Prayer
Prayer is a powerful tool for believers and is a much deeper concept than it might seem. Prayer is a means of communicating to God, expressing thanksgiving and gratefulness, worship, and special requests. All of that is clear. But the more difficult issues regarding the subject of prayer focus on the use of proper procedure to make prayer effective. The Bible says many things about prayer, and teaches us how to properly use this gracious gift from God. And it may surprise many that God ignores most prayers for one of several reasons. That is what makes prayer a deep subject of the Bible.
First, God never listens to the prayer of an unbeliever unless they are expressing an interest in knowing about God. Since this is a salvation related issue, God's response is to send the gospel message to that person so they can believe in Jesus Christ for salvation, but He will not do anything else an unbeliever might ask for. Unbelievers have no basis for prayer since they lack salvation, and therefore lack the human spirit, which is required for God to interact with any person. It does not matter that the unbeliever may be asking for something good and noble as a selfless act on behalf of someone else. God never listens to what an unbeliever has to say unless it is an expression of faith in Jesus Christ or expressing an interest in knowing God. And simply believing in God does not bring salvation, or allow God to hear prayers. Even Satan and the fallen angels believe in God, but that does not accomplish anything favorable for them. The Bible says "The fool says in his heart "There is no God"." (Psalm 14:1) That speaks for itself. Simply not being a fool does not bring salvation.
Secondly, God ignores the prayers of believers when they do not use the procedures outlined by God in His Word. Contrary to popular belief, God does not condone a sloppy approach to Himself, and He has specific requirements which must be met in order for the believer to be heard. God is a God of grace, but He is also a God of proper procedure, since after all He is God and we are sinful humans even though believers. We are dealing with a God who has gone to great lengths to enable us to have a relationship with Him, including to communicate with Him in prayer, but His perfection has requirements which are outlined in His Word. Those requirements are not burdensome since He allows us to approach Him in grace, but He requires it to be done properly. The first and most basic improper procedure is to approach God in prayer with unconfessed sin in the life. Isaiah 59:2 says: "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear." God only hears prayers offered through the power of the Holy Spirit, and since the Holy Spirit's power (filling) is temporarily lost by sin, the power of the Holy Spirit must be regained on a continual basis. Of course, God has made that easy for us, but it requires confessing (citing) our sins directly to God the Father to regain the filling of the Holy Spirit since His power is quenched by any sin, and is not regained until the believer confesses his sins. 1 John 1:8-10 says: "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us." If a believer prays with unconfessed sin in the life he has no power for prayer since he is not filled with the Holy Spirit, so the prayers are not heard or answered. Therefore God simply ignores them unless it is a prayer for forgiveness of sins. The reason for confessing sins is that God requires continual positive decisions toward Him as part of our spiritual life. And that admission of sins is of itself a prayer, so all prayer should start with an introductory prayer requesting forgiveness for recent sins. The Holy Spirit can only empower us when there is no unconfessed sin in the life, and if we have piled up a few sins and only remember one sin and confess it, that positive act toward God clears out all sins all the way back. This issue of unconfessed sin makes it important to start every prayer with something like "Father, I have done (insert the sin)." Then the rest of the prayer will have power from the Holy Spirit. But most believers go for long periods of time without requesting forgiveness for sins. That means they are living without the power of the Holy Spirit in their daily lives, and it includes the prayer issue as well as all other spiritual issues. Ephesians 6:18 says "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests." It is the Holy Spirit who makes our prayers effective. Therefore most prayers offered are never considered by God since they come from either unbelievers or believers out of fellowship, meaning they are not filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. Although many believe God finds any form of sincerity or earnestness to be acceptable, God must always protect His perfect essence when dealing with mankind. As such, there are proper procedures which must be followed any time people interface with God, including the use of prayer. As we see, the above discussion about proper procedure shows why God ignores most prayers which are offered. God does not try to make things difficult for us, He simply must protect His own perfect character. When mortal deals with spiritual, it requires spiritual power.
Effective prayer also requires faith, and our faith is made stronger by continual learning of God's Word which enables us to grow spiritually. It is the believer with a soul and spirit filled with God's Word who has an effective prayer life. If we do not believe God will provide for us, that lack of faith hinders our prayers. James 1:5 says: "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind."
There are other basic requirements for prayer. We pray to God the Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and it is the salvation work of Jesus Christ who redeemed us which makes every prayer possible. We do not pray to Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit, and certainly not to Mary or any other human. And each Church Age believer is his own priest before God, so we do not pray through another human as a priest. Again, the issue is proper procedure if we want to be heard.
The Holy Spirit is instrumental in effective prayer. Romans 8:26 says: "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God." This is why having the filling of the Holy Spirit is vital to our spiritual life, and a requirement for effective prayer.
Prayer is not needed for most things in life. God knows the needs of His believers and provides most of the basics without being asked. God knows we need to be protected, and that we need a job to provide for our family, and that we need the basics of life to stay alive and fulfill our responsibilities. God provides these basic needs whether we pray for them or not, although there is nothing wrong with asking for specifics regarding daily needs. Prayer should mostly be used for several categories of communicating with God expressing our gratitude to Him, to ask for intervention for other believers in need, to make special requests regarding our own life, to pray for those in authority over us to enable the gospel and Bible teaching to be spread, and other items as we may think deserve mentioning. Generally the requests are made in that order when in an extended prayer session. Gratitude includes telling God how much we appreciate Him and what He has done for us even though we are undeserving. We also should ask God to help specific people and groups in need by requesting Him to intercede on behalf of them and their needs. Asking for ourselves is certainly legitimate but should be prayed in view of how it would result in greater glorification of God in our lives. As an illustration, God is not likely to answer prayers for winning the lottery, finding buried treasure, winning a sporting event, and such. These do not have God’s glory and worship in mind, and prayer is certainly a form of worship. We must not pray for things which are in violation of Biblical principles, such as praying for something which is a sin, praying against other believers, praying for God to intervene and take sides in sporting events and games of chance, or praying for God to directly change someone’s mind about something. We must not pray that an unbeliever will believe in Christ, since that is a violation of the free will of the individual which God does not authorize. But we can pray that an unbeliever or group may have the gospel made very clear to them. We should also not pray for a miracle. Everything God does for us is a miracle, no matter how small. Even so, God does not perform miracles such as direct healing during our stage of the Church Age which is past the time of the Apostles. If He wants us to be healed He will provide a means. We should pray that God will provide special care for a person (believers only) and take care of their needs, but we must never demand a miracle. This is not an exhaustive list but simply provides information about how to properly pray by citing some examples.
Regarding prayers for the nation, the main way for God to take care of a nation is for that nation to have a maximum number of believers, and for those believers to be growing in the Word and living the spiritual life God requires of them. That is far more effective than prayer. There are signs in yards all over the United States which say “Prayer is the Only Answer”. That is misguided. The answer to most issues in life is not prayer, but rather pleasing God. We please God by living the spiritual life outlined for us in the New Testament, not by praying for God to do something we want done. What God wants is for people to accept salvation and grow spiritually, which in turn allows God to provide greater blessings to individuals, groups and nations. Prayer for an apostate nation is not very effective, unless it is for maximum spreading of the gospel message and maximum spreading of God’s truth to the believers in the nation. If accepted by individuals from their own free will, those changes will heal a nation which is in a downward spiral, but prayer for healing an apostate nation apart from spiritual changes will have no result. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." Once again we see the difference is asking in prayer for people to hear the gospel and the truth of God's Word, not asking God to heal a nation apart from spiritual changes. And God does not reach into people's minds and switch their free will in another direction. God does not directly change anyone's mind, ever, for any reason.
Aside from the proper procedure issue, most believers pray from the misguided sense of assuming God should give us what we want. On the contrary, God will give all believers the basics of what they need to survive without prayer for those needs, since He always takes care of His own. Beyond that, if we are growing spiritually and living the spiritual life God has outlined for us, and we have continually confessed our sins so the Holy Spirit consistently empowers us, then our prayer options are greatly expanded and are actually heard by God. These are the only believers who have a meaningful prayer life. Then on more rare occasions we should pray for unusual things we would like to have, for self or others, which are beyond the normal prayers, and with the understanding that it is God’s will and glory which are important, not our personal desires. When we pray in that way, God can answer our prayers. But believers rarely follow God’s procedures for prayer, and they rarely approach God in a worshipful manner, but instead use a "gimme this" attitude, and most such prayers are ignored by God. James 4:3 says: "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." Most believers make prayer about what they want so they can be happy. God's plan is for us to be happy regardless of circumstances. Grace and proper procedure are not incompatible. They are closely linked. We are dealing with perfect God.
As mentioned earlier, praying for miracles is not a valid prayer during the current Church Age. Miracles were used by the Lord and by His disciples and Apostles to show those who did not know them that their authority was truly from God. The purpose was to show the legitimacy of the messenger, and only secondarily to heal people or relieve suffering. Jesus did not try to heal everyone on earth when He was present since that was not God's plan. His purpose for miracles was to present Himself as the legitimate Messiah, and set Himself apart from false messiahs. Today, if one of our loved ones is ill or dying, we should ask God for special care for that person, to do all that is possible for them, or similar prayers, and ask for His will to be done. But we must not demand miracles from God. God can figure out what is needed, and we must respect that. When we allow God to choose, He is glorified and His plan is accomplished.
Jesus provided a prayer to His disciples which has come to be known as "The Lord's Prayer" but should actually be called "The Disciple's Prayer." Although Churches all over the world pray this prayer, that prayer was meant for a specific point in time leading up to the cross. Jesus asked His disciples to pray for the Millennial Kingdom to be accepted and begin in the prayer which says "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done", which Kingdom Jesus was offering to Israel during His First Advent and could have been accepted by them. But shortly afterward Israel rejected Jesus Christ as their King, so the Kingdom (Millennium) was delayed and the Church Age was inserted instead of it. Therefore God's will was not done on earth as it is in heaven. As a result that prayer is no longer valid, at least not that portion which says: "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven" since it is related to the Millennial Kingdom which Jesus Christ was offering, and that offer expired when the cross occurred. Today during the Church Age we do not pray for the Kingdom, although it is certainly a future Age in God's plan, even though delayed. We are not Israel, the Kingdom will only come on God's timing, and no one knows the day or the hour. (Matthew 24:36) The rest of the prayer is related to how the disciples would suffer for supporting Jesus, and for how they would be tested and tempted by Satan since the disciples were entering a new phase without Jesus, and they would face many temptations to lose heart and depart from their mission to spread the gospel, hence the "lead us not into temptation" and "deliver us from the evil one (Satan)." We as Church Age believers need to formulate our own prayers in a manner which applies to our point in time during the Church Age, just as Jesus formulated an example of praying during His time. For instance, if we want to pray about the future, we could pray for the future believers of the Great Tribulation who will suffer tremendously and will be martyred in large numbers. We could pray that Israel will be protected from its many enemies. We could pray that the gospel and Bible teaching will be spread into countries which oppose Christianity and are generally closed to the gospel. We can pray for many things relevant to our time and the future. But Israel can no longer accept the Kingdom since that offer has expired, so praying "Thy Kingdom come" is useless since it is not part of God's current plan. As mentioned in the introduction to this book, many long held misconceptions will be challenged during this study. The "Lord's Prayer" issue is certainly one of those. The temptation is to get mad about it. But it would be better to think about what the Bible is actually teaching, not what has been endlessly and mindlessly repeated over generations. God has ignored every prayer for "Thy Kingdom come" since that Kingdom was rejected by Israel in AD 33. But He will listen to prayers such as "may your gospel and truth be spread throughout the entire world." That applies today, but the Kingdom does not.
Prayer before a meal has become a tradition based on Jesus Christ having asked a blessing before eating on several occasions, including during the two separate feedings of the large crowds with a small number of loaves and fishes, and also before the Last Supper. Also, 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says: "give thanks in all circumstances..." Saying a prayer prior to meals is giving thanks to God for what He has provided, and admitting dependence on His grace. That is why the meal prayer is called a "grace prayer" or simply "grace." It is also a good way to teach the importance of prayer to young family members, teaching them early that God provides for them in all things.
The Bible tells us to "Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) These go together as a package. Prayer is not meant to be used only for requests. We are grateful to God, and happy with what He has done for us and provided to us, so in prayer we also thank Him and praise Him.
Prayer is a powerful gift given to believers by God. It is only a deep doctrine because it is so poorly understood by most believers who use improper procedure and therefore most of their prayers are not heard and have little or no impact. When used in a sloppy manner with self-serving motivation and/or apart from the power of the Holy Spirit it is ignored by God. But when used as prescribed by the Word of God and under the power of the Holy Spirit and backed by faith it has enormous impact and serves to glorify Jesus Christ while also supporting the interests of His believers.