What is prayer? Prayer is the form of communication used between believers and the Lord. Matthew 21:22 – And whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.
We can find several derivatives of the word prayer:
Invoke God: (Psalms 17:6) – I called you, O God, for you want to hear me; incline thine ear to me, and hear my words.
Call on the name of the Lord: (Genesis 4:26) – And to Seth also a son was born; and called his name Enosh; then began to call on the name of the Lord.
Cry out to the Lord: (Psalms 3:4) – With my voice I cried to the Lord, and he heard me from his holy mountain.
Lift up our soul to the Lord: (Psalms 25:1) – To you, Lord, I lift up my soul.
Seek the Lord: (Isaiah 55:6) – Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.
Approach the Throne of Grace with Confidence: (Hebrews 4:16) – Let us therefore come with confidence to the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Draw Close to God: (Hebrews 10:22) – Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts purified from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with clean water,
Perhaps many do not know, but the Bible tells us teaches that there are reasons to say a prayer, one of the main reasons why we say a prayer, is because prayer is an ordinance of God, that is, God commands that the Christian live in prayer.
Prayer as an ordinance of God:
The first ordinance of God is for the believer to pray. The command to pray can be found in the scriptures at 1 Chronicles 16:11 – Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his face continually. We must be constantly seeking God and asking for strength to face any and all difficulties that we may encounter in the Christian walk. The Christian must be continually before the presence of God, because prayer is the communication between the believer and God.
Isaiah 55:6 – Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on him while he is near.
Matthew 26:41 – The Lord Jesus Himself: Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation; indeed, the spirit is ready, but the flesh is weak.
The Lord God communicates with the Christian through prayer, for only through prayer do we maintain our relationship with God.
Blessings, as well as the fulfillment of God’s promises, will be poured out only on the life of those who seek God in prayer.
When Jesus promised the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, he teaches that for that to happen it was necessary for everyone to be in constant prayer in the upper room until the Holy Spirit was poured out with power on the day of Pentecost.
Acts 2:1-4 – And when the day of Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place with one accord;
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
And they saw tongues divided, as if of fire, which came to rest on each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance.
We must be in constant prayer, knowing that we will not always receive what we seek immediately, because it is extremely necessary that we insist on prayer so that God can thus answer our request.
Each and every Christian who perseveres in prayer receives, for the word of God says: Luke 11:5-13 – And he said to them, Which of you will have a friend, and if I go to him at midnight, and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has come to my house, on the way, and I don’t have to introduce you; If he, answering from within, says, Do not disturb me; the door is already closed, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up to give you;
I say to you, though he will not get up and give them, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it will be opened to you;
For whoever asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
And what father among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or, if he asks you for a fish, will you give him a snake for a fish?
Or, also, if you ask him for an egg, will you give him a scorpion?
For if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
The apostle Paul often asked for prayer on his own behalf, knowing that his ministry could not prosper without the prayers of his brothers in Christ. Romans 15:30 – And I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and for the love of the Spirit, that you fight with me in your prayers for me to God;
Here we can understand that going for the growth of the kingdom, and for God’s purposes to come into existence on earth, it is necessary for the Christian to come to live a life of constant prayer interceding with God for the manifestation of God’s power on earth.
We must constantly pray to God, asking that his purposes come to be accomplished in this world, we must be in constant prayer for those who are in the field preaching the gospel and for the churches that are open announcing the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
James teaches us that we can receive healing through prayer performed in faith in the name of the Lord Jesus. God still heals today, but we have to understand that there is our degree of faith and belief that God will heal us, and tied to God’s will to perform such a miracle.
James 5:15 – And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.
And even if we pray for physical healing and even if we don’t receive healing right away, we must persevere in prayer, believing that in time, God will intervene and grant our heart’s desire.
Effective prayer requirements.
The first requirement of effective prayer is faith, for as we well know our prayers will never be answered without faith in our hearts. The Lord Jesus Himself openly declared: Mark 11:24 – Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask in prayer, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.
Jesus is saying that when we believe that we have received what we are still asking for, whatever we ask for in prayer will be granted. The secret is in trusting first, and asking God with the certainty that He is ready to answer the prayer to which it will be performed, for Jesus says that: “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” – Mark 9:23
We must approach God with a true heart, a heart that has the full certainty and conviction of Faith, because without faith it becomes impossible to please and receive something from God.
Hebrews 10:22 – Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts purified from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with clean water.
Every prayer must be done in the name of Jesus. John 14:13,14 – And whatever you ask in my name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. Here we understand that all prayer must be performed in harmony with the person, character, and will of the Lord Jesus.
Prayer can only be effective if performed according to the good, perfect and pleasing will of God. For this reason we have the model prayer left by our Lord Jesus, the Our Father, confirms this fact: “Thy will be done, both on earth and in heaven” (Matthew 6.7; Luke 11.2).
We must pray according to God’s will, as well as we must be within God’s will, so that prayer is heard and answered by God.
Biblical principles and methods of effective prayer.
In order for us to pray effectively, we must first sincerely praise and worship God. It is necessary that a sincere confession of known Sins be made is vital to the prayer of Faith. It is necessary that we come to ask according to our needs. We must intercede from the heart for each other, with intercessory prayer
We can pray in silence, out loud or crying out, using our own words, or even making use of direct words from the bible, we can pray mentally, and also we can pray through the Spirit. It is also possible to pray through groans, without using any human words, and finally we can pray through songs to the Lord.
What proper position, in the body, in prayer?
There are the most varied ways of positioning ourselves to pray, in the Holy Bible we can see that countless people prayed in different positions, we see people who prayed standing, sitting, kneeling, bedridden, bent to the floor, prostrate on the floor and with their hands extended to the skies. In other words, what matters is that we enter Before the presence of God through prayer, nothing prevents us from praying except ourselves.
And we can summarize that the church depends on the prayer of each one of us, and each of us depends on the prayer of one of the others, and we must be constantly interceding with God, for ourselves and for the growth of the kingdom of God. Prayer generates intimacy with God, it is the only key we have to make what is invisible visible, prayer is the only way we have to dialogue with God and in the same way hear him speak to us.
