BEING EFFECTUAL IN PRAYER - Part 1

Churches can run without prayer. Whole denominations can run without prayer. The question is: Is what they’re doing worth doing if they can do it without prayer?

Ben Patterson Deepening Your Conversation with God (1991)

Prayer is the breath of faith. Prayer meetings are the lungs of the church.

Charles Spurgeon

1 Corinthians 16:9 KJV

For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.

James 5:16 KJV

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Prayer is one of the most underused but badly needed tools that God has given the Christian. We live in a day where we battle with so many distractions, scapegoats, commitments and even church activity that we do not take time to pray.

We are used to doing things for ourselves, no doubt about that, we are very able and accomplished people. We have learned that by hard work and study, we will be rewarded. But we have not learned in our lives the power and importance of prayer. We have not realized the privilege that we have been given to come into the holy presence of God himself.

Hebrews 4:16 KJV

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

This is what you and I must do. How many times have we spent an afternoon or a day trying to solve a problem or some work when what really needed to do or at least start out doing – was to pray.

Friend, we are going to be looking at Prayer and remind ourselves of its importance. This will be part one tonight, and then we will continue with part tow next week:

To understand prayer, we need to look at:

I. THE MEANING OF PRAYER

Why pray at all, what does it mean to pray in the first place? What is its benefit to our lives? Its meaning lies first in finding its purpose.

A. The Purpose of Prayer

You know reading God’s Word is good and essential to the Christian’s life. In it we get to learn about what God wants for our lives, how he wants us to live, and we get to know God himself.

But, it is one sided, because we only get to know about God, about his nature, his attributes, his love and his justice. Though we get to know about him, we are not truly getting to know Him until we pray.

Job 23:3 KJV

Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!

Job had a great desire to seek and to know God. He knew the place to meet and know God was to meet at his throne.

To know the meaning of prayer we also need to understand the:

B. The Promises of Prayer

2 Corinthians 1:20 KJV

For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

All of God's promises are sure. He cannot lie! Then we need to realize:

C. The Power of Prayer

Jeremiah 33:3 KJV

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

There is no limit to the power of God.

There is a lot we do not know in life, there is so much that is out there that in ourselves, even as Christians we are not going to realize until we realize the power of prayer. We need to seek God’s face to know them

The Glory of God has not been revealed to this generation of men. The God of contemporary Christianity is only slightly superior to the gods of Greece and Rome, if indeed He is not actually inferior to them in that He is weak and helpless while they at least had power.4

A. W. Tozer

We won’t know it either until we truly allow God to get ahold of us.

D. The Purity of Prayer

Can I remind us of a simple truth:

“OUR LIVES MUST BE AS HOLY AS OUR PRAYERS.”

That is when the purity in prayer matters. It is not just praying a pure prayer - but prayer coming from a pure vessel is even more important.

Purity is not found in the moment of need but only through a consecrated walk.

While we can be forgiven in a moment - sanctification is often a life time of workl.

James 5:16 KJV

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

1. Purity involves undivided attention

Spiritual purity may be defined as undivided affections, sincerity and genuineness, godly simplicity.

Arthur Walkington Pink

2. Purity involves a unbridled devotion

Men love to substitute ceremony for integrity, purity, and love; but Jesus will have none of it.

D. A. Carson

3. Purity requires separation from sin

The proper response to mercy received on account of past sins is purity in the future.

D. A. Carson

There is power in prayer when the person is a righteous man!

E. The Persistence of Prayer

Luke 18:1 KJV

And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

1 Thessalonians 5:17 KJV

Pray without ceasing.

F. The Peril of Prayer

Psalm 66:18 KJV

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

It need not be a "big sin" which keeps God from answering prayer!

It can be any sin. God has given us so much freedom, so much liberty in our salvation, that we waste it living for and focusing on the present conveniences and opportunities that we are being consumed by them and they become sin.

It brings to mind this quote:

The greater the potential for good the greater the potential for evil.

Elisabeth Elliot

Passion and Purity (1984)

Elisabeth Elliot

II. THE MESSAGE OF PRAYER

A. Surrendered Praying

Matthew 26:39 KJV

And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

Jesus the Son of God was fully surrendered to God and sought to do His will.

B. Sorrowful Praying

Romans 9:3 KJV

For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:

Paul's heart was broken for the lost souls of men and women.

C. Simple Praying

1 Kings 18:25-40

Here Elijah prayed just sixty-three words and God answered by sending fire upon the sacrifice.

D. Supernatural Praying

Lets read:Genesis 18:10-14

It was impossible for Sarah and Abraham to have a son, yet with God all things are possible.

E. Strengthening Prayer

Isaiah 40:31 KJV

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

That is praying that involves waiting and allowing God to speak to you and enable you do what he has commanded you by his power and not your own.

WE ARE STOPPING THERE, NEXT WEEK WE WILL CONTINUE WITH POINT NUMBER III

Let me leave us with this thought tonight:

Prayer is not wrestling with God’s reluctance to bless us; it is laying hold of his willingness to do so.

John Blanchard

God wants to do great things with us and through us for His glory but he used the mechanism of prayer to empower us.

Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations: Signs of the Times 8420. “Sweet Hour of Prayer”

One day, according to Pastor Salmon, Mr. Walford recited several poems which he had composed. He could not get anyone to write them down, so Mr. Salmon did so. One poem was the four-stanza rhyme which is now known as “Sweet Hour of Prayer.”