Praying With All Prayers

THEME: Pray Ye the Lord of The Harvest; The Believers’ Life of Prayer

LESSON: Three

TOPIC: Praying With All Prayers

TEXT: Ephesians 6:18; Matthew 9:48; 1 Timothy 2:1; Philippians 4:6

MEMORY TRACK:

By God’s grace, in our last lesson, we saw that for a believer to pray without ceasing or pray always as the scriptures admonish and command, we ought to deliberately make lifestyle changes and adjustments that would accommodate a new habit/a praying routine. To want to pray like Epaphras while you have the lifestyle of the rich young ruler may not be realistic. We also saw that there might not be “a perfect time that will perfectly work for everyone to pray,” but there is a good time, based on your specific lifestyle, that will be convenient for you to pray.

Why Pray

Often times the reasons why we do not pray or give our time and energies to prayers as commanded by the Lord in the scriptures are because the “whys” of prayers are not as clear to us as they ought to be! Knowing why we need to pray is as important as knowing how to pray. A minister of the gospel once said, “If the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable!” For many of us God’s children, we truly really want to pray, but “the whys” of prayers are just not clear enough.

Some scriptural reasons as to why we should pray:

1. For Fellowship: From the beginning of man’s creation, we see a desire in God to fellowship with His man, Adam. God came into the garden for fellowship with Adam, amongst other things (Genesis 3:8-11). While it was not expressly said here in this scripture that Adam fellowshipped with God through prayer, it was obvious that God enjoyed being in fellowship with His man, Adam. And one major way to ignite and sustain fellowship is prayers (Genesis 18:23-32).

In the New Testament, prayer is a major part of our communion with God, particularly praying in the Spirit (1st Corinthians 14:2, 14-16). Prayer is a sure way of communicating with God, particularly praying with our spirit as the New Testament saints do.

• For Kingdom Advancement: We pray to push for the advancement of the kingdom of God and to cooperate with the Lord Jesus Christ for the rolling back of the kingdom of darkness upon the earth (Matthew 6:9-10; Acts 12:1-6; Matthew 11:12; Luke 18:1-6). Prayers are great tools for the advancement of the kingdom of God and the limitation of the kingdom of the devil and his cohorts (Ephesians 6:12-18).
• To Seek Direction: We pray to seek direction as to what the will and/or intentions of God are on a matter(s) (2nd Corinthians 12:8-10).
• To find grace, power, and help to obey and do the will of God (Matthew 26:38-46).
• To break spells/afflictions of the adversary over any of God’s work or His people (James 5:13).

Why unanswered prayers can be a major deterrent and discouragement to praying:

For some, the reason why prayer is really relegated and not engaged as it is admonished and commanded by scriptures is because we do not get as much as we expect to get out of prayers. Put another way, we do not see as many results as we desire; hence, our interest in prayers wanes.

With reverence in our hearts, not being critical nor judgmental either, many believers gradually and sometimes unconsciously withdraw from praying because of not getting results according to their understanding. Below are some reasons why prayers may go unanswered:

1. Not fully understanding that there are different kinds of prayers and that the different kinds of prayers, according to God’s word, are governed by different rules (Ephesians 6:18). Not being fully aware of the different kinds of prayers and the laws that govern them, many of God’s people pray a type of prayer with the rules of another kind of prayer. And because God is a God of order, such prayers go unanswered, and a saint gets discouraged and, with time, does not trust that praying to God is worth it.
2. Not fully understanding the different age groups that exist in the kingdom of God and the different attitudes of God to those in the different age groups. It is a scripturally known fact that there are four (4) age groups in Christianity, namely, Babyhood; Childhood; Manhood; Fatherhood (1st Corinthians 3:1-2; 1st Corinthians 13:11; Hebrews 5:12-14; 1st John 2:12-14, etc.). These age groups (or life groups) provoke different types of responses from God, even in prayers.

Sometimes, confusion may set in if and when the different characters of God towards His own are demonstrated in differing ways, even though they have similar/the same challenges (2nd Corinthians 12:8-11; Luke 13:12-16). This is not being said to make us down tools in praying, but to remove “invisible stumbling” blocks that seem to leak our zest to pray because of lack of results.

Different Kinds of Prayers (Ephesians 6:18)

The scriptures, right from the Old Covenant, show that there are various kinds of prayers. But much more, the New Testament shows and sheds more light on these different kinds of prayers. Below are the kinds of prayers as seen in the scriptures and highlighted by Rev. Kenneth E. Hagin (of blessed memory):

1. Prayer of Faith (Mark 11:22-24; Matt 21:21-22)
2. Prayer of Supplications (Philippians 4:6; Ephesians 6:18)
3. Prayers of Intercession (1st Timothy 2:1; Jeremiah 27:18)
4. Prayers of Agreement (Matthew 18:19; Acts 16:25)
5. Congregational Prayers (Acts 4:23-32; Acts 12:1-6)
6. Prayer of Consecration to the will of God (Matthew 26:38-46)
7. Praying in the Spirit (1st Corinthians 14:14-16; Jude 20)
8. Prayers of Commitment: casting all your cares upon the Lord (1st Peter 5:7; Philippians 4:6)
9. Prayers of Thanksgiving and worship (Hebrews 13:15; 1 Samuel 2:1-10)

Conclusion

All these kinds of prayers are prayed by different prayer laws according to the scriptures. We shall consider a few of them briefly in our subsequent lessons, but our main goals are to dwell on Prayers of INTERCESSION, SUPPLICATIONS, PRAYERS OF FAITH, PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT, AND THANKSGIVING.

Let us pray!