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The Lord challenged me at the beginning of last year, in a time of personal prayer, not just to lead a church that prays but to lead us to become a praying church. There is a difference. And as we’ve made that transition, the power of heaven has poured out upon us.
This past year, our local congregation in the DFW area has seen more miracles than any other year in its 67-year history. We have seen two cases of people healed from stage 4 cancer. A man has been healed of chronic headaches he’d suffered for more than 30 years. We’ve seen marriages hanging on by a thread completely redeemed. A man testified that after 20 years of sharing the gospel with his father, after and lifting his father up at a prayer gathering, he placed his faith in Christ the next week. These are genuine miracles.
The most unexpected miracle, though, has been the number of people who, like the Ethiopian eunuch who could hardly wait to be baptized, have decided to express their newfound faith in Christ before they even leave the morning service. As of the writing of this article, 258 people have been baptized in just over eight months at our church. Nothing like that has ever happened at Fielder Church.
One couple, watching the online service, drove up to the campus to be baptized because the Spirit prompted them to respond to the gospel that day. One young lady, her first time ever setting foot in a church, came forward at the end of the service to place her faith in Christ and be baptized. The services have been filled with a power they’ve never had before.
"When you’re desperate enough for God to move, when you’ve come to the end of yourself and realize no other strategy will work, that’s when you’ll change anything, move anything, and leverage anything to seek the power of God rather than your own."
I have to be very cautious as I tell the story of what the Lord has done at our church. The temptation always exists to claim credit where it isn’t due.
I don’t tell you this to discourage you if you aren’t seeing these results. I share this to whet your appetite for what the Lord can do in your congregation as well.
Hear me: these results have not been the result of strategy, hard work, or talent. We’ve had those for decades and not seen a move of God like we are right now. There has only been one explanation for this power—prayer. Fielder Church has prayed like we’ve never prayed before and seen the power of God like we’ve never seen before.
This past March, we began weekly prayer gatherings for an hour-and-a-half on Wednesday nights, praying for the lost, praying over needs in the congregation, and inviting the Spirit to move among us. And as He always does, the Lord has answered. My greatest regret has been taking so long to arrive at such a simple conclusion. Prayer is our most important work.
I’m not alone in seeing these results. As I’ve spoken with other pastors in Texas and beyond, I’m hearing more and more churches starting prayer ministries and seeing unprecedented results. All of us have a common story—the prayer ministry was born from desperation.
When you’re desperate enough for God to move, when you’ve come to the end of yourself and realize no other strategy will work, that’s when you’ll change anything, move anything, and leverage anything to seek the power of God rather than your own. That’s my story, and I pray it becomes yours as well.
