Do you believe in prayer, and how do you pray if you do? Just what is prayer?  These and similar questions eluded me until I began to walk in the Spirit with God.  It was not the mechanics of what prayer is or how you do it, but the deeper spiritual meaning and results that truly set you free from the worldly desires of the flesh.  I am sure both Christians and non-Christians have asked these questions.  I have seen and experienced the result of prayer, so in my heart I know it works and without prayer I would be lost. 

 

As we try to answer the questions asked above, let’s examine the act of praying from the Biblical teaching of Jesus and then you can decide whether or not you believe in prayer. Prayer is simple and Jesus gave us a model for prayer in Matthew 6:5-15 (NKJV). You will recognize the Lord’s Prayer as recorded in verses 9 through 13.  Jesus said:

 

 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray:

          Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

As we forgive our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation,

But deliver us from the evil one.

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” 

“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Prayer without a belief in God, the God of the Bible, is fruitless.  You may believe otherwise and that is OK.  I am talking only about the God that is presented in the Bible, and the God I know.  The whole Bible and just not one book, paragraph, verse or word.  I am talking about the Trinity of God, His commandments, Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection and the revelations given regarding the second coming of Jesus Christ.

If you have a belief in a god other than the one presented in the Bible, talk with your god regarding his requirements for prayer.  If he is not talking with you, maybe you have a spirit of the Antichrist.  Whatever the case may be, I will not argue with you about your personal beliefs.  I am just telling you what I believe and quoting the source for my belief.  You should do likewise.

Do not believe what only your spiritual leaders tell you? Find out for yourself.  The truth is there but you will have to find it.  I would suggest that you confine your reading to the Biblical scriptures if you truly desire the peace that surpasses all understanding that only God can give you.  The “truth and only the truth” is found within the Bible.

I believe when the human body and mind work in harmony together it is like the workings of a finely tuned automobile. Nutrition, exercise, sleep and “emotional maintenance” when used in the correct formula combination maintain and regulate the bodily functions.  In a perfect environment, there are no problems.  In an imperfect one, the one in which we live, there are problems and the solutions, if any, are as varied as there are many.

While many illnesses, both mental and physical, can be healed by the mind without a belief in God, miraculous healings cannot. A positive mental attitude can help in the healing process. For instance, asking for and granting forgives to people who have offended or hurt you can bring about mental and physical healing. Your mind can make you sick if you allow negative thoughts to control your thoughts and attitude. Forgiveness can heal.  Bitterness and an unforgiving spirit can kill. It is as simple as that.

Some sicknesses, however, are caused by circumstances outside the normal functioning of the body.  Cancers, as an example, can result from toxic chemicals found in our food, water and environmental surroundings.  While a positive mental attitude may promote longevity of life under these circumstances, miraculous healing may be out of reach for non-believers but not for believers.

Answered prayer is only available for those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and who have granted the Holy Spirit of God access to their soul through the surrender of their will. If a believer prays in the Spirit they will be granted their prayer request if, and this is a big “IF”, the prayer request is in the will of God.  In other words, praying to God to make you financially rich may not be in the will of God for your life and therefore your prayer may not be answered.

I can hear your emotions howling but think about it this way.   The Bible is the playbook for knowing God and knowing the miraculous power of God.  You can only come to a knowledge of the God of the Bible through his Son, Jesus Christ. If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Bible is of no value to you other than as a great primer on how to lead a “good” life.

The God of the Bible is the only God that is real.  You can pray to God and get results.  You have an assurance of life after death.  You can talk directly to God without an adversary. Jesus Christ paid for your transgressions; you do not have to do enough good works to have ever-lasting life. You will find the peace that surpasses all understanding if you know Jesus and Jesus knows you.

All other religions are based on gods of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood and straw. They cannot speak, see, hear or answer your requests for the peace that surpasses all understanding.  There is a created spirit who once served God.  His name is Lucifer. Most know him as Satan and will one day know and worship him as the Antichrist. He can promise and deliver earthly materialism to you. After all, he is the god this world worships. Read about his fall from heaven in Isaiah 14; you would do well to take heed.  Worship of Lucifer will only guarantee you eternal damnation. His future home and yours, if you worship him, is the Lake of Fire as told in the book of Revelation.

If you do not believe in God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit or the teachings of the Bible, none of this should matter to you.  Go your own way and endure the physical and emotional anguishes of life through your own abilities.  Ask your god to help you. I will not condemn or tell you that you will burn in hell.  I will still be your friend, but I will secretly pray for you if the Holy Spirit leads me to include you in my prayers. 

So here is the real deal.  If you will believe and accept the teachings and salvation found in the Holy Scriptures of the Bible, prayer is available to you for healing, comfort and communion. Your prayers are the way to rejuvenate and heal your body, soul and spirit.  Your prayers are the way to unlock the “God Codes.”  Jesus said that if you believe your prayers will be answered. 

 

Have you ever tried to cast a mountain into the sea?  Be honest, I know I’ve tried it many times to no avail.  I have faith but apparently not enough I’ve told myself.  You may not even know what I am writing about.  Faith, mountain cast into the sea, just what are these? 

 

The story comes from the book of Matthew, chapter 17:14-21 (NKJV).  Jesus was capable of performing miracles and He had given this power to His disciples.  On one occasion His disciples were unable to perform a healing miracle and they were asking Jesus why.  His answer was as follows:

 “And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.  So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”

Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”  So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Jesus also introduced prayer and fasting as a requirement for certain miracle abilities.  Fasting is denying yourself things of the flesh.  Webster defines fasting as “To abstain from food. To eat very little or abstain from certain food.”  Jesus said when you fast you should do it in secret. Much like he said about prayer.

“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly,” Matthew 6:16-18 (NKJV).  Read Isaiah chapter 58 before you begin to fast; it will open your eyes to the “True Meaning” of fasting.

You will miss the point by thinking God would allow us to do acts of nature (cast a mountain into the sea) if we only had enough faith in prayers we offer; God can but he knows what he is doing, we don’t.  The sea would be full of mountains if God allowed such acts when new believers tried to test their faith. 

We can change our own bodies through prayer.  A friend of mind influenced my thought processes when he told me his thoughts on exercising the Spirit in the same way that you exercise you body.  Just as you gain in strength by exercising your muscles, you gain in spiritual abilities by exercising your Spirit.  Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, receive the Holy Spirit and then learn through prayer and fasting how to strengthen your Spirit, heal your body and mind and discover all that God has made available to you.

Can your prayers influence others?  I believe they can but I do not know exactly how this process works; I just know it works.  Jesus said that it took both prayer and fasting to cast out certain demons. What I believe is this, when you are in communion with the Holy Spirit (doing what the Spirit tells you), the Holy Spirit can communicate with God and God can then direct the Holy Spirit that resides in someone else to heal that person. The person being healed must believe and accept their healing.

If you have not placed your faith in Jesus Christ, right about now you are thinking “this guy has lost his ever-loving mind.” Maybe I have and maybe my thought concept are foreign to yours, but I believe the scriptures have revealed to us the innermost secrets of life. The “fountain of youth,” if you will.  Whoever or whatever God is cannot be explained or understood by man.  We only have the likeness of Jesus, but in Jesus we can see and know God. All we have to do is accept Jesus.

I believe God gave some the ability to know.  That is, some have the “God Code” that keeps his knowledge alive here on planet earth. He communicates through these people and directs their actions.  Yes, they may be tempted and fall but they do not fall completely.  They recover and continue their journey through life as directed.  This is a hard concept to understand. 

Think about Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus.  His act can be viewed as an act of evil and betrayal. Yet, it was an act that had to be done so that Jesus could fulfill his purpose.  Will Judas suffer in hell because of his act?  I do not know. Only God knows.  If you perform acts that God directs you to do even though they would be considered evil in our own eyes, will you be punished for them?  Flip Wilson was fond of saying “The Devil made me do it.”  I guess eternal punishment is based on who made you do it.  Do you get it?  Did God make you do it or did the Devil (Satan) make you do it.  Only God knows!

I am reminded of the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal (various gods of nature and fertility) and the prophets of Asherah.(a fertility goddess).  You can read the full story in 1 Kings 18.  Elijah was a prophet who served God. Ahab was a king of Israel who did evil in the sight of the Lord and led the people of Israel to worship false gods rather than the one true God. He, Ahab, was married to Jezebel, a prophetess of Baal and Asherah; she delighted in killing the prophets of God.

It was a time in Israel when rain had been cut off from the land and there was a great famine. King Ahab was searching the land for Elijah.  At the command of God, Elijah had prophesied to King Ahab that there would be no rain until he commanded that it rain.  King Ahab had grown tired of waiting and his people were searching the land for Elijah.

When the appropriate time came in the eyes of God, Elijah was commanded to reveal himself and to meet with Ahab.  Elijah, under the direction of God, chose to have a “trial by fire” as a way to reveal the one true God of Israel who would be able to restore the rain. Elijah commanded that the people be summoned from all Israel and a test would be done to show the people the real God of Israel.

Four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and four hundred prophets of Asherah were summoned to Mount Carmel where two altars were prepared for a sacrificial offering.  Ahab and Jezebel’s prophets would call on their gods and Elijah would call on his God.  Whoever’s God or gods answered with fire would be the real God of Israel.

The prophets of Baal and Asherah prepared their altar and danced and prayed all day but no god answered.  They shouted and cut themselves and cried out to Baal, but no fire came. All the while Elijah tormented them with words of their gods being asleep, too busy or maybe traveling and could not hear their cries.

When evening came and the gods of Baal and Asherah had not appeared, Elijah prepared his altar for the evening sacrifice. As Elijah prepared his altar, he even ordered that water be poured over his altar to soak the wood; enough water was poured over his altar to fill a trench that had been dug around the altar’s base.  He then prayed and fire fell from heaven and consumed the whole altar.  The people of Israel then rallied around Elijah.

Elijah commanded the people to seize the prophets of Baal and Asherah.  All eight hundred and fifty prophets were taken and put to death in the Kishon Valley as commanded by Elijah.  Rain then fell from heaven and watered the land. Elijah’s life did not end.  He was later taken up to the heavens in a whirlwind.  Ahab and Jezebel suffered a different fate.  Ahab was killed in battle and dogs licked up the blood washed from his chariot as the Lord had declared — at a pool used by prostitutes, no less. Jezebel died when she was thrown from a window, trampled by horses and her flesh eaten by dogs (2 Kings 9:30-37), all as prophesied by the Lord’s prophet.

My thought is this, do not underestimate or deny the power of the one true God.  Look around, did all this just happen or was it planned?  Believe what you want but as for me, I believe in the Trinity of God, and I believe in prayer.

One last thought.  Should you pray in public before you have a meal? Great question and I can only answer it this way.  With the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ “religious laws” were done away with.  In Jesus’ instruction on prayer He gave three things to avoid: (1) Do not pray to be seen by men; (2) When you pray go to your room, close the door and pray; (3) When you pray do not keep on babbling.  I find these interesting as it makes prayer or a prayer life more personal.

God’s Holy Spirit will direct you in what you should do.  You are praying to be heard of God, not to be heard by your fellow man.  You are not to please man, but you are to please God.  

In Jesus Christ you have been set free from the religious laws.  As Paul wrote, do not establish man made laws that will once again imprison you.  You were set free by the blood of Jesus, but do not flaunt you freedom in front of those who have not yet been truly set free if it would cause them to fall.  Think about this in the Spirit, and the true meaning will be revealed to you.

May your prayer life set you free, in Jesus’ name I pray.

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