Prayer Life

Prayer Life

The soul of prayer is love which has been poured out in every believing heart by the Holy Spirit. (Romans 5:5). Because prayer is a hidden work, it must be born by the pure love of God and nourished by it. Otherwise, it is impossible to perform it faithfully. It is easier to work faithfully than to pray faithfully. For there are many things that keep us motivated when it comes to our work, but when it comes to prayer, these things have no meaning.

Only those who have the indwelling Holy Spirit can pray as they ought (Romans 8:26-27); only the Holy Spirit is the spirit of prayer. Only with His help are we able to thoroughly break through in prayer without ceasing. With His help, we receive the prayers from above. For the prayers to ascend they must first come down from above; God must be able to place a burden on our hearts. The purpose of our prayer must not be born out of distress but must come from God. Moses helped his brethren because there was a need, not because God had moved and worked in him to do so. This is why he fled at the first sign of difficulties. (Exodus 2:11). As a rule, human feelings only last until we meet resistance. God must, by His Spirit, work in us to ask for something in the moment, because then is precisely the opportune time for Him to grant that request at that particular moment of time. The exact moment has arrived, as far as this particular thing is concerned. Driven by the Holy Spirit, Daniel searched through the writings of the prophet Jeremiah to find out how long Israel’s captivity would last. When he realized that it was coming to an end, he began to seek God in prayer and fasting for the return of his people (Daniel 9). It is much more often ignorance, rather than a lack of faith, that prevents prayer from being answered. You ask God for something that you have not been charged by Him to ask for, nor been promised to receive. The disciples’ persistent prayer before Pentecost was due to the Lord’s promise: “. . . you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” In this lay the joy and the power of perseverance in prayer.

Only he who has been instructed by God’s Spirit and immersed in God’s kingdom perspective can pray as he ought. In Revelation 22:17 we see a great multitude, “the bride,” who has become so one with the Spirit—also in their prayer life—that they cry out the same as the Spirit: “Come, Lord Jesus, come!” She knows what to ask for! When we, too, allow ourselves to be taught by the Spirit, the most important thing, both in our work and in our prayer, will be this: “Come, Lord Jesus, come!”

Only they who have a priestly heart can pray as they ought; those who have learned to deal with the imperfections of others in a holy manner, who do not keep account of the faults of others in order to share with others, but who take these imperfections to heart and carry them in the hands of prayer into the sanctuary. The priests are to carry the sins of others into the sanctuary and not out to the people, where, as a rule, one sin is added to another. (See Psalm 50:19-21). The bride should have doves’ eyes, not the eyes of an eagle. The devil is not a man of prayer, but an accuser of the brethren. According to Revelation 1:5, Christ died precisely so that the saved would intercede in prayer. The blood of Jesus has bought us a place in His Father’s presence, the place of kings and priests.

Only he who takes the word of God to heart can pray as he ought. Those who don’t do this will soon have no determination in their prayer and lack the words to pray with. God’s word and prayer belong together as breathing in and out. Every prayer must be born out of God’s word and stay in line with the Word. “It is written!”—The one who prays must hide in the cleft of the rock and take refuge there; so that the poisonous arrows of the enemy will not harm him.

Only those who really understand the realities of daily trouble and strife can pray as they ought. Every difficulty should be a reason to penetrate deeper into the riches of God’s grace. Our troubles should nourish our faith and not be grounds for defeat. Most prayers in Holy Scripture are born in adversity

Only he who dwells constantly in the presence of God, can pray as he ought. We remain in a state of holy unconcerned equanimity, where there is no need to look for God, for His presence is always with us.