Cultivating a Life of Prayer
Principles in Prayer

Article IV

There are several different principles that are vital regarding prayer. Learning how to pray effectively is one of the most important things a believer can do in his or her Christian walk.

There are many reasons why to pray: If you want to cultivate a close relationship with the Lord, be successful in your Christian walk, and fulfill God’s purpose for your life are only a few reasons why we need to cultivate our prayer life. The most important, however, is because God desires to have a close fellowship with His creation. He desires to be worshipped and praised, communing with those He loves.

This lesson will center on several principles in prayer that are important for all believers to know and understand:

1. You Must Ask to Receive

The requirement that you must ask to receive may seem elementary; however, there are many people who only hope and expect something to happen. We must be mindful that God is limited by our prayers; in other words, if we don’t ask, we will not receive. Yes, God knows our heart, and also yes, we have to ask. He is limited by our prayers.

Mat 7:7-8 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

What is it you want from God? Could it be healing, prosperity, the salvation of a loved one? Maybe what you want from God is a new job, or protection from the enemy. As sincere as your prayers may be, there are certain conditions to receiving answers to prayer. Let’s look at those conditions:

2. Know the Will of God in Prayer

What is the will of God? What is His will for you? How is it that you can know His will? It is important to know that you can always trust that God’s Word is His will. Your Bible becomes your written instruction, or your road map, to success in your life. That means to be effective in prayer, a Christian needs to spend time in the Scriptures getting to know God and His will; that takes cultivating over a period of time.

Let me ask you a question. Can one be a Christian without spending time in the Word of God? The answer is yes! Let me ask you another question. Can you be an effective Christian without spending time in God’s Word? The answer is absolutely no! You cannot become an overcomer of the things of the world and your flesh unless you come to know God and are obedient to His Word.

God’s Word is His will

God wrote His Word for us, for our benefit, for our success, and to overcome every failure that would try to come against us. Your Bible was written for you – individually and corporately so you can know God's will and understand the powers of the enemy to be an over-comer. In order to pray God's will, you need to know God's will. You find God’s will in His Word – because God’s Word is His will.

We need to know what God is saying about a specific prayer that we are praying. We do that by searching out our answers in the Word of God. We need to find out what the promises of God are in His Word.

Examples of prayers

What if you are praying for healing in your body? What is a Scripture verse you can lean on as truth?

1 Pet 2:24 …By Jesus’ stripes you are healed.

What if you don’t have the finances to pay for your mortgage this month?

• Eph 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us…
• Phil 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: Phil 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

What if you are praying for the salvation of a parent or a child?

• Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

What if you are praying for protection?

• Psa 91:1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

There are over 200 promises to claim in God’s Word. In prayer, God wants us to remind Him of His promises. Reminding God, however, of his promises and benefits are not for God’s benefit to hear, but ours. God created us in such a way that every time we remind Him of what His promises are, we speak it out loud and then we hear ourselves speak, which then in turn builds up our faith to believe - which takes us to the next principle.

3. Pray in faith

Faith begins where the will of God is known. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God.

Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Let’s settle on this verse briefly. When this scripture was written by the Apostle Paul, there was very little written New Testament Word about faith in Who Jesus is, what He has done for us, and the promises He has given to us. The Apostles Paul, Peter, James, and Jude had written a few epistles to the churches, but they were not in wide circulation at the time they were first written. It took time for their writings to be circulated among the churches throughout Asia Minor and finally over to Rome.

In its inception, the epistles were letters addressed to certain churches and then circulated around to a group of churches where the pastors read them in his weekly sermons. The people in the congregations heard the messages and their faith was built. For centuries, people “heard” the Word of God and then grew in their faith. It wasn’t until recent centuries that people have been able to take copies of the epistles home to read for themselves. The Apostle Paul was accurate when he said “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”

Even when the Old Testament writings were written, they were not in circulation to the common people. They were locked in synagogues or the temple and used for reading when they gathered together for worship so they could hear what was written.

Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Out of the heart the mouth speaks

An Old Testament writing states that out of the heart, the mouth speaks. We speak from what lies in our heart, which tells us that we must be careful what we speak. The more we place good things into our mouth, the more our hearts will grow in those things. The more our hearts grow in the good things of the Lord, the more we will speak them out from our mouth. It becomes a circular motion – hear, speak, hear, speak, etc.

Joshua wrote in his writings that we should speak forth the Word of God.

Josh 1: 8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Meditating on the Word of God

The above scripture doesn’t sound like it says to speak the Word of God, but it really does. The word “meditate” means far more than to think or imagine. Actually, it means to “mutter” over and over so you can hear yourself think. It can be demonstrating best by explaining how a cow chews its cud. The cow chews, swallows, regurgitates, chews some more, swallows, regurgitates some more. Over and over the animal does this same process until its cud can be digested to give the proper nourishment to the cow’s life. In the same way, we need to meditate on the Word of God. As you think, you mutter or speak it out to yourself, and just as soon as it comes back to memory, which could be right away or later during the day, you meditate (or mutter) on that Scripture again. You end up thinking on it again and again, which means you are muttering, or speaking it out, again and again - over and over until it can be digested and give you the proper spiritual nourishment for you to grow.

The Apostle Peter wrote, “if a man speaks, let him speak the oracles of God.”

1 Pet 4:11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.

Speak to your problems

Mark 11:23-24 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Jesus told us to speak to the mountains (problems in life) in a firm and positive way. When your words are spoken in faith they must be strong enough to move mountains. At that point, problems will change for the better or dissipated.

Today, we have the written Word of God to read and then speak. We have wonderful books to read that teach us about God’s wor. Today, just as before, we can hear the written and spoken Word in church and speak it out to receive the benefits for successful living.

The Word of God comes in many forms

We have the Word of God available to us in many different forms. We can listen to the Word of God on tapes and CD’s at home, in the car, jogging, or just about anywhere. We can listen to sermons that preach about the Word of God in the same way. We can hear the same sermon throughout the week by just buying the tape, or even some churches provide their sermons on the web via mp3 recordings.

We can speak out the Word of God when we read, or hear - we can then meditate on the Word of God from many difference sources. Over and over again, we read, hear, meditate and then act on the Word of God.

If the Apostle Paul wrote Romans 10:17 today he might have said something like this: “Faith comes by reading, meditation, hearing and speaking the Word of God over and over and over again”

Have confidence in the Word of God

We are not going to have confidence in our prayers until we know that what we pray is the will of God. We must read the Word of God to know God’s will, and when we know His will, we can then have the confidence that what we pray for is His will because it is the Word of God. Our faith is then built up.

1 John 5:1-15 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

Come with boldness to the throne room of God in prayer

God has told us that we can confidently, with boldness, have access to His throne room. We need to grab onto God’s promises from His Word, and confidently come to Him in prayer. In our prayers we come to His throne room as we present our prayers to God. It is important that we make every prayer a statement of faith not a fearful begging.

Eph 3:12-14 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him…For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4. Seek First the Kingdom of God

Have you ever noticed that the ones who get their prayers answers are the ones who appear to lead righteous, holy lives? Leading a righteous life means not living in sin, as much as you are aware of at the time. When you do sin, and we all do, you can immediately confess your sins and then purpose to stop sinning.

We grow by submitting ourselves to the Word of God and conforming our thoughts to what God says. We then become more successful and effective in prayer.

Mat 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

James 5:16 …The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

(The Amplified version of this last verse says: the prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available dynamic in its working.)

You don’t get your prayers answered by how good you have been. You get answers to prayer based on your faith in God’s Word and on who you are in Christ. The more you conform to the Word of God, the greater faith you have, and the more you learn of who you are in Christ.

You are righteous before God

It was mentioned in a previous lesson that God considered all believers saints. You are already righteous before God because of your new birth in Christ, meaning you have right standing with God because of what Jesus has already done for you. It happened the very moment you became born again. Until your faith, however, gets built up to where you understand who you are in Christ, the privileges you possess because of Christ will probably not be experienced because you are spiritually weak in faith and action. You need to keep building yourself in the Word of God until your faith is built strong and you learn to lean on the power of prayer. Prayer and the Word of God go together.

Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

It was brought out in a previous lesson the importance of the balance of prayer and the Word of God. If you are a person who reads the Word of God more than you pray, you run the risk of becoming judgmental. If you pray more than you read the Word of God you run the risk of becoming off balance in your thinking. To be a balanced Christian, and that also means being able to receive answers in prayer, you need both the Word of God and prayer operating in your life equally.

5. Use Fervency in Prayer

Fervent means heartfelt, really praying from your heart. Rote prayers are ineffective; so are written prayers if done in a rote fashion. Rote prayers are those prayers learned from memory, r just spoken from the mind, but not experienced in the heart. Such prayers as: “ Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done…”. is prayed more from memory than from the heart. With this prayer, Jesus had told His disciples to “pray like this.” He didn’t mean to pray “this” – but “like this.” Any other rote prayer will have the same effect. God wants us to simply pray from our heart.

James 5:16 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

6. When You Petition – Pray to the Father

When we petition or ask for anything, we are to pray to the “Father.” We can pray to Jesus, or even the Holy Spirit at other times, but when we are “asking for something,” we go right to God our Father. The Bible says that it is the Father Whom we are to pray to. Jesus says that the only way to get to the Father is “through Him.”

John 14:6 I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father, except through Me.

Jesus said that when you ask for something in prayer, don’t ask Him. You must ask the Father.

John 16:23-24 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name, ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

Eph 3:14-15 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.

An example in prayer

When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He said, pray like this:

Matt. 6:9 Our Father, which art in heaven...

Jesus did not mean that we simply pray what we know as the Lord’s Prayer, but use this prayer as an example for our prayers to the Father.

7. Use the Name of Jesus as Your Authority in Prayer

Because it is through Jesus and His shed blood for us that we come to God, it is on Jesus’ authority we can pray to God.

John 16:23-24 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my have: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

That does not simply mean we tag on the name of Jesus at the end. Many people without thought just say “in Jesus name” at the end of every prayer. It is important to understand that His name is our authority to come to the Father. If it wasn’t for what Jesus did for us on the cross, we could not have access to the Father God in heaven.

Use the name of Jesus frequently as you pray as your authority, but address your prayers to the Father.

Unscriptural terms in prayer

Never pray for Jesus’ sake. I ask you this question. For whose sake are you praying? It isn’t Jesus’. He doesn’t need help – we do. We pray for our sake. Another wrong phrase is using the wording “in Christ’s name.” There is no where is scripture does it say to pray in Christ’s name. We are to prayer in the name of Jesus.

When you make a petition for anything, start your prayer out by saying “Dear Father.” Then use the name of Jesus as your authority, whether it is during or at the end, or both. His name is the key – because His name gives the authority. If you want your prayers answered, do it right.

8. Use the Holy Spirit in Prayer

The person of the Holy Spirit could easily cover a full course and more. We are, however, going to take only a small portion of this lesson to discuss the Holy Spirit in prayer. More will be discussed on the Holy Spirit in the course “The Holy Spirit in Prayer.”

You become “one” with Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit

When you become born again or saved, the Holy Spirit entered into your spirit. In other words, when you come to believe and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, believing all that He has done for you, the Holy Spirit comes into your human spirit to reside. You and Christ have become “one” through the power of the Holy Spirit now residing within you. A phrase often used for that experience is called the New Birth. At the New Birth, the seed of the Holy Spirit takes up residency within your spirit, desiring to fellowship with you and change your life.

Your conscience, which resides within your human spirit now becomes the voice of God. It is a very still small voice living within you to help guide you in your life. To hear and respond to that guidance, however, it can only happen as you release the control of your soulish area – meaning your mind, will, and emotions over to God by the renewing of your mind to the Word of God.

Your soul needs to be renewed

The area of your soul, containing your mind, will, and emotions, has been conditioned by your environment, seared from the sensitivity of the Holy Spirit within your human spirit. Your soulish area has been conditioned by a lifetime of thinking, habits, and way of life. It needs to be renewed – renewed by the Word of God and to the Word of God.

Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

When a person comes to Christ through the New Birth, that person comes carrying a lifetime of baggage that needs to be renewed to the Word of God. The entrance of the Holy Spirit is only the beginning of the transformation of what needs to happen in the new believer. The soulish area needs to be renewed – renewed by the Word of God. That takes time.

Most new Christians pray out of their soulish area, meaning the mind, will, and emotions. That is all they know how to pray when they first come to God. Sad to say, many Christians live a lifetime simply praying out of their souls. God, instead, wants us to go into our human spirit to reach God through the power of Holy Spirit Who now dwells within. It is a spirit to spirit communication.

John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Since the Holy Spirit lives within our human spirit, He reaches out to commune with us, but He communes with our spirits. Inside of us, deep within our spirits, the voice of God will come forth. God’s Spirit within us wants to commune with our human spirit. By listening attentively, we can hear His voice from deep within. It isn’t any audible voice from outside of us, but a still small voice within communicating what we need to know. It is here where we find the throne room of God – deep within our spirits. Once we yield over our mind, will, and emotions to our human spirit, we reach the throne room of God, allowing the Holy Spirit to communes within us.

Worshipping the Lord in the throne room

Many Christians try to worship God through their soulish realm. Many simply sing religious songs, or use terms of endearment as a religious act or ritual, never coming near to the throne room of God. God, however, wants us to enter into the throne room of our hearts to find ourselves in the presence of God. In the place where the Holy Spirit has joined our human spirit, the Lord wants to meet with us. The Holy Spirit has become our avenue to God. In the throne room of God, within our human spirit, is where God wants us to worship with Him. Worshipping the Lord – loving and adoring Him, praising and thanking Him for His goodness is done from within. If it is not, it is simply a religious ritual.

John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

We pray “to the Father” “in the name of Jesus,” and “by the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within our human spirit.” We commune and love God through the power of the Holy Spirit within. He is our connection to God.

We need the Holy Spirit’s help in prayer

The Bible tells us that when we pray, we don’t know how to pray as we ought. Our minds can reach out to God with prayers that we desire to pray out. Often, however, we don’t know how to pray. Because the Holy Spirit lives within our human spirit, He can pray through us. He searches our heart, knowing the cry of our heart, what we truly need, and then He prays through us to the Father according to His will – not ours.

Rom 8:26-27 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Inside a believer is a longing to reach God in a way that our intellectual minds are unable to attain. It is a deep cry within. Because the Holy Spirit lives within, the human cry is to commune with God. God planned it that way.

Praying in the Holy Spirit

Although this will be discussed in great detail in another course, it should be briefly stated here that part of the help that the Holy Spirit gives in our prayer life is to pray “through” us to God the Father. It is done by an utterance that is not the native tongue of the believer. It is a deep cry from within. Some call it the prayer of angels, praying in the Holy Spirit, or as some refer as to praying in tongues. Obtaining this wonderful gift of God will be explained in the course “The Holy Spirit in Prayer.”

When we pray in another language, foreign to our native tongue, it is the Holy Spirit praying through us as we give utterance to God however He wants to speak through us. When we intercede to God through the Holy Spirit, with groanings that cannot be uttered in articulate speech, it is the Holy Spirit groaning or praying through us. When we don’t know how to pray, it is the Holy Spirit within us praying the perfect prayer. We don’t know what we have prayed, but it was God within (through the Holy Spirit) to pray to Father God in heaven.

9. Pray Specific when Praying for People

A term used when praying for others is “intercession.” Intercessory prayer means you are standing in the gap between another person(s) and God. You are praying for others.

When you pray for others, you need to be specific. Don’t just pray, God bless the starving children over in Africa, or save my family. Christians need to learn the secret of intercessory prayer. It is important to pray for people by name. Don’t lump them together and put them into a group. Don’t just pray that God will save souls – because God already did that through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Intercession means claiming people’s salvation for God, praying that God would bring laborers to that specific person. Call out their names to God in prayer, claiming their souls in the name of Jesus. Be specific when you are praying for others.

10. The Prayer of Faith Won’t Always Work for Others

When we pray for other people, we must remember that God gave us a free will to choose or reject Him and His ways. That is how He created us. You cannot expect God to change the minds of people. Because He created us with a free will, we must honor that by allowing others to make their own choices as well. God can reveal truth, but He can’t make them change. God can put the right laborers in their path to speak to them or situations that can assist them make choices, but ultimately, people still make their own decisions.

If we are praying for someone’s salvation, we can’t force salvation on them with our prayers. It is our prayers that go to the Father. The Father does a work in their heart, He can bring laborers in their path, but if that person refuses, we can’t do anything more but continue to pray. God is the one who brings a person to a decision, but that decision must be freely made. If you are praying for someone’s healing, and if that person refuses to believe that God can heal them, chances are that person will not get healed.

The comforting thought is that God is at work to do His will in the person we are interceding for. He provides the right circumstances, people, and opportunity to get our prayers answered.

White witchcraft prayers

If you think you can change a person by the prayers you pray, you border on what is referred to as white witchcraft prayers. Always remember, God created everyone with the gift of choice. A person may not be making the right choices, but it is still their right to make. God provides opportunities for people to make the right choice, but it is still up to the individual to follow through to make the necessary changes in their life.

11. Use the ACTS principle in prayer

There was something that I learned as a little child in regards to the order of prayer. It has been helpful to me throughout the years. It isn’t something to be legalist about, but it does help to orderly pray to God.

A........C.........T..........S

• A = Adoration Spend time worshiping the Lord
• C = Confession Confess any known sin to your heavenly Father
• T = Thanksgiving Don't forget to thank God for what He has already done for you.
• S= Supplication Supplication is asking God for something.

12. The Principle of Binding and Loosening

The principle of binding and loosening in prayer is something that all Christians need to be

aware. We have authority over the devil and all of his demons – to bind them and all of their powers when we pray. Jesus gave us that authority because He knew we would need it.

Matt. 18:18 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

It is important to know that when we use our authority over Satan we are not praying to him - we are commanding him. Praying belongs to God, not Satan. We bind the devil's powers through our authority in the shed blood of Jesus by commanding him to loose what belongs to us using the name of Jesus. Soft requests will do little good. We must firmly command him to let go of his hold – release his grip. We must use our authority. Satan may try to fight back, but he has to give up eventually because we have commanded him, using the strong authority of the name and blood of Jesus.

Mark 16:17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils…

13. Unforgiveness Hinders Ours Prayers

Mat 6:14-15 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Answered prayer will be hindered in an unforgiving heart. Even though it may seem understandable to hold an offense against somebody who has hurt you, you can’t afford to harbor any offense.

Forgiveness is an action, not a feeling

Forgiveness is an action, not a feeling. In other words - if you make the decision to purposely forgive someone, the feelings will eventually come. The feelings may not come right away, but just know they will come. Forgiveness is a decision that you make, and when you make it, you choose to act upon it.

I once had to deal with unforgiveness of someone who caused extreme damage to our family. I certainly did not want to forgive that person. I would have rather had God punish him instead. I knew instead that I had to forgive. The Word of God had revealed very clear that I must forgive. I made the choice to forgive, even though I had no feelings of forgiveness. I told the Lord that I forgave that person. I also told Him that I didn’t feel like forgiving, but, regardless, I made the choice to forgive. In the beginning I repeated those words of forgiveness several times a day. Every time I felt ugly feelings of unforgiveness toward that person rear up in me, I repeated the words of forgiveness to the Lord. In time, my choice of forgiveness turned to feelings of pity for that person. It took a total of six years before I totally felt forgiveness. That seemed like a long time to continuously purpose to forgive someone whom I had no feelings of forgiveness for, but it was well worth the effort. I didn’t have to live in unforgiveness – I was released from those bitter feelings. I only felt pity for that person’s lack of realizing what he had done. The day I chose to confess forgiveness with my mouth, forgiveness was granted unto me. It was those words of forgiveness that carried me through until the feelings of forgiveness came.

14. Persistent Prayers

How many times should we pray the same prayer? Some people say pray only once. Others say pray until it is answered. Let’s look at the Word of God to answer that question.

Mark 11: 23-24 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Pray believing! That is a key element to how often to pray. If you don't quite believe when you pray, you are still in hope and not in belief. The above scripture states that when you pray, you must believe. It is when you believe you will then receive. If you keep pleading with God to answer your prayer and then the answer is not manifested, you subconsciously will feel defeated as you continually plead for answered prayer. But if you ask once and then thank the Lord for the answered prayer, it lifts you up until one day you will believe. So after you pray, then thank and thank and thank the Lord until your prayers are manifested. When you do this, you are continuously building your faith.

Miraculous prayer answers

Often people will pray one giant prayer, such as: God heal me! You may discover that this one giant prayer should be enforced by a thousand little prayers along the way. This can eventually bring on the manifestation of that one giant prayer. Example of that could be - if you are believing for healing, you might be praying for an improvement on a test, a rise in your blood count, symptoms to lesson, pain to decrease, or a myriad of other things. If you pray these many prayers while waiting for the manifestation of healing, you will discover that one day you are totally healed.

Pray without ceasing

The Bible says we are to pray without ceasing throughout the day. What that means is that our minds should be a continual prayer all day long to God. You don't just say a prayer in the morning, but you are talking to God all day long. Little "popcorn" prayers are wonderful. You speak to God, and He in turn converses with you in return. That is what conversation is all about. An earthly example would be: You don’t just talk to your spouse once in the morning or at night before you go to sleep, but much preferably all day long. You sometimes have long and lengthy conversations, and sometimes little sentences. That is a relationship with fellowship.

15. The Best Time to Pray

While there is no hard and fast rule, an important principle is to go to God in prayer in the morning to receive His direction for your life that day. If you give God the first part of the day in prayer, His will, and His plan manifests in your life that day. How your day goes has its basis in prayer. Everything in your life has its basis in prayer.

16. Accept Your Responsibility in Prayer

Many people want to relieve themselves from all responsibility in prayer – in other words, if their prayers don’t get answered, they blame God. They think God carries the whole responsibility for unanswered prayer. That is wrongful thinking. We must be aware that we have to take on our own responsibility for our prayers.

Often people wonder why they haven’t been healed. The Bible tells us that Jesus is our healer, and He already healed us 2000 years ago when He took on the 39 strips and hung on the cross. That means healing has already happened. We must then understand that it is up to us to believe and receive it. This is how prayer is manifested. People think that certain prayers have yet to be answered, but when it comes to what Jesus did for us – our prayers were already answered 2000 years ago. It is our belief that hasn’t connected yet. That can take time.

Whenever there is doubt or fear, you are in unbelief. It isn’t God’s unbelief – but yours. Also, if you are believing for your healing and you neglect your body and get sick, why would you blame God? Put blame where blame is due – on yourself.

Praying for others

What if you are praying for healing or salvation for someone else and it doesn’t happen? We must remember that the person you are praying for has a free will. If you are praying for salvation and he or she refuses, choosing to go against God’s will, why would you blame God? God won’t violate the free will of choice.

Healing is a difficult manifestation to believe for with many Christians. So many Christians do not have a level of faith that brings them to belief in answered prayer, particularly in the area of healing or prosperity. They may think God could answer other peoples’ prayers, but not theirs. Take your faith to God on their behalf. Your faith carries power. God may miraculously heal that person because of your prayers. Should that person not be healed, you cannot blame God for the lack of healing because the Word of God tells us that we receive by faith. Their faith holds a vital key for their healing.

It takes time to build faith. It becomes difficult to believe in the midst of a bad report, pain and suffering. This is why it is so important to build up your faith while you are healthy. When or if a bad report comes, you already have a large repository of healing scriptures on the inside of you to keep you pumped up in belief. Your belief system is then conditioned to choose healing instead of the bad report.

17. Don’t Un-do Your Prayers

Many times people undo their prayers by the words they speak. You can effectively pray, but you can also undo every prayer prayed by speaking negatively against the very things you prayed. An example would be if you were praying for finances to come forth. Then as soon as you stopped praying, you started saying how broke you are – believing that you will never get enough money to pay for whatever you had prayed for. Then you wonder why the money doesn’t come forth – why your prayers are not working for you.

What good does it do to pray if you speak against the very prayers you have been praying. You wind up criticizing what God is supposed to be doing for you. You wind up confessing that God really isn’t working on your behalf, nullifying your prayers. All of your prayers spoken were then for naught.

Another example would be if you are a parent, and you child has turned rebellious. You pray to God that your child would obey you. In the meantime, however, you tell your child that he or she is terrible and will never amount to anything. You just undid your prayers by your negative words toward your child. Many people then blame God for not answering their prayer.

Worrying is another way to nullify your prayers. You spend a lot of time and effort to go before God to ask for something. Then after you pray, you get scared and start to worry that maybe your prayers won’t come to pass. Please understand that your prayers are too important for you to nullify all of your hard work with worry, fear, or wrong spoken words. Praying takes time, and it is a lot of hard work. When you pray, do everything you can to keep your prayers positive. Your positive attitude and thanksgiving will build your faith.

18. When Not to Pray

As long as there is breath in a person, you pray for them to become born-again. No matter what someone may say, unless the Lord has told you anything different, you must pray. It is possible for them to come to the Lord all the way until their last breath. Never give up.

1 Tim 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

In the area of healing - unless the Lord has told you to stop praying for a person, or the person who is ill has chosen against healing and desires to go to heaven, you must continue to pray in faith for their healing. Then stand in faith that God will manifest the healing.

19. Prayers of Baby Christians Versus More Mature Christians

So often baby Christians get their prayers answered so much easier than more mature Christians. God knows the heart of baby Christians – they are spiritual babies. They haven’t had time to develop their faith yet. Often God has special mercy on these babies. They go up for prayer in a church service – and they are healed. It seems like whatever they ask in prayer – they receive.

How often I have seen this happen, yet more mature Christians wait and wait for answered prayer. I used to ask myself and God why baby Christians got their prayers answered more quickly. God revealed to me that baby Christians haven’t built up their faith strong enough to believe for answers. They are unschooled in the Word of God. He grants them grace for answered prayer...for a while. God expects much more from the more mature Christians. He tells us in HIs Word that "the just shall live by faith." As a Christian matures in the Lord, God expects them to know HIs Word and apply it to their lives.

The more we mature in our faith, the more responsible we are for our faith. The more we mature, the greater the responsibility for not only our own faith, but to carry that faith as we prayer for others. We can carry new Christians in prayer only so far. When they get the Word of God planted in their life and discover God's promises for themselves, they are then responsible for their own faith. If they refuse to grow; however, you can only carry them in prayer for a short time. Their rebellion to the things of God will go against your prayers given for them.

Healing is always there for you

According to the Word of God, believers can be healed all of the time. Jesus took on 39 strips for our healing, and died on the cross for our salvation. He already bore our infirmities – so we don’t have to.

As mature Christians, we should know what the Word of God says. We should know the promises in the Bible. We can then stand on what you know. By living in faith, we can be healed 100% of the time. Our faith will always work for us if our faith is based on the Word of God.

Your prayer time

Similar to last week, you will be taking an open-lesson quiz. You may take the quiz as many times as desired until you answer all questions correctly.

Your prayer time will be done a little different from last week. While you will be praying 30 minutes each day, you are required to pray A.C.T.S. as listed in this lesson. Spend at least 15 minutes each day in praise, worship, and thanksgiving. Keep in mind the important principles in prayer, along with the universal and spiritual laws of God that you learned in this lesson as you then pray as the Spirit leads.

If you are asking for anything, remember to pray to the Father, in the name of Jesus, using the power of the Holy Spirit. You are encouraged to use the Word of God in prayer, and, of course, pray in faith – using fervency. If the binding and loosening principle is needed, use it. If you need to forgive anyone, act upon it right away.

1. Ask in prayer to receive	11. Use the A.C.T.S principle (Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication.)
2. Use the Word in Prayer	12. Use the principle of binding and loosening
3. Pray in faith	13. Unforgiveness hinders your prayers
4. Seek first the Kingdom of God	14. Persistent prayer - thanks
5. Use fervency in prayer	15. The best time to pray
6. Pray to the Father	16. Accepting responsibility in prayer
7. Pray in the Name of Jesus	17. Don’t un-do your prayers
8. Use the Holy Spirit in Prayer	18. When not to pray
9. When you pray for someone, it needs to be specific	19. Prayers of baby Christians versus more mature Christians
10. Prayer of Faith may not work for others