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The New Testament Church was born in a prayer meeting at Pentecost. Jesus promised power to His Church if they would but wait on Him. Paul’s writings are filled with so many references to prayer it almost seems as if he spent his entire ministry simply praying from one city to the next!

But the awesome prayer life of the apostles and the early Church was only a pale reflection of our Lord’s devotion to prayer.

When we look at the life of our Lord Jesus, we are amazed at how important He considered prayer. He began His ministry with 40 days of fasting and prayer. At critical junctures, such as choosing the 12 disciples and before going to the cross, He spent whole nights in prayer. Jesus was forever withdrawing from the crowds to spend extended times alone with God the Father.

Yet, for Jesus, it was more than just spending time. Jesus not only made prayer a priority, but He modeled a life of constant prayer. Jesus demonstrated an attitude of prayer in His every action.

Jesus showed us that true prayer is not found in any of the formulas to which we cling. In fact, it is not necessarily even words or thoughts. Instead, prayer starts with what you are in your heart! It is more an attitude than an action.

Effective, genuine prayer is a dialogue with God. It rolls together dependence, humility, obedience, submission and worship. Finally, it waits on God to display His grace and mercy.

Such prayers as these may burst forth with a single phrase or sentence. This is why the Lord Jesus would frequently lift His eyes to the Father and utter one-sentence prayers that brought instant answers—healed bodies and stilled storms.

More than by giving us a set of phrases and words, Jesus exemplified a moment-by-moment dependence on God in His prayer life. We have not learned to pray as Jesus taught us to until we have learned to live prayerfully as He did. His prayers sprung naturally and spontaneously out of a constant awareness of the Father’s will. He enjoyed a well-practiced intimacy with the Father. He did not pray to God, but with God. Until we learn to pray with the Son in the same way He did with the Father, we have not learned the basic posture of prayer.

Excerpt from Chapter 14 of The Road to Reality (ISBN 9781595891136) © 2012 by KP Yohannan, the president and founder of Gospel for Asia.

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Nothing reveals the bankruptcy of modern Christianity more clearly and quickly than the current crisis in prayer. It has reached emergency proportions and demands our attention.

Many times, I have asked, “Why is it that we as believers do not pray more?” and “Why is it that churches do not give more attention to prayer?”

After all, because prayer is the ultimate act of spiritual intimacy with God, shouldn’t it be the central activity of our whole lives? It cannot be that we lack teaching on prayer; our bookstores and churches abound in books and seminars on the subject. The awful truth, whether we admit it or not, is that we don’t pray because in our hearts we don’t think we really need God. We don’t know how to pray because true prayer can only originate from a life emptied of self-sufficiency.

The Church we see today is truly the church of Laodicea described in Revelation 3:14–22. There is no more accurate description of our spiritual condition anywhere in the Bible. Jesus said of this church, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:15–17).

Our prayerlessness highlights our self-sufficiency. This I-can-handle-it-myself mind-set is the spiritual cancer of our times. It is the root cause of the present powerlessness both in our personal lives and our churches. Because we have not yet comprehended the essence of prayer, we fail to see the arrogance and terrible rebellion of our present state.

We have so much else to depend on today—buildings, machines, money, programs and technology. We spend thousands of hours with consultants in study and planning. Yet there seems to be no time to pray.

How different our current lifestyle is from the instructions of Christ to the first disciples.

After three-and-a-half years of constant example and teaching, what was the only lesson He wanted them to remember? “Without Me you can do nothing!” No wonder He told them to tarry in Jerusalem and wait until they were endowed with power from above, before they went out to fulfill the Great Commission. He wanted them to realize that, in and of themselves, they were headed for disaster.

Unless we come to this place of total helplessness, we can never understand prayer. This is why Paul says, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” Prayer is nothing more than voicing our dependence upon God. And the answer to every prayer is nothing more than this: God is with us, in all His power and authority, to make up for our human limitations.

Excerpt from Chapter 13 of The Road to Reality (ISBN 9781595891136) © 2012 by KP Yohannan, the president and founder of Gospel for Asia.

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Today we all stand at the crossroads on the question of personal holiness. Each of us must make the choice about which way we are going to go. This isn’t a choice only preachers or Christian leaders must make, although I pray that it will start there. No, every believing man, woman, boy and girl must decide personally.

“Will I surrender to the spirit of our age, or resist and join the company of overcomers?” is the question to ask.

Do we want to continue to live in defeat, failure and unrighteousness? Or will we decide to follow the path of excellence that leads to quality of life, inward purity and separation unto God?

You now may be saying, “That sounds like legalism to me.” I assure you it is not. We must stop confusing obedience to God with legalism. We must stop confusing holiness with legalism.

There is a very real danger of legalism—but that’s not what the Bible is talking about here. Jesus hated legalism and rebuked legalists in some of the strongest language He ever used. But He also taught obedience, holiness, purity and separation.

Let’s define legalism in biblical terms. Legalism is obeying the teachings of men as the Pharisees did, adding human rules and standards of behavior onto what God has given. Obedience to the Word of God is different altogether. It comes out of a true commitment and genuine love for the Lord. It is not based on external things and following the interpretations of men.

This is the reason why the Lord Jesus Christ frequently told His audience that to follow Him meant they would have to walk with Him as He walked. He said, “No man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). To live for Jesus and follow Him, you must give up your own desires and wishes for your life. That’s what we need today so desperately.

There are two sure ways to avoid legalism.

First, we must stop comparing our lives with others. This can happen anywhere, even in the best churches and organizations, and it is a terrible sin. Instead, we must bring our lives before the light of His Word. We must yearn to become like Jesus. We must take our eyes off ourselves—and others—and gaze at Him. He alone becomes our standard.

Second, I urge you not to be satisfied with fulfilling externals that may be prescribed by your denomination, fellowship, organization or any other traditions of men. Again, you must pursue knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. Learning all about Jesus and His teachings and theology is not what I am talking about. You must spend time with the Lord Himself and learn to know Him personally in your spirit. Fall in love with Him, and get to know Him intimately. You’ll find as you do this that you can obey all that He commands without any danger of falling into legalism.

Excerpt from Chapter 12 of The Road to Reality (ISBN 9781595891136) © 2012 by KP Yohannan, the president and founder of Gospel for Asia.

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For many, entering into a life of holiness and separation unto the Lord may appear to be a mystery. But this need not be so. Like all the other blessings and requirements in the Christian’s life, all it requires is a simple act of faith.

The first step of entering into holy living is to rediscover the full work of the cross. God has provided not only for us to be saved from the penalty of sin on Calvary, but He also provided for us to have victory over sin on a day-to-day basis. Every Christian needs to study this great truth in Romans 6 through 8 until it becomes reality in his or her daily life. The normal Christian life God has ordained for each of us is one of triumph over the world, the flesh and the devil.

To begin living this pure, separated lifestyle, we must recognize we are not our own, that we are bought with a price; and blood was the price the Lord paid for us. He has purchased us and has a right to control us in the same sense a slave has no right to his own life. A believer must come to the place of reckoning he is totally dead with Christ—crucified with Him and living no more for self. Now we live every minute and second to please our Master. We are His; we belong to Him, body and soul and spirit.

Second, holiness requires waiting on God. Without spending time in the presence of the Holy One, no one can become holy—for God alone is the source of all holiness. We need to control our television sets and the other idols that are binding us and keeping us away from the presence of the Lord and His written Word. Give up the secret sins that are enslaving you, and reclaim the areas in your life that have been given over to the Enemy.

Put Satan on notice that all the claims he has on your life have been settled by Christ’s blood on the cross and that you have recognized you are free from sin. Tell him you have turned yourself completely over to the Lord.

Third, confess and repent from all known sin. Be sure you have purged yourself from any claims the Enemy still might have on you through habits in your life. Make a list of everything the Holy Spirit brings to your mind, small or big, that you need to turn away from. These could be people or habits or even your thought life and that which feeds it such as books, videos or the Internet. Anything the Holy Spirit brings to your mind must go. Give the Lord time to turn His spotlight on those areas that are keeping you from growing closer to Him.

Excerpt from Chapter 12 of The Road to Reality (ISBN 9781595891136) © 2012 by KP Yohannan, the president and founder of Gospel for Asia.

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The New Testament warns us that in the end times, there will be those who will come teaching a gospel that is not the Gospel at all, presenting a “christ” that is not Christ (2 Corinthians 11:4).

And I believe that what we see already happening today—and much more that will soon come upon us—is a direct result of the past decades of false teaching. We have been brainwashed with what Dietrich Bonhoeffer originally called the “cheap grace” gospel. As a result, we are in ruin in our individual lives and families, as well as in our churches.

I fear for the nation and people whose Christian churches have forsaken holiness and separation from sin and the world.

This is a new gospel that is really half of the Gospel. It correctly portrays the wonderful love and forgiveness of God, but it downplays the need for confession, repentance and changed living. Most of all, it virtually ignores the ongoing work of the cross in our everyday lives.

Because of it, we are now blinded to hundreds of scriptures that teach practical holiness in everyday living. This false gospel ignores the very teachings of our Lord and Savior! Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).

The Bible says the Lord Jesus Christ is coming for a Bride that is holy and pure and spotless. He is not coming for a harlot church. He is coming for a holy people who are walking the narrow road as He walked.

I believe Revelation 18:4 is a very relevant verse to our churches today. Listen to it: “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”

God is calling for total separation and holy living from His people—just as He always has throughout every generation and dispensation. God does not change. The commandment the Lord gives to His people is always to “be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).

Excerpt from Chapter 10 of The Road to Reality (ISBN 9781595891136) © 2012 by KP Yohannan, the president and founder of Gospel for Asia.

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The Orient is filled with the graves of missionaries from past generations who went out to the field, knowing full well that it was unlikely that they would ever return. Some, like the Moravian brethren, sold themselves into slavery in order to enter closed lands. One couple voluntarily entered exile in a leper colony, knowing that it would cost them their freedom and eventually their lives.

As we read the stories of missionary heroes, there is a tendency to dismiss their sacrifices as something that can only happen in another place and time. But that just isn’t true. If we permit the Lord to lead us, He will allow us to share in the fellowship of His sufferings wherever we are.

For example, there are quiet men and women working behind the scenes at secular jobs—but living to help support missions. They cannot go personally, but they are able to sponsor others. I think these are the real unsung heroes of missions today. Often they are known only to God. These are the people who willingly sacrifice to save whatever money they can for the work of the Lord. They may get no glory in this world, but the Bible says they are serving Christ as effectively as any frontline warrior; and they are promised their reward.

There are many practical ways that you can enter into this fellowship of suffering without leaving the shores of your nation. Wherever you are, there is a cross for you to bear. God has a path of sacrifice for each one of us if we will ask Him for the privilege of self-denial.

Sacrifice and suffering for Christ all depend on how we choose to give our time and finances. Every one of us can at least find ways to give more time and more money to the kingdom of God if we will review our lifestyles.

The first step usually involves giving up the normal demands of our bodies for food and sleep in order to pray for others—situations, countries, peoples, tribes and the missionaries who are reaching out to them.

By fasting for a meal or giving up an evening of television, it is remarkable how much time you can make for the work of world-changing intercessory prayer. There are other strategic ways, of course, to volunteer time for missions, but none is as important as the work of prayer.

Excerpt from Chapter 9 of The Road to Reality (ISBN 9781595891136) © 2012 by KP Yohannan, the president and founder of Gospel for Asia.

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“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. . . . So then death worketh in us, but life in you” (2 Corinthians 4:8–10, 12).

Are modern evangelicals the only Christians in history to experience the power of the Living God without paying a personal price?

No, I believe that God’s ways are still the same. There is still a cross for each of us. There is still a path of suffering and sacrifice for every Christian who wants to manifest Christ.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not promoting asceticism or the self-infliction of wounds. There are still flagellants in the Philippines and many other countries who practice this heresy today, but that is not the mystery of suffering the Bible teaches.

True Christian suffering comes because we live for God and are serving the expansion of His kingdom. It is a positive sacrifice for the good of others. It is not a morbid, introspective act that one does to oneself to feel or become spiritual.

Paul was betrayed, hated, rejected, insulted, persecuted and distressed. Like the other apostles and millions of Christians down through the ages, he eventually suffered martyrdom for his belief in Christ.

But in all his writings, Paul seems to accept this life of terrible suffering and sacrifice as normal and necessary. “Death works in us,” he reasoned, that life might come to others.

I will never forget the day I learned the meaning of these words.

Every year we try to take small groups of Church leaders to visit indigenous missionary teams in India and other critical Asian nations. On one such trip, a missionary welcomed our group at the airport. One look convinced me that something was terribly wrong with him. He looked emaciated, weak and sick—especially next to our robust, overweight guests.

“What’s wrong, brother?” I asked.

He answered with just one sentence: “Death works in me, and life in them.”

Tears came uncontrollably to my eyes as I recognized the allusion to Apostle Paul’s rationale for suffering in 2 Corinthians 4:12. I discovered that this brother had been traveling to visit the missionaries without proper food and rest for nearly a month. He was just skin and bones!

He was making a conscious choice to deny the normal, minimum needs of his body for the sake of others’ souls. For life to come to one, death must come to another. This is the biblical exchange from Genesis to Revelation. Somebody always pays the price, entering into the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. That’s the way the Gospel is always pioneered into new areas, unreached villages and lost tribes. As valuable as broadcasting and literature are, they are only long-range artillery in this war. The foot soldier of the cross must always go in to establish the Church by self-sacrifice and suffering. The exchange must take place.

Excerpt from Chapter 8 of The Road to Reality (ISBN 9781595891136) © 2012 by KP Yohannan, the president and founder of Gospel for Asia.

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“No pain, no gain” applies to world evangelism as well as exercise programs! Until we can accept suffering, sacrifice and self-denial as routine and normal, we will never see the Great Commission fulfilled in our generation.

Jesus never apologized for calling His disciples to a life of self-denial. It is interesting to see the way He handled this teaching with those who offered to follow Him.

He promised homelessness. We read in Luke 9:57 of an individual who bragged that he would follow Jesus wherever He would go. But apparently he turned back when Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Luke 9:58).

He promised broken relationships. Another man said he would go but needed to bury his father first. Jesus replied, “Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:60).

He promised separation and loneliness. A third would-be disciple said, “Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.” Jesus replied, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

It is obvious that Jesus will have no one among His followers who is wanting to put comfort, family ties or security in this world ahead of His kingdom. Jesus is saying, in effect, “I offer you what I have—hardship, hunger, labor, loneliness, rejection, sweat, tears and death. I’m a stranger and pilgrim in this world, and if you follow Me, you’ll have to break away from the clinging attachments of this present life.”

The Gospels give another example. A rich young ruler wanted to follow Jesus and asked what he would have to do to inherit the kingdom. Jesus replied simply, “Go, sell all that you have and give it to the poor.” The young man walked away sad.

Jesus obviously loved him. It must have hurt to see the young man go. But in this case and in all the other similar stories, you never once see Jesus going after these would-be disciples. There is no effort to pacify them or modify and soften the uncompromising demands of the cross. It is either “give up everything and follow Me” or “don’t come at all.”

This is still the price of following Christ today just as it was then.

Excerpt from Chapter 7 of The Road to Reality (ISBN 9781595891136) © 2012 by KP Yohannan, the president and founder of Gospel for Asia.

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[R]ight doctrine without right living is worthless in the sight of God. We seem to forget that the Pharisees of Jesus’ day were correct in their doctrine. They were outwardly righteous in their lives. They kept the law far better than we do today. These were respected clergy. They knew the truth and were superactive in church—but they still went ahead and killed the King of glory. We must stop trusting in our religious beliefs and labels. If we really know the truth, then the truth will make us free—and that means free from self and dead to the flesh.

In Romans 7:18, Paul says, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.” We don’t want to admit that today. We still want to display our degrees, experience, insights and talents. We have fallen in love with our knowledge, management skills and technology. We have taken our eyes off the Giver and focused them on the gifts.

Unless we as humans are tied into and connected to Christ our head, we are nothing and have no purpose. Even the greatest geniuses of art and science are only a marred, shallow reflection of the God who created our universe in the first place. Jesus died that we might be plugged into Him, as the branches are part of the vine. Living off our own resources, not attached to the vine, leads only to dryness, death and flames.

The Bible tells us that all the works of the flesh will be burned up. How hard it is to accept this. We still want to do the work of the Lord in our own power and strength—be it with our education, talent or wealth. But in the eyes of God, it is still just educated flesh, talented flesh or rich flesh—all to be burned up in judgment and rejected by Him.

We must come to that place of absolute understanding that as human beings there is nothing in us—not our looks, background, education, riches, talents or anything else you can add—that will enable us to live the kind of life God wants us to live in our generation.

We find Paul in Philippians 3:4–12, writing from a prison cell yet still crying out and longing to experience a little more death to self. Just as his Master set His face to the cross, Paul was determined to continue to say no to the flesh and yes to the Spirit until the end of his life.

“For we are the circumcision,” he says, “which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3).

In this passage, Paul lists many of the beautiful talents, experiences, gifts and knowledge that he possessed—and then he says he counts them all as manure. He said, “I start from zero.”

The idea is never to reform the flesh, sanctify the flesh or cleanse it—the victory formula is always the same: “Put it to death.”

Excerpt from Chapter 6 of The Road to Reality (ISBN 9781595891136) © 2012 by KP Yohannan, the president and founder of Gospel for Asia.

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Contrary to the popular thinking of Christianity today, the Lord did not reach down and save us from sin and death so that we might be merely happy, healthy and wealthy. Those who teach this have invented another gospel and portray a false christ—the god of this age rather than the God of the Bible. A gospel without the cross is no Gospel at all.

God’s purpose for man, from the moment He created us, has never changed. We have always been destined for the throne—created to rule with the One who created all things for Himself.

[W]e are to be the Body—the hands and feet of Jesus in this present world.

“And he is the head of the body, the church,” says Colossians 1:18. All who believe and have been baptized into Christ are the Church. Now we know that our head, Jesus Christ, is at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. But the Bible says His body is somewhere else. His body is us. We are left here on earth to carry out His desires and will.

The purpose of the body is to fulfill the commands, desires and wishes of the head. We are attached to the head so that we might manifest the mind of Christ and do His will on earth.

God has so ordered the world that right now we are His primary agents of redemption to lost humanity. Our hands are His hands; our feet are His feet; our tongues are His tongue. This means that the basic way God expresses His limitless love today is through the Church. Lost men and women in this dark and dying world will not be found unless we search for them.

In 1 John 4:17 we read, “As he is, so are we in this world.” I love the way Moffatt translates this in his classic version of the English New Testament. It reads, “. . . since in this world we are living as He is.” This makes it abundantly clear that a believer’s life ought to so represent Christ that the world can once again see Jesus. We follow Him in a way that others can taste again the presence of Jesus walking and living among them.

The only way that Christ is presently incarnated to a lost world is through us—we are carrying on and extending His presence, His Word and His works to a new generation. When Jesus walked the shores of Galilee, He revealed the image of the Father to lost and sinful men. This glorious ministry is now ours.

Excerpt from Chapter 5 of The Road to Reality (ISBN 9781595891136) © 2012 by KP Yohannan, the president and founder of Gospel for Asia.

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