2015.02.01.Real Prayer
William Akehurst, HSWC
What is Prayer?
Quotes about Prayer
• When you can’t put your prayer into words, God hears your heart.
• Prayer is asking God to align you with HIS will, rather than asking Him to be aligned with yours.
• P.U.S.H. Pray Until Something Happens
• To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing. ~ Martin Luther
• Prayer does not equip you for greater works.
Prayer is the greater work. ---- Oswald Chambers
• Prayer Warriors Pray without Ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
Prayer is…
Speaking, communicating, talking to our Creator and Redeemer.
1. Prayer is a vital key that connects us to our heavenly Father.
2. Prayer is a privilege and our responsibility. It can move the hand of God in situations where there is no other hope.
3. Biblical prayer is crying to God out of the depths of scripture. It is pouring out our soul before God.
4. “Prayer is like the dove that Noah sent forth, which blessed him not only when it returned with an olive-leaf in its mouth, but also when it never returned at all.”
James 5:16b The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
• When a person is RIGHT with God, the power of his sincere prayer is tremendous!
• The conditions for that promise: When a person is “righteous”, right with GOD and prays “effectually fervent”, sincerely.
• Effectual fervent prayer is the hardest kind of work there is to do. Not only does it take more out of a person than any other kind of work, we have to handle ourselves with a strong discipline to make time for effectual fervent prayer.
KNOW HIM
We must understand and know to WHOM it is we pray.
The Creator of the universe. The I AM, the ETERNAL ONE who was, and is, and is to come.
Who is this being who holds the power over everything that exists? Who has the power of the impossible?
The HOLY ONE in whose presence we find ourselves as sinful beings unable to stand before HIM.
KNOW YOURSELF
Then, we must understand who WE are in HIS presence.
We fall short of HIS glory.
Fear and Trembling. Reverence and Awe.
How can we put into words who we are before the ONE who made us?
1 Corinthians 11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
Communion note: When we take of the elements of communion, we take the cup and bread in observance of our relationship with HIM. In prayer, we must know who we are before HIM.
We must also know who we are before HIM in CHRIST JESUS, who by HIS loving act of sacrifice and our confession and believing in what HE did, gave us the right to be called GOD’s children.
As we look through the bible, we see many people of prayer. Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, Jeremiah, Daniel. We can study their prayers and learn from how they interacted with GOD.
Our natural tendency is to shrink back when it comes to praying for the impossible.
• The problem is that we rest the power of prayer too much upon ourselves.
• We think that we are the ones making things happen in prayer.
• Instead we are to see ourselves as instruments in the Lord’s hands for accomplishing his purposes through prayer.
• Prayer is an act of obedience and privilege for the believer.
• We are commanded to pray. But we are also invited to bring our needs before the Lord.
• We are to anchor ourselves in his faithfulness and promises.
• We are to see that the very fact that God commands us to pray is a foundation for effectiveness in our prayers.
The Power of Fervent Prayer
• Peter was in prison awaiting his execution. The Church had neither human power nor influence to save him. There was no earthly help, but there was help to be obtained by the way of Heaven. They gave themselves to fervent, importunate prayer. God sent His angel, who aroused Peter from sleep and led him out through the first and second wards of the prison; and when they came to the iron gate, it opened to them of its own accord, and Peter was free.
• ‘Prayer has divided seas, rolled up flowing rivers, made rocks gush into fountains, quenched flames of fire, muzzled lions, disarmed vipers and poisons, marshaled the stars against the wicked, stopped the course of the moon, arrested the sun in its rapid race, burst open iron gates, released souls from eternity, conquered the strongest devils, commanded legions of angels down from heaven. Prayer has bridled and chained the raging passions of man and routed and destroyed vast armies of proud, daring, blustering atheists. Prayer has brought one man from the bottom of the sea and carried another in a chariot of fire to heaven. What has prayer not done?’
What is it that makes our prayer effectual (or effective)?
• Fervent prayer is putting your whole self---all of your attention, your mind, your will, and your emotions---on that thing you’re praying about. That means your mind is focused on prayer instead of drifting off on other things. Fervent prayer will make a difference in the lives of people, but we must understand that it takes an effort and a sacrifice of our time.
• In Matthew 15:22-28, the Canaanite woman would not take no for an answer. She asked for her daughter’s healing, and three times she was rejected. But she wouldn’t give up. She understood the heart and character of the Lord Jesus. She not only received the healing of her daughter, but was commended by Jesus: "Woman, you have great FAITH!"
• James gives us Elijah as the example of effective prayer in action (see verses 17-18). What gave Elijah the boldness to pray that the rain would stop, and then, at his word, start again? (1 Kings 17:1; 18:41-45).
• Elijah’s prayer was BASED ON THE WORD OF GOD!
All of Israel had turned away from the Lord to worship Baal, the idol-god of a cruel heathen religion. Up stands one solitary man, a total unknown, and boldly proclaims to the king that "there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word!’’ But his authority was based on a promise and warning found in Deuteronomy 11:13-17:
• Daniel also Discovered the Secret
In Daniel 9:3-19. Daniel poured out his heart in prayer before God that his people, who had been taken out of their homeland and held as captives in Babylon, would return to their land. The basis of his prayer can be seen in verse 2:
" . . . I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years’’.
The Lord had spoken right at the time when Judah had gone into captivity that they would be in Babylon for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12). Daniel, reading the Scriptures one day, came across that promise and realized that the 70-year period was almost completed. However, he didn’t just sit back and wait for God to do it. Daniel began to PRAY that what God had promised would be fulfilled. The Lord has chosen to give us the privilege and responsibility of being involved with Him in His purposes on earth. Daniel lived to see his people return!
Praying is life's highest privilege!
Why? Because it is prayer that allows us to draw near to the heart of God. In prayer we commune with our awesome heavenly Father.
Prayer gives us access to the ear of God, enabling us to fulfill His purposes in the earth! And in prayer, He actually shares His deepest desires and purposes with us.
Think about Moses. He talked with GOD. And GOD spoke to him and lead him to do GOD’s will. Isn’t that what our lives are to be?
Let's take a closer look at prayer—exciting, engaging prayer that gets God's attention and cooperates with Him to accomplish His kingdom purposes. We can discover the characteristics of such prayer, and learn to transform our prayer lives into power encounters with our powerful God.
Genuine, sincere prayer gets God's attention.
The parents of four-year-old Johnny overheard this bedtime prayer: "And God bless Mommy and God bless Daddy and God bless my dog. And God, take care of Yourself, 'cuz if something ever happens to You we're all gonna be in a mess." Now, Johnny expressed genuine prayer.
When we talk about prayer, we are not talking about a religious rite. To some, prayer may be little more than a ritual. But for true Christians, prayer is about relating with the living God.
I’m not talking about praying the boring, churchy, starchy prayers you may have heard before.
I may get in trouble with what I’m about to say considering the age of our congregation. But I’ve got to say it. I’ve been to churches where people pray with using KJV “thees and thous”.
Their defense is that they speak back to GOD in the language of the Bible. Then why aren’t they praying or speaking in the original language of Hebrew?
Prayer is not to be vain repetition, or words for everyone else to hear that seem to rise no higher than the ceiling.
It’s to be speaking to GOD from our heart, from our spirit to HIS SPIRIT.
HE tells us to come before HIM, WORSHIP HIM, in Spirit and in Truth. So why wouldn’t our prayers do the same?
Question: Take a moment to reflect on your prayer life.
1. How often do you pray?
2. What kinds of things do you pray about?
3. When do you pray?
4. Where do you pray?
Daniel had a particular place for prayer. Why did Daniel pray 3 times a day facing toward Jerusalem?
See 1 Kings 8:4-45. Do you have a place for prayer? Where is it?
5. How do you pray?
Daniel knelt when he prayed. Why do you think he knelt for prayer? What’s important is not the position of the body but the posture of the heart before God.
What is Effectual Prayer again?
• Effectual prayer, then, is prayer that is based on God’s Word. When we know the promises that He has given, and understand His character and the principles by which He works as revealed in His Word, we can pray with confidence and authority, knowing that our prayers will be answered.
• Seek God’s Prayer Plan for Your Life!
There are many levels of prayer. God knows exactly where each of us are in our prayer life and our knowledge and understanding of prayer.
He will honor even the most pitiful prayer a person offers in faith, if that is all they know to do. But He will not let us stay at that level.
He wants us to move to greater levels of understanding, faith, and power.
And the best way to progress is to simply say, "Lord, teach me to pray powerful and effective prayers."
From now on when you pray…Get REAL with God.
Stop performing. Forget about impressing Him. And certainly forget about impressing others.
Don't worry about saying the right words.
Prayer should be a normal, sincere, genuine conversation between you and your heavenly Daddy.
People look around and they ask, “Where is the God of Daniel?”
But God looks around and asks, “Where are the Daniel’s of God?”
Dare to be a Daniel, Dare to be a Person of Prayer.
NOTICE: Some of the above was borrowed from other sermons of individuals who are not identified here. I thank GOD for speaking to me through HIS WORD, and HIS SPIRIT not only directly, but also through those around us.
Ultimately, the credit goes to the LORD who instructs and teaches us in the way we should go.
I am hopeful that this message also helps another along the way. GOD BLESS.
