Key To Powerful And Effective Prayer Series

Key to Powerful and Effective Prayer

CCCAG, March 13th, 2022

Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-21

If I were to ask the question, how many people here would say they have a problem having a consistent prayer life?

Is your idea of prayer maybe the last thing you think about before falling asleep?

Is it only something you do at meals, or at church?

It’s my belief that many don’t pray because they don’t understand prayer or how to pray.

Growing up Lutheran we were taught various prayers that we were to recite as our prayer life.

The first and most important of course is the-

Lord’s Prayer (commentary)

Nicene or Apostle’s creed.

If you were Catholic, then you learned all of the ways to pray using the rosary.

Often prayer was used as penance after you confessed your sins to the priest. So prayer was often viewed as punishment to your average Catholic, which is very unfortunate.

Prayer is not a duty. It’s not a checkmark on a to-do list.

It’s a lifeline of communication between you and God Almighty. It’s our modern equivalent of God walking with Adam and Even in the Garden before they ate the fruit.

Prayer is to draw God’s presence to you by lifting up your spirit to meet HIS.

And that brings us to the subject of today’s message from the Book of Ephesians. Paul showing us how to pray, especially for others based on his own pattern of praying for people.

Let’s look at the pattern-

Eph 3:14-21

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Prayer

In your bulletins today, and out on the table in the foyer, are papers designed to help you as you pray. You can keep them in your bible, and if you want more let me know and I’ll make more. They are meant to help guide you as you lift others up to God and help you stay on tract.

Let’s look at the way that we pray-

I. Vs 16 That God would strengthen them with HIS power

The key phrase there that we need to focus on is that God strengthens people with his power.

With his power comes peace

with his power comes strength

With his power comes love

With this power comes direction, purpose, and his will.

When we ask for God's power, he can't send just a part of that power.

Asking only for God's wisdom or his power is like asking someone to come over to your house but they only send their arm.

When we ask Gods power to come, the rest of Him comes with it.

That word translated power, or might in the KJV, comes from the Greek word Dumamis which means ability, abundance, meaning, might.

It’s the same word used to describe miraculous power.

Eph 1:19-21

That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,

If you were here that Sunday, I spoke about God baring his bicep, showing us His strength, and ripping the gates of hell off their foundation and destroying them in the process.

That’s the kind of power we want to be asking God to give to our loved ones, and more and more as we see the day approaching where we will need that power to survive what is coming.

The second way we can pray for people is-

II. Pray that Christ would dwell in their hearts

As the weather warms up, most of us start thinking about spring, and spring cleaning. That time of the year when we can open our windows again and let the fresh air fill our homes.

It’s that time of year where we might move furniture and clean underneath things and do the heavy cleaning we have been putting off all winter.

It’s called spring cleaning- getting ready for the nice weather and being outdoors more often.

I think that some of us need a spring cleaning in our hearts. We may have allowed a few dust bunnies of the world hidden under our spiritual furniture that need to go.