The beautiful realms of prayer 3

 

 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints— Ephesians 6:18

The Lord loves diversity. That’s why He made us all so different with different ways of viewing life. And because He made us all different, He has the wonderful ability to understand all of us when we pray with all our different needs. Some people pray with a prayer list of names and requests; some pray silently, others with shouting and declaring. There are so many different ways to pray as there are people on the earth. To try to press people into one prayer model is not wise.

Other than the Lord’s prayer, the bible does not give us a preferred model of prayer. Rather, we find dozens of prayer models in the pages of scripture. There are a hundred different ways that you come to God in prayer through the name and person of Jesus Christ. And there are many types of prayer in the bible. Here are some of the basic categories of prayer:

Praise, Adoration, and Thanksgiving

Praise is God’s address. If you can’t find God, praise Him. He’ll show up! Try starting you encounter with God in prayer with extended seasons of praise. It’s fine to be loud and rowdy; or you may choose to simply be quiet and reflective. Whatever your preferred method, it’s time to praise the Lord! We must learn the secret power of praise. It is not hype to praise God; it is the way into the realm of glory. Praise is like a pin code or a password that allows you access into heaven. You leave behind the pressures of life and its disappointments, and you come gloriously into the heavenly realm.

Adoration is a form of intimate worship. Why don’t you tell the Lord right now that you adore Him and look longingly at His beauty? Now close your eyes and speak it out: ”Jesus, I adore you.”

Then thank Him all day long for what He means to you. It’s that simple. This kind of prayer will free your mind from anxiety and care. As you become a thankful believer, peace will enter your heart.

⁶ Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life, ⁷ then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will make the answers known to you through Jesus Christ. Philippians 4:6-7

Asking in Prayer

The simplest prayer of all is this: “Please, God do this for me.” Our God is a prayer-answering God. He’ll not hesitate to answer your prayers. He won’t mind. Let Him know what you need and be a holy reminder to the Lord. The more you ask, the more you’ll receive. So, keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking, and the door will be opened for you.

“Ask, and the gift is yours. Seek, and you’ll discover. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. ⁸ For every persistent one will get what he asks for. Every persistent seeker will discover what he longs for. And everyone who knocks persistently will one day find an open door.
⁹ “Do you know of any parent who would give his hungry child, who asked for food, a plate of rocks instead? ¹⁰ Or when asked for a piece of fish, what parent would offer his child a snake instead? ¹¹ If you, imperfect as you are, know how to lovingly take care of your children and give them what’s best, how much more ready is your heavenly Father to give wonderful gifts to those who ask him?” Matthew 7:7-11

Go ahead, run into God’s presence and invade the privacy of God! See yourself as a five-year-old that rushes into the Father’s presence, oblivious of manners. Your Father can handle it. He’s your Abba!

Intercession

Intercession is asking God to intervene as you plead before God on behalf of others. This is our highest calling. For we all have the priestly ministry of calling on the Father on behalf of others.

¹ Most of all, I’m writing to encourage you to pray with gratitude to God. Pray for all men with all forms of prayers and requests as you intercede with intense passion. ² And pray for every political leader and representative, so that we would be able to live tranquil, undisturbed lives, as we worship the awe-inspiring God with pure hearts. ³ It is pleasing to our Savior-God to pray for them. 1 Timothy 2:1-3

It's stretching our hearts out in love to cover others. Much of the remainder of this book will discuss the values and power of intercession to change the world.

Devotional Prayer

This category is your very own private time of the heart-filled prayer. It’s you alone time with Jesus, calling upon His name, meditation on His word, yielding your heart to Him. Watch as your inner being is built up and strengthened to defeat the enemy. During this time, try to incorporate all the different types of prayer:

Praise, adoration, thanksgiving, confession, asking, intercession, and warfare. AS you pour out your heart to the Father, I promise you that your devotion will only grow stronger, and your heart will come alive! Make sweet resolutions to love, follow, and obey Christ as you yield your spirit to Him. He will fill you with His presence. Remember, He says how lovely your voice is in prayer! ‘Ever prayer of His godly lovers is pleasing to His heart.”

⁸ The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD,
But the prayer of the upright is His delight. Proverbs 15:8

Corporate Prayer

The family that prays together stays together. Corporate prayer is praying with others. It can be in your home as a family or in your prayer group. Or it can be in larger settings with hundreds or thousands present. Refreshing, enjoyable, lifegiving prayer is coming to a church near you! To pray with others is more than valuable; it’s critical.

⁴² And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Acts 2:42

¹ Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. Acts 3:1

Every church and ministry must come together regularly for corporate prayer.

God will help you on this journey of prayer. You are connected as one Spirit with Jesus Christ.

But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 1 Corinthians 6:17

And He will help you, for you draw from His grace and from His life. The Holy Spirit has pledged to help us in prayer, giving us strength and passion as we lay out the pieces of our heart before the father God. There are many times that we would give up, but the holy Spirit super-intercedes for us. Look at how Paul describes the prayer ministry of the Holy Spirit:

The Holy Spirit takes hold of us in our human frailty to empower us in our weakness. For example, at times we don’t even know how to pray, or know the best things to ask for. But the holy Spirit rises up within us to super intercede on our behalf, pleading to God with emotions sighs too deep for words. Romans 8:26.

The Basics of Consistent Prayer

Spend Time with God

The more time we spend with the Lord Jesus in prayer and in studying His Word, the more His presence will linger with us. It’s kind of like when you’re fellowshipping with other believers around the Lord. Sometimes it gets so good you wish you could just stay forever in that atmosphere with your friends. This is what true fellowship with God is like-it’s lingering with Him. The bible says that when we draw near to Him, He draws near to us.

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:8

Who want to miss that opportunity of being near him and dwelling in His presence? Not me! Remember Joshus. When Moses left the tabernacle, Joshus stayed behind and lingered.

¹¹ So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. Exodus 33:11

This was undoubtedly where Joshua received His power to lead the nation of Israel and the power to win the battle that followed.

Ask with the Right Motives.

It doesn’t make sense to pray with selfishness in your heart, for the Lord sees our heart and sees our motives. Love is the purest motive of the heart and should be the motive that empowers every one of our prayers. As you fall hopelessly in Love with Him, your goal will get lost in His and you will pray with the right motives.

³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

James 4:3

Depart! Depart! Go out from there,
Touch no unclean thing;
Go out from the midst of her,
Be clean,
You who bear the vessels of the LORD. Isaiah 52:11

Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Psalms 37:4

How could God give us things He knows would harm us? How could He answer prayers that will distract us from the perfect will of God? You may think something is God’s will, but that doesn’t make it so. Seek first the kingdom of God and all the things you ask for will be given to you. The kingdom of God is the place where God is King, His will is supreme, and He rules in perfect wisdom and will give us what we need.

¹⁴ Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. 1 John 5:14-15

³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Matthew 6:33

Never Doubt that Father will Answer You

When asking our Father for something, It’s totally silly even to ask for it if you don’t really believe He’ll do it. Why waste His time by playing religious games in prayer? Instead, ask Him boldly and in faith. Leave your doubts outside when you enter His sanctuary. He has limitless power to do what you’re asking Him to do. Simply believe! Don’t be double minded with doubt in your heart. Single-minded devotion to God will give birth to genuine faith. Your Father can do all that you ask or think.  It’s time to believe for the unbelievable. Don’t give up till the answer comes.

¹ Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, Luke 18:1

⁶ I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;
They shall never hold their peace day or night.
You who make mention of the LORD, do not keep silent,
⁷ And give Him no rest till He establishes
And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Isaiah 62:6-7

⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. ⁶ But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. James 1:5-8

²⁰ Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you. Ephesians 3:20

Release Forgiveness to All

Jesus makes it clear that if we withhold unforgiveness,

He will withhold from us the things we desire in prayer.

Pray, therefore, like this: Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed (kept holy) be Your name.
¹⁰ Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven (left, remitted, and let go of the debts, and have given up resentment against) our debtors.
¹³ And lead (bring) us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
¹⁴ For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and wilful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Matthew 6:9-14 amplified.

Release forgiveness, and God will release answers to your prayers. You act the most like Jesus when you forgive like Jesus. True forgiveness is refusing to be angry again over the wrongs of others. Unforgiveness breaks your unfettered communication with God and locks you in the past. But forgiveness frees you in your prayer life and will release the holy Spirit through your prayers.

Pray:

Lord Jesus, I want you to become my prayer life. I want you to empower me and set me apart for You today. I come with all my heart before You today. I long to be one with You in prayer and to reflect Your glory on the earth. I trust in You, and I trust the Holy Spirit to pray through me today. I will walk in the Spirit, and I will pray in the Spirit. My life will be Your love offering today. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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