Prayer

When you are praying do you ever feel like you’re just howling at the moon and the wind is blowing so no one can hear you anyway? Our prayer life is very important as to how we receive the answer to each one of our requests, petitions and things that we are just talking to our Father in heaven about. So let’s look at what prayer is and what it is not so we can be more productive and better equipped in our prayer life.

In the Message translation of the Bible Matthew 6:14-15 says, “In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.”

How important is your position when you pray? Is one way heard better by God than another position? In one instance in the New Testament I found that Jesus knelt down in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Your prayer position should be related to the circumstance surrounding your reason for this time of prayer as well as where you are at and what position is appropriate for that place.

When should I pray? Look at what it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. The next question we ask many times is how should I pray? Many times we are praying for things that already ours and these things become a position of authority instead of a place of prayer or asking for something. Some examples of those places of authority from the New Testament are found in: Mark 1:35; Luke 14:21; Luke 5:16; Luke 9:28-31.

“Prayed” is found 28 times in the NT; “Pray” 57 times (Matthew 5:44; Mark 14:38); and “Prayer” 29 times. “Speak to” or “say” is used 300 times. There are things that we are still praying for that are a position of authority. As we learn God’s word we are better able to understand our place of authority and apply it. (Mark 5:8; Mark 2:1-11; Mark 3:3-5; John 11:41-44.)

    Prayer is:

  1. Our need crying out for help.
  2. The voice of faith to the Father.
  3. The Living Word in lips of faith.
  4. Holding God’s Word up to Him like a mirror. You are asking Him to act on that Word. He sees Himself in that Word.

God has honored His Son by calling Him “The Word”. (John 1:1-4; 1 John 5:20; Revelation 19:11-16.) What we need to understand is: if it was important to God the Father to honor Jesus His Son by calling Him the Word then we need to have a intimate relationship with Him if we want our prayers answered and the things that we speak to come to pass.

When I should pray and for how long do I pray? (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). Ephesians 6:18: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.” –The AMP says it this way, “Pray at all times (on every occasion, in every season) in the Spirit, with all [manner of] prayer and entreaty. To that end keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance, interceding in behalf of all the saints (God’s consecrated people).”

Let’s look at what Jesus said about prayer. In Luke 18:1 (KJV): “And he spake a parable unto them [to this end], that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” Not faint means from the Greek “be weary, 1) to be utterly spiritless, to be wearied out, exhausted.” Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit. The Amplified says it this way: “Also [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to turn coward (faint, lose heart, and give up).” Another translation says this “Men ought always to pray and not turn out badly” and still one more says it this way “Men ought always to pray and not cave in.”

Prayer illuminates the Word; the Word is the Son. It causes us to have a closer relationship with the Word and in so doing it causes those things that the Word did for us to come to pass in our lives. It is a spiritual experience to have a constant prayer life. You should pray from your spirit not from your head. Don’t just pray in the spirit, but pray from your spirit.

E.W. Kenyon lived from 1867-1948 and said this: “Electricity has made the wireless and the radio realities. Will that life in the mechanical world be stronger, more efficacious than God’s Nature in our spirits? I can not believe it.” He had no idea that electricity would become what it is today and maybe even replaces our prayer life because we are too busy in front of the television, out in our shop, or maybe even on the internet.

Though prayer we become so completely ruled and governed by the Word and by the Holy Spirit that we become the masters of demons and their work. We cast out demons with the Word. We lay hands on the sick and sickness and diseases leave them. Weakness is destroyed by the strength of God. The very life of God and the very nature of God goes out from our lips. What happens is that praying always causes us to cooperate with Him. God through you is ruling over demons and evil forces all over the world. You become His voice in the Name of Jesus. The Word really becomes the Sword of the Spirit and wages war against the demonic forces that rule men in this world.

Look at these last couple of references and see how important it is for us to understand who we are and what our Father’s plan for us here is. You can see that it is not His plan for the devil to kick us around but instead for us to kick him all over the place. It is not just our right to take that place but it is our obligation to do it.

2 Corinthians 6:1 says, “We then, [as] workers together [with Him] also plead with [you] not to receive the grace of God in vain.”

2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore [you] on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” The Amplified says it this way: “So we are Christ’s ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us. We [as Christ’s personal representatives] beg you for His sake to lay hold of the divine favor [now offered you] and be reconciled to God.”

So, remember your prayer life is very important and not just for your needs. People’s lives depend on you! So stay ready; don’t wait for that need in someone’s life to come up but be prepared when you get there!