Powerful Prayer

Holy Writ speaks volumes to the purpose and power of prayer, yet it is still such a misunderstood venture and an underdeveloped ability, even in seemingly mature Christians.  Prayer is active communication between man and God, and vice versa.  Prayer is a platform for comfort, strength, learning, for repentance, for confession, for communication, and ultimately, for growing in communion with God through the Holy Spirit.  

There are people within the body who have been blessed with supernatural praying ability, ability to heal and calm storms, etc.  However, this should not dissuade every believer from pursuing a continual and vibrant prayer life.  Prayer is a discipline and, like any skill, requires practice.  Luckily, Scripture is teeming with illustrations of prayer, both how and why as well as its effects.

Because of the sheer breadth of biblical evidence for the importance and efficacy of prayer, to dissect numerous examples would prove unproductive and beyond the scope of this discussion.  Instead, for the purposes of this dialogue, a look at the Lord's prayer (Matt. 6:5-15) will suffice in explaining the weight and methodology of prayer.

In Matthew, Jesus speaks of prayer as a secret conversation between us and our Heavenly Father.  The stripping of pretense is the first step in efficacious prayer.  Only when we remove every separating wall can we truly converse with the Lord.  Think of Isaiah's call (Isa. 6).  When Isaiah realized he was in God's glorious presence, he cried out, "Woe is Me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"  Understanding who we are praying to and with can not but overwhelm us and destroy our pretense and pride.  Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.  God should be overwhelming and our sin should feel heavy in lieu of of His holiness.  If we are standing haughty in pretense before His presence, we are pretending.

Another part of this is that we are relying on God to provide for us.  Jesus says that, although the Father knows what we need before we ask, we are to ask anyway.  In some way asking the Lord releases His provision and blessing upon us.  More than that, we are wholly relying, in mind and speech, on the Lord not only for our physical provision, but for our spiritual provision.  God wants us to ask Him to provide, He delights in providing.

In John 15, after Jesus spends a good deal of time explaining that we are to abide in Him as our true vine by which we grow fruit, He says, "whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you".  This passage, combined with James 5:16, has risen a ludicrous, unfounded gospel.  God does want His people to be filled and rich but full of joy and grace, rich in mercy and compassion.  At this point, a note on potential heresy must be made in reference to the "name it-claim it, prosperity gospel". 

Any teaching that speaks of God's desire for His believers to be financial wealthy is a blatant lie and its teachers are totally false.  This teaching, however well-funded, is an absolute distortion of Scripture.  Above anything, God wants His children to abide solely in His provision, for their confidence to be only in His providence and sovereignty.   Jesus chastises money and its accumulation more than any other worldly evil.  Again, prayer is for communion with Him, not for our convenience or financial betterment.

Prayer is efficacious.  It can bring about the supernatural.  Praying is simple.  It does not require lofty language or long, arduous piety.  All proper prayer asks for is a humble heart seeking after God, His will and His provision.  Every hour and moment of the day should be filled with an attitude of unceasing prayer, that is, an attitude of unceasing communion with God.  Prayer is practicing the presence of the Lord.  Get practicing.