James Aladiran leads Prayer Storm, an organisation seeking to awaken a generation to a lifestyle of prayer and intercession. He explains why prayer is for everyone to Caroline Harmon.
You lead Prayer Storm. So you must be pretty good at prayer?
I see myself as a prayer evangelist because in the area of prayer and intercession the body of Christ within our nation is an unreached people group. Prayer Storm is calling the people of God to give themselves to this lifestyle and not relegate it to someone else who we think is good at prayer.
Take worship leaders. We’re all called to worship, but they have a grace to lead in it, to facilitate more of it. I see myself like that. I want to facilitate more people praying, but we need to break down this idea in people’s mind that some people have an anointing for prayer and intercession and the rest of us don’t.
How much emphasis should we place on seeing answers to our prayers?
I have seen so many answers to prayer – people having leg amputation operations cancelled because their cancer has been healed, God providing uncountable amounts of money. I am believing for more of this but that paradigm – of petitioning God and bring our need before him - is just one dimension of prayer.
Every other relationship that means a lot to us in our lives is not based on the fact that we can get things from people. Fundamentally my prayer life is based on the fact that I want to know God and I want to encounter different facets of his nature and who he really is. If my prayer life is driven by my needs and problems then when I have a problem it becomes the focus instead of God. When the problem goes or doesn’t go, then momentum to pray gradually drops until the next issue come along. If instead I’m building a desire to know God and go after Him then there is a constant drive to prayer. Psalm 27v4 is foundational – read it!
‘One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.’
Praying for my needs, and those of others, then comes about as an offshoot of this reality. It’s not that my needs are irrelevant but I’m going to get burned out if I’m constantly asking God for things.
What would say to someone who is disillusioned with prayer?
You’re not alone. I’ve been through hard times with prayer. But there are things you can do to help.
Firstly, your current state of mind and heart is a manifestation of what and who you inhabit and have community with. When you spend time with people and things that inspire prayer and you spend time around atmospheres that feed your spirit, then your desire to pray is stirred up.
Secondly, desire without discipline will dissipate. Prayer needs to become part of your routine. I pray when I feel like it, I pray when I don’t, I pray when it’s easy, I pray when it’s hard. Sometimes it’s amazing, other times I don’t feel anything but I know something is happening. It’s faith – we walk by faith and not by sight or feeling.
