How to Pray Powerful Prayers

The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. Revelation 8:4 

Prayer is more than just an exercise or a discipline. It is an act of love poured out to God. Prayer is the pouring forth of a believer's innermost desires, concerns, failures, fears, and thoughts to the one he loves the most. Prayer is the most intimate thing we can do. It is expressing our very soul to God.

There are different types of prayers. There is a place for public prayer. This is almost like a married couple holding hands in public. A couple may even sneak a kiss in public but most of their intimate times are behind closed doors. This does not only include physical intimacy but they save their most private thoughts for when they are alone. Prayer is much the same way. A believer who is madly in love with the Lord will have times when he wants to be completely alone with God to share his most intimate praise, worship, and request. This is what Jesus meant by the "prayer closet."

Prayer is holy. It  means much more to God when the person doing the praying has kept himself clean from a sinful lifestyle and done his best to be faithful to God. No married woman would be comfortable with a spouse who flirts with other women all day and comes home to tell her how beautiful she is at night. The words would sound meaningless because he has said them to others. She will feel as if she is just someone else for him to flirt with. It is the same with God and prayer. He does not want our second best. If we participate in things that are clearly against his word our prayers will be lifeless at best and hypocritical at worst.

A husband and wife can each tell when the other is holding back something. My wife knows when I am talking to her but my mind or heart is elsewhere. Life is busy but I must always make time to give her my undivided attention. My prayer life with God should be no less important. When I am surrendered to God my prayers are more energetic and powerful; they have much more meaning.

Jesus Christ excelled in prayer because he was both Holy and completely surrendered to the Father. Full surrender opens the door to powerful prayer. God is only impressed when he knows we are holding nothing back from him. Anyone can memorize prayers and learn to pray beautiful orations in public. Only a person who is truly in love with God will pray prayers that shake the spiritual world and change heaven and earth. If I am tempted to participate in something I know is wrong I must remind myself of this. I can not afford to allow anything into my home or life that would make my prayer less powerful.

There are far too few believers who are praying and our world is depending on us. Won't you join me in making a commitment, not just to prayer, but to Holy prayer? It is worth the price!

Prayerfully Yours

Sullivan Jones

How Far Away is God?

Acts 17:27 - That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. 

Many see prayer as an obstacle course to be surmounted. Prayer seems to be some difficult or mysterious thing. Some wonder if there is a certain way to approach prayer. Do I have to use certain religious words? How do I address God? Still others wonder if God wants to hear from them at. "Am I worthy of asking God for anything?", they might ask. These questions show a lack of understanding about prayer. 

Prayer is a two way communication between man and God. Many become frustrated with prayer because they wonder if God is even hearing them. The truth is, as this scripture tells us, God is never very far from any of us. He is always ready to listen when one of his children pray and he always answers. The problem is we don't always recognize His answer because we may not know how to look or listen for it. 

God answers us in different ways. He may immediately speak the answer into our minds. He may lead us to a Bible verse as we are reading that clears up the matter. Often I have been praying about something and then pastor (or an evangelist) will preach on the very thing I was troubled about. This is answered prayer. 

God may send someone to us to confirm his word. A couple of years ago I was praying about returning to school. An evangelist friend of mine called me one day to ask a question. The conversation led to his father-in-law who had graduated from a Christian college and was now teaching. This minister left me with these words: If you will seek God first, he will open the door for you to go back to school. The next day someone from work stopped me and begin to talk to me about going back to school. After this, my pastor asked to talk to me and he felt I should go back to school as well. I realized God had confirmed what I was feeling through three different people. That is the way God works. He always confirms his word. 

Are you struggling with your prayer life? Don't know how to get started? Take some small steps. Don't worry about how others pray. You are your own person and must develop your own relationship with God through prayer. Some may pray louder than others. Some may have bigger vocabularies. Prayer is not a contest. It is simply spending time with God speaking to him and listening for his voice. Above all, don't expect his answers to always come the same way. The wonder of our God is that he is always the same but his manifestations are limitless. He never ceases to amaze us! 

Don't be afraid to try prayer - it really works because God is really never very far from any of us!  

Prayerfully Yours,

Sullivan Jones