If
you are looking for answers, want God to work in your
life or the life of a loved one or desire spiritual
revival for your community or nation….prayer will connect
you to the One who can help. Prayer is the substance,
the building material that your connection to heaven
is made of. If you don't have a prayer life, you are
missing the most exciting and fulfilling part of your
Christian walk.
The
Bible makes it clear that prayer is the vehicle to be
used for talking to God and it should not only be used
when we are in the mist of difficult circumstances,
but should be an integral part of your daily routine.
You also need to be filled with the Holy Spirit because
there is no effective prayer without His (the Holy Spirits)
help. Everyone who has truly accepted Jesus as the Lord
of their lives had to receive a measure of the Spirit
just to believe in Him, but there is a greater infilling
of the Holy Spirit available to every believer (see
Acts 19:2-6).
It was when I began to pray that God would baptize me
in the Holy Spirit and received that blessing…that my
prayer life came alive. It was a glorious time of personal
revival and growth (If you would like to read more about
the Baptism in the Holy Spirit - please see the scripture
references at the end of this article1). Before this
time I was lost in religion. I really didn't believe
that God was real, because if I had I would have pursued
personal relationship with Him.
I
was very busy doing church things: meetings, church
plays, choir rehearsal and somehow I thought this is
what made me a Christian. It's only by God's Grace in
the early 1990's that He drew me into relationship with
Him…one that I did not know was possible. My resounding
and continuing testimony (even continuing today) was
and is: I didn't Know that God was real and now I really
know Him.
In
the years that preceded my Spiritual revival I would
often use the "Lord's Prayer" as my primary communication
to God, instead of using it as a model to show me how
my prayer should have been constructed. Just imagine
how God would feel as a parent (He is our Heavenly Father)
listening to His son or daughter communicating with
Him using the same words every day. I would feel as
if my child either: really didn't want to know me or
was confused about the real dynamics of a good parent
- child relationship! As children we learned a lot from
watching others do things and we then modeled our behavior
after theirs. Unfortunately, many of us have not had
good role models to show or teach us how to establish
an effective prayer life.
In
future articles, I will show you how to get in good
prayer posture before God through: worship, forgiveness
and humility. I will also show you how to find your
secret place.
1Matthew
3:11, Luke 11:13, Luke: Luke 24:49, Galatians 3:2, Acts
2:33,38, Acts 19: 2-6
