HOW TO PRAY WITH EFFICIENCY--Is prayer complicated ? (Part 1)

If someone asked me to make only one comment about prayer, I would have to respond by talking about its simplicity. If I could only emphasize one thing, I would tell people that it is so much easier than we think.

God has not made prayer complicated, but it really is simple. Sometimes people make prayer dry and difficult, sometimes our religious mindsets and “systems” present prayer in such a way that it seems out of reach for many of us. God desires our prayer lives to be natural and enjoyable. He wants our prayers to be honest and heartfelt, and He wants our communication with Him unencumbered by rules, regulations, legalism and obligation. He intends for prayer to be an integral part of our everyday lives, the easiest thing we do each day.

I am sure many people pray much more than they know and have more effective and successful prayer lives than they realize. They don’t always recognize when they are praying because they have been taught that prayer requires a certain environment, a certain posture, a certain form, or that it must strictly adhere to certain principles. Prayer is simply talking to God. The truth is that we can pray anytime, anywhere, even just directing a thought toward God qualifies as silent prayer.

Short simple prayers can be mighty beyond description, but prayer is also a grand mystery. “Prayer is the most wonderful act in the spiritual realm, as well as a most mysterious affair.” Watchman Nee

The greatest mystery of prayer is that it joins the hearts of people on earth with the heart of God in heaven. Prayer is spiritual and it goes into the unseen realm; it brings things out of that unseen realm into the realm we can see and into the world around us, right where we live. It ushers spiritual blessings into our natural, everyday lives and brings spiritual power to bear on our earthly circumstances. We human are the only creatures in our known universe who can stand in the natural realm and touch the spiritual realm. When we pray, we connect with that spiritual realm, which is where God is, and which affects our daily lives more than we often realize.

The fact that we want to pray, and that we believe that our prayer lives can be better, is evidence that we know the spiritual realm exists and that we believe what happens there affects what happens on earth. It proves that we know deep in our hearts that there is more to life than meets the eye and we value the things that are invisible more than the things we can see, just as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:18; “We consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting.” When we understand that there are invisible, everlasting spiritual realities that affect our earthly lives, we long to comprehend those things. We begin to perceive that God is inviting us to interact with Him, to perceive things spiritually and to partner with Him to accomplish them on earth—and that only happens through prayer.

Prayer opens the door for God to work. As we partner with God in the spiritual realm through prayer, we bring things out of that realm into our lives, into our world, into our society, and into the lives of other people. These things that come from heaven, these gifts of God, are already stored up for us, but we will never have them unless we pray and ask God for them. He has put together so much for us in the unseen realm; He is doing such wonderful things for us, things we cannot see with our natural eyes or perceive with our natural minds; and we receive and enjoy those things through the power and the privilege of prayer. The Bible says that “eye has not seen and ear has not heart and has not entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him, who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed.” (1Cor.2:9)

Prayer is part of an obedient lifestyle. Part of the great mystery of prayer is that God requires us to ask for what he already has in store for us. God, who is sovereign and can do anything He wants to do, anywhere, anytime, any way He wants to do it, and does not need anyone’s permission—wants us to ask Him. He has set in motion a spiritual law, which He Himself abides by, that says He will not do anything on earth unless someone prays and asks. He is saying to us: “You and I are partners. You are My body on earth today.” He does not have an earthly body. We are the representation of Who He is and what He does on earth. We are His mouth, His hands, His feet, His face. We are the ones who express His heart, demonstrate His love and reveal His power to those around us. And so, we need to pray. Ne need to partner with God so that His purposes will come to pass in our lives and in the lives of those around us. (to be followed)