I don't know about you, but from the
time I was little, I had this concept of what prayers should sound
like. And I guess I got these ideas from hearing other people pray.
And so I guess I always prayed the way I heard other people pray. I
didn't care to “experiment” with prayer and really open up my
heart to God in prayer. I had my prayer life stored away in these
nice little spiritual boxes and I was content with that. But
recently, God has begun to break down the boxes that I've tried to
put Him in.
I've been home from school for three
months now and next week I'm about to go back. The way my school
works is that I am there for three months and then I am home for
three months. And for some reason I always thought that I would learn
more during the semester than the off-semester, but God has shown me
so clearly how He is my teacher. And while He may use another person
or teacher to teach me, it is ultimately He who teaches and reveals
those things to me. So since I have been home, God has continued to
teach me more about who He is.
I just want to share a few things that
He began to show me last semester and has been continuing to teach me
since I've been home. I'm afraid that they might seem a bit jumbled
and disorganized, but I'm going to give it a shot.
1. My prayers make a difference.
God wants me to pray. I've grown up in a very conservative, Christian
home but I confess that I had a very pathetic prayer life until more
recently. And I think I know why: I didn't believe there was any
power in prayer. I didn't realize that the most powerful force in the
universe – God Almighty – heard those prayers and that they
touched His heart. I may have known it in my head, but I didn't
really believe it. I didn't realize that my prayers move the heart of
God.
As I began to actually pray, I began to
see God working in ways that went far above and beyond what I could
have imagined – and through that, God began to dispel my unbelief
and still is. God builds our trust and our faith through the
experiences that He gives us and I've seen that true in my own life.
2. Prayer is warfare. In
the past, I would begin to pray for someone or something for a period
of time and then eventually just stop praying and give up because I
wasn't seeing results. Looking back, I'm ashamed of that because I
see how little endurance I had. I didn't tap into God's strength, but
tried to fight the battle of prayer all by myself. I think many of us
give up praying for someone too fast because
we don't see what is going on in the spiritual realm. When
we begin to pray for something that is near and dear to God's heart
and pray in accordance with His will, things in heaven begin to shift
and move around and Satan is being defeated. The problem is, we can't
see it with our mortal eyes, so we begin to get tired and discouraged
when we don't realize that progress is being made in the spiritual
realm. And when we give up on praying for someone that God has put on
our hearts to pray for, we are giving ground to the enemy. Satan
cannot win.
Here
is a helpful quote that gave me so much insight into what happens
when we are praying for someone – particularly someone who is lost:
“Legally, all souls belong to Christ because He paid for their sins
on Calvary (1 John 2:2). But Satan, illegally and forcefully,
continues to hold them bound in spiritual darkness until we take our
rightful place and exercise our throne-rights by demanding their
immediate release on the basis of Christ's shed blood and our
delegated authority from Him. There is absolutely no reason for even
one single soul to die and go to hell because Christ has already paid
their redemption price. And the only reason why anyone will go to
hell is that we have not taken our place of authority and bound the
strong man, insisting on their salvation. The devil will not release
them until we make him.” (Lee E. Thomas, Praying
Effectively for the Lost)
We
may not see results immediately when we pray, but our prayers are not
in vain! God is working even if we can't see it. Faith is the
evidence of things not seen – and we need to have faith that God is
working.
3.
Prayer is the work.
Oswald Chambers said, “Payer does not equip us for greater works—
prayer is the greater work.” I can't tell you how many times I
heard that prayer – but God has shown me how true that actually is.
Missions and evangelism are powerless apart from prayer. Mere words
coming out of my mouth will not convince anyone. This is not to
diminish the importance of missions or witnessing, etc. but I think
that we put too much emphasis on talking and convincing other people
and not enough on praying for others. Prayer is more powerful than my
own words.
God
taught me this in a very personal way recently. One of my closest
friends was going through a difficult time and as much as I had tried
to encourage this friend and as much as others had tried to encourage
this other person, my friend seemed lost and confused. You see,
nothing I could say made any difference. I think God brought this
situation to me because I realized that only He can change hearts –
I can't. So often I think that if I just explain something in a
certain way or just say it using different words that I can speak to
that person's heart and change their minds. But that's not how it
works. God's Holy Spirit is the only one who can change people. So I
found in this situation that the only thing I really could do was
pray. And so I did pray. And I prayed a lot. I begged God to break
through to my friend and to encourage my friend. And things didn't
change overnight. They took months and months. But God had me
continue to pray for my friend and one day when I was feeling
especially desperate, I spent much of the day praying and asking God
to come into the situation and change this person. I never felt so
weak and so helpless than I did at that moment. I was completely
powerless. And as soon as I was in that place of weakness, God
demonstrated His strength by turning this person around – at the
same time that I was praying for them.
Needless
to say, this whole situation built up my faith in God so much. I
realized that He hears my prayers and that He
cares!
4.
Pray God's word. My
own words are pretty feeble sometimes and I don't always know God's
will in a particular situation, but if I pray God's word, there is
such power in those prayers because I can know that I am praying
God's will.
For
example, if I am praying for someone who is lost to be prayed, I can
pray this passage: “I exhort therefore, that, first of all,
supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made
for all men; ... For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God
our Saviour; Who will
have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the
truth.” (1 Timothy
2:1, 3-4, emphasis mine) So I can stand on this promise as I pray and
tell God, “You said that it is your will that all men should be
saved and come to the knowledge of the truth – so I ask that you
would bring so-and-so to the knowledge of truth and to salvation.”
If I pray in that manner, I'm not just praying what my will is, but
God's will.
When
I pray God's word and base my prayers off of God's promises, there is
such power there! Because I am praying God's very heart back to God!
There are verses in the Bible that apply to every area of life so
there will always be a verse I can pray for every situation. If the
Bible is the sword of the Spirit, using it in prayer invites that
power into our prayers!! And that's so exciting guys!
So
that's a few of the things that God is still teaching me. I don't
know if that made a whole lot of sense, but I'm praying that God used
at least part of this to encourage you and to help you with your
prayer life.
I
guess learning how to pray means breaking a lot of boxes of unbelief.
I've kept prayer in my own little boxes for so long. I've had all
these ideas of what prayer should look like and sound like, but I'd
encourage you to seek for more than that.
We
tend to pray the way we hear others pray, but that can be dangerous
because then we are unwilling to venture into new territory. Don't be
afraid to pray in ways you've never heard anyone pray before! Don't
be afraid to be vulnerable before God and to tell Him everything that
is on your heart. Don't be afraid to be desperate. Don't be afraid to
plead and to beg. Don't be afraid to humble yourself before God.
Don't be afraid to “experiment” with prayer and test God. Don't
be afraid to listen to God and to ask Him how to pray.
Come
before God with your prayer life and ask Him what is on His heart and
what He wants you to pray about. You don't have to try to muster up
spiritual sounding and powerful prayers, you just have to ask God to
show you what to pray. Just listen to Him and I guarantee that there
will be power in those prayers.
Prayer is conversation with God. If we can only understand that – it will
completely transform our prayer lives.