Prayer: Introduction

Wenstrom Bible Ministries

As Christians, not only are we blessed with an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Creator, but also fortunate to have an affectionate God, who cares for us with the heart of a father.

He, unlike earthly fathers, is infinite in His fatherly wisdom, love, and care.

As a result, God grants us the provision of prayer, so that we may have a personal relationship with Him.

With this provision available to us, we need only ask, and God promises to answer us.

Nevertheless, in order to ask properly, we need to study prayer and understand the impact it can have on our lives.

As we will note in this series, prayer is designed to accomplish four primary goals: to combat and defend, to glorify, to make the impossible possible, and to bear fruit.

Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” (NASB95)

The provision of prayer makes divine resources available, resources that we, as believers, require to execute the Father’s will for our lives.

God designed perfect provisions, through the person and work of each member of the Trinity, to allow us access into His presence and offer us the very resources of His grace, wisdom, and power.

God provided the provision of prayer so that believers may combat the sin nature (Rom 5:12-19; 7), resist the devil, and exist in a world controlled and dominated by the kingdom of darkness (Eph 6:10-19).

Prayer is needed to prepare and protect us for battles with demonic powers in the earth’s atmosphere (Eph 6:10-19).

Prayer, therefore, is an offensive weapon in spiritual combat and is needed to employ our spiritual armor and experience God’s super-abundant power against the enemy (Dan 10:1).

Prayer allows us to approach the Father and entirely depend on His sufficiency to meet our every need.

When the believer offers up praise, thanksgiving, petitions, and intercessions to the Father, he is demonstrating an absolute dependence upon Him, whether spiritual or material, and thus worshipping Him.

Prayer glorifies God because it demonstrates the believer’s total dependency upon God and demonstrates the believer’s humility before God.

We, by praying, acknowledge our insufficiency and reaffirm His all-sufficiency, fatherly care, and gracious provision.

Prayer is needed to compensate for the great gap between our inadequacy and God’s sufficiency.

His sufficiency makes all things possible.

With man many things are impossible, but with God nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37; 18:27; 19:26; Mark 9:23; 10:27; 14:36).

Prayer is needed for fruit bearing.

Without the Lord, we can accomplish nothing.

Prayer, therefore, is one way we bring the power of Christ upon our ministries and Christian service.

Whether a believer realizes it or not, prayer is needed for even his most general needs.

Properly dealing with the details of life makes man entirely dependent upon God.

The earth is the Lord’s and all it contains belongs to Him; everything we receive comes from Him (Psalm 23:1; 24:1; 50:10; 89:11; Acts 14:17).

The believer who leads a productive prayer life realizes this spiritual truth.

God provides all the logistics of life.

Everything comes from Him—food, clothing, housing, travel; the list goes on and on.

He opens doors for the Word and prepares hearts to receive the Gospel.

God touches and encompasses every aspect of life—the spiritual, the physical, emotional, and mental (Eph 6:18; Luke 10:1).

Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; 3 praying at the same time for us as well, that God may open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; 4 in order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.

Prayer can be either general or specific.

A general prayer is when a believer prays either not knowing the specific needs of the person he is interceding for or not knowing the person at all, whom he is praying for.

Prayer should be specific when petitioning for ourselves but does not have to be specific when interceding for others.

Often times, when we pray for others, we have little or no knowledge of their particular needs (Rom. 1:9; 1 Thess. 1:2).

Therefore, the Scriptures encourage us to “make mention” of others in our prayers, even without knowing their current situation or circumstances (1 Thessalonians 1:2; Philemon 4).

When praying for others, the believer-priest should always pray for their spiritual growth.

Intercession for another believer’s spiritual growth will help him or her, no matter what specific situation he or she is going through.

In addition, the believer-priest should have a routine prayer list.

Whether mental or written down, a prayer list facilitates our intercessory prayers and ensures we forget no one.

The apostle Paul prayed for the Philippians and Ephesians, whom he knew, and the Colossians, whom he never came to know face to face.

He prayed for their spiritual growth and enlightenment.

Philippians 1:9 Now, this I make it a habit to pray that your divine-love might continue to flourish yet more and more by means of a total discerning experiential knowledge. (My translation)

Believers are commanded to offer up intercessory prayers for all men, since God desires all men to be saved, without exception and without distinction (1 Jn. 2:2; 1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9; John 3:16-17).

Therefore, if we are to intercede for all men—and we do not know all men, much less their specific needs—then, we must pray in generalities.

A specific prayer means that we pray for others, knowing their specific needs and circumstances.

Often in specific intercession, we know the individual personally and know his or her adversity.