“To the average Christian the command “pray without ceasing” is simply a needless and impossible life of perfection. Who can do it? We can get to heaven without it. To the true believer, on the contrary, it holds out the promise of the highest happiness, of a life crowned by all the blessings that can be brought down on souls through his intercession. And as he perseveres, it becomes increasingly his highest aim upon earth, his highest joy, his highest experience of the wonderful fellowship with the holy God.” Mike Bickle
Did you know that God passionately desires that we partner with Him in prayer?
We have a dynamic role in determining the measure of the quality of our life, because God opens doors of blessing when we pray. But we have to rise up in prayer and partner with Him or we will not see these blessings. It is wise to develop a dynamic prayer life. God seeks for those who will stand in the gap and pray (Ezekiel 22:30). The prayer room is an excellent place to develop a dynamic prayer life both personally and corporately. I have seen it happen many times. Individuals seem to leap forward in prayer in an incredible way when they catch the vision of 24/7 prayer.
Why does God love our prayers?
It seems to be a mystery, doesn’t it? Prayer and intercession draws us into intimacy and at the same time, humbles and transforms us. When we bring our needs to God in prayer, we interact with God’s heart. He loves when we verbalize our prayers. He wants us to ask
in order to receive (James 4:2). He even withholds blessing if we do
not ask. God will answer and be gracious to us if we pray and ask
(Isaiah 30:18-19).
When we pray we are in governmental partnership with God, and we are changed on the inside as His Word abides in us. We are filled with His heart, and our effectiveness in prayer increases. We then decree His decrees with power from on high (Job 22:27-28). Wrong things are made right, the sick are healed, those bound in sin are freed, and revival is released in geographical areas.
God initiates prayer by declaring His will in His Word. We respond by praying His Word. Then He answers us by releasing His blessing because of our prayers. Our prayers are actually very powerful even during those days when we feel they are very weak. Prayer and intercession cause us to internalize God’s Word because when we speak His ideas back to Him, our minds are illuminated and our hearts are touched. His Words impart life (John 6:63). His Word builds us up and delivers us (1 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 4:12; Acts 20:32; James 1:21). God’s mind then dominates and saturates ours, renewing us as we pursue Him in prayer.
I love to hear stories about Charles Finney because my husband comes from New York. Charles Finney was a lawyer from New York in the 1800’s whom the Lord used greatly to bring about revival. He soon quit his law practice and went into times of prayer and fasting. Over 100,000 were considered converted during his meetings with 80% continuing on with the Lord. That was a large number of people in those days.
What was the main secret of his spiritual success?
He had two faithful intercessors, Daniel Nash and Abel Clary, who believed in fervent prayer. They would go ahead of Finney to the cities where he was going to preach, and they would cry out to God and weep in prayer for those cities. Sometimes they would writhe and groan in agony over souls. God honored their prevailing prayers and sent revival.
These amazing results were because of prayer!
In the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8, Jesus exhorts us to cry night and day. We must learn to be steadfast in prayer with great endurance. Satan’s warfare against us is to undermine our faith by tempting us to lose heart and confidence in prayer. The Bible promises us that we will reap if we do not grow weary (Galatians 6:7-9).
If we look at Jesus’ disciples, their request was not to have a big ministry or great fame. They asked Him to teach them how to pray (Luke 11:1). They saw that everything that happened in Jesus’ ministry was because of His prayer life. Throughout the Bible we see that those who God used greatly were men and women of prayer. E. M. Bounds in his book, E. M. Bounds on Prayer, says:
“Christ, who in this as well as in other things is our example, spent many whole nights in prayer. His custom was to pray much. He had His habitual place to pray. Many long seasons of praying made up His history and character. Paul prayed day and night. Daniel’s three daily prayers took time away from other important interests. David’s morning, noon, and night praying was doubtless on many occasions very long and involved. While we have no specific account of the time these Bible saints spent in prayer, the indications are that they devoted much time to prayer, and on some occasions long seasons of praying were their custom. “
By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC