What is prayer?
There are many explanations of what prayer
is, they are all correct. Because prayer is manifold, it has different purposes
at different times. For some it is, praying for their needs to God.
For some it is praying for
others, for some just simply being with him thinking about him, worshiping and
adoring him, for some it is waiting on Him to experience His tangible presence
and to the listen to His voice. Here in this chapter I would like explain to
you in simple terms what actually prayer is.
First and foremost prayer is talking
to God. It is basically expressing your heart and spending time talking with
God, the Creator. The most common type
of praying is speaking to God; it is petitioning to God their needs or in other
words supplicating their wants to the Heavenly Father. This is a type of
praying that has been approved by heaven. This kind of praying has been prayed
by the prophets, the kings and the priests in the Old Testament.
In the New Testament we also find Jesus praying in this manner.
And we are also commanded by the Scriptures to pray the prayers of petition and
supplication.
“Do not worry about anything, but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be
made known to God...,” (Philippians 4:6).
For some prayer is just being with
him, worshiping and adoring Him. Calmly sitting at the feet of Jesus and gazing
at his face by faith.
“As an apple tree among the trees of
the wood, so is my beloved among young me. With great delight I sat in his
shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting
house, and his intention towards me was love,” (Song of Solomon 2:3, 4).
For some prayer is not a one way action,
God speaks, they listen. They speak and God listens to our voice and talks back.
Conversational prayer is like talking to a friend; you talk for some time, and
keep silent to listen to what he or she has to say.
“Moses said to the Lord, “See, you
have said to me, ‘Bring up this people; but you have not let me know....The
Lord said to Moses, I will do the very thing that you have asked; Moses said,
“Show me your glory, I pray.”... “And he said, “I will.....”(Exodus 33:12-23).
For some prayer is spiritual warfare
praying. They keep wresting in prayer for the will of God to be established on
earth and in the hearts of men.
“Ep-aphras, who is one of you, a
servant of Christ Jesus, greets you. He is always wrestling in his prayers on
your behalf, so that you may stand mature and fully assured in everything that
God wills,” (Colossians 4:12).
For some praying is just “resting in
him” or just “soaking” in the tangible presence of God.
“Come to me, all you that are weary
and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest, “(Mathew 11:28).
All types of praying are a necessity
in our life; we need to learn to move as the Spirit prompts us in prayer.
“In the
New Covenant, prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their
Father who is good beyond measure, with his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy
Spirit. The grace of the Kingdom is "the union of the entire holy and
royal Trinity. . . with the whole human spirit,” (2565).*
The Bible tells us God is Spirit, and Bible also tells us that God
created man in His image, as God is
triune, God has also made man tripartite, we have a spirit, a soul and a body.
As somebody said man is a spirit being having a soul and living in a body.
“May the God of peace himself
sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and
blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2Thessalonians 5:23).
So we see man is spirit, soul and
body, and God desires that the spirit, soul and body be kept sound and blame
less. We also need to understand that the spirit and soul are not one.
“Indeed, the word of God is living
and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints and
marrow, it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews
4:12).
We find here that the spirit and soul can be separated. That it proves
that the soul and the spirit are not one.
The soul is the realm of our mind, emotions and will. The spirit and the
soul have to be separated in order to become a spiritual man. The all powerful
word of God can do it.
The Bible speaks a few words about
our spirit,
“...Thus says the Lord, who stretched out the
heavens and founded the earth and formed the human spirit within.”(Zechariah
12:1). The human spirit within us, was formed and placed within us by God
And Bible tells us “God yearns
jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? (James 4:5). God has a great desire for fellowship with the
spirit he has made to dwell in us.
“The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord, searching every
inner post part,” (Proverbs 20: 27). The human spirit within us is the lamp
that the Lord has placed with us to communicate with us.
We need to always remember, that we are a spirit being. The potentiality
of the human spirit within us is great. The human spirit can commune with God.
When God created man, he put the spirit into man. “He endowed them with
strength like his own, and made them in his own image,” (Sirach 17:3).
When God created man he did not put the Holy Spirit into man, but the
human spirit into man.
The
word used in Hebrew for the word ‘breath’ is
neshâmâh (nesh-aw-maw')
which means a puff, vital breath, soul , spirit.
The
Bible tells us that God...“….breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life, and the man became a living being….,”(Genesis2:7). The Hebrew
word used here is neshamah not ruach.
The word ruach (roo'-akh) is not used
here, the word ruach is used for the word “Spirit” of God. The Bible tells us “the earth was formless and
void and darkness covered the face of the deep. While the Spirit (ruach) of God
swept over the face of the waters,” (Genesis 1:2).
That means that God
had not deposited the Holy Spirit in man when he created man. God put the
spirit, which God calls the “the human spirit” in man.
“...Thus
says the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed
the human spirit within.”(Zechariah 12:1).
Our
Spirit can pray. (1Corinthians 14:14)
Our
Spirit can rejoice. (Luke 1: 46-47)
Our
Spirit can serve. (Romans 1:9)
Our
Spirit witnesses in us. (Romans 8:16)
As I have said in the beginning of
this chapter that prayer is simply communing with God, our spirit speaking to
God. Prayer is our spirit talking to God who is Spirit.
Prayer is utterances from deep of our human spirit to the deepest heart of God.
That is what Bible tells “deep calls
to deep” and that is what the Bible says that you must worship God in the
spirit and truth.
And we need to learn from the
doyens of prayer, what prayer actually is.
“While
I was speaking, and was praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my
people Israel, and presenting my
supplication before the Lord my God on behalf of the holy mountain of my God,
while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel....,”(Daniel 9:20-21).
Here we see that praying is communing with God or in other words speaking to
God.
We
need to understand that prayer in its basics is imploring the Lord. The
synonyms for the word imploring is pleading, begging, entreating, and
petitioning.
“But
Moses implored the Lord his God, and said.....,” (Genesis 32:11).
We
need to go to the Father, and tell everything that is in our mind, our pains,
our needs, things that trouble us, confuse us and hurt us.
“Trust
in the Lord at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God
is a refuge for us,” (Psalms 62:8).
We
must learn to pour out our heart to him, who loves us, we must see in faith as
David saw “I saw the Lord always before me...,”(Acts 25) and pour out
everything, placing everything before the Lord in prayer, is what the heavenly Father
desires.
Our
prayers can be priestly, where we humbly petition for our lives and others.
“O
Lord, I pray, let the Lord go with us...” (Exodus 34:9).
Our
prayers can be kingly, where we can command things to take place in
ourselves and others.
“On
that day when the Lord gave the Amorities over to the Israelities, Joshua spoke
to the Lord; and he said in the sight of Israel. “Sun, stand still...And the
sun stood still..,.” “Joshua 10:12-14).
Prayer
time includes praise and worship, ongoing repentance, thanking God, reading and
meditating on the word, praying for yourself and praying for others.
Praying
time includes, praying vocally, loudly, singing,
dancing, praying in tongues,
praying the word, praying the rosary, praying in silence, meditating and
contemplating.
It
is not necessary, to have all this type of praying at all the prayer times. If
you are a person who is beginning to have a prayer schedule, you need to have a
time table to discipline yourself; you need to get grounded in the basics of
prayer.
It
is always good to have a diary of your own, where you can write down the things
that you have prayed for, so that when the answers come, you can thank God.
Antony Thomas, Author, Holy Spirit:The Reality of His Presence,
Holy Spirit, I love You.
When We Pray: Be renewed by the Power of Prayer,
antonythomas.in
antony3000@gmail.com.
www.facebook.com/antonythomas.750
