Angels and prayer

A woman was driving on the freeway when cars in front stopped too quickly for her to respond.

"It all seemed like it was happening in slow motion," she told Jennifer Eivaz, author of The Intercessors Handbook: How to Pray with Boldness, Authority & Supernatural Power. 

"I watched myself drive into the car in front of me, pass through the vehicle and even the person inside, and then to a clear space on the road without damage or harm."

Several cars were hit in the traffic tie-up.

"The driver of the car she passed through jumped out of his vehicle in surprise and fright, asking, 'What was that?'" Eivaz writes. "He knew some type of miracle had happened.  This is the work of angels."

In his book Angels, famed evangelist Billy Graham tells the story of pioneer missionary John G. Paton who was surrounded by hostile tribesmen in the New Hebrides intent on burning out and killing him and his family one night.  After praying all night, the Patons discovered the tribesmen had vanished.

A year later, the tribal chief became a believer.  Paton asked him why the tribesmen left them alone that frightening night a year before.

The chief asked him who all the men were who surrounded the Paton hut that evening.  Paton said there was no one there.  But the chief insisted that there hundreds of big men wearing shining garments with drawn swords around the hut and the tribesmen were afraid to attack.

Evangelicals tend to overlook the activity of angels, partly because many others have worshiped angels or otherwise distorted the truth about these servants of God.  God makes clear that only God can be worshiped.

Yet there are quite a number of stories about angels in the Bible.  Angels are actively carrying out the commands of God, serving the Lord and serving us as human beings.

God often sends angels in response to our prayers.

In Daniel 10, the prophet Daniel says he was praying in deep distress about his people when an angel appeared before him, terrifying him.  The angel told him he had come in response to Daniel's prayers but had been held up for 21 days in battle by a powerful demon.  Finally, the archangel Michael had come to his aid so that he could deliver God's answer to Daniel.

So, God calls on his angels to respond to his people's prayers with supernatural help as needed. 

Wesley L. Duewel writes in Touch the World through Prayer that angels protect us from danger (2 Kings 6:17); they deliver God's children (Acts 12:1-11); they bring messages to God's people (Luke 2:9-13); and they renew physical strength (Luke 22:43).

"Undoubtedly the angelic assistance of God's people is usually invisible," Duewel says.  "But it is real just the same."

Eivaz says that just as Elisha asked God to reveal the angel armies protecting him and his servant in 2 Kings 6, we too can ask the Lord for angelic help.  But "asking the Father for angels needs to be done in alignment with the Word of God and the will of God".

Knowing that angels are there to help us in our need is a great encouragement.

Prayers that please God

Humility is vital for prayers that please God.

Of course, some humility is essential if we pray at all.  A proud person sees no need of God, believing he or she can handle life without help.

But great men and women in the Bible leaned on God.  They knew they were weak and he was strong.  They turned to him for support, guidance, and a lasting relationship.

Indeed, as the apostle Paul notes in Philippians 2, Jesus himself did not cling to his status as equal to the Father in heaven, but humbled himself, taking on human flesh and dying on the cross for us.

So, how about us as ordinary praying people?  Are we humble or proud?  Are there areas of our lives that we wall off from God?

Are we like the Pharisee or the tax collector in Jesus' story in Luke 18 of the two men who prayed in the temple?

The Pharisee - a member of the religious elite in Jerusalem - looked over at the taxpayer and thanked God that he wasn't like robbers and the tax collector.  He pointed out to God that "I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get."

On the other hand, the taxpayer knew he was doing wrong.  He couldn't even look up to heaven, but "beat his breast and said 'God have mercy on me, a sinner.'"

"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God," said Jesus.  "For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

As I think about humility, I think about the areas in my life that I am proud of.  There are a number of them.  Yet, the older I get, the more I realize that I have to let them go - release them to God.  In the end, my relationship with God is the only thing that will matter in eternity.

As well,  I have yet to let God have full entry into other areas that I am reluctant to surrender to him.

I am mindful of the great passage in 2 Chronicles 7:14, a verse I often quote in this blog.

The Lord tells King Solomon there will be times when he will punish his people for turning away from him.  However, he adds that "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

The first step to healing is humility, seeking God's face and calling out to him in prayer.

God honours humble, honest prayers.

Faith challenge

Like many Christians, I have long wrestled with Jesus' powerful promises on faith and prayer.

How much faith do I need to see my prayers answered?  How do I build my faith?

Some years ago, Andy Stanley, the well-known American pastor and author, gave his definition of faith which I found satisfying: "Faith is believing that God is who he says he is and that he will do what he has said he will do."

In other words, faith is trusting God and his promises.  It is not me working myself into a lather, hoping that God will say "Yes" to my requests because I have hit a "10" on some faith index.

Still, it's clear that I have to do something - I have to act on what I believe.

Jesus said something particularly challenging in Mark 11:24: "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

I think this verse needs to be looked at in connection with another powerful promise in 1 John 5:14-15:

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  And if we know he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him."

The great George Muller, who cared for hundreds of orphans in 19th century England, read and pondered scripture, seeking God's will in particular circumstances.  He also prayed, asking the Holy Spirit for guidance.  Once he was convinced about the path God wanted him to take, he waited expectantly for the Lord's answers to his prayers.

Mueller was able to feed, clothe and house the orphans over many decades without ever asking anyone for money.  He received gifts constantly from people, sometimes receiving just enough money for food in the morning mail.  He kept track of these daily answers to prayer over many years.

Another thing to consider is the state of our own hearts.  In the Mark 24 passage, Jesus says in verse 25: "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

While God hears all my prayers, my own disobedience can stand in the way of God responding the way I desire.

With all that said, Jesus's promise in Mark 11:24 is tremendous.

If I know I am praying according to God's will, I can be sure I will receive the answer I am asking for.  In fact, I know I have already received a "Yes" answer.  Sooner or later, I will see the results in my life.

Prayer warriors often thank God for the positive answers they know are coming.  That is acting on what they believe.

Thank you, Lord, for this gracious promise.

When you fall, think about Jesus

Many Christians get discouraged - and their prayer lives suffer - when they sin or make mistakes.

Susie Larson says that's exactly when we should turn back to Christ and bask in the wonders of his grace.  That's when we must pray.

Rather than thinking about how hopeless we are, we should gaze at God and drink in the truth about what he has done for us.  The Christian life is not about us, but about him.

"When we fall or fumble the ball, the worst thing we can do is stay in the dirt and berate ourselves for our weakness," Larson says in her book Your Powerful Prayers: Reaching the Heart of God.  "Why? Because Jesus says it is precisely in our weakness that we can know his strength and power."

The devil loves it when we wallow in our weaknesses and accept his condemning words.

As I noted in last week's post, Larson declares that Christians should realize that, in God's eyes, we are heirs with all the privileges of children of God.  We are not orphans who should cringe in the Lord's sight and beg for crumbs from his table.

Still, many believers - myself included - have approached the Lord with diffidence.  We have worried that God must be unhappy with us for our failures.

Larson says that "the moment I catch myself feeling or acting impatient, suspicious, or unloving, I think about the Lord".

"I look past my weakness and I look to the cross.  I remember that my Jesus who died in my place is pure and loving and patient and kind.  All the things I'm not at times.  And he has imparted his righteousness to me."

She praises him "for a grace so priceless that I cannot, for the life of me, wrap my brain around it".

She adds: "Still it's mine.  And I worship."

Some may think this attitude leads to people assuming they have a licence to sin.

"I'd say the exact opposite is true.  Jesus himself said those who have been forgiven much, love much (Luke 7:47). That's certainly been true of me."

As she thinks about the Lord, she considers the characteristics that draw her to him - his might, his patience, his kindness, his care for the poor and oppressed, his faithfulness.

"He is discerning, unwavering, and keeps his word.  He loves humility, hates pride, and refuses to be manipulated."

In her book, she goes on at length with other things she loves about Jesus.  She urges us to reflect on Jesus every day.

Even so, we can fall again once we begin to think we can stand on what we have accomplished.  We must recognize that God is good and that he has poured out on us gifts and grace that we do not deserve.

"If we stay humbly grateful, we will be protected in prayer and protected from the self-sins that threaten to derail us," Larson writes. "If the Spirit of God convicts us for our wandering ways, we're wise to humbly respond and thank Jesus for his mercy and grace."

Think about Jesus.  What a radical concept!

Orphan or heir?

Do you see yourself as an orphan or an heir when you pray?

Susie Larson, author of Your Powerful Prayers: Reaching the Heart of God with a Bold and Humble Faith, says that the answer to that question is critical.

She says Christians who see themselves as orphans do not expect much from their prayers.  And they usually get what they expect.

But people who have put their faith in Jesus are new creations, she writes.  They are no longer orphans eating crumbs off the floor, but heirs of a bountiful God who is offering them a spiritual feast.

So, we should pray like that.

"Jesus loves and treasures the spiritual orphan," says Larson.  "That's why he made a way to adopt us into the family of God.  But once we become heirs, he doesn't wants us acting or thinking like orphans any longer.  Spiritual orphans beg and plead.  Heirs pray and believe."

Larson notes that scripture says "that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is in you".

She points out that the apostle Peter declares in 2 Peter 1: "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."

And he adds that God has "given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature". 

Larson comments that we will more easily access this power the more we get to know God and what he wants for our lives.  God empowers us to live an otherworldly life.

This does not mean that we will escape trouble or suffering.  We must recognize that God permits trouble in our lives because he is carving us into Christ's image with untold benefits in the life to come.  As the apostle James says in James 1, we should even embrace suffering because it leads to endurance and spiritual growth.

She acknowledges that disappointment and sorrow can sour us on God and prayer.  Ultimately, though, we need to look beyond us to God who loves us so much that Jesus sacrificed his life for us on the cross.  He is working out things for our good and for triumph over Satan, sin and death.

"Going into the storms of life, if we can know that we are his children, his heirs, his prized possessions, we'll stand more sturdily on his truths when the storms hit," Larson writes.  "And, we'll learn to live and pray with expectancy amidst these storms, because we'll know in the depths of our souls that God wastes nothing and allows nothing that he can't use, redeem, restore, and repurpose for his name's sake."

She says many of us react to disappointment or despair over our own failings by shying away from bold prayer.  Or, we indulge in negative self-talk, or "we find ourselves whispering those begging types of prayers that leave us feeling small, not loved or embraced like we actually are".

Instead, we should remember that we are God's heirs, his children whom he loves so much that we are always welcome to come to him, even when we mess up.

"May you remember today that Jesus' overwhelming victory on the cross gave you a place at the table of grace.  You get to be there because Jesus unequivocally defeated sin, death, inferiority, insecurity, imperfection, isolation and rejection, just to name a few."

What a heartening truth!

Jesus and inner healing prayer

John Eldredge says that "the glorious news is that God restores the soul - he heals the broken heart".

Eldredge, author of Moving Mountains, joins other writers in declaring that inviting God into our emotional and spiritual issues can lead to inner healing.

Eldredge and others like Leanne Payne, who wrote The Healing Presence, say that bringing Jesus into the painful incidents of life - past and present - can bring release and peace.  They have seen the results in their ministries.

In fact, Jesus referred to the broken-hearted in Isaiah 61:1 when he declared his mission to the world as he shared scripture in his home town synagogue in Nazareth.  Isaiah 61:1 speaks of preaching the good news, binding up or comforting the broken-hearted, proclaiming freedom for captives, and release from darkness.

In her book, Payne notes that God says: "I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind." (Jeremiah 17:10)  Scripture describes the many kinds of heart that God sees.

"These are hearts that are either sinful or wounded and need healing," Payne says. "In their healing, Jesus first of all comes in and stands in the midst of that heart.  He who is the Light of the World illuminates it."

She adds: "He then speaks the healing word, one which, if received and acted upon, sets the heart free from all the other dominating voices: those of the world, the flesh and the Devil."

Typically, Payne and the person she is praying with invite Jesus into the emotional problem they are praying about and ask him to reveal the fundamental issue.  Sometimes it can be a word which triggers memories.

This can lead to forgiving others or seeking forgiveness.  Imaginations and hearts are cleansed.

Eldredge tells the story of an elderly man "who had been experiencing profound, unresolved sadness, which he could not name, nor link to any cause".

As Eldredge and his team prayed, Jesus brought back to the man's memory an incident when he was five years old.  The young boy had grown up without a father who had disappeared after his mother had become pregnant outside of marriage.

One day, the five-year-old boy was running from room to room throughout the house.  His mother asked him what he was looking for and he said: "I'm looking for my daddy."

That kind of wound can be deep-seated and need healing from Jesus.

I know a woman who has been healed physically and emotionally.  The emotional healing took longer, but for her, it was the most important.

I acknowledge that many Christians today believe that divine healing was for the limited time of the New Testament and is no longer necessary now that we have the written scriptures.

I believe God heals today physically, emotionally and spiritually.  There are many reports of miraculous physical healings that cannot be explained by medical science.

In my view, healing prayer works best in concert with good medical care - they are both avenues God uses to heal us.  For example, there are obviously some chemical imbalances that are best dealt with through medication.

But God does heal the broken-hearted.  Let's rejoice in this truth.

Resisting the enemy

A fully-effective prayer ministry must include resisting Satan and his works, says Watchman Nee.

Nee, a great Chinese Christian who died in a Communist prison decades ago, says that "prayer is the best offensive weapon against our enemy".

He suggests in his book Let Us Pray that a complete prayer life should involve three elements - praying for our own needs, praying for the glory of God and the fulfillment of his will, and praying against Satan and his efforts to undermine the work of God in us and the world.

He notes that many Christians pray for themselves; a smaller proportion also pray for God's glory; and even fewer dream of praying against Satan.

I have long been among those who neglected Satan in my prayer life.  And yet the apostle John said in 1 John 3:8 that "the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil".  Should that not be part of our mission, too?

Nee takes Jesus' story of the widow pleading with the unjust judge to avenge her against her adversary as an illustration of our battle against the evil one (Luke 18:1-8).

The author points out that Jesus clearly contrasts the unjust judge with God.  The unjust judge eventually - but reluctantly - agrees to assist the widow but only after a lot of pleading.  However, God loves to come to the immediate aid of his children.

We are like the widow, says Nee.  On this earth, we are helpless by ourselves - we are vulnerable to attacks from the enemy.  But, like the widow, we can appeal for help - our help comes from the Lord.

He suggests that the adversary in the story is just like Satan.  He is determined to hurt the widow.

The story closes with Jesus declaring: "And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?"  In other words, God will act against the adversary as we pray to him.

Nee says that God has already won the ultimate victory over the evil one through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.  But Satan remains powerful in our world until Jesus' return to earth at the conclusion of history.

"The aim of a true prayer touches on not just personal gain," Nee writes, "but more importantly on the glory of God and the loss of the enemy."

He says that the enemy "will do anything which can cause believers to suffer either spiritually or physically, to fall into sins, or to incur loss or damage".

Here are some of the ways he suggests praying against Satan:

• As God cursed Satan in the Garden of Eden, so we can ask the Lord to curse Satan under the power of the cross in our current situation;
• As Jesus forbade the demons from speaking, we can ask God to forbid Satan from speaking through the mouths of people around us;
• As Jesus talked about "binding the strong man (Satan)", so "we may ask God to bind Satan and render him powerless";
• We can appeal to God to "destroy (Satan's) work in us, destroy his manipulation over our work, destroy his devices in our environment, and destroy all his works"; and
• We can ask God to rebuke the enemy as the archangel Michael called on God to do against Satan (Jude 9).

Praying against Satan is an extra arrow in our prayer quiver.  Let's use it.

Even when it's hard

Prayer power depends on doing what God asks us to do - even when it's hard.

Jesus is our supreme example - Son of God and yet a man who was constantly praying to the Father, seeking direction as to what to do next.  And then he did what the Father laid out before him.

His greatest test came in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before his death.  He asked his closest disciples to go with him as he prayed in anguish before the Father, knowing that he was soon to die for the sins of men.  The gospel of Luke tells us that he even sweat drops of blood from the overwhelming stress.

"Abba, Father," he cried out in Mark 14:36, "everything is possible for you.  Please take this cup of suffering away from me.  Yet I want your will to be done, not mine."

Jesus faced physical pain and death, but - even more - he was about to be cut off from his loving ties with the Father on the cross as the full force of man's sin fell upon him.  He was to be the sinless sacrifice to pay for our sins so that we might have access to an eternal relationship with God.

The Father answered Jesus' prayer by giving him the strength to go through with his mission.  His obedience led to a stunning victory over Satan and evil.

Imagine what would have happened had he not obeyed!  We would all be hopeless - in the grips of Satan and hell.

Before Gethsemane, Jesus gave a clue to the power of his ministry.  In John 5:19, he said: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself.  He does only what he sees the Father doing.  Whatever the Father does, the Son also does."

I believe Christ is talking about his time in prayer with the Father as God shows him what to do.

The apostle Paul also made a difficult choice to obey what God asked him to do.

Towards the end of his evangelistic career, Paul was informed by the Holy Spirit he was to go to Jerusalem with suffering and jail awaiting him (Acts 19).  He went ahead with the trip even though his followers pleaded with him not to go.

He said: "My life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus - the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God."

Paul's letters glow with wonderful prayers for the people he is talking to.  He called on people to pray always in all circumstances.  His prayers were marvellously answered - because he obeyed what God told him.

The Lord often lets me know what I must do when I ask him.  He lets me know through scriptures and promptings in my mind.

But sometimes I balk because there is a cost to obedience.

The apostle John said in 1 John 3:22 that we will receive whatever we ask if we obey God and do what pleases him.  The implication is that I will not necessarily receive what I seek if I do not obey him.

This speaks to me.

Seek God's vision

Vision is as important in praying for the world around us as it is in everything else.

Great revivals in history began small with God planting a hope and desire in a few praying people's hearts.  As the movements grew, the visions expanded.

Now, we are at a time when the body of Christ needs a vision for the world - starting with our own small worlds.

I have been re-reading Flames of Revival: Igniting the Hearts of a Nation through Prayer by Elana Lynse.  It's a book written in 1989 about great revivals through history, beginning in the Bible and continuing to the late 1800s.

Towards the end of the book, Lynse runs through all the discouraging things that are going on in our Western society today - anti-God movements, drugs, unfaithfulness among Christians and so on.

But she is not discouraged.  She builds her faith by picturing how revival - spiritual renewal - could change the city she lives in.

I need that faith.  So do other believers.

I believe it is God who gives us the desire to see our world transformed for Christ.  And then, it is up to us to seek God's vision for our little corner of the earth.

An example is the young Christian church in Antioch in Acts 13.  The people were praying and fasting - seeking God.  God responded by telling them to commission Paul and Barnabas to carry the message of Christ to the broader world.

Always, Paul sought God's direction before moving on to his next destination.  In one case, God even stopped Paul from doing what he thought he should be doing - evangelizing in the province of Asia.  Instead, the Lord gave him a vision to enter Macedonia, taking Christ to Europe.

It is inspiring to see how the Holy Spirit has moved around the world over the years since Christ's birth, death and resurrection.

Lynse describes what happened in what she calls "The Prayer Century" - the 1700s - a time when the great French philosopher Voltaire predicted the death of Christianity in 30 years.

Many churches had become corrupt and a lot of clergymen did not believe in the power of God.  There was widespread drunkenness, robbery, violence, and oppression.

But God was at work in Europe and North America.

In Germany, Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf sheltered a persecuted Christian sect - the Moravians - on his estate and launched a 100-year daily prayer vigil for evangelizing the world.  The Moravians sent missionaries throughout the world - including the American colonies.

One of those affected by the Moravians was John Wesley who launched the Methodist revival in England in the mid-1700s along with George Whitefield.  Wesley was a strong advocate of the power of prayer.

Later in the century, a "concerts of prayer" movement began in England.  A group published a short tract, calling for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, church unity, and prayer for the worldwide advancement of God's kingdom.  One denomination after another dedicated the first Monday of every month to prayer for revival.

This led 23 ministers of New England churches to band together in prayer for outreach to the world.  Revival broke out which spread rapidly to other parts of the young United States. 

As revival sped throughout the U.S., society changed.  Drunkenness, violence and robbery declined.

Lynse's book details the impact of other revivals over the years, always at times when the outlook looked grim.

I sense that a growing desire to pray in the Western world may be a step towards another revival.

May it be so.

United, targeted, passionate prayer

James Banks tells a story that illustrates the power of united, targeted and passionate prayer.

The great American evangelist D.L. Moody launched a series of meetings at Cambridge University in the fall of 1882 and was nearly laughed out of town by the Cambridge students.

“The crowd heckled Moody’s simple speech, mimicked his down-to-earth mannerisms, and poked fun at Ira Sankey, Moody’s song leader,” writes James Banks in his book The Lost Art of Praying Together. “One Cambridge student, Gerald Lander, sneered, ‘If uneducated men will come to teach the varsity, they deserve to be snubbed.’”

The first two nights were very discouraging and Moody later said he felt like had “come up against a brick wall”.

Before the third night, he called together a group of 150 mothers to pray.  Moody said later: “Mother after mother, amidst her tears, pleaded for the young men of the university.”

That night, 52 young men gave their lives to Christ.  One of them was Gerald Lander, the scoffer.  He later became a missionary to China.

The mothers had a definite target - the salvation of the young students - and they prayed passionately together.  And God moved.

It reminds me of one of my favourite Bible passages - Acts 12:6-25 - where the young church prayed for their leader, the apostle Peter, imprisoned just after another leader, James, had been executed.

Peter was lying asleep in a jail cell, chained to his guards, while others in the church were praying fervently for him.  The apostle was to be put on trial by King Herod.

Suddenly, an angel appeared in the cell in blazing light and struck Peter on the side to wake him up. Then, he broke the chains binding Peter, led him right out of the jail through open doors and past guard posts and into the city.

At that point, the apostle realized this was not a dream - he was free!

Peter went to the home where many of his friends were praying for him.  At first, they thought he was a ghost - it was too amazing to believe.

Banks tells another story of organized, continual prayer by the Metropolitan Church in London, England under the famous Baptist preacher, C.H. Spurgeon.

“Spurgeon’s church practiced prayer strategically, with united prayer permeating the life of the church at multiple levels,” Banks writes.

People prayed in different groups for specific needs - spiritual protection for the elders, spiritual growth for the Sunday School, for the associated Bible College.  And they had a regular prayer meeting of thanksgiving.  Each member was also asked to set aside a special day to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

In addition, Spurgeon listed items for prayer and these were prayed for in different groups spread throughout London.

Finally, they met for a week of prayer at the outset of the new year.

Spiritual growth - not numerical growth - was Spurgeon’s measuring stick for his church - the largest in London.

“If we restrain prayer, we restrain the blessing,” he said. “Our true success as churches can only be had by asking it of the Lord.”

What was true in the days of Peter, D.L. Moody and C.H. Spurgeon remains true today.

Persistent Pleading

Is it right to constantly plead your case before God?  Won’t he get irritated like any earthly parent who is hounded by a persistent child?

Yes, it is right, says Jesus.  And no, he won’t get irritated.

In fact, Wesley L. Duewel says in his book Mighty Prevailing Prayer that pleading in prayer is fundamental to answered prayer - if it is according to God’s will.

Jesus touches on the importance of persistent pleading in his story about the widow who plagued an unjust judge with repeated demands for justice in her case (Luke 18:1-8). The judge eventually gives in reluctantly to her incessant petitions.

Unlike the unjust judge, Christ says that God is glad to answer his children’s requests.

Duewel says that successful pleading depends above all on your relationship with God.  

“Be sure that you are arguing for that which glorifies God, for the extension of God’s kingdom and in accordance with God’s will.”

You can be bold with your arguments before the Lord once the Holy Spirit and God’s word in the scriptures confirm that your desire is God’s will.

“Presenting your case and detailing your arguments not only pleases God, it helps you understand the need more completely, moves your compassion, strengthens your determination, and arms you with greater holy hunger,” writes Duewel.

He recommends the following ways for presenting your case before God:

• Plead the honour and glory of God’s name.  Will God’s name be glorified if he grants your request? “The glory of God should be the prime motive in all you do.”
• Plead God’s relationship to you.  You can approach God confidently, knowing that he created you; he redeemed you; he is your helper; and he is your Father.
• Plead God’s attributes.  These include God’s righteousness, his faithfulness, and his mercy and compassion.
• Plead the sorrows and needs of the people.  People like Daniel and Nehemiah in the Bible “identified with people, especially the people of God, in their sufferings”.  God feels the sufferings of his people, so this plea reaches his heart.
• Plead the past answers to prayer.  Point out how God has worked in the past, praising him for what he has done.
• Plead the word of God and the promises of God.  Duewel notes how Abraham, Jacob and Moses among others, underlined what God had already promised as they outlined their requests to the Lord.
• Plead the blood of Jesus. “There is no more prevailing argument we can bring before God than the sufferings, blood, and death of his Son.”

A great way to guide effective prayers!

Being honest with God

The Israelites were fed up with manna every day and Moses was afraid for his life.

So, Moses complained to God - and God answered supernaturally.  He sent meat - quail.

In a sense, the story in Numbers 11 is funny.  But Moses took the mini-revolt seriously.  He knew how his followers felt about the endless flow of the same-old manna God had sent from heaven to feed the several million Israelites in the barren desert.

I have been thinking about this story since our pastor highlighted it in a sermon last Sunday.  For me, it illustrates the importance of going to God with every need and being honest in prayer.

As our pastor pointed out, it wasn't possible to grow food in the desert.  So, the Lord dealt with the Israelites' hunger by sending every morning a fresh batch of manna which the Bible says looked like resin and tasted like coriander seed.

After a while, the people started angrily saying: "If only we had meat to eat!  We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost!  Also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.  But we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!"

The people got so riled up that they stood in the doorways of their tents and wailed.

Moses was naturally bothered by this and he knew the Lord was upset with the people and their ingratitude.  He knew how the Lord felt because he was always in close touch with God.  He spent hours in the Tent of Meeting praying and receiving guidance.

The Israelite leader then emptied his feelings to God.

He asked the Lord: "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant?  What have I done to displease you that you have put the burden of these people on me?"

He asks God where he can get meat for the people.  He declares he can't do it on his own.  And he goes so far as to say to the Lord: "Please go ahead and kill me . . . and do not let me face my own ruin!"

God answers immediately with a divine solution.  He tells Moses to gather 70 elders in the Tent of Meeting so that he can bestow the power of the Spirit so that they can help him bear the burden of leadership.

And, amazingly, he arranges a giant wind to blow in quail so they lie in heaps about three feet high.  The people have their meat but there are later consequences for their ingratitude.

What do I take away from this prayer story?

Jan Johnson, author of Enjoying The Presence of God, writes:

"If we believe that God is grand enough to love our flawed self, we can speak the truth to him about what we feel - anger at others, disappointment with ourselves, resentment toward him."

God wants the "real" me in prayer - not the "pretend" me.  He is my father and he understands me better than I understand myself.

This story also tells me that he wants me to bring everything that bothers me to him.  Maybe he is disappointed by my lack of faith or trust that he will bring me through.  But he is patient and ready to help.

I love the apostle Paul's advice in Philippians 4:6: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

When Paul says we are to bring "everything" to God in prayer, he means "everything".

What a loving God!

Praying like Jesus

How do I pray like Jesus?

That's a question I am asking as I search the gospels.

As we know, Jesus was constantly praying to the Father.  He would withdraw to a quiet place and pray - sometimes all night.  He would prepare himself for the next day's huge and needy crowds by seeking his Father's face.

Of course, he left us a model for prayer - the Lord's prayer - in Matthew 6:19-31.  That tells us what Jesus saw as important in prayer - worshiping God, seeking God's will to be carried out on earth, pleading for forgiveness for our sins, and asking God to supply our needs.

But what about Jesus' prayers in the nitty-gritty of messy life?

I believe they illustrate well the priorities he laid out in the Lord's prayer.

Take Jesus' long prayer in John 17, a prayer he offered to the Father in front of his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion.  In a sense, it is a summary report of his work on earth accompanied by a heart-felt plea for his followers.

The prayer begins with God and his glory and how Christ has given glory to the Father through what he has done on earth.  And, in a personal note, he asks the Father to glorify him.

Then, Jesus turns his gaze to his disciples and reveals how much he loves them.  He calls on the Father to protect them from the evil one.  

Next, he prays for believers.  His desire is for them to be one in spirit and heart - a great witness to the world.

He concludes by saying that he will continue making the Father known to the world so that God's love for Jesus will be in them.

That prayer shows me Jesus' passionate commitment to the Father and to the spiritual welfare of his followers.  In those words, Jesus is showing me how to pray for other believers and for those who don't know God.

I ask myself: Am I passionate about God and others?

Another prayer that pops into my mind is Jesus' prayer at the tomb of his close friend Lazarus (John 11:1-44).  It comes with Lazarus already dead for four days.  Jesus has delayed going to see his friend so that the power of God could be displayed and people come to faith.

Lazarus' sisters Mary and Martha and their friends are mourning.  The sisters clearly wonder why Jesus did not come earlier to heal their brother before he died.  Their faith in Christ is being tested.

Jesus is deeply moved by their tears and weeps himself.

He goes to the tomb and asks for the stone to be rolled away from the entrance.  Then, he calls out to the Father:  "Father, I thank you that you have heard me.  I know that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."

Next, Jesus shouts: "Lazarus, come out!" and the dead man emerges alive from the tomb, still wrapped in his grave clothes.  And many onlookers become believers in Christ.

From this account, I see Jesus' love for people, his tender heart.

My question: Is my heart breaking for others?

Finally, I think of another prayer of Jesus - this time for himself in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before his death (Matthew 26:36-46).  Jesus is in agony - the parallel passage in Luke 22 says drops of blood are falling as he prays.

He asks the Father if God can spare him the catastrophe that looms just ahead - slow death on the cross, the terrible burden of the world's sin on his shoulders, and - worst of all - a brief separation from his beloved Father.  Three times he asks, and then he submits to the Father's will and goes obediently to his death.

My question: Am I prepared to obey God no matter what?

I realize my answer to these questions is "No" if I depend on myself.

But there is hope for me if I depend on Jesus who is within me.

Letting God lead

Peter Lord has learned to let God lead him in his ministry.

He is convinced that listening to God is essential in producing spiritual fruit.

In his book Hearing God, Lord writes: "Good works are what I do at the command of God for others.  They last for eternity.

"But dead works are what I do for others on my own, supposedly in the name of God.  They do not last."

After 15 years as a pastor, Lord looked back at what he had done in God's service and was devastated.

"I looked at people who had worked in various churches and others who had made all kinds of decisions at the altar, and I saw that basically they remained unchanged.  Or worse, they had reverted to worldly lifestyles."

Then, he recalled a statement by the great Chinese Christian Watchman Nee: "God will only back and bless what he initiates."

"Then God began to allow me to discover that all lasting ministry begins with a word from God," Lord says.  "When you have that word, then you walk with the Lord Jesus.  You listen to the Holy Spirit and obey him.  And you have an effective, exciting, enduring work."

Lord actively seeks direction from God through reading and meditating on scripture and listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes what he hears is baffling.

One night, he and his wife were settling down for sleep in a Georgia motel. While lying in bed, he felt God telling him: Get up and go to the motel office.

He got up reluctantly, feeling that the Lord wanted him to witness to the young man at the motel desk.  When he arrived at the office door, he saw someone checking in and decided to wait until he left.  As he waited, he saw that motel guest's licence plate was from the same Florida town he lived in.

When the man walked out of the office, he introduced himself as Peter Lord, a pastor from Titusville, Florida.

The man gripped him by the shoulders and said: "You're the very person that I need to talk to.  I am in great trouble.  As I drove up the highway, I called on God for help."

Time and again, he felt restrained from stopping, driving much further than he had planned that night.  Then, when he neared the Georgia motel he felt a desire to stop and drove in.

"Great, isn't it - to see how God works," writes Lord.  "This man cried for help.  God heard him.  God had me already in place, ready to help."

Lord's book is sprinkled with other stories about God leading him.

The author points to Jesus' words in John 5:19:  "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does."

Jesus carried out the Father's commands and the ancient world was turned upside down.

After ascending to heaven, he gave believers the Holy Spirit to guide them as the Father guided him.

What a gift!

Praying on the edge

Sometimes, our most powerful prayers rise up to God when we feel we're standing on the edge of a steep cliff with nowhere to go but down.

Why is that?

Perhaps because we have no other options but depending entirely on God.  Perhaps because the results of our prayers will bring glory to God.  Perhaps because the answer to prayer fits into a larger story than just this moment of desperation.

The prayer of the young Jewish captive Daniel in Daniel 2 is a good example.

The Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar had a bad dream one night and challenged his astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed as well as the meaning of the dream.  It was a supreme test because none of the astrologers could guess what the king had dreamed.

Daniel and his young Jewish friends, who were servants of the king, heard that they, too, were slated to die.  So Daniel asked the king for time to determine what the king had dreamed and what was the dream's interpretation.

That night, Daniel and his friends sought God's revelation of the king's dream.  God's answer came to Daniel in a vision.

When Daniel went to the king, he not only told him what the dream was but also the interpretation.  He did not claim credit for himself and his friends but gave all the glory to God.  His life and the lives of others were saved.

Daniel knew that he could not save himself.  It had to be God.  So, he went to God and after receiving the vision, he poured out praise to the Lord.

Why did God save Daniel?  Why did he allow Daniel to face this frightening test?

From the vantage point of history, the Lord had plans for the young man.  He knew Daniel's heart and his commitment to God.

The young man was on the bottom step of a life of sacrificial service to God that would stand as an example for all believers through the ages.  This incident helped shaped the man who was to become a great prophet.

We don't all go through experiences as spectacular and life-threatening as that.  But most of us run up against problems that seems overwhelming at the time.

Then, we must throw ourselves upon God in prayer, surrendering ourselves to whatever he will do.

God works best in our lives when we depend entirely on him.

Look, think, and thank

God takes thankfulness seriously, but do we?

I must say I take for granted so many blessings in my life - things that people in other countries long for.

But Jesus valued thankfulness greatly.  In Luke 17, Jesus healed 10 lepers but only one came back to thank him and give him praise.  He asked where were the other nine, noting it was a foreigner - not a Jew - who returned and gave God glory.

As well, the apostle Paul said we should give thanks in all circumstances for that is God's will for us. (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  And in Ephesians 5:20, he said we should always give thanks to God for everything.

Let's think of that for a moment.  We are called to always thank God for everything and in every circumstance - good or bad.

Charles Spurgeon, a great Baptist preacher in the 1800s, said many people "receive many blessings without making a note of them or even seeming to know that they have them".

He noted such people benefit from good health and other good things in life.  "And they live as if these things were so commonplace that they were not worth thanking God for."

How can we learn to thank God always for all things?

John Flavel, a Puritan writer in the 1600s, gives us a clue in a little gem about thankfulness which was reprinted recently in a book titled Thankfulness (Free Grace Broadcaster 190).

First, he says we should pay attention to the mercies or good things we receive.  So we should keep our eyes open to what God is giving us and doing in our lives - even in our normal routines.  We must make a conscious effort to take note of these things.

Second, we must not only see the mercies but think about them - what they are and how we received them.  This is an act of reflection, of our minds.

Third, we must value these mercies.  We must not be like the wandering Israelites in the wilderness who complained about the manna God gave them. (Numbers 11)

Fourth, we should record these mercies.  "Forgotten mercies bear no fruit," says Flavel. "A bad memory in this case makes a barren heart and life."

It is easy to forget, he admits.  But he notes the ancient Jews wrote about God's doings, recalled them in special feasts, and in other ways.

For us, we can jot these mercies down in a journal, or make a special point of recalling them frequently so that they settle down solidly in our memories.

Fifth, Flavel says "the thankful person must be suitably affected with the mercies he receives".

"Mercies are not mercies, deliverances are not deliverances to us, if we that receive them are not glad of them."

In other words, we are to meditate upon the goodness of God to the point where we rejoice in the Lord.

Finally, we are to respond to God's goodness and mercies by loving others as he loves us.

We benefit from thanking God, too.

A thankful heart is a joyful heart.

Many voices, one heart

Group prayer can be uplifting and dynamic if everyone prays as one - many voices, one heart.

A good example is Acts 12 where Peter escapes miraculously from jail after being arrested by King Herod's men for preaching the gospel.

While Peter lies in chains between two soldiers in jail, his friends are busy praying for him in a long vigil.

The result?  An angel appears in his cell, breaks the chains as the guards sleep and escorts Peter out of the jail.

His friends are so surprised when he knocks on the door of the prayer gathering that they can't believe it is him.

Dennis Fuqua uses this and a number of other examples from scripture and history to show how united group prayer can change things.  His book, United and Ignited: Encountering God through Dynamic Corporate Prayer, is a treasure trove of ideas for group prayer.

In his eyes, praying with others should focus more on seeking what God wants rather than what we want.  We should "behold him rather than just behold our circumstances".

"I am suggesting that dynamic corporate prayer has more to do with a group of people catching what is on God's heart than telling him what is on their heart," Fuqua says.

In this approach, people listen to others before praying - catching a theme and developing it with their own prayers.  They are influenced by the prayers of others and, in turn, influence the prayers of others.  The focus is on agreement and harmony.

These prayer gatherings begin with worshiping God.  They then move on to other things - perhaps personal needs or broader issues in the church or the community or the world.

Fuqua says the value of praying together in this way is that we get to know God more as we hear people pray who have a different background, personality or theological perspective.  We also understand someone else better as we hear him or her pray to the Father in a deep and personal way.

One way to bind a group closer together and deepen their spiritual understanding is to select one person to pray for himself or herself about "the one thing you would most like the Lord to do in or for you personally", writes Fuqua.

Rather than sharing the concern with others, this person and others in the group are to pray to God about aloud about it.  While one person is praying, others are listening and then join in with their own prayers about that individual's prayer concern.

"It allows a group to worship together, listen together, make common requests, and rejoice together in his answers," Fuqua says.

I have found this kind of free-flowing prayer - centred on God - can lift my spirits and build faith and hope.

And, as Jesus said in Matthew 18:19-20, he will act upon our prayers if we pray in harmony with each other and with God.

Battlefield

Stormie Omartian had a sense of foreboding about her 18-year-old daughter working that night.

So she began doing what she knew best - praying urgently and persistently.

She had reason to be worried.  Her daughter was in the middle of a frightening incident.

Omartian tells the story in her book Prayer Warrior to illustrate the spiritual battlefields Christians face when they become believers.

She states that no Christian can escape Satan's attacks on their minds, their families and their marriages. But Christians have the power to overcome these attacks through the Holy Spirit and prayer.

What happened that scary night to Omartian's daughter demonstrates how Christians can fight back effectively against Satan's malignant efforts.

That evening, Stormie's daughter agreed to go out for coffee after work with a young man she had chatted with occasionally over the previous months.  She did not know him well, but he seemed pleasant.  He suggested they could continue a conversation they had begun earlier in the evening.

They got in her car and he told her he would give directions to the coffee shop.

But the young woman began to be alarmed when he directed her onto a narrow road winding up a mountain side thick with trees.  She wanted to turn around but there was no room on the road.

She began crying, but he did not respond.  The young man, who had seemed so friendly, became cold and unfeeling.

She began praying out loud: "Jesus, help me! Jesus, save me!"

Stormie's daughter knew she might not escape this situation alive.

When they reached the top of the hill, there was a small clearing.  He told her to stop and get out of the car.  He climbed out, leaving the car door open so she could not lock the doors and escape.

She told him she was coming, but picked up her cell phone to call her mother.  She spoke in a normal voice to say she was on the way home so that he could hear - and realize someone was expecting her.

Then, she locked her door and decided to stay where she was.

As she was thinking about how to fight him, he dashed out of the darkness - terrified - and jumped into the car.  He yelled: "Go! Go! Go! There is something horrible in the woods."

He urged her to drive faster and faster - a dangerous thing to do on a narrow, unfamiliar road in the darkness.

The young man was unable to describe what he saw.

When she dropped him off at this car, he jumped out, climbed into his vehicle and roared off.  She never saw him again.

She wondered how he could see anything in the pitch-black darkness.  And why could he not describe it?  If it was an animal or a person, he would have been able to give a description.

"She told me that whatever it was in the forest, it gave her peace," Omartian writes.  "She knew it was from the Lord."

Omartian then told her how she had prayed that night.  She said she prayed for her daughter's protection and that "no weapon formed against her would prosper, and no plan of the enemy would succeed in her life".

"I prayed specifically, over and over, that the Lord would surround her with angels," she added. "At that moment we both came to the same conclusion - that whatever that man saw that suddenly weakened him with fright was sent by God."

As described in the Bible, angels can be frightening creatures - so much so, that they say "Do not be afraid" to the believers seeing them.

Omartian's prayers - and her daughter's - were answered that night.

"We went to battle in prayer and the enemy was defeated," Omartian said.

No believer is immune to attack from the evil one.

But believers have the power to resist and defeat his plans.

In God's presence

Our pastor today shared a striking thought about praying to God.

He quoted an ancient Jewish Rabbi, Eliezer Ben Hyrcanus, who told his disciples on his death bed: "When you pray, know before whom you are standing."

Immediately, I thought: How would I react if I stood before the Lord?  What would God be like?

I would certainly not treat him in an off-hand way as I often do in my prayers.

I would be facing the Lord who terrified some great men of the Bible.  They were frightened when they entered the presence of God because they realized how sinful they were and how pure and just and good God is.

The prophet Isaiah, for instance, saw God in a vision in the temple (Isaiah 6:1-7).  God was seated on a throne, "high and exalted", surrounded by seraphs who were calling out: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."  And the temple shook and was filled with smoke.

Isaiah cried out: "Woe to me!  I am ruined!  For I am a man of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty."

A seraph flew to him with a live coal and touched Isaiah's lips, declaring his sin was atoned for.

Now, Christ has atoned for the sins of his followers, so we need not fear death in coming before the Lord.  Still, our God is not a toy, but a very impressive being - a just god as well as a loving god.

So, I am called to be reverent before the Lord, knowing how great he is and knowing that he is powerful beyond anything or anyone I can imagine.

Knowing something of this great, all-powerful god, I must listen to what he is saying to me - through the scriptures and the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  I cannot treat what he says lightly - something I can throw away.

Yet, in Jesus, we see the image of the Father.  And there we see another aspect of God - his immense love and compassion.

God wants to talk with us and give us good things, as Jesus said (Matthew 7:11).

So, the writer of Hebrews tells us that we can "approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive grace and find mercy in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).

I like that idea of approaching God with confidence.  I know he loves me and wants the best for me.

Those are the two sides of the picture I have of God - awesome and yet tender and loving.

That image should shape how I pray before the Lord.

Praying in dark times

Years before the Second World War, Winston Churchill warned Britain that the Nazis were gathering a war machine to conquer England and Europe.

But political leaders at the time scoffed and sought accommodation - even sacrificing Czechoslovakia to Germany - to avoid war.  They thought they could prevent war by being nice and giving ground in hopes that Germany would be satisfied.

Are we Christians today under the illusion that the growing darkness in our world - not only political but also social and spiritual - can be stopped by hoping things will turn out well?

I believe we need to pray hard for our country and for our people.  We need to pray against creeping evil.

Above all, I believe we need to pray for ourselves as believers.  Are we part of the reason for the spreading sickness in our society?

It's interesting that God sent John the Baptist to prepare the way for Christ.

John was not a handsome superstar with an impressive resume.  He came from the wilderness, wearing skins and eating locusts and wild honey.

But he spoke truth - truth that deeply disturbed the ruling powers in the Jewish religion and politics.

He called people to repent of their sins and drew a huge following.  Ordinary people were struck to the heart by what he said and came forward to confess their sins and be baptized.

Jesus said this man was a great prophet and grieved after Herod executed him.

John's preaching opened the way for the world-changing mission of Christ.  The hearts of many were prepared by the strange prophet who urged the people to repent.

In the Old Testament, God moved in response to the repentance of his people in hard times.  In fact, he promised King Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that he would heal Israel if the Israelites humbled themselves and confessed their sin and prayed for forgiveness.

Is it time for us Christians to admit that we have turned away from God in many ways?  Are our hearts far from him?

Pressured by society, we have come to accept anti-Christian social views even among ourselves.

And if I saw Christ face to face today, I would be embarrassed because I know there is a lot of hardness in my heart.

We have become so accustomed to the way the world is that we doubt that it will - or even can - change.  But God has proved many times in human history that he can transform societies with the gospel of Jesus Christ, aided by the power of prayer.

Jesus believed in prayer.  He spent nights in prayer to the Father as he prepared for the overwhelming crowds of needy people the following day.

If he believed prayer can change things, why don't we?

Fear and prayer

I will make a bold statement: Most people fear something or someone.

"Fear influences human behaviour in many ways, and it's probably no exaggeration to say that it is at the root of most human problems," says Roy Lawrence, author of How To Pray When Life Hurts.

Can God and prayer help?  Most definitely, says Lawrence.  As a British pastor, he has helped many deal with their fears through healing prayer over the years.

I have had fears over my long life - among them fear of people, fear of the future, fear of failure. With experience and God's help, I am better able to deal with fear than I once was.

I have never been crippled with fear as some people have.  But Lawrence says that people severely affected by fear have one advantage over the rest of us - they're willing to admit they have a problem.

"Because they acknowledge their problem in a straightforward way, they have already taken the first steps along the road that can lead to healing," the author writes.

Many people do the opposite.  They try to hide their fears from others through various defence mechanisms.  They may become attention-seekers, or appear super-confident, or go into a shell and pretend indifference, or descend into fantasy.  And there are many other schemes we use.

After admitting our insecurities, Lawrence says that "we can then go to our Lord and avail ourselves of his healing resources."

There, we will find that Jesus truly understands our anxiety.  After all, he called out to the Father on the cross that he felt forsaken, alone in the face of a horrible death.

"He assures us that we are loved by God and that perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18)," Lawrence says.

He continues: "How then do you pray when you are anxious and fearful?  You just meet Jesus and allow him to surround you with his own special love - and the power of that love cannot be overestimated."

Lawrence says that a medical doctor named Meryl was so emotionally afraid that she could no longer work.  Doctors felt she was incurable.

A Christian friend had searched the Bible and presented Meryl with a sheet of 22 verses about fear and God's love and asked her to read through them prayerfully morning and evening till they made a difference.

Meryl agreed and then a "slow-motion miracle" began to unfold.  In six months, she was completely healed.

It would take too much space to include all those passages in this blog entry, but anyone interested can search a Bible concordance and find verses speaking about God's love and care for his fearful creatures.

"If we are willing to be loved," says Lawrence, "God is willing to love us, and to go on and on loving until love's healing work is done."

Once healed, we can help others who are plagued with fear.

In his name

Often, we tack on the words "in Jesus' name" at the end of our prayers without thinking about why they are important.

Albert Richardson, author of The Kneeling Christian, says those words are at the very heart of prayer according to God's will.

And if we pray according to God's will, God promises to answer.

I have long realized that the words "in Jesus' name" mean "in the character of Jesus".  In other words, our prayers are being offered as if Jesus himself was praying them.

But I confess that many of my prayers have had little to do with how Jesus would have prayed in my circumstances.

So, Richardson suggests that the words "in Jesus' name" are meaningless unless we seek to find out what God's will is before we pray.

The author notes that Jesus mentions praying in his name five times in the New Testament.  For example, he says in John 14:13-14:

"And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."

That seems like a blank cheque, allowing us to indulge our wildest whims.  But it contains a condition - the prayer must bring glory to God.

And, in John 15:7, Jesus says: "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you."

So the Lord is saying we must be intimately related to Jesus if we are to count on answers to our prayers.  If not, we should not be surprised that some of our prayers go unanswered.

The key questions in Richardson's mind are: Do you see prayer as a way of getting everything you want?  Or, do you want what God wants?

His view is that God wants what is good for us as well as for his glory.  He will say "No" if we ask for things that are wrong for us (James 4:3).

Does that mean I have to know every detail of God's will for my life before I pray?  I don't think so.

Richardson says we have a couple of firm guidelines for finding God's will:

• The scriptures tell us what God wants; and
• The Holy Spirit reveals to us what the Father wants in harmony with the scriptures.

This calls for humility when I pray.  I must ask God what he wants in my situation rather than insisting on my own desires.

"He [God] is willing to make us channels of blessing," Richardson says.  "Shall we not worship God in sincerity and truth, and cry eagerly and earnestly, What shall I do, Lord? and then, in the power of his might, do it?"

I see that, if I apply this approach consistently, my prayer life will change - and I will change, too.

God's glory and prayer

Contemplating God's glory can change you and your prayer life, says Albert Richardson, author of The Kneeling Christian.

Worshiping God and his glory, says Richardson, "not only puts us in the spirit of prayer, but in some mysterious way, helps God work on our behalf".

He notes the psalmist says in Psalm 50:23: "He who sacrifices thank offerings honours me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God."

"Have you ever fully realized that the Lord Jesus desires to share with us the glory we see in him?" the author writes. "This is his great gift to you and me, his redeemed ones.  Believe me, the more we have of God's glory, the less we shall seek his gifts."

Indeed, Jesus said in John 17:22 that he has given his followers the glory that the Father gave him so that we might be one as the Father and Son are one.

Richardson says that when Moses asked to see God's glory, he shared in that glory and "his own face shone with the light of it".  As we gaze upon the glory of God, "we shall not only get a glimpse of that glory, but we shall also gain something of it ourselves".

It is interesting to me how the glory of God can terrify people and yet change them forever.

In Isaiah 6, the prophet had a vision of God in the temple and it was so overwhelming that he declared he was finished because he had seen the holy Lord and the prophet had unclean lips.  Yet, God was gracious and cleansed him and empowered him to speak God's words to the people of Israel.

Similar displays of God's glory had a decisive impact on people like Daniel and the apostle Paul.

Richardson acknowledges that most of us need help in glorifying God.

Personally, I have found help in comments by Terry Law in his book The Power of Praise and Worship where he lists the different names of God in the Old Testament along with scripture references.  But any book or article that lists the names of God would assist anyone who wants to focus prayers on the many facets of the Lord's glory.

The names of God describe such aspects of God's character as creator, redeemer, healer, provider, master of all mankind, almighty, deliverer, sanctifier.  He is our peace, our righteousness, our shepherd, and he is always with us.

We can't help but be encouraged as we meditate on God's character and use that as a jumping off point for praise and worship.

Finding God's comfort

Sometimes, life's pains are so severe that even prayer seems impossible.

I am learning that a great prescription for emotional and spiritual pain is praying the Psalms back to God.

As I mentioned recently, Donald S. Whitney, author of Praying the Bible, recommends using scriptures to fuel your prayers.  He suggests that the Psalms are particularly valuable as prayer fodder, although you can use other Bible passages, too.

The value of the Psalms is that they contain the whole gamut of emotions - from deep depression to great joy.  And God is at the centre throughout.

Today, I turned to Psalm 46 for my daily read.  The opening two verses caught my eye:

"God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.  So, we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea."

This helped me remember that God is my refuge.  He is always there for me.  I can run to him for his comfort when things seem to be going wrong.

So, I thanked God for being there for me.  I asked him for his strength.

Later in the Psalm, I read in verse 10: "Be still, and know that I am God!"

I was reminded that, no matter what the circumstances, God is God!  Stopping and focusing my mind on who God is helps restore perspective to my anxious thoughts.  He knows the beginning from the end.  He is almighty.  He is working things out for good to those who love him.

In fact, I occasionally picture Jesus with me and neither of us says a word to the other.  I am just content to be with him.  This brings me peace.

The rest of Psalm 46 is a great encouragement when struggling with worries.  It speaks of God and how awesome he is.  I may not know my way out of a particular problem, but God has everything in hand.

The Psalm's description of God is a platform for praising our Lord.  Praising God brings a measure of hope.

So, I am grateful for the psalms - a record of honest feelings expressed to a loving and mighty God.

They help me pray.

Praying the Bible

Is your prayer life a bit stale right now?

If so, Donald S. Whitney, author of Praying The Bible, has a suggestion for you: Pray the Bible.

I have put Whitney's approach into practice in the last few days and find it practical and helpful.

Christians have prayed the scriptures for many centuries.  And there are many who do today.

D. L. Moody, the great American evangelist, and George Muller, founder of British orphanages and an apostle of prayer, prayed with the Bible open before them.  Each considered prayer vital in seeing God move powerfully in their work.

Whitney, an American seminary professor, says the advantage of using scripture passages to fuel your prayers is that you are using God's words and his promises.  And, as you pray the Lord's words, you are praying his will.

Another advantage: You will never run short of prayer material.

Whitney says Muller began praying the scriptures after finding he had a hard time concentrating during his early morning prayer time.  His prayer life took wings when he began praying through Bible passages, even as he walked through nearby fields.

I like Whitney's simple method.  Here is his illustration of someone praying through David's Psalm 23:

• Starting with verse 1 - "The Lord is my shepherd" - this person might thank God that the Lord has shepherded him all his life.
• Then, he might ask God to shepherd his family, guarding them against the ways of the world and guiding them into the ways of God.
• He might request the Lord to shepherd him in the decision that faces him about his future - does he change jobs or not?
• He might go on to pray for the leaders of the church - the church's "under-shepherds".

The author says a woman in one of his classes spent a half hour on that one verse as it sparked one idea after another for prayer.

He urges us to continue praying through a psalm until we feel we have completed our prayer time.  We might even go on to another scripture passage.

Whitney says the psalms lend themselves most easily to this kind of prayer because they were originally written as prayers.

But he notes that the letters written by the apostles are full of great material for praying.  And even the gospels are good as we can use an incident in Jesus' life as a springboard to prayer.

In fact, there are Old Testament passages which offer inspiration for prayer, too.

Whitney emphasizes that praying the Bible is not the same as studying or
 meditating on the scriptures.  The purpose is to use God's word to stimulate prayer.

As Whitney says, we need never be bored in our prayer times again.

Why confession matters

There is an old saying that "confession is good for the soul".

But, if you're like me, it's a hard thing to do.  There is an inner resistance to admitting we have sinned - against God or someone else.

Yet, the Bible makes clear that confession of sin is essential to inner healing, a right relationship with God, and ultimately power in prayer.

As I see it, confession follows repentance and leads to God's forgiveness.  Each step draws us closer to God.

Repentance is a heart decision to turn away from sin and back to God.  Next, we confess with our mouths that we have done wrong.  And then God forgives, graciously restoring us to intimate communion with him.

The apostle John summed it up in 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Author, prayer warrior and world evangelist Dick Eastman says in his book The Hour that Changes the World: "This brings to our attention an essential law of prayer: My prayer life will never rise above my personal life in Jesus Christ."

He adds: "According to Scripture, there can be no effective prayer life where sin maintains its grip in the life of the believer."

As the psalmist says in Psalm 66:18: "If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened."

"Why is confession so difficult for some?" asks Eastman.  "Perhaps because confession is really the most painful part of personal prayer."

I realize that there are some sins I resist confessing because I don't want to admit I'm wrong.  That's especially true if confessing means having to ask someone for forgiveness.

But this hard-shell resistance may be standing in the way of inner peace and powerful answers to prayer.

Eastman says he includes a time of personal confession every day during his prayer time.

He uses Psalm 51: 10-11 as the basis of his confession: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me."

He breaks this passage down into four steps:

• A plea for divine holiness ("Create in me a clean heart").  He reviews the previous day's activities and asks God to point out areas that need confession so that a healthy relationship with the Lord can be maintained;
• A request for a divine attitude ("Renew a right spirit within me").  He considers his relationships with others and whether he has a forgiving attitude toward them;
• A request for divine guidance ("Cast me not away from your presence").  He confesses his need for the presence of God during the day to lead him and to defeat temptation; and
• An appeal for divine unction or anointing ("Take not your Holy Spirit from me").  He says to God that he needs the Holy Spirit to operate through him.

A good plan.  And a reminder that I need to take confession seriously.

God's burden

You may get a strong desire to call out to God for someone without knowing why.

If so, obey and pray.

Elizabeth Alves tells of just such an episode in her book Becoming a Prayer Warrior.

Decades ago, she got out of bed at night to get a glass of water when a picture of a cousin she hadn't seen in 10 years flashed across her mind.

Suddenly, she fell to her knees and cried out: "Don't let him move, God! Don't let Mike move! Stay still! Stay still!"

She had no idea why this feeling swept over her.  She got up to go back to her bedroom and again fell to her knees, calling out:

"Get him up, Lord! Get him to run!  Run, Mike, run!  Lord, help him to run, run, run!  Let him run, God! Run, run, run!"

After a few minutes, she calmed down and went back to bed.

The next morning, she called her aunt and told her about her prayer experience.  Her aunt said her son was in Vietnam.

A month later, her aunt received a letter from her son, an American pilot, who said he had been shot down and landed in a tree.  He tried to scramble away but fell into a bush, just as Vietcong soldiers began searching the area for him.

A Vietcong soldier stood unwittingly on his pant leg so he couldn't move.  The soldiers were looking up into the tree.

They moved away to sweep nearby bushes and he got up to run but felt as if someone was pushing him back down.  Then, he got up again as it seemed safe and, feeling an impulse to run, he dashed away and was recovered shortly afterwards by a U.S. military helicopter looking for him.

I have heard similar stories of God placing an urgent burden on people to pray when they don't know why.

Not all of us have had such a dramatic experience.  But, God is speaking to us all the time.  And he often drops someone's name into our minds.  Elizabeth Alves' story is a reminder to me that I should pray immediately - even if nothing serious seems to be going on.

One of the reasons Elizabeth Alves was used by God in the Vietnam incident is that she had a close relationship with the Lord.  She listened to him and acted on what she heard.

The prophet Daniel had a similar connection with God.  Daniel began seeking God in prayer as a young Jewish exile in Babylon.  He remained faithful to the Lord even in the darkest times.

Then, one day he was reading in the prophecy of Jeremiah that "the desolation of Jerusalem would last 70 years".  He felt a great desire to pray and poured out his heart, confessing his sin and the sins of the Jews against God.  He called out to God, admitting the Jews did not deserve it, but pleading for Jerusalem based on the Lord's merciful love.

In reply, God sent the angel Gabriel to give the Lord's reply - a further prophecy about the restoration of Jerusalem until the "Anointed One" would come.  The reference to the Anointed One seems to be a prophecy of Jesus' coming and his sacrifice on the cross (Daniel 9).

I believe it is a privilege to receive a burden to pray from God.  It is evidence that God wants us to work with him through prayer.

But, like Daniel, we must - I must - begin by building a close and continuing relationship with the Lord, listening and obeying.

Praying with faith

Jesus made some stupendous promises for those who pray with faith.

But what does it mean to "pray with faith"?

It is something that I have wrestled with over the years.

Sometimes, people pray with little or no faith and God will answer, "Yes." And sometimes they pray fervently but wrongly and God says, "No."

John Wimber, founder of the charismatic Vineyard movement, believed that faith was very important in prayer.  In his healing ministry, he always looked for someone who had faith - a relative or friend - if the sick person was without faith.

And yet, he noted in his book Power Healing that he and his church saw no healings for about year after they launched a healing ministry.  In fact, the breakthrough came after he uttered what he said was a faithless prayer over a woman with a high fever.  She was healed.

It is easy to forget that God is the healer - not me or anyone else.

Andy Stanley, a renowned American author and pastor, has said that "walking by faith is simply living as if God is who he says he is and that he will do everything he has promised to do."

So faith must be in God - not in my ability or gifts or how I feel.

I like what Samuel Chadwick, a British Methodist preacher and teacher a century ago, says about praying with faith in his book The Path of Prayer.

He notes that Jesus declared that "all things are possible to him that believes".

"Without faith it is impossible to please God," Chadwick writes.  "Without faith it is impossible to have fellowship with God.  Without faith man can do nothing with God, and God can do nothing with man."

Then, he outlines several essentials for praying with faith, taken from the epistle of James in chapters 1, 4, and 5.

As praying people, we must:

• Ask (James 1:5):  There is "no limit to the range of prayer," says Chadwick.  "God waits to be asked before he gives the gifts that supply man's deepest needs."
• Ask in faith (James 1:6):  As James says, a person who doubts is "double-minded" - unsure what to believe or ask.  A person of faith trusts that God will do what he promises.
• Ask aright (James 4:3): "God takes account, not only of what we want, but of why we want it," Chadwick writes. "He looks at the heart."  Sin can stand in the way of God's answers.  Lack of forgiveness is another issue.  Self-seeking is still another barrier.
• Ask righteously (James 5:13-18):  Personal integrity is a powerful argument for our prayers to God. Chadwick says that "faith is no substitute for right living".
• Ask earnestly: "God promises to be found of us when we seek him with all our hearts," says the author.  "Elijah's prevailing prayer was intense in its passion."
• Ask in the Spirit: Elijah's prayer was "inspired, instructed and empowered of the Holy Spirit".
• Ask in the prayer of faith: As Hebrews 11 points out, the great men and women of the Bible "dared and endured by faith, even dying believing".  Chadwick underlines Jesus' great promise in Mark 11:24: "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours."

There is plenty of material for me to reflect upon as I pray.  Is my heart right with God and other people? Are my motives godly? Am I clinging to God's promises such as Mark 11:24? Am I seeking the Holy Spirit's guidance as I pray?  Most of all, do I trust that God will do what he says he will do?

If the answer is yes to these questions, I can pray with real confidence.

Listen to Jehaziel!

It looks hopeless - a vast army is invading and we're all quaking in our boots.

But wait!  Jehaziel speaks up: "This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid! Don't be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God's."

And God intervenes and destroys the enemy as his people praise him. (2 Chronicles 20)

I have been thinking of this great intervention in Judah's history and the powerful words of the prophet Jehaziel as Christians today face creeping darkness in our cities and nations.  As believers, we must join together - all believers - and pray and seek God's face to turn around these dark times.

And we must believe that the battle is fundamentally God's.

Are we believers too complacent?  Or have we already given up in the face of Islamic terrorism, destruction of the family, racial animosity, spreading crime, the dominance of anti-Christian values in society?  Or, do we simply doubt that God is strong enough to turn things around and heal our cities and nations?

I believe more and more believers are praying.  But much more needs to be done.  Judah was saved when the whole nation came together to plead their cause before the Lord.  The Christian church needs to do the same in our Western countries.

The great impact of united prayer has been documented throughout the ages.

In Acts 4, the early believers prayed together that they would speak boldly for Christ in the midst of persecution and the faith spread rapidly.

In East Germany, prayer meetings in Leipzig led to the collapse of the Communist regime in 1989.  See http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/europes-revolution-the-pastor-who-brought-down-the-berlin-wall-1799976.html.

In Uganda in the 1970s, churches from many denominations prayed together - often in secret - as dictator Idi Amin launched terror campaigns against Christians.  A revival broke out among the Christians and Amin was eventually overthrown in the late 1970s.

But first we Christians have to look at ourselves.  Are we prepared for spiritual battle?  What is the state of our hearts?  Do we love others - or hate them?  Those are questions I ask of myself.

Francis Frangipane, author of The House of Lord: God's Plan to Liberate Your City from Darkness, says God's strategy for healing our cities begins with us.

In my city - Ottawa Canada - I see encouraging signs.  The National House of Prayer was founded to pray for our nation and Love Ottawa, a local inter-church ministry, fosters a week of prayer for our city every January.

Yet I feel this is only a beginning as more believers join together in praying to our great God for our nations.

As Jehaziel said, the battle is not ours, but God's.

Removing the veil

I have sensed for several years that the prince of this world has dropped a veil over the eyes of an elderly friend of mine, preventing him from seeing Jesus as he is.

So I am praying that Jesus will reveal himself in some way to this man who has attended several of the Alpha courses on Christ, but still does not understand and accept the good news.  He hangs on to the forlorn hope that God will judge that he has been good enough to enter the kingdom of heaven.

I know of others, too, who have had difficulty grasping the gospel even when it is explained plainly and graphically.  One woman I know belonged to a women's Bible study group and had heard the gospel many times, but it was only as she was listening to the radio as she was driving one day that everything clicked and she rejoiced in what Christ had done for her.

In my mind, this reinforces the truth that it is the Holy Spirit who brings people into the family of God.  We are called to speak of Jesus and to show God's love to others; but it is the Spirit who changes hearts.  And this may happen in unpredictable ways.

Colin Dye, author of Prayer Explosion: Power for Christian Living, says that Satan is actively trying to subvert Christian efforts to reach those who do not know Christ.

Dye, pastor of Kensington Temple in London, England, speaks from experience.  His church has a vast prayer ministry that has been praying and sharing the gospel in London and Africa with striking results.

"The main reason people reject [the gospel] is because they're not ready," says Dye.  "The ground isn't prepared and there are spiritual forces that are blinding them."

He quotes the apostle Paul who wrote: "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." (2 Corinthians 4:4)

So the prayer warriors in his church - and there are many of them - include prayer against Satan along with prayers for those who don't know Christ as they evangelize.

As Dye notes, Jesus has given us authority to trample over all the power of the enemy. (Luke 10:19)  But he advises us to pray together - in support of each other - as we pray against Satan's activities in our cities.  We need to uphold each other as Satan can seriously impede us - and hurt us - if we operate alone.

As most of us do, Dye says that he prays for God's mercy on people because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross; for the Holy Spirit to convict people of their need for Christ; and for the Spirit's insight into what to say and do.  And he brings before God the Lord's promises from the Bible.

But he also prays against "strongholds" that may be binding people - the thoughts that dominate the minds of people.  These thought-lives may be so strong that they may affect large numbers of people and be difficult to dislodge in ordinary conversation.

He mentions an evangelistic mission to the African country of Benin some years ago which was plagued with the dark forces of Voodoo.  His church had gone there to help local people present the gospel and found resistance to the message of Christ among non-believers.

The church team spent a lot of time in prayer to break the hold of these evil forces on the people. And, in subsequent trips to that country, hundreds became Christians.

He reports similar prayer stories in London.

Dye notes that if I am to pray effectively for my friend,  I must draw close to God in my own life. If the enemy finds a chink in my armour, he will exploit it to my detriment.  And I need to seek the Spirit's guidance as I pray.

But, above all, I must pray convinced that God is all-powerful and everything is possible with him.