Prayer's Purpose

A man who has demonstrated real interest and leadership in prayer in our local community recently summarized the purpose of prayer as revival. While to an unrevived soul (e.g. me in 2006) that objective sounds great, on further reflection, if revival is the purpose of praying, what happens when the spiritual drought ends? so does prayer.

We must be motivated by something other than selfish desire for increased comfort brought by revival. We must be motivated by the mission of our leader, King Jesus, and the reasons He gave us for being vigilant and prayerful, in the holy scriptures.

Revival is a poor goal for prayer. Revival should be a side effect of prayer, and one which should increase fervency and interest in praying. But having revival as our prayer group's finish line was a serious doctrinal error with now serious practical consequences: considerably decreased attendance at prophetic intercessory meetings.