Day 3 – What is Prayer?

Tom Marxen What Is ..... 18 October 2023 Hits: 45

At its most fundamental definition, Prayer is communication with God.

We are instructed to pray without ceasing, in other words, we are to communicate with God through a continual and personal relationship. Adam walked with God in the cool of the day and they conversed freely and openly. Both God and Adam took great delight in their intimate relationship. God was devastated at the loss of Adam’s trust. God cried out “Adam where are you?” God was grieved at the loss of relationship with Adam. The primary goal of redemption is to restore that communication which was lost in Adam. Jesus said, “Without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), it was true in the Garden at Genesis, it was true with the disciples of Jesus and it is true for us today.

Jesus stayed in this place of constant communicating prayer (I hear the father… John 5:19)). He is not only the example for us, but He is also the example of us. Jesus is mankind’s pattern of relationship with the Father, not Adam so we need look to Him as our “prototype”.

The prayer of intercession avails much

James 5:13-18 the Prayer of Faith

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit ESV

Jesus is a man in heaven who is right now interceding for us.

He is the example for us and of us. Interceding for the redemption of others be it individuals, families, cities or even nations is to participate in the ongoing ministry of Jesus Christ our Savior. It is a powerful place of ministry and maturity. As we grow in Christ, this aspect of prayer will increase in us.

Romans 8:34

Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. ESV

We create our future through prayer.

The Prayer Womb

The reality that God has planned will always manifest first in the prayer life of His intercessors. When you hear from God and then pray His Word, you are having an impact on the as-yet-unformed essence of life with the Spirit of God Himself! This is why God calls us not only to know His Word, but also to pray it. We must go from intellectualizing God's Word to being impregnated by it.

I know that many churches have special areas where intercessors can pray or people can meditate. Maybe we ought to change the name of such places from "prayer room" to "prayer womb." Everything good and holy that we see manifested in people, in churches and in life is first conceived and then birthed in the womb of prayer

From: Francis Frangipane - Prayer Warriors part 1 http://1soul1nation.blogspot.com/2013/05/prayer-warriors-part-1-by-francis.html

The prayer of faith vs the prayer of presumption

This prayer of communication is one of the most powerful weapons in our lives as believers, but the power is not rooted in us but in the connection to the Spirit of Christ in us. James, the brother of Jesus warns us about our presumption in this area.

James 4:1-4

4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. ESV

Praying God’s word is very powerful because we are speaking in agreement with His mind and character. Praying the word of God will transform us from intellectual learning to spiritual appropriation of the will and purposes of God. As we meditate upon and speak God’s covenant prayers we will be changed as we change the world around us.

Prayer changes us – prayer is often listening,

It is communication that tunes us to hear and listen to the Spirit of God …one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray…" —Luke 11:1

Prayer is not a normal part of the life of the natural man. We hear it said that a person’s life will suffer if he doesn’t pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a person is born again from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve or nourish that life. Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished. Our common ideas regarding prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.

“Ask, and you will receive…” (John 16:24). We complain before God, and sometimes we are apologetic or indifferent to Him, but we actually ask Him for very few things. Yet a child exhibits a magnificent boldness to ask! Our Lord said, “…unless you…become as little children…” (Matthew 18:3). Ask and God will do. Give Jesus Christ the opportunity and the room to work. The problem is that no one will ever do this until he is at his wits’ end. When a person is at his wits’ end, it no longer seems to be a cowardly thing to pray; in fact, it is the only way he can get in touch with the truth and the reality of God Himself. Be yourself before God and present Him with your problems— the very things that have brought you to your wits’ end. But as long as you think you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.

To say that “prayer changes things” is not as close to the truth as saying, “Prayer changes me and then I change things.” God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature.

From “The Purpose of Prayer” by Oswald chambers

Discussion Questions:

Day 4 – What is Prayer?