How to pray.

Jesus told us how to pray by reciting what we today call the Lords Prayer. This prayer alone if prayed in total sincerity and a pure heart is really enough, as you are putting all your faith and trust in God the Father to do with you what is His perfect will. You will hear some say…” Oh how weak is your faith, Jesus said to ask for what ever you want in His name and it will be given you, so don’t ask if it’s according to God’s will” Well I go another step further and say…” Not my will father, but Yours”, because I believe God knows better than us, so it’s better to put ones life in the hands of the almighty rather than one’s own carnal reasoning. Who knows what is best for us more than God? Bottom line…put your trust in Him that knows best, the Most High, and He will not fail you. Trouble is though, so many are impatient and cant see the forest for the trees, and loose faith in God’s ability to provide which leaves them depressed and faithless. If this happens to you, then you really deserve it because that’s exactly how a spoilt child would act when they don’t get what they want. Just because you are in the habit of giving in to every beck and call of your own children, don’t mean our Father in heaven will treat us the same. You see, God REALLY loves us, so He moulds us according to righteousness and justice, not according to our own desires. God wants us to love Him for what He is, not for what He gives.

7 Steps to productive prayer

1) Humility.

Before we even think about praying, first we have to know who we are praying to. Is the god you pray to a figment, or just a friend, or just a provider for you when you want something, or is this god the real God; the God who created heaven and earth? If you believe He is the later, then you surely must fear and have reverence for Him. Would you pray in arrogance to such a God as this? A God who is so high as to create the universe, the beginning of all things, and a mortal like you who is only one in six billion, just another brick in the wall. No you would not, you would be humble and sincere, you would not try to fool Him, you would not use words that are long and impressive but have no worth, you would fear Him because He has the power to determine your destiny according to your what you believe. Yes sir, you would treat Him like a king wouldn’t you? You would come before Him in total humility.

Remember, when you pray in sincerity, God is present, so out of respect alone it would be good to show God your reverence by keeling down with your head bowed and taking off your shoes and be humble in full submission to Him. This makes the place where you pray and the moment in time holy, and unless it is an emergency, don’t pray in the presence of sin or where sin has occurred like the footy clubrooms or a bar for instance. For regular prayer I prefer a place clean and tidy, free of life’s leftovers so to speak, with a peaceful atmosphere where I can focus all my thoughts on God without any distractions. A place where I can regard my God as the most high that He is. Treating God as almighty and oneself as meek, is showing sincerity through humility, and portrays the truth of the matter. Not all will agree, there will be dissenters who feel they are so important, that they are immune to the presence of holiness, and hold themselves equal or even above God, and this is probably why He don’t hear them.

2) Praise.

Before asking anything of God in prayer, you should praise Him for what he is, a God of mercy for He is willing to forget your sins, a God of grace because He gives you good things what you don’t deserve, a God of justice because He gives to the innocent and takes from the guilty, a God of righteousness because He is perfect and sinless, a God of patience because He has tolerated you for so long, a faithful God because He will never turn from you while you trust in Him, and above all…a God of love because even though you are unfaithful to Him, He still loves you enough to send His only Son to die at Calvary that you can have the chance to live. What a great love indeed. So first praise the Lord of hosts for what He is and thank Him that you are now called to and know Him. If you surely love the Father God, you wont be able to stop yourself from praising Him. It will be automatic every time you think of him, so be sure to tell Him when you pray…don’t be shy.

3) Pardon

Next it is a good idea to ask forgiveness for the sins you have done. Initially when you asked Jesus to be your saviour and Lord, He would have wiped all your sins from you leaving you with a fresh start, and a desire to do good, but unfortunately as we all have desires of the flesh also that are not good, we do sin at times. As we grow in the spirit of Jesus, we do overcome some of our bad tendencies, but still need pardon for the rest of them that pop up almost every day. I believe if there is any sin still not pardoned, then God will not look upon you until it is. After all, it’s just a matter of asking forgiveness, so do it while you still can and let God get on with blessing you. But REMEMBER THIS, although there maybe pardon for all sin (except blasphemy of the Holy Spirit), to sin deliberately knowing you can be forgiven after it, is not a good idea as God would see that as taking advantage of His grace and mercy, and I can’t be sure of the outcome of such premeditated actions. It’s like letting a demon into a clean house and may take a lot more effort to evict it the second time round.

4) Grateful

If you are walking in faith with a pure heart for the truth, then God is blessing you all the time with both the seen and unseen. It’s almost impossible to count your blessings as God does many things for your benefit without you even knowing, and they all need to be cherished, so show your appreciation by thanking Him for not only the ones you know about, but also the ones you don’t. When you do something for someone and they left without thanking you, you would be upset wouldn’t you? So in the same way it is right to be grateful to God for all things. Never put things down to chance in your life, for it is either a blessing from God or it is discipline, not good and bad luck. Personally I thank God for the blessings and the discipline, for it is this very discipline that keeps me on the straight and narrow so to speak, and helps to aid in the victory over sin.

5) Others

If you love God, then you automatically love others. You cannot escape this feeling given by the Holy Spirit. To pray for them is proof of the love of God in you. No matter how hard done by you feel, there is always many others worse off like the hungry and less fortunate that really needs your prayers. It’s a selfless act to pray for others and shows your father in heaven that you do care for the salvation of all souls as He does, and also their well being in the flesh. When you first came to the Lord, it was Jesus that made himself known to you, so in the same way pray God will make himself known to others you know who are still separated from Him.

6) You

Contrary to most beliefs, I believe strongly that this; If your heart is pure for the things of God, then you need to ask little for yourself. God knows the pure in heart and provides for them what they need, NOT what they want, but what they NEED. To have faith in the unseen God is to trust in Him to provide, but if you do have a desire to ask for more, ask only for things that can help build treasures in heaven, and not things of this world. MAT 6:21 {For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.} I personally like the story of Solomon, where in humility he asked for only wisdom, and then God not only made him the wisest of all time, but also the richest. Now this was because of Solomon’s motive that he received riches, and that was a righteous one, so God gave him more than he asked for. If your motive is to be the same as Solomon just so you could get rich, then God will not give you a penny and may even take some of what you have as your punishment for greed. A pure heart desires only pure things, so if you claim to love God as you say, then ask only for these things. Like wisdom, knowledge, understanding, truth, strength of spirit, and guidance, things like this can bring you to the true will of God that so many can’t find and therefore making you pleasing to Him if you put them into action. If you ask for something that is not good for you, then God might just give it to you to teach you a lesson, so it’s better to trust in Him to provide what you need and not what you want.

7) Finally.

As you pray, don’t try to impress God with big words and long sentences that impress man but not God. That is a carnal attitude that only puts distance between you and God. Take your time and meditate a while on the wonder of your creator God, and your heart will rejoice in Him allowing you to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. If a tear comes to the eye, don’t worry as they are tears of joy and gratitude, so just relish the moment and let your heart absorb this rare gift God is giving you. By now you are ready to speak sincerely to your Father in heaven, bring forth only what is necessary from your heart, and not a whole lot of slop from your mouth that He is not going to listen to. You see God almighty can read everyone’s motives, so don’t try to fool Him with words of little meaning as He can tell the true from the false. Just be yourself and remember it is a one on one relationship with Jesus your judge here, not a demonstration of intellect to the whole jury.

Prayer should be this way... Signed by a pure heart of intention. Sealed with the blood of Christ. Delivered by faith to the ears of God.

(Words of wisdom from a good friend at Simple Truth Ministries)

Why are my prayers not answered?

This is one of the most frequent questions asked of all religions and denominations, and is the hardest to fathom to the unaware and weak in faith. Unfortunately we all naturally tend to be a little self-centred sorry to say, even though many fail to realise it, but until we overcome this tendency we do not have the ability and potential to see clearly the opinions of others, let alone the opinion (will) of God. It is the will of God that is most important, not ours, so please give Him the credit for best knowing what is right for you. Is it right you should have a new car when the old still gets you around alright? Many feel God has abandoned them when they don’t get what they ask for, but as I said earlier, it is only what you need that is given…not what you want. What you get is what God wants you to have, so be grateful you have a much higher source providing for you, otherwise you would not be able to contain your humility while receiving what you want. Now that’s a hard one, think about it.

There are some prayers that depend totally on the level of faith one has. Healing for instance, depends on what you are asking AND level of faith. As you well know, we are mortal and not expected to live long, so to ask for a total healing of an organ at say 90 years old is not being fair to God, but not impossible of course, especially if God had special job for that person. But when one gets old, one really has no right to ask God to extend their life, and to do so is being self-centred and ungrateful. Now for those young enough to consider themselves a candidate for healing but not getting it, need to consider the following.

MAT 18:19 {Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.}

MAT 18:20 {For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there a I in the midst of them.}

In other words, when ever two people on earth AGREE to pray for something, it will be given by the Father in heaven, because if two or three are gathered in the name of Jesus, He is there with them. Ok, we have some interesting points our Lord has made here. First our Lord says the two praying have to agree on what is being asked, and second He says they must be in His name, otherwise He is not there with them. Because Jesus is the way, truth and life, it is only by Him that anything can be achieved, so both (or all) people praying have to be saved by His precious blood. So now lets dissect this even further and see what the criteria is for successful healing prayer as follows; I call it FAN

F…Faith. Both (or all) parties praying must have unshakeable faith in Jesus Christ.

A…Agree. Both must agree what your praying for would be according to Gods will.

N…Name. To be in Jesus’ name means to be walking in paths of righteousness. If one is not living according to what Jesus preached, then one is not in His name. Sorry!

There are few that I have met that could wear the tag…"in Jesus name", including moi, but God has revealed the truth to me for some reason I do not know yet, so I live in hope for now, and work diligently for His glory, that one day soon I can boldly and truthfully say…”I come in Jesus name”. If you feel all the above criteria has been met, and I feel God is the only one who knows for sure, and still there is no healing or receiving, then only God can answer you, but much thought needs to be given to what is being asked of God. Remember, God will always give you what you need (in His opinion), not what you want, and that is why Jesus uses the terms ‘agree’ and ‘My name’.

Often we might say "Why has God held back the rain when He can see my plight and hear my prayers". Yes it’s true that He hears your prayers, but is it reasonable He should make the rain fall on your roof only because you are righteous? Look around you, there is immorality surrounding you everywhere on all sides. Do you want God to reward the unrighteous just in order to please you, the righteous one? Lord have mercy on your small mind and selfish thinking. God cannot and will not withdraw his wrath on the guilty just to please a select few, for it is the law of the universe in action, and must remain until all is fulfilled. Think about why Lot had to leave home...get my point? Remember the seven bad years of drought when Joseph was in charge of the kings business and people? We all know Joseph was dear to God as he was unshakeable in his love of God, but did God send rain to anywhere in Egypt? I rest my case! So again…let God be the judge of what is and is not good for you, and don’t get cranky with our almighty Father. Many say it is a cop out to ask God’s will in prayer, but instead ask for what ever you want because that is the ultimate faith, but I say, ask God’s will in all things and be satisfied. After all, Jesus did.

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