ENDORSEMENTS

“I had the pleasure of listening to Jennifer Kennedy Dean share a brief, morning devotion on prayer. The depth, insight, and truth of her words spoke to me in a powerful way. A few minutes with Jennifer challenged me and changed my praying life. With Live a Praying Life!, I can engage in more than a few minutes. I can look forward to more learning and growing and communing with the Lord.”

—Kendra Smiley, conference speaker and author of Journey of a Strong-Willed Child

“A great book to grow your intimacy with the Father and gain confidence that He hears and answers prayer.”

—Fern Nichols, founder and president, Moms In Touch International

“Live a Praying Life! is an immensely valuable book on prayer. Reading it and applying its truths will infuse your life with faith and bring a new dimension to your prayer life, helping you to discover a more vibrant relationship with Christ.”

—Cheri Fuller, speaker and author of The One Year Book of Praying Through the Bible, A Busy Woman's Guide to Prayer, and Mother-Daughter Duet

“I love the simple way Jennifer Kennedy Dean explains biblical truths in a way that excites me and inspires my prayer life. I've grown in my understanding of Jesus and I've been drawn into His presence. Highly recommended!”

—Tricia Goyer, author of Blue Like Play Dough

“Anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the heart of the One who calls us into His presence, the One who prompts us to bring our words (some inexpressible) to the throne within His chamber, will know immediately upon opening this book they have struck gold.”

—Eva Marie Everson, author of Shadow of Dreams and Summon the Shadows

LIVE A

PRAYING

LIFE!

OPEN YOUR

LIFE TO GOD'S

POWER AND

PROVISION

JENNIFER KENNEDY DEAN

New Hope® Publishers

P. O. Box 12065

Birmingham, AL 35202-2065

www.newhopepublishers.com

New Hope Publishers is a division of WMU®.

© 2011 by Jennifer Kennedy Dean.

All rights reserved. First printing 2011.

Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dean, Jennifer Kennedy.

Live a praying life!: open your life to God's power and provision.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-59669-299-2 (hc)

1. Prayer--Christianity. I. Title.

BV210.3.D435 2011

248.3'2--dc22

2010037810

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked (AMP) are taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version.

ISBN-10: 1-59669-299-5

ISBN-13: 978-1-59669-299-2

N104149 • 0111 • 5M1

DEDICATION

To my sons and the women they have brought

into my life as daughters-in-law:

Brantley and Caroline

Kennedy and Sara

Stinson and Stephanie

You are the beneficiaries of generations of prayer.

You walk in the answered prayers of those who came

before you. You have a rich heritage. Love you.

TABLE

OF

CONTENTS

Introduction

SECTION 1—THE PURPOSE OF PRAYER

Chapter 1:   The Purpose of Prayer

If God is sovereign, why do we pray?

Chapter 2:   The Defnition of Prayer

If prayer does not get God's attention, give Him new ideas, or awaken love or mercy in Him that He has not already felt, then what is the definition of prayer?

Chapter 3:   The Necessity of Prayer

Why did God put prayer into the equation? What does prayer accomplish?

Chapter 4:   The Author of Prayer

Why is the content of all true prayer God's decision? How does He author prayer in His people?

SECTION 2—THE PROCESS OF PRAYER

Chapter 5:   The Process of Prayer

What is God's purpose for the time between my request and His answer?

Chapter 6:   Waiting on God

Does God delay? Or does it only appear to be delay from an earthly perspective?

Chapter 7:   Hearing from God

How does God speak reliably and authentically to His people in the present tense? Why does He speak to His people in the present tense?

Chapter 8:   Seeking After God

What part do the spiritual disciplines play in prayer?

SECTION 3—THE PROMISE OF PRAYER

Chapter 9:   The Promise of Prayer

How do we consistently see the promises of God become real in our experience?

Chapter 10: Faith Is Required

Why is faith a requirement for powerful praying?

Chapter 11: Obey and Forgive

Why are obedience and forgiveness requirements for powerful praying?

Chapter 12: Authority in Prayer

What does it mean to pray with authority? How does a believer's authority operate?

SECTION 4—THE PRACTICE OF PRAYER

Chapter 13: The Practice of Prayer

What are some practical disciplines that will help a praying person develop a rich praying life? How might one order a scheduled hour of focused prayer? What time of day is best for a disciplined, scheduled prayer hour? What forms does prayer take?

Final Thoughts

Critical Questions index

Introduction

I grew up in a praying family. From earliest childhood, I was encouraged to commit everything to God through prayer. Nothing was either too important or too insignificant to leave in God's hands. My parents did not teach me about prayer with their words, but with their lives. They had more than “a prayer time”—a section of their days set aside for praying. Instead, prayer permeated and controlled every aspect of their lives.

Prayer, I later came to realize, can be an activity or it can be a life. You can think of it in terms of “my prayer life,” as you would say “my home life,” or “my work life.” As if prayer were one compartment among many. But I knew that prayer as a task or prayer as an activity would not meet the deep yearning I had to know God. It was not a prayer life I wanted, but a praying life—a life of ongoing and continual interaction with the spiritual realm. I've come to agree with Andrew Murray who wrote, “It is in prayer and its answer that the interchange of love between the Father and His child takes place” (With Christ in the School of Prayer). I want an uninterrupted flow of love between the Father and me. Isn't that what you want? Isn't that what your heart is crying out for?

You see, there is an undercurrent of prayer always active in a believer. The life of Christ, the Spirit of the Son, is within you crying out, “Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:6). To put it in today's language, He is calling out, “Daddy! Daddy!” The Spirit is always praying the Father's will, and the Spirit is housed in you. (Romans 8:9, 11, 15, 26–27; and 1 Corinthians 6:19). At some level, in every believer, prayer is always going on. The Praying Life is Him. It is the life of Jesus Christ operating in you. The key to learning to live a praying life is this: learn how, more and more often, to tap into the undercurrent of prayer, the active presence of Jesus in you. Join your voice with His in harmonious prayer.

In my prayer journey, when I became a young adult, I realized that a praying life was not built on information communicated from one person to another, but on a life-absorbing relationship with God. I sensed the difference between a prayer life and a praying life, and I knew which one I craved. I knew that there was only One who could teach me to pray, who could be my Prayer Teacher. To Him I brought my inadequacy and my hungry heart. “Lord,” I cried. “I know how to say prayers, but I don't know how to pray. Teach me to pray!”

In response to my heart's cry to teach me the deep truths about prayer, God began to open His Word to me in new ways. Familiar passages took on fresh meaning. Dull, dry passages pulsed with new life. I felt myself being “taught by the Lord” (Isaiah 54:13). To this day, some 30 years since I embarked on this soul-quest, it is still new. Each time I discover a concept, He brings me opportunities to put it to the test. The words of the Scriptures shape my life and define my experiences. Slowly but surely, He is building a praying life.

As I submitted myself to God for instruction in prayer, He seemed to ask me, “Jennifer, why do you want to learn to pray?” I knew all the right answers, but they had a hollow, false ring to them. My experience must have been similar to Peter's. How surprised he was when Jesus did not accept his glib and easy answer to the question, “Peter, do you love Me?” Each time Jesus asked, Peter must have been forced to look deeper inside his heart for the true answer.

That is always His starting place—your truth. No matter how ugly your truth is, He can work from it. What He can't work from is pretense. As He had with Peter, God peeled back the layers and layers of my practiced, memorized, other-people's answers until my truth emerged. “Father, I want to know how to pray so that I will know how to get You to do what I want when I want You to do it. I hope to learn how to make the best possible use of prayer for my benefit.”

Once I reached that point of honesty, I knew my course was set. God could work with me now because He could begin with my weakness. At the point of my weakness, His strength would be put on display. My Prayer Teacher could begin by teaching me a new purpose for prayer.

This is my life's work. It is the culmination of my most passionate pursuit. It is in my nature to ask every question, challenge every assertion, follow every thread to its end. Over decades, I have wrestled with these truths, road-tested them, absorbed them, questioned them, affirmed them.

This book is a record of my journey up to now. But the journey never ends. Every single day I learn something new about prayer, or I learn something familiar in a deeper way. It is my hope that in recording what I have learned and the inner changes that have occurred, others will be inspired to sit at the Master's feet.

THE

PURPOSE

OF PRAYER

The Purpose

of Prayer

Ientrusted myself fully to the Master's teaching. I was committed to this journey, wherever it would take me. I was certain there were answers to the questions that perplexed me. The first question I had to understand was this: Can I change God through prayer? This presented a dilemma for my orderly mind because it seemed to have a pitfall either way. If I can change God, then He's not sovereign. If I can't change God, then what good is prayer?

I realized that in practice, I had prayed as if I could change God. I prayed as if I could open His eyes to new possibilities, awaken love or mercy in Him, or sway Him to my point of view. If I could just say the right words, I thought, or say them in the right order, or say them often enough, or say them with the right amount of fervor—somehow I could get God to do what I thought He should do. I felt that I had to convince God. I felt that I had to prove my need or give Him a reason to answer me. I approached prayer as if God were hoarding blessings and my role was to get Him to release them. It was a draining responsibility—to be clever enough to convince God. It caused my prayer life to be anxiety-driven, always wondering if I had been effective enough to win God over.

In retrospect, I giggle at how I approached God in prayer! As if God were waiting for me to make suggestions for Him to consider. As if, when I prayed, God said, “Why didn't I think of that? I wonder what other good ideas Jennifer might have for Me?” But at the beginning of my journey, I couldn't see anything else prayer would be for. If God already knows what He wants to do, why does He need my prayers? Think about your prayer life. When you pray, what do you assume happens in heaven?

a) God says, “What a great idea! I'll take that under advisement. Maybe—just maybe—if you can bring Me enough documentation or can make a strong enough case, I'll consider your idea.”

b) God says, “The majority of the requests on this matter are leaning in the other direction. I'll have to deny your request. I have to go with the majority.”

c) God says, “Someone else got here first.”

d) God says, “You've let Me down so many times. What makes you think I would give you anything you asked for? You don't deserve to have your prayers answered.”

What is your answer to this dilemma: Does prayer change God? If so, can He be sovereign? If not, why should I pray?

Sovereign, or Not Sovereign?

In thinking through this dilemma, my starting place had to be the sovereignty of God. Scripture is clear that God is, has always been, and always will be sovereign. Sovereign is sovereign. Any limitations on His sovereignty would mean that He is not sovereign.

To say that God is sovereign is to say that He is under no rule or authority outside Himself. His sovereignty is combined with His all-powerfulness. He not only has all authority, He has all power.

Consider what Scripture says about God's sovereignty. These are just a sampling of the Bible's proclamations about God's undiluted and unqualified sovereignty:

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things.

—1 Chronicles 29:11–12

He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?”

—Daniel 4:35

Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

—John 19:11

“I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.”

—Job 42:2

Is God Indecisive?

God is sovereign. That's settled. Yet many people still wonder: Can God change His mind? Does He ever rethink His position or second-guess His decree? Let's look at the clear words of Scripture:

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

—Numbers 23:19

“He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind.”

—1 Samuel 15:29

But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.

—Psalm 33:11

I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

—Ecclesiastes 3:14

He does not take back his words.

—Isaiah 31:2

The Word of God, from beginning to end, tells us that God is working according to a plan He put in motion even before the earth was formed. Nothing takes Him by surprise. He is never making things up as He goes along. He is never confronted with a situation He had not expected and planned for and woven into His sovereign and redemptive plan.

Yet, there are occasions in Scripture when it appears that God changed His mind in response to intercession. For example, in the story recorded in Exodus 32:9–14, the Israelites angered God by building a golden calf to worship. God declared that as a result of their idolatry, He would destroy them and make a great nation out of Moses. But Moses began to pray: “'Turn from your fierce anger; relent (change your mind) and do not bring disaster on your people’” (Exodus 32:12, parentheses added). How does the Scripture say that God responded to Moses’ prayer? “Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened” (Exodus 32:14).

How can we reconcile the sovereign and unchangeable purposes of God with the intercession of His people? Didn't we just read that God changed His mind? Let's set this passage into its context. The story is told from the earth's point of view. But you and I are not limited to the earth's point of view. We can see it from heaven's point of view. We can step back and get the big picture. From the earth, it looked as if Moses prayed and God changed His mind. But is that what really happened?

If God changed His mind in response to Moses’ prayer, then was Moses more merciful than God? Was Moses wiser than God? Did Moses get God to cool His anger so that He wouldn't take an action He would ultimately regret? Shall we be grateful to Moses for restraining God?

Or is this the way it happened? God sees the sin of the nation of Israel and passes judgment on them—they will be destroyed. But Moses makes such a passionate plea on their behalf that God reevaluates. “Moses has a point,” He reasons. “I hadn't thought about it that way. I'll change My mind and do as Moses has suggested.”

If God can be influenced to change His mind, then His word cannot be trusted. Is this not a true statement? Think about it. If the right argument can change God's mind, then how can His word stand firm in the heavens (Psalm 119:89)? How can His word endure when all else fades like the grass of the field (Isaiah 40:8)?

So what is going on in Exodus 32? We can see the truth only by comparing the event with Moses to another similar event that had a different outcome. That event is described in the Book of Ezekiel.

Different Responses, Different Outcomes

Let's look at Ezekiel 22:23–31. The nation of Judah was in danger of receiving God's judgment. Why? Verses 23–29 spell out all the ways that the people of Judah were breaking the covenant. They were living purposefully in sin. So what did God do “so [He] would not have to destroy it (Judah)?” According to verse 30, He looked for an intercessor.

Examine Exodus 32 and Ezekiel 22 and you will see a parallel spiritual truth running through them. Notice the similarities: In both instances, the people had broken covenant with God. In Exodus 32:1–6, all Israel broke covenant with God. In Ezekiel 22:23–29, Judah broke covenant with God. In both instances, the people had earned God's judgment.

What is God's judgment? It is when God allows the consequences of sin to accrue to the sinner. God does not impose a new punishment for each offense. This is not to say that God does not punish, but that sin has punishment built right into it. When God defined judgment or punishment to Adam and Eve, He did not say, “If you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, I will kill you.” He said, “You will die.” The wages of sin is death. Sin brings death and punishment with it.

God's judgment occurs when God allows sin to have its full effect and does not intervene to circumvent the consequences. Notice how God's actions toward Judah are described in Ezekiel 22:31: “bringing down on their own heads all they have done.”

In both Exodus and Ezekiel, God desired to intervene in the natural course of events and show mercy instead of judgment. For the nation of Israel in Exodus 32, we know that God's heart desire was not to destroy the people, but to save them. How do we know? Look at the judgment the people had earned. God essentially said to Moses, “I will destroy this nation and make a great nation out of you.” Think about it. What if God had carried out the judgment? He would have destroyed the tribe that was to produce the Messiah! The Messiah was to come from the tribe of Judah, but Moses was from the tribe of Levi. God did not want judgment; He wanted to show mercy.

For the nation of Judah in Ezekiel 22, we know that God wanted to show mercy because He said, “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.”

In both cases, even though the people had earned judgment, God desired mercy. When God wanted to intervene and change the natural course of events, what did He do? In both instances, He looked for an intercessor.

Look at the elements of God's call to Moses in Exodus 32:7–10:

1. Verse 7: God reminded Moses that He has placed the people into Moses’ care. When He called the nation of Israel “your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt” instead of “My people, whom I brought up out of Egypt,” what was He meaning to communicate? He was saying to Moses, “Moses, My people, whom I have entrusted to your care…”

2. Verses 8–10: God told Moses what the people have brought on themselves. He gave Moses a glimpse of where things were headed unless He intervened. Isn't that what motivates us to intercede? Don't we first have to see the urgency? God called forth from Moses the great love for the people that God Himself had placed in Moses’ heart.

3. Verse 10b: God said to Moses, “I [will] destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” We have to hear this statement in the context of the relationship between God and Moses. God and Moses had lived in such long intimacy that the heart of God had become the heart of Moses. The desires of God had become the desires of Moses. Moses did not see a good opportunity to exalt himself, but instead saw the destruction of God's eternal plan. God called on Moses’ selfless love for the people and his loyalty to the eternal purposes of God. With these words, God called Moses into intercession.

Now let's see how this plays out in Ezekiel 22. In verse 30, God clearly stated, “I looked for a man.” God looked for an intercessor for Judah.

At this point the two instances take opposite turns. When God looked for an intercessor for Israel, He found Moses. When God looked for an intercessor for Judah, He found no one. Israel received mercy. Judah received judgment.

Moses did not change God's mind; He shared God's mind. He did not alter God's plan; He implemented God's plan. God's purposes were firmly rooted in Moses’ heart and formed the basis for Moses’ desires. When Moses spontaneously poured out his heart to God, God's desires were being expressed through Moses’ lips. From a one-dimensional, earth-based point of view, it appeared that Moses had changed God's mind. Instead, through his intercession, Moses reflected God's love and redemptive purposes.

What God wants to do on the earth, He will do through intercessors. Prayer releases the will of God, bringing His will out of the spiritual realm and causing it to take effect in the material realm. Prayer opens the way for God to do what He longs to do. When God wants to change the course of events, He calls out an intercessor.

When God found no intercessor for Judah, the people suffered the full consequences of their actions. The different outcomes, mercy as opposed to judgment, hinged on the availability of an intercessor.

If we approach prayer as if God's mind needs to be changed, then aren't we starting out with the supposition that God is about to make a mistake? But if we understand that every thought and intention in the mind of God is good and righteous, then we will enthusiastically cooperate with Him, praying His power and provision onto the earth. Prayer does not change God, but prayer does change the circumstances of earth.

There are several instances in Scripture when it appears that God changed His mind. Each time, you can review it from heaven's standpoint and see the rest of the story. (If you want to explore this further, you can find more information at my Web site, www.prayinglife.org.)

Moses’ praying Life

When Moses poured out his own deep desires, He was expressing the heart and mind of God. What God wants to do on the earth, He will do through intercessors. When God wants to intervene and change the course events will take on their own, He searches out an intercessor upon whose heart He can place His own desires.

What is your reaction to the statement above? Maybe you're thinking, That limits God's sovereignty. Or maybe you're thinking, That makes us too important. If you will continue this exploration with me, I think you will find both of those objections carefully considered.

Continue to look at Moses’ praying life. How did it operate? What did his prayers accomplish?

Prayer is more than the words that come sandwiched between “Dear God” and “Amen.” Prayer is an ongoing interaction between the material world and the spiritual world. It takes many forms. One of those forms is active, aggressive obedience to God's revealed will. Look at Moses’ praying life when he led the Israelites out of Egypt and found himself caught between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea. (See Exodus 14:10–18.)

When Moses found himself in this difficulty, was it a surprise to God? Clearly God already knew where the path He led them on would culminate. Did God passively allow the situation, or did He actively engineer it? (See Exodus 14:1–4.) What was His purpose? God created the circumstance that would set the stage for the display of His power and His love. He choreographed the perfect situation in which He could settle for all time His power over the enemy of His people.

Before Moses and the Israelites arrived at the Red Sea, did God already know what He was going to do to save them? Yes. He described to Moses what He would do and why He would do it. He already had a plan in place and He did not deviate from that plan.

Did God do what He planned to do and wanted to do without Moses’ active participation? No. Exodus 14:16 and 21–22 points out that if Moses would hold out his rod, then God would release His plan into their circumstances.

When Moses found himself in this difficult situation, what was his role? To figure out how God could rescue them and suggest it to Him? To talk God into rescuing them? To find a way to get the people to the other side of the sea, where God wanted them? Or to respond in obedience to God's voice and let his praying life be the conduit through which God would do what He had always planned to do?

Prayer's Design

What is God's intent for prayer? The purpose of prayer is to release the power of God to accomplish the purposes of God. The purpose of prayer is to discover God's will, not obligate Him to do mine; to reflect God's mind, not change it. I can, through prayer, release God's power to bring about the best possible solution in every situation, because that is always God's desire. “'For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11). Could I learn, like Moses, to make my heart available for God's purposes? Could I learn to trust His purposes more than my own perceptions?

Many years ago, as I first began to understand the true purpose for prayer, I realized something: this new purpose required an inner transformation. Changing my prayer focus from my own satisfaction and happiness to God's glory and eternal purposes would take a brand new heart. The good news is that God has promised just such a drastic reorientation: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:26–27).

Before I desired such a thing, God had made it available. He had already promised to reproduce His heart in me, shaping my desires to match His. He promised to take my self-centered heart and fasten it to Him. And He worked in me until I desired to receive what He desired to give. “It is God who works in you to will…his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13).

You are being changed so that your heart is a reflection of His. His concerns are your concerns. His desires are your desires. His will is reflected in your prayers. Your prayers will become consistently powerful and effective. This is not because you now have more influence on Him, but because He now has more influence on you. The secret of prayer is not how to change God, but how to be changed by Him.

Syncing Our Hearts to His

There are no “ten easy steps” to power in prayer. God works in each of us differently. Power praying does not require that you master a skill, but that you pursue a present-tense relationship with the living and indwelling Christ, so that your heart be shaped to His heart.

Prayer marked Jesus’ life. Long, extended times of prayer. Spontaneous eruptions of prayer. Prayer in public, and with His disciples. Certainly Jesus, who only did and spoke what the Father showed Him, did not use prayer to argue, or beg, or try to change God's mind. Then why did Jesus pray? Why was prayer such a hallmark of His life that His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray like He prayed? If He wasn't giving God instructions, what was He doing when He rose up early to pray or spent all night in prayer?

I think we might get a hint from His time in Gethsemane, where some of His words are recorded. There we get a glimpse of the tenor of His interchange with the Father. “Not My will, but Yours be done.” We see Him synchronizing His heart with the Father's heart.

I think it works like this: I have many mobile electronic devices that I use to accomplish my daily tasks, or to entertain myself, or to stay in touch with others. I do most of my work on my main desktop computer, but then I need to transfer the work I've done, or the information I've added, or the files I've edited from my main computer to my mobile devices. How do I accomplish that? How do I get what is on the hard drive of my computer downloaded onto my mobile devices? I link the mobile device to the computer and a program is activated that automatically syncs my mobile device to my computer. What is on my computer is reproduced on my mobile device.

In His all-night prayer in Gethsemane, we see Jesus linking His heart to the Father's. Let me summarize the content of His recorded prayer in some new words: “Father, download Your will into my heart so that it overwrites any other desire. Download courageous faith that deletes fear. Synchronize my heart's desire to Yours.”

What came from that heart-to-heart transaction? Observe the Jesus who emerges from His hours of agony. Courageous, forceful, marching out to meet His enemy rather than waiting to be taken. Handing Himself over to the purposes of the Father without reservation.

“The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” (Mark 14:41–42).

The Defnition

of Prayer

To bring my prayers into alignment with His purposes, I had to redefine prayer completely. If prayer is not for the purpose of moving God to my point of view, what is prayer? If I can't change God, why should I pray?

A new definition of prayer began to emerge in my life and thinking. Prayer is not begging, pleading, convincing, or twisting God's arm. Prayer is not a way to get God to do what we want Him to do when we want Him to do it. I had been telling God what to do, expressed in religious-sounding words, and expecting Him to obey me. When He didn't obey me, I was disappointed in Him. Prayer, I learned, is not expecting God to carry out my decisions. Prayer is not giving God instructions to follow.

“To pray is to let Jesus glorify His name in the midst of our needs,” writes O. Hallesby in his book, Prayer. Prayer is simply opening our lives to God, acknowledging our total dependence on Him. Prayer is not limited to a segment of our lives or to a scheduled event in our days. It is an attitude of receptivity in which we live every moment. It is being open to Him at all times. It is living in the presence of God, always in the process of being reshaped and recreated by Him.

How would you finish this thought? Prayer is…

a) the way to get things from God.

b) the way to bring your needs to God's attention.

c) like a phone line between me and God. God is not paying attention until He hears me say, “Dear God.”

d) living in openness to the indwelling present Jesus.

Misconceptions

Misconceptions about prayer limit us. Perhaps these misunderstandings are not articulated, but they are obvious in our approach to prayer and our expectations about prayer. The truth about prayer will free us to pray with the boldness God intends.

Misconception #1: Prayer is only for material needs. Some pray as if prayer were the way to get things from God. Does God tell us to ask Him for the material things we need? Yes, He does. Is it wrong to ask God for material things? No, God encourages it. However, this is not the primary purpose for prayer. If your prayer life is limited to placing your orders with God and expecting Him to fulfill them in a timely manner, I imagine you have often been disappointed.

Prayer for material needs is presented by Jesus as the very simplest kind of prayer. This kind of prayer requires the least amount of spiritual energy. Jesus teaches, first of all, that your Father knows what you need before you ask Him (Matthew 6:8). Then He goes on to tell His followers that they do not have to worry about what to eat or what to wear. He points us to nature and the splendor with which the Father clothes the lilies of the field and the care with which He watches the birds of the air. He says, speaking of material things, “Your Father knows that you need them.” You do not have to convince Him of your need. Not only does He know your need, He also cares about your need. You are more important to Him than the birds and the lilies. His provision for them is ample evidence that He will provide for you.

What a contrast to the way a little child comes to his or her parents! A child simply assumes that the need or desire is potent enough to speak for itself. All that is required is to bring that need to Mom's or Dad's attention. The request assumes the answer. The child's only thought is to bring the need to the source of supply.

You don't need to build a theological case for why God should want to meet your need. He wants to meet your need because He's your daddy and you are the apple of His eye. Jesus highlights the simplicity of supplication by saying, “Ask and it will be given to you…. For everyone who asks receives” (Matthew 7:7–8).

When a person sees prayer merely as a means of obtaining material things, either needs or desire, that person will never discover the overwhelming and awe-inspiring power available through prayer. It is very simple for God to supply your material needs, and He does so willingly.

Misconception #2: Prayer is to convince God to implement our ideas. Some pray as if prayer will give God new information or inspire Him to new ideas. Some approach prayer as if it were the responsibility of the petitioner to decide what God needs to do and then talk Him into doing it. This kind of pray-er sees himself as constantly having to overcome God's objections, or His inertia, or His procrastination. This person feels that God always starts out against him and must be won over. Prayer of this kind pits the pray-er against God. It feels like a battle of wills.

As with every misconception about prayer, this error causes the praying person to expend spiritual energy needlessly. The person who prays in this way looks for the right formula, or the right words to say, or the right order in which to say them. This person is always on a quest to find the approach to God that will finally get Him to act.

This person believes the myth that it is hard to get God to answer prayer. The truth is that God longs to do His work on earth in response to prayer. Prayer is His idea.

God answers prayer, but He doesn't follow instructions. God corrects those who attempt to instruct Him. “Who has understood the mind of the Lord, or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?” (Isaiah 40:13–14). However, God loves our prayers. He rejoices in them. They bring Him pleasure. They are a sweet-smelling aroma to Him (Revelation 5:8; Psalm 141:2).

Power praying happens when God, who longs to give, is met by man, who longs to receive. God is the initiator. He made promises and invited petition. The secret to power praying lies not in how to ask, but in how to receive.

Misconception #3: Prayer is to hold God to His promises. Some pray as if God forgets or tries to renege on His promises unless pray-ers remind Him of them. God does not need to be reminded of His promises. He made promises and bound Himself to us in a blood-sealed covenant so that we would know exactly what we could expect from Him. God made promises to us in order to stir up hope and expectation so that we would have reason to turn to Him. The purpose of His promises is to give us confidence and peace. Instead, sometimes we pray as if we were responsible for finding the scriptural promise that can be construed as guaranteeing the outcome we have prescribed, then taking that promise to God to hold Him to His Word.

This kind of pray-er treats God's Word as if it were a catalog. He decides what God should do, looks through the Bible to find a verse that will match that plan, and orders it. In doing so, as in catalog shopping, the pray-er skims over everything that holds no appeal. He picks and chooses.

Remember, Scripture is not God's words; it is God's Word. Scripture is a whole and cannot be cut apart and pasted together to match my agenda. His Word is not a catalog. It is His promise in writing.

When we approach prayer this way—as if God might try to get out of meeting our need, but since we have His promise, we can hold Him to it—we become drained of energy and suffer from prayer fatigue. What a burden it is for me to search the Scripture and find exactly the right verse to bring to God's attention. Instead, as I turn my heart and my mind toward Him, He reminds me of His promises. He reminds me of what I can count on. The promises are not for me to use in getting my way with God, but they are for God to use to inspire faith and confidence within me.

Misconception #4: Prayer helps pry riches out of God's reluctant hands. Some pray as if prayer is the means of cajoling God into releasing His carefully hoarded riches. This is not so. Martin Luther said, “Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but laying hold of God's willingness.” God offers us His resources. He invites us to take His gifts. He does not have to be convinced to let go of His blessings. His Word says that He lavishes on us the riches of His grace (Ephesians 1:7–8) and that He lavishes His love on us (1 John 3:1). He is extravagant in His gifts. He pours them out. Scripture never uses language that would portray God as stingy or hesitant to give. Instead we read that He “richly blesses all who call on him” (Romans 10:12).

When we pray this way, we expend spiritual energy needlessly trying to convince God of something He already knows. Giving you every good thing gives Him joy; it delights Him. Jesus assures us with these words: “'Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom’” (Luke 12:32). His heart is set on you to do you good.

The Truth About Prayer

The truth about prayer will set you free. Prayer is the means by which you will be freed from your earthbound, timebound thinking to participate in eternity. True prayer releases His power so that His power can accomplish immeasurably more than we can ask or even imagine (see Ephesians 3:20).

God's power—the power released by prayer—is power that has a direct and observable impact on the earth. Paul describes the power available through prayer in Ephesians 1:19–20: “His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.”

God's power, which is beyond comparison, is available to “us who believe.” The same power that put eternal life into the dead body of Jesus, the same power that lifted Jesus above all other rule and authority, that same power—“the working of his mighty strength”—is released into the material realm when we pray.

God means for prayer always to bring His power to earth. His intent is that every prayer find His “yes.” “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ…was not ‘Yes’ and ‘No,’ but in him it has always been ‘Yes.’ For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ” (2 Corinthians 1:19–20).

Prayer will work as God intends for it to work when it becomes what God intends for it to be. Prayer is not an activity, but a relationship. Prayer is not a formula, but a life. Only when we have learned how to live prayer, breathe prayer, be prayer—only then will the power available through prayer be consistently manifested on the earth. God has ordained that prayer will be the conduit through which His intervening, earth-changing power flows from heaven to earth. Prayer is what sets God's will in motion on the earth.

Are you ready to move on to maturity in your praying life and let go of spiritually childish ways? Are you eager to experience the full power God promises through prayer? Then keep asking the hard questions and letting the Prayer Teacher train you.

Partaking of His Life

Peter writes that we are “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4 NASB). Think about that statement. We take part in the divine nature. The divine nature becomes available to us. Do you see how rich that phrase is? God, who is Spirit, imparts Himself to us. It is through the ongoing and increasingly intimate communion with Him that our participation in the divine nature becomes solid and real. Through prayer, He is reproducing His heart in us.

“Prayer is the…means whereby we assimilate more and more of His mind,” writes Oswald Chambers in Christian Disciplines. Watchman Nee states it this way: “Prayer is the union of the believer's thought with the will of God. The prayer which a believer utters on earth is but the voicing of the Lord's will in heaven” (Let Us Pray).

The key to powerful praying is learning how to let Him pour His own desires into your heart and make them yours. In every circumstance, the Holy Spirit, who knows the mind of God, will teach you to pray as you ought, will shape your prayers, will pray through you. Little by little, under His loving tutelage, you will find your prayers reflecting God's will.

The key to assimilating His mind and heart is time. Give Him time. Let Him be the polestar of your soul, with your thoughts always swinging back to fasten onto Him.

Loving God's Will

While discovering the true purpose of prayer, and while redefining what prayer is, we must also learn to give up our tendency to see God's will as if it can be fully defined within the context of one circumstance; as if God's will in each circumstance stands alone. God is working out His will according to an eternal strategy. Each individual piece will be part of the big plan.

Suppose that I handed you one piece of a 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. Imagine that I asked you to look at that piece and tell me what the whole puzzle looked like. You couldn't possibly do it. Standing alone, the puzzle piece seems random and without purpose. Only when it's placed in its proper context does it begin to make sense. So it is with life. Each circumstance fits into the big picture. Don't waste your time trying to make each piece make sense by itself. We tend to define God's will incident by incident, happening by happening, as if each occurrence in our lives stands alone. Instead, everything is being blended together into the whole. “The Lord works out everything for his own ends” (Proverbs 16:4).

God's work in our lives in response to prayer is an ongoing eternal design instead of many isolated plans. God's will flows through circumstances. His work in one circumstance sets the stage for the next. Over the course of time, there will be circumstances that, although you have prayed, seem not to have worked out according to God's revealed will. But wait! Watch to see what God does next. Watch to see which element of your disappointing circumstance becomes the catalyst for the next victory. Watch how the immediate flows into the ultimate. As you confront a situation that had a disappointing outcome, watch to see how this outcome set the stage for the next situation, which opened the door to the next opportunity, which laid the groundwork for the next circumstance, and on and on. Finally, you will look back and you say, “I couldn't be where I am if I'd never been where I was.”

Don't focus your faith on a specific outcome; focus your faith on God. Jesus’ instruction is, “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22). When you place your faith in an outcome, you will often be disappointed. When you put your faith in God, you will never be disappointed.

For example, suppose that you said to me, “Will you pray that God will give me a car so that I can get to work?” My response to you would be, “I won't pray that God will give you a car, but I will pray that God will get you to work.” Perhaps God wants to provide you with a ride with someone who will open the door for the next step in His plan. If your prayer focus is a car, but God provides for your need in another way, you will think that God has said no to your prayer. It will go in your “unanswered prayers” category.

When you are in a situation that has an outcome that seems not to be according to God's will, wait to see what happens next. The story is not over. That circumstance will set the stage for the next event, which will lay the foundation for the next step, which will open the door for the next piece of the plan, and on and on. Finally, you will look back from a place in your life that is “immeasurably more than all [you] ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20), and you will say, “I could not be here if I'd never been there.”

As God's power and provision flow through your life, blending one circumstance into the next, you will find that the story is never over. Don't put a period where God has put a comma. There is no end. What looks like a defeat is the ground from which victory will grow. What looks like the end is really the beginning. A crucifixion is the prelude to a resurrection. Consider Jesus’ lifeless body bound in graveclothes, laid in the tomb. It looked to His followers like the end.

The tomb.

Place of death.

Full of dark night

And suffocating hopelessness.

The end.

Became the Beginning

And the womb from which

Eternal Life emerged.

Have you ever been disappointed in God? Have you ever felt that God let you down? Look back at that incident with the perspective that time brings.

• What were you expecting of God?

• Is the issue that He did not do what you expected Him to do?

• Can you now go back to that disappointment and trace God's hand?

• What did God's unexpected action—the action that disappointed you—open the way for? What did God do through your circumstance that He could have done no other way?

Now think about a circumstance in your life about which you are concerned and praying. What is it that you think God should do? Are you focusing your faith on the outcome that you have prescribed? Or is your faith in God? Can you give up your instructions to God and ask Him to do His will in His way at His time?

Devoted

A praying life is a life open to God, and living with our spiritual senses alert to the spiritual realm requires a fully devoted heart. Do you wonder how you will find the time for such total devotion? Does it sound as if God is calling upon you to live a cloistered life, oblivious to the many practical demands of day-to-day living? A praying life requires no such thing! With the Holy Spirit as your guide, you will discover a deeper level of living and responding. You are always involved in thinking and feeling, aren't you? You will learn to make God the focal point of your unceasing thought processes and find yourself involved in unceasing prayer. It will become your soul's habit to turn every thought toward God.

Your mind is an amazing creation. It functions efficiently on many levels at once. It is the ultimate multitasking software. At one time you may be driving a car, remembering directions, carrying on a conversation, retaining a grocery list in your memory, observing the time, and on and on and on. And there are mental processes going on that you are not even aware of. Consider this: At one of those levels, prayer is always going on. This is true because the Spirit of Christ lives in you and He is always praying.

Sometimes, prayer is at the most conscious and aware level of thought. Other times it is down a level or two. Once I realized that, it became easier and more natural for me to switch back and forth—to bring prayer back to the higher awareness level more often and more spontaneously. I don't have to feel like I'm always starting over. I realize that I'm in a continuous flow of prayer. I don't stop praying, start doing something else, then start praying all over again. The sweet aroma of prayer is always rising from my innermost being (and yours) before the throne.

Psalm 139:4 says, “Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.” Before a need or desire has reached a level of conscious understanding at which you can put it into words—while it is still unformed and raw—God already knows it fully. In Romans 8:26–27, we read, “The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.” When a desire is nothing but an inarticulate groan—before you can form it into sentences—the Spirit of God is already speaking it with perfect clarity. By the time you begin to speak your need or desire in prayer, you are simply joining into a flow of prayer that is already in progress. “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24).

What do you think Paul means when he says, “Pray without ceasing”? (1 Thessalonians 5:17 NASB). Certainly he is not instructing us to walk around forming words directed toward God every minute of every day. He is calling us to learn how to keep the constant flow of thought that is always running in the background aware of His presence. Every thought becomes prayer. Every action becomes prayer. Every word you speak, no matter where it is directed, becomes prayer. A praying life is a life lived in the presence of the indwelling Jesus, always living and acting in His power and provision.

About-Face

A praying life requires a 180-degree about-face from the direction our human nature would lead us. Our flesh is bent on doing a good job, getting it right, and proving our ability. A praying life is built on a principle that is the polar opposite of our flesh's instincts: letting go, yielding, and admitting helplessness. It doesn't come easily to us.

Jesus ratified this principle as of primary importance in His first formal sermon. We call His opening remarks the Beatitudes. The first words out of Jesus’ mouth, once the crowd had gathered, were “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Prayer is reaching into the kingdom and drawing on its resources. What is the prerequisite for having complete access to the kingdom? Being poor in spirit.

The word for “poor” means destitute: a beggar whose only hope is to receive from the hand of another. Until we recognize the blessedness of being wholly dependent on God, who even produces prayer in us, we won't live in the abundance that could be ours. Our helplessness is our strongest plea. I illustrated this concept in my book Set Apart as follows:

I recently had the tiniest glimpse of how powerfully helplessness speaks. A few years ago, I lost my husband to brain cancer. During the final months of his illness, he became utterly helpless. The man I had leaned on for 25 years, whose strength I counted on, was now dependent upon me for his every need. During those weeks, my ear was tuned to his every sigh, his every restless movement, every change in his breathing pattern. If I had to be out of his room for even a few minutes, I had a monitor with me so I could hear him if he needed me. When he was strong, I was not so attentive. His needs did not fill my waking moments, when he could meet them himself. His helplessness spoke louder than any word he might have spoken. Because of his helplessness—because I knew he could do nothing on his own—I was on watch day and night.

My experience is but a pale shadow of the reality of the kingdom, but still it helps me understand how my weakness is the opening for His strength. The fact of my helplessness is the only prayer I need. It speaks louder than eloquence.

The Necessity

of Prayer

Although prayer does not change God's will, it does activate God's will. Prayer releases the power of God to accomplish the will of God in situations and in the lives of people. Prayer is the channel through which God's will is brought to earth. He has a veritable flood of mercies dammed up because there is no prayer to open the floodgates. O. Hallesby writes, “Prayer is the conduit through which power from heaven is brought to earth” (P rayer).

Do you find it as amazing as I do that Almighty God has chosen to condition the release of His intervening power on the prayers of His people? In God's Best Secrets, Andrew Murray says this:

God's intense longing to bless seems in some sense to be graciously limited by His dependence on the intercession that rises from earth. He seeks to rouse the spirit of intercession that He may be able to bestow His blessing on mankind. God regards intercession as the highest expression of His people's readiness to receive and to yield themselves wholly to the working of His almighty power.

It's not that God can't intervene to release His provisions without prayer; it's that He won't. “You do not have, because you do not ask God” (James 4:2). It is His sovereign decree that has established prayer as the bridge between the spiritual world—where His Word is settled forever (Psalm 119:89) and where all the promises of God are already “Yes” in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:19–20)—and the material world. Because of sin, there exists a gap between what God has prepared and is ready to release and what is happening on the earth. Prayer bridges that gap.

John Wesley makes this pointed statement: “God will do nothing but in answer to prayer.” E. M. Bounds says, “God shapes the world by prayer.” I believe that you will become convinced that this is what the Scripture teaches from beginning to end: God has bound Himself to His people through prayer. It is prayer that brings God's intervening power directly to bear on situations on the earth.

If God were going to do His will without our prayers, then why did Jesus teach us to pray, “Let Your will be done on earth like Your will is done in heaven”? Jesus was showing us that our prayers release and activate God's specific will. He was teaching us a kind of praying that is aggressive and powerful. When we pray, we reach into the spiritual realm (heaven) and grab hold of the power of God for that situation. Then we pull the provision of God through the gap and establish it on the earth.

In both Testaments we see this cause-and-effect relationship between our asking and His providing.

“He will call upon me, and I will answer him.”

—Psalm 91:15

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

—Jeremiah 29:13

“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”

—Jeremiah 33:3

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

—Matthew 7:7

“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

—John 14:13–14

Does God Need Us?

You may be thinking, Does this mean that God needs us? God doesn't need anyone!

Yes, God does need us. But not because He's needy.

You and I “need” because we are needy. God needs us because He chose to. It is God, in His sovereignty, who set up the cosmos to work as He decided it should work. His sovereign decree is that His specific, intervening will in any situation is to be released onto the earth by means of prayer. Prayer is the avenue that God has established for how His finished work comes from the spiritual realm, through the gap, and changes the earth.

Imagine that I am going to set up a corporation. I am the boss. I am sovereign over every decision about the corporation, and I have many options for how to set things up. One of the decisions I will make is: Will I require one signature on a check or will I require two signatures on a check?

I decide that I will require two signatures. From then on, I need two signatures on a check. Because I chose to need them. Every time two signatures are required on a check, it is evidence of my sovereignty.

John the Baptist said to the Pharisees, “I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham” (Matthew 3:9). God can raise up children for Abraham out of stones. But has He ever done so? No, He has not. God can do anything He wants to do apart from His people. But the record of Scripture is clear: though He can, He, in His sovereignty, chooses not to.

If you are saying, “This will lead to pride. It makes me too important in the equation!” then the full import of this has not yet hit you. When you really see this, it will be the most humbling moment of your life. When you see this, it will take your breath away.

The Almighty, the one and only, the Most High has set His heart on you. He has chosen to take you into His confidence. He has decided to condition the release of His power on the prayers of His children. Because His power is all-sufficient, because it needs nothing to help it out or add to it, He can demonstrate His power even through jars of clay. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Power that is not diluted or undercut or diminished when it operates through fallible, silly humans—now that's power!

Gap Standers

The Bible describes prayer as “standing in the gap” (see Psalm 106:23 and Ezekiel 22:30). Have you ever noticed how visual the language of Scripture is? If the Bible uses a visual phrase like “stand in the gap” when He could have just said “pray,” you know God has something He wants you to see. He is creating a picture of a truth to make it understandable. God is a wonderful graphic artist. He can turn an idea into a picture that speaks volumes to our visually oriented brains.

What is the picture that is painted with the phrase “stand in the gap”? First we have to answer this question: What is the gap? It seems to me that when God first created the earth, there was no gap. “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). God, in the beginning, was pleased and satisfied with things on the earth. God's will was in effect on the earth just as His will was in effect in heaven.

Then sin entered the picture. Never again could God look at the earth and say, “That is very good.” Sin created a gap between heaven and earth. Sin created a gap between what God wanted for the earth and what was happening on the earth.

Alongside the gap, place another mental picture from God's Word. God pictures His people as silver. See Zechariah 13:9 and Malachi 3:3. Silver is the best conductor of electricity of any element on earth. So we have two visuals: (1) silver as a conductor and (2) a gap.

Here's the whole picture. In this illustration, let the dry cell represent the power of God—ready and waiting to be released. Let the unlit light bulb represent the need on earth.

The question here is simply this: how can I get the power to the need?

In the second illustration (see p. 50), the power and the need have been connected with a circuit. Immediately, the power begins to flow toward the need. As a picture of prayer, remember that you and I don't have to do anything to get this flow started. At His initiative, His power, His resources, His supply is flowing in our direction.

However, if you look more closely at this illustration, you will notice that the flow of power has been interrupted. There's a gap. When the power reaches the gap, the power is not diminished or unavailable. It simply must be conducted through the gap. Electricity will not jump over the air; it requires a conductor. God's power does not jump over the gap sin has created; He requires a conductor.

Finally, we put all the elements together. In the following illustration, the power has begun flowing from the source to the need. This time when it reaches the gap, we insert into the gap a conductor. Look what happens—the power can flow through the gap and make its way to the need on earth.

Prayer is standing in the gap—being the conductor of His power and His will into the circumstances on earth. It is so simple!

Your prayers are the conduit that brings the power of heaven into the circumstances of earth.

When you are able to define prayer as simply conducting the will and the power of God through the gap and into the circumstances, how does it change your perspective? Think con-cretely—in terms of a specific need or anxiety in your life right now. Are you worn out from trying to get God to do what needs to be done? What if you just put that need into the picture where the lightbulb is and let the power flow and flow and flow?

Binding and Loosing

In Matthew 18:18 (NASB), Jesus says, “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” The tense of the verb is crucial here. It says that the action has been fully completed in heaven before it can be bound or loosed on earth. Prayer does not change what has been done in heaven, but releases it. Whatever heaven has bound, prayer will bind on the earth. Whatever heaven has loosed, prayer will loose on the earth. Prayer causes the proclamations of heaven to be enacted on earth.

Let's look at several examples from Scripture in which it is clear that God looks for intercessors on whose hearts He can place His desires. As Andrew Murray has written, “God has willed that the working of His Spirit will follow the prayers of His people” (God's Best Secrets).

In Daniel 9, we see Daniel, who is a captive in Babylon, reading the Word of God. He reads in the Book of Jeremiah that the desolation of Jerusalem, which is the reason Daniel is in Babylon (Daniel 1:1–4), is to be in effect for 70 years. When Daniel reads this, the desolation of Jerusalem has been in effect for 70 years. “In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years” (Daniel 9:2). Putting this verse into its historical setting, the first year of the reign of Darius, son of Xerxes, was the 70th year of Judah's captivity.

So Daniel saw God's will and God's plan clearly revealed in the Word. What did Daniel do? Did he sit back and wait for God to do His will? No! Daniel understood that prayer is the conduit that brings God's will out of the spiritual realm and causes it to take effect on the earth. Daniel began to pray. “So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes” (Daniel 9:3). Daniel began to pray, in essence, “Let Your kingdom come and let Your will be done on earth the way You've declared it in heaven. What You have loosed in heaven, now loose on the earth.” Indeed, the desolation of Jerusalem did end. In the year 538 B.C., the first year of Cyrus's reign, Judah began to return from exile. (See 2 Chronicles 36:20–23.)

What was the purpose of Daniel's prayer?

• Was it to bring the matter to God's attention?

• To convince God to end the captivity of Judah?

• To influence God, or to shape God's will?

• Or, was it to release the power of God for the purposes of God?

When God reveals His will to us, how are we to respond? We are to let that which God has planted in our hearts flow out as prayer through our lives.

Prayer Releases Provision

Look at the next chapter of Daniel, Daniel 10. A revelation had come to Daniel, but the meaning of the revelation was not clear. As a result of prayer, “the understanding of the message came to him in a vision” (Daniel 10:1). Daniel had been given a revelation, but did not understand its meaning. He began to pray and fast. He prayed and fasted for 21 days. Then the answer came to him. An angel appeared and gave Daniel the understanding he needed.

The angel's words are telling. Look at them closely. “'Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them’” (Daniel 10:12).

What did Daniel's prayer do?

• Did it make God want something He didn't want before?

• Did it convince God to come up with an answer He hadn't yet formulated?

• Or did it access the answer God had ready for Daniel and wanted Daniel to have?

Think about it. God wanted Daniel to know the meaning of the vision. God had everything Daniel needed ready and waiting for him. But how did Daniel receive what he needed? The angel said, in essence, “I have come in response to your words.” As soon as Daniel began to ask—the first day that he set his mind to gain understanding—the answer was being released. Because Daniel prayed, God's will was activated on the earth. Daniel had to ask for what God wanted to give. God's desire to give and Daniel's desire to receive intertwined to form prayer.

The prayer of One Person Changes the Earth

Look at another instance in Scripture in which prayer clearly activated God's will. To see this fully, we will line up the Old Testament and the New Testament. James 5:16–18 makes a bold statement about prayer. It tells us that prayer changes the earth. It tells us that the spiritual power that prayer releases has authority over the earth. The earth is subject to the power of the Spirit.

“The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). Prayer has power, and prayer produces an effect. Then, to make his point very clear, James directs his readers to an example: “Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops” (James 5:17–18).

James expects his audience to know the story of Elijah. He expects his readers to see that this is a synopsis of the story, not two sentences that stand alone. If you were to read these two sentences without putting them in their bigger setting, it might sound as if Elijah one day decided that a drought would be a good idea and began to ask God for it. This is not the case.

To get the full truth that James is teaching, we have to put the Old and New Testaments together. The story to which James refers appears in 1 Kings 17. Now, remember that James says that Elijah prayed that it would not rain, and it did not rain. But whose idea is the drought?

“Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word’” (1 Kings 17:1).

Elijah makes it clear that he's speaking for God. He prefaces his declaration with a phrase that indicates that Elijah is coming from the presence of his King to deliver his King's message. “As the Lord God lives, whom I serve…” His statement is bold and audacious. No dew, no rain, except at Elijah's word. Why can Elijah make such a statement?

Look in 1 Kings 17:24. A widow, whose son Elijah had raised from the dead says this about him: “'I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.’” Elijah's words are God's words. God has declared the drought. What has Elijah done? He has prayed the drought. It's simple: (1) God says it. (2) Elijah prays it. (3) God performs it. Elijah's prayers released the will of God on earth.

Then, James says, Elijah's prayers brought rain back to the earth. Whose idea was it for the drought to end? “After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: ‘Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land’” (1 Kings 18:1). Once again, God says it, Elijah prays it, God performs it.

Follow the story further. Elijah hears from God. Elijah knows that God is ready to end the drought. He is so certain of this that he declares it publicly. There's no question in Elijah's mind: God wants to end the drought. What does he do? “And Elijah said to Ahab, ‘Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.’ So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees” (1 Kings 18:41–42).

Elijah went off to pray until the word of the Lord was established in the material realm. Elijah knew that prayer was the conduit to bring the will of God from heaven to earth. Elijah knew that his prayers would enforce the will of God, causing the will of God to be done on earth as it was done in heaven. What God had bound in heaven, Elijah's prayer bound on the earth. What God had loosed in heaven, Elijah's prayer loosed on the earth. “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

Are you putting the pieces together? Can you think of any function prayer might have other than to release the power, will, and purposes of God? Why do you think that God has chosen to work hand-in-hand with His people through prayer? Could it be that God has set up prayer so that our hearts will always be drawn toward Him?

Prayer Works in the Spiritual Realm

Prayer is spiritual work. In the material realm, work can be defined as using energy to create change. Everything I do that uses energy to create change falls under the category of work. In the spiritual realm, prayer is how energy is released to create change. Remember James 5:16?

Prayer changes the spiritual realm and the spiritual realm changes the material realm. Because prayer has its first effect in the spiritual realm, a reality that cannot be observed with our physical senses, there is a period of time when it appears to us that prayer isn't changing things. This is because it is doing spiritual work. Wait until the time is fulfilled, when everything is ripe. That's when the kingdom of heaven will be revealed to your senses.

Many people mistake prayer for a passive activity. Some think that prayer is what you do when there's nothing else left to do. Prayer is the work. Prayer is the most aggressive, offensive, proactive, invasive work you can ever engage in. We're not talking here about just “saying prayers.” This is living prayer.

Let's examine a well-known, much-quoted passage of Scripture and see what it has to say about prayer as an offensive strategy. In Ephesians 6:10–18 Paul describes our spiritual armor. His thesis statement, the foundation of what he says, is this: Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. He is about to tell us how to be strong—how to access the power of God for our lives in every situation—and how to sidestep the devil's schemes.

Did you know that the devil has a scheme? The word translated scheme in verse 11 is a word that means “a well thought-out plan.” The enemy is working according to an agenda. This agenda, this scheme, is being carried out by powers, principalities, and authorities in the spiritual realm. Our enemies are not flesh and blood. Rather, they are these powers and principalities in the heavenly realms. It would appear that flesh and blood, people, are standing in the way of God's purposes. But Scripture tells us that what we see on the earth is the result of what is happening in the heavenly realms. We also learn that the remedy for what is happening on earth will be accomplished in the spiritual realm.

So what does Paul say to do? “Put on the whole armor of God.” The threat is the devil's schemes. The solution—the way to resist those plans—is to put on the armor of God.

Next, Paul describes the armor. He tells you how to put on the battle gear. Once you have all the armor on, once you are dressed for battle, after he has named the last piece of gear, then what does he say to do? How do you fight the fight? How do you wield the sword? How do you plunge into enemy-occupied territory? You pray!

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18).

True prayer is God's words in my mouth. God's words do His work and He is sending His words out with an assignment. He is watching over His words to see that the assignment is carried out (Isaiah 55:10–11; Jeremiah 1:9, 12). When God sends His words out through your mouth, the spiritual realm is immediately fully engaged. Spiritual forces are dispatched. All of heaven is poised to respond to the prayers of God's people.

Victories in the spiritual realm result in changes in the physical realm. Earth is subject to the powers of spirit. Through prayer, the enemy's schemes are thwarted. Through prayer, the powers, principalities, and authorities of Satan's realm are stopped cold. Through prayer, all of the power and provision of God flows into the lives of His people.

Prayer Focuses the Power of God

Prayer brings the power of God to earth to do the will of God. Am I saying that God's power is absent from the earth unless I pray? Let's examine this thought more closely. You may be asking, “Is God's power ever absent from the earth?” The answer is “No.” His power is never absent. He fills heaven and earth. The earth and its fullness belong to Him. The heavens declare His glory, and creation pours forth knowledge of Him. God's power covers the earth.

God's specific and intervening power is released into circumstances and lives by prayer. Think of it like this. The sun's rays cover the earth. However, when one holds a magnifying glass over a flammable object, such as a dry leaf, the sun's rays are refracted (bent toward one another) through the glass. The result is that the rays of the sun are concentrated and directed, their power magnified. The refracted rays create focused and intense heat. The leaf, exposed to the focused power of the sun, bursts into flames.

God's power covers the earth. Prayer focuses and magnifies His power on a particular situation or a specific life. That life or situation, consistently exposed to His intense power, is changed by it.

When the sun's rays are captured and refracted through the magnifying glass, has the glass increased or in any way changed the sun's power? No, it has only focused it. The power belongs only to the sun. So it is that prayer focuses the power of God.

The Author

of Prayer

It is not our prayer which moves the Lord Jesus. It is Jesus who moves us to pray.

—O. Hallesby, Prayer

God initiates prayer. We've turned prayer upside down. Prayer, in the first place, is not me coming to God, but God coming to me. The Scripture tells us that God is awakening desires, initiating spiritual hunger, creating in His children the inclination to seek Him. The Bible tells us that the need we feel that causes us to turn to God—the inner compulsion to pray—is really a response to God's now-speaking voice. From our point of view, it feels like initiative, but it's really response.

When you feel the need to pray, do you recognize it as God Himself seeking to rouse the spirit of intercession? Right now, what do you feel compelled to pray about? What is of concern to you? Let the Spirit of God speak to you about God's longing to bless. Listen to Him tell you that you desire to pray because He desires to give. Let the assurance build in your heart that it is the Father Himself inviting you to receive His best in each situation that has caused you to desire to pray. Receive what He is offering.

The only reason that you have an inclination to pray, the only reason that you have any thought that the answer to your longings and your needs might lie with God—the only reason—is because God is drawing you. When you pray, you are doing one thing: opening your life to receive His power and provision. Watchman Nee gives a wonderful illustration of this truth in his book, Let Us Pray. He suggests that God's will is like a locomotive and our prayers are like a railroad track. A locomotive has all the power necessary to travel from one location to another, but it only travels to places where tracks have been laid.

God has the power to go anywhere He wants to go, but His power only goes where prayer-tracks have been laid. Our prayers fulfill the conditions for the release of His will. Our prayers, in one sense, prepare the way for the Lord, making straight paths for Him (Isaiah 40:3). His power is released by our prayers.

Why do you think that God has designed the workings of the spiritual realm so that prayer is necessary? Imagine for a moment what life might be like if God automatically did His will without the prayers of His people. How would you recognize His work? He so longs for relationship with us that He designed prayer. He could have left us out of the process altogether, but He chose to make His children indispensable in His plan.

Praying God's Word

True prayer is when God's heart is expressed through your words. True prayer is when God's words are in your mouth. How do God's words get in your mouth? First, God's desires must be in your heart. “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). “A wise man's heart guides his mouth” (Proverbs 16:23). Powerful praying is not a matter of knowing the right words to say, rather it is having a heart that is at God's disposal—open to hear His every sigh and whisper and to echo it in prayer. As God molds your heart so that it matches His, your heart overflows in prayer. What God has spoken in your innermost being guides your lips in prayer.

He is your Prayer Teacher. He is transforming your life, shaping your heart. The end result of this intense training is what the Scripture calls “an instructed tongue.” “The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue” (Isaiah 50:4).

In Destined for the Throne, Paul Billheimer writes, “The content of all true prayer originates in the heart of God.” When we are truly praying, we are speaking out the heart of God. Prayer in its highest form occurs when the words I articulate, with my mouth or in my mind, are merely the containers for God's thoughts and desires. When, like Elijah, the word of the Lord from my mouth is truth, then I am truly praying.

In your prayer experience, how much time have you devoted to making yourself open for God to express Himself to you? Are you willing to give as much passion to hearing God as you give to trying to win God over? Are you willing to let Him shape your prayers?

Clutter Free

When we live a praying life, God's will is so exactly reproduced in us that it becomes our will. We find that when we pray the deepest desires of our hearts, we are stating His desires.

The key to being able to receive all that God longs to give is to have a heart that is fully His. When His desires are in our hearts, His words rise from us as prayer. Our job is to allow the Spirit of God the access He needs to each of our hearts so He can cleanse them of debris. The clutter in our hearts throws off its acoustics. Acoustics are defined as the qualities that determine the ability of an enclosure to reflect sound waves in such a way as to produce distinct hearing. How are your heart's acoustics? Does God need to do some renovation? Does He need to tear down some walls? Clear out some rubbish? Haul away some wreckage? Clean out some corners?

Consider John 15:7. “'If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.’” What is the one central key that opens your life to all that God longs to give you? When you make your home in Him, His words make their home in you. His living, active words—words that are spirit and life; words that call into being that which is not; words so powerful that they overpower and restrain the enemy—move into your life and recreate it. Old things pass away. New things take their place.

Godspeak

The Scripture teaches that God has created you so that you can contain His Spirit. You are the temple—the dwelling place—of the Spirit. When His Spirit makes His home in you, He then speaks in you and makes known to you all truth, a little at a time. Let me lay out for you the logic for believing that Almighty God can and will speak to you.

1. God designed prayer. God put prayer into effect to function as the conduit that brings His will out of the spiritual realm and causes it to take effect on the earth.

2. God wants to do His will.

3. Prayer works when it is the expression of His will. (Read 1 John 5:14–15.)

4. God did not set us up for failure. He designed prayer to work effectively.

5. Therefore, God can make His will and His desires known to us.

The key is that the life of Jesus is flowing through you by means of His Spirit. It is Jesus’ prayers that are the content of your prayers. The Spirit is reproducing the intercession of Jesus in you. Jesus is the praying life, and His life is in you.

If Jesus dwells at the source of my life—if the flow of His life has replaced all of my life—then He can safely commit the praying to my will. If absolute obedience to Him is the inspiration and force of every movement of my life, then He will pledge Himself, by a duty as deep as His own nature, that whatever is asked will be granted.

—E. M. Bounds, The Necessity of Prayer

Go deeper with me and see how this truth is evidenced in Scripture. 1 Corinthians 2:12 states: “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” For what clearly expressed purpose have we received “the Spirit who is from God”? Answer: “That we might understand what God has freely given us.” He has made arrangements for us to understand what is ours—what we can access through prayer.

Paul further states in 1 Corinthians 2:16, “[W]e have the mind of Christ.” Where is “the mind of Christ”? The mind of Christ is being expressed in us.

Now read Jesus’ own words in John 16:13–15: “'But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.’”

What does Jesus promise that the Holy Spirit will do? He will take what belongs to Jesus and make it known to you. When Jesus says that the Spirit will “take from what is mine and make it known to you,” do you think that includes Jesus’ intercession? Will the Holy Spirit make known Jesus’ prayers to you so that you can join Him? Since you have the mind of Christ, are you positioned to allow the Spirit to create His thoughts in you?

Later in the book, we'll examine this more closely. I know we have to be careful about hearing flesh and mistaking it for God. I know that God is not going to reveal everything He knows to us. The whole design of prayer makes hearing God foundational to its power, and, to repeat, God did not set us up for failure. “'I have not said to Jacob's descendants, “Seek me in vain”’” (Isaiah 45:19).

God-authored, God-Directed

God's heart is the beginning point of prayer. The content of our prayers is God's decision. Ezekiel 36:37 illustrates this truth. Here, through the prophet Ezekiel, God foretells the end of the days of Judah's judgment. In preceding verses He described His plan to restore Israel. The plan was not yet completed on the earth, but it was firmly fixed in the heart of God. He described it in detail. Then in verse 37 (NASB) He said: “This also I will let the house of Israel ask Me to do for them.” Do you see? Part of God's whole plan was that Israel would ask for what God longed to give. God Himself would author their prayers.

Prayer releases onto the earth what God has prepared in heaven. The answer is prepared before the request is made. In fact, the answer is prepared before the need occurs. “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24).

God wants to author our prayers in such a way that He will be glorified. Psalm 50:15 says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” When we call to Him, releasing His power and His will, He will be able to bring honor to Himself. He wants our lives to become billboards upon which He can advertise Himself. He wants our lives to be stages upon which He can perform. He wants our lives to be trophy cases in which He can display His mighty deeds. He wants us to be living proof of Him. Through prayer we give Him permission to act in our lives in a way that will show His power and authority.

How does God describe what He wants to do in our lives? God wants to do more than you can imagine. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). Do you really want to limit God to what you can think up? “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). If we could get God to do what we think He should do when we think He should do it, we would miss the eternal plan that exceeds our imaginations.

Consider the story of Lazarus in John 11. Lazarus was very ill, on his deathbed, and Mary and Martha sent an urgent message to Jesus: “The one you love is sick.” The implication in their message, and their expectation, was that Jesus should quickly make His way to Bethany and heal Lazarus before he died. Jesus did not act in accordance with their expectations of Him. He did not hurry to Bethany to heal Lazarus before he died.

Four days elapsed between the time that Lazarus died and the time that Jesus arrived. You can imagine what a devastating four days it was. Imagine the disillusionment and disappointment Mary and Martha felt when Jesus failed to meet their expectations. Everything they believed about Jesus at that moment was threatened. Have you ever been in that state? Have you ever been in a situation that, after looking at all the empirical evidence and all the facts, the only conclusion you could reach was that God had let you down? That's where Mary and Martha were. They were experiencing a crisis of faith.

Let's look at Mary's and Martha's faith. Both expressed their firm belief that if Jesus had been there, Lazarus would not have died (vv. 21, 32). They thought that in asking Jesus to heal Lazarus, they had asked all that it was possible to ask. They thought that healing Lazarus was pushing the limits of His power. Once Lazarus was dead, they reasoned, Jesus was too late. They had asked all that they could think or imagine.

What did Jesus plan to do? He planned to do more than they could think or imagine. He was not interested in meeting their expectations because He intended to exceed their expectations. He did not confirm their faith, because He wanted to stretch their faith. He was not content to leave Mary and Martha with what they knew of Him so far. By raising Lazarus from the dead, He enlarged their understanding of Him and their view of His power. When God has access to our needs, He will always show us something new about Himself. We will learn to align ourselves with eternal realities and not have our faith sabotaged by time-bound, earth-bound vision. We will begin to live beyond our limits.

Are you trying to hold God to the best thing you can think of? Right now, would you tell God that you are aligning yourself with the best thing He can think of? That you are open to His best, even if it conflicts with your own earth-bound expectations?

Soaked

Consider a sponge. It has a molecular makeup that predisposes it to be absorbent. When a sponge comes into contact with a liquid, the sponge soaks up all of the liquid it can hold. That's just the nature of a sponge. A sponge, because of its design, can't keep from absorbing liquid. A sponge that has come into contact with liquid becomes saturated with that liquid. Everything about the liquid—all its chemical components and its color and smell and taste—is now soaked into the sponge. The sponge is the container of the liquid.

When we were born again and became new creations, we were given a spiritual makeup that, when we come into contact with the living God, will absorb as much of Him as we can hold. His thoughts will transform our thoughts. His heart will reform our hearts. His desires will reshape our desires. We can partake of the divine nature. We have the mind of Christ. The Spirit reveals the deep things of God.

As God authors our prayers, He doesn't just dictate to us. He changes us. As we purposefully keep our lives soaked in His presence, He will give Himself to us.

THE

PROCESS

OF PRAYER

The Process

of Prayer

As I continued in the school of prayer, I recognized another misconception that was limiting my prayer life. I had assumed that prayer was made up of two parts: my request and God's answer. I thought the measure of my prayer ability was how many times I received what I asked for. I had what I now think of as a “prayer-list prayer life.”

God's To-Do List?

What do I mean by a prayer-list prayer life? This is a mind-set that limits prayer to getting God to perform for you. Understand that there's nothing wrong with a prayer list. In fact, a prayer list is a wonderful tool for observing God's power. It all depends on how you use it. The problem occurs when your prayer list becomes a to-do list for God.

A prayer-list prayer life creates a distorted understanding of prayer. According to the prayer list, sometimes God says yes and sometimes God says no. Since the praying person has no way of knowing whether God will say yes or no, it becomes very hard to pray boldly and confidently.

As you learn to live a praying life, prayer takes on a much broader definition than “saying prayers.” Much of what prayer accomplishes cannot be condensed to a list. Many times the direct answers to petitions are the least important aspect of what the prayer accomplished. I believe that as you progress and mature into a praying life, your testimony of prayer's effectiveness will be that the mercies of God unfold at every turn. You walk in answered prayer. O. Hallesby states it like this: “The longer you live a life of this kind, the more answers to prayer you will experience. As white snow flakes fall quietly and thickly on a winter day, answers to prayer will settle down upon you at every step you take, even to your dying day” (Prayer).

Prayer lists are effective if they are in the context of a praying life. Use your prayer list like this: Write down the concern or the need and date it. The date is the day you surrendered it to God for His purposes, His ways, and His timing. Now, don't watch to see if God answers; watch to see how God answers. You will find that He answers progressively. He puts together pieces, each one building on the other. Record things as you go along and watch with amazement as God pieces things together for an outcome that is more than you could think or imagine.

Have you had a “prayer-list prayer life”? Do you have a mental file of all the times God didn't follow your instructions? Is that mental file insidiously undermining your faith in God and your boldness in prayer? Let go of your attempts to influence God or give Him instructions and relax, knowing that He is God.

Prayer cannot be summed up in a simple two-part equation: my request + God's answer = prayer. Prayer is a process. Webster's dictionary defines the word process as “a natural phenomenon marked by gradual changes that lead toward a particular result; a series of actions or operations conducing to an end.” It is during the process of prayer that God does His mightiest work. If this were not so, then God would have set prayer up to work like a vending machine: put in a request, get out an answer. God has a loving and productive reason for the process of prayer.

In the Waiting Room

It is during the process of prayer that the praying person is brought to total submission to the Father. During the process of prayer, God weans our hearts from the things we so desire to fasten on Him.

At our first entrance into the school of waiting upon God, the heart is chiefly set upon the blessings which we wait for. God graciously uses our need and desire for help to educate us for something higher than we were thinking of. We were seeking gifts; He, the Giver, longs to give Himself and to satisfy the soul with His goodness.

—Andrew Murray, Waiting on God

God works through the prayer process to expand our vision, to deepen our hunger, to stretch our faith, and to lift our desires higher. We start the process desiring something from Him; we end it desiring only Him. Through the prayer process, our heart's cry becomes, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25–26).

When the Prayer Teacher has been able to reveal to you that He is all, that there is nothing to crave but more of Him, then you realize that He is willing to answer every prayer with a yes—because the heart of every true prayer is: “More of You. More of You.” Your need or your desire is simply the entry point for Him to give you more of Himself. In meeting your need and fulfilling your desire, He is drawing you to deeper dependence on Him, therefore to deeper intimacy with Him.

What is your concern or need or desire right now? Where do you long to see God demonstrate His power? Would you be willing to pray like this?

Father, I confess that I have set my heart on an outcome rather than on You. Right now, in the power of Your indwelling life, I transfer my hope and expectation to You. The heart of my prayer is, “More of You.” I ask You to work in this matter in whatever way will bring me more of You.

The Desire of Your Heart

Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” During the process of prayer, this truth takes on its richest, deepest meaning.

First, you find that when you delight yourself in the Lord, He becomes the desire of your heart. The word translated “delight” comes from a Hebrew root word that means “soft, moldable, or pliable.” When you delight yourself in the Lord, you become pliable and moldable in His hands. He is able to fashion a heart like His. He is able to create desires that match His will. In fact, Paul writes, “It is God who works in you to will…his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). More of God becomes the overarching desire of all your prayers.

Second, you realize that you cannot know the desire of your heart unless you know the heart of your desire. Usually, what we call “the desire of my heart” is really a secondary desire orbiting around the true desire. Usually, what we think we desire is really the way we have imagined the true desire will be met. We think we are asking for the desire of our hearts, but we are really asking for the desire of the moment. Often, in order to give you the desire of your heart, God will withhold the desire of the moment. He only says no as a prelude to a higher yes. Give Him time—give Him access—so that He can peel back the desire of the moment and show you the desire of your heart. To the desire of your heart, there will always be a resounding yes from heaven.

I began to learn this one time when I had finished leading a conference in New Mexico, during which my body encountered unfamiliar allergens against which it rebelled. My voice got raspier and raspier as the conference went on. By the time I had finished, I had no voice at all. I had to leave the next morning and fly to Kentucky, where I would begin to lead another conference. On the flight, I prayed, “Oh, God, give me back my voice.” The Lord asked me, “Why do you want your voice?” I answered, “So I can lead this conference.”

“Why do you want to lead the conference?”

“So that people can learn how to live in Your power.”

“Why do you want people to live in My power?”

“So You can glorify Yourself.”

“Then, Jennifer,” He seemed to say, “ask Me for that.”

And my prayer became, “Father, glorify Yourself.”

The tension left me. My soul rested. I did not know how God would answer my prayer, but I knew that He would answer my prayer. He helped me discover the desire of my heart and relinquish the desire of the moment.

Let me point you to 2 Corinthians 12:7–10. What was Paul's request (in v. 8)? That God would remove the thorn in his flesh. Did God say no to that specific request? He did. What was the heart of Paul's desire? In other words, why did he want the thorn in his flesh removed? What was Paul's true heart's desire? (Philippians 3:7–11 will give you a good idea.) Paul wanted his life to prove the power of God. Did God say yes to that desire of Paul's heart? He did. In verse 9, God told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Paul's prayer was stated in words that expressed the desire of the moment—to be rid of the thorn in his flesh that seemed to hinder his work. But the wonderful Father heard the cry of Paul's heart: to know Him fully—both in the power of His resurrection and in the fellowship of His suffering—and to be conformed to His image. In order to give Paul the desire of his heart, God had to withhold the desire of the moment. What looked like a no was really a yes in disguise. If you are crying out for bread, He will not give you a stone (Matthew 7:9). He will not give you something that just resembles your true desire. He will not give you something just to pacify you. He will give you your true heart's desire in order to satisfy you.

God never says no to the desire of your heart. As you surrender yourself to the process of prayer, let Him have so much access to you that He is able to clear away all the secondary desires. Let Him crystallize for you and bring to the forefront the one overriding desire—to have more of Him. “As for me, the nearness of God is my good” (Psalm 73:28 NASB).

Learn to distinguish between the desire of the moment and the desire of your heart.

Shifting the Center of Gravity

E. Stanley Jones uses a phrase that I think perfectly describes what happens during the process of prayer. He says that God “shifts the whole center of gravity of the prayer.”

Just as the moon cannot be reflected well on a restless sea, so God cannot get to an unquiet mind. “Be still and know”; be unstill and you do not know—God cannot get to you. In the stillness the prayer itself may be corrected. For God does not only answer prayer; He also corrects prayer and makes it more answerable. One night I bowed my head in silent prayer before a sermon and whispered to God, “O God, help me.” Very quickly came back the reply: “I will do something better; I will use you.”

That amendment was decidedly better. I was asking God to help me—I was the center; I was calling God in for my own purposes. But “I will use you” meant I was not the center; something beyond me was the center, and I was only the instrument of that purpose beyond myself. God's answer shifted the whole center of gravity of the prayer.

—E. Stanley Jones, Abundant Living

In time, you will welcome the process of prayer instead of resisting it. You will learn how to let it develop perseverance in you and how to let the process “finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:4).

What God accomplishes during the process of prayer sets you free from anxiety, from insecurity, from fear, from discouragement, from everything that holds any mastery over you. He is setting you free from limited thinking. He Himself teaches you the deep truth that sets you free. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…. If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:32, 36).

The process of prayer resembles the process of pregnancy and birth. Notice how Paul writes to the Galatians, addressing them as “dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19).

Notice here two sides of the process of prayer. During the process, God is at work in us shaping us into the image of Christ. The word translated “form” here is a Greek word that means “to form, fashion, originally used of artists who shaped their material into an image.” This imagery is consistent throughout Scripture—the image of the Master Potter sculpting and shaping clay into the form He desires. The process of prayer results in change in us. During the process of prayer, He is fashioning a heart like His.

Second, Paul describes his experience in praying God's will for the Galatians as similar to childbirth. He is in labor, he says, until the will of God is delivered from the spiritual realm to the material realm. Remember when we examined Elijah's prayer in 1 Kings 18:42: “Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.” Do you know what Elijah was doing? He was taking the birthing position. The passage goes on to describe Elijah's travail. He continued in prayer until his servant could report to him that a cloud as small as a man's hand had appeared in earth's sky. Then Elijah knew that God's will had been brought through the gap and released on the earth.

Why do you think God, in His Word, pictures prayer as a birthing process? What is He teaching us? I think He is showing us that prayer is a process that has effect inside the person praying first, then effect on the earth. He forms prayer in you, gestates it, then brings it forth through you. Prayer births God's will into the circumstances of earth.

Shaped by Faith

The Potter is shaping your heart so that it becomes a container for His desires. He is creating a masterpiece of His own design. He is forming a vessel into which He will pour out His heart. He wants to make His thoughts known to you. It delights Him when we place ourselves in His hands, letting Him mold us, so that He can shape us as seems best to Him. (See Jeremiah 18:4.)

The Potter needs clay that is soft and yielding. It is the Potter's hands you feel shaping you—squeezing, pushing, pinching. He knows exactly what He is doing. You can entrust yourself to Him without fear or reservation. Your work is just to surrender. Be transformed.

Waiting on God

The most difficult part of the process of prayer can be waiting on God. When we fail to recognize the waiting time as an indispensable ingredient in the process, it becomes a time of discouragement and frustration. It is during the waiting times that many people drop out of the school of prayer. Not receiving their answers as they expected, many conclude that prayer doesn't work, at least not for them.

While the waiting time is the most difficult part of the process, it is also the most important. Waiting gives God the opportunity to redefine our desires and align our purpose and vision with His. What appears from the earth-perspective to be a delay on God's part is really the time when God is working in the spiritual realm, beyond our senses. “Faith is being…certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). During the waiting time, we are operating by faith. (We'll explore faith more later, particularly in chap. 10.)

Let me assure you, prayer does have an immediate impact. The instant a thought is turned toward God, no matter how unformed or inarticulate the thought, it creates a stir in the heavenly realms. Unless we understand what is happening in the spiritual realm, we may think that prayer is having no effect. But your prayers are impacting the spiritual realm and the earth will be affected by that impact.

Let me explain what I mean. Paul writes, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen…. We live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 4:18; 5:7). Paul contrasts “faith” and “sight.” They are opposites, he says. He is saying that physical sight, being able to observe something with our eyes, is not the ground and basis of what we know to be true. We can know things that we cannot see.

He also contrasts physical vision and spiritual vision. Obviously we cannot “fix our eyes…on what is unseen” unless he means our spiritual eyes. So we can conclude from this that our spiritual eyes must be able to see spiritual reality just like our earth-eyes can see material reality. What is spiritual sight? It is faith. Faith produces an understanding that surpasses what we can understand by observing material facts. “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible” (Hebrews 11:3). Without faith—spiritual sight—we cannot understand the full truth. We will see only a fragment of reality.

For example, suppose that I decided that I want to understand the truth about light. I would observe light carefully over a period of time and would eventually reach a conclusion based on my observations. I would conclude that light is what I can see. If I can see it, it's light. If I can't see it, it's not light.

This conclusion would be so limited that a knowledgeable person would consider it untrue. It would fall so far short of the truth about light that it would be false. The spectrum of light includes gamma rays, but I can't observe them with my eyes. Light also includes x-rays, ultraviolet rays, infrared rays, radio waves—but I can't see them, either. If the spectrum of light were represented by a diagram eight inches long, only about one quarter of one inch would represent visible light. If I decided to define light based on what I could see, I would never know the unseen power of light.

The spectrum of our reality includes elements and power that I cannot see with my earth-eyes. Reality is made up of both what I can see and what I can't see. My reality includes the power of God, the plans and purposes of God, the present-tense voice of God, and the promises of God. The spectrum of my reality includes the sovereignty of God, the lordship and authority of Jesus, the work of the Spirit, angels, Satan, and the hierarchy of Satan's realm. The portion of reality that I can see—earth and the circumstances of earth—are only a miniscule portion of the whole continuum of reality. If I base my definition of reality on what I can observe on the earth, I will never comprehend the full reality. In the life of faith, circumstances never fully define reality.

Prayer impacts the invisible, spiritual end of the spectrum. The spiritual end of the spectrum impacts the material end. We are to focus our attention on what God is doing in the spiritual end of the spectrum of reality, confident that His activity will show up on the earth at the right time in the right way.

What we can observe from earth is only the appearance; it is not the truth. Faith acts in harmony with truth and disregards appearance. The circumstances of earth are like an optical illusion. When you look at an optical illusion, your eyes tell you one thing, but the truth is something else. You can only interpret an optical illusion correctly if you understand the principles of how the background affects the foreground. You have to know something that you do not see. Otherwise, you will believe a lie.

Trusting God's Purpose

Do you believe that God has a good and productive purpose for building waiting periods into your life? Recall James 1:2–4: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

When God brings waiting periods into your life it is for only one reason: so that you can test-drive your faith. If I were planning to buy a car, I could research my purchase and decide what car I wanted—what make and model, what color, what add-on features. I could know everything about the car except how it handles in my hands. Not until I get behind the wheel and drive it for myself will I know the feel of the car. I have to drive it myself before I can know exactly how to adjust the seat and the mirrors, or how much pressure I have to put on the brake pedal to bring it to a smooth stop, or exactly how I have to turn the steering wheel to get exactly the right angle when I turn. I won't make my final purchase until I've handled the car myself—until I've test-driven it.

It's the same way with your faith. You can study faith. You can memorize verses about faith. You can learn slick, pithy definitions about faith. But until you have the opportunity to test-drive your own faith, you will never know how it handles in your hands. James says that God tests our faith. Does that mean He puts it to the test so that He can see how much faith you have? Or does He put it to the test so that you can see how faith operates? The word test really means “to prove.” God knows everything about you and everything that's in your heart. In fact, He knows it better than you do. He doesn't have to devise a test that will tell Him about your faith. He is proving your faith to you! Peter says the same thing: “These [trials] have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7).

When God allows you to test-drive your faith over and over again, you learn how to operate in faith with confidence. You become a mature and seasoned faith-walker. Mature faith has deep roots. It is not easily shaken. The person with mature faith is steady and tenacious. He has what James calls “perseverance,” the ability to go the distance.

Rows of beautiful trees were laid low in a storm. Reason? The water was too near the surface; so the trees did not have to put their roots deep down to find water; hence the tragedy. God may deny us a surface answer in order to get us to put our roots deeper into eternal reality, so that in some future storm we shall be unmoved.—E. Stanley Jones, Abundant Living

What is it that you are waiting for? What is your proving ground right now? Do you believe that God has the power to change your circumstances and end your wait right now? Do you believe that God loves you and wants only your highest good and deepest happiness?

• If God has the power to change your circumstances right now; and

• If God loves you and wants your highest good; and

• If the circumstances are still in place; then

• What is your conclusion, based on truth?

Right now, accept the circumstances as they are and embrace what God is doing right now to move things to His best conclusion.

His Will and His Ways: The Story of Joseph

Because God has set up the cosmos so that prayer brings His power into the circumstances of earth, it is clear that He wants to work through His people, not outside them. He wants His people engaged in what He's doing. He wants to make His will known to His people so that they can pray it. However, He does not give us His all the details of His plan for how He is going to accomplish His will. If we don't accept this fact, then sometimes during the waiting period we may feel as though God has lost control of events and everything is headed in the wrong direction. But get this firmly in the forefront of your thinking, filter everything else through this truth: In response to prayer, God is always bringing His will into being.

God wants you to understand His will. He wants you to have “the full riches of complete understanding” (Colossians 2:2). He has given His Spirit so that “we may understand what God has freely given us” (1 Corinthians 2:12). Jesus has come and “has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true” (1 John 5:20). He wants to “fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Colossians 1:9).

Does it sound as if God is keeping His will a secret? On the contrary, He has made every provision for you to know His will. He wants you to know His will. He invites you to know His will. In fact, understanding His will is the cornerstone of power praying. You cannot pray with power if you do not pray according to His will. Since He designed prayer to be the conduit that brings His power to earth, and since He designs all things perfectly, He plans for you to know His will. He plans for prayer to work.

The path His will takes, the way He brings His will into being, remains a mystery. “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” (Romans 11:33). God will never hand over to us His all-knowingness. Sometimes we mistake His will for His ways and become confused. When I think that I have reached an understanding of God's will and begin to pray according to it, He often begins bringing His will about in a way that looks to me like a mistake. I have now built up enough history with Him that usually I know to wait and watch—not to confuse His ways with His will. I'm learning not to confuse what He's doing with how He's doing it.

Consider the story of Joseph, which begins in chapter 37 of Genesis and continues through the first chapter of Exodus. What was God's will for Joseph? God showed Joseph His plan in a series of dreams. Joseph came to understand that he was destined to be a ruler to whom even his father and brothers would bow. The next we hear of Joseph, he is at the bottom of a well begging for his life while listening to his brothers plot his death (Genesis 42:21). He is sold into slavery, taken as a slave to a foreign land, and thrown into prison after being falsely accused. It does not appear that God is bringing about His will. It appears that God has lost control of Joseph's life because of the choices of evil men. Actually, God is working out His plan for Joseph so that He can work out His plan for Israel so that He can work out His plan for humanity.

For God's perspective on the situation, look at Psalm 105. What is God's will for Israel, the nation? Read verses 8–11. Summed up, it is this: “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit” (v. 11). When Israel first reached Canaan, they were “but few in number, few indeed, and strangers in it, they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another” (vv. 12–13). What did God need to do in order to bring His will about? He needed to give Israel a place to grow, prosper, learn skills, and reproduce safely. He needed to put them under the protection of a larger, more advanced civilization for a time. He needed them in Egypt.

How did He do it? “He sent a man before them—Joseph, sold as a slave” (Psalm 105:17). It looked as if Joseph's evil brothers had sent him to Egypt. It looked as if God's will was being thwarted by bad decisions. But God said that it was He who sent Joseph to Egypt. Joseph explained it to his brothers like this: “But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God” ((Genesis 45:7–8). God used seemingly adverse circumstances to position Joseph for receiving the promise.

How did God get Israel out of Canaan into Egypt? “He called down famine on the land and destroyed all their supplies of food” (Psalm 105:16). He brought famine on the land, but first He prepared their deliverance. It was waiting for them in Egypt. What appeared to be a disaster and a tragedy drove them to God's provision.

How was God bringing about His will for Joseph and at the same time bringing into being His plan for His people? God allowed Joseph to be put in a position from which God could display His power in just the way that would give Joseph the most credibility with the pharaoh. “They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons, till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the Lord proved him true. The king sent and released him, the ruler of peoples set him free. He made him master of his household, ruler over all he possessed, to instruct his princes as he pleased and teach his elders wisdom” (Psalm 105:18–22). Did God bring about exactly what He had promised Joseph He would do? Yes, to the last detail. Did God do it as Joseph expected Him to? No, far from it.

When God had Joseph in place, when He had brought about His plan for Joseph, His Joseph-plan could merge with His Israel-plan. Israel moved into Egypt under the protection of Joseph, whom God had put in place. In Egypt, the tiny nation of Israel grew to become a large nation. “Then Israel entered Egypt…. The Lord made his people very fruitful” (vv. 23–24).

Exodus chapter 1 tells us that the nation of Israel grew so large and so strong that it frightened the new king. “‘Look’ he said to his people, ‘the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.’ So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor” (Exodus 1:9–11).

This too was God's plan for His people. God wanted to toughen them up—physically, mentally, and spiritually—and get them ready to take the land He had promised them. Even though it appeared that the Israelites had become victims to the whim of the new pharaoh, the truth was that God was moving Israel forward. He was engineering Israel's next step toward possessing the promise. What looked like a setback was really a step forward. He had grown the nation of Israel in number. Now He wanted to grow them in character. When they were ready, He wanted them to possess the promise. He wanted to drive them out of Egypt, the land to which they had become accustomed, and propel them into the Land of the Promise.

God's plan was that Israel would be the channel for His will into all the nations of the earth. God's will is not short-term, but flows from generation to generation. How God does His will is up to Him. You cannot control God or tell Him how to accomplish His plan. He will do His will in His way.

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?

—Romans 11:33–34

“Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?'…It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it.”

—Isaiah 45:9, 12

As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

—Ecclesiastes 11:5

When you treat prayer as if you have the right to tell God how to do His work, you will be disappointed. God does not take instructions. When you realize that God's ways are not your ways, that His ways are superior to your ways, you will not be thrown off balance when circumstances seem to be leading away from God's will rather than toward it. You can trust that God is steadily moving forward in the direction of His will.

A Prepared Heart: the Story of Hannah

Let's look at another incident recorded in Scripture that will give us insight into God's activity during our waiting periods. Consider Hannah, mother of Samuel.

The account of Samuel's life begins with Hannah's yearning for a son, documented in the first chapter of 1 Samuel. The true story of Samuel, however, begins earlier. Hannah's prayer, we will discover, began in the heart of God.

Hannah is not the primary character in this story. Nor is Samuel. Pivotal to the whole story, the central cohesive element, the linchpin, is God Himself. Everything else—Hannah's barrenness, Hannah's prayer, Samuel's birth—is the working out of God's eternal agenda. Our first clear glimpse into what God is doing is found in 1 Samuel 3:1: “In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.” What does this sentence tell us? It tells us that God had no one through whom to speak to His people. In the Old Covenant, God's messages to His people came through human messengers—priests or prophets. God entrusted His message to an individual, and that individual passed it on to the people. We see that God had no one whose heart was at His disposal; no one into whose heart He could pour His words.

Do you see how God has engaged Hannah and, by seeming to withhold her heart's desire, is really making her heart the reservoir of His own desire? God wants a prophet. Hannah wants a son.

God, as always, is working according to a plan. He is not at a loss. He says in 1 Samuel 2:35, “I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind.” When Hannah found herself in this apparently hopeless situation, the truth was that God had a plan.

Now that we've seen what God is doing, let's put Hannah into the picture. Chapter 1 of 1 Samuel describes the situation as it looks from earth. Hannah is longing for a son. Month after month, year after year, she mourns the son she isn't having. Hannah thinks the Lord has forgotten her, and the empirical evi-dence—the observable facts—would say that Hannah is right. The Scripture, in fact, says, “The Lord had closed her womb” (1 Samuel 1:5).

The turning point in Hannah's story comes in 1 Samuel 1:11. Hannah prays this prayer: “'O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.’” Following this prayer, Hannah conceived and bore her long-awaited son, Samuel.

Why does this prayer seem to move God when her many prayers before seemed not to? Look at what the prayer says about the heart of Hannah.

First, it tells us that during the waiting period, God had focused her faith. I have to think that in the beginning of her marriage, Hannah assumed that the biological processes of her body would produce a son. Month after month, her confidence and trust in her body withered. By the time that Hannah prayed this prayer, she knew that only God could give her a son. Her faith was focused.

Next, it tells us that Hannah understood that if the Lord gave her a son, that son belonged to the Lord. From the beginning, Hannah had been ready to be the mother of a son. But she had not been ready to be the mother of a prophet. God intended for Hannah more than she could ask or think, and He had to prepare her heart to receive it. Hannah's heart and God's heart had to be a perfect match. During the prayer process, God fashioned in Hannah a heart like His. When Samuel was born, Hannah had her son and God had His prophet. “The boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord” (1 Samuel 2:21).

When Samuel was born, Hannah's prayer was answered, but it was not the end of God's work. It was the beginning. Samuel became a priest, prophet, and judge in the nation of Israel. He was the fulfillment of God's vision—a faithful priest who did what was in God's heart and mind. Samuel became such a strong intercessor for Israel that the Scripture says, “Throughout Samuel's lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines” (1 Samuel 7:13). God's hand was against the enemies of Israel, not as long as they had a mighty warrior on the battlefield, but as long as they had a mighty warrior in the prayer closet.

Do you see the process of prayer? Before Hannah began to pray, God was at work laying the groundwork for His prophet. While Hannah was praying, God was at work preparing her for the answer He had in mind. After Hannah was through praying, God was at work through His servant Samuel, the answer to Hannah's prayer. When we're finished, God is just beginning.

How do you see your own situation represented in Hannah's story? Are you forgetting that God is the central and primary character in your story just as He was in Hannah's? Let God work out His story in your circumstance.

Dead or Alive: the Story of Lazarus

Let's revisit the story of Lazarus in John 11. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were close friends of Jesus. He often spent time in their home. They knew Him as well as any person on earth knew Him. They had seen Him respond to needs over and over again. They knew what they could expect of Him, or so they thought.

When Lazarus became ill, Mary and Martha sent a message to Jesus. Their message was simple and represented their absolute faith in Jesus to respond to their needs. “Lord, the one you love is sick” (John 11:3).

Observe what happens next. John, as he tells the story, sets the stage with these words: “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (John 11:5 NASB). Why do you think he put that sentence in? I think it was because of what comes next. “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was” (John 11:5–6 NASB). John wanted to make it clear that when Jesus built a delay into the process, when He stayed two days longer in the place where He was, it was in the context of how much He loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.

We see the same principle at work in verses 14–15 when Jesus is talking with His disciples. “'Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe’” (NASB). Jesus said that the delay was profitable for His disciples. His delay, then, was loving, purposeful, profitable, and deliberate. It was necessary for accomplishing the bigger agenda He had in mind.

How did the delay benefit Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and the disciples? If Jesus had come to Bethany and healed Lazarus before he died, Mary's and Martha's prayer would have been answered. Their faith in Jesus would have been affirmed. They would have been more certain than ever that Jesus is Lord over illness. But they would never have known that Jesus is Lord over death. The Father is always teaching us the lordship of Jesus in deeper, more experiential ways. “Jesus is Lord” is the truth that anchors everything.

God wanted to do more than they could think or imagine, and it required a waiting period. He wanted them to see the lordship of Jesus in areas that had never occurred to them before. That's how much He loved them.

We see something else in this story. God had a bigger plan, a more far-reaching plan, for how and when He wanted to heal Lazarus.

Imagine that Jesus had arrived at Bethany in time to heal Lazarus. Who would have seen His glory? Read John 11:18-19. “Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother.” Why were Jews from the surrounding areas at Mary's and Martha's house? What did it take to bring them? They were there because Lazarus was dead. His illness would not have brought them. It took his death.

Now look at John 11:45. “Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him.” What happened because the Jews from the area had come to mourn Lazarus's death? They were positioned to see Jesus prove His mastery over death. Many put their faith in him.

When it appears from earth that God is delaying, He is really putting pieces together that you had not thought of. He is engineering circumstances so that His power and glory will be on display. When God builds a waiting period into the course of your affairs, it means that what He is doing requires it. His apparent delays are loving, purposeful, and deliberate.

Wait It Out

In the praying life, God schedules waiting periods. The Word of God teaches that prayer—true prayer—is a long-term commitment. Jesus’ teaching about prayer was, “Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking…and [the door] will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7 AMP). He teaches tenacity and perseverance. He told parables that illustrated persistent, persevering prayer. In one of His parables He described a widow who came to an unjust judge over and over again until she received what she needed. Luke introduces this parable with these words: “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1). The whole point of Jesus’ parable was to teach us not to give up. Why did Jesus think it necessary to teach such a thing? Because He knew that prayer would require the kind of steadfastness and resolve that could, if misunderstood, make a person give up. He taught us that when we feel like giving up, we must not give in to it. Prayer is not for quitters.

Even though it appears sometimes that prayer isn't work-ing—that God is delaying—the truth is that God is acting in fulfilled time. God does not act in elapsed time, but in fulfilled time. “'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand’” (Mark 1:15 NASB). The word fulfilled means “filled full.” God says, “I am filling your waiting period full. When I have filled it full—when I have done all that I need to do with it—your wait will be over and My kingdom will be revealed.” Fulfilled time is measured by the readiness of the circumstances. When the time is ripe, when all the pieces have been put in place, God's answer will be revealed. His concern is not time, but timing. Everything has a ripe moment: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

God's timing is an astounding thing. He is a micromanager. Every detail is being worked into His plan to bring about His own ends. Think about, for example, all the details that had to fall in place with split-second timing for the infant Moses to be rescued from the Nile by the daughter of Pharaoh. And Moses had to be rescued by the daughter of Pharaoh because God's plan was more than to save Moses’ life, it was to put Moses in the very heart of Egyptian power and learning. Here's my list:

• Moses’ mother had to be in a situation that forced her to let go of her son, whom she wanted to keep close.

• It had to occur to Moses’ mother to build an ark of bulrushes and set him afloat.

• Moses’ mother had to set him afloat on the right day at the right time of day

• The currents of the Nile had to be traveling in the right direction and at the right speed.

• Pharaoh's daughter had to be bathing in the Nile at the right time.

• Pharaoh's daughter had to be predisposed to desire an infant.

• The infant Moses had to cry at exactly the right moment.

And on and on we could go. None of this happened by chance. God is not “hoping for the best;” He is creating the best. Timing is everything. And God is a God of timing.

In Heart's Cry I illustrated the concept of fulfilled time like this:

There is much to be learned while waiting on God. God's apparent delays are not delays. God is always working. “Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working’” (John 5:17). He is always in the process of answering.

[Observe] the incubation period during which a bird's fertilized egg reaches maturity and hatches a baby bird. Once a bird lays her eggs, she sits on them to incubate them. To the uninformed observer, it would appear that nothing is happening. That observer would be amazed if he knew just how much was happening. The incubating bird has tucked her eggs underneath her stomach feathers close to a bare spot called her brood patch. The brood patch is the warmest surface on the bird's body because of the network of blood vessels that lie close to the surface and produce heat. This heat is readily passed from the mother bird to her eggs. Her waiting is deliberate. The delay is essential to the outcome. All the work is invisible to the physical eye. As the mother sits on her eggs, the embryo is growing to a fully formed chick. When the chick is fully formed, it will hatch. When the time is fulfilled, the chicks will be revealed.

Our persevering intercession provides the incubating heat needed for our Spirit-born desires to reach maturity.

In summary, God has good, loving, and productive reasons for scheduling waiting periods into the prayer process. When He has called on you to wait, it is because what He is doing during the waiting time is necessary for the best outcome. If He didn't need the incubation time, it would not be there.

Hearing from God

Hearing from God is the central work of prayer. During the prayer process, God is attuning our ears to His voice. Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice…and they follow me” (John 10:27). As a sheep learns to recognize the voice of its shepherd, so we learn to recognize the voice of our Shepherd. As we hear it over and over again, as we learn through experience to trust it, His voice becomes immediately familiar to us. This is a critical part of the prayer process.

Why do you think that hearing from God would be the central work of prayer? Read the following statement from Jesus through carefully.

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

—John 15:15

When Jesus says that He no longer calls you a servant because a servant does not know his Master's business, this implies that you do know your Master's business. When He uses the word instead, He is contrasting two thoughts. Instead of a servant who doesn't know your master's business, you are a friend, who does know your friend's business. What is the proof that He treats us as friends instead of servants? “'For everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you’” (John 15:15).

The difference between being His slave and being His friend, Jesus taught, is that a friend will know His mind and heart. A friend will be privy to His intimate thoughts and longings.

Jesus continues to pray for His followers: “He [the Spirit] will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you” (John 16:14–15).

Notice two things: 1. Everything that belongs to the Father belongs to Jesus. The Father's thoughts and desires belong to Jesus. 2. Everything that belongs to Jesus—the thoughts and desires of the Father, for example—are delivered to you by the Holy Spirit. They become yours.

What will Jesus make known to you? Everything He learns from the Father. The Father speaks through the Son; the Son speaks through the Spirit. From the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit—this is how God speaks to you and to me.

Scripture is filled with invitations to listen to God. Would God instruct you to do something that it was impossible for you to do? Since God tells you to listen to Him, since He promises you that He will instruct and teach you, is not the implied promise that you can hear Him?

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will counsel you and watch over you.

—Psalm 32:8

In Hebrews 4:7 we read: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” The word translated “hear” means “to hear and respond in one action.” This seems to teach us that responding is the key to clear hearing. If I hear His voice and do not respond, a callous begins to form over my heart. It begins to harden. The next time He speaks, it's harder for me to hear Him. His voice is less distinct. Disobedience by disobedience, my heart becomes more calloused and less able to discern His voice. However, the opposite is also true. If I hear and do respond, the callous over my heart begins to slough away. The next time He speaks, it is easier for me to hear. Obedience by obedience, my heart softens and I become more astute at hearing His voice.

What is there in your life that you keep pushing to the background, but the Lord's voice keeps bringing back to the surface? Has that voice grown fainter since you first heard it? Are you ready to respond to what the Lord is telling you right now?

Ears to Hear

We must be able to hear from God because He alone is the source of true prayer. His desires pour into our hearts so that they become our desires and are expressed through our words—this is the goal of the praying life. He promises to pour out His heart and to make His thoughts known to us (Proverbs 1:23).

In order to develop confidence in our ability to hear from God, we must first accept that we can hear from God—that God has made it possible. He speaks to us from within, from His dwelling place in our spirit. Here He has made His home. He is not speaking to us from a faraway place. He is speaking into our thoughts, into our emotions, into our wills. He is speaking so intimately that many times it feels like our own ideas. But as He has more and more access to us, He is able to think His thoughts in us. It is His indwelling Life that makes it possible for us to hear Him moment by moment.

Not from without but from within, not in word but in power, in life and truth, the Spirit reveals Christ and all He has for us. He makes the Christ, who has been to us so often only an image, a thought, a Saviour outside and above us, to be truth within us. The Spirit brings with His incoming the truth into us; and then, having possessed us from within, guides us, as we can bear it, into all the truth.

—Andrew Murray, The Spirit of Christ

[At Pentecost] they were not submerged in God, nor did God override them. God was God and they were they; but Person flowed into person, Will into will, Mind into mind, and they could scarcely tell where they ended and God began. He was closer than the blood in their veins and nearer than their own heartbeats. If they should reach out to touch Him, they would reach too far.

—E. Stanley Jones, Mastery: The Art of Mastering Life

On the first day of Pentecost He returned, not this time to be with them externally…but now to be in them imparting to them His own divine nature, clothing Himself with their humanity…He spoke with their lips. He worked with their hands. This was the miracle of the new birth, and this remains the very heart of the gospel!

—Major Ian Thomas, The Saving Life of Christ

In learning to hear God's present voice, you don't have to worry about whether you are good at hearing. You can trust that He is good at speaking.

It is critical, as we look carefully at how God speaks to believers today, to get it clearly in our minds that God—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit—indwells us. Some have the impression that a watered-down, shadow-version of God called “the Spirit” indwells us and that God and Jesus live in a faraway land called heaven. Not so. God is One. He is not fragmented. Everything God does and everything He says, He does and says as the Triune God: from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.

Jesus says, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23).

Who is “we”? Where will the Father and the Son abide?

We read in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?”

Whose temple (dwelling place) are you?

Look at 1 Corinthians 6:19. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.” Again, whose temple (dwelling place) are you?

Think about this sentence from Jesus’ high priestly prayer: “I (Jesus) in them (believers) and you (the Father) in me (Jesus)” (John 17:23).

Where is Jesus? In us. Where is God? In Jesus.

Triune God: The Lord Our God Is One

Let me try to illustrate the oneness of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in Their communication to you. Imagine that I have the most wonderful thoughts and that if you only knew my thoughts, your life would be changed forever. What would I have to do? I would have to translate my thoughts into words. Then my words would be the exact representation of my thoughts. My words would be my thoughts in a different form. The essence of my words and my thoughts would be exactly the same, but my thoughts would now be in the form of words.

It will take one more element for me to be able to get my thoughts across to you. It will take the breath of my mouth rushing over my vocal chords to form the voice that makes my words heard. My voice takes my words and makes them known to you.

Do you see how I speak from my thoughts, through my words, by my voice? Three actions in one.

Let my thoughts represent the Father, whose thoughts [toward you] are wonderful and precious according to Psalm 139:17; whose thoughts are higher than your thoughts according to Isaiah 55:9. The Father translated Himself into Word, according to John 1:1. Just as my thoughts are my words, so the Word was and is God. God the Father and God the Son are the same essence in different forms. The Thought was now in the form of Word (John 1:1-2, 14). The Word is the exact representation of the Thought (Hebrews 1:3). The Word makes the Thought known (John 1:18).

Now the third element: the Spirit. The Greek word pneuma, translated “Spirit,” is also translated “breath.” The Breath of God's mouth is a picture of the Holy Spirit throughout the Old Testament (Job 33:4; Ezekiel 37:9). Just as my breath creates the voice that delivers my words, the Spirit takes Jesus and makes Him known to you (John 16:15). From the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.

He is speaking from within you. Turn inward to Him and His indwelling life. Listen to the voice that now lives in you. You need not search for God. He has made you His abode. As E. Stanley Jones said, if you reach out for Him, you have reached too far.

The Now-Speaking God

God has always been and will always be a speaking God. He is forever speaking His power onto the earth. God says, “Let there be…” and it is so. God does His work by His Word. When God speaks, His Word is the instrument of His work.

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

—Isaiah 55:10–11

Do you see how God talks about His Word? He says that He sends His Word out with an assignment and that His Word always accomplishes His desires and achieves His purposes. His Word accomplishes His work. His Word waters and nourishes the lives into which He sends it and makes them bud and flourish. He always does His work by His Word.

Jesus once said, “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 14:10). Jesus said that the words He was speaking were doing the Father's work. Why? Because they were the Father's words! The Father's words do the Father's work.

God's words are different from your words or my words. In the material realm, words have no substance. They do not have mass and take up space. They are puffs of air. Earth words communicate, but they do not accomplish work. I can't say to an object, “Move from here to there,” and expect the object to move. I have to use physical force to move an earth object from one place to another. My words do not do my work.

The Father's words are different. In the spiritual realm, God's words have substance. They are not puffs of air; they are the instruments of His action. “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). He created the earth by His Word. He is watching over His Word to see that it is carried out.

He is still doing His work by His Word. He is still speaking His creating, sustaining, and ruling Word. He is speaking through the Son, by the Spirit, to you and to me.

To understand prayer, it is essential to realize that Jesus’ life is flowing through you and operating in you. His life is the underlying reality, the ground from which every prayer principle grows.

Jesus taught us that His Spirit-life in us would be superior to His physical presence with us. He said to His disciples, who had grown dependent upon His earthly presence, that it was for their good that He was going away. (See John 16:7). Jesus said that His life indwelling us in Spirit-form would be to our benefit. Why? Because from within, Jesus Himself would speak directly into our understanding. We can hear Him more clearly than the disciples could hear Him when He was on earth in physical form. We can hear with understanding. We can hear His rhema, His present-tense speaking, all the time. He never leaves us. This form of hearing—hearing from within, Spirit-voice to Spirit-ears—is superior to hearing with our ears. Spirit-hearing is more reliable than earth hearing. Jesus said it is for our benefit that He has made His Spirit-life available and has removed His physical presence.

Depend on His life flowing through you right now. Depend on His Spirit-voice speaking to your understanding. Any understanding about spiritual truth that you acquire comes directly from Him. He may use a tool—a teacher, a writer, a preacher—but that person is a tool, not a source. He is the one and only source of spiritual understanding. Trust Him. He speaks by opening your mind so that you can understand the Scripture. (See Luke 24:45.)

What is God's purpose for speaking to you? He wants you to know Him and know His heart and mind. He wants you to be able to hear Him. We are all insecure about our ability to hear the voice of God. We are all careful to ask, “Is it God, or is it me?” Don't trust your ability to hear. Trust His ability to speak. He will take all the responsibility if you will open your life to His voice.

God will draw you to Him. He will cause you to be able to hear Him. He will speak in ways that you can receive and will instruct you and teach you.

Revelation or Information

God makes it clear that He cannot be fully known from any outside source. During the time that the Old Covenant was in effect, God spoke to His people through outside sources. He spoke through prophets and priests; He spoke through Ten Commandments written on tablets of stone; He led His people through the desert in fire by night and cloud by day. These are all outside sources.

Now we have a New Covenant, “a better covenant, which was established upon better promises” (Hebrews 8:6 KJV). In the New Covenant, God Himself speaks to each of His children from inside, through His indwelling presence. “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2). Everything that had been outside would now be inside.

“‘The time is coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt…This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.’”

—Jeremiah 31:31–34

Do you see how the Scripture contrasts the two covenants? In the first, God's words were outside, guiding; in the second, God's Word is inside, transforming. In 1 John 2:27, we read that the Father has given us an anointing that lives in us. The “anointing” is the Spirit's presence in power. Because of the indwelling life of God, you can know truth. (We'll look at this verse from 1 John more carefully further on.)

Information from an outside source may be true, but it can't reach the understanding without being distorted. Have you ever made a comment to someone, or passed on information to someone, and by the time it reached that person, their understanding was different from what you had intended? The person heard your words, but misunderstood your meaning.

Let me illustrate how unreliable information from an outside source can be, even if it's true. My niece Hannah was about three years old when Hurricane Andrew hit Florida. Hannah lived in Houston. The weather reports warned that the hurricane might be headed for Houston. My sister Julie said to Hannah, “We have to go to the grocery store and get some food because a hurricane's coming.”

Hannah asked, “What's a hurricane?”

Julie replied, “It's a big storm and it rains and it blows…”

Hannah said, “And it eats?”

Information, which comes from an outside source, always has to be filtered through worldview, mind-set, knowledge of the subject, preconceived ideas, and on and on. Information, no matter what form it started out in, never reaches the understanding undistorted. When God spoke to His people through outside sources, He spoke only truth, but it reached their understanding in a distorted form.

When God speaks to you from within, He is acting directly on your understanding. The word Scripture uses to describe the direct action of God on your mind and understanding is revelation. What does the Scripture mean by “revelation”?

In order to see this concept very clearly, we're going to take it apart and put it back together again. First, I want you to see what it means to have the Spirit's indwelling and to be filled with the Spirit.

I believe the Scripture describes man as a triune being, made in the image of the triune God. I define the Word triune with regard to human beings as an adjective describing us as one being consisting of three integrated, interactive parts. Not three separate and independent pieces, but three incorporated aspects, like rotating gears working in tandem—one's action interdependent with the others.

1. Man is packaged in a body (Greek: soma), which is made of earth-substance. It is through the body that man relates to and interacts with his physical environment.

2. Man has a soul (Greek: psuche). His soul is his mind, will, and emotions. His soul is his human nature. Through the soul, humans relate to each other and to thoughts and ideas.

3. Man is spirit (Greek: pneuma). It is through his spirit that he relates to God.

The writer of Hebrews, for example, says that the Word of God will divide between soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12). Paul prays, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalo-nians 5:23). Although the words soul and spirit are often used interchangeably to indicate the inner man, I believe Scripture makes it clear that body, soul, and spirit are three distinct aspects of man.

Let me make an analogy to the Jewish Temple. It is in your spirit that God indwells you. That is where His Holy of Holies is.

From your spirit, God's dwelling place, God expresses Himself through your mind (Romans 12:2), will (Philippians 2:13), and emotions (Romans 5:5)—your soul. Your soul is pictured by the Holy Place in the temple—the place where the activities of worship were carried out.

Through your body, God works in the world. Your body is the physical vehicle through which your inner man—spirit and soul—is expressed. Your body would correspond to the outer courtyard of the temple, which was the part of the temple visible to all.

To be filled with the Spirit means to have your soul and your body—your thinking, feeling, willing, and acting—under the authority of His indwelling Spirit.

If God—the Father, Son, and Spirit—indwells you, then all of Truth indwells you. Truth is living in your spirit because Truth is a person. All of God is in Jesus; all of Jesus is in the Spirit; all of the Spirit is in you.

Look at Hebrews 8:11: “‘No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.’” Under the New Covenant, why will we not have to teach our brothers or neighbors to know the Lord? Because they will all know Him. Why will all His people know Him? As he explains in verse 10, “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.”

Earlier I referred to 1 John 2:27, which reinforces this concept: “As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.”

What is the anointing? The anointing is the Holy Spirit. Where is the anointing? The anointing “remains in you,” Where did the anointing come from? You received Him from Jesus. What does the anointing do? He “teaches you about all things.”

All truth is indwelling you in your spirit. Truth is abiding in you as the living person of Jesus Christ. But your mind does not have all truth. Not all truth is in your understanding.

Where is your mind and your intellect? It is in your soul, not your spirit. Now, go back with me to the word revelation. It means “unveiling or uncovering.” The Scripture says that a veil lies over our minds, which is only removed by Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 3:16). The truth in your spirit is progressively being unveiled to your mind (understanding) by Jesus Himself. He is continually lifting the veil that hides deep truth so that you see and comprehend more and more of His Word each day. Just as He did for the disciples, Jesus is opening your mind so that you can understand the Scripture (Luke 24:45). God is giving you a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you will know Him better (Ephesians 3:17–19).

God has many ways in which He unveils truth to our minds. For one thing, He has appointed and gifted tools in the Body through whom He unveils truth. Those who have the gift of teaching or preaching or prophecy are often the mouthpieces He uses, but they are not the source. God is the only one who can bring understanding of spiritual truth to your mind. Truth comes from the spirit to the mind. The Spirit reveals what Jesus has available for you. He unveils it to your understanding little by little.

The Unveiling

God speaks by revealing the truth in His Word at progressively deeper levels. Only He can do that. No matter how wonderful you may think a speaker or writer is, he or she cannot reveal truth to your understanding. If someone's words have produced new insight in you, it is because God Himself has revealed it. Information comes from outside sources. Revelation comes from God within you.

First Corinthians 2:9–16 shows the difference between information about God and revelation from God. We see that God reveals to our understanding that which is freely available to us. Then, in prayer, we speak what we understand. We speak spiritual words—words that are taught us by the Spirit Himself.

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (v. 9).

God has things prepared for us—things that are ready and waiting for our use. We cannot know these things in the same way we know what exists on the earth. We can't know God's provision by seeing or hearing or imagining.

“But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.” (v. 10)

What we cannot know by seeing, hearing, or imagining, we can know by the Spirit's revelation. The word “revelation” means uncovering or unveiling. The Spirit unveils God's truths to our understanding. When the Spirit brings understanding, we will know what God has ready and waiting as certainly as if we'd seen them with our eyes or heard them with our ears.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. (v. 10)

When we are depending on the Spirit to bring understanding of spiritual truth, we will have access to even the deep, mysterious, hidden things that belong to God. (See Daniel 2:22.)

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? (v. 11)

No one knows me but me. No one knows my thoughts but my spirit within me. If you want to know what I think, I have to reveal my thoughts to you.

In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (v. 11)

Just like no one knows me but me, no one knows God but God. If you want to know His thoughts, He will have to reveal them to you.

We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. (v. 12)

God has revealed Himself to us. He has given us His Spirit. He has given us Himself. The purpose for giving us His Spirit is so that we can understand what He has prepared for us and has made freely available to us.

This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. (v. 13)

What do we speak in prayer? We speak what we understand. What does God's Spirit cause us to understand? From the Spirit, we understand what God has freely given us. If God Himself has revealed truth into our understanding, when we speak that understanding, we are speaking spiritual words. What makes them spiritual? They are born of the Spirit. Whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. We can now say, “These words I speak, they are spirit and they are life.”

The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back.

—Isaiah 50:4–5

What do you think is meant by “an instructed tongue”? (Read 1 Corinthians 2:13 and Luke 12:12 for clarification.) A person with an instructed tongue is speaking from wisdom and knowledge. From where does an instructed tongue come? God gives it. “You have given me an instructed tongue.” How does God give an instructed tongue? He instructs by speaking to one who is listening and being taught. Who opens the ears and makes the learner able to “listen like one being taught”? “The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears.” What is the hearer's responsibility? The hearer's responsibility is to respond.

If we are responsive to Him, then when we speak, we speak His words. In prayer, we speak the things that we know by the Spirit to be freely available to us. These words are spirit and life. They are God's words. God's words do exactly what God has assigned them to do. They are settled forever in the heavens. God's words do God's work.

When I speak God's words on earth, they impact the spiritual realm. The spiritual realm impacts the material realm. The life of Jesus flowing through me continually is creating my thoughts, desires, imaginings, and will, and is authoring in me the Spirit-born word of God.

God wants you to hear Him. He has put everything in place so that you and I will be able to hear Him speaking in the present tense. He speaks from within directly into our understanding. Many times, what the Lord wants to say He has already deposited in your mind and you find it pouring out through your mouth as prayer.

Indeed the whole secret of prayer is found in these three words, “in the Spirit.” It is the prayer that God the Holy Spirit inspires that God the Father answers.

—R. A. Torrey, How to Pray

[I] Seek in myself the things I hoped to say,

But lo!, my wells are dry.

Then, seeing me empty, you forsake

The listener's role and through

My dumb lips breathe and into utterance wake

The thoughts I never knew.

— quoted by C. S. Lewis in Letters to Malcolm

Living Word

Before I close this chapter on hearing from God, I want to be clear about the Word that we hear. Jesus embodies fully the Word of God. He is the Word. He is the living Word that the written word conveys. If there were no living Word, then there would be no written word to express Him. Without the eternal living Word, there would be no word to be spoken. Because He is, everything that exists is. “Without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3). The writer of Hebrews refers to the Son “through whom he made the universe” (Hebrews 1:2). Paul describes Him this way: “By him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16–17).

The Word has always been. The Word is. The Word will always be. And the Word lives in you. “'The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart’” (Romans 10:8).

When you read the written Word, the living Word Himself speaks it to you. He speaks to you in present and specific ways, heart to heart. He presents His thoughts to your mind in a fashion that is tailored to your personality and experiences. For example, my friend Libby is an artist. Jesus speaks often to her through colors because she thinks a lot about colors. My friend Mary is a master gardener, and Jesus often speaks to her in gardening metaphors because she knows a lot about gardening. I am a left-brained logical person, and Jesus speaks to me in logic and thought sequences. For all of us, He is right there in our present moment speaking life-altering truth in a direct transfer from His mind to ours. Why can He do that? Because “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). We have Jesus’ thoughts in a present state—as He thinks them right now—as they are relevant to your moment and to your life.

Jesus is the Word of God. He is always speaking to you from within. He speaks the Scripture into a present reality. He speaks personal and specific words of promise to you. He creates in you the desires of God for you. “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13, emphasis mine). You can't separate the Living Word from the written Word. It is the Living Word who infuses the Scripture with Spirit and life. It is He who speaks and Him we have to hear.

Seeking After God

Waiting on God. Hearing from God. Seeking after God.

As we come to this third aspect of the prayer process, the irony is that when we begin seeking God, it is only because He is seeking us. It is His pull on our hearts that causes us to desire Him. Without His initiative, we would never seek Him out. “There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God” (Romans 3:11). He could not have put it in stronger terms—no one has in herself the understanding that would cause her to seek God. When we find within ourselves the initiative to seek God, it is really a response to His invitation to seek Him. “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, O Lord, I shall seek’” (Psalm 27:8 NASB).

“'You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 29:13–14). Look carefully at what He says. When you seek Him—respond to His pull on your heart—you will, without a doubt, find Him. He has made Himself “find-able.” He says, “I will be found by you.” He makes Himself the subject—the doer of the action. He will do the “being found.”

The Book of Hebrews tells us that God “rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). The reward of a search is finding that for which you are searching. For example, a person who is searching for sunken treasure would feel rewarded by finding sunken treasure. God rewards those who seek Him. What is that reward? Himself. God said to Abraham, “'I am…your very great reward’” (Genesis 15:1). When He Himself is the focal point of our search—not blessings by way of Him, but Him—we are extravagantly, exorbitantly rewarded. When we find Him, we find everything. Julian of Norwich prayed, “God, of Your goodness, give me Yourself for You are sufficient for me. I cannot properly ask anything less to be worthy of You. If I were to ask less, I should always be in want. In You alone do I have all.”

Spiritual Disciplines

We seek God through the spiritual disciplines. By engaging in the spiritual disciplines, we keep our lives open to God so that He can do in us and through us what He desires. He can fulfill His purposes in us when we are accessible to Him.

We do not need more access to God. Full access was provided through the finished work of Christ. God needs access to us. He waits for us to open the door to His Son. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). Always, the Son is knocking, seeking entrance to our lives and to our needs. Always, His word is, “Here I am!” Engaging in the spiritual disciplines is one way we open our lives to Him and to all He wants to do.

Engaging in the disciplines does not earn us favor with God. We don't engage in the disciplines because God will then be moved to do good for us. The spiritual disciplines accomplish only one thing: they are our “yes” to God's invitation.

My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace,

Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God;

'Tis His to lead me there, not mine, but His—

“At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.”

—F. Brook; quoted from Christian Disciplines by

Oswald Chambers

Bible Study

God has designed it so that He can speak to His children through the Bible. The Bible is much more than the words God once spoke; it is the Word He is now speaking. Every word written in the Scripture is from God, and God Himself has watched over, protected, and preserved His Word since the beginning.

Don't fall into the habit of thinking of the Bible as an ordinary book. It is far more! As you are reading the Word of God, God's Spirit is speaking it to you in terms of your life. He is causing you to understand it and to see its truth.

To help us understand the value of His Word, God has represented His Word as food that nourishes our spiritual life in the same way that physical food nourishes our physical life. Just as my body requires a daily, consistent intake of food, my spirit requires a daily, consistent intake of God's Word. I need to be engaged in the discipline of continually ingesting spiritual nourishment so that I will progressively mature and so that my spiritual immune system will be strong.

Through a consistent daily intake of God's Word, God will reveal His heart and mold our prayers. Let's compare eating food in the physical realm and taking in the Word in the spiritual realm.

Physically, when you eat food, the nutrients from that food are absorbed into your bloodstream to be delivered to your cells. How do the right nutrients reach the right cells? How does protein get to your muscle cells and calcium to your bone cells? Why don't nutrients get deposited in the wrong cells? Our food enters our bodies the same way, and yet the specific nutrients and vitamins get to the right cells.

The reason is that an amazingly complex system clicks “on” when you eat food. It's called your digestive system. The first stage of digestion is changing food into a form the body can use. The second is delivering the food to the cells. The nutrients and vitamins are absorbed into the bloodstream, which acts as the delivery system. Every cell has its own specifically designed receptor sites shaped to match the shape of the nutrient that cell requires. The receptor site essentially selects out of the bloodstream exactly what it needs.

Amazing, isn't it? You have billions of cells in your body, each drawing out of your bloodstream exactly what it needs. This complicated and complex process happens without your effort. You don't even have to know what happens or how it happens for it to happen. You don't have to feel it happening. You just have to eat the food; your body does the rest. The nutrients in your food literally are “life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body,” which is exactly how Proverbs 4:20–22 describes the Word of God. Once your food and its nutrients enter your body, they become “living and active,” just as the writer of Hebrews describes the Word of God (Hebrews 4:12).

Nourishing your spirit works the same way. You feast on the Word of God and God Himself applies His truth to your life. His Word is not alive and active written on a page and bound in a book. His Word comes to life in you when it comes into contact with your faith (Hebrews 4:2). When you take in the Word, the Spirit of God in you breathes life into it. He reveals its truth. He opens your mind to understand. When you engage in the discipline of taking in the Word of God on a regular basis, your spiritual digestive system does the rest.

What would happen if you did not eat the foods that contain the nutrients your body needs? Your cells would have no nutrients to draw from your bloodstream. Your bloodstream only carries nutrients from what you have ingested. If you don't take in the Word of God, your spirit has no nourishment from which to draw. The Spirit of God can only make alive the Word of God that you have taken in.

In chapter 5, the writer of Hebrews compares Scripture to food in an interesting way. In verses 11–14, the writer says that the same Scripture is received as “milk” by some and as “meat” by others. Some believers, it seems, have not eaten enough of the Word to develop a mature digestive system. They can only access what they can skim off the surface. Others, though, have eaten enough spiritual food that their spiritual digestive system can metabolize meat. They can access the deeper, more substantive truths in God's Word. How have they reached this maturity? Hebrews explains it this way: “[They] by constant use have trained themselves.” These believers have constantly used the Word. The word translated “use” means “exercise or practice.” Those who mature to deeper levels of the truth are those who put the Word to use in their lives. God speaks not to inform, but to transform. God's Word is not designed to lie passive and untried in our lives. God's Word has muscle power!

Do you want to move on from milk to meat? Make constant use of the Word you know. To allow the Word of God to come to life in us, we must be engaged in an ongoing daily discipline of Bible study. We must look for every possible way to ingest His Word. We will not hear Him clearly if we look for His communication only at certain times in certain circumstances. Our lives are to be a repository of His Word where we store it up and have it ready for His use at any given moment. He speaks to us through His Word as part of the prayer process.

The danger, of course, is that we will try to put words in God's mouth. Too often we come to Him expecting Him to validate our decisions, and so miss Him altogether. Many times what He says will redefine our problem—help us see it as His opportunity to show His power. But when we are listening for what we want to hear instead of what He wants to say, we will miss Him. We must come to Him without preconceived ideas of what He will say. Ask Him to open your ear “to listen like one being taught” (Isaiah 50:4).

Solitude and Silence

To seek God, we must build into our lives the disciplines of solitude and silence. We must respond when the Father calls us to a place of solitude to be alone with Him. “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her” (Hosea 2:14).

Although prayer is continuous, an ongoing interchange of love between the Father and His child, there must be scheduled time when all of our attention is directed toward God. We must be able to withdraw for a while from the fevered pace of our lives, from the noise and incessant demands, to listen for the still, small voice.

The “why” of this discipline may be illustrated by this quote from the Indian Christian missionary, Sadhu Sundar Singh:

For the first two or three years after my conversion, I used to ask for specific things. Now I ask for God. Supposing there is a tree full of fruits—you will have to go and buy or beg the fruits from the owner of the tree. Every day you would have to go for one or two fruits. But if you can make the tree your own property, then all the fruits will be your own. In the same way, if God is your own, then all things in Heaven and on earth will be your own, because He is your Father and is everything to you…. So ask not for gifts but for the Giver of Gifts; not for life, but for the Giver of Life—then life and the things needed for life will be added unto you.

Fasting

Another spiritual discipline to be incorporated into our lives is the discipline of fasting. Andrew Murray, in his book With Christ in the School of Prayer, says, “Faith needs a life of prayer in which to grow and keep strong…. Prayer needs fasting for its full and perfect development.”

Fasting is not a way to influence, impress, or manipulate God. Fasting does not prove anything to God. He knows your heart better than you do (John 2:25; Hebrews 4:13; and Psalm 33:15). It is not a hunger strike designed to convince God to release what He has, up to now, held back. Instead, fasting is a way to let go of that which binds us to this physical world—food—in order to receive all our sustenance from the spiritual world.

In fasting, you determine that for a period of time you will deny your physical cravings to focus on your spiritual cravings. You will allow your spiritual hunger to become stronger and more focused. You will feed your spirit with the same enthusiasm with which you feed your body. During a fast, spiritual hunger takes priority over physical hunger. In Prayer O. Hallesby says, “The purpose of [fasting] is to loosen to some degree the ties which bind us to the world of material things and our surroundings as a whole, in order that we may concentrate all our spiritual powers upon the unseen and eternal things.”

Fasting is not a last-ditch effort to get through to God. Instead, it sharpens our spiritual senses so that God can get through to us. We find the story of a fast in 2 Chronicles 20. Let's examine this piece by piece.

The first verses describe the earth-view—the situation looks scary. King Jehoshaphat is seemingly taken by surprise. A great army has amassed against Judah.

In verses 3–4, the view changes. Jehoshaphat was afraid but he refused to be fooled by the earth-view. He knew there was more to the situation than met the eye. He set his sights on what was unseen, rather than what was seen (2 Corinthians 4:18).

What did Jehoshaphat resolve to do? To inquire of the Lord. To wait and see what the Lord would say. As a way of inquiring of the Lord, what did Jehoshaphat proclaim? He proclaimed a fast. Why do you think a fast was a vital part of inquiring of the Lord? A fast would heighten their spiritual senses and make them more sensitive to the Lord's voice.

In verses 5–12, we read Jehoshaphat's prayer. What do you think Jehoshaphat's purpose was in his spoken prayer? To use flattery to get God's attention or secure His help? To remind God of His promises in case He had forgotten? To convince God that He should help them? Or do you think Jehoshaphat was allowing God to bring to mind all the reasons that the people could fully trust Him? Yes, Jehoshaphat was speaking out God's Word. Jehoshaphat was allowing God to build a foothold for their faith.

Read the last statement of Jehoshaphat's prayer: “We have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.” This is the attitude of a fast. The king's helplessness became his ally because it created a desperate dependence on God, the only source of power.

Finally, in verses 14–17, we see the Lord's answer as it is revealed to Jehoshaphat. God basically tells them not to be afraid and to go down against their enemies knowing that the battle is His not theirs. Did God tell them everything He would do and every action He would take? No. Did they know exactly what to expect? Or, did God tell them just enough so that they could position themselves to receive His victory?

In verses 18–28, we read the conclusion to the story. Immediately after God answered Jehoshaphat's prayer, the people praised Him. They didn't wait until they had seen the victory with their eyes. They began to praise God while their situation still looked dire. When nothing had changed in their circumstances, they were already thanking God for victory.

At that time, do you think they had a clear understanding of how God would defeat their enemies as they obeyed His command? No, they just knew that their obedient praying lives would put them in the place of the victor. They were surprised at the way the victory eventually came.

When was the victory finalized, on the spiritual battlefield, or on the material battlefield? The victory was accomplished before the battle was engaged. Fasting created the atmosphere where God could speak to His people and give them specific instructions about how to proceed and be conquerors. Through fasting, their spiritual senses had been sharpened so that they could respond to the Lord's present voice.

Harmonized Prayer

To seek God, we must be involved in the discipline of fellowship with believers. We must be an active part of a local church.

Shall not the children of God be equally faithful in seeking for the treasures hid in heaven, to bring them down in blessing on the world? It is by the unceasing intercession of God's people that His kingdom will come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

—Andrew Murray, God's Best Secrets

Christ expresses Himself in His fullness through His body (Ephesians 1:23). Within the context of the body of Christ, we attain our maturity and the full knowledge of God (Ephesians 4:13). The proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body (Ephesians 4:16).

Watchman Nee uses the following illustration to help us understand the fullness of Christ, which is only available through the church: Suppose that you went to the ocean and you filled a container from the ocean. You would have the elements that constitute the ocean in that container. But you would not have the fullness of the ocean in that container. Each individual believer has all of Jesus indwelling him or her. But the fullness of Christ is in the church.

The fullness of God dwells in the Son: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him” (Colossians 1:19). The fullness of the Son dwells in the church: “And God placed all things under His feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (Ephesians 1:22–23).

All the resources of heaven are dispensed through the Son: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ” (2 Corinthians 1:20). All the resources of the Son are dispensed through the church. The church is His body, the vehicle through which He expresses His life.

No individual believer will reach full maturity in Christ apart from the body. Ephesians 4:13 is Paul's prayer: “Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” The whole measure of the fullness of Christ is conditioned on reaching “unity in the faith.”

You and I cannot hear God clearly when we are not in unity with the body. Let Paul's prayer be yours: “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus” (Romans 15:5). Listen to the Father say to you, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). What attitudes do you need to change or what actions do you need to take to make every effort to keep unity?

The measure of the power of the church today determines the measure of the manifestation of the power of God. For His power is now revealed through the church…. This whole matter can be likened to the flow of water in one's house. Though the water tank of the Water Supply Company is huge, its flow is limited to the diameter of the water pipe in one's own house. If a person wishes to have more flow of water, he will need to enlarge his water pipe. Today the degree of the manifestation of God's power is governed by the capacity of the church.

—Watchman Nee, The Prayer Ministry of the Church

THE

PROMISE

OF PRAYER

The Promise

of Prayer

The promise of prayer is a transformed heart. Through the ongoing discipline of prayer, we are brought into direct and intimate contact with the Father's heart. As we continually behold His glory, we are changed into His image. Our lives begin to reflect Him; our desires begin to reflect His desires. As He has constant access to us, He realigns our vision, recreates our desires, and reproduces His heart. Powerful, earth-changing prayer begins in the heart of God and flows through the hearts of His people. The promise of prayer is a heart that matches His.

Intimacy = Boldness

Once God has taught us and changed us through the prayer process, every promise is ours. Our hearts belong to Him alone and He can plant in them His divine desires and make them ours. He can release His power and His plans into the world through our prayers. By allowing our lives to be absorbed in His, we can bit by bit be freed of our shortsighted desires to participate in eternity. We can allow the Spirit of God to engage us in what the Father wants to do in the world.

The intimacy and trust that grows during the process of prayer is what gives us boldness in prayer. It is the relationship of child to father that makes our words prayer.

Suppose that you ordered a meal at a restaurant. When the server brought your meal, suppose she said, “That looks delicious! I think I'll try a bite.” Suppose that she then took a fork and tasted your food. You'd be outraged. You would demand to see the manager. You would insist that the food be taken back.

Suppose, however, that you went to a restaurant with your child. When your meal was served, imagine that your child said, “That looks delicious! I think I'll try a bite.” When your child took a bite of your meal, you would not be the least bit upset. This would be a normal exchange between a child and parent.

The difference between the two scenarios is not the words, or even the intent, but the relationship. The parent-child relationship gives boldness and intimacy not available to nonfamily members. The same words take on new meaning in the context of the relationship.

Think of conversations and behaviors that are appropriate in the intimacy of family relationships but are too intimate and bold for less binding relationships. Consider how much freedom and access relationship gives you. As you pray, be aware of how uninhibited and audacious you are allowed to be because you are coming to your Father, not to a distant, unrelated deity.

Relationship changes the way we communicate. Long intimacy, shared history, entwined lives—this kind of relationship colors conversation. For example, I have two sisters. When I am talking to either of them, one of us might say one word or one phrase that sends us into gales of laughter. To an outsider listening in, it would seem that nothing funny had been said. However, because of our long history, a word between us says volumes.

As you live in intimacy with God, you will find the same thing playing out. A mere word may be all the prayer you need to voice in some circumstances. That one word speaks it all. As intimacy grows, the saying of prayer, in many circumstances, becomes simpler.

The kind of intimacy that results in verbal shorthand between you has at its core prolonged, intense interaction. Because of the time invested in intimate communion, an easy and loving familiarity develops. The relationship deepens through focused and deliberate time with Him, then flows naturally through the circumstances of life with an uncontrived delight in each other's company.

He reveals Himself as Father to you. He is calling you to His heart, not to a set of ideas. He is drawing you into relation-ship—a relationship that is genuinely joyful, ebullient even. It forms the locus for prayer, the bedrock upon which a praying life is built.

Prayer Force

In His Word, God makes extravagant promises about prayer. He stands behind His Word. You don't find Him distancing Himself from those lavish promises. You don't find Him saying, “I didn't really mean that the way it sounds. I exaggerated to make a point.” When prayer doesn't work the way Scripture says it will work, the first thing we do is try to explain away the Scripture.

Do your prayers have power? When you pray, do you consistently see the power of God manifested on the earth? Does your experience in prayer match God's descriptions of prayer's power given in His Word?

“The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective,” we read in James 5:16. Is that how you would define your prayer life—powerful and effective? Prayer impacts lives and situations on the earth. True prayer works.

Many believers are discouraged about prayer. Secretly, many have reached the conclusion that prayer doesn't work or that prayer only works sometimes. Promises in the Bible regarding prayer seem unreliable, the outcome of prayer unpredictable. As a result, we have watered down or scaled back the Scripture's descriptions of the power of prayer. We expect less from God than He longs to give. After all, how silly we felt having prayed boldly and with great conviction, believing with all our might, only to see our prayers go unanswered. Our faith takes a hit from which it never recovers. Next time, we are more circumspect with our requests. Next time, our expectations are more in line with reality.

Having reached this point, we need to look for ways to explain away the power promised in Scripture. Attempting to justify the lack of powerful praying, we have tried to reduce prayer to an activity that will match our experience, rather than looking for the source of prayer's failure in ourselves.

Suppose you consult a doctor about an ailment and he prescribes a medication. Imagine that the doctor promises that this medication will cure your ailment. “Take this medicine in the prescribed dosage three times a day every day for ten days,” he instructs. Suppose that you go home and follow his instructions for a few days. You see little or no improvement, so you begin to doubt the efficacy of the medicine. You take it haphazardly and finally quit taking it altogether. When you return to the doctor for a checkup, you say, “That medicine didn't cure me as you promised it would.” Is your accusation accurate? Did the medicine fail? Of course the medicine did not cure your illness. You didn't apply it correctly. You made your own rules. You wanted the medicine to work on your terms. The failing is not in the medicine but in your method of applying the medicine.

This is a picture of how we have come to think of prayer. “Prayer doesn't work like the Bible says it will work,” we say. Why not? Could it be because we have tried to make prayer work on our terms and that the failure is not with prayer itself but with our way of praying? Remember that God's Word clearly states that His power produces results on the earth when a righteous person prays (James 5:16). And remember Jesus’ words in John 15:7: “'Ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.’” In fact, on many occasions, Jesus made these types of promises to His followers. (See Mark 9:23; Mark 11:24; John 14:14.)

Extravagant words. Outlandish promises. Only the God of the universe could make such unrestrained assurances.

I know that you are astute enough to know that these types of promises in the Word are linked to a relationship requirement. For instance, Jesus’ words in John 15:7 were directed toward those who abide in Him and in whom His words abide. The person who is abiding in Christ has desires that are God-shaped. To that person, not just anyone, God gives the keys to the kingdom—prayer and its answer.

Believer, abide in Christ, for there is the school of prayer—mighty, effectual, answer-bringing prayer. Abide in Him and you shall learn what to so many is a mystery: That the secret of the prayer of faith is the life of faith—the life that abides in Christ alone.

—Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ

Relationship—intimacy, vulnerability, love—is the context for prayer. God is not our Santa Claus, or our puppet master, or our taskmaster. He is our Father. That changes everything. Prayer becomes all that God promises it to be when the pray-er is living a praying life. Out of the life that is abandoned to God and His purposes flows the prayer that God has promised to answer.

Heart Like Pure Silver

In the end, the promise of prayer is twofold: a transformed heart through which the Father will pour out the power of prayer. The process of purity precedes the promise of power. A pure life is the environment in which power can freely flow.

The Messiah will be like a refiner of silver. (See Zechariah 13:9 and Malachi 3:3, as referenced in chapter 3). In the refining process, heat is applied. The silver and the impurities separate. The pure silver settles to the bottom and the impurities rise to the top where they can be skimmed off. It brings impurities to the surface so they can be removed. “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart” (Proverbs 17:3). Do you see? What a crucible does for silver and what a furnace does for gold, God does for the heart.

God chooses silver as His illustration in creation to teach us about a pure heart. Silver is a perfect picture of what a pure heart will look like.

Silver is among the most malleable of all metals. It can easily be hammered into new shapes. It is moldable.

A pure heart is soft, moldable, and pliable in the hands of the Artist. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:26–27). God will replace our hardened hearts with a soft spirit-heart—a heart that He can shape and mold to match His.

We are clay in the potter's hands. He can take our marred lives and make them into something else, shaping us as seems best to Him. Listen to Him saying to you, “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand” (Jeremiah 18:6). He wants to mold you into someone beautiful and whole. He wants you to be His artwork. He wants your life to be an expression of His genius. As you respond to Him in obedience, your heart becomes pure silver to be hammered into any shape He desires.

Pure silver is the best conductor of electricity of any element on earth. A conductive substance is a substance through which power moves freely. By means of a conductor, power is transferred from one object to another.

A pure heart—a heart from which all alloys have been removed—is a conductor of God's power into lives and situations on earth. Jesus said, “'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 7:37–38). Do you see? Drink from Him to quench your own thirst, then He will flow from within you in streams of living water. Your life will be the conductor of His Life.

Jesus uses another word that suggests conductive power. He says that He will “draw” people to Himself. He uses a word that suggests an almost irresistible force. God has given us a picture in His creation: magnetism. Think of Jesus in you as a magnet drawing the people in your world to Himself.

What happens when a conductive substance, let's imagine a paper clip, comes within the force field of a magnet? First, the paper clip is drawn to the magnet. Then, when the paper clip has attached to the magnet, the magnetic force begins to flow through it. The paper clip, the conductive substance, becomes a magnet. The magnet's power is flowing through the paper clip. If a second paper clip comes into contact with the first, it, too, will become a magnet because the magnetic force will flow from the first paper clip into the second.

What happens if the first paper clip loses contact with the magnet? It loses its magnetism! It did not have power of its own; it only had the ability to conduct the magnet's power. It had induced magnetism. Apart from the magnet, the paper clip can do nothing. Separated from the power, the conductor is useless, like dead branches separated from the vine.

God does not give you power. He exercises His power through you. He has created you of a Spirit-substance that is conductive. His power can flow through you.

Where is the epicenter of God's power on the earth? “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). The epicenter of God's power is in you and in me. We are the conductors of the power of God. God wants His power to flow through you in undiluted strength. He wants to rid you of anything that will hinder the flow.

Pure silver reflects light better than any other element. Purified silver reflects without distortion. The desires of a pure heart exactly reflect the desires of the Father. A pure heart is an undistorted reflection of His heart.

What is the process by which we come to reflect Him? “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Paul, in using the phrase “with unveiled face,” is referring to Moses. When Moses met with the Lord, the skin on his face shone so brightly from being in the Lord's presence that Moses had to veil his countenance. (See Exodus 34:29–35.) Moses literally reflected God's glory. Paul is telling us that because we are in the Lord's presence, we, too, reflect His glory just as a mirror perfectly reflects an image.

As we are continually in His presence, we reflect Him. We are being changed into an exact reflection of Him. We are being transformed, changed from the inside out—structurally changed. We are being changed into His likeness progressively, “with ever-increasing glory.” How is this changing being accomplished? “Which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” The Spirit is doing the changing as we continue in His presence.

A pure heart is a heart that reflects His desires. When my heart is pure, His desires are poured into my heart so that they become my desires and are expressed through my prayers. Impurity will distort the reflection, will cause it not to be exact. This is why the Father wants to make you pure. He wants you to desire your highest good. He wants to give you the desires of your heart.

Silver is resistant to corrosion from the atmosphere. Atmospheric corrosives cannot destroy silver, but can only produce surface tarnish.

A pure heart is resistant to corrosion and corruption by outside influences. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).

Paul contrasts two ways of changing: conforming and being transformed. To conform means to be changed from the outside or to be squeezed into a mold. To transform means to be changed from within. Both words mean to change forms, but one indicates change from the outside and one from the inside. Paul warns that the world wants to force you into a form that is not a natural fit. God wants to change your outward form so that it fits your inner being. He wants your inward self to be authentically reflected in your personality and lifestyle. His will for you is a perfect fit. The world's pattern is restrictive, diminishing, smothering. His will for you is beneficial and pleasing.

God wants to make you resistant to the forces and elements that would corrode your beauty by trying to conform you to a pattern that does not fit you. He wants you to be forged into His image so that the corrosion in the world will not penetrate your life and diminish you. He will bring this about by renewing your mind—making your mind something different than it was before. Under His influence, you will begin to know, understand, and embrace God's good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Power flows from purity. Seek purity and you will find power.

The Molded Life

God is at work in you continually creating a life that is available for all that He longs to put into it. The promise underlying all prayer is that God has pledged Himself—bound Himself in blood-sealed covenant—to accomplish in you what He requires of you. His word to us is this: “I will give you a heart to know Me. I will put My laws in your minds and on your hearts. I will move you to follow My ways. I will put a new spirit in you.”

Why has He put into place a process of prayer? Because He is changing you from one degree of glory to the next. He is fashioning your heart to be like His. He is preparing your life to receive His answers. He is making you the dwelling place of His Spirit—the place where His glory is manifested.

Put away childish things—little, flesh-shaped desires; shortsighted, earth-bound understanding. Yield yourself to His bigger agenda. Let Him do more than you can ask or even think. Let Him do His full and mighty work in you. Then every prayer promise is yours.

The Spirit's quiet whisper

Bids me bow before Your throne

'Til my heart's deepest yearnings

Are the echo of Your own.

Faith Is Required

Faith and prayer are inseparable. Faith fuels prayer. Prayer expresses faith. The two are intertwined. One does not exist without the other. But what is faith?

Is faith a feeling that can be worked up? Is faith feeling sure that we know what God will do? Does faith have anything to do with feeling? It is very important that we look closely at faith because a misguided understanding of what faith is and how it operates has caused many pray-ers to lose heart.

In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, Alice has this conversation with the White Queen:

“Now I'll give YOU something to believe. I'm just one

hundred and one, five months and a day.”

“I can't believe THAT!” said Alice.

“Can't you?” the Queen said in a pitying tone. “Try

again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”

Alice laughed. “There's no use trying,” she said;

“one CAN'T believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven't had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

This, of course, is a silly conversation in a make-believe story. But it is not far from the way we sometimes are taught to stir up faith. “If you can just believe hard enough, you can make God do anything,” the thinking goes. It's up to you—you must believe. You can believe God into things if you try hard enough.

Faith is not “believing real hard.” Faith is not shutting your eyes and drawing a long breath and willing yourself to believe something. You can make yourself believe anything, true or not. Believing something won't make God do it. Belief is one thing; faith is something else.

Because many believers have mistaken belief for faith, they have had experiences in prayer that are discouraging and disappointing. They have believed with all their might that God would perform in a certain way what seemed best to them. I repeat, you can make yourself believe anything. Perhaps the prayer has wrapped verses of Scripture around her belief; perhaps she has listed all the ways that God will be glorified by performing as the pray-er believes He will perform; perhaps she has spoken her belief to others, putting herself on the line for it. All this the prayer has done with the best intentions, mistakenly thinking she is exercising faith. But it is not faith, it is belief. In this approach, there is an underlying, unconscious thought that a prayer can “believe God into something,” that by putting His reputation on the line, God will be forced to come through. Many people who are using this method refer to the promise in Psalm 31:17: “Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, for I have cried out to you.”

It won't work. No matter what you do, you will never be able to manipulate God. Your prayers will never do anything except release God's power for God's purposes. On the other hand, your prayers will always release God's power for God's purposes. Faith is not knowing how God will bring His purposes into being; faith is knowing that God will bring His purposes into being.

Faith has only one focus: God. Jesus said: “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22). When your faith is in God, not in your own idea of what God should do and how He should do it, then faith has substance. The person who is living a praying life is living a life of faith. That person understands that prayer is always releasing the power of God for the purposes of God. Therefore, once prayer has begun, whatever direction a situation takes, it is taking the direction that will accomplish the purposes of God. That's faith.

In response to the prayer of faith, God releases His power to accomplish His purposes in each situation. His purpose in each situation is worked out differently. He does not have “one-size-fits-all” answers. God's agenda is always bigger than the immediate circumstances. The immediate circumstances are going to merge with an eternal agenda. Faith says: “I believe in God—in His love, in His power, in His wisdom. I know that He is in the process of bringing His best plan. God will not allow any difficulty to have mastery over me. He is using the circumstance to do something He couldn't do without it.”

But Don't I Have to Believe?

You do not have to be able to predict how God will act in order to have faith. I can hear some of you now. I know what you're thinking. “That can't be right. I have to believe. If I don't believe, if I doubt, I can't expect anything from the Lord.” To your mind will come such Scriptures as this one:

But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

—James 1:6–8

Or maybe you're thinking about Matthew 13:58: “And he did not do many miracles there [Nazareth] because of their lack of faith.” Let's talk about these.

Let's look at the passage in James first. A misunderstanding of this passage causes much discouragement and condemnation. First, keep these sentences in their context. James is talking about asking for wisdom. “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). Wisdom in any given situation is yours for the asking. When God gives you wisdom, James says, don't begin to doubt it and second-guess it. If you do, you will waver back and forth in your thinking and in your emotions. You will not receive what God has available for you because it is your obedience to the wisdom He gives you that opens the door for His provision.

So James is not saying that every time you pray you must believe that God is going to do what you think He should do. He is talking about one kind of praying—prayer for wisdom. He is saying to keep a steady course based on what God is leading you to do.

Now let's look at Jesus’ experience in Matthew 13:53–58. You will notice that the people did not disbelieve that He could do miracles. In fact, they were amazed at His miraculous powers. It was not doubt about what He could do that is called “their lack of faith.” It was their refusal to embrace who He was. They had confidence in His ability to do miracles—they had belief. But they did not have faith. They were not willing to abandon themselves to Him, trusting Him to be all they needed or desired.

In this chapter we will continue to look at the difference between belief and faith as we go. But you can begin to see the difference between believing in an outcome and having faith in God. Belief becomes part of faith, but belief alone is not faith.

Frequently we hold on so tightly to the good that we do know that we cannot receive the greater good that we do not know. God has to help us let go of our tiny vision in order to release the greater good he has in store for us…. A settled peace, in fact, is the most frequent experience of those who have trod the path of relinquishment.

—Richard Foster, Prayer

Exploring Faith

Let's go back to the central question: What is faith? Faith is not a feeling. Faith is not “feeling sure.” You can be exercising faith and at the same time be filled with feelings of uncertainty. As you mature in your faith-walk, as you gain more confidence in how to operate in faith, your feelings will begin to match your faith; but your feelings are not the measure of your faith.

The prayer of faith comes from the life of faith. Faith is a way of living. Faith is born into you when you are born into the kingdom of God, and it is the spiritual organ that enables you to function in the spiritual realm. Are you using it or is it lying dormant?

A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God Himself is here awaiting our response to His Presence. This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon its reality.

O God, quicken to life every power within me, that I may lay hold on eternal things. Open my eyes that I may see; give me acute spiritual perception; enable me to taste Thee and know that Thou art good. Make heaven more real to me than any earthly thing has ever been.

—A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

Spiritual Senses

Not only do you have a spiritual organ called faith, but you also have a set of spiritual senses that enable you to operate effectively in the spiritual realm. When you were born into the physical world, you were born with a set of physical senses. By means of these senses you interpret, understand, and interact with your physical world. Through your senses you receive knowledge about your physical world and that knowledge forms the basis of your behavior. You base your actions on the knowledge transmitted to you by your senses. You accept what your senses tell you (belief) and you act on it (faith). Faith is your God-given capacity to receive and act on spiritual knowledge. “By faith Abraham…obeyed” (Hebrews 11:8).

You have learned that your physical senses are reliable. “Seeing is believing,” the saying goes. “I would never have believed it, except I heard it with my own ears,” you might have said. Suppose that I'm standing in a room full of people. How would I know that the room was full of people? My senses would tell me so. I would see them, hear them, touch them. Through my senses, I would have certain, sure knowledge that the room was full of people. Now suppose that someone says to me, “There's no one here. This room is empty.” Would I believe that person? Of course not, because I have learned by experience that my senses are reliable and accurate transmitters of information about my world. I would have unwavering faith that the room was full of people because my senses told me so. I would know.

When you were born into the kingdom of God, you were born with a set of spiritual senses. Your spiritual senses are the means by which you know, understand, and respond to your spiritual world. Faith grows as a result of responding to your spiritual senses. “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). Faith comes from hearing the message. Does that mean everyone whose physical ears hear the message receives faith? The whole context of the message in Romans 10 is that not everyone who hears the message with physical ears accepts it. Faith is produced only in those who hear the message “through the word of Christ.” “Word” in this verse is rhema—the present voicing of a word; the speaking word. The one who hears with spiritual ears—who hears Christ Himself speaking the message into his heart—finds that the message gives birth to faith. The Living Voice stimulates the faith-organ and causes it to function properly.

Faith Is Born of Firsthand Experience with God

When Scripture tells us how to know God, it uses “sense” words.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

—Psalm 34:8

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

—Psalm 119:103

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know.

—Ephesians 1:18

The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears.

—Isaiah 50:5

But thanks be to God, who…through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ.

—2 Corinthians 2:14–15

Why do you suppose God uses these sense words to tell us how to know Him? Consider this: How would you describe the taste of a fresh strawberry to someone who has never tasted a fresh strawberry? You couldn't. A strawberry tastes like a strawberry. Things that we know through our senses, we have to learn firsthand. You could not describe the smell of the ocean to someone who has never smelled the ocean. You can't describe the sound of a thunderstorm to someone who has never heard a thunderstorm.

So it is with knowing God. You can only know Him by firsthand experience. Knowing God produces faith. You should not trust the promises. You must trust the Promiser. A promise is only as reliable as the person who makes it. If you don't know the promiser, you have no way of knowing whether or not to rely on the promise. “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). In order to live by faith, we have to be “fully persuaded that God [has] power to do what he [has] promised” (Romans 4:21).

Faith can only come through a direct, firsthand encounter with Jesus. Belief can come through secondhand information, but belief is not faith. I can believe things without putting my faith in them. For example, I can believe that a chair will hold me up. However, if I never sit in the chair—if I never put my faith in it—I will never move from belief to certain knowledge. “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Why does it matter whether I have belief or faith?

Let's say that I believe that a certain chair will hold me up, but I have never sat in that chair. I am in the “belief” position. Now my adversary can say, “That chair will never hold you up.”

“Of course it will. I believe it will,” I reply.

“How do you know?” my adversary taunts.

“Because I can see that it is constructed of sturdy materials. I can see where the center of gravity would be. I'm sure the chair would hold me up.”

Then my adversary could say, “But there may be a hidden flaw you don't know about.”

My only answer could be, “You're right. There could be.” Belief can be shaken. Faith cannot.

Suppose that I take the faith position and sit in the chair. Now my adversary can say, “That chair will never hold you up.”

To which I reply, “Of course it will.”

My adversary then says, “How do you know?”

And I reply, “Because it is.” I overcome his attack with the word of my testimony (Revelation 12:11). Faith cannot be shaken. Faith comes from firsthand experience.

Suppose that I came to earth from another planet with the assignment of learning all I can about the earth. Suppose that I wanted to learn about earth rocks. Someone tells me, “Earth rocks are hard.” That becomes what I believe. With all my heart, I believe that earth rocks are hard. However, no matter how much emotion I invest in my belief, it is only belief. It came to me secondhand and secondhand information can only produce belief.

Suppose that someone else told me later that earth rocks are soft and spongy. Now what would I believe? I'd sometimes lean toward believing that rocks were hard, and other times I'd be convinced that they were soft. I'd be like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. I'd waver between two opinions.

What would be the only remedy for my dilemma? I would have to touch an earth rock for myself. Then I would know—not just believe—that earth rocks are hard. Never again would I wonder if they're really soft. I would have faith that earth rocks are hard. Faith cannot be shaken.

If you find yourself shifting back and forth between confidence and anxiety, if you find that your mind and emotions can never fully be at rest, probably you have strong belief, but are not exercising faith. You cannot get faith from any source except God Himself. Get to know the Promiser for yourself, and it will be easy to trust His promises. Give Him every opportunity to prove Himself strong in your behalf. Let Him take responsibility for moving you on to faith. Rest in Him.

Keep In Step with the Spirit

You do not have to find more faith or work up more faith. Faith will increase as your spiritual senses mature. When a baby is born into the physical world, that baby has the sense of sight but cannot distinguish and identify shapes. The baby has the sense of hearing, but cannot divide sounds into words and ascribe meaning to them. The baby's senses have to mature over time and with practice. It is the same with your spiritual senses. Knowing how to hear God clearly and reliably is learned by the slow discipline of prayer and obedience. God will guide you gently and steadily. He will enlighten the eyes of your heart. He will teach you how to keep in step with the Spirit.

I am often asked this question: Does faith create reality? In other words, did it make something happen? My answer is, “Faith did not create the reality. Faith made it possible for you to experience the reality.” Let's go back to the chair analogy illustrating the movement from belief to faith. Suppose that I believed the chair would hold me up, so I sat in the chair. Suppose that what I believed about the chair was not true—it wasn't really solid enough to hold me up. So, when I sat in the chair, the chair collapsed. This occurred despite the fact I believed it would not collapse. If, on the other hand, what I believed was true—the chair did hold me up—did it hold me up because I believed it would? Not at all. Do you see? Sitting in the chair (faith) allowed me to experience the reality that the chair would support me.

Faith is not just how you deal with certain promises, but a continual interaction with the spiritual realm. Remember that faith is a spiritual organ through which you receive and use spiritual resources. In the earth realm, for example, your eyes are the organ through which you receive light. Light is pressing in around you, but your eyes have to be open to receive it. Your lungs are the organ through which you receive oxygen. Oxygen is pressing in around you, but your lungs have to function in order to take it in. The spiritual resources of heaven are available and pressing in around you, but you must live by faith in order to receive and use them.

You already have access to the eternal resources of God, the spiritual aspects of reality. Faith is how you take them into your life and use them. God's promises are not for someday, they're for today.

When God's Word speaks of the spiritual world, of the resources of Christ, the action is spoken of as already completed. Faith has already brought the available resources of God into our lives.

When we operate in faith, we access the resources of heaven for the circumstances of earth. To live by faith is to operate in the spiritual realm with confidence, the same way you operate in your physical world with confidence. Your physical senses give you the information you need in order to function well in your physical environment. Your spiritual senses give you the information you need in order to function productively in the spiritual realm.

Optimized Sight

The Book of 2 Kings records an instance in the life of Elisha that illustrates the difference between our physical senses and our spiritual senses. The king of Syria was angry because Elisha had warned the king of Israel about his plans several times. He decided to ambush Elisha.

Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked. “Don't be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

—2 Kings 6:14–16

Elisha's servant, judging by that which his physical senses perceived, was undoubtedly confused. He and Elisha were looking at the same scene and seeing two different situations. As far as he could see, it was him and Elisha against a great army of Syrians. Then came the turning point.

And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

—2 Kings 6:17

God allowed the servant to see with his physical eyes what Elisha saw with his spiritual eyes. The facts of the situation did not change. Only his understanding of the facts changed. Once his spiritual eyes were opened, he was able to perceive and experience what had always been true.

When Elisha said, “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them,” more means both more in number and more in might—more quantitatively and more qualitatively. I believe that John was echoing this sentence when he wrote, “The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). When your spiritual senses perceive the full truth of the situation, your faith organ is activated. Ask the Lord to open your eyes so that you may see.

Why do you need to be able to perceive the truth in the spiritual realm in order to pray in faith? Why has God given you “the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us” (1 Corinthians 2:12)? He wants you to know what is freely available to you so that you can access it. When you know that God has everything prepared for you, you do not have to pray with fear or uncertainty. You can pray with faith.

Faith, as with everything in the spiritual realm, is initiated by God. Jesus is the author of our faith. Faith begins with God, who speaks His promises, thereby awakening faith. If God had not promised us anything, we would not expect anything from Him. He authors faith, just as He authors prayer. He does not stir up faith in order to disappoint you. When faith rises up in you, kind of like a jolt of adrenaline to your spirit, God has caused it to be so. He is causing you to hold out your faith-hand so that He can place His blessings in it.

Faith in its active form is called obedience. Faith in its spoken form is called prayer. Faith opens the way for God to display His power on the earth in every situation.

Giving In, Not Giving Up

The beginning point of every prayer of faith is the prayer of relin-quishment. Before we can begin to hear God tell us what and how to pray in any given matter, we must let the Father bring us to the point that “Not my will, but Thine be done” is our true, heartfelt, authentic prayer. This is not a prayer of resignation to the circumstances; it's not throwing in the towel and giving up. The prayer of relinquishment can only come from a heart that knows the heart of the Father-Shepherd. We can abandon ourselves fully to His will because we know that His heart does not contain one thought or desire toward us that is anything less than the highest possible good.

The prayer of relinquishment is the highest expression of full and mature faith in the Father. It is the truest experience of dying to your flesh in order to live by the Spirit. It is handing over control to the One who is worthy of such trust. The prayer of relinquishment is a statement of absolute surrender. This has become my prayer of relinquishment, based on John 12:28:

“Father, glorify your name. Whatever it takes, Father; whatever path it sets me on, Father; whatever dying to self I have to do, Father. Glorify Your name!”

Can you offer to God this type of prayer regarding the circumstances you are facing? Make a list of situations you are praying about. After each, write: “Father, glorify your name!” and today's date. Trust Him with your burdens.

Clear the Field

Once your flesh is out of the way with its self-centered demands and time-bound outlook, the power of God can begin to flow freely. He can begin to speak to you about what and how to pray. He can give you specific instructions about any actions you should take.

Catherine Marshall's book Something More tells her own journey about learning how to pray for healing. In it, she tells about learning to pray the prayer of relinquishment. She recounts a story of the healing of a woman named Maude Blanford. One of the turning points of this story is Mrs. Blanford's relinquish-ment to whatever God wanted to do about her illness. She found afterward that the Lord began to give her very clear instructions. It's an interesting story, and I suggest that you read it. But I want to quote a couple of paragraphs that I think will show what the prayer of relinquishment releases.

About this point [relinquishment] she [Mrs. Blanford] commented to me, “I learned a lot about the difference between self-effort which is the result of our human will to live, and the self-effort that's obedience to what God tells us to do. We have to cooperate with what we see God doing, as Jesus puts it.”

She was so right. After our relinquishment, when the initiative passes to God, we need to follow willingly, obediently, trustingly. There must be no running out ahead of Him, but also no lying back limp or passive either. Instead we learn to listen and we follow.

We can only exercise faith if we can hear God. Faith is responding to the present-tense voice of the Father. Faith is not believing something. Faith is believing Someone. Faith is not committing yourself to an idea, but to a Person.

Hebrews 11 is a chapter about faith. The first three verses define faith; the rest of the verses describe faith as it is expressed.

The writer of Hebrews says, “This [faith] is what the ancients were commended for” (v. 2).

Focus on verse 3: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” Let's think through what God is saying. Look at it piece by piece.

1. What called the world into existence? God's Word.

2. Is God's Word, which created the world, visible or invisible? God's Word is invisible to the physical senses.

3. Is the world visible or invisible? The world is visible to the senses.

4. If the world was created by God's Word, then the visible was created from the invisible. What we see is made out of what we don't see.

This sentence (v. 3) is the thesis statement for what follows. After verse 3, the writer begins to document expressions of faith, what faith looks like. Faith, according to the writer, is when the invisible power of God's Word—that is, His rhema, His present-tense word—produces a visible effect on the earth.

Now read through verses 4–40. How does the Scripture define faith?

1. “By faith Abel offered” (v. 4).

2. “By faith Noah…built” (v. 7).

3. “By faith Abraham…obeyed and went” (v. 8).

4. “By faith Abraham…offered Isaac” (v. 17).

5. “By faith Isaac blessed” (v. 20).

On and on it goes. These men and women who are held up as examples of faith were commended for what they did—not felt—in response to God's voice. What defined their actions as “faith”? It was an action taken because God said to take it!

When God spoke and someone acted on what He said, His power became visible on the earth. The invisible became visible through faith responses.

The actions you take or refrain from taking because of God's present-tense voice are part of the praying life. Your obedience is prayer. It is a part of the interaction between the material realm and the spiritual realm.

The same principle applies to the articulated aspect of prayer—saying prayer. The prayer of faith is the prayer authored by God. How is the Spirit of prayer in you moving you to pray? Until and unless you have more clear and specific leading, the prayer that releases all the power and provision of God is, “Let Your kingdom come in this situation; let Your will be done in this situation on earth the way Your will is done for this situation in heaven.” Remember this: There is one name under heaven given among men that holds in it all the power, all the authority, all the riches of the spiritual realm. That name is Jesus. At the name of Jesus, all the power of God is released. The name of Jesus is the only prayer-word you need to know. As you become more familiar with the sound of His voice, you will begin to pray more details—if He chooses to reveal them to you. When you hear His voice, you are to follow Him. The most common tendency is to hear His voice and embellish it; to hear Him say one thing and then complete the thought for Him.

His voice is most likely going to be one step, not the whole picture. A person might sense God leading him to look into starting a business. That's all he knows. But his tendency will be to finish the thought—start a business and it will be very successful because God told me to do it. All God said was, “Look into starting a business.” It may be that there is a person he needs to meet, or information he needs to have, or something in his flesh that needs to be exposed to him. The process of looking into starting a business will bring him into position for what God wants to do next. Do you see what I'm saying? You only know the step in front of you. Obey the one thing you know and wait to see what comes next. In your current situation, what is the one thing you know?

Embracing the Unknown

At the age of 20, I made an unreserved commitment of my life to Jesus Christ. I had made a genuine profession of faith many years before that, but I reached a juncture at which I had to decide the trajectory of my life. Would I be satisfied to follow the rules of my religion and mouth its doctrines correctly? Would I act out the roles cast for me by culture and tradition, which sometimes masquerade as righteousness? Or would I respond to this nagging sense of dissatisfaction that hinted at the possibility of something more? A steady drumbeat deep inside seemed to lure me to another path. I was being wooed by the Spirit's invitation: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” And I could not resist.

During the years that have followed, I have passionately pursued a present-tense relationship with the living and indwelling Jesus. I have narrowed my goals to one goal for every moment that I live: to be completely and utterly abandoned to Him. I don't know where that will lead me; but wherever it leads me, that is where I'm going.

People often ask me, “What is your five-year plan?” My answer: “To be completely and utterly abandoned to Him.” Long ago I learned that following the Ruler instead of the rules would take me down paths I could not have imagined. Every day I traverse new terrain, desperately dependent upon the moment-by-moment guidance of Jesus. He reminds me that my eyes must be fastened on Him, since I've never been down these roads before. And that's the joy of living a praying life. If you're just following a set of beliefs, you can finally learn them all. But when you're following the Master, the journey and the learning never end.

Obey and Forgive

Obedience is essential for prayer. 1 John 3:21–22 says: “Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.”

Many people accept this fact, but it is important to understand why obedience is essential to prayer. Obedience is not a tradeoff: “I'll obey if You'll answer my prayer.” We cannot buy the answers to our prayers with our actions. Obedience is not a way to get God in our debt so that He owes us something. Obedience is not a favor we do for God. To understand how obedience impacts prayer, let's put all the pieces together.

1. Prayer is more than the words we say, it is the total relationship in which we live; it is the ongoing interaction between the material and physical realms.

2. Prayer begins with God and achieves its true purpose when it is an expression of His heart.

3. God has given us a set of spiritual senses to hear Him and to “see” what the Father is doing, so that prayer will be effective and will produce results on the earth. Then we can access by prayer all that God wants to bring on the earth.

4. Disobedience dulls our spiritual senses.

Disobedience does not change anything except our ability to perceive spiritual truth. If I were looking at something and I removed my contact lenses, it would not change anything about the situation except my ability to see it clearly. I would still be able to make out the vague outlines, but the details would elude me. In my praying life, this blurring would limit my power as an intercessor because I would not be able to see spiritual reality clearly. I would lose my ability to hear the subtle nuances of His communication.

Jesus once said to His enemies, “'Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say’” (John 8:43). Do you understand that a person can hear the words, but not hear the heart? I want to hear Him. I want to hear all the layers of His words. I want to know Him as intimately as possible. I don't want to miss out on anything He's doing. In The Possibilities of Prayer, E. M. Bounds writes, “God takes nothing by halves. He gives nothing by halves. We can have the whole of Him when He has the whole of us.” I want all of Him! Don't you?

Essential Obedience

What defines the obedience that will bring power to prayer? Jesus said, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love” (John 15:10).

The standard of obedience Jesus calls for is found in this phrase: “just as I have obeyed my Father's commands.” The kind of obedience Jesus seeks—the kind of obedience that will attune our lives to the spiritual realm—goes beyond adherence to a set of rules. “If you obey Me the same way that I obey the Father,” Jesus said. How did Jesus obey the Father?

• He did nothing except in direct obedience to the Father.

• He obeyed immediately.

• He obeyed fully.

• He was uncompromising in His obedience.

Jesus obeyed the Father as He heard Him in the moment. Jesus assures us that we can obey Him the same way that He obeyed the Father—in the moment. The starting point for this obedience to His present voice is in His law, or His commandments and statutes.

What do you think Jesus means by the phrase, “you will remain in my love”? Does He mean that when you disobey He removes His love? Look at the following statements from God's Word to clarify this thought:

“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

—Isaiah 54:10

If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.

—2 Timothy 2:13

Will Jesus remove His love from you because of disobedience? No! Nothing can separate you from the love of God. He has settled His love on you. But disobedience distorts our experience of His love. It's when we obey that we will live in the experience of His love. His love will be our home. We will remain—abide, live, be at home—in His love.

The Foundation of God's Will in His Law

One aspect of God's Word is His law. In His law we clearly encounter His will. In listening for His present voice, we do not ignore His written Word. We listen for His voice in His Word. As we give ourselves fully to obedience, we must begin in His law. One can view a lawgiver from two perspectives. First, there's the overbearing, power-hungry, demanding authority figure who says, “I'm laying down the law and you have to obey it because I'm the one with the power. I'm establishing a code of behavior that suits me, and I'm expecting you to follow my rules. If you don't, I'll punish you.”

This is not God the lawgiver.

Here's God the lawgiver: “I'm the Creator. I made everything that exists. Because I love you, I'm giving you the laws of the universe. I'm telling you how to get the most out of all that I have created for you. I'm telling you the secrets about how things work so that you can live the life you are created for.”

God is the lawgiver because God is the Creator.

God's will for you is that you flourish and prosper. His law is your protection and your wisdom. His law is encoded in your spiritual DNA so that in following it you are cooperating in establishing your own fulfillment and success.

God's law is written on your heart. You cannot change it. He has built His law into the structure of human beings. In working against it, we are working against our own best interest. In resisting it, we resist peace and harmony. Outside His law, we are engaged in an ongoing, energy-draining, life-sapping upstream swim. In giving us His law, He has not restricted us, but freed us.

I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free…. Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.

—Psalm 119:32, 35

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul…. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.

—Psalm 19:7–8

The psalmist writes of God's laws: “By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward” (Psalm 19:11). Willful sin eventually enslaves. Do you see any areas of your life in which you are ignoring God's precepts? If so, do you realize that you are diminishing your life and diluting the power of your prayers?

Pray the words of Scripture: “Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me…. Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me” (Psalm 19:13; 119:133).

Do you acknowledge that disobedience will impair your spiritual senses by which you discern God's will? Make the following prayer your own.

Father, I open my life to You. Search me, know my thoughts. Try me, know my ways. Show me any wrong direction in my life. Put my feet back on Your path. I will settle for nothing less than all You have for me. Therefore, I forsake every wrong way. Lead me in the everlasting way. “I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands” (Psalm 119:131). In Jesus’ name.

Keep the Channels Open

“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins” (Mark 11:25). Failing to forgive is closing the door to God. If we, as intercessors, are to be the channels of God's power and provision into the world, we cannot clog those channels with anger and bitterness. Holding on to anger is cutting off the flow of His power through us.

The Scripture tells us that unforgiveness gives the enemy, Satan, an opportunity to carry out his schemes: “And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:10–11).

How would you answer this? Scripture teaches that nursing bitterness is:

a) a natural human reaction to pain and there is nothing you need to do about it.

b) something you can't help; something you are powerless against.

c) a sin.

God tells us that allowing bitterness to root and grow is a sin. Any action or attitude that causes you to miss out on the full glory of God—anything that causes you to be less than you were created to be—God calls “sin.” He warns you away from sin because He longs for you to know His fullness and your full potential. God hates sin because God loves you!

God, expressing Himself through Christ, is the model for how we are to forgive. “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). How does God forgive?

1. He forgives completely. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 8:12). “And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin” (Hebrews 10:18).

2. He forgives us when we didn't deserve it and didn't even desire it. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

3. He began the forgiving process even while the offense was in progress. “When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they divided up his clothes by casting lots” (Luke 23:33–34).

Read His command: “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins” (Mark 11:25). Is there any person whose offense you need to forgive?

Make this commitment: Right now, today, I choose to forgive _______________ and to cancel his or her debt against me. I choose to be free of the bitterness that poisons my life and keeps me tethered to the past.

The Process of Forgiveness

Every act of obedience is a step toward greater freedom. For many, forgiveness is a necessary but difficult step to take.

You must understand that forgiveness is not an event, but a process. It is not accomplished by saying a few magic words. It is a process initiated and completed by Christ in you. You do not have a deadline to meet. Your process may be different from anyone else's. You may be encouraged or guided by the similar experiences of others, but don't be constrained by them. Be patient with yourself. Remember that God has undertaken the work within you and the responsibility is His. Once you have entered the process by yielding yourself to His working, you have fulfilled His commandment.

Here are some truths I've discovered about forgiveness.

1. It is not wrong to feel hurt and even anger at an offense.

2. It is wrong to let that hurt or anger take up residence in you and receive nourishment to grow and get strong. It is wrong because it diminishes you and slows your progress.

3. Immediately, at the moment of an offense, turn it toward God as His opportunity to free you further from the dead weight of your self-life. Let Him use the hurt to expose sin's devious strongholds and tear them down.

4. Recognize that sin's power lies in being undetected. When it is exposed to the Light, God can begin to cleanse you from that unrighteousness.

In Heart's Cry I wrote about the connection between forgiveness and prayer:

“Don't be afraid to take your pain and anger to God. He won't reject you. He is not fragile. You can ask Him your hardest questions. You can lay your blackest anger before Him, even when some of that anger is directed at Him. He will take you by the hand and walk you step by step through the process of forgiveness and inner healing. He will put all the pieces back together again. As He does, He will show you Himself in new and glorious ways. He will use even the most awful events for your good. Your pain and the subsequent healing and transformation will make you into a powerful intercessor.”

Are you carrying a grudge against someone right now? Look at it in the full light of His presence. How is it crippling you? Where is it holding you back? Ask Him to show you how to forgive. Begin now, in His power, the process of forgiving. That might mean looking squarely at the pain for the first time. Are you willing to walk through the process with Him?

Look at the grudge you have been holding on to—the one you are in the process of forgiving. You've already looked at the pain inflicted on you by the perpetrator of the wrong. Now look deeper to what it is inside you that is reacting to the hurt and holding onto bitterness.

What made the offense offensive? What unhealed wound did it touch? What unsurrendered pain did it awaken? What insecurity did it unmask? What uncrucified flesh did it discover? What does the offense or the hurt touch in you? Is it pride? Is it insecurity? Is it a misplaced focus? Think through these truths and build an understanding of how God can use the hurt you have suffered to strengthen you in His Spirit and to flush out the lingering “flesh” that is alive in you, disguised and hidden.

Live Free

I'd like to close this chapter by sharing from my personal journal an experience that occurred during my husband's final illness. For me, it perfectly illustrates the freedom of obedience.

Today as I sat beside Wayne's hospital bed, I watched a parable in action.

Wayne is being fed and medicated by IV right now. Lots of tubes acting as the conduit through which life and healing flow. Wayne is very restless. He keeps moving his arm in such a way that the IV lines get tangled and the healing flow can't get to him. When he starts moving his arm too much, we have to take his hand and gently hold it down so he won't get the lines tangled. It frustrates him. He feels we are restricting his freedom. He is missing the context. All he knows is he wants his hand to move and we want it to be still. He can't see that what he thinks is restriction is really freedom—freedom to receive the flow that sustains his life.

Like Wayne, we often chafe at God's call to obedience, thinking it restricts us. Our view is narrow. We can't see that His loving hand on ours is freedom. It keeps us in the place where His power and provision flow. It keeps us from moving out of the flow of His life.

This morning when I got to Wayne's room, they had tied that restless hand to the bed with just enough give that he had freedom, but not license. In other words, he could move his hand, but only within the confines of that which was safe for him. It was a comfortable, soft little cuff around his wrist, but it surprised me and hurt me when I saw it. I thought, how much better when the discipline comes from a loving hand. How much better when that “restriction” is accompanied with a loving touch and gentle words instead of in an impersonal “law” that has no heart. See how much God loves us? His guidance comes to us from His loving hand, accompanied by His gentle voice, until we learn by experience that His commands set us free.

Authority

in Prayer

God does not teach us to pray from a position of weakness. We will be in a position of weakness in ourselves, but in the spiritual realm we are in a position of authority. He gives us the authority to activate His will on earth; the authority to bring His power into situations on earth. The proof that we are to pray with authority is that we have been authorized to use the name of Jesus. The One who has all authority in heaven and on earth has authorized us to speak in His name.

When one person gives another the privilege of using his or her name, it is an indication of trust. It is saying to another, “Use the credibility I have earned to establish your own. You will not need to prove yourself in order to have immediate access to the benefits I have earned because you will be coming in my name and not your own. My reputation will be imputed to you. You will be received as I am.”

My parents are wonderful people, and I benefit from their reputation. When I meet someone who has known my parents, that person immediately begins to treat me with a respect I have not earned. The person treats me with the respect he or she has for my parents. The reputation my parents have earned is imputed to me. I am treated as if I had actually done all the generous and loving things my parents have done simply because I bear their name.

This is the privilege Jesus has given us. We approach the Father in His name. When we pray in Jesus’ name, the whole spiritual realm must deploy accordingly.

Before we even begin to use our inadequate little words to describe the power in the Name, would you stop and ask the Spirit of Truth to guide you into all truth about the Name? I can't even think about the Name without being overwhelmed with its majesty and its power. I am so awed at the Name that I want to be sure you see its holiness and my words certainly will not convey it. Unless the Spirit of God Himself shows you the Name, you will never understand it. Stop now and ask Him to teach you.

Learning the Name

When I was expecting my first child, it occurred to me that I would have a new name, a name I had never been called before. For the first time, someone would call me Mommy. Even though billions of women have the same name, the name Mommy would still be entirely unique and my own because it named the relationship between me and my child. Even though billions of women are Mommy to someone, only I would be Mommy to Brantley Quin Dean.

As I considered this monumental change in my life, I began to worry. “How will my child learn my name? Since no one else calls me Mommy, how will he know to? Why won't he call me what everyone else calls me? How will he come to understand that the unique and intimate relationship he and I will share entitles me to be called Mommy?”

I reached this conclusion: I'll have to tell him my name. I'll have to teach him my new name. I'll have to weave it into his life, identifying it with his experience of me. As we interact, as we bond, as we learn each other, I'll teach him my name. That's the only way Brantley Quin Dean will know my name.

Of course, Mommy is not my legal name. Mommy is only my name to my children. It would be silly for anyone else to call me Mommy, because I'm only Mommy to Brantley, Kennedy, and Stinson. To them, that's my name because to them, that's my relationship. When they were little and we were in a place with other little children, sometimes I would hear the cry, “Mommy!” I would look around to see who was saying it. If it was not my child, then it was not my name being called. Mommy is the name that defines my role in their lives.

In the same way, God has carefully and patiently taught us His name, the name that defines the relationship, the name that explains the bond. He introduced Himself to Moses. “Whom shall I tell them sent me?” Moses asked the voice from the burning bush. “Tell them I am has sent you,” the voice answered. (See Exodus 3:13–14.)

In this way, God begins to teach His children His name. God's name is too big, His investment in us too far-reaching, His love for us too boundless to be packaged in one word. So He first gives an open-ended name. I am. He leaves room for our understanding of Him and of our relationship to Him to expand. He grows our knowledge of His name with each encounter. He weaves it into our experience of Him. We continue to learn new parts of His name as we continue to learn new truths about His ways. Each new piece of His name that He teaches us introduces us to a new aspect of our relationship to Him. “This is who I am to you,” He is saying. “This is what our relationship entitles you to call Me.”

He progressively reveals His name. Little by little, encounter by encounter, He teaches His name.

The Name is too big to be spoken by human lips or contained in one word. God taught us His name bit by bit. Throughout the Old Testament, God revealed His name as He intervened in the lives of His people. One time He calls Himself “The Lord Who Provides” (Genesis 22:14); another time He says His name is “The Lord Who Makes You Holy” (Leviticus 20:7–8); and yet another time He calls Himself “The Lord Who Heals You” (Exodus 15:22–26). He continues to reveal His name throughout history until Jesus is born on the earth. Little by little, encounter by encounter, He teaches us His name.

Imagine that you were a creature from another galaxy who came to earth to study its landscape and climate. You land on earth and begin to transmit your findings. Would those findings be accurate? How you described the earth would depend on what part of the planet you landed on and what time of year you landed there. You could not possibly describe the earth from one place. God is bigger than the earth. One view of Him, one simple definition of Him, will not even begin to define Him. He has to teach us His name a little at a time. Many Jews, out of reverence and the understanding that one word will not say the whole name, call God Ha-shem, which means “The Name.”

The Name in all its forms has been consolidated into one name: Jesus. God gave Him the Name. “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me,” Jesus prayed in John 17:11.

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

—Philippians 2:9–11

When His people speak His name, all the forces in the spiritual realm have to deploy accordingly. “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,” Paul writes (Philippians 2:9). Is this present-tense truth, or future-tense truth? Is Jesus already exalted to the highest place? Is He already the name above every name? Look at Ephesians 1:20–21. Paul has described finished work—Christ is already seated at God's right hand—a work that is completed and available in the spiritual realm, or the “heavenlies.”

What is God's reason for exalting Jesus and giving Him the name above all names? The Scripture says it is so that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10–11). Is this present-tense truth, or future-tense truth? It is present tense! It is true now and will continue to be true throughout eternity. Right now, at the name of Jesus, every knee in the spiritual realm bows—if not in worship, then in surrender—and every tongue in the spiritual realm has to confess (agree with; admit) the lordship of Jesus and become subject to the authority of Jesus. The phrase “should bow” does not mean “ought to bow.” The word rendered “should” means “implying necessity in accordance with the nature of things or with the divine appointment and therefore certain, destined to take place.” At the name of Jesus, it is necessary and certain that every knee bows and tongue confesses His lordship. It is a present-tense reality in the spiritual realm—the name of Jesus stops the forces of Satan cold.

The Name is not contained in the word formed by the letters J-e-s-u-s. The Name is not the sound that our voices make when we say the word Jesus. Many people have been and still are named Jesus. The name does not exalt the person; the person exalts the name.

The word J-e-s-u-s is our code word for the Name. When we say the name of Jesus with reverence, when we speak it of the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, Lord and Savior, then it reverberates through the spiritual realm as the Name. The forces of evil tremble and fall on their faces; the warriors of the Lord snap to attention; the angels are on alert. The cry goes out: “The Name has been exalted. Someone spoke the Name.” Heaven acts when God's people speak the Name.

“Until now you have not asked for anything in my name,” Jesus said to His disciples in John 16:24. “Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” When we ask in His name, all of the resources of heaven are ours to use in bringing glory to the Father. “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:13–14).

In Jesus’ Name

What does it mean to use the name of Jesus in prayer? We are to use His name to access His resources to fulfill His purposes through prayer. His one purpose is to glorify the Father. Because of the name of Jesus, you have the authority to pray with power.

Imagine a traffic policeman standing in the middle of a busy intersection directing traffic. Now imagine a huge semi barreling toward that intersection. When the policeman holds up his hand, signaling the semi to come to a halt, the semi will obey. Why? Authority. Because of his authority, the policeman can bring the semi to a screeching halt just by holding up his hand!

When we use the Name in prayer, it has two effects. First, it gives us access to the Father. Because Jesus has given us permission to use His name, we are received in the Father's presence as Jesus is. We lay aside our own unworthiness and clothe ourselves in Jesus.

When a bride whose life has been one of poverty, becomes united to the bridegroom, she gives up her own name, to be called by his, and has now the full right to use it. She purchases in his name, and that name is not refused. And this is done because the bridegroom has chosen her for himself, counting on her to care for his interests: they are now one. And so the Heavenly Bridegroom could do nothing less; having loved us and made us one with Himself, what could He do but give those who bear His Name the right to present it before the Father, or to come with it to Himself for all they need…. The bearing of the name of another supposes my having given up my own, and with it my own independent life; but then, as surely, my possession of all there is in the name I have taken instead of my own.

— Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer

This is perhaps the most amazing thing of all: When I embraced the lordship of Jesus over my life, He became my life. Now, I am “in Him” (Ephesians 1:13); my life is “now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). When I come to the Father in the name of Jesus, it is not a formality; it is a reality. He hears my prayers through the voice of Jesus. That is the power of the Name.

Second, when you use the name of Jesus, you immediately have authority in the spiritual realm. The “heavenlies,” the active spiritual realm, respond to the Name. Keeping in mind that prayer is not simply asking God for things, but instead is a continual interaction with the spiritual realm, using the name of Jesus in prayer gives you the authority to declare to rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms what the manifold wisdom of God is. (See Ephesians 3:10). Your prayers in Jesus’ name—which means that you are speaking His desires—direct the will of God into the circumstances of earth.

He has decreed that only His own friends can establish contact with these inexhaustible sources of power. In fact, the means of contact has been devised so carefully that the connection is automatically cut off, even to the friends of Jesus, as soon as they try to employ this power in ways contrary to the will and purposes of Jesus. It is only when we pray for something according to the will of God that we have the promise of being heard and answered.

—O. Hallesby, Prayer

Think of situations in which you use someone else's name to establish your credibility. When you do business, you do it in the name of the company that employs you, for example. When you use someone else's name, do you receive the treatment you deserve, or the treatment reserved for the person in whose name you are coming? When a person gives you permission to use his or her name, what is the trust implied? Would you give a stranger or a tangential acquaintance the authority to use your name? Recognize then what it says about the relationship you have with Jesus that He gives you the authority to use His name.

When you use the name of Jesus, you are exercising the authority to direct the will of God into the circumstances of earth. When Jesus gave His prayer outline, He included in it this phrase: “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). He is giving a directive not begging. He is not saying, “Oh, please, Father. I'm hoping that Your kingdom will come and that Your will will be done.” He is saying, “Come, kingdom. Be done, will of God.” He is bringing the will of God and the rule of God into situations on earth by means of prayer. When you pray in His name, you are doing the same thing.

He is not commanding God! Don't get confused here. He is not demanding that God act. He is announcing to the spiritual realm that the will of God will be done and that the rule of God will take effect.

Delegated Authority

There are limits to our authority. The authority we have in Christ is delegated authority. Let's carefully examine the Scripture to see how delegated authority operates and how it differs from original authority. We use our delegated authority—we use His name—to access His riches to fulfill His purposes through prayer.

Read John 14:13–14: “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” What is always Jesus’ primary purpose? To glorify the Father. When we pray in Jesus’ name, we will bring into the situation the resources and the timing and the events that will most clearly display God's power and will glorify His name.

Praying in Jesus’ name does not ensure that situations will be resolved in the way and in the time that you expect. You do not influence God to do your will; you influence the spiritual realm to do God's will. God knows how to glorify Himself.

Let me repeat how delegated authority works: We use His name to access His riches to fulfill His purposes through prayer. Let me illustrate this way: I am president of a certain organization. As president, I must sign all checks written on the organization's account. The organization has delegated authority to me for this purpose. By signing a check, I have the authority to access the organization's resources.

However, I do not have the authority to decide where those resources will be applied. When I sign a check to release resources, it is for the purpose of applying those resources where the organization has determined they should be applied. I do not have the authority to access the organization's resources for my own benefit, or for any purposes except those set forth and approved by the membership. My signature releases the organization's resources to carry out the organization's plans. I act in the name of that organization. If I do not exercise the authority delegated to me—if I do not sign checks—the organization's purposes will not be accomplished.

Similarly, Jesus has delegated authority to us to access His resources for His purposes. Our God-authored prayers release His riches just as the signature on a check releases the resources in that checking account. Delegated authority is only in effect when it exactly matches the original authority that backs it up.

There are two types of authority: original and delegated. Original authority means that authority is inherent. The person with original authority actually owns the authority—he is not exercising it on someone else's behalf. In the spiritual realm only Jesus has original authority.

Let me suggest a few passages that indicate the scope of Jesus’ authority. How much authority does Jesus have? Is anything or anyone at all, outside His authority? Is there any limit to the scope of His authority?

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

—Matthew 28:18

And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

—Ephesians 1:22-23

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

—Colossians 1:16-18

The authority that we exercise in prayer flows from Him. It is His authority. Actually, you and I do not have authority. We exercise His authority. Any time that our prayers are outside His will, they have no authority. Let me illustrate again the way that original and delegated authority work together.

As a volunteer, I teach writing workshops for elementary school children. One day I was teaching a writing workshop for 165 fourth-graders. I was having difficulty because I had no authority over them; they were not subject to me. My words had no effect on them because I had no authority. If I told them to be quiet, it was as if I hadn't spoken. My words had no power because I had no authority.

At one point, the principal walked by and noticed my problem. She came into the room and sat where the children could see her. Suddenly the situation changed. Now those fourth-graders were subject to me. Now they obeyed every word I said. Why? Because the principal, the original authority, had delegated her authority to me. Because of her presence, the children responded to my words as if she had spoken them. I exercised her authority. It was as if her words were in my mouth. Delegated authority is just as effective as original authority as long as it exactly matches the original authority.

Jesus has given us delegated authority backed up by His original authority.

Only when we know and share in desires of our Lord Jesus Christ, can we really pray in his name, and not in our own.

—Hannah Hurnard, God's Transmitters

Can you pray with authority unless you pray in Jesus’ name? Can you pray in Jesus’ name if you are not praying Jesus’ desires? When you and I pray the will and desires of Jesus, it is as if Jesus Himself is asking. Does the Father ever refuse the Son anything He asks?

Let me pause me here and clarify something. I want to caution you against some readily available teaching on spiritual authority. Some would lead you to believe that you can demand whatever you want or whatever you decide is best because you have authority in prayer. That kind of teaching feeds right into the flesh's desire to run the show. Some might use phrases about the name of Jesus and the blood of Jesus, but prayer is not about phraseology. Authority is inherent in true, God-authored prayer no matter what words you use. Authority in prayer comes from surrender to Jesus.

Let me emphasize: You do not have authority. Jesus has authority.

You will not learn how to exercise your delegated authority by saying certain words in your prayers, or by praying louder or longer, or by working yourself into an emotional state. You will know how your authority operates by spending much time with Jesus, letting Him imprint His heart upon yours.

Law Enforcement

Prayer in Jesus’ name enforces the authority and lordship of Jesus. Look at it like this: The United States has a government built on laws. No citizen of the United States is above the law. The law is the authority. As a citizen of the United States, its laws have authority over me; I am subject to them. The law says that I must drive no faster than 70 mph on interstate highways. I am subject to that law. Does that mean that I can't drive any faster than 70 mph on interstate highways? Of course not; I can drive as fast as I want to drive. The law will only impact my specific situation if someone with authority enforces it—puts force behind it.

Jesus is Lord. We don't make Him Lord. He is Lord. Everything is subject to Him. Our prayers do a work in the spiritual realm that enforces (puts force behind) His lordship, bringing it to bear on a specific situation.

Elijah is cited as a man who prayed with authority. We looked in detail at him as a prayer-model earlier in chapter 3. You may want to go back and review that material. James 5:17 reminds us that Elijah was only human—he was “a man just like us.” Yet Elijah's prayers held rain off the earth for three and a half years, then brought rain back to the earth. James makes it clear: It was the prayer of Elijah that kept rain from the earth and returned rain to the earth. The power was God's; the plan was God's; the purpose was God's; but it was Elijah's prayer that caused God's will to be enforced on the earth. The prayer of a righteous man—like Elijah—exercises force, has effect, and creates change. Prayer enforces the lordship of Jesus, causing His rule to take direct effect.

Where did Elijah's authority originate? “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand…” was how Elijah stated His position (1 Kings 17:1 NASB).

God intends for prayer to change the earth. When we pray earth-changing prayers, we are to pray them with authority and boldness as Elijah, a man just like us, did. The authority we have in prayer is the authority to bind or loose that which has already been bound or loosed in heaven. When Elijah prayed rain off the earth, it was because God had proclaimed it so. When Elijah's prayers loosed rain on the earth, it was because God had proclaimed it so. We have the authority to proclaim God's will: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

All Him

The longer we live a praying life, the more focused we are on Him. The secret to powerful praying is not a method, but a relationship. Little by little we are freed from the uncertainty induced by scrutinizing our prayer methods to see if they measure up. Did I have enough faith? Did I pray fervently enough, or long enough, or eloquently enough? Did I present my case with enough passion? In the praying life, we can forget the method and look to the Master. The secret to prayer lies in Him alone.

Powerful praying occurs when:

1. I allow Him to align my thoughts and purposes with His.

2. I give up my preconceived ideas of what I want and need and allow Him to fill me with His abundance.

3. I bring my will into active cooperation with His.

4. My mind, will, and emotions become the conduits through which He can express His thoughts, desires, and longings.

The Prayer Tutor will teach us how to focus all of our faith on Him. As the Father brings our focus back to Himself, we begin to see an integrated picture of reality. The seeming contradictions in prayer are resolved. Our wills align with His will. Oswald Chambers puts it this way in his book, Christian Disciplines: “The Holy Spirit not only brings us into the zone of God's influence but into intimate relationship with Him personally, so that by the slow discipline of prayer the choices of our free wills become the preordinations of His almighty order.”

THE

PRACTICE

OF PRAYER

The Practice

of Prayer

The pursuit of any goal requires a narrowed focus. To hold fast to one goal means to dismiss many others. The pursuit of any goal demands a single-minded diligence. We must be willing to sacrifice anything not related to the firmly established goal. In the pursuit of God, we must evaluate life, not in terms of right or wrong, but, “Does this push me toward my goal or distract me from my goal?” As God works to reproduce His heart in us, we will find that many things that are not technically “wrong” are still encumbrances that keep us from effectively running toward the goal. We find within ourselves the desire to divest ourselves of anything that may slow our progress. What may seem all right for a more casual seeker will be forbidden to us.

The more you witness the power of God released in response to your prayers, the more excitement you will have about prayer. If you are available to the Spirit at all times, He will bring many lives and needs to you for intercession. It will become your life's focus to see God work in every situation with tremendous power. Then you begin to realize that the more pure your life is, the more effectively it conducts the power of God. You begin to seek purity and obedience; they become qualities you desire in your life. You welcome God's purifying work because you know it is freeing you of encumbrances. In your heart, Jesus begins to reproduce His prayer: “For their sakes I sanctify Myself” (John 17:19 NASB). You will realize that to find power, you must seek purity. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8).

Take a minute to focus on the lives and situations God has brought to you for intercession. Do you long for your praying to be effective and powerful? Consider the names of people for whom you are praying and let the Spirit of Christ in you author this prayer: “For their sakes I sanctify myself.”

As our lives become praying lives, willingly, joyfully we lay aside every weight. In 2 Peter 1:3 we read that He “called us by his own glory and goodness.” As we see more of His glory, as we experience more of His goodness, that in itself entices us and draws us to Him. The One who is calling us is so compelling that our sacrifice feels like privilege.

As a child, I always loved to go barefoot in the summer. I remember playing ball with my siblings and neighbors in our front yard. The rule was that we took turns chasing the ball into the street when it went astray. Every time my turn came to chase the ball into the street, I said, “I can't! I don't have any shoes on. The pavement will burn my feet!” So I never had to take my turn chasing the ball into the street.

My dad used to walk to and from his office every day and as he walked, he whistled. When I was in the yard playing ball (but unable to run into the street to retrieve it when it was my turn), often I'd hear my dad whistling. I knew he was on his way home. So off I'd go, running barefoot across the hot pavement, to meet him and walk the rest of the way home with him. When the outcome was sufficiently attractive, the discomfort involved was irrelevant. I wouldn't burn my feet for a ball, but I'd not even feel the pain if it meant extra time with my daddy.

Choosing to live a praying life—a life through which the power of God is free to flow—involves sacrifice. In this, it is no different from any other rock-solid commitment. Whatever you choose to pursue will mean that you sacrifice something else. The key is this: If the goal is sufficiently attractive, the sacrifice required will be irrelevant. In fact, the more focused you are on your goal, the less you will perceive the requirements as “sacrifices.”

It will become a joy to leave these things, these weights, behind. “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1). What we once considered gain we now see as loss. What we once counted as treasure we now know is rubbish.

When my son Stinson was a toddler, I picked him up from a birthday party he had attended. He came out proudly clutching a red, helium-filled balloon. “Stinson, what a wonderful balloon!” I said. “Don't let go of it or it will go way up in the sky and we won't be able to get it back.”

I turned around for a moment, and when I turned back, there was Stinson, watching his wonderful red helium-filled balloon float higher and higher. “Oh, I'm sorry you lost your balloon, Stinson,” I said.

“I didn't lose it, Mommy!” was Stinson's reply. “I gave it to Jesus!”

The person who is living a praying life learns that nothing you give to Jesus is lost. Giving the thing you love best to the One you love most is what brings exuberant joy, the hallmark of the praying life.

Do you have any “red balloons” you're clutching? Is there anything you need to give to Jesus—just because you love Him? Let go of what you're holding on to and experience His joy.

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

—Philippians 3:7–8

The praying life is a life of diligence. In the praying life, we welcome Him as the refiner's fire, burning away every distraction. To the physical ears such a call sounds harsh and unappealing. To the ears of faith it is like a “perfume poured out” (Song of Songs 1:3). The heart of the seeker responds, “Show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely” (Song of Songs 2:14).

To Get Up or Not to Get Up? That Is the Question.

A praying life cannot be scheduled. It has to flow. Yet specific times of uninterrupted prayer must be scheduled. Disciplined times of prayer merge into and become part of the praying life. Jesus gave guidance about structuring prayer times in Matthew 6:6. Let's closely examine what He says about scheduled prayer:

“When you pray…” We must have the habit of praying. A habit is an action that has become fixed in one's life through repetition. The decision to perform a habit is settled. Every day I perform numerous tasks without stopping to decide whether or not I will perform them. They are habits. There are, for example, personal grooming actions I perform without giving them a second thought.

What caused these actions to become habit? First, I am convinced of their importance. Second, I have fixed them in my life by repetition.

What defines them as habit? I do not struggle with a decision to perform these actions every day. The decision to perform them was made at some time in the past. I do them automatically. Not to do them would be unusual—I would have to make a decision not to do them.

Scheduled periods of prayer should become our habit. If we are convinced of the value of daily uninterrupted time with the Father, we should begin to fix that action in our lives through repetition.

The decision to rise early for extended times of prayer turns on a few seconds. The first seconds after the alarm clock rings decide your action. “As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed” (Proverbs 26:14). At the moment the alarm clock rings, choose—will you be sluggish or diligent? Will you choose sleep or prayer?

I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw.

—Proverbs 24:30–32

This is a description of the life of a sluggard. The praying life, left unattended, is overgrown with weeds, broken down, in disrepair. A praying life requires diligence, or spiritual poverty will sneak up on you and overtake you. Be like the person in the proverb: Apply your heart to what you observe and learn a lesson from what you see.

In contrast to the life of a sluggard, God wants to make your life like a watered garden. He wants to tend, protect, and maintain it Himself. “I, the Lord, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it” (Isaiah 27:3).

When morning comes, don't choose “a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man” (Proverbs 24:33–34). The enemy is waiting to steal your spiritual health; inattention to a daily time of focused prayer will give him just the opportunity he seeks to leave you spiritually impoverished.

To fix a habit, experts give this advice:

1. Begin immediately.

2. Never allow an exception to occur.

3. Do not consider the action an option.

When your alarm clock goes off, keep moving. Don't allow yourself one minute or five minutes to decide whether or not you will get up for prayer. The decision is fixed, now fix the behavior. Within a few minutes of getting up, the difficulty is over. If your lifestyle, health, or schedule is such that early morning is not an option for scheduled prayer time, let God show you what time of the day you are to set aside for Him. Keep that appointment diligently.

Isaiah 50:4 says, “He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.” Who will assign you the time you should be up for time with the Father? Right now, ask the Father what time He wants you to set aside as time for Him alone. Now, ask Him to wake you at that time. I find that I often wake up several minutes before my alarm clock is set to go off. Ask Him to awaken you with a sense of expectancy and to impart to you His own eagerness for time with you.

For some more specifics on prayer, let's look at Matthew 6:6.

The Place

“When you pray, go into your room, close the door…” As part of establishing the habit of daily prayer, we should, as often as possible, use the same location. By choosing a designated location, you will have one less decision to make. You can have your Bible and prayer journal, or whatever materials you use, already in place. The more routine the outward behaviors are, the more energy is focused on the inward activities. When you don't have to give thought to the functional details, you will come to prayer less distracted, more ready to listen to Him.

When you enter into your room, you are to shut the door. You need to choose a place where life's distractions will be less likely to infringe. Your location should not become so important, though, that you feel you can miss your prayer time if your location is not available. Your true inner room is within you.

What is a convenient place for you to engage in daily extended prayer time? What do you need to do to make it inviting?

The Focus

“When you pray…pray to your Father, who is unseen.” The purpose of your prayer time is to give God your undivided attention. It is not for the purpose of securing His favor for the day. His favor rests on you forever. A morning prayer time should not be viewed superstitiously. Sometimes I hear people say something like, “When I have a prayer time, my day goes well. When I skip it, I have a bad day.” Morning prayer is not a magic powder to sprinkle on your day. If you have a habit of morning prayer, it will be followed by some good days and some bad days. The difference prayer makes is in your God-centered reaction to both the good and the bad.

The focus of your prayer time is God Himself. This is not your one chance to get His attention. You will be walking in prayer all day and all night. You don't have to feel compelled to get all your prayer requests in at this time, as if this will be your only chance. The agenda for your morning prayer time is to hear God, to reaffirm His rule in your life. “He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught” (Isaiah 50:4). This verse causes me to picture a disciple sitting at his teacher's feet, leaning forward so as not to miss one word that falls from the master's lips. In your time of prayer, listen like one being taught.

The Response

“Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Jesus said that those who pray so that others will admire them will have the reward they seek. Their spiritual lives may well be applauded and admired. However, they will have settled for a cheap reward. They will not be rewarded with the presence of God. Theirs will be a perishable crown.

The reward God offers is Himself; and that will be more than enough. In His presence we find everything we are looking for. He is our very great reward. Have you come to the place in your praying life that God Himself is all you truly desire? Is everything else optional? If not, ask Him to bring your life to that point.

Forms of Prayer

Prayer takes many forms. A single “right” formula for prayer does not exist. However, it can be helpful to have an outline to structure extended times of prayer. A structure can help you keep your thoughts focused. My challenge to you is to spend a full hour every day in uninterrupted prayer. An outline can keep you from feeling overwhelmed at the thought of an hour in prayer.

“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words” (Matthew 6:7). The secret to an hour in prayer is not an hour filled with your words. An avalanche of words will not move God. It is not the cry of the lips, but the cry of the heart that God hears.

Many people are intimidated by the thought of praying for extended periods of time. “I can't imagine praying for an hour. What would I say?” We don't need to come to God with an approach mapped out. Not knowing what to say will relieve the pray-er of one barrier to true prayer: a predetermined agenda. We don't need to come to Him with a planned speech. Come to listen first, speak second. Remember Habakkuk? “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint” (Habakkuk 2:1). Prayer is really answering God. It is responding to His voice, to His initiative. Let Him stir up prayer in you. The key to extended times of prayer is not much speaking, but much listening.

Jesus gave a simple outline for extended prayer times. In this outline, He showed us the many forms prayer will take. Many have found that using this as a basic structure, a pray-er can keep his mind on track. However, please keep in mind that this is only a structure; it is not a rule. Let the Holy Spirit fill the structure however He wants to.

“This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”

—Matthew 6:9–13

Praising the Father

Let's examine the different forms of prayer listed in Jesus’ outline. He begins with praise. Why is it helpful to begin focused prayer times with praise? By beginning times of prayer with praise, we immediately put the spotlight in the right place. The focus of our prayer times is to be God. As we spend time considering Him, reflecting on His greatness, we build a foothold for our faith. Against the backdrop of His majesty, life takes on its proper perspective.

Authentically and genuinely praising God moves you into a position of faith, from which anything can be accomplished. “Everything is possible for him who believes,” Jesus told us in Mark 9:23. Anything is possible! The praying person who takes the time to consider the works and the attributes of God will be filled with faith.

The praying person who takes the time to consider and recognize that the very One who performed all the recorded miracles, signs, and wonders in the Scripture is our “Abba”— Daddy—will be unable not to believe. For that person, unbelief would be the most unnatural state imaginable. He is our Father. Yet He is clothed with splendor and majesty. He is covered with light as with a cloak. He commands the morning and causes the dawn to know its place. He is great in wisdom and mighty in deed. For Him, all the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. The idols tremble at His presence and the hearts of His enemies melt within them. Great is the Lord. He is greatly to be praised. And He is your Father, who watches over you obsessively and lavishes love on you.

When my earthly father retired from a career that included being an attorney, a legislator, a circuit judge, and finally a judge on the Missouri Court of Appeals, people who had known him in various roles praised him. During the festivities, some praised him for being a defender and protector, others praised him as a worthy adversary, still others said that he was a fair and balanced creator of law, while others had known him as a wise dispenser of justice and interpreter of law. All of the praise was true and justified. But it fell short of the full picture of who my father is. His admirers missed the big picture because he's not their daddy.

I know someone entirely different because I know him as “Daddy.” As my daddy, I've known him as protector and defender; as my daddy, I've known him as a dispenser of justice and a creator of law. But do you see the difference it makes to know him in these roles as my daddy? When those roles are being enacted with personal, directed love as their motivating force, they have a different effect altogether.

Consider who God is. Consider His power, strength, and wisdom. Then realize that all He is and all He does flows out to you from a core of personal, intimate love. He is your Daddy. If daddy is not a word that brings up good feelings, realize that God is the kind of daddy you long to have.

Intercession

Jesus, in His outline, leads us next to intercession: directing the will and the power of God into situations on earth. “Let Your kingdom come. Let Your will be done on earth like Your will is done in heaven.” The Old Testament gives a wonderful picture of intercession.

“Whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastpiece of decision as a continuing memorial before the Lord. Also put the Urim and the Thummim in the breastpiece, so they may be over Aaron's heart whenever he enters the presence of the Lord. Thus Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the Lord.”

—Exodus 28:29–30

In intercession, we carry those in need over our hearts before the Lord continually. God will engrave on our hearts the names of those for whom we are to intercede diligently. We must allow God to give us intercession assignments. We cannot be an earnest intercessor for every need. God will place some needs on your heart, and you will feel the burden of intercession for them. Other needs you will not.

When God assigns you responsibility for prolonged intercession in regard to some need, you are to bear it on your heart before Him. Sometimes, however, He just brings you into an ongoing intercession for a moment. When someone brings you a need, immediately—even as they are telling you about it—lift it to the Father. If He intends to burden you with it for intense intercession, you will know. Otherwise, any time it comes to your mind, pray a “flash prayer.”

Frank Laubach introduces the idea of “flash prayers” in his book, Prayer: The Mightiest Force in the World. He writes, “Everybody in every ordinary day has hundreds of chinks of idle wasted time which may be filled with flash prayers ten seconds or a minute long.” I have a bulletin board in my office that I think of as my flash-prayer board. I keep on it pictures or other reminders and as my eye falls on them during the day, I flash a prayer. Also, every time I see a person who has asked me for prayer or who has a need I know about, I flash a prayer. Or when a person comes to my mind, I flash a prayer. Usually, the content of my flash prayer is nothing but the name of Jesus.

Some needs, however, will jump into your heart and make themselves at home. The Spirit of prayer will call upon you to persevere in prayer for these needs until He takes away the burden. Frank Laubach explains what happens when we pray for others: “A mighty invisible spiritual force lifts our minds and eyes toward God. His Spirit flows through our prayer to them, and He can speak to them directly.” The heart of intercession is “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Petition for Daily Needs

The next phrase in Jesus’ prayer outline is, “Give us this day our daily bread.” He tells us to come to our Father with our daily material needs. He tells us not to be anxious about our physical needs because our Father knows about them and cares about them (Matthew 6:25–34). We are not to be anxious, but instead to ask God to provide for our daily needs.

God is practical. He created and ordered the universe. He knows and cares about your material needs. After all, He created you with needs. He could have created us so that we had no material needs, so that we were self-sufficient. But He chose to create our physical structures so that they need food and shelter. He wants us to come to Him for our daily supply so that we will learn to trust Him. Our needs are His entry points. What are your needs today? Ask the Father to supply them.

Forgiven and Forgiving

Next in the outline is “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Incorporate into your prayer time an opportunity for God to bring to your attention anything that is cluttering your heart and making your life unavailable to Him. As we approach God in confession, it is a time for Him to shine His holy light on our hearts and lives, examining both motives and actions.

Confession is not to be an exercise in self-loathing. It is a time to let God search our hearts. It is not our duty to find our faults and tell God about them; it is His place to show us the dark corners. Our part is to confess and forsake what God shows us. We need to open our lives to Him so He can bring conviction.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

—Psalm 139:23–24

When we feel that we are to dredge up our faults for confession, we are focused in the wrong place. We are looking at ourselves when we should be looking at God. Several things can happen.

1. We may become so discouraged that we feel unworthy of God's love. One of Satan's most effective ploys is to accuse and condemn. He loves to load us down with a sense of failure and hopelessness. The Holy Spirit's conviction is different from the enemy's condemnation.

2. We may become proud of how humble we are.

3. We may mask the true sin by concentrating on a symptom. We may repent of an action, when it is an underlying attitude that needs cleansing.

The Holy Spirit will bring what was hidden into the light. Our part is to agree with Him and confess our sins. His part is to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Specifically, the Spirit will be bringing to your attention anyone whom you need to forgive. If we are walking in the light—keeping nothing in the dark—then we are living in fellowship with other believers. This requires a consistent exchange of mercy and forgiveness between and among believers. “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 John 1:7).

Open your life to God's conviction. What is He telling you about that is cluttering your life?

Spiritual Warfare

Jesus brings His prayer outline to a close with these words: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13). All prayer is spiritual warfare. Every prayer that gains ground for God's kingdom loses ground for the enemy. To pray is to be locked in combat with spiritual forces. Spiritual warfare is not a single type of praying; prayer is warfare. There is no reason for this to be an intimidating thought. The two opposing sides in this warfare are not equal. Satan's army is pitifully weak and small compared to God's.

“The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

—1 John 4:4

“Don't be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ And Elisha prayed, ‘O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

—2 Kings 6:16–17

Satan is a defeated foe. His forces are already defeated. They were defeated at the Cross. “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15).

Satan's only weapon against the intercessor is propaganda. He wages an ingenious propaganda campaign tailor-made for each person in order to keep us from invading and driving him out of the territory he occupies. Whatever propaganda he uses against you, it is meant to keep you from persevering until the battle is finished. If you enter the battle, you will find Satan and his forces defenseless against you. There may be skirmishes and pockets of resistance, but the outcome is not in question. You are protected by full body armor and His name is Jesus. “Your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:27). He is your spiritual armor. No weapon formed against you can prosper.

The “smart” bomb is a relatively new weapon used in modern warfare. These are computer-driven bombs that hit a precise target. These bombs don't land in the general area of the target, they can actually go through a window or down an elevator shaft. They are exact.

As Satan has occupied territory, he has built strongholds or fortresses. He has built these fortresses out of arguments and pretensions that set themselves up against the knowledge of God. Think of your Spirit-directed prayers as “smart” bombs landing on enemy strongholds. Your persevering prayers are precisely and systematically destroying Satan's hold.

Jesus’ prayer outline teaches us to ask for deliverance from the evil one—rescue us from the lies and distortions of the evil one. Satan's tactics are carefully thought out, wily schemes. We should “put on the full armor of God so that [we] can take [our] stand against the devil's schemes” (Ephesians 6:11).

Satan has a purposeful plan, and he is working toward a goal. He carries out his plan with lies, distortions, and disguises. He is depicted as a master of disguises, wrapping himself in robes of light. He is also a master of propaganda meant to break your morale and dilute your resolve. To counter his schemes, we must be well acquainted with the truth. His approach from the beginning has been to distort the truth and make his lies seem perfectly reasonable. It is by living a praying life that the enemy's schemes will be exposed and we will be delivered from his lies.

Which of these propaganda campaigns does Satan use against you?

• You're not good enough. What makes you think God would listen to you?

• Prayer has never worked for you before. What makes you think it will work this time?

• You're so busy right now. Pray later. Start having a disciplined prayer time…tomorrow.

• If you really get involved in prayer, Satan will cause terrible things to happen in your life.

Do you recognize any of his scare tactics? Have they worked on you before? Determine now that Satan's lies will no longer intimidate you and keep you from invading his strongholds. Begin to live a praying life!

Final Thoughts

I pray that this book has been beneficial to you, allowing you to question and challenge and wrestle with your assumptions about prayer. I pray it too has helped answer many of your questions. I pray that your journey to live a praying life continues and evolves into a never-ending passion.

Let me summarize a few simple truths that I hope you will take away with you from Live a Praying Life!:

• You are always involved in prayer in one form or another.

• Prayer is all about Jesus from beginning to end. He stirs it, He authors it, He answers it.

• God has set prayer up so that it works. He has not booby-trapped it with tricky tests and hurdles.

• The instant you turn a thought in God's direction, it has become prayer.

• God has chosen to engage His people through prayer in what He wants to do on the earth.

• A praying life lands you smack-dab in the middle of God's activity on the earth.

Critical Questions

Index

The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

If God is sovereign, why do we pray?

See chapter 3, “The Necessity of Prayer,” pages 45ff. See also chapters 1 and 2, which lay some important groundwork.

Why are some prayers unanswered?

See “The Desire of Your Heart,” pages 74–76.

Why and how do we pray Scripture?

See “Bible Study,” pages 117–19. See also “Misconception #3,” page 35; and “Praying God's Word,” pages 60–61.

If God uses our prayers to accomplish His will, doesn't that limit His sovereignty?

See “Does God Need Us?” pages 47–48. See also resources at www.prayinglife.org.

Why do we have to wait for God's answer?

See chapter 6, “Waiting on God,” pages 79ff.

Why do we need to ask others to pray with us or for us? Can't our own prayers stand alone?

See “Harmonized Prayer,” pages 123–25.

Does God ever punish us by not answering our prayers?

See page 158.

What do I do when I don't know what to pray?

See “Praying God's Word,” pages 60–61. See also page 154.

How can I hear God's voice?

See chapter 7, “Hearing from God,” pages 97ff.

Is it OK to use a prayer outline?

See “Forms of Prayer,” pages 190–91.

Should we keep a prayer list?

See “God's To-Do List,” pages 71–73.

Does sin in our lives affect answers to our prayers?

See chapter 11, “Obey and Forgive,” pages 157ff.

For more in-depth answers and to join in the conversation, go to www.prayinglife.org and www.facebook.com/liveaprayinglife.

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A Message from Jennifer Kennedy Dean

PRAYER IS THE KEY TO EVERYTHING. What God wants to do on the earth, He does through prayer. Prayer is so much more than the words that come sandwiched between “Dear God” and “Amen.” We limit prayer's power by our misconceptions about what prayer is. My heart-passion is to teach others the deep truths about prayer that the Father is teaching me.

Many believers are secretly discouraged about prayer. Many have reached the conclusion that prayer only works for “other people” or that prayer is, at best, a hit-or-miss activity. Yet the Scripture says that God intends for prayer to be the conduit that brings His power out of the spiritual realm and causes it to show up on the earth. The Scripture says that the prayer of one righteous person will exercise force and produce results on earth. God makes astonishing claims about prayer's power. Why aren't we living in that power?

The ministry of the Praying Life Foundation is to point God's people to His Word to find what makes prayer work the way He intends for it to work. We know there is only one Prayer Teacher. My goal is to be a vessel through which He can teach.

I don't know about you, but I cannot be satisfied with a trickle when I know there's a river to be had. I am always seeking to go deeper in the life of the Spirit. Through books and seminars, I share my journey with those who share my hunger.

To schedule

Jennifer Kennedy Dean

FOR YOUR EVENT, CONTACT:

The Praying Life Foundation

P. O. Box 660

Marion, KY 42064

seminars@prayinglife.org

www.prayinglife.org

Visit www.prayinglife.org to:

• Find answers to frequently asked questions

• Ask Jennifer your own questions

• Find a monthly column by Jennifer Kennedy Dean

• Discover a wealth of resources for your praying life

• For more in-depth answers and to join in the conversation, go to www.prayinglife.org and www.facebook.com/liveaprayinglife.

Table of Contents

Introduction

S ECTION 1—T HE P URPOSE OF P RAYER

Chapter 1:   The Purpose of Prayer

If God is sovereign, why do we pray?

Chapter 2:   The Defnition of Prayer

If prayer does not get God's attention, give Him new ideas, or awaken love or mercy in Him that He has not already felt, then what is the definition of prayer?

Chapter 3:   The Necessity of Prayer

Why did God put prayer into the equation? What does prayer accomplish?

Chapter 4:   The Author of Prayer

Why is the content of all true prayer God's decision? How does He author prayer in His people?

S ECTION 2—T HE P ROCESS OF P RAYER

Chapter 5:   The Process of Prayer

What is God's purpose for the time between my request and His answer?

Chapter 6:   Waiting on God

Does God delay? Or does it only appear to be delay from an earthly perspective?

Chapter 7:   Hearing from God

How does God speak reliably and authentically to His people in the present tense? Why does He speak to His people in the present tense?

Chapter 8:   Seeking After God

What part do the spiritual disciplines play in prayer?

S ECTION 3—T HE P ROMISE OF P RAYER

Chapter 9:   The Promise of Prayer

How do we consistently see the promises of God become real in our experience?

Chapter 10: Faith Is Required

Why is faith a requirement for powerful praying?

Chapter 11: Obey and Forgive

Why are obedience and forgiveness requirements for powerful praying?

Chapter 12: Authority in Prayer

What does it mean to pray with authority? How does a believer's authority operate?

S ECTION 4—T HE P RACTICE OF P RAYER

Chapter 13: The Practice of Prayer

What are some practical disciplines that will help a praying person develop a rich praying life? How might one order a scheduled hour of focused prayer? What time of day is best for a disciplined, scheduled prayer hour? What forms does prayer take?

Final Thoughts

Critical Questions index