POWER OF PRAYER HANDBOOK
The Power of Prayer Handbook
By God’s grace, The Power of Prayer Handbook is now available. This book has been a long-term project. The first inspiration for it was given by Dr Paul Negrut on one of Peter Hammond’s first mission trips behind the Iron Curtain into Eastern Europe.
Paul explained how the persecuted church was able to recognise true Believers, and identify informers planted by the communist government: “A real Christian loves God, a real Christian loves to read the Bible. A real Christian loves to pray. A real Christian hates sin.” Then he added: “We don’t count our members by how many attend the Sunday service, but by who attends the Bible study and prayer meeting.”
Over the last 30 years of ministering to the persecuted churches, Dr. Peter Hammond has had the privilege of participating in some vibrant and dynamic prayer meetings in Mozambique and Angola, Romania and Sudan, in Nigeria and Congo, in North Ireland and in Zimbabwe. However, he had been disturbed to see the low priority placed on prayer in most of the Western churches. While prayer meetings in persecuted churches were packed to overflowing, intense and wholehearted, the same could not be said about most of the mega churches in peace and prosperity.
During Peter’s mission to Europe in 2005 when he had the opportunity to visit many of the great Reformation centres: Wittenberg, Zürich and Geneva, he was struck by the emphasis each of the Reformers placed on the central importance of prayer.
Thomas Cranmer produced the Book of Common Prayer to help reform the worship in the Church of England. Along with the 39 Articles to reform doctrine, and the Book of Homilies to reform the preaching and teaching, Thomas Cranmer compiled the Book of Common Prayer to reform the worship of the Church.
As Peter witnessed the powerful prayer meetings in Northern Ireland, he was convinced that we need to bring back the prayer meeting as a integral part of our weekly church programmes, rediscover the power of prayer, and seek the fire of God.
