Hunt shares need for communicating with God

What God does, He does through prayer. And prayer always involves the Kingdom and God’s glory.” This was T.W. Hunt’s focus at the “Passion for Prayer” conference Feb. 21–23 at Lakeview Baptist Church, Auburn. In his unique teaching style, Hunt shared portions of his life’s prayer meetings with the Lord.
   
The conference was the result of almost 17 months of prayer, said Hal Cooper, Lakeview’s minister of prayer and evangelism. 
   
“I just wanted the people to get a passion for prayer again,” Cooper said. “There’s a saying: ‘Little prayer, little power; much prayer, much power.’ And I see that the best way for us to stay unified is through corporate prayer.”
   
And after 17 prayerful months, the date of the conference arrived. The three days of sessions included in-depth times of teaching followed by praise and worship and small round-table prayer meetings.
   
Prayers of praise, thanksgiving, confession and petition were offered. Simultaneous whispering voices could be heard throughout Lakeview’s fellowship hall. Hands lifted high and people kneeling and lying prostrate were common sights throughout the conference’s three days.
Lakeview Pastor Al Jackson said prayer conferences are important for two reasons.
   
The first reason, he said, “is to teach people how to pray. The only thing the disciples ever asked Jesus to teach them was how to pray. Prayer is not automatic.” He added that people need instruction on how to improve their prayer lives.
   
“The second [reason] is to encourage people to be faithful in the ministry of prayer, to intensify their prayer lives.”
   
Jackson said he took home from the conference “a renewed zeal for prayer — to spend time alone in the prayer closet, in prayer with God.”
  
Hunt spoke on the history of prayer, ways to worship, reasons God answers prayers, the five types of prayer and the names and attributes of God that might be used in prayer.
   
“When I felt impressed upon by God to come here,” Hunt said, “and … as I worked with Hal Cooper, I began to see that this guy knows God. And I could tell that they really wanted it [the conference] to be for the advancement for the Kingdom. A lot of places want me because I have become visible, not [because of] God.”
   
Hunt is the author of several books, including “The Mind of Christ,” “The Disciple’s Prayer,” “The Doctrine of Prayer” and “From Heaven’s View.”
   
He also has an international speaking ministry, both in the United States and with the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board, through which he has made several tours of Africa, the Orient and South America.
   
Hunt began studying prayer by writing out all the prayers of the Bible. He also started a prayer book where he listed and dated everything he said the Lord would show him to pray for.
   
Pointing to a white three-ring binder on his end table, he said, “This book has changed three times since.” Running his hand over its cover, he added, “This is the third book I’ve worn out.” The pages within the cover are about an inch and a half thick.
   
“Praise is a subjective experience in an encounter with objective fact,” Hunt said. “I spend quite a few minutes in praise, because I don’t want to get to my intercession until I know for sure that it is God I’m talking to and that God wants to do certain things in my life. As I am having my prayer and praise time, it makes it more clear in my mind who God is. And sometimes I will sing, sometimes I will name attributes of God; sometimes I quote the Psalms.”
   
Among the things Hunt prays for are his church, his family, his extended family, missionaries he’s met, countries he’s been to, 30-plus unreached and persecuted people groups, many missions agencies and pages of individuals he has met who he believes are committed to bringing people into the kingdom of God. And the list goes on and on.
   
Hunt mentioned that some people don’t experience power in prayer because there is an ignorance of the possibilities of prayer.
   
“Most people pray very little, and prayer conferences stimulate people to pray,” he said. “Prayer is so simple that my 8-year-old grandson is one of the most effective pray-ers I know.”
   
“Of the people I know who are prayer warriors, they are very, very humble people. In my experience, the more humble they are, the better they pray,” Hunt said.