Prayer is simply a form of communication between man and God. It is one of the most important aspects of our relationship with Him, because without communication there is no relationship. It is heart communication whether vocalized internally or externally. However, many people do not have the correct attitude towards prayer because it is a “spiritual” thing, so it is commonly misused and misplaced. Some people make light of it and ignore it and their heart grows cold, and some people make too much of it, and become “religious” going through the motions of obligation without a Biblical purpose. Everything has its rightful place. (Ecclesiastes 3:1) Prayer is communication between man and God. If you don’t know what to say, just read God’s Word and let God talk to you until faith, hope, love, and purpose comes out of your heart to communicate to Him. It will do you much better than “saying your prayers” out of obligation without your heart in it. Prayer must always be based on the revelation of God’s principles and promises in His Word. (I Corinthians 13:1)
The Holy Bible primarily is God’s revelation of His relationship with man, but it also uncovers spiritual and even natural laws that must be adhered to for health, strength, prosperity, and protection. When man lost his covenant with God through disobedience, he also lost his place of dominion over the spiritual and natural world. Since we had no way to redeem ourselves and recover what we lost, God Himself had to come into this natural world as a man to regain the dominion back. The Scripture says God was manifested in the world, but He laid aside all of His divine attributes, and took on all of the limitations of a man. (I Timothy 3:16) (Philippians 2:5-7) Jesus of Nazareth had the same needs and desires of every other man in His soul and body, but He was Divine in His spirit. Man is a spirit, has a soul, and lives in a body. (I Thessalonians 5:23) Jesus lived in unbroken relationship with God His Father, by reading His Word, praying, attending synagogue, and obeying His eternal laws. If He didn’t obey God’s laws, He would’ve lost dominion over the spiritual and natural world. (Mark 1:35) (Luke 4:16)
Why would God Himself have to pray, read the Scriptures, and keep His Own Word, didn’t He already have unlimited knowledge, power, and authority? He did before He came into this world, but after being born in this world, He became subject to all of the weaknesses of His soul and body like every other man. So He had to live a life of consecration to God’s Word to overcome the spiritual and natural “gravity”, so to speak. When a man pursues a relationship with God through obedience to the light of His Word, God empowers him to live in dominion over himself and all outside influences. When men live independent of God they lose their connection to the Source, and cannot help but be slaves of unbelief, selfishness, and rebellion. Jesus always obeyed the Father’s authority, even when He didn’t have to. When John the Baptist was baptizing people in the River Jordan, Jesus went out to be baptized by him, even though He was sinless and didn’t need forgiveness, because He recognized John as the voice of God at that time, and it is always right to obey the God’s authority. (Matthew 3:14-16)
It’s all about a right relationship to God and His Word. God created man as a gift to Himself, so that He could have a relationship with them as His sons and daughters. However, not only mankind was created for God, but all creation was made for the Creator’s pleasure. (Revelation 4:11) (Proverbs 16:4) God’s enemy endeavored to rob Him of this pleasure of relationship with man by perverting man’s nature into a self-centered rebel like himself. A man without a relationship with God is self-centered, and they think that God and all creation exist to please them. No one will admit it, but just say or do something that disturbs their “comfort zone” and watch that little rebel inside throw a temper tantrum. Instead of man living in a way that honors God, they trust in their own understanding of what is good, right, and true, to the point that truth is no longer important as long as you respect everybody’s personal belief and perspective. However, God’s authority is clear. The Father is the head of Christ, Christ is the head of the man, the man is the head of his wife, and parents are the head of their children. If a man mocks Jesus’ leadership, a woman mocks her husband’s leadership, and children mock their parent’s leadership, or if a man’s heart is not integrated with God’s Word in any area, their faith is null and void, their prayers will be ignored, the angels will not move on their behalf, and the enemy will have dominion over them, since he doesn’t have to obey rebels like himself. (I Corinthians 11:3, 9-10) (Romans 13:1-10)
In Matthew 15:22-28 there was a common everyday woman, who was dealing with her own family issues. She had no covenant relationship with God, but she came to Jesus asking for help with her demon possessed daughter. Now God does not see things the way man does. We see the outward appearance of people, but God sees the hearts of men. (I Samuel 16:7) We may be able to manipulate our father and mother to get what we really want, but God cannot be manipulated. He knows the motives and objectives of every thought, word, and action. (Psalm 139:4) (Proverbs 21:30) This lady did not have faith in Jesus for Who He really was. She was making a scene with desperate cries for mercy, but Jesus just ignored her. He didn’t respond to her at all! He had to break through the deceptive pride of her heart by essentially telling her God did not send Him for people like her, He only came for God’s covenant people. Now, of course God loves everybody, but all of His promises are for those that live in covenant relationship with Him. If anybody is willing to enter into covenant with God through faith and obedience to His Word, He is merciful, gracious, and faithful to keep His promises, but He doesn’t just help everybody like a charitable organization, because proud men would take Him for granted. Most people do not read God’s Old Covenant or His New Covenant, so how can they know His part of the covenant or their part of the covenant? At least this woman was wise enough to receive Jesus’ rebuke, and correct her own heart. Finally she honored him with worship and confessed her faith in Him as her Master. Jesus didn’t mention her previous error, He simply acknowledged the correction in her heart, honored her faith, and the power was released. (Isaiah 66:2) (Malachi 1:6)
So, did her prayers and pleas change things? No, it didn’t, but her faith did. Prayer is powerless. God does not hear words of prayers, He hears hearts of integrity and faith. When a heart is integrated with God’s Word, His power is released. When a heart has its trust in other things or people, no power is released. All religions and “spiritual” people pray. There are billions of people praying every day for all kinds of things, but their prayers will never be answered, until their hearts connect with God through integrity, faith, and obedience to His Word. It is not difficult. Just be real with God and have a true heart. Men are trusting in all kinds of things. The enemy has deceived them to trust in their own prayers, their own “spirituality”, religion, good morals, good ethics, creeds, traditions, churches, saints, prophets, ministers, and not in God and His Word. God’s power is the only thing that can change this world, and it is released by faith. I had a good friend that was a devout Christian. He was battling a terminal disease for over a year. The doctors put him through Hell for their own profit, but no profit to him. I told him that he needed to deal with the issue in the spiritual realm where the real problem is, but he wouldn’t believe me. Instead he told me, “I am trusting in the prayers of others.” Well, I don’t try to convince people of anything. If they can’t see the truth when it is presented to them, and they are not willing to ask, seek, and knock till they find the truth they need for results, they deserve to stay in the dark. “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear” Jesus said over and over. It was sad, but of course he died, and it wasn’t because people weren’t praying for him. It was because his trust was misplaced. His trust was in “people’s prayers”, but he did not have confidence that Jesus would heal him! God’s power is released in response to faith in the Person of Jesus Christ. His trust was in Jesus for salvation, so he didn’t go to Hell, God received him, but the enemy took his life from the Earth by sickness and disease! Trusting in anything or anybody besides God and His Word is idolatry. The enemy knows this, so he has been peddling his worldly vanities, false religions, and false doctrines in so-called “churches” for ages, and multitudes have been descending into Hell, sick, demon possessed, and impoverished! Many so-called “ministers” teach eternal salvation through faith in Jesus, but very few teach faith in Jesus for anything else. They are so afraid of teaching the whole counsel of God’s Word, because their hearts are not integrated with His Word and they are powerless! They stay on “eternal truths” where no one can prove them wrong. Yet all of Jesus’ miracles in the Bible were healing, deliverance, and prosperity for those that came to Him in faith, things that can be proven in this world. (Acts 10:38)
The objective of all prayer is grace (God’s ability) and truth (God’s perspective) for yourself or somebody else. However, you must be willing to believe and obey the light given to you in answer to your prayers, or even your prayers are an abomination to God. (Proverbs 28:9) God enlightens us by His Word to see through His perspective, and empowers us by His Spirit to do what He would do. Many people love to pray and put all of the responsibility over on God, but they don’t like to be told that they need to correct themselves, change, and grow up in maturity. Praying is good in its rightful place, but how many parents would like to keep feeding, clothing, and making decisions for their 30 year old child? God’s objective is to form all of His children into Christ-likeness. So He answers our prayers immediately when we are spiritual babies, just like any good parent attends to the cries of their newborn, but when it comes time for us to grow up into maturity, He stops answering our prayers quickly. Just like a good parent starts making their children feed and clothe themselves, and take responsibility. As we grow He provides more revelation of truth so that we will take more responsibility to operate by faith in His Word, and develop the character and competence necessary to fulfill His original plan. (Exodus 14:15-18) The first Adam did not take the responsibility of leadership in his family. He allowed the enemy to seduce his wife right before his face, and then acted like a perverse wimp following his deceived wife in rebellion against God’s Word. He lost his relationship with God, his authority, and his dominion. The Second Adam took responsibility for Himself, walked in dominion and authority, defeated the attacks of the enemy, and finished all of His Father’s will for His life.
Where in the Bible did Jesus ever pray for God to change things? He never asked God to change things in this world. The whole reason He came into this world was “to do” the Father’s Will. He did not pray for God to change things, He prayed for revelation of the Father’s will and strength to change things with the Father’s power. When His disciples could not cast a demon out of a little boy, Jesus rebuked them publicly calling them a “faithless and perverse generation.” God expects His children to live in a covenant relationship with Him, learn His heart, mind, ways, and will, exercise authority, walk in dominion on the Earth, ruling on His behalf, “changing things” with His power, just like His Son Jesus modeled for us. (Psalm 40:7-8) (1 Timothy 2:14) (Genesis 3:17-19) (Matthew 17:14-21)
