Prayer Is Invading the Impossible

Hayford's first widely read book, published by Logos International in 1977 and reissued in revised editions (Bridge-Logos, 1995 and later). Its premise is that prayer is not the mystical practice of a few unusually spiritual people but an active, even aggressive, response to situations that look impossible, and a skill any believer can learn. Drawing on stories from his own pastoral experience, Hayford writes about facing apparent impossibilities, being honest with God and with oneself, and spiritual warfare in prayer; chapter titles include "Reprogramming the Freed," "The Syndrome of Silence" and "The Praying That Sets Boundaries." The book ties prayer to the kingdom of God, a theme that runs through his later work, and it set the pattern for the prayer teaching he returned to in The Secrets of Intercessory Prayer and Penetrating the Darkness. Its style reflects the 1970s charismatic renewal in which it was written.