Prayer
In the past while I have had more time praying for Canada, Japan, Israel by joining a few different prayer meetings. With the focus of prayer I have had recently, I thought it might be helpful to share what I have learned about prayer over the years.
Prayer is the connection and communication between God and us. It is 2 way communication that is meant to be a part of being in relationship with God. Prayer is also meant to be done in fellowship with and for other Christians. Prayer is also a way we battle against the evil forces at work in the world. Prayer is a spiritual function and does not only interact with physical creation. To understand prayer better we will look at the following points:
Prayer is spiritual communication
Types of prayer
How to pray
Prayer tips
Prayer is spiritual communication
God is spirit, we are spirit and demons are spirit. All communication between us, God and demons are done on the spiritual plane (John 4:24, Job 1, Ephesians 6:12). Now, that does not mean that God or demons don’t communicate on the physical plane or that the physical plane is not valid, but that is not the base form of communication. The question that then needs to be asked is how do communicate spiritually? It simply is recognizing that we are not only praying physically. That is it. God did not intend for it to be complicated and we can communicate in a similar fashion as we do in the physical. Praying effectively requires a more in depth examination.
Types of prayer
Prayer in the general sense of the definition is communicating with God. This can be requests or thanksgiving or praise (talking) and listening. The other way although technically not defined as prayer is communication or interaction with the physical realm from the spiritual realm and interacting with other spiritual beings. For simplicity I will call this praying with authority. The next section will explain why it is called this.
How to pray
To start off there is not specific way on how to pray. There is for sure a most effective way to pray, which is praying in the Spirit (Ephesians 6:18).
Praying in the Spirit is partnering or joining the the Holy Spirit in the work He is doing. In order to do this we need to listen to Him and know the truth found in the Holy Bible. Then we can pray in accordance with the will of God (1 John 5:14-15).
What if we are not sure what to pray or in what order and looking for some help? We can look at lots of examples in the Bible on how people prayed and instructions for prayer (1 Kings 8:22-61, Daniel 9:1-19, John 17, Psalms). We will just examine one passage where Jesus provided a template to His disciples on how to pray when they asked the question: how to pray? The template is found in Matthew 6:9-13. A explanation is as follows:
1. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. This part contains 2 key points. First is is a recognition of who God is and who we are. God is our loving and caring father and we are His children. This in short is telling us to pray acknowledging who God is. The second is a honoring of God. Praising Him and acknowledging that He is holy.
2. Your Kingdom come, and your will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven. This part is a change of focus on God and who He is, to a focus on God and bringing His kingdom to earth. To do this we need to know about God’s will & His kingdom, then we can pray for specifics of His kingdom coming. We also do this by living out His kingdom principles as directed by the Holy Spirit.
3. Give us this day our daily bread. This part is taking time to address our needs. Our physical needs, soul (emotional, mental), and spiritual needs.
4. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. This part is a reminder to check how our soul is doing. Do we have any unforgiveness in our hearts? Any unrepentant sins? It is also important to remember God has forgiven us.
5. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil/the evil one. This part is about the battle with evil in the world, which are the demonic forces at work. It also is about the evil that people do to one another. This is a reminder to rely on God to help us get through the evil that happens and the work of the enemy. You can also use this section as a reminder to pray against the work of the enemy. This is one way of praying with authority.
Praying with Authority involves acting on behalf of God. That is, being His ambassador. There only 2 areas this applies to, healing and spiritual warfare/deliverance. In both of these when praying you are not requesting God to do something, rather acting on His behalf. You can still request for God to heal someone or request God to deliver someone from an evil spirit and He can still do it! However, the model that Jesus gave was not one of request for those things and that is not what we see the early church practicing (Mark 9:25, Acts 3:6)
Now that the types of prayers and how to pray has been established, what should the physical demonstration or posture be for prayer? First it should be mentioned that the disposition of one’s heart is more important than the outward demonstration. That being said here are some of the following positions of prayer as seen in scripture:
Standing with hands raised toward heaven (1 Kings 8:22)
Standing looking to heaven (John 17:1)
Sitting (1 Chronicles 17:16)
Kneeling (Acts 9:40)
Lying on the ground (Joshua 7:6)
Walking (2 Kings 4:35)
Bowing (Exodus 34:8)
The Bible does provide some tips and warnings for prayer, which are listed in the following section.
Prayer tips
The following 2 lists are taken from the prayer section of the website.
The following are some key points on praying effectively:
Pray persistently with asking, seeking and knocking (Matthew 7:7-8, Colossians 4:2-6)
Pray in faith (James 1:5-6, Matthew 21:22)
Pray in secret (Matthew 6:6)
Pray according to God’s will (1 John 5:14)
Pray in the name of Jesus (John 14:14, 15:16)
Pray while fasting (Matthew 17:21)
Pray while abiding & delighting in Jesus (John 15:4-10)
Pray with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:16, Colossians 4:2)
Pray in the Spirit (Ephesians 6:18, Jude 1:20)
Pray in agreement with other Christians (Matthew 18:19-20)
The following are some ways that prayer can be hindered:
Mistreating your spouse (1 Peter 3:7)
Having an unrepentant or bitter heart (Psalm 66:18, Mark 11:25-26)
Praying repetitive empty words (Matthew 6:7)
Praying for show (Luke 18:9-14, Matthew 6:5)
Ignoring the poor (Proverbs 21:13)
Not praying about something (James 4:2)
Prayer is a fundamental part of living life following Jesus. How can you spend more time praying? Ask God to give you wisdom and a heart for prayer.
