To: Hebraic-Foundations@yahoogroups.com
From: "Pastor Buddy Martin" <Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org>
Date sent: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 17:31:05 -0500
Subject: [HF] Special Guest Bible Study: HF065 - Characteristics of Real
Prayer
Hebraics,
Recently Dr. Leon Hyatt, Jr., a member of our forum, shared a Bible
study with a group of ministers that I felt would be a great blessing to
Hebraic-Foundations. Brother Leon is a retired Southern Baptist
minister and a good personal friend. He was kind enough to provide
the study at my request, and asked me to edit out anything I wished.
While the study is much longer than the studies I present, I could not
find it in my heart to edit out anything. Every bit of this study is a
blessing. I pray you will be as blessed as I was in listening to this fine
brother share on 'real prayer.'
Here is the study in its entirety. This is Bible Study HF065 -
Characteristics of Real Prayer.
CHARACTERISTICS OF REAL PRAYER Luke 11:1-13
INTRODUCTION. In the last few years, a renewed interest in prayer
has risen in churches across our nation. Recently I have read
interesting articles about various activities churches are conducting to
awaken an interest in increased praying. Some have glowing reports
about the improvement in all aspects of their churches life as a result
of their new prayer programs. Anything that increasing the
participation of Christians in prayer is helpful, but I am more interested
in
teaching people the meaning of real prayer. It is possible to have
excellent
activities related to prayer without much real praying, but if people
learn how
to genuinely pray they will not need special activities to get them to
prayer.
I earnestly believe one of the great needs of Christians today is to
have instruction in what real praying is. When I try to pray along with
some whom I hear leading in public prayer in church today, I have to
ask myself, What is it about that prayer that a Muslim or a Hindu
could not pray? Many times I have to answer, Nothing. Such a
situation is sad indeed. If Bible instructions on prayer are true, pagan
prayers are not prayers at all. Only Christian prayers are prayers with
reality and power.
Jesus disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, as John taught his
disciples to pray (Luke 11:1). We have the example of both John and
Jesus that believers need instruction in prayer. Jesus disciples
realized they needed instruction in prayer when they heard Jesus pray.
His praying was far beyond anything they knew how to do. Jesus gave
them good instructions, but he gave additional instruction on a number
of other occasions. He did not teach them everything He had to say
about prayer on that one occasion, or on any other one occasion..
Probably his insights into prayer were too vast for Him to be able to
explain them all at one time.
Not only in Jesus teachings, but also in the whole Bible no one
passage gives a discourse on all the aspects of genuine praying. All
the teachings about prayer in various locations in the Bible must be
combined if we are to understand true prayer that produces power.
Prayer is not a subject that can be captured in a proof text. A study of
the whole Bible is necessary to understand the many aspects of true
powerful praying. Recognizing that fact, I still would like to suggest six
characteristics gathered from the Bible as a whole that must be combined
for
prayer to be genuine and powerful. No doubt other characteristics could be
named, but I am convinced these six are basic.
FERVENTLY. James 5:16 says, The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much. What does it mean to pray fervently?
It means to mean what we say, to be sincere about the words we
speak. God does not honor pretense, but he greatly honors sincerity.
Jesus emphasized the importance of fervent praying when he said
God accepted the prayer of a repentant sinner but rejected the prayer
of a hypocritical Pharisee (Luke 18:10-14).
How can we recognize a fervent prayer? It is helpful first to consider
what fervent praying is not: (1) Fervent praying is not how long we
pray. Daniel 10 tells how Daniel was so deeply burdened by the sins
of His people that he spent three weeks pouring out his heart to
God, asking for his people to be converted and forgiven. During those
three weeks, he did not eat a full meal; and he did not bathe, so he
could give himself totally to prayer. At the end of the three weeks, a
Messenger from heaven appeared to him. That Messenger was so
mighty that I believe He could have been noone other than the pre-
incarnate Jesus. The Messenger told Daniel he had been delayed by
the prince of the kingdom of Persia. That prince must have
been a
demon ruler, who was the unseen but real power determining the
actions of the mighty but wicked Persia. The Messenger said He
finally had been able to obtain help from Michael. He had left Michael
struggling with the prince, so he could come to Daniel. Immediately
He responded to Daniels prayer saying, . . . from the first day that
thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before
thy God, thy words were heard, and I
am come for thy words (10:12). Daniel actually had wasted a lot of
time and words. God sent forth the answer when he first began to
pray. This passage teaches two important lessons about prayer: (a)
Jesus will not let any power in heaven or in all the earth keep Him
away from us when we petition Him in prayer. (b) God responds to our
prayers immediately, even if we cannot see the response right away.
We do not need to beg Him or try to beat down His resistance with
constant, long extended prayers. He wants to answer. He
immediately issues a decree that our prayer be answered in His way.
We need to have enough faith in God to leave our prayers with Him,
trust Him to answer when and how He wishes, and get on with serving
Him.
Then the Messenger told Daniel of many terrible struggles and
sufferings that had to occur before God could give Daniel the answer
to His prayer. He told Daniel that only at that time [after the long
years of suffering] thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall
be found written in the book (12:1). The Messenger revealed to
Daniel that God was going to answer his prayer, but the answer would
come only after long years of struggle and long after Daniels death.
Daniel did not need to worry. He could die in peace, because God
would not forget his prayer and would answer it in due time (12:13).
Daniel learned a lesson about prayer that day that we need to learn as
well. We do not need to pressure God into answering our prayers. He
decrees the answer when we begin to prayer. We may not even live to
see the answer, but it will come. We just need to pray earnestly and
mean it and then leave it to God to answer it in His own way and time.
(2) Fervent praying is not how literary our prayer is. Some people
concentrate on praying beautiful, even poetic words, expressed in
eloquent and carefully constructed phrases. Their prayers sound like
they are reading from a book. The words are beautiful, but there is no
heart in it. When people stand to pray with a piece of paper in their
hands and they open it to read, invariably they stumble over words and
leave me cold. Jesus warned us against that kind of praying when he
said, But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do:
for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking (Matt.
6:7). God does not care nearly as much about pretty words as He
cares about a sincere heart. Once I heard a man rise to pray the
morning prayer on an Easter Sunday morning. He said, This
morning, oh glorious Lord of the universe, who created all the worlds
and all beings in them, and who continues to be royal Master over
them all, we offer to You and You alone our highest praise and most
supreme glory, along with our uttermost gratitude for the glorious
meaning of this most significant day, so full of your presence, as seen
in the multicolored blossoms, soothing breeze, green grass, billowing
clouds, and heart warming sunshine. Then he paused a
moment and said, Well, folks I know it is raining outside, but the sun
was shining when I wrote this prayer; and it sounded so beautiful I
havent had the heart to change it. He would have done much better
if he had said, God, rain isnt what we asked for today; but you know
best. Thanks for the rain.
(3) Fervent praying is not how loud we pray. Loud praying certainly is
fitting when we mean it and when the time is appropriate, but I know
that the times when I have felt my petition to God most earnestly, I was
so deeply moved I could not even speak a whisper. God is not deaf.
He hears the smallest whisper, and he answers the silent flutter of a
sincere heart. Loudness is not the measure of a fervent prayer.
Years ago I moved to my second pastorate when I was still in
seminary. One of the first things said to me after I moved was, You
want to go to the grocery store and pray with Brother Barney. He
prays like no one you every heard. As soon as I could, I went to the
store. I did not know what I was facing. It wasnt long until Brother
Barney invited me to the store room in the back of the store to kneel
and pray among feed sacks and other supplies that he had not yet
moved to the shelves in the front of his store. He asked me to begin
the praying, which I gladly did. He joined in right away, with many
expressions of approval; but he grew louder and louder until I could
not hear what I was saying. I just stopped speaking, and he went right
on with his shouting. As I continue to kneel, a little tickle came from a
bell
that was hanging on the front screen door. All his groaning and
exclamations
stopped instantly. He said, You will have to excuse me just a minute,
young
preacher. I have a customer to tend to. He went to the front of the store
and
talked about the price of canned beans and the hot weather and the
neighbor who
got in a wreck the day before. He rang up the grocery ticket on his cash
register, and the bell tinkled again as the customer left. In an instant
he
returned to the store room, and the furor began all over again. I
could not
help but think, If he was all that earnest about his praying, a little
tinkle
from a bell could not have stopped him, like turning off a faucet. I
learned
later that, if I wanted to pray with Brother Barney, all I had to do was
open my
bedroom window at a certain time every evening. The parsonage was only a
block
away. I do not wish to be too harsh on Brother Barney. He was a sincere
believer, and he is in heaven now. But as dedicated he was, I concluded
that
his practice of shouting his prayers was a demonstration that how loud we
are
does not reveal how sincere we are when we pray.
So what is fervent praying? It is prayer that comes from the heart.
God would rather hear a prayer about a lost fountain pen, if we mean
it, than a prayer about all the missionaries in the world if we pray it
only out
of habit or because we have been taught we are supposed to.
CONSTANTLY. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, Pray without ceasing.
Other
verses that give the same instruction in different words are: Ephesians
6:18, Mark 13:33; 14:38; Colossians 4:2; Romans 12:12; Matthew 7:7;
Luke 18:1-8; 11:5-8. I have to confess these verses have given me a
lot of trouble. For a time, I said, Praying constantly is impossible. I
have
to think about other things some times. I have to talk to other people at
times
to be able to live. I cannot be talking to God every minute. I am glad
I
remembered the Bible is Gods Word. It is true, and I should not
question it.
I said, If anything is wrong here, it is with me, not with the Bible.
I asked God to show me where I was wrong, and He did. He taught
me that the essence of prayer is not words; it is contact with Him. All
the words in the world do not make a prayer, if we are not in touch with
God when we speak. On the other hand, if we are in touch with God,
words arent always necessary. I know a similar reality is true with me
and wife. We do not have many times just to be with each other
quietly without a task to perform. When we do have that joy,
sometimes we do not have anything specific to say. We may sit for as
long as fifteen minutes without saying a word. Then we both begin to
speak at the same moment, and usually we say the same thing.
Through the years, we have grown into each other so securely that we
not only know how to understand what the other does or says, but
when we are not saying or doing anything in particular, our thoughts
just run along together.
We are in touch with each others hearts and minds without saying a
word. In such a time, I may not have anything particular to say, but I
would be oh so lonesome if she were not there. When we learn to
experience Gods presence in that way, we have learned to truly pray.
You know what? Using that principle, we can pray constantly day and
night. Even when we are talking to someone else or thinking of
something else, we are aware that God is with us. If He has anything
to say to us, He can say it with no trouble, because we already are in
touch with Him. If we have anything to say to Him, it only takes an
instant to get His ear. We do not have to wait until evening before we
go to bed. We can pray with just a thought, because we are already in
His presence. Using that principle, we can pray even when we are
asleep. He is there, and the minute we awake, we know He is there.
In that way, we can and should pray constantly.
BELIEVINGLY. Matthew 21:22 says, And all thing whatsoever ye ask
in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. Other verses that teach the
same lesson are: Matthew 11:24; James 1:5-6; 5:15. Once I thought
those promises couldnt be true, because they did not work for me. I
thought I had tried it, and it failed. I needed something so badly. I
knew God wanted to give me what I needed, so I went to Him in
prayer, with absolute confidence He would send me what I asked for. I
knelt and asked. I told Him how badly I needed it, and I assured Him I
knew He loved me and would give me what I asked for. I even
thanked Him in advance for giving it to me. Then I got up from my
knees, just knowing what I asked for would be right there. It wasnt.
He did not give me instantly what I asked for. Not only that, He never
did give me what I asked for. I was disappointed, hurt, puzzled, even a
little bitter. Then, thank the Lord, He whispered in my ear that I should
let
Him explain, instead of complaining about how He had let me down. He
showed me
right away that I was believing in the wrong thing. I believed, but my
belief
was worthless, because I put my faith in the wrong place. All the faith in
the
world will not produce results unless we put our faith in something or
someone
who has the power to do what we ask. On the other hand, if we believe
aright,
then it only takes the smallest amount of that faith to bring results.
What I learned was that I needed to believe, not in prayer, but in God.
I had been making the mistake of believing in myself or my ability to
ask for the right thing. My faith was misplaced. I should have been
believing in God. When we tell people to believe in Jesus to be saved,
we mean they should yield their lives into Jesus hands and trust Him.
He will save them, because He has the power and He wants to do it.
When the Bible says, Pray believing, we should understand believing
in the same way. Believing prayer does not mean we should believe in
prayer or believe in our ability to pray or believe in the answer to our
prayer. It means believing in God. We trust our prayer in Gods
hands. He answers because
He has the power and because He wants to do it. But He answers in
His way, and His way is always best. When we pray with faith in
Jesus, our prayers never fail.
IN JESUS NAME. John 14:13-14 records that Jesus said, And
whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may
be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do
it. Praying in Jesus name certainly does not mean that we use His
name as a magic formula that makes events happen. Jesus name
used like Open Sesame can be invoked a thousand times, and no
good will result. Rather praying in Jesus name means that we pray
through the power and authority of Jesus. Jesus name stands for
Him, as my name stands for me. It is not the name itself but the
power of the person for whom the name stands that brings results.
We need to be careful that our prayers are not dependent on
pronouncing certain words but upon the power of a Person. Just
closing a prayer with the words In Jesus name we pray, will not
bring
a response from God, but praying to the Father because Jesus gives
us the right and the authority to pray will move all the powers of
heaven in response to our prayer.
Perhaps the desire to avoid using Jesus name as a magic formula is
the reason many today omit those words at the close of their prayers.
I can understand that desire, but I think there is a better way, which is
to say the words deliberately and mean them. We can say them at the
beginning, at the end, in the middle, or several times. We can vary the
way we express them to show that we are thinking about the words
and meaning them. I certainly cannot understand a person who prays
all the way through a prayer and never mentions Jesus even
once. To me that person seems to think he has the power to pray in
his own right, in other words, in his own name. Not so, For there is
one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus; . . . . We get to God through Jesus, no other way. Even when
we are saved, we are not good enough and powerful enough to enter
into Gods presence on our own. We enter because Jesus is our
Savior, and He gives us the power to approach God. We can come
boldly unto the throne of grace only because of Jesus. To approach
God in our own name is not boldness but brazenness. It is the name
and person of Jesus who allows us to approach the throne without
fear.
When I was an Infantry rifleman, fighting against Hitlers armies in
World War II, two of my buddies made a vow with each other. They
promised each other that, if one of them was killed and the other lived,
the one who lived would visit the others parents and tell them how he
died and how he loved them. One of the men did get killed. When the
war was over and the one who lived was discharged, before he went to
his own home, he went to his buddys home. The elderly parents
opened the door just a crack and showed fear of the strange young
man at the door. He told them his name was Franklin, and they
responded by closing the door even more tightly. The name Franklin
meant nothing to them. Then he said, I was Bobs friend in the army.
I was near him when he died, and I came to tell you about him. At the
name Bob, the door opened wide. The elderly mother threw her
arms around the young man. The father grasped his arm and drew
him into the house. Everything they owned was open to him. In the
same way, the name Jesus opens to us the door to Gods throne
room. My name and your name will never open the door. Jesus
name opens to us not only the door but also all the bounties and bliss
of heaven. We should never dare to pray without acknowledging
Jesus and His glorious name.
IN JESUS WILL. 1 John 5:13-15 says, These things have I written
unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may
know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of
the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if
we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know
he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions
that we desired of him. For our prayers to be answered, they must be
within Jesus will. It is a mistake to read verses 14-15 without
noticing verse
13. Verse 13 clearly shows us the passage is talking about Jesus. It is
not
enough to pray in Gods will. There are many Gods, but only one Jesus.
If we
live and pray in Jesus will, we will be in the will of the true God;
but Jesus
is our Savior and Master. Through Him we know and do the will of God. So
when
we pray, we must consult Jesus and do all we can to be assured Jesus
approves of
our prayer and endorses it. Otherwise, there will be no answer.
Some people totally misunderstand the purpose of prayer. They think
prayer allows them to give God His daily orders. Nothing could be
further from the truth. Jesus is our Lord, not our slave. He does not
accept orders. He gives order. Our task is to surrender to His orders,
to His will. True prayer surrenders our needs and desires into Jesus
hands for Him to handle His way. Thus we pray in His will, and we
receive the best of all answers.
Surrendering to and acknowledging Jesus will makes prayer so easy.
We do not have to carry the burden of wondering if we are praying for
the right thing. He will guide our prayers, and we know however He
guides us will be right. Maybe we are not sure of Jesus wishes, then
we should pray, Nevertheless, not my will, thine be done. He will
answer, and the answer will be different from what we expect; but it will
be far better than anything we know to ask for.
A man was in serious legal problems with his business. His friend
said, You need a lawyer. The troubled man said, I know I do, but
I
cant go now, because I dont know what
I want him to do for me. The friend responded, Yes, now is the time
for you to go. You do not need to figure out what you want him to do.
You only need to tell him what your problem is. It is his business to tell
you
what to do. He will tell you how to handle the problem and take the burden
off
of you. The troubled man listened to his friend and went. The lawyer
showed
him a simple answer he never would have known about for himself. In that
same
spirit, we should take our prayers to Jesus. We do not need to tell Him
what to
do. We just need to tell Him what our problem is. He is the problem
solver.
He will do His will, and it will be far better than we could imagine. A
friend
sent me this message by e-mail yesterday morning, When you are in a
storm, do
not tell Jesus how powerful the storm is. Then the storm how powerful
Jesus
is. When we tell Jesus and leave the storm to Him, we have learned to
pray in
His will.
IN JESUS SPIRIT. In Romans 8:26-27, the Holy Spirit inspired Paul
to write, Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know
not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he
that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,
because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of
God. How can we know we are praying in Jesus will? By letting the
Holy Spirit guide our praying. For our prayers to have power, our
prayers must be led and directed by the Spirit of God.
To pray in the Spirit, we must live in the Spirit. We must live in
union
with Him and He in union with us. Then we can ask what we wish, and
God will do it. Why? Because we are not asking out of our
understanding but out of the wisdom and direction of the Holy Spirit.
We can ask what we will because our will is guided and directed, not
by our wisdom but by the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus
said it best in John 15:7, If ye abide in me,
and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be
done unto you. Of course, Jesus said, If ye abide in me; but
abiding
in Jesus and abiding in the Spirit are one and the same. The two are
one and inseparable. They are distinct, but never divided. If we abide
in the Spirit, we can pray what we will and receive it, because the Sprit
will show us His will and show us how to pray in His will.
The Holy Spirit makes us want to pray. He teaches us what to pray.
When we are too burdened to know how to pray, He prays for us.
Who then would dare to attempt to pray without the help of Jesus Holy
Spirit.
A devoted Christian family named Albertson planned to go on a
vacation to Grand Canyon and the Painted Desert. The father warned
the family they would be able to go only if he finished a certain job
first. He
asked them to pray he would finish the task in time. Their 18 year old
daughter
Gloria intended to pray for her father, but something always turned her
mind
away when she started to pray. When the time came for the vacation, the
father
had not gotten the job done. They were not able to go. Gloria became angry
at
herself. She just knew, if she had prayed hard enough for her father to
get the
job done, he would have finished it and they would have been able to go on
the
vacation. She was angry at herself, and angry at God.
The second day after they were supposed to leave on the vacation,
relatives of the family next door came to visit that family. The
neighbors introduced the Albertsons to their relatives, including their
handsome 20-year old son Raymond. Gloria took an interest in
Raymond right away. A week later the two young people had a real
friendship going. Raymond and Gloria wrote to each other after
Raymond and his family returned to their home. The friendship grew
into love, and eventually Raymond and Gloria married. I knew them
when they had been married for 46 years. Not once, but several
times, Gloria said to me, I am so glad we did not go on that vacation.
I know God had it all planned, and the Spirit lead in it all. If we had
gone to the Grand Canyon, I never would have met Raymond. I would
have missed finding the best husband in all of the world. Raymond
and Gloria are just one example of why it is best to abide in the Holy
Spirit when we pray and let Him show us what to pray. Praying in the
Spirit is one of the characteristics that makes praying real.
CONCLUSION. Do not consider these characteristics of true prayer to
be a burden. They fit together in a perfect pattern. They give prayer
its power. They turn prayer from agonizing words into triumphant
victory.
By Leon Hyatt, Jr.
......................................
Thank you Leon.
In Christ,
Buddy
Lawrence E. (Buddy) Martin, HF Host
email: Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org
Web: http://www.ChristianChallenge.org
"See to it that no one comes short of the grace
of God; that no root of bitterness springing up
causes trouble, and by it many be defiled." (Heb12:15)