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Prepare yourself for learning the Word of God!
Before we begin, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ (that is; you have believed [trusted] in Him for His promised gift of eternal life), it is important to prepare yourself to learn God's Word so take a moment to name, cite or acknowledge (confess) your known unconfessed sins privately to God (i.e.; with your thoughts directed only to God the Father).
1 John 1:9 says: "If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (known sins) and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [unknown or forgotten sins]." NKJV (New King James Version) [italics added]; we call this REBOUND, read the full doctrine as to “why” we need to use 1 John 1:9 to grow spiritually. REBOUND
If you have never personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, as your Savior (that is, believed in Him for eternal life), the issue for you is not to name your sins; the issue for you is to simply exercise faith alone in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life; when you do, you will instantly receive Eternal Life: John 3:16, 5:24, 6:47, 20:30, 31.
John 6:47 says: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me [Jesus Christ] has everlasting life." NKJV [italics added]
Notice again what Jesus said in John 6:47: "…he who believes in Me (Jesus Christ) has everlasting life." It doesn't say, "will have"; it says, "has." Therefore, the very moment you believe in Jesus Christ for His promise of everlasting life, you have it (it's really just that simple; nothing more and nothing less), and it can never be taken away from you (John 10:28-29). Furthermore, the gift (Ephesians 2:8c) of everlasting life (also called eternal life in scripture) is available to every human being; there are absolutely no exceptions.
John 3:14-15, 16, 17, 18, says: "14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that https://twitter.com/Ticket2Heaven/status/1221699816784154625/analytics whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." NKJV
Let us now bow our hearts and take a moment to prepare for worship and learning God's Word. If there is any known sin in your life, this is the time to just cite it privately to God the Father with your thoughts directed towards Him. With your head bowed and your eyes closed, you have total privacy in your mind and soul:
Study to show yourself approved to God!
Grace Bible Church
Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The Tree of Life is a weekly teaching summary:
God’s Word is taught Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday
God’s Word is taught Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday
STUDY TITLE:
DOCTRINE OF PRAYER, Part 1
Robert R. McLaughlin Bible Ministries
An important point to note first is that we are not to use prayer to try and get God to do what we want done. Many believers try and use prayer to get their own way, not God’s way. Prayer must be compatible with God’s will and God’s way. Sometimes that may be our will and our way, but other times it may not.
1Jo 5:14-15 “And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.”
Prayer is not designed to get us out of trouble, but rather to express our helplessness, our humility, our total dependence on God, and our recognition of His grace and His mercy toward us. Prayer is not what we want for ourselves, but what God wants for us. In fact, prayer is an expression and an extension of Bible doctrine resident in the soul.
We fail in prayer because we fail to understand and utilize Bible doctrine correctly.
John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.”
Prayer was never designed to fulfill our lusts and desires; prayer is designed to fulfill the will, plan, and purpose of God for our lives.
That’s why James 4:3 says “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your lusts.”
So prayer is not a Christmas list. Too many prayers are an expression of what you want, not what God wants. This is why we need to pray according to the will of God. To express the will of God in your prayers, you have to know what the will of God is and therefore how to ask for the will of God rather than your own will in any given matter.
Definition and Description.
Prayer is that function of the Royal Priesthood whereby the Church-age believer has access and privilege to present two categories of requests to God the Father.
1. Petitions–prayers for yourself.
2. Intercessory prayers–prayers for others.
Your prayers for others become a ministry unto themselves. However, many times your prayers for yourself indicate either lack of understanding of the problem-solving devices or the failure to properly utilize them. As a part of your equal privilege in election, you are a royal priest. And it is the unique function of the royal priesthood and equal privilege and opportunity for every believer to have an effective ministry. The most effective service is invisible service such as prayer. In past dispensations, there were specialized priesthoods in which certain people functioned as priests. A priest is a person representing the human race (believers) to God.
However, every believer is a priest and therefore any system of specialized priesthood in the Church-age is a false system. In reality, all believers in the Church-age are Catholic priests. The word “Catholic” simply means “universal or concerning all mankind.”
You have the right to represent yourself before God the Father in the name of the Son and through the power of the Spirit. God the Father receives our prayers through the person of Jesus Christ in the filling of the Holy Spirit. So prayer is communication with God for the expression of personal needs in petition and the function of intercession for others.
Prayer is also a weapon and is meant to be used offensively, not defensively, as in the prayer, “Oh God, help!” Prayer is a weapon which supports pastors and missionaries.
Prayer is thought; therefore, it requires vocabulary, thinking, doctrine, and concentration. That’s why praying in tongues is so ridiculous.
A misconception about prayer is how long you should pray. Prayers should be brief; this indicates concentration. The approach to prayer is a part of the predesigned plan of God (PPOG) of the Royal Family of God; it is to be a precise correct procedure. All prayer is offered to God the Father, not to Jesus Christ or to the Holy Spirit. Any prayer offered to Christ is automatically cancelled, since it fails to follow God’s procedure for prayer.
Paul said in Eph 3:14 “For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father,”
Peter said 1Pe 1:17 “And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man’s work,”
So prayer is addressed to the Father, Matt 6:6-9. This is also illustrated by the model prayer for the disciples; the Lord said in Matt 6:6-9 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need, before you ask Him. Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.'”
So, all prayer is to be directed to the Father. It is to be in the name of or through the channel of the Son,
John 14:13-14 “And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”
Believers are to pray in the enabling power (filling) of God the Holy Spirit, Eph 6:18 “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit.”
God the Father, the recipient of prayer, receives prayer from three sources in the Church-age.
a. From God the Son, Heb 7:25.
b. From God the Holy Spirit, Rom 8:26-27.
God the Holy Spirit prays for you when you need help and don’t know you need help. He also prays for people who cannot pray for themselves. This is probably unique to the Church-age and related to the function of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit on our behalf.
c. From Church-age believers as Royal Priests, Heb 4:16. “Let us be approaching the throne of grace with confidence that we may receive mercy and acquire grace with reference to seasonable help.”
True confidence can only exist in prayer when the believer attains at least the first stage of spiritual adulthood, spiritual self-esteem, 1Jo 3:21-22 “and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commands and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His command, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and impersonally love one another, just as He commanded us.”
Prayer effectiveness is related to reaching spiritual self-esteem. Failure in prayer is related to no personal love for God or mental attitude sins. Prayer is also related to the omniscience of God.
Isa 65:24 “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear.”
God hears the prayer twice: in eternity past, and at the time of the prayer. In fact, prayers and their answers were entered into the divine decrees, so that answers, rejections, petitions, interjections, and desires are all printouts of the decrees in the foreknowledge of God.
God knew and answered all your prayers in eternity past. All answered prayer is part of your portfolio of invisible assets. In fact, there is a direct relationship between your prayer life and your portfolio of invisible assets. Prayer is a part of our equal privilege of election, a part of our royal priesthood. However, prayer is also a part of our Christian production. Prayer is a ministry designed for every believer. Each Church-age believer has the privilege and the right to enter into intercessory prayer for others which is an actual ministry. Therefore, prayer is one of the most powerful and effective functions in all of history. Prayer is an invisible power directed toward invisible God in relationship to our invisible assets. Prayer is most effective when used by invisible heroes, i.e., believers who have attained spiritual maturity.
The more you grow in grace, the greater your spiritual growth, the greater your effectiveness in your prayer life. This effectiveness is not measured in terms of your eloquence when praying in public, but on the basis of your spiritual growth when praying in private. So the power of prayer increases as the believer advances in the PPOG [Predesigned Plan of God] for the Church-age.
Prayer as a Command from God.
Prayer is mandated for all dispensations. While the command for prayer precedes the existence of the PPOG [Predesigned Plan of God] and the royal priesthood, as in certain Old Testament passages, the New Testament records a separate way to pray related to prayer and the plan of God. The Old Testament command is found in passages like Jer 33:3 “Call upon Me and I will show you great and mighty things which you have not discovered.”
1Sa 12:23 “Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you;”
Prayer was at an all-time low just prior to the Church-age. Our Lord encouraged the disciples to pray during His time on earth so that they could receive power.
Matt 7:7-8, “Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking.”
Jn 15:7 “Ask whatever you wish and it shall be done for you.”
Luk 11:13 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
Since the disciples didn’t ask, Christ breathed on them the Holy Spirit.
Jn 20:22 “And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.'”
Then 50 days later in Ac 2:4 “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Since we are commanded to reside in the PPOG, we are commanded to pray frequently or consistently, “without ceasing.”
1Th 5:17 “Keep on praying continually” is a mandate for both habitual and spontaneous prayer.
Therefore, this verse can be translated, “Make a habit of prayer.”
In the PPOG [Predesigned Plan of God] you are always in a position to offer prayer.
Eph 6:18 “By means of all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit [the filling of the Spirit inside the PPOG], and with this in view, be alert in prayer for all the saints with persistence and petition.”
In the PPOG you have alertness for when prayer is needed. Phil 4:6-7 “Stop worrying about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be known to God. And the peace of God which passes all understanding shall garrison your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Thanksgiving is your capacity for appreciation and a part of the function of impersonal love.
You cannot divorce the faith-rest drill from prayer. Prayer demands faith!
Matt 21:22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.”
Mr 11:24 “All things for which you ask in prayer, believe that you shall receive them, and they shall be given to you.”
Without the faith-rest drill, prayer doesn’t work. The key to effective prayer is understanding and making application from your portfolio of invisible assets. Effective prayer is related to executing the commands of the PPOG.
1Jo 3:22 “Whatever we ask, we shall continue to receive from Him, because we continue to execute His mandates and keep on doing what is pleasing in His sight.”
Mechanics of Prayer.
Public prayer should be short and should avoid repetition.
Matt 6:7 “And when you are praying [publicly], do not use meaningless repetition, as Gentiles do, for they assume that they will be heard for their many words.”
God is not impressed with fancy vocabulary.
Remember, “God does not look on the outward appearance, but on the right lobe.”
You cannot impress people and God at the same time with your prayers. In public prayer, you always add the principles of impersonal love, flexibility and thoughtfulness of others.
You must be thoughtful of others in prayer who are gathered with you. Long prayers should be reserved for private intercession and petition.
Matt 6:6 “But when you pray, go into your private room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will provide for you.”
There is an agenda for your private prayer.
1) Confession of sin (rebound), if necessary, 1Jo 1:9.
This is to ensure the filling of the Spirit or residence in the PPOG [Predesigned Plan of God]. Only prayer offered in the status quo of the filling of the Spirit will be heard.
2) Thanksgiving expresses the concept of worship in private prayer.
Eph 5:20 “Always giving thanks to God the Father for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1Th 5:18 “In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Capacity for thanksgiving comes from your personal love for God and your impersonal love for others.
This capacity for thanksgiving increases as you grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is hard to stay alert when you are in a routine situation, doing the same thing over and over again. Your thanksgiving to God is a part of your personal love for God. The more you love God and the more you appreciate Him, the greater your thanksgiving, and the greater your alertness in prayer.
3) Intercession means praying for others, Eph 6:18; James 5:16-18. This is a spiritual ministry. It requires that you have your own private prayer list.
4) Petition is praying for your own needs and situations where you are confused and have not yet learned a problem-solving device for that situation. Therefore, it is prayer offered on behalf of self, as per Heb 4:16 “Approach boldly the throne of grace, that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
To approach boldly means you approach in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no place for sloppiness in prayer. Yet, that’s exactly what we have today among believers: emotion, ignorance, stupidity, and sloppiness because we’ve ignored the Biblical principles that mandate precise correct procedure. Because of this God the Son as our High Priest makes intercession for us at the right hand of the Father, Heb 7:25.
God the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, Rom 8:26-27. If God the Son and God the Holy Spirit offer prayer to God the Father, who are we to fail in this precise correct procedure? You can begin your prayer with the approach, “Heavenly Father, I’m coming in the name of the Son;” or you can conclude your prayer with “in Christ’s name, Amen.” You must go through channels, for this is precisely correct procedure.
There is no place for sloppiness in prayer. Accurate and effective prayer is one of the most powerful weapons in history. In prayer, the Christian takes the offensive against Satan in his world.
Prayer is not a system for controlling the lives of others. We cannot pray a prayer which violates the volition of someone else. The function of your royal priesthood is for the benefit of yourself and for the benefit of others, but it is not a system whereby you control others.
The Principle of Grace in Prayer.
In his prayer approach, the believer must be compatible with the place where prayer is received, the throne of grace. Since grace is the principle of prayer, no believer can petition for himself or make intercession on the basis of human merit, ability, morality, production, service or spiritual gift. Every believer approaches the throne of grace on the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ who is our great High Priest.
While the Father is propitiated with the work of Christ on the Cross, He is no respecter of persons. Therefore, we must approach the Father from inside the PPOG, our position of fellowship. Inside the PPOG our Lord, during the First Advent, had maximum effectiveness in His prayer life. That’s why the believer out of fellowship is not only weak but has no effectiveness in his prayer life.
God does not answer prayer because the believer is “good,” moral, sincere, benevolent, religious, concerned, altruistic, talented or possesses a pleasing personality. Answer to prayer is a divine decision.
Therefore, the believer’s popularity with others is never a factor in answered prayer.
Prayer is a weapon. For any weapon to be used effectively, you must understand how it functions before you use it. Prayer must be used as a weapon. Most people blaspheme when they pray because of arrogance while praying and ignorance of how to pray.
Effective Prayer Related to Spiritual Childhood.
You can have effective prayer in spiritual childhood. But like everything else in spiritual childhood, it is limited and does not peak out until you reach spiritual adulthood. Three problem-solving devices begun in spiritual childhood have a definite impact on the effectiveness of your prayer life: the rebound technique, the filling of the Spirit, and the faith-rest drill. These, along with your persistence in the PPOG determine your prayer effectiveness.
The relationship between the effectiveness of prayer and the faith-rest drill is mentioned in many prayer promises.
Matt 21:22 “All things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.”
Believing refers to the first stage of the faith-rest drill.
Mark 11:24 “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you ask in prayer, believe that you will receive them, and they will be given to you.”
This refers to the faith-rest drill. Prayer cannot be effective unless the believer is residing inside the PPOG under the enabling power of the Spirit and consistent momentum from metabolized doctrine.
Metabolized doctrine will help you to understand both the limitations of your prayer life and the fantastic opportunities of your prayer life. It will limit you in some of your petitions, but it will expand your prayer life in intercessions. With these two areas of prayer correct, you will have a fantastic prayer life and you will enjoy every minute of it!
Effective prayer depends upon knowing what you’re doing.
1Jo 3:22 “Furthermore, whatever we have asked we have received from Him because we continue to execute His commands [residence, function, and momentum in the PPOG], and we keep on doing what is pleasing in His sight [spiritual adulthood].”
The result of rebound in prayer is noted in Phil 4:6.
Phil 4:6 “Stop worrying about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.”
Worry is mentioned because it’s a malfunction of the faith-rest drill, as well as a sign that you’re in the cosmic system. Anything that causes malfunction in the faith-rest drill also means malfunction in your prayer life. The faith-rest drill makes your prayers effective long before you’ve learned enough doctrine to know what’s going on in the Christian life. All mental attitude sins are destructive to effective prayer life; they must be eradicated by rebound and the faith-rest drill.
Jud 20 “Praying by means of the Holy Spirit.”
This emphasizes the importance of the power of God in prayer.
Effective Prayer Related to Spiritual Adulthood.
Confidence and effectiveness in prayer can only exist inside the PPOG when the believer has advanced to spiritual adulthood.
Confidence is a virtue directed toward God and is a virtue developed only inside the PPOG.
Confidence in prayer is dependent upon knowledge of God’s will. Therefore, effectiveness of prayer must relate to cognizance of the will of God.
1Jo 5:14-15 “And this is the confidence which we have face to face with Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask [and He does], we know that we have the request which we have asked from Him.”
This is really a prayer promise for the believer who has reached spiritual adulthood. At spiritual self-esteem we have that cognitive self-confidence to make all of our prayers effective.
Confidence in prayer reaches its peak at the point of spiritual self-esteem, and continues with maximum effectiveness in spiritual autonomy and spiritual maturity.
Heb 4:16 “Therefore, let us be approaching the throne of grace with confidence, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in a seasonable time [when under the three categories of suffering for blessing].”
Efficacious prayer exists only to the extent that the believer is grace oriented. Until the believer attains spiritual adulthood at spiritual self-esteem, his prayers will be semi-effective at best.
Prayer is virtue dependent. In each stage of spiritual adulthood, the believer’s power in prayer increases sensationally. In spiritual childhood your prayers are not very effective because most of your petitions are related to arrogance, and your intercessions are only for those people you like. But all intercessory prayers must be impersonal.
The great power in intercessory prayer is impersonal love.
Remember also that prayer does not give you momentum; it is not a cure-all.
The promise to the believer in spiritual adulthood is found in John 15:7 “If you abide in Me [life in the PPOG], and My doctrines abide in you, whatever you wish shall be done for you.”
The important phrase is “and My doctrines abide in you.”
This promise however, is not like a blank check on which you can write any amount you want.
The key to prayer is doctrine first. When doctrine is in you, then you can “ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.”
The more doctrine you have in you the more you will know how to use the weapon of prayer effectively. One of your evaluations at the Judgment Seat of Christ will be how many of your prayers were answered.
Rom 12:12 “Rejoicing in hope [your confidence from spiritual self-esteem], persevering in undeserved suffering, devoted to prayer.”
One of the signs of spiritual self-esteem is your devotion to prayer in your own life.
Special Prayers.
The sanctification of food or saying “grace” before meals is a special prayer, 1Ti 4:4-5. This is a command for all believers.
1Ti 4:4-5 “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.”
There may be ingredients in the food that are very harmful, but offering this special prayer will protect you. Grace before meals has a two-fold purpose.
1) The expression of gratitude to God for His logistical grace support, which includes food.
2) Sanctification of that food to eliminate any potential, harmful effects.
There is prayer for those in authority over us. As citizens of a client nation to God, this is a very important function for believers.
1Ti 2:1-2 “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness [life in the PPOG] and dignity.”
Verse one points out that there are certain people for whom we should express our thanksgiving to God in prayer. In addition, there is intercession on behalf of all mankind and petition for ourselves. Verse two gets specific–we are commanded to pray for governmental authority and all other authority. When you reach spiritual adulthood and impersonal love toward all mankind, this prayer really becomes effective.
Having impersonal love gives you the ability to forget about the personality, the idiocy, the antagonism of others, and to actually pray for those people with whom you do not agree, who are leading our nation the wrong way, or who are damaging our client nation. Impersonal love gives you phenomenal power for such a prayer. The confidence to offer such a prayer comes from personal love for God.
There is also prayer for the sick, James 5:15 “and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick.”
There is prayer for the unsaved, Rom 10:1 “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.”
Paul prayed for the salvation of unbelieving Jews. Although you cannot pray that their volition will be coerced, you can pray that certain things will happen to try to open their eyes to the importance of the Gospel and have the opportunity to believe in Jesus Christ.
There is prayer for your enemies, Matt 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies [impersonal love], and pray for those who persecute you.”
This prayer reflects the phenomenal dynamics in spiritual adulthood from the confidence of spiritual self-esteem and the impersonal love of spiritual autonomy.
There is prayer for spiritual adulthood, Eph 1:15-19.
Eph 1:15-19 “For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.”
Phil 1:9 “And I pray this, that your virtue-love may abound still more and more in metabolized doctrine and all discernment.”
Virtue-love is confidence from personal love for God and impersonal love toward man from spiritual adulthood. Virtue-love is not only a problem-solving device used to pass momentum testing, but at the same time, it is also maximum effectiveness in prayer.
This is especially true for these categories of special prayers.
Col 1:9 “For this reason, we also [Timothy, Titus, Luke, and Paul], from the day we heard [the Epaphras report – pastor at Colosse], we have not ceased to pray for you, and to ask that you might be filled with all metabolized doctrine of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.”
Wisdom and spiritual understanding are characteristics of spiritual self-esteem and spiritual autonomy.
There is prayer for the communication and communicators of Bible doctrine: for pastor-teachers, missionaries, evangelists, 2Th 3:1; Heb 13:18.
2Th 3:1 “Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you;”
Col 4:2-3 “Devote yourselves to prayer; in it, keeping alert with an attitude of thanksgiving, praying at the same time for us [teachers of Bible doctrine] as well, that God may open up to us a door for the teaching of the Word [doctrine], so that we may communicate [teach] the mystery doctrine from Christ.”
There is the prayer of widows, that is, ladies who become single either by the death, divorce, or abandonment of their husbands.
1Ti 5:5 “Now she who is a widow and has been left alone, and has fixed her confidence on God, she also continues in petitions and prayers [intercession] night and day.”
This special category of widows in spiritual adulthood can pray both night and day (more often than once a day) for themselves and for others. As a result of their very tranquil and uncomplicated life, they are able to be effective in continuous prayer on behalf of others.
Dynamics of Intercessory Prayer.
Intercessory prayer is prayer for others. For example, there is the very popular prayer of Elijah on Mount Carmel which demonstrates the power of intercessory prayer for the nation, 1Ki 18:42-46; James 5:16-18.
James 5:16-18 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit.”
The power of intercessory prayer was also exercised in the early church on behalf of Peter, who was in prison and about to be executed.
Acts 12:5 “So Peter was being kept in prison, but fervent prayer was made for him to God by the church.”
The result of this prayer was Peter’s dramatic deliverance. He was chained between two Roman soldiers. But with every Roman guard asleep, Peter simply walked out of the prison.
Prayer for unbelievers is legitimate and a part of your dynamics of intercessory prayer. However, remember not to attempt to violate their volition by asking God to make them believe in Christ.
Paul said Rom 10:1 “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them [Jews] is for their salvation.”
Do not let anyone tell you that you cannot pray for the unsaved; you can, you just can’t pray that God will touch their volition. Our Lord’s intercessory prayer for the Church is found in John 17, the most phenomenal intercessory prayer ever made. The disciples’ prayer of Matt 6:9-13 is a prayer only for Israel during Christ’s incarnation. It asks for the institution of His millennial reign, which cannot be fulfilled until the Second Advent. Therefore, it doesn’t apply in the Church-age.
The dynamics of Paul’s intercessory prayers are seen in Eph 1:15-23, Eph 3:14-21, and Phil 1:9-11. In all these passages, Paul prayed for the spiritual growth of those whom he prayed for. God also intercedes for us in prayer. Because we have related prayer to our personal desires and lust pattern, we have acquired certain false concepts with regard to prayer and Bible doctrine in general; therefore, many times both our lives and our prayers fail.
For this reason, our Lord Jesus Christ as our High Priest makes intercession for us at the right hand of the Father.
Heb 7:24-25 “On the other hand, He abides forever; consequently, He holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore, also, He is able to deliver completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for us.”
The fact that our Lord always makes intercession for us indicates that we have not completely understood the doctrine of prayer. Many times we pray under pressure or stress.
Under those conditions, the Holy Spirit does a better job and intercedes for us.
To Be Continued next week
The following link is to a good news message describing how one can receive eternal life: Ticket to Heaven, it was written for anyone not absolutely certain about their eternal future.
