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Introduction
THE
VISION OF ADVOCATES IN PRAYER is to inspire Christians to
develop a disciplined lifestyle of prayer that will enable them
to tap into a revelation of God’s purposes and to release God’s
rule into the lives of those for whom they pray. This
website is a tool designed to fulfill this vision by providing
inspiring biblical teaching about prayer, enlisting prayer
partners into our Intercessors Circle, inviting prayer requests,
appealing for answers to prayer, making prayer training
resources available, and linking with websites of other prayer
ministries of like faith.
This
ministry gives high priority to prayer because of the premium
that God gives to the prayers of His people. Jesus
instructed the disciples that "they should always pray and
not give up." (See Luke 18:1b.) Paul also wrote that
Christians should "Pray without ceasing." (See 1
Thessalonians 5:17.) And why is it necessary to be
relentless and tireless in prayer? Because God has chosen
to use prayer as the means by which he impacts our lives and our
world. "Ask," Jesus said, "and you will
receive, and your joy will be complete." (See John
16:24b.) John Wesley was convinced that "God does
nothing but in answer to prayer." This sentiment is
amplified by E.M. Bounds who states: "God shapes the
world by prayer. The prayers of God’s saints are the
capital stock of heaven by which God carries on His great work
upon earth." (Billheimer 1975:102)
Since
God places such a high premium on the prayers of His people, it
is fitting that we should begin our study of prayer by setting
out to understand just what prayer is all about. Our
mental pictures of prayer may vary widely from the child
learning to talk to God to the worshipper lost in intimate
communion with the Almighty to the prayer warrior attacking the
gates of hell to intercessors travailing for the salvation of
lost souls. All are praying, but each of these pictures of
prayer differs from the others. As we will see, though,
these different facets of prayer are like spokes connected to a
common hub.
Our
topic for this first teaching is "Probing Into Prayer: In
Search of its Essence." The word essence
refers to the basic nature of something. The nature of a
thing remains the same even though its manifestations may
vary. So, what is the unchanging nature -- the
essence -- of prayer? What is prayer essentially? That is
the question we will address in this first teaching.
To
get a true picture of the essence of prayer, we would do well to
stand in the place where Jesus’ disciples stood when they were
overawed at the attraction of His prayer life. Jesus arose
early in the morning to pray and was known to spend whole nights
in prayer. On the Mount of Transfiguration, His prayerful
communion with God ushered Him into the glory of God with the
effect that His face shone with the brightness of the sun and
his clothing became dazzling white and radiant. His prayer
life brought Him into a working relationship with His Father in
which the Father told Him the things He was to say and showed
Him the things He was to do. His prayer life brought Him
divine wisdom and power -- wisdom to know the will of God and
power to bring it about. It is no wonder that we have no
record of the disciples asking Jesus to train them to preach or
teach but do find where they asked, "Lord, teach us to
pray." (See Luke 11:1a.)
Jesus’
prayer life enlightens us to the true essence of prayer.
Simply stated, prayer is the passageway to a living and
working relationship with God. It is through
prayer that we grow in our knowledge of God and of our love for
Him. It is through prayer that we learn the ways of God
and receive revelation of His plans. It is through prayer
that we are instructed and empowered by God to co-labor with Him
to accomplish His kingdom purposes in our world.
With
this understanding of the essence and purpose of prayer, we will
examine the various facets of prayer in order that we might more
fully appreciate its value and experience its benefits. We
will examine prayer as:
-
communication
-
communion
-
cooperation
-
combat
Prayer
as Communication
Prayer
is communication with God. The marvel of prayer is that it
allows us to live our lives in ongoing communication with our
Maker. We don’t have to live as though God is in heaven
and has left us to find our own way in this world. Such
distance from God is the curse brought on humankind by
sin. But, redeemed men and women have the lines of
communication restored.
Calling
Out to God
The
Bible depicts prayer as "calling out" to God. We
see prayer as the desperate cry of the human heart for God’s
help. The very first reference to prayer in the Bible
demonstrates this. We read in the early chapters of
Genesis of the Fall of Adam and Eve, the expulsion from
paradise, the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, and the
killing of a man by Lamech in self-defense. At that point
in the narrative, we find this statement: "At that
time men began to call on the name of the Lord." (See
Genesis 4:26b.) Clearly, prayer was born out of human
desperation and was the cry of the human heart for God’s help.
Prayer
as the desperate cry of the human heart for God’s help invites
God’s intervention and deliverance. This is graphically
demonstrated throughout Psalm 107 -- a psalm beautifully written
and worthy of meditation. The writer describes four
scenarios in which people find themselves in desperate
circumstances. He pictures:
-
those
wandering in desert wastelands far from safety,
-
those
chained and incarcerated in gloomy prisons,
-
those
suffering terminally upon beds of affliction, and
-
those
in ships at sea battered by tempestuous storms.
In
each case, desperation became the motivation for prayer.
We read, "Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress." (See
verse 6, 13, 19, and 28.) With each deliverance there is
an exhortation to thanksgiving. The Psalmist writes,
"Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men." (See verses 8, 15, 21,
and 31.)
Prayer
goes beyond crying out to God in desperation.
Now that we are redeemed through faith in Christ, we can call
upon the Lord with faith and confidence.
We need not be shaken by dreadful events happening all around us
that would normally unnerve us. The prophet Joel
underscores this confidence of the believer. He foretold a
latter day outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit upon all peoples in
conjunction with the coming of a day of God’s wrath and
retribution upon unrepentant humanity. (See Joel
2:28-32.) It’s a picture of salvation and judgment all
in a single snapshot. It’s also a picture of the
believer’s confident posture in prayer. For even when
the heavenly bodies are falling from the sky and the earth is
blanketed with "blood and fire and billows of smoke"
(verse 30b), the believer can rest assured that "everyone
who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (See
verse 32b.)
When
we face desperate circumstances in our lives, we should turn not
to despair but to prayer. And our prayer should not be
crying out to God in desperation but rather calling upon Him in
faith. God wants us to invite Him into our storms so that
He can still them. It is His desire to reveal His strong
arm of salvation on our behalf. The result will be a
testimony of praise to God for his intervention in our
lives. It will also be a witness to others that those in
covenant relationship with God have every reason to expect that
their prayers will be answered.
Dialogue
With God
We’ve
seen that prayer as communication with God is pictured as the
desperate cry of the human heart for deliverance from
peril. Such prayer appeals to God to act but
not to speak. But, prayer as communication
with God should move beyond monologue to dialogue. God
wants to talk with us.
The
definition of prayer many of us learned in Sunday School is that
prayer is talking to God. This statement is
misleading. It is true that prayer includes
talking to God, but it is wrong to say that prayer is
talking to God. It is so much more. Just talking to
God would be monologue: we talk, He listens. But, the
conversational aspect of prayer is meant to be dialogue.
We talk to God, He listens; God talks to us, we listen.
Prayer
as dialogue is evident in the lives of Old Testament leaders and
prophets. We read of Moses that "The Lord would speak
to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his
friend." (See Exodus 33:10a.) A common
expression in the prophets is that the word of the Lord came to
them. That is, God spoke to them. In fact, God rebuked the
false prophets who presumed to speak in His name because they
spoke for Him without hearing from Him. We read, "But
which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or to
hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word? . .
. But if they had stood in my council, they would have
proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from
their evil ways and from their evil deeds." (Jeremiah
23:18,22)
It’s
not just Old Testament leaders and prophets who are privileged
to hear from God on behalf of His people. New Testament
believers are invited into intimacy with God where dialogue
takes place. Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my
voice." (John 10:27a) The apostle Paul writes
of believers that the Spirit of God has come to live in us and
communicates God’s thoughts to us so that "we may
understand what God has freely given us." (1
Corinthians 2:12b).
God
desires to speak with us, and prayer is the means for such
dialogue to take place. We will share more later about how
prayer as dialogue enables us to partner with God in His kingdom
business in our lives and our world. The point to grasp
here is that we should anticipate God’s speaking to us and
make room in our prayer time to hear from
Him. We are the
sheep of His hand, and His sheep will know His voice.
Prayer as
Communion
A
second facet of prayer makes it more personal and
intimate. Prayer is more than communication with God. It
is communion with Him. God created humankind in His image
and likeness to have fellowship with Him. Prayer is the
means to that communion. The Psalmist expressed it this
way: "Deep calls to deep in the roar of your
waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over
me." (Psalm 42:7) This is not an observation
from nature but a description of fellowship with the
Almighty. From the depths of His Spirit, God calls to the
depths of our spirits and solicits a response. The result is
deep, intimate fellowship with God through worshipful prayer.
Prayer
that Worships God
Prayer
as communion is prayer that worships God. Just as the
Psalmist used the imagery of waterfalls to describe the deep
communion of man and his Maker, Jesus used the imagery of a
wellspring within the heart of the believer to describe the way
worship springs forth from the depths of one’s being and
connects with God. In talking to the Samaritan woman at
the well, Jesus said that the water he could give to a person to
quench his spiritual thirst "will become in him a spring of
water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:13b)
I believe He is referring to worship by which the believer
connects with God, the source of eternal life. For a few
verses later Jesus said to her, "God is spirit, and his
worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
(verse 24) It is our regenerated spirit quickened by the
Holy Spirit that wells up in worship to our God and
Savior. This is clear from Jesus’ reference to the Holy
Spirit a few chapters later in John. He said to those
gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, "If
anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever
believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living
water will flow from within him." (John
4:37b-38) For the sake of explanation, the next verse
reads, "By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who
believed in him were later to receive." (verse 39a)
When
we move from prayer as communication to prayer as communion,
we move from dialogue to intimacy. It is like moving from
the living room to the bed chambers. We should not fail to
notice that the images employed by the Psalmist ("all your
waves and breakers have swept over me") and by Jesus
("streams of living water will flow from within him")
depict a spiritual intimacy with God parallel to the physical
intimacy of a husband and wife in intercourse. There is
passion, ecstasy, and overflow. Anyone who has experienced
the Baptism in the Holy Spirit knows this experience
firsthand. Anyone who has not but who thirsts for God is
invited into this intimate communion of spirits.
Let
me comment here that those who define prayer as "talking to
God" would say that this teaching has digressed from
discussing prayer to discussing worship. As we said
earlier, though, prayer is not talking with God. Such dialogue
is only one facet of prayer. We have defined prayer as
"the passageway to a living and working relationship with
God." Since worship connects our spirits with God,
the source of life, worship is an aspect of prayer. In
fact, worship is the spirit of prayer. The Lord’s
Prayer begins with the hallowing of God’s name (see Matthew
6:9) and ends with a threefold doxology of worship ascribing to
God the kingdom, power, and glory. (See verse 13b.)
In the same vein, Paul wrote these words: "I want men
everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or
disputing." (1 Timothy 2:8) Lifting up hands is an
act of worship, and Paul depicts it as a posture of prayer.
Prayer
that Submits to God
Prayer
as communion is prayer that submits to God. To have communion with someone is to share something in
common with them. The prophet Amos raises the
question, "Do two walk together unless they have agreed to
do so?" (3:3) We cannot walk with God and commune
with Him unless we agree with Him. And what is it that
would stand in the way of such agreement? Isaiah writes:
"But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your
sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not
hear." (59:2) It is sin that hinders communion
with God. So then, prayer as communion is prayer that submits to
God through humility and repentance of sin. God’s response to
Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication for the Temple appealed for the
only kind of prayer that would restore broken communion between
God and His people. He beckoned, "If my people, who
are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek
my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from
heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their
land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)
To
submit to God goes beyond repentance of sin. It also
includes deferring to God’s will. This is a part of the
prayer of submission that enables communion with God. The
very heart of the Lord’s Prayer petitions for the coming of
God’s kingdom and the establishment of His will. (See
Matthew 6:10.) Not only did Jesus teach us to pray this
way. He did the same in the Garden of Gethsemane when he prayed,
"Not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew
26:39) It is only as we defer to the will of God that we
can have communion with Him. So, in our prayer lives the
worship of God must lead to submission to Him.
As
with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, the prayer of submission
will frequently be a prayer of self denial. Self denial is
always a part of communion with another person. We cannot
be selfish and have fellowship with another. A
relationship requires two people to work at denying self and
deferring to the other. God expressed the ultimate in self
denial when He became a man in Christ and gave His life at
Calvary to bridge the gap and reestablish communion with
us. Now He calls for the same response from us. Will
we deny ourselves, take our cross, and follow Him? (See Luke
9:23.) If it is God’s rule that we want in our lives,
then our prayer lives must be an exercise in self denial.
No pain, no gain.
Prayer
that Relates to God
Prayer
as communion is prayer born out of our relationship with God.
Our relationship with God through Christ is the key to
answered prayer. In John 15, Jesus depicted himself as a
life-giving vine and His followers as branches drawing their
life from Him. Later in the same chapter, He called them
friends and said that He had made known to them everything the
Father had revealed to Him so that they could lead lives that
would bear fruit for God’s glory. And what is the result
of this life of abiding and fruitfulness? "Then the
Father will give you whatever you ask in my name."
(verse 16b) When we have a relationship with God in which
we are God’s friends, receive revelation from him, and lead
lives that bear fruit for His glory, Jesus says that the result
will be a life of continuous answered prayer.
To
maintain an unbroken relationship with God that is essential to
a life of answered prayer, it is necessary that we maintain a
right spirit toward others. Scripture is clear that if we
don’t love our Christian brother and sister, we don’t truly
love God. (See 1 John 4:20.) This being the case,
God uses prayer as a means to mending strained or broken
relationships. In the Lord’s Prayer, we petition:
"Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our
debtors." (Matthew 6:12) Here again is an
exercise of self denial in prayer. We must deny ourselves
the "right" to have unforgiveness in our hearts
against others if we are to maintain harmony in our relationship
with God.
Our
relationship with God through Christ is the basis for our
confidence in prayer. The writer of Hebrews states that
because of the atonement of Christ by which we are restored in
our relationship with God, and because
of Christ’s faithful
high priestly intercession for us, we are invited to "come
boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and
find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16b)
This
facet of prayer as communion with God has great attraction and
great promise. God invites us into a life of prayer in
which we experience intimate and ecstatic communion with Him,
bow our hearts in submission to His will, live in harmony with
Christian brothers and sisters, maintain a pure heart toward
everyone, an embrace a life of continuous answered prayer.
This is God’s promise to us when He invites us to experience
prayer as communion.
Prayer
as Cooperation
A
third facet of prayer invites us to join with God in the making
of history. Prayer is cooperation with God. It is to
position oneself to receive revelation of God’s purposes and
to release His will in the earth. As Walter Wink states,
"History belongs to the intercessor."
This
aspect of prayer harks back to what we said earlier about the
prayer life of Jesus. His prayer life brought him into a
working relationship with His Father. He received
revelation from the Father concerning the words He was to speak
in His teaching and the miraculous works He was to do in
ministry. (See John 7:16; 14:10, 24; 10:32.) Once
Jesus received revelation of God’s purposes, all He needed to
do was speak the word and the power of the Holy Spirit was
released to accomplish the work. This is what He meant in
saying, "The words I say to you are not just my own.
Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his
work." (John 14:10b)
To
say that prayer is cooperation with God is to say that we, like
Jesus, will hear words from the Father, see the works the Father
is doing, and release them into the earth. And how does this
take place in the lives of believers? It happens in
conjunction with prayers of petition and prayers of
intercession.
Prayers
of Petition
To
say that prayer is cooperation with God is to say that our prayers are a means
that God uses to accomplish His will. One way that this happens is
through prayers of petition. We ascertain just what it is that God's
wants done, and we petition Him in prayer to do it.
In
order to cooperate with God through prayers of petition, we must first receive
revelation of what He wants to do. Such revelation becomes the
foundation of effective petitionary prayer. This truth was communicated
by Jesus to His disciples using the analogy of the keys of the kingdom.
After
Jesus had spent considerable time with His disciples living with them,
teaching them, training them, anointing them, and sending them out in
ministry, He popped the all-important question one day.
"Who
do people say the Son of Man is?" (See Matthew 16:13b.)
That
was easy. It required no special revelation. They answered,
"Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah
or one of the prophets." (See verse 14.)
Now
came the real question. "But what about you? . . . Who do you say I
am?" (See verse 15.)
They
were His disciples. He had poured Himself into them. Did they know
who they were dealing with? One knew. Peter replied, "You are
the Christ, the Son of the living God." (See verse 16.)
This
wasn't what the people said of Jesus. How did Peter know? Jesus
answered that question in His response. He said, "Blessed are you,
Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father
in heaven." (See verse 17.) Peter recognized Jesus' identity
only because God revealed it to Peter.
What
does all this have to do with prayer? Jesus next statement begins to
make the application for us. He said to Peter, "I will give you the
keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in
heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
(See verse 19.) Jesus made this same statement to all of his disciples
two chapters later and then followed it with an encouragement to petitionary
prayer. He said:
I
tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and
whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I tell
you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be
done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come
together in my name, there am I with them. (See Matthew 18:19-20.)
This
exchange between Jesus and his disciples teaches us several things about
effective petitionary prayer. Let me summarize them in bullet form:
-
When
we submit ourselves to God to become disciples of Jesus, we come to know
by revelation from the Father just who Jesus is and what He is up to in
the world.
-
Such
revelation of the identity of Jesus and of His work in the world entitles
us to the keys of the kingdom by which we bind the works of the Enemy and
loose the work of God in peoples' lives.
-
This
act of using the keys of the kingdom to bind Satan's works and loose God's
work in peoples lives takes place through prayers of petition offered in
agreement with other believers gathered in Jesus name.
When
we pray in the spirit of Jesus enlightened by an understanding of who He is
and what He desires to do, we can have full confidence that our prayers will
be answered. His promise is, "You may ask me for anything in my
name, and I will do it." In this way, petitionary prayer becomes a
means by which we cooperate with God to accomplish His will.
Prayers
of Intercession
Another
way that we can cooperate with God through prayer is by prayers of
intercession. An
intercessor is one who "stands in the gap" between God and
humankind. Ultimately, Jesus is the Intercessor between God and humankind
as His atoning sacrifice has provided the way for sinful, fallen humanity to be
reconciled to God. As the risen Lord, He is ascended to God's right hand
where He acts as our High Priest continually interceding for us before God. As
followers of Jesus, we are called to be a "royal priesthood" (see 1
Peter 2:9), which means that we are to intercede for each other and for those
who have not yet become followers of Jesus. We intercede for others
through prayer that appeals to the atonement of Christ, stands upon the
promises of God's Word, resists the Enemy's strategies to thwart God's will,
and receives the grace of God for the meeting of the needs of those we are
praying for. The
classic Old Testament text regarding intercession is from the book of
Ezekiel. God wanted to spare His people from judgment for their idolatry
and backsliding, so He sought for someone to intercede for them -- but, His
seeking was in vain. The Lord said to Ezekiel:
I
looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me
in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I
found none. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with
my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done,
declares the Sovereign LORD. (See 22:30-31.)
This
passage clearly teaches that God wanted to spare His people but could not
because He couldn't find someone to cooperate with Him. The
cooperation He was
looking for was described with two images:
-
He
needed someone to "build the wall." That is, someone had
to fortify the people spiritually so that they would not be vulnerable to
the Enemy's temptations to idolatry and backsliding.
-
He
needed someone to "stand . . . in the gap." That is,
someone had to mediate between God and His backslidden people in order for
them to be forgiven, restored, and reconciled to God.
We
are to cooperate with God through prayers of intercession. It is in
intercession for others that we "build the wall" and "stand in
the gap." That is, our prayers result in believers being
strengthened spiritually to resist temptations to idolatry and
backsliding. We build the wall. Our prayers
also result in the
lost being reconciled to God. We stand in the gap. For Jesus
atonement has made provision for both, and we intercede in His name.
Prayer
as Combat
Thus
far we have discussed aspects of prayer that focus upon God: we
communicate with Him, commune with Him, and cooperate with Him. We come
now to consider a facet of prayer that moves outward with God against the
Enemy. Prayer is combat. Prayer is not only a means for
establishing the reign of God in the earth but also of enforcing Satan's
defeat.
Spiritual
warfare is at the heart of the Lord's Prayer. Jesus taught His disciples
to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven." (See Matthew 6:10.) In the Greek text of this verse,
the verbs are are the forefront of their respective clauses. A literal
reading would be "Come, your kingdom; Be done, your will . . .
." This sentence structure in New Testament Greek gives an
imperative thrust to this petition of the Lord's Prayer. We are boldly
declaring in prayer that God's kingdom will come and His will shall be
done.
When
it comes to prayer, we are to be among the spiritually forceful who rend the
kingdom of God from the obstructing clutches of Satan who would try to hold
back God's blessing and favor from us. Jesus said, "From the days
of John the Baptist till now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully
advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it." (See Matthew
11:12.) God does not withhold His kingdom from us. He freely gives
it. Jesus' said, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father
has been pleased to give you the kingdom." (See Luke 12:32.)
It is Satan who tries to withhold God's kingdom from us, and prayer is the
means by which we violently rend it from him.
Satan
is a master deceiver. He disguises His schemes through craftily weaving
them into the fabric of human culture so that they become the "way
of the
world" in which we live. We who believe in Christ are not of this
world but have a heavenly citizenship. (See John 17:14 and Philippians
3:20.) Therefore, our prayers are to be a form of protest against the
status quo that runs against the grain of God's will. In an article
titled "Prayer: Rebelling Against the Status Quo," David Wells
states:
What,
then, is the nature of petitionary prayer? It is, in essence,
rebellion against the world in its fallenness, the absolute and undying
refusal to accept as normal what is pervasively abnormal. It is, in
this its negative aspect, the refusal of every agenda, every scheme, every
interpretation that is at odds with the norm as originally established by
God.
Jesus
emphasized the role of prayer as protest in His parable of the widow and the
unjust judge. (See Luke 18:1-8.) The judge represented the status
quo. He had neither a fear of God nor a love for people. He wasn't
the slightest bit interested in upholding justice in the poor widow woman's
behalf. But, she continued coming to him day in and day out protesting
the injustice done against her and demanding, "Grant me justice against
my adversary." (See verse 3.) Finally, the judge complied
just to get her off his back. Jesus used this parable to teach an
important lesson about prayer as protest. He asked, "Will not God
bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and
night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that
they get justice, and quickly." (See verses 7 and 8.)
When
it comes to dealing with an ungodly status quo, prayer is an effective means
of protest. While social activism and public protests may change
society
for the better through blood, sweat, and tears, warfare prayer goes right to
the root of the problem and disarms the spiritual forces that cause people to
treat others unjustly. This is why Paul, in a classic text on spiritual
warfare, lists among the four categories of demonic spirits that we wrestle
with "the powers of this dark world" and "the spiritual forces
of evil in the heavenly realms." (See Ephesians 6:12b.) For
just as demonic spirits do battle in the heavenly realms in an attempt to
prevent God's kingdom from coming to the earth (see Daniel 9-10), they also
work in the earth to darken peoples' minds to the revelation of God
ways. (See 2 Corinthians 4:4.) But, through prayer we:
-
Enforce
Satan's defeat in the heavenly realms so that God's kingdom may come to
the earth.
-
Enforce
Satan's defeat in the earth so that people are enlightened to God's ways
and are enabled to do His will.
Prayer
as combat is to be the lifestyle of every believer. It is a means by
which we become the light of the world and the salt of the earth. For we
who are in Christ have been given authority over all evil spirits (see Luke
10:10 and Mark 16:17) and the spiritual weapons by which to demolish Satan's
strongholds from the lives of those for whom we pray. (See 2 Corinthians
10:3-5.) Only as we engage in combat prayer can we effectively cooperate
with God in seeing His kingdom purposes established.
Conclusion
In
this teaching, we have sought to identify the essence of prayer and to do an
overview of the various facets of prayer. As for its essence, we have
defined prayer as the passageway to a living and working
relationship with God. As for the facets of prayer, we've seen that our
living relationship with God is characterized by communication
and communion with Him while our working relationship with God
is played out in our cooperation with Him and our combat
with Satan and the demonic realm. Prayer
as communication with God is a calling out to God that expresses both the
desperate cry of the heart for God's intervention in our lives and the
confident assurance that God will answer our prayers because of His covenant
relationship with us through Christ. Beyond simply answering our prayers
through divine acts of intervention in our lives, God speaks to us in the
dialogue of prayer. Just as He spoke face-to-face with Moses and gave
messages to the prophets, He also speaks to us as the sheep of His hand who
know the voice of their shepherd. Prayer
as communion moves beyond mere communication to intimate relationship.
Their is a deep and intimate communion between God's Spirit and our
regenerated spirit that enables us to worship God with passion, ecstasy, and
overflow. In this communion of prayer, we find ourselves empowered to
submit to the Lord in humility, repentance of sin, and deference to His
will. Thus we experience a fruitful relationship with God and with His
people that leads to a lifestyle of continuous answered prayer. Prayer
as cooperation enables us to partner with God in the shaping of human
history. Through prayer, we receive revelation from God concerning His
redeeming work in Christ and guidance in how we can partner with Him in
bringing others to salvation and spiritual maturity. Through prayers of
petition we learn to receive God's grace for the meeting of the needs of those
for whom we pray. Through prayers of intercession, we become
instrumental in helping others becoming fortified in their resistance to
spiritual attack and restored in their relationship with God. Prayer
as combat is the aspect of prayer called spiritual warfare. Through such
prayer, we protest a status quo mentality that is void of the fear of God and
of a genuine love for others and that leads to social inequity and
injustice. We protest this status quo mentality by enforcing Christ's
victory over the demonic forces that blind peoples' minds to God's redeeming
work in Christ and to His expectations for our lives. God
invites us into a living and working relationship with Him. We have the
awesome privilege of having open lines of communication and intimate personal
communion with our Maker and Redeemer. We have been invited into the
great adventure of co-laboring with Him in the establishment of His kingdom
and contending in His authority for the enforcement of Satan's defeat.
God grant us the grace to choose a lifestyle of prayer that will enrich our
relationship with Him and empower our effectiveness in His service. |
