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Why Pray?

Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way.

—1 Samuel 12:23

It was the mid-'70s and my husband, Floyd, and I were with a group of Christian leaders called to bring the love of God to Africa. The scorching heat from the penetrating sun was nothing in comparison to the outpouring of the Son's power on the vast crowd of ebony faces and hungry hearts that stood before us. The lame began to walk; the blind received their sight. Healings of every kind were happening before our very eyes. Twenty-three thousand people were miraculously healed as God's power swept over the crowd. I remember thinking, Lord, this is the book of Acts in action.

As I sat on the platform watching this miraculous wave of God's power, I began to cry out to God, "Lord, why are we not seeing miracles such as these in our western culture? Is it because we are bogged down in traditions and doctrines?" I will never forget His reply:

"No, Daughter, these people are receiving because they have no fear of man."

The fear of man is our greatest detriment to knowing and serving God. Only as we lay down our worries about what people think of us and what to expect of others can God honestly and openly speak into our lives. Often we have preconceived ideas of how a person must change before he or she can come to Christ. And yet when Jesus called us to be fishers of men (and women), He told us to go out and bring them in; He did not tell us to clean up the fish before reeling them into our churches. I have never seen a fish yet who was cleaned up before it was caught.

So what is prayer and why should we pray? Do our prayers really make a difference?

The Purpose of Prayer

Christians are called to a lifestyle of prayer, but many have come to see prayer as nothing more than calling upon their Heavenly Butler for daily service, or crying out to their Heavenly Lifeguard when they are drowning in their daily circumstances. Certainly God has more for us than that. Jesus said that because He was going to the Father, we would do even greater works than He did (see John 14:12). When He spoke those words, He was not talking to a crowd of world-renowned Christian evangelists. No, He was speaking to every person who names Jesus as Lord and Savior. He was speaking to you and to me.

Prayer is the responsibility of every Christian. God's Word tells us to pray. But we don't pray just because we have to; we pray because talking to God is a privilege. Prayer is entering into relationship with God so we can determine His will in the matter and call His will into existence upon the earth. As you read the following verse, notice that talking to God on behalf of others carries a promise:

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity (1 Tim. 2:1, 2; italics added).

Much of the discontent and worry we as believers suffer is the result of disobedience to God's Word, which exhorts us to pray:

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints (Ephes. 6:18).

Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41).

Pray without ceasing (1 Thes. 5:17).

The Priority of Prayer

Prayer was the priority in Jesus' life. He considered it more important than physical rest, and He was commonly pictured praying all night (see Luke 6:12). Talking with the Father took priority over His social activity. Scripture often refers to Jesus going off alone to be with the Father (see Matthew 14:23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; Luke 6:12). And, finally, Jesus made prayer a priority over His physical appetite. He fasted for long periods of time, withdrawing from physical food to release spiritual power (see Luke 4:2; Matthew 6:18, 25, 31; Hebrews 7:25).

Prayer was the primary communication link between Himself and the Father. Every major event and every minor decision in Jesus' life was shrouded with prayer. If we are to be Christlike, or like Christ, we must follow His example. Jesus did not pray because He had to; Jesus prayed because He wanted to be obedient to, united with and empowered by the Father. Prayer is to be our priority for those same reasons.

Someone has said that seven days without prayer makes one Christian weak. Prayer is the way that we, His branches, draw the nutrients we need from God the Vine to produce the fruit of His Spirit in our lives. And we do this because, as believers, prayer is to be our primary ministry.

The Ministry of Prayer

Ministry to God must come before ministry to people. First Peter says that you are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9, italics added).

The role of the priest is to minister first to God; then to the people. The way that we minister to God is by praising, worshiping and communing with Him in prayer and meditation. The way that we minister to the people is by allowing the overflow of what we have received in our time alone with Him to pour out into the lives of others. (See Proverbs 15:8; 1 Peter 2:5; Ephes. 1:4, 5; 2 Cor. 5:21 and Hebrews 4:16.)

The Relationship of Prayer

My husband, Floyd, and I have been married for 43 years. We love each other, and because we do, it is not a chore to be together—it is an awesome privilege. We want to share and know the most intimate details of each other's lives. Although I am often the one who is out front in our ministry, Floyd is the strength behind the scenes, working to make sure that what I do when I am publicly ministering runs smoothly and effectively. This happens as we spend time communicating about our heartfelt and physical needs. We have the same goals, the same purpose, and a mutual love and respect for each other.

Similarly, the Bible says that you are Christ's Bride (see John 3:29, NIV). Your marital relationship with Him will deepen as you spend time alone with Him, sharing heart to heart. Prayer is that unique channel of dialogue between you and the Lord. Intimacy is cultivated as you invest time in your relationship with Him. The result will be knowing His will and making His will known to the people. Moses is a perfect illustration of this.

There is probably no one man in the Bible who is more fully respected among the Jewish people than Moses. Why? Moses knew God; therefore, God made His ways known to Moses and His acts to the children of Israel. We read in Exodus 33:11 that "the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend." The Lord longs to speak to you today through the Holy Spirit, just as He spoke with Moses. (Read Exodus 33:11-23.) And not only does God want to speak to you, but He also wants to show you a dimension of life that is invisible to the natural eye.

The Bible says that "God is Spirit" (John 4:24). Therefore, to know and understand the things of God, your spiritual eyes need to be opened. Keenness in the Spirit realm comes as you discipline yourself in prayer, praise, fasting and renewing your mind through God's Word. Ask the Lord to reveal spiritual reality to you just as Elisha did when he asked God to open his servant's eyes, allowing him to see the chariots of protection:

So he answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prayed and said, "O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." And the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6:16, 17).

The more our spiritual eyes are opened, the more understanding we will have about our physical circumstances. Jesus was so spiritually attuned that He said:

"Who is the one who touched Me?" And while they were all denying it, Peter said, "Master, the multitudes are crowding and pressing upon You." But Jesus said, "Someone did touch Me, for I was aware that power had gone out of Me" (Luke 8:45, 46).

Peter was looking at the natural touch; Jesus was aware that something was happening in the spiritual realm. Prayer ignites our natural senses so the light of His Spirit is able to shine in on the motives of the power and principalities at work around us.

The Sacrifice of Prayer

The Scripture tells us that Jesus went to the cross for the joy set before Him. How can this be? How could the Cross possibly have brought Him joy? Because when Jesus was on earth, He was limited by time and distance. Through His death and Resurrection, however, He was able to send the Comforter so all believers could have ongoing, immediate access to the Father via the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:34 says that "Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us."

As we follow Christ's example, we too must freely give ourselves to prayer. Prayer is an unselfish work that is often unseen and unappreciated by others; they only experience the results. When we pray, we are not seeking to be seen by men, but rather to stand in the presence and pleasure of the Lord (see Matthew 6:5; Hebrews 7:25). Our times with God the Father bring us into oneness of heart with Him. We are then able to experience His heartache over the lost, His compassion for the hurting and His love for others—even our enemies.

Prayer is a love response to the burdens of others. The apostle Paul set forth a model for unselfish prayer in Phil. 2:3, 4:

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

The apostle said he did not cease giving thanks for others while making mention of them in his prayers (see Ephes. 1:15, 16; Phil. 1:3, 4, 7). Paul, like Jesus, believed God. As a result, prison gates were opened, souls were saved, the afflicted were healed and lives were transformed. Prayer is powerful, especially when it is based upon God's Word.

The Word of Prayer

As you spend time talking with the Father and reading His Word, your prayers will begin to reflect the heart, mind and Word of the Lord. God's Word is the same yesterday, today and forever. God will meet you right where you are, using the amount of knowledge you have. For example, I remember when a woman who had just become a Christian once called for prayer, saying that her baby had a stubborn diaper rash that would not respond to medication. I told her to "apply the Word of God" and call me with the answer. Twenty-four hours later, she called to say that her baby was cured. When I asked her which verse she had prayed, she explained that she had ripped a page out of the Word and placed it in her baby's diaper each time she changed it. God met this young mom right where she was, with the knowledge that she had!

Ask God to give you a verse that applies to the situation for which you are praying, and pray it. For example, you might pray Col. 1 by inserting your own name or the name of your family and friends, asking "that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light" (Col. 1:9-12).

Your prayer will then become God's own Word alive in your mouth. Praying God's Word brings results and answers, because God Himself said that His Word will not return to Him empty, without accomplishing what He desires, and without succeeding in the matter for which He sent it (see Isaiah 55:11). When you pray the Word, however, it must be quickened by the Holy Spirit so you may speak forth with anointing.

Do not pray the Word for the sake of religious activity. Pray the Word based on faith, believing that you are in agreement with God's will for the circumstance. Let faith be the motivation behind your prayer. Then you will have the assurance that He will work in cooperation with you:

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).

Prayer that is based on faith bears fruit for the Kingdom and pleases God. When you pray and communicate with God in faith, He will speak to you and give you direction, wisdom, knowledge, strength and protection (see Col. 1:9-11; Psalm 40:1, 2; John 15:7, 8).

The Kingdom Partnership of Prayer

Prayer makes a way for God to act sovereignly on earth. Jesus said to pray, "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). God has chosen to work through people, not around them. Therefore, He also says, "Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 18:18). The obvious inference is that God has limited some of His activities on the earth and will respond only to the prayers of His children.

Heaven waits for those of us on earth to pray for things to happen. E. Stanley Jones once said, "We align ourselves with the purpose and power of God, and He is able to do things through us that He could not do otherwise." God seeks for a person, an intercessor, to plead for His perfect will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (see Isaiah 43:26; Jeremiah 1:12).

Prayer Versus Intercession

At this point you may be asking, What is the difference between prayer and intercession? Prayer starts with you and what you know to be the obvious facts as you bring them before God. God will then take over and you will pray what is on your heart and mind until you have prayed it through. Many times prayer will lead to intercession, where God takes over and you are praying in ways you do not understand for that person.

Intercession differs from prayer in that it starts and ends with God. You might be driving along and someone will come to your mind, maybe a sense of urgency about a friend or relative, or even a person you haven't thought about in years. This is God speaking to you. Sometimes you won't understand why you are praying what you are praying, but as you are obedient to pray what you are sensing, God's will is done on earth. Sometimes God will allow you to know the outcome; other times He won't. Your responsibility is to be obedient.

An example of this from my own life involves a favorite cousin I hadn't seen in about 10 years. I crawled out of bed in the middle of the night for a glass of water when a picture of my cousin canvassed my mind. Suddenly I dropped to my knees and began to cry out, "God, don't let Mike move! Keep him still, Lord! Keep him still! Oh God, please don't let him move! Hold him, Lord! Hold him!"

Even though I was pleading on Mike's behalf with my words, I remember thinking, This is really ridiculous. Why am I praying this? Then the words ceased, and when they did, I could not muster another word. So I got up, drank a glass of water and started back toward the bedroom. Again I fell to the floor and began to cry out with a grave sense of urgency, "Don't let him move, God! Don't let Mike move! Stay still! Stay still!" The words came to an abrupt end. This time I thought, Oh no! This must be a nightmare!

I had no feeling inside of me other than the feeling to pray. I got up and began to pace the floor, wondering what in the world that was all about. One more time I took a few steps toward the bedroom when again I dropped to the floor. Only this time I was yelling, "Get him up, Lord! Get him to run! Run, Mike! Lord, help him to run...run...run! Let him run, God! Run, run, run!" After several minutes, a calm came over me and I returned to bed for the night.

The following day, I called my aunt to see if she could help me put the pieces together about my puzzling outcries the night before. She informed me that Mike was in Vietnam. The experience still made very little sense.

Finally, a month later my aunt called to read a letter she had received. The letter told how Mike, who was a pilot, had been shot down and landed in a tree. He had been warned to get out of the area as quickly as possible, but explained that just a few hundred yards from the crash site, he fell into a bush. "Mom," he wrote, "it was like I was pinned down. I felt like somebody was sitting on me. The Vietcong came and were unknowingly standing on my pant leg while looking up at my parachute in the tree. They turned around and began to slash the bushes with their bayonets. It looked safe, so I started to get up and was about to run when once again I fell into the bush as though someone were pushing me. I laid there for a couple of minutes when suddenly I had an impulse to get up and run. I heard a helicopter so I sprinted through the wooded area, following the direction of the noise, to an open space where I was whisked off to safety. The helicopter crew said they came in response to my beeper. And yet, it had not been working when I was shot down." That, dear ones, is intercession!

The Power of Prayer

Prayer can cause God to relent. Many times the fate of the world is not in the hands of governors or kings, but in the hands of mighty intercessors. You, too, can influence society as did Abraham and Daniel and others in the Old Testament (see Genesis 18:17-30; Numbers 14:11-23; 1 Samuel 7:8-13; 2 Kings 20:1-11; Daniel 9:2, 3). It is exciting to realize that your prayers not only affect those you are praying for, but can also help to mold national or international events. As you read the following passage, notice how God changed His mind based on Moses' prayer:

Then Moses entreated the Lord his God, and said, "O Lord, why doth Thine anger burn against Thy people whom Thou hast brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, 'With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth'? Turn from Thy burning anger and change Thy mind about doing harm to Thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy servants to whom Thou didst swear by Thyself, and didst say to them, 'I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'" So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people (Exodus 32:11-14).

Not only does the Lord change His mind when His people pray, but He also gives revelation knowledge and the mind of God through His Holy Spirit. As you pray, He will pinpoint a problem area in someone's life or in a situation, allowing you to see as He sees. Luke tells us that "all things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him" (Luke 10:22, italics added). The role of intercession is a sacred trust. The intercessor must carefully guard the secrets God reveals during prayer and be obedient to share only when the Lord directs. Seek His clear guidance on the proper follow-up of His revelation (see Matthew 11:25, 26; Phil. 3:15).

As you continue in prayer, the kingdom of God will become real through the miracles of God operating in your life. You will see the manifest power of God confirm your spiritual walk. Jesus said that "these signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it shall not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover" (Mark 16:17, 18). Do not be afraid to believe God for the miraculous.

The Warfare of Prayer

But remember, you have an enemy. Ephesians tells us that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephes. 6:12).

You are called to do spiritual warfare through prayer over Satan's strongholds until you win! Satan will usually attack us most in our greatest area of strength. I used to think the reverse was true—that he would attack most in our area of greatest weakness. But I have found that in our areas of weakness, we are more apt to call upon the Lord and rely upon Him. In our areas of strength, however, we tend to rely on self and often find ourselves burning out from fighting our battles alone. Every area of your life is subject to enemy attack, so you must fight on your knees before you can stand on your mission field.

Jesus Himself had to battle Satan through prayer for His ministry and in other situations. We find this clearly illustrated in His wilderness temptation. He experienced spiritual warfare and won before He ever went out into public ministry. You, too, must win before you can fully function in what God has called you to do. The success of your Christian life is dependent on winning...winning in prayer (see Joshua 1:3, 11, 15; Matthew 4:11; Mark 3:27).

Daniel's spiritual battle clearly illustrates the war that occurs in the heavenlies:

Then he said to me, "Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia" (Daniel 10:12, 13).

Daniel's story gives hope for those who are in the midst of battle. Don't give up. You are in a win-win situation. God is for you, and the battle is the Lord's.

The Invitation of Prayer

Prayer is not just a call to war; it is also an invitation to rest. Jesus said, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:6, 7).

Knowing that God is on your side will help you to enter into the rest He offers. He invites you to give Him your problems, cares, concerns and worries (see 1 Peter 5:7; Matthew 6:25, 26). "Cast your burden upon [Him], and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken" (Psalm 55:22). Cease striving and partner with Him. He loves you and longs to share His heart with you. He has called you, dear child of God, to rest in His love as you come away with Him in prayer. Will you say yes to that invitation today?

—Becoming a Prayer Warrior