THE POWER OF PRAYER IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD

What is prayer?
Prayer refers to any and every expression of our thoughts and feelings to God, audible or in audible. It refers to petitions or requests to God. English Standard Version James 5:13-18 “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.”



Prayer is the way to contact the true God who has revealed Himself in love and who has spoken to us already in his word, the Holy Bible. It is talking to true God English Standard Version 2 Corinthians 6:14 “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” thought there are some other who offers their prayer to gods. English Standard Version Isaiah 45:20 “Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.”
Prayers are like tools that make as work with God. It is the only way that a man communicate with God. God created a man and his purpose was to have communication with him. (Genesis 2 and 3) Prayers can be grouped into two groups:-
1. Asking God for something and
2. Telling God something
English Standard Version Joshua 7:7-9 “And Joshua said, ?Alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan! O Lord, what can I say, when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will you do for your great name?” English Standard Version 2 Samuel 2:1 “After this David inquired of the Lord, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said to him, “Go up.” David said, “To which shall I go up?” And he said, To Hebron.”
According to the Bible God is an infinite person who has knowledge and wisdom that cannot be compared. He knows how something begin in life and how it ends. He knows something that is the best to men. He sometimes not answer you according to what you are praying for he knows what the best to you is.
How does God answer prayers?
In the early History of mankind God was answering by:-
- Giving special revelation.
- Revealing Himself through vision, dreams and directly encounters.
English Standard Version Numbers 12:6-8 “And he said, Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
Today, God has answered all our prayers through the scriptures. When we want to make choices we pray with scriptures and the Holy Spirit enables us to make the wise choices when we seek to live in the light of what God has revealed. The Holy Spirit guides the disciples of Jesus into the truth by illuminating the truth that God has provided in the scriptures.
English Standard Version Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
English Standard Version John 14:23-26 “Jesus answered him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
Read Mark 1:35-39; Luke 11:1-13 Basic parts of prayer
1. Adoration
Adoration means love and deeply respect. In the other way we can say the heart of worshiping. Adoration presents the primary place in prayer because of its ability of preparing us to communicate with God. Jesus used “Hallowed be thy name” as the form of adore.
2. Confession
Confession allows us to come before God with “clean hands and pure heart”. Allow us receiving God’s forgiveness. 3. Thanks giving
Thanks giving recognizes two things:-
- God is perfect and worthy of our adoration and
- We are sinful and in need of his mercy.
Therefore our hearts should naturally turn to recognize that all we have is God who have provided to us.
4. Supplication
Supplication means asking something humbly. After recognizing who God is then we ask or question God anything humbly.
Why are we praying?
We are not independent, we depend on God both spiritually and physically. Therefore when we pray:-
- We receive ability from above.
- We get power to control everything.
- We exchange information with God.(Genesis 1:26)
- We get to know the purpose of God in our lives.
- We get to know the revelation of our destination.(Philippians 1:17)
- We receive the power.
- We get the access to divine intervention.(Daniel 2:18-20)
- We get the authority that we exercise in the Spiritual battle field.(Psalms 35:1-8)
- We maintain our origin.(John 17:16)
- We fulfil the commandment in the word of God.(Isaiah 43)
· Read more the purposes of prayer Romans 8:26-27; Philippians 4:6-7; and 1Thessalonians 5:16-18.
What happen when we do not pray?
English Standard Version Job 21:14-18 “They say to God, Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways. What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him? Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand? The counsel of the wicked is far from me. How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger? That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?”
When we stop pray:-
- No counselling from God.
- Losing direction of life.
- The light is put off so we walk in darkness.
- No more protection from God.
- No forgiveness of sins.
- We become like chaffs that will be carried away by the storms.
What cause people not praying?
Some of the reasons that cause many believers not praying are:-
· Lose of fear of God.(Job 15:4)
· Lose of God’s knowledge.(Psalms 14:4)
· Failure to take delight in God. (Job 27:10)
How do we pray?
There are many ways of offering prayers to God but they cannot be common to all believers. No matter you are sitting or standing if you have covered all the parts of the prayer you may offer your prayers either audibly or inaudibly in the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:26-27; 1Corintians 14), in the name of Jesus (Mathew 28; John 14:13) or according to the will of God (1John 5:14) with expectation (Proverbs 23:15) and the Lord who sees your heart will answer you.