“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments (logical thinking) and every pretension (pride) that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought (scheme) to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 19:3-5

Jesus told His followers that they are to be the salt of the earth, agents of transformation for the Kingdom of God that preserves, adds flavour and influences our surrounding society. He also said that if salt remains in the saltshaker and loses its saltiness it is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out on the street and trampled underfoot. Matthew 5:13

There came a time where I realised that our prayer meetings needed to be conducted where possible, out of our saltshakers and into the surrounding community, with the result that prayer meetings would take on a whole new dynamic. It was as if this weapon of prayer went to a new level of “divine power’ as we fought our battles in the arena where the wars were being waged, which seems logical when you think about it.

I share the following illustrations with the goal that new expressions of prayer power might take place out of the saltshaker and into the cities and neighbourhoods where we live. In doing so, four levels of prayer come to mind.

LEVEL 1  PRAYER POWER IN OUR CAPITAL CITY
Following a timely visit to my city from a leader in the Argentine revival, Ed Silvoso, a state wide prayer movement called Pray South Australia was begun and in the process this movement birthed many new prayer initiatives across our state.
One particular initiative involved church leaders and intercessors gathering on the steps of our state’s Parliament House for prayer vigils on the nights before our parliament was to meet to vote on contentious legislation that would compromise the moral and ethical values of our state. These meetings continued at strategic times and a Christian member of parliament subsequently shared with me that since the prayer vigils began, not one of these compromising pieces of legislation passed through our parliament, even though some were confidently expected to. Time and again we personally witnessed how the timely weapon of united prayer had divine power to demolish strongholds of the enemy as the salt came out of the saltshaker onto the steps of Parliament House.

LEVEL 2  PRAYER POWER IN OUR LOCAL COMMUNITY
Soon after the commencement of Pray South Australia, I invited the Christian leaders in my region to come together early one morning on a regular basis to pray for our community. The response was most heartening and this united prayer initiative soon began to have an overflowing impact into our community.

One morning I shared an unusual prayer request with the leaders. That week I had met with the Mayor of our city who shared a concern regarding vandalism that was regularly occurring to a structure in the city’s Civic Park. I asked if it would be possible to take the Christian leaders to Civic Park early one morning to pray for the vandalism to cease. She agreed and so on the next morning of prayer, I assembled the Christian leaders around this structure and we prayed for the Lord’s protection over it and that the vandalism would cease. Three months later I met with the Mayor where upon she excitedly told me that for three months (since we previously met) the vandalism had ceased. She commented on how  our prayers had made a difference. The divine power of united prayer out of the saltshaker was having it’s impact in our local community. A local member of parliament, on hearing of the leaders’ prayer meeting, asked if she could host some of the prayer meetings in her office and provide a cooked breakfast after the meeting. Another member of parliament randomly dropped into my church office to ask for prayer when she was facing times of opposition in her public life. I have never had a leader in our community reject an offer to receive prayer.

LEVEL 3  PRAYER POWER IN OUR CHURCH
I was developing a growing conviction regarding the power of prayer out of the saltshaker, so much so that on the evening of one of our regular churchwide prayer meetings I arranged for a passenger bus to arrive outside our church at a certain time. I had not told anyone. On the arrival of the bus, I asked the 100 people present to move outside and board the bus where the prayer meeting would be continued. Those at the prayer meeting took some convincing, but finally they agreed to move outside, where to their surprise they found the waiting bus.
This began a new season in our prayer meetings where we would travel to key locations in a bus to prayer walk that facility or open space. The prayer life of our church was stirred as we travelled one night to our local city Council Chambers and had the opportunity to pray over the room where the council conducted its business; we visited other neighbouring churches and prayer walked their facilities to bless the ministry and mission and leaders of these churches; we visited and prayer walked areas of social unrest and prayed peace and safety into these neighbourhoods with positive results. Again, the salt was having a profound influence as it came out of the saltshaker to release the divine power of our Lord into our city.

LEVEL 4  PRAYER POWER IN MY NEIGHBOURHOOD
There came a time where I became aware of the power of blessing which resulted in my praying words of blessing over people I met in my daily travels. In particular, I was developing a conviction that the Lord had entrusted me with a responsibility to usher the Kingdom of God into my own neighbourhood and to pray His blessing into each house as I regularly walked my local streets. As I did, I gradually started to develop meaningful contacts with more and more neighbours which resulted in deep conversations. This led to occasional letter box drops to ask neighbours for prayer points of needs that they might have. With the advent of the Covid virus, I would include containers of hand sanitiser and packets of face masks in the envelopes. The response has been encouraging. Every time I prayer walk I take a copy of a small booklet by Rick Warren called What On Earth Am I Here For? in readiness to pass on to people whose hearts have been receptive to the Lord

So don’t keep all of your prayer initiatives locked up within the four walls of your church building. Take the battle out into the community to demolish strongholds of the enemy through the powerful weapon of prayer in the name of Jesus. Take the prayerful presence of Jesus with you wherever you go and be an agent of transformation and blessing in the world in which you live…… “for you are the salt of the earth.”