- [Narrator] How to Pray Effectively.
Number one, Faith.
After locating the will of God regarding any situation,
the next thing you must do is build up your faith
with effective communication.
What is faith you may ask?
The Bible calls faith, the substance of things hoped for.
That means faith is the very ticket
on which you take delivery of anything from heaven.
Faith is a powerful force
without which your prayer will be left unproductive.
How do you build faith you may ask?
You build faith by the Word of God.
So then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God.
You play a vital part in the communication link of prayer.
Hebrews 11:6 tells us,
But without faith, it is impossible to please Him.
For he that cometh to God must believe that He is
and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
This shows that it is you and not God
who determines whether your prayer gets an answer or not.
As for God, His part is settled.
God is the constant, he is unchanging.
We are the variable.
Psalm 84:11 says, no good thing will he withhold
from them that walk uprightly.
Whatever thing makes for your welfare
and that of his kingdom is good in the sight of God.
So, he will not withhold it from you
as long as you ask in faith.
Worship our father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, Luke 11:2.
After Jesus healed the individual,
his disciples couldn't heal.
They came to him later
to ask why they couldn't cast the devil out of the child.
Jesus' response is very revealing.
Matthew 17:19-20 tells us,
then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said,
why could not we cast him out?
And Jesus said unto them,
because of your unbelief.
For verily I say unto you,
if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed,
ye shall see onto this mountain,
remove hence to yonder place,
and it shall remove,
and nothing shall be impossible on to you.
Some conflicts in our lives are a direct attack
from the forces of darkness.
And the Word of God is a light
that will shatter that darkness.
In John 1:5,
the light shines in the darkness
and the darkness has not overcome it.
Psalm 119:130, lets us know
that it is the entrance of the word that gives light.
Till the Word of God enters your heart and generates faith,
it will not become the light
and if it does not become the light,
then darkness will not be overpowered.
We don't pray for faith,
you cultivate it by staying with the word
until the assurance of that reality
is established in your heart.
Once your faith is established and secure,
you can be sure of getting results when you pray.
We must not only approach God with his word,
but you must also come with an unwavering assurance
that he abides faithful and cannot deny Himself.
You must not come before God with an attitude of,
I'm just going to try, maybe God will answer me.
The Word of God tells us,
let not that man think he will receive
anything off the Lord.
Jame 1:6-7 tells us,
but he must ask in faith without doubting,
because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea,
blown and tossed by the wind.
That man should not expect to receive anything from God.
God seeks to give us answers.
When you approach the throne room, in your prayers,
we have to remember Jeremiah 29:12,
then shall ye called upon me and ye shall go
and pray onto me, and I will hearken unto you.
The Word of God also says,
God has not called the sons of Jacob
to seek Him in vain, Isaiah 45:19.
This should come as an assurance to us
that God is committed to answering us when we call upon Him
according to the dictates of the Word of God.
1 John 5:14 tells us,
and this is the confidence that we have in Him,
that if he ask anything according to His will,
He will hear us.
However, we must also have complete trust
and confidence in God in place
before you ask him for anything,
because even though the Word of God
grants you the audience before Him,
your faith motivates Him to act on your behalf.
Many of us have followed Jesus for a long time.
These people have done all manner of things
in the name of prayer including long fast
and other activities,
whereas all that God is waiting to see in them
is a believing heart.
Number two, Worship.
This is our second step in effective communication.
We must approach the throne of grace in worship
if you want to get God's attention.
Psalm 100:2 and 4 tells us,
worship the Lord with gladness,
come before Him with joyful songs.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, and praise His name.
Complaining, grumbling and murmuring
will not give us access into God's presence.
Our worship will do that.
When we approach God with thankful heart
and an attitude of worship,
He will welcome us into His presence.
Praise is our cheapest way to attract the attention of God.
Because God dwells in the midst of praise, Psalm 22:3.
When we come towards the Lord saying,
Lord, I thank you for who you are
and thank you for everything you have done for me.
Thank you for always being with me.
With this His ears are open to you
and He's already saying,
what can I do for you, my son?
Provoking God's presence is our ultimate goal in prayer,
as that is the best way to secure the hand of God
in our case.
Once we secure God's presence,
our answers are already at the door.
Our heart seated praise and worship
is the way to accomplish it.
Praise proves that we acknowledge God's Lordship
over our own personal lives and that of the world.
It proves that we see God as our helper
and not the source of all problems.
This serves to grant us an unlimited access
into the presence of God
where communication easily flows with ease,
and our answers are guaranteed.
Number three, Supplication.
Use the Word of God.
Supplication is basically praying with scriptures.
We need to reinforce our communication with God
with the Word of God.
Philippians 4:6 says,
Be careful for nothing,
but in everything by prayer
and supplication, with thanksgiving,
let your requests be known onto God.
Here Paul gives us an insight
on how to approach the throne room of God in prayer.
First, he tells us to be relaxed.
Then he tells us to come boldly.
Hebrews 4:16 says, Let us come boldly.
When you're relaxed, you are bold.
Prayer is not just saying somethings to God.
Prayer is saying the right thing.
Elijah's prayer in 1 Kings 8:36-37 was short,
sharp and straight to the point.
The result, instant power.
This is what God commands.
Isaiah 41:21 tells us,
produce your cause, saith the LORD,
bring forth your strong reasons, saith the king of Jacob.
Nothing moves God like His Word.
So, if you're in need of employment,
you can reinforce your request to Him like this,
Lord, your Word says, say ye to the righteous,
that I shall be well with him,
for they shall eat the food of their doings, Isaiah 3:10.
Not the fruit of his brother's labor,
or the fruit of his senior brother's labor.
Also your Word says,
no good thing will be withhold
from them that walk uprightly, Psalm 84:11.
Oh Lord, my God, you know I walk with you.
Your word also says, I have been young, and now I'm old,
yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken
nor his seed begging bread, Psalm 37:25.
Lord, I do not seek to beg
as because it is not part of your covenant package for me.
In Matthew 20, I saw that you went out to the marketplace
at different hours of the day,
and all those you found standing idle
due to unemployment, you hired.
So, Lord, I pray that you hire me now.
I know you profoundly detest idleness,
neither do I want to remain idle.
Therefore, I thank you for my miracle employment now,
in the name of Jesus.
With this, you're justified before Him
and assured to get employment.
The Word of God tells us,
the young lions do lack and suffer hunger,
but they that seek the Lord
shall not want any good thing, Psalm 34:10.
Withhold not good from them, to whom is good due,
to them that walk uprightly.
So when you're serving the Lord,
He is committed to your good.
And when he stretches forth His hand,
who can turn it back.
It is not the will of God for you to lack any good thing.
So, you can say to Him,
Lord, I serve you,
and you say it in your Word
that no man can serve two masters, Matthew 6:24.
If you have been plagued with sickness, pray like this.
The Word of God says in Exodus 15:26,
I'm the Lord that healeth thee.
God told the Church in the wilderness this,
and he says, I am the Lord, I change not.
So He is still the healer today,
as He was in the times past.
When He sent His Son, Jesus, the Bible says,
Himself took our infirmities
and bear our sicknesses, Matthew 8:17.
Jesus is the same yesterday, today,
and forever, Hebrews 13:8.
He's still doing all the miracles of healings
He performed in the Bible.
He abides faithful, and He cannot deny Himself.
Pray, in the name of Jesus,
you have no legal hold over my being
because Jesus took my diseases and pains
the same day he took my sins.
let God be true and all men liers.
I therefore take my liberty now in the name of Jesus.
When this comes from a Word prepared
and faith ignited heart,
heaven must respond.
Supplication does not only mean
substantiating your desires with scriptures,
it also means engaging in heartfelt communications.
This leads us to number four, The Heart.
James 5:16 says,
the effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much.
The Amplified Version of the Bible says,
the earnest, heartfelt continued,
prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available,
dynamic in its working.
That means only the prayer that emanates from the heart,
not from the head is the prayer that will avail much.
A great example of a heartfelt prayer
is the Hannah's prayer.
1 Samuel 1:12-17 tells us,
And it came to pass,
as she continued praying before the Lord,
that Eli marked her mouth.
Now Hannah, she spake in her heart,
only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard.
therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.
And Eli said unto her,
how long will thou be drunken?
Put away thy wine from thee.
And Hannah answered and said,
No, my lord, I'm a woman of a sorrowful spirit.
I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink,
but have poured out my soul before the Lord.
Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial,
for out of the abundance of my complaint.
She spake in her heart, only her lips moved.
Her voice was not heard.
But she said she had poured out her soul onto the Lord.
That means the whole of Hannah's being
was in what she was saying.
Hannah meant what she prayed about
from the depths of her heart.
And our hearts is where God looks and relates with.
God has no respect for anyone who draws near onto Him
with their lips only
whereas their hearts are far away from Him
as we see in Isaiah 29:13.
After Hannah's prayer,
the Bible says in 1 Samuel 1:18,
And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight.
So the woman went her way, and did eat,
and her countenance was no more sad.
Hannah was sure she had contacted heaven
so she went her way and was no longer sad.
She was assured of her answer from the moment she prayed.
Let no ordinary statement come out of your mouth.
It is heart speaking that makes for an effectual prayer.
It is not how loud your prayers are,
but how genuinely we call from the deep that matters.
In Zechariah 12:10 we read,
And I will pour upon the house of David,
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the Spirit of grace and supplication.
There is the Spirit of grace and supplication
that enables a man stand strong on the prayer tower,
praying from the depths of his soul,
as though praying for his only son.
To summarize all points,
number one, come to God in faith.
Number two, come to God with praise.
Number three, supplicate with the Word.
Number four, pray with a heartfelt prayer.
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