POWERFUL-Effective Praying

POWERFUL, EFFECTIVE PRAYING

James 5:16

(James 5:16 NIV)  Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

(James 5:17 NIV)  Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.

Today is the international, world day of prayer.  We want to close this service tonight with a meditation on prayer.  This is a subject that everyone of us should be deeply  concerned about.  We need to pray when things are alright as well as when a great crisis arises.  Let me illustrate:  On a web page on the internet there is a highlighted area, usually in blue, that is a link to another area.  Prayer is our link!  It is like electricity—let the line be severed—there’s no power.

There are two types of prayers I want to mention:

1. The random prayer.  We could call this the catch-all, generic prayer.

1. Then there is the powerful, effective prayer.  It is the prayer that produces a result.  It is powerful enough to get the job done.  KJV uses the term ‘fervent’ prayer.  Impassioned—showing intense feeling that glows.

We need this kind of prayer!.

I. Characteristics of an effectual prayer.

A.    It is for a definite need…not just random

1.      In everything by prayer

(Phil 4:6 NIV)  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

(Phil 4:7 NIV)  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

B.     Must be according to His revealed will.

1.      “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done—as in heaven—so in earth.

2.      Story of Baalim, the prophet. “Let me go…”

C.     Must pray with submission to God’s will

D.    Prayer must be offered from right motives.

(James 4:1 NIV)  What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?

(James 4:2 NIV)  You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.

(James 4:3 NIV)  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

II. INTERCESSORY PRAYING

A.    Praying in the Spirit

(Rom 8:26 NIV)  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 with groans that words cannot express.

(Rom 8:27 NIV)  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

(Rom 8:28 NIV)  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

III. IMPORTUNATE OR PERSISTENT PRAYING

(Luke 11:5 NIV)  Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,

(Luke 11:6 NIV)  because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'

(Luke 11:7 NIV)  "Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.'

(Luke 11:8 NIV)  I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

(Luke 11:9 NIV)  "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

(Luke 11:10 NIV)  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

CONCLUSION:  When the disciples spoke to the Lord and said, “Teach us to pray”, they did not say, “Teach us how to pray”, but rather, teach us to do it!.