Experience the Power of PrayerThe Power of Prayer raises many questions in some people's minds. Some people pray and their prayers are not answered. Other people pray, and some of their prayers are answered but many are not.
Researchers have studied prayer and most have found no measurable effect from prayer.
What is going on?
The power from prayer is not the result of the person praying. Rather, the power resides in our God who we are praying to.
God answers prayers that are in agreement with His will.
His answers are not always yes, but are always in our best interest.
There is power in prayer when our desires line up with His will - we will come to understand that in time. When we pray passionately and purposefully, according to God's will, God responds powerfully!
We cannot access powerful prayer by using "magic formulas." Receiving an answer to prayer is not based on the eloquence, fervency or style of our prayers. We don't have to use certain words or phrases to get God to answer our prayers.
The Word of God is full of accounts describing the power of prayer in various situations. Yet, we see the church today viewed as nearly powerless, and certainly insignificant, by the vast majority of people. Most people are not seeing anything they want to be a part of in the church.
We must come back to some basic understandings of the power of prayer or the power of our God.
How do we do that?
Here are several things we need to understand.
First, God will not tolerate sin.
Next, God will not tolerate anyone receiving credit or glory except Him.
Third, God will not honor anything or anyone that does not give all honor to Him.
Forth, God will not honor unbelief or double mindedness.
Fifth, we also need to understand what a True believer is and become one.
A True Believer is a person who abides in Christ.
“Abiding in” means to be attached to and surrounded by, whatever it is you are abiding in. When you abide in Christ, it means that you are attached to Christ, surrounded by Christ, in Christ and a part of Christ. Just like the branch abides in the vine. This is a heart issue. We must know that we know in our heart and not in our head.
Christ is the vine, and the true believer is the branch; the branch starts out as a sprout, grows, and matures into a fruit-bearing branch. We must know that we have to mature in our faith to be able to bear fruit.
In a person's life, we have no way of knowing or measuring how mature the person's heart is in Christ. Even if we see no fruit, the person may be a baby in Christ just as a sprout is growing, and not bearing fruit.
However, so many very good people in churches today do all the right things but have never been told they must repent of their sin and believe IN THEIR HEART that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Many believe in their LOGICAL HEAD but have no clue how to believe in their heart.
ToBELIEVE IN YOUR HEART you must abide in Christ. You must surround yourself with his word, you must struggle to draw near to Him, you must cry out to him to make Himself known to you, you must seek Him with everything that is in you – then you will find Him and you will know Him in your heart.
You can’t compromise with the world on who you are in Him. You must desire Him and give time to finding Him.
This is too much for many so-called Christians, those who profess to be Christian but do not abide in Christ in their heart. It means giving up more then many so-called Christians are willing to give up.
Doesn’t that break your heart? It does God’s.
If you want to see and experience the power of prayer, you must get the above things straight in your heart (NOT IN YOUR LOGICAL HEAD!). We must abide in Christ and only pray what is the will of God.
Following are several other points on the Power of Prayer.
1. The Power of Prayer is dependent on faith. Matthew 21:22 (NIV) Luke 23:42 (NIV) John 14:13 (NIV) 1 John 5:14-15 (NIV) Matthew 17:20 (NIV) Note this about the “mustard seed”: (1) ...it's a Whole Faith - When the mustard seed drops into the ground, it drops as a whole kernel or seed. Likewise, our faith in the gospel of Christ must be planted and rooted in the "whole" gospel, not mere parts of it. For example, the disciples believe the Jesus was the Son of the Living God, the Savior, but they didn't believe that he would be allowed to die on the cross. Their faith lacked power when they only believed in part.
(2)...it's a Faith that Grows (matures). When a mustard seed grows it can potentially reach anywhere between 2 and 20 feet tall. The mature mustard tree is one that provides a place for others to nest, and it produces seeds that birds carry and eventually drop in other places to produce more trees. When our faith matures, others may find comfort and rest in it. Likewise, we must carry and deposit (through our testimony) our seeds of faith so they can grow and mature in others.
(3) ..It’s a Faith that Removes Mountains - Mountain is a metaphor for an "extreme difficulty". It is only when we believe the whole truth about who God is and what He can, and has already done, that we have the power to remove mountains or difficulties.
2. The Power of Prayer is increased by fasting:
Matthew 17:21 (NKJV) 3. The Power of Prayer Is Unlimited to those who abide in Christ
John 15:7 (NIV) Acts 4:31 (NIV) 4. The power of Prayer should be accompanied by praise to be most effective
Acts 16:25-26 (NIV)
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