Lesson 6
THE POWER OF PRAYER
Prayer is communion with God. There is prayer that bounces off the ceiling and there is prayer that penetrates the heart of God. There is prayer that accomplishes little and there is prayer that effects great change. James 5:16-18 tells us:
‘Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.’
The first necessity to having your prayers answered is to live a RIGHTEOUS LIFE THAT EFFECTS GREAT CHANGE.
In Exodus 32:31-34 we read of Moses pleading with God:
‘Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, "Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! Yet now, if You will forgive their sin-but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written." And the Lord said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. Now therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, My Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin."’
Moses stood in the gap for the people of Israel, and God answered his prayer immediately.
We too must STAND IN THE GAP for individual people, our city, for nations.
1 Kings 18:36-39 tells of Elijah’s conversation with God:
‘And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, "Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again." Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, "The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!"’
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE IT HAPPEN as Elijah did. God loves it when you trust Him, when you step out in faith, even as Elijah did, at the risk of the Baal worshippers killing him if his God did not answer. His God did answer, with fire that burned up the sacrifice. Elijah had faith. We too must pray with FAITH.
We read of Daniel’s petition to the Lord in Daniel 9:3-6;
‘Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, "O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land”.’
Daniel prayed, fasting, for the people who had turned away from God. He was disciplined and prepared for the task ahead, even as training prepares soldiers for war. We are not fighting flesh and blood, but principalities of evil. We need to be disciplined and fast for our land, for those who have turned from God, and fight these principalities that deceive man, by prayer and FASTING.
Also read Jonah 3: 4-5:
‘And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.’
Here you will see the whole of Nineveh saved through the prayer and fasting of the people, as a result of Jonah’s prophecy of doom as to what would happen if they did not repent.
In 1 Kings 8: 28-30 we read part of Solomon’s prayer of dedication of the new temple:
"Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today: that Your eyes may be open toward this temple night and day, toward the place of which You said, 'My name shall be there,' that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. And may You hear the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear in heaven Your dwelling place; and when You hear, forgive”.
Solomon cried out to God. Pray specific prayers with meaning. Pray with urgency. This sometimes gets a very quick answer.
On my first trip to Kenya I experienced such a response from God. When I was told that people were walking 4 days to receive their healing and that I was going to be the only one praying for them, this made me cry out to God. After all, I had never spoken at a conference before and definitely had never prayed for a group of sick people. I knew I had nothing to give these people and …what was I doing in the middle of Africa anyway? I cried out to God in tears, ‘Jesus, I have nothing to give these people. Only You can do something, only You can heal them. Please help Lord, please heal your people.’
After half an hour of this I suddenly heard His still small voice, and peace began to flood my being. God heard me and He said, ‘If I can cry through your eyes like this I can also heal through your hands like this.’ That was it, God was going to heal the sick and He did heal the sick. 30 people were instantly healed that first day and a further 250 people were healed during the next 4 days.
When we CRY OUT to God, He hears our prayer and answers us.
In John 4:23 Jesus tells us:
‘But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.’
Jesus tells us to PRAY IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH, for such the Father seeks. This is praying in the Holy Spirit, whom the Father gives us.
Isaiah 40:31 encourages us thus:
'But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.’
Be prepared to WAIT ON THE LORD, for it is here that we renew our strength. We can do nothing, or very little, in our own strength; but as we daily wait upon the Lord, He gives us all the strength we ever need. Often people tend to wait on the Lord to be more and more filled with His Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 1:1 says:
‘Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours in the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ:’ (RSV)
Our faith is of equal standing as it was in the disciples, so that the Holy Spirit is available to us in all His fullness. However it is up to us to be so yielded to Jesus that our relationship with Him enables more of the fullness of the Holy Spirit to operate in and through our lives. Waiting on God is a time of yielding ourselves fully to His complete love, to then walk in Him in willing obedience. When one walks in willing, even joyful, obedience to the Lord, one finds oneself walking in a new dimension, authority and energy that one could not think possible. For myself, as long as I am walking in Christ, then I know that I can keep walking in this higher dimension, ability and freedom in Him.
‘Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.’ (2 Corinthians 3:17) “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30)
Walking in Christ enables the burden to be light as we trust in Him Who is so much greater than ourselves.
John 11:33-36 describes what happens after Lazarus had died:
Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him!"’
Jesus prayed with COMPASSION. This makes who or what you are praying for part of you, making you prepared to go the ‘extra mile’ to make it happen. Sometimes God is waiting for us to do our part, for Him to do His part. He chose to wait for Elijah to gather the Baal worshippers together and challenge them to build altars to their god and him to build his altar to the Living God. It was then that God answered with fire.
Mark 14:36 lets us in on Jesus’ conversation with His Father,
‘And He said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will."’
Jesus prayed that the cup be taken from Him, “but not my Will, but Thy Will.” Jesus was prepared to be obedient even unto death. We therefore must also BE OBEDIENT.
How do we bring all this together? It is a balance of compassion and taking responsibility to make it happen. The feeling of compassion causes the action. Prayer is not just saying prayers. Prayer is active, effectual, communion with the Living God, Who effects the answer. This often causes you to be chosen to effect the answer and become to God an extension of His outstretched hands. God will answer. When we do our part to make it happen, we can be sure that God will do His part to make it happen. To enable God to do His part, we must put God first and love Him first above all things, for when we do this something wonderful happens.
Ephesians 2: 6 says:‘and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus’
When He raises us up into the heavenly places, in Him, He gives us the authority of the name of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit to cast out sickness, diseases and demons. He gives us authority to heal the sick and to become part of His answer to a lost and dying world.
You and I can effect great change when we really learn how to pray as God would wish us to. When we do this we get to know God, and the more we get to know God, the more we will know that GOD WILL DO IT.
Types of Prayer
There are two types of prayer:
a) Fellowship Prayer – where we come to know God more.
By coming into His presence in repentance, thanksgiving, praise and worship; by loving Him and waiting on Him, being filled with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places as it says in Ephesians 1:3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.’
We enjoy His love, His joy, and His glorious peace by learning to hear His voice, allowing Him to teach us through scripture and show us many things.
b) Intercessory or Task Prayer – this is interceding for others, for our cities, for our nations. This can be ‘hard work prayer’.
When you bring these two types of prayer together you will realise that fellowship prayer causes intercessory prayer to become reality. You are able to then cry out to God and know that He will answer; you are able to approach Him on behalf of others knowing His love for them. You will be able to pray through to victory, knowing the peace, when you know God has answered. You will be able to hear Him and obey Him by doing your part in the answer, by taking responsibility to make it happen.
Let us rise up and pray. Prayer is more than just bowing the knee; it is bowing in submission to God's will, in sacrificing our own desires to do His will on earth. Let us be part of God’s answer to this hurting and needy world. Let us become God’s outstretched hand to people God loves, with His love and compassion, which He gives to us freely.
Simply come to God in prayer and allow prayer to become the most exciting, glorious, victorious and challenging fellowship and interaction with our wonderful God, who loves us so much. Action will follow. We don’t have to wait to go to Heaven before we can have this fellowship with God.
WE CAN HAVE IT NOW, while we are still here on earth, and go on assignments for Him. When God tells you to do something, DO IT and you will see the answer yourself, for HE IS A LIVING GOD!
Some Questions to Think About
What are the two main types of prayer?
Give areas that help to bring about God’s answer.
What challenges you to begin to pray in earnest?
What does it mean by doing your part, by taking responsibility to make it happen?