The Power of Prayer
Therefore, I say unto you, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”—Mark 11:24, KJV
Initially, one may ask the question, “What is prayer?”
True prayer is the bringing of petitions to God which have been born within us by the Holy Spirit. Prayer is the very life-force of our spiritual existence. It is fellowship, communion and intimacy with God that is real (genuine, authentic) and personal. It is the ultimate in solidifying our love relationship with Him. When we pray, there becomes no greater desire in our hearts than to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.
E.M. Bounds who authored the “Possibilities of Prayer” introduces the first chapter of his book with these words written by Homer W. Hodge:
Prayer should be the breath of our breathing, the
thought of our thinking, the soul of our feeling, and the
life of our living, the sound of our hearing, the growth of
our growing. Prayer in its magnitude is length without
end, width without bounds, height without top and depth
without bottom. Illimitable in its breadth, exhaustless in
height, fathomless in depths and infinite in extension.
When you enter your prayer closet, your inner chamber, to fellowship with God, in His very presence you transcend from the natural to the spiritual which fills you with the very life of God. It is by faith that you enter into the inner sanctum.
E.M. Bound says, “if doubt be banished from the heart, and unbelief be made a stranger there, whatever you ask of God shall surely come to pass, and a believer hath…whatsoever he saith.” So then, one may ask, “So, there is power in prayer?”
Indeed, there is! “…all through Scripture you will find that when believing prayer went up to God, the answer came down.” (Online Words of Life Ministries 2016). Remember, little prayer, little power, much prayer, much power, no prayer, no power!
Andrew Murray says it this way: Little of the Word with little prayer is death to the spiritual life. Much of the Word with little prayer gives a sickly life. Much prayer with little of the Word gives more life, but without steadfastness. A full measure of the Word and prayer gives a healthy and powerful life. Think of the Lord Jesus: In His youth and manhood He treasured the Word in His heart. In the temptation in the wilderness, and at every opportunity that presented itself til He cried out on the cross in death, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46), He showed that the Word of God filled His heart; and in His prayer life, we see two things: the Word supplies us with material for prayer and the Word encourages expectation from God!
The prayer that prevails must be fervent, earnest and passionate. A modern translation of James 5:16 reads: ‘Tremendous power is made available through a good man’s earnest prayer.’ The emphasis is upon ‘earnest’. The prayer that prevails is prayer that is given us by the Holy Spirit which is emphasized in Romans 8:26 and Philippians 2:13.
The prayer that prevails must be the prayer of a righteous man. All of us by nature are unrighteous (Isaiah 64:6); but through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ we have been made righteous. The prayer that God hears is the prayer of one who is trusting in the Lord Jesus as his righteousness and who is seeking to live righteously day by day.
Know that the Holy Spirit is essentially the Spirit of the Word and the Spirit of prayer! He will cause the Word to become a joy and a light in our souls, and He will also most assuredly help us in prayer to know the mind and will of God, and find in it our delight!
When we firmly set our hearts upon Him, Our Father and Our God, there will be change in our interaction with the Word and prayer such as we could not have thought possible. Indeed, There is Power in Prayer--power that moves the heart of God!
“Whatever you ask of God shall surely come to pass, and a believer hath…whatsoever he saith.” -- E.M. Bounds
--Linda M. Collier
