The Power of Prayer
Through nature and revelation, through His providence and by the influences of His Spirit Word, God speaks to us. But these are not enough; we need also to pour out our hearts to Him. In order to have spiritual life and energy, we must have actual contact with our Heavenly Father. Our minds may be drawn out toward Him; we may meditate upon His works, His mercies, His blessings; but this is not, in the fullest sense, communing with Him. In order to commune with God, we must have something to say to Him concerning our actual life.
What is prayer, by the way? Well, people may have different answers, but it’s the opening of the heart to God as to a friend. Not that it’s necessary, in order to make known to God what we are, but in order to enable us to receive Him. Prayer does not bring God down to us, but takes us up to Him.
When Jesus was upon the earth, He taught His disciples how to pray. He directed them to present their daily needs before God, and to cast all their care upon Him. And the assurance He gave them that their petitions should be heard, is assurance also to us. Jesus Himself, while He dwelt among men, was often in prayer. Our Saviour identified Himself with our needs and weakness, in that He became a petitioner, seeking from His Father fresh supplies of strength, that He might come forth braced for duty and trial. He is our example in all things. He is a brother in our infirmities, in all points tempted like as we are: but as the sinless one, His nature recoiled from evil. He endured struggles and torture in a world of sin. His humanity made prayer a necessity and a privilege. He found comfort and joy in communion with His Father. And if the Saviour of men, the Son of God, felt the need of prayer, how much more should feeble, sinful mortals feel the necessity of fervent, constant prayer.
Our Heavenly Father waits to bestow upon us the fullness of His blessing. God is ready and willing to hear the sincere prayer of the humblest of His children, and yet there’s reluctance on our part to make known our wants to God. What can the angels of heaven think of poor, helpless human beings, who are subject to temptation, when God’s heart of infinite (endless) love yearns toward them, ready to give them more than they can ask or think, and yet they pray so little and have so little faith?
There are certain conditions upon which we may expect that God will hear and answer our prayers. One of the first of these is that we feel our need of help from Him. He has promised: ‘I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground’ (Is 44:3). Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, who long after God, may be sure that they will be filled. The heart must be open to the Spirit’s influence, or God’s blessing cannot be received. He says, ‘Ask, and it shall be given unto you’ And, ‘He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, will He not with Him also freely give us all things?’ (Matt.7:7; Rom 8:32)
If we regard iniquity in our hearts, if we cling to any known sin, the Lord will not hear us, but the prayer of the penitent (feeling or showing regret that one has done wrong), contrite soul is always accepted.
Another element of prevailing prayer is faith. ‘He that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.’ (Heb 11:6) Jesus said to His disciples, ‘What things so ever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them’ (Mark 11:24). Do we take Him at His word?
The assurance is broad and unlimited, and He is faithful who has promised. When we do not receive the very things we ask for, at the time we ask, we are still to believe that the Lord hears, and that He will answer our prayers, in the way that is best for us. But to claim that prayer will always be answered in the very way and for the particular thing that we desire, is presumption. God is too wise to err, and too good to withhold any good thing from them that walk uprightly. Then do not fear to trust Him, even though you do not see the immediate answer to your prayers.
When we come to ask for clemency and blessing from God, we should have a spirit of love and forgiveness in our own hearts. How can we pray, ‘Forgive our debts, as we forgive our debtors,’ and yet indulge an unforgiving spirit (Mat 6:12)? If we expect our own prayers to be heard, we must forgive others in the same manner, and to the same extent as we hope to be forgiven.
If we would grow in faith and experience. We are to be ‘instant in prayer,’ to ‘continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving.’ (Rom 12:12; Col 4:2). Peter exhorts believers to be ‘sober, and watch unto prayer’ (1Peter 4:7). Paul directs, ‘ in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God’ (Phil 4:6) ‘But ye, beloved,’ says Jude, ‘praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God’ (Jude 20, 21.). Unceasing prayer is our unbroken union with God, so that life from God flows into our life, and from our life, purity and holiness flow back to God.
Pray in your closet (private room), and as you go about your daily labour, let your heart be often uplifted to God. It was thus that Enoch walked with God. These silent prayers rise like precious incense before the throne of grace. There’s no time or place in which it is inappropriate to offer up a petition to God. In the crowds of the street, in the midst of a business engagement, we may send up a petition to God, and plead for divine guidance, as did Nehemiah when he made his request before king Artaxerxes.
Let the heart be drawn out and upward, that in every unexpected trial our thoughts will turn to Him as naturally as the flower turns to the sun. Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrow, your cares and your fears before God. You cannot burden Him; you cannot weary Him. He who numbers the hairs of your head, the one who numbers the stars of the sky, is not indifferent to the wants of His children. ‘The Lord is very compassionate and merciful.’ (James 5:11).
There’s no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there’s no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel. No calamity can befall the least of His children – no anxiety harass them, no sincere prayer escape their lips of which our Heavenly Father is unobservant, or in which He takes no immediate interest. ‘He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.’ (Psalm 147:3) The relations between God and each one are as distinct and full as though there were not another upon the earth to share His watchful care – nor another for whom He gave His beloved Son.
Jesus said, ‘Ye shall ask in my Name, and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you’ ‘I have chosen you… that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my Name, He may give it to you’ (John 16:26-27; 15:16). But to pray in the Name of Jesus is something more than a mere mention of that name at the beginning and ending of a prayer. It is to pray in the mind and Spirit of Jesus, while we believe His promises, rely upon His grace and work His works.
Bro. James Kambobe (Kasumpa Ecclesia, Zambia)
