Every church that I have ever attended had a prayer ministry. Prayer is one of the heart beats of the church. Prayer is important, and Jesus said "My House shall be called a house of prayer". There are many scriptures in the Bible that speak of prayer from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelations. There are many accounts of Christ praying, the Apostles praying, and also many accounts within the old testament about prayer.
Prayer in many ways is the lifeline of our communication with God. Through prayer we communicate with God, make our requests known to Him, enter into His presence and stand the gap as watchmen for others. It is good to pray for others. In fact, it is a humble privilege to pray for others.
In the book of Acts prayer and the laying on of hands are mentioned in various sections of scripture. In many church's today prayer and the laying on of hands is actively pursued and the ministry of the Holy Spirit flows freely.
Actually God made prayer very simple. It doesn't take some spiritual giant to pray for people. It just takes a willing vessel to step out in faith and allow the Holy Spirit to be the Holy Spirit. It's when fear, lack of faith, a religious spirit, the precepts of men and having a good church service show gets in the way and hinders the Holy Spirit, that prayer ministries become in affective. That well scripted situations.
It amazes me how we sometimes turn the Kingdom of God into this well micro managed process as if we could add something to it. It amazes me how we sometimes take the simplest of things and make them difficult and within that process diminish the power of such and the anointing of God among us. I somehow don't think Jesus had that in mind
