The Power of Prayer
It’s quite amazing that the disciples are never recorded asking Jesus to show them how to do miracles. They didn’t ask for Him to teach them how to make the blind see, the deaf to hear, the mute talk or the lame walk. They didn’t say, “Teach us how to do that wind stopping, wave calming thing!” But they are on record saying, “Lord, teach us to pray…” [Luke 11:1]
Even a shallow reading of the New Testament makes it abundantly clear that the first followers of Jesus greatly valued prayer. The book of Acts reads like one great prayer meeting that resulted in acts of the empowered kind! Perhaps the greatest problem in the modern church is the lack of prayer. We’ve regulated prayer to a few minutes at most in our services and the Church prayer meeting is almost entirely a thing of the past. Even when prayer is emphasized it is often taught as an exclusive club where only a few select ones have access.
Our Calling to Pray
All of God’s people are to prayer! Martin Luther said, “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” Prayer is given to each and every Christian as the great privilege of partnership with God. Through prayer, we join with Jesus in seeing His kingdom come and His will done in the earth. John Wesley said, “God does nothing except in response to believing prayer.” Mother Teresa said it this way, “God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil.”
Prayer is given to each and every Christian as the great privilege of partnership with God Click To TweetThe essence of prayer presumes an expectation of results. Why pray if you don’t believe things will change? Yet – far too many pray with very little expectation that God will answer. For many, the only expectation of prayer is that it changes those who do the praying.
James wrote that “…the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” [James 5:16] The original Amplified Bible says it this way, “The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].” Right praying releases the power of God into our world!
But the Bible teaches that it does more than change the one who prays. Prayer changes circumstances and situations! Click To TweetA Few Prayer Keys
So how do we learn to pray prayers that will prevail? Here are a few keys to help you develop:
Pray in Faith!
Look again at the instruction in the book of James, “…ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let, not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” [James 1:6-7] For prayer to be consistently effective it must be from the faith place. Jesus said, “…whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” [Mark 11:24] Did you catch it? We are to believe that we receive when we pray and we will then have it. Do you want something from God? Faith is the currency.
Pray the Will of God!
Faith begins where the will of God is known. You can never pray with any confidence if you are unsure of what God wants in the situation. Look at what John writes, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” [I John 5:14-15]
So how can we know we are praying His will? It begins with the Bible. The logos of God’s word conveys the logic of His will. When you learn to pray God’s word, you set yourself up to pray His will with confidence. Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” [John 15:7] How can we ask what we will and know that it will be ours? By choosing to make God’s word first priority and final authority in our lives we allow the word to purify our motives and our desires. And this position of hearing the word positions us to receive the faith we need to believe! [See Romans 10:17]
Pray in the Spirit!
We often hear there is power in prayer. But the reality is that many religious people pray around the world with little to no results. As Tony Miller said, “Prayer done outside of the Holy Spirit is of no effect.” The Bible instructs us to live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit and pray in the Spirit. In his discourse on how to win spiritual battles, Paul says it is vital to always pray in the Spirit. [See Ephesians 6:18] Jude encourages us with these words, “But you, my delightfully loved friends, constantly and progressively build yourselves upon the foundation of your most holy faith by praying every moment in the Spirit.” [Jude 1:20] Praying in the Spirit builds the one who prays and releases the power of God into the situation.
When we pray as we are led by the Spirit and by the means of the Holy Spirit a world of possibilities opens to us. I remember a Friday night when during prayer the Holy Spirit moved me to pray and intercede for someone. I prayed in the Spirit for close to thirty minutes before the understanding came concerning the person for whom I was praying. [See I Corinthians 14:15]
This prayer was a groaning prayer of intercession. After a while, it lifted and I finished my prayer time and went to sleep. The next day I went up into the mountains to hike. Late in the afternoon, I returned and found a message waiting. A friend called to tell me that His dad, the very man the Holy Spirit moved me to pray for the night before, died a couple of hours after my prayer time. But my friend told me, He received the life of Christ just before he passed! Hallelujah! My prayers, led by the Holy Spirit, helped bring a soul into eternity moments before he entered.
Just Do It!
While not exhaustive these principles will help you develop a strong prayer life as you implement them. Reading about prayer and talking about prayer is not enough. God calls us to pray! Our high privilege of partnering with Jesus in seeing His kingdom come and His will done is begins in prayer and culminates in His glorious desires realized in the earth. Do it!
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Keith Nix is the founding lead pastor of a thriving congregation, The Lift Church in Sevierville, Tennessee. [Visit www.TheLiftChurch.tv] He has traveled internationally since 1993 carrying a unique prophetic message of awakening to this generation. He and his wife, Margie, have one daughter, Isabella.
