Recently, we had our Prayer Breakthrough Day on UCB Radio. We invited anyone who was listening to contact us with their prayer requests (or praise reports), and we dedicated the whole day to sharing and praying for those needs on air. It is a sobering day for our team as we receive many requests from people desperate for a breakthrough in their circumstances. But it is also a great privilege to be trusted with these needs and to be able to stand together in prayer.

I am sometimes asked: why is prayer important? Is there a particular way I should pray?

I feel so passionate about prayer. It is such a wonderful way to engage with God and with each other and to see God’s power and grace released in our lives.

In the early days of UCB, the ministry was soaked in prayer. The situation our founders faced was so difficult that every breakthrough, every month of finance, had to be ‘prayed in’. We are so grateful for the army of people who, over the years, have faithfully prayed for UCB’s ministry, and days like these are our way of ministering in return to our listeners.

We know that many of our listeners will have key difficulties and issues in their lives and will need someone to ‘stand in the gap’ for them. We receive hundreds of calls and emails from people who are struggling with poor health or facing financial difficulties or marriage problems. Each time we pray for the individual, we are praying for everyone who is facing those situations too.

I visualise the day of waves of breakthrough as a result of those prayers, of our phones lighting up with listeners telling us they have been set free or healed. Prayer works, and it is incredibly effective (I have seen this many times in my own life), but we do not always understand the importance of prayer or how to pray effectively. Prayer meetings at churches are usually the least attended of all services, but if we truly believed that prayer works and that through it, God can deliver and set us free, then we would never miss a prayer meeting again!

Prayer is an invitation

If we go back to Genesis, we will read that God gave man the authority to rule the Earth. He delegated the authority and His power to us. As a leader, I know that when you delegate authority to someone, you should not interfere unless you are invited.

I believe that prayer is an invitation. We are asking God, inviting Him, into the situation, into our lives, into whatever we are facing. When we invite Him in, that is when we often experience His presence most powerfully. This is the structure God has given us. But how many of us fail to invite God to manifest himself into whatever we are facing?

Prayer is a trigger for God’s grace

In many senses, prayer is like a weapon and a bullet. Prayer is the trigger to release God’s grace in our lives. If we look at how God’s grace was released in the lives of people Jesus prayed for, there was often a step of faith, an action required. He told a disabled man to ‘pick up his bed and walk.’ In other parts of the Bible, people are told to stretch out their hands, to dip in a river, to do something. To see God at work, we need to take action, and that action is prayer. As we step forward, do something, and invite God into our circumstances, His grace, His healing, and His provision is released.

Pray for us as we pray for you

UCB is growing, and because we believe so much in the power of prayer, we have increased our prayer on air. We now have Prayer Breakthrough Days four times a year, and we are committed to praying for the needs of our nation.  But as a ministry, we need prayer too. We face many exciting opportunities (especially as technology advances), but we are not immune to sickness, problems, or attacks from the enemy. Just as it took 23 years for the founders of UCB to see the breakthrough of national Christian radio becoming a reality, we know it can take time to see breakthrough in other areas too. But I believe that for you and me, breakthrough comes when we pray and invite God into the problems, issues and situations we all face.

Let’s stand together to see a breakthrough in this nation. Would you be willing to pray for UCB? Click here to sign up for Prayer Emails, and we will send you ministry updates with different prayer needs. Tell us too, how we can pray for you by contacting our Prayerline Team. Together, let’s release the power of God in our lives by inviting Him into all we face.

*(Prayer requests are passed on to UCB Prayerline who will pray for your needs. If you would like to pray with someone on the phone, please ring 01782 36 3000)