate ourselves to prayer, we forfeit participation in the outcomes of the world around us. And if we have not manned our altar, we cannot complain about the outcome.
Do you remember the scene from 2 Chronicles when Solomon dedicated the temple? The whole nation gathered, and God’s presence descended into the space. God also made them a promise.
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.
2 Chronicles 7:14–15
That word was not given exclusively to Solomon or a high priest. God made that promise to the people. God promised to listen to the prayers of all His people. And if any child of God, great or small, humbles themselves, seeks His face, turns away from wickedness, and prays, God promises to listen. God promises to heal their land. He will protect them and keep them. They need only pray.
I want to encourage you to take that responsibility seriously. You can start small. Pray and ask God to reveal where He has given you authority. Perhaps your authority is currently focused on your home and the few neighbors around you. That’s enough. Take that responsibility seriously. And remember, it isn’t about possessing a title. It is about an authority received by the call of God. Build an altar and start praying for your children. Start praying for your spouse. Start praying for your neighbors.
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus promised that if we can be trusted with a few things, we will be made rulers over many (see Matthew 25:23). It may very well be that your faithfulness to pray for those things closest to you will grow your spiritual authority and God will give you even greater influence through prayer. I genuinely believe that if we can be faithful to pray for our families, churches, and neighborhoods, God will give us the nations. He will heal our land and, by our intercession, reach the world. But you must be faithful with what is before you now.
Remember, it will not always be easy. Prayer is war. When you pray, you enter the conflict of the spiritual world. The devil does not let go easily. There are things that prayer alone can release. This is a theme I have tried to remind you of throughout this book. When you really begin to pray, you will face opposition. But He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Prayer is the better weapon. The devil will never win when we pray. He only wins when he can distract us from praying. He wins when he tempts us to neglect the altar. When he can keep us from prayer, from these altars, his authority and power increases. When we pray, when we return to the altar, he loses ground. Whoever controls the altar controls the outcome.
Whatever you do, keep praying. Keep interceding. Keep returning to your altar. Do not let yourself grow discouraged. Your prayers are accumulating. Your prayers are moving heaven. Your prayers are engaging the spiritual enemies of God and unleashing a heavenly army. When you pray, you are building something. You are accomplishing something.
When prayerless people die, everything dies with them. They have only what they were able to accomplish in their own strength. But when people of prayer die, death itself cannot silence them. Their prayers live on. When you pray, you are achieving things you can’t yet recognize or foresee.
Daniel didn’t live to see his people return to the land, but his prayers helped bring that restoration about. Moses never made it to the Promised Land, but it was his intercession that allowed the rest of the nation to make it. My great-grandmother never saw her children come to salvation, but they are all with her in heaven.
So keep praying. Keep trusting. Keep showing up. Keep building altars and praying forward God’s Kingdom. Elijah saw the rain coming even when it was a single cloud the size of a man’s hand (see 1 Kings 18:44). By prayer, he knew it was more. The drought would end. Rain was coming.
Do not let yourself lose the focus of prayer. It is by prayer that God’s people have always lived and died. “They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance” (Hebrews 11:13). They prayed even as they were tested and as they strained to see the results. They held on to faith by prayer. Prayer has always been at the center of following and obeying God.
Noah, fresh off the ark, built an altar even before he built his own shelter (see Genesis 8:20). Moses did not wait until he reached the Promised Land. He built an altar, a tent of meeting, even as they wandered through the wilderness (see Exodus 33:7). Gideon prayed when he was unsure (see Judges 6:36–40). David prayed when he failed (see 1 Samuel 12:15–17). Hezekiah prayed when the enemy surrounded (see 2 Chronicles 32:20). Josiah renewed the covenant by prayer (see 2 Kings 23). Elijah rebuilt the altar on Mount Carmel (see 1 Kings 18:31–32). Ezra rebuilt the altar in Jerusalem even before he rebuilt the temple (see Ezra 3:2). Jesus recognized that the heart of that temple had always been prayer. He reminded Israel that it was to be a house of prayer (see Matthew 21:13). For God’s people, prayer has always been the priority.
Prayer always comes first. Each of these men rebuilt the altar of prayer as their first priority. It is easy to do all that we can in our own strength and then turn to prayer. But that is not the way of God’s people. We pray first. It is the first priority. It is what we do most naturally and most often. Rebuild the altar and pray.
There is a great danger in talking too much about prayer. Talking about prayer can keep you from actually doing it. A book on prayer is no replacement for praying. You don’t change the world by knowing about prayer. You change the world by praying. At some point, you have to do it. It has to happen. Too much depends on it. Tomorrow longs for today’s prayers to be given.
Step into the spiritual authority God has given you. Take up that responsibility. Build a personal altar and start praying. Develop a core team of prayer partners to sustain it. Build a community of prayer through which you lead others. Pray for the miraculous. Build an altar of salvation. Pray and watch God move. Everything depends on it. Whoever controls the altar controls the outcomes.
When God does come, let Him find us at our altars. Let’s be praying. Let’s do it now.