The Power of Prayer

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I think you would all agree prayer is the most powerful tool we have. Am I right?

Why is prayer so powerful?

That’s not an easy question to answer. On the surface it sounds easy. But start thinking about it and suddenly you realize there’s a lot more to it than we mi think.

In order to answer that we must answer the question:

What is prayer?

Some might say it’s how we talk to God.

Some might say it’s how God talks to us.

Some might say it’s part of a relationship with God.

While all of these statements are true, what if I told you that even combined they don’t go far enough?

Prayer is so much more.

We have so many problems with prayer, that as I wrote the list I realized it will take me two years of Sundays, just to read the list.

So here we go!!

We use prayer like it’s a trip to the ATM.

We treat God like He’s some magical genie granting our wishes.

We tend to think…

Oh,… you didn’t really think I was just going to read a giant list did you?

A couple of you had this look on your face. A look like you wanted to check your watch and see how much longer you had to endure.

Sometimes that’s exactly how we approach our prayers though. We’ve got a list and we’ve got a schedule. So here we go.

I can picture God, who lives outside the constraints of time and space. Checking His watch, wondering just how much longer He must endure this list of complaints and wishes.

Even if we are seeking communication with God. We have our own desires, our own ulterior motive involved.

We all claim we know the importance of prayer. Yet we don’t give prayer the attention required in matter of importance.

There is power in prayer. A power that few if any other than Jesus have tapped into. I’m talking profound, life changing, environment changing power.

The Gospels mention at least 25 times Jesus prayed. His prayers were so life changing, environment changing that it impacted His disciples.

We don’t know for sure that the disciples didn’t ask Jesus to teach them how to do a lot of things. But, the gospels always say something like then Jesus taught them.

Or so Jesus taught them. No prompting or asking from the disciples. Just Jesus taking the initiative.

The only recorded time the disciples actually asked Jesus to teach them anything is in Luke 11 when they ask Jesus to teach them to pray.

Clue number one that prayer might be something important. Something we should probably learn how to do right.

We’re going to look at the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13.

Some call this the Lord’s prescribed prayer. Which might be one of the items on the list.

Is there anything wrong with reciting the Lord’s Prayer?

No, as you might have noticed we do that here every Sunday morning.

But, when we do recite the Lord’s Prayer we should do so reminding ourselves how we are to pray. Not just reciting some ritual prayer that we don’t understand.

Let’s look at Matt 6:9-13

Matthew 6:9–13 NKJV

9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

I read from the NKJV. If you have an NIV, ESV, or many other Bibles written from the earliest transcripts you will notice some text is not there.

“For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.” Is text that was written in the margins of the scrolls and at some point a scribe inserted it into the text.

Don’t let this be a point of contention. It doesn’t change the context in any way.

Phew, rabbit hole diverted. I want to look not so much at what we say or how we present our words. Like the order of our prayer. Praise God, Seek God’s will, etc…

Yes there’s importance in that as well. But I want to look at how Jesus tells us to pray in view of our relationship with God.

You see the power of Prayer comes from:

An intimate Relationship

Communion with God

A Transfigured Soul

You will notice Jesus didn’t say, pray these exact words. He said, “pray then like this.”

He’s giving us a model prayer to follow. He’s giving us an anecdote pray to reduce the symptoms found on our long problems with prayer list.

An Intimate Relationship

What’s the first thing Jesus says?

“Our Father.”

He’s not saying Oh god, my god. Which ever god my god may be.

He’s not saying God of the universe, like God is some distant creator we hope we can manipulate

No He says, “Our Father.”

It’s a person on the receiving end of our prayers. Not just any person. It’s not like we dialed up some psychic hotline who asks who am I speaking with?

It’s a Person we call Father. A Father who doesn’t have to ask who’s calling. Because He knows us better than we know ourselves.

How many of us wouldn’t try to seek a relationship with an earthly father we never met? How many questions would we have?

How much would we want to get to know him?

Why should our desire to know our heavenly Father be any less? Prayer is the avenue to knowing our heavenly Father on a deep, intimate level.

Now, there are, I believe two reasons why Jesus says, “OUR Father.” One is communal which we’ll get to shortly. But the other is of significance that we must understand.

Jesus is the Son. It is only with and through Jesus that we can call God our Father. Any time we come before God in prayer it is done with Jesus.

Our Father can only be said because Jesus is with me in His presence. He is not my Father, it is only with Jesus that I can call Him our Father.

You see the more we get to know and understand God the Father. The more intimate our relationship becomes. We can’t help but glorify Him.

“Hallowed be your name.”

How many of us looked up to our earthly fathers?

Most boys want to be just like their fathers when they are young. Most girls want to marry a man like their fathers.

Why should it be any less with our heavenly Father?

We should praise Him and worship Him. When we pray we should seek Him only to be with Him. Only so we can spend time with Him. So we can get to know Him.

Not just to get our wishes granted. Not just to spew our wants and needs. Not so we can check the prayer box off our list today.

We should pray because we just want to be with Him. When we do that something wonderful begins to happen. We begin to have communion with God.

Communion With God

When I say communion I don’t mean the world dictionary definition of communion. Because that does’’t capture the true essence of communion.

Communion isn’t just breaking bread in remembrance of Jesus. Or a group of people with the same beliefs gathered together.

Communion is a joining together in a way that makes one fully conjoined piece. It’s like joining two pieces of wood together to make one piece.

It’s like molding two pieces of clay together to make one piece. Only the most beautiful part is that it’s not like joining two pieces of flawed material together where both pieces now share all the flaws.

As we are in communion with God, our souls are being transformed. God’s perfect character slowly removes our flaws from our character.

“Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

We like to think of that as God moving, working, and manipulating the world around us. Which He does do through us and through our prayers.

However, we completely overlook at how that pertains to us. How that pertains to our relationship with God.

There’s a reason the apostles asked Jesus, “teach us to pray.” It wasn’t because it looked sooo cool. It wasn’t because it looked noble.

And it definitely wasn’t because of how the religious leaders treated Jesus. It was because of His relationship with God.

It was because of how that intimate relationship held up the perfect character of Jesus. You see, His perfect character had as much impact on the world around Him as the miracles themselves.

God’s kingdom come, God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven probably has more to do with our character than anything in the world around us.

Yes, there is an eschatological intent woven into what Jesus teaches here. But, like the Old Testament prophets with a current message for Israel and a future message about the coming Messiah.

This too has a current message for the church and a future kingdom message we should be ready for. My focus is the current message and how it impacts us and the world around us.

When the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove and rested on Jesus it completed His communion with God the Father.

Since the day of Pentecost we, the church, have been given the same Communion. We have the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ, that gives us direct access to God the Father.

We have God, the Holy Spirit, residing in us. Our spirit and the Holy Spirit have joined together inseparably. That is the communion with God that causes our souls to be transfigured.

A Transfigured Soul

I know it seems weird to talk about a spiritual part of us being transfigured. We think of transfiguration as the body being changed.

We get that from Matthew 17:2 where it says “He [Jesus] was transfigured before them.” It goes on to describe the physical change that happened before their eyes. “His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as the light.”

Transfiguration means “to remodel, to change into another form.” In much the same way Jesus’ body changed in appearance before their eyes, our souls change.

We call it sanctification and/or transformation. The thing is there is an outward change happening that others see as well.

When we enter prayer for no other reason than seeking to be with God, we begin to feel His presence in our lives. You see, the goal of prayer isn’t to get something from God.

The goal of prayer is to get God. If we’re approaching prayer as a means to get something then it’s nothing more than a selfish transaction.

Our goal in prayer is God. A relationship with God. Communion with God that transfigures our soul.

Our soul naturally desires the things of the world. Lust, greed, anger, vengeance, gluttony, pride, hate and the list goes on. Through communion with God our souls are transfigured.

Our souls begin to naturally desire the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You think that doesn’t cause an outward change?

Our souls, in prayer that only seeks to be with God, are remodeled. They are changed into another form. People all around us see that transfiguration.

God says if you draw near to Me I will draw near to you. We are also told to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these things will be added to you.

Matthew 6:11–13 ESV

11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Yes, there’s a physical aspect to all of this. We need physical nourishment. We need physical health. But, the spiritual is where we find the relationship with God.

The spiritual is where we come into communion with God. The spiritual is where we see the fruit of the Spirit being added to our souls.

We have a Spiritual daily bread. We must seek God in order to be fed spiritually.

Forgive us our debts. He’s talking about our sins against God. He’s talking about the pain and hurt we have caused God in our disobedience.

We are to forgive others who have hurt us in the same manner. Some might take that to mean everyone gets a free pass and we just keep letting them hurt us.

I would ask you to look at God’s righteousness and how He handles those who continue to hurt Him. He ends His relationship with them unless they have a true change of heart.

Unless they believe in Jesus with true repentance in their heart.

We are to do the same. That doesn’t mean we end our relationship with everyone that is not a believer.

It means we end our relationship with those who wantonly, willingly, and continually do things to hurt us.

Those who have hurt us, but feel remorse are to be forgiven.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. God holds us up with His right hand. He protects us and strengthens us.

This is God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. It is only possible when we seek only to be with God in our prayers. That doesn’t mean we don’t ask for anything ever.

We ask for our needs and for our forgiveness in our prayers. But we do so with the only goal of being with God.

The power of prayer is so simple we overlook it. The power of prayer is nothing more than seeking God in all things.

When we come to God in prayer only seeking to be with God and in humble adoration ask for our needs, we find God gives far more than we ask.

When we only seek to be with God and in remorse ask forgiveness, God’s forgiveness is perfect and complete.

Our relationship with God in that manner through prayer, changes our souls. We begin to see the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

The fruit of the Spirit popping up in our lives changes the world around us. The fruit of the Spirit in our lives is God’s kingdom come, God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Our transfigured soul is the product of our seeking to be in God’s presence in prayer. Our seeking to know God in prayer.

Unfortunately we tend to look at prayer as a duty. We pray because, well, we have to pray, right?

Here’s my list of things to pray about and my list of people to pray for. We pray through the list, sometimes as fast as we can.

We speed our way through prayer to the Amen, and move on.

Seldom does anyone linger in prayer. Seldom does anyone truly seek to be in God’s presence. We pray our transactional prayer, check off the box next to prayer for the day.

What’s the goal of our prayers?

To say we prayed for so and so?

To make ourselves feel good?

So we feel like we are being obedient?

The goal should be and always is God. The goal of our prayers is to get God, period.

If we call Him Father, then we should desire to be with Him. To spend time with Him. We don’t rush time spent with those we love.

We cherish every minute of that time and we linger in those times. We don’t want those times to end.

That’s how our prayer lives should be. We should want to spend that time with God. We should want to linger in that time.

Instead of racing through our list to get through our prayers as fast as we can. We should want to linger and stay in prayer and not want that prayer to end.

Jeremiah 29:12–13 ESV

12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Jesus modeled prayer that sought the Father with all His heart. It was so powerful that the only recorded time the apostles asked Him to teach them anything. Was teach us to pray.

Prayer is seeking God with all our heart.

We trust Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. That begins our relationship with God.

The Holy Spirit resides in our Spirit in permanent molded communion.

Through prayer in that molded communion, seeking God with all our heart, comes the transfiguration of our souls.

As our souls are changed. As our souls are remodeled, our prayers become more powerful. We begin to see God’s miraculous work in our lives.

Whether it’s the Fruit of the Spirit in us. Or healing of others. Or feeding more people than we have food to feed.

That is the power of prayer.