Missions Hangs on Prayer

"God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it" (Acts 2:24). Jesus goes about his invincible missionary plan "bv the power of an indestructible life" (Heb. 7:16). For twenty centuries, the world has given it their best shot to hold him in. They can't bury him. They can't hold him in. They can't silence him or limit him. Jesus is alive and utterly free to go and come wherever he pleases. All authority in heaven is his. All things were made through him and for him, and he is absolutely supreme over all other powers (Col. 1:16-17). "He upholds the universe by the word of his power" (Heb. 1:3). And the preaching of his Word is the work of missions that cannot fail. Now we can say again, safely and stunningly, what the awesome place of prayer is in the purpose of God to fill the earth with his glory. Not only has God made the accomplishment of his purposes hang on the preaching of the Word, but he has also made the success of that preaching hang on prayer. God's goal to be glorified will not succeed without the powerful proclamation of the gospel. And that gospel will not be proclaimed in power to all the nations without the prevailing, earnest, faith-filled prayers of God's people. This is the awesome place of prayer in the purpose of' God for the world. That purpose won't happen without prayer.

John Piper. Let the Nations Be Glad!: The Supremacy of God in Missions (p. 66). Kindle Edition.