Do you Pray?
Why do you pray?
Is it because we have been taught that prayer is what we do
when life gives we lemons? Or is it
because we know we are “suppose” to pray about things and so we do out of a
place of “should” instead of a place of expectation? Or, are you someone who doesn’t pray about
everything because you believe God already knows what you need and so you don’t
ask him. Do you believe that IF God wanted
to fix things for you that he would without your request? When is the last time you have prayed and
expected God to answer you? How many times have we prayed for someone with
cancer to be healed and actually expected God to heal them? Why do we pray for the sick to be healed if
we don’t expect healing is possible?
The stock exchange is the system that governs the value of a
product or company. Commodities, such as
milk, corn, eggs and coffee are traded every day on the stock exchange. Several months ago, the price for 5 dozen
eggs was $42.99 at Costco. Just last
week, the same 5 dozen eggs sold for $18.99 at Costco. The reason for the change in price has
everything to do with supply and demand.
Commodities are essential life sustaining products. Time is also a commodity as is water as is
prayer. However, prayer is a commodity
traded daily without value. This article
is not written to tell you to pray. We already
know to pray. This article is written to
explain the reasons prayer is critical to our life, our circumstances and our
success. So what is prayer?
I can’t talk about prayer without first talking about free
will. When God created Adam, the first
human, who was created in God’s image, he created him to have free will. This is why he placed the tree of knowledge
of Good and Evil in the midst of the garden.
God had already created the host of angels to worship him. The Bible teaches us that the angels of God
are innumerable and they surround his throne saying holy, holy, holy continuously. So God wasn’t looking for robots, so to
speak, to serve him, he already had that in the angels. God created Adam in HIS image and desired
that Adam freely choose to serve God from a place of desire, love and
friendship. The only way for that to
happen was to give Adam a choice. We all
know that Adam made the wrong choice and ate from the forbidden tree. He disobeyed God and God did NOT intervene in
his decision to disobey him. God allowed
Adam to make his own choice and God watched as Adam ate from the tree, as his
wife Eve gave him the forbidden fruit.
It is important to note that God did not stop Adam from partaking. God allowed him to choose and Adam chose to
follow his wife instead of God.
Free will is something I am still learning about. On one hand, the Bible teaches us that God
is sovereign, which means that nothing can prevent God’s will no matter what. We can see this in the story of Moses when he
pleads with Pharaoh to “let my people go” out of Egypt. It also teaches us that
God is all-powerful and can do anything he desires. He made the donkey speak in Numbers 22. We
know that God is the God above all other
gods and that there is no power under heaven or under earth that can separate
us from his love. So if God is God and
we trust him to work on our behalf, why do we need to pray? If his will is going to be done anyway, why
do we need to pray? The answer is free
will.
Prayer is a deep and complicated yet simple spiritual
principle. It is complicated because
there are many aspects of how and why it works, which I will attempt to
explain. It is simple because it is so
easy to do. We just open our mouth and
speak.
Prayer is a solemn request for help addressed to God with
earnest hope. Remember that “God is
Spirit, they that worship him MUST worship him in spirit and in truth” (John
4:24). In order for us to come to God we must do it through the avenue of the
spirit which is what prayer does. Prayer
breaks through the veil of the natural world into the supernatural world, which
is the spirit world where God resides.
Then, prayer grants God permission to intervene on our behalf. You see, God is not going to force his will
upon us, just like he didn’t force his will upon Adam. He gave direction to Adam and then left it up
to Adam to choose. We MUST ask him for
help because in doing so we are giving up our free will and giving it to God. So prayer is giving God permission to work in
the situation.
Prayer is also the spoken word, which is a seed that will
create a harvest. Everything that God
did or has ever done first started with a spoken word. “God said let there be light and it
was so” (Gen 1:3). All of creation was
made by the spoken word. Jesus, when he walked on the earth, “rebuked
the wind and spoke to the sea and said Peace be still” (Mark
4:39). Likewise, when he came upon the
fig tree that did not have any fruit on it, he said to the fig tree “no
man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. (Mark 11:14) All throughout scripture, it is the spoken
word that delivers, that heals the sick, that multiplies, that raises the dead,
and that casts out spirits. The spoken
word has the power to create what is spoken.
Since we where created in HIS
image our words also have the power to create.
“Death and Life are in the power
of the tongue and they that love it will eat the fruit thereof” (Proverbs
18:21). So prayer is a spoken word that has the power to create and bring a
harvest of fruit.
The last thing I want to say about prayer is that prayer is
God’s way of revealing his desire for us.
The Bible teaches us that when we pray, “the spirit also helps our
infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for: but the spirit itself
makes intercession for us with groaning’s that cannot be uttered and he that
searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit because he makes
intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans
8:26-27). So prayer is the avenue that
God uses to reveal his will for us.
I don’t know if you have ever experienced the place in
prayer when you have groaning’s that cannot be uttered. I have.
This is sometimes a place of deep heartache when all you can do is pour
your heart out to God through sorrow and tears.
It can also me a place of worship and thanksgiving, when you feel the
overwhelming love and grace of God. Or
it can be something altogether different when you don’t know what to pray but
begin to pray anyway. When we are at
that place in prayer, our minds and hearts understand what we are feeling. We get a picture of what God is telling us
and that picture brings peace, comfort and many times direction, promise and
purpose. ALL of our answers can be found
in prayer and ALL of our next steps in life and circumstances can be found in
prayer. God lives in the realm of the
spirit and we enter that spirit realm when we bow to God in prayer and we open
our mouth and speak the words that invite him into our circumstances and life.
I can always tell what is coming by what happens in my
prayer life. God does not live in the
realm of time. He lives outside of
time. God sees all and knows all and the
Holy Ghost in us leads us into all truth and guides our steps. So if we walk in the spirit, which is the
spirit of God living in us, then we can know what is the will of God in our
life. The Bible says “The steps of a
good man are ordered by God and he delights in his way” (Psalms 37:23) The
Bible also says “For it is God which works in you, both to will and to do his
good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). So when you
are committed to God and you give your free will over to him you can trust that
whatever comes out of your mouth and your heart in prayer is God revealing to
you what he desires to do in you and through you. Let me give you an example…
Recently I began to pray for financial increase. I have never prayed for financial increase
before in all my years of serving the lord.
He has always provided for me financially. Several years ago I had a retail store, and I
struggled to make it successful for five years before finally closing it. However, God always provided the money I
needed throughout all five years and even after I closed it.
When it comes to money, I have always trusted that God would
provide and I have never asked for more then what I had. When this request began to come up in prayer,
I realized that God was creating this need in me for increase so that I would
ask him for increase, so that he could fulfill his will. Financial blessing is not for my own gain. When God does answer this prayer and provides
financial increase, it is not for me to have more material possessions or a bigger
house or awesome shoes. The increase is so
that I have the ability and provision to help others. It is to businesses that create jobs for
people in the church. It is to assist
the church with what is needed to reach others.
It is to build apartments for those who have no place to call home. It is to help the fatherless who are
struggling to find their place in the world.
It is not for me, it is for the service of the Lord; to make a
difference in our church and our community.
If God had never dropped this into my spirit, I would have never asked
him for financial increase. All my needs
are met and I usually have enough to provide for my desires as well. Requesting more would have never crossed my
mind, until the Lord showed me why.
This all took place in prayer. It
began pouring out of my lips and then I realized God was showing me through my
prayer what his desire for me was. Don’t
be afraid to speak your dreams. Don’t be
afraid to dream BIG. That may be God
showing you his will in your life. If
you do not ask, he cannot answer. We
have to ask him and trust that he will place his desires in our heart as the
Bible teaches us.
I hope that excites you and encourages you. God is alive and he is active in the life of
those who pray. Prayer-is-our-connection-to-
God! If you haven’t spent very much time
in prayer, maybe this will help encourage and motivate you to take time out of
your day everyday, and pray. He hears,
He knows, He will answer!!
“Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find,
knock and the door will be open to you” “For everyone that asks receives, and
he that seeks finds, and to him that knocks it shall be open” (Matthew 7:7-8). Pray without ceasing !!
PS…The Journey (my church in Visalia) is starting four weeks
of prayer beginning this Wednesday March 15th at 7:00 pm. If you are not sure how to pray or what to
pray, this is a good opportunity to learn.
