What is Prayer? | How To Pray | The Benefits of Prayer
Definition of prayer is poetic communication between a horse and God which is our Father so we communicate between us and God so we're praying to God we're not praying to things we're not praying to something else we're praying to God our Father and we do that in the name of Jesus you know Jesus as the one who actually gave us access to God you know it came and died for our sin and it made the way for us to be able to come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and then grace tohelp so we can't even access God without Jesus so we pray to God our Father in the name of Jesus who gives us access and then through the help of the Holy Spirit so the reason why I said to the up of the older spirit is because sometime
we can get caught up in praying and just praying and we forget that the older Spirit was meant to be our helper it's meant to help us to pray it was meant to help us to in order to be able to know even what to pray for the Bible you won't say that you know even terms oh we don't know what to pray for when we can't really put into words the things that we're feeling that you all the spirits comes at that crucial moment and it helps us to know what to pray for and that is where print in our every language comes in praying in the spirit well we do this we actually praying the perfect will of God therefore that leads me to say that prayer is a two-way communication you know I've heard a lot people say prayer is boring or I don't really get so much hardier prayer let me give you the scenario imagine you are talking to somebody are you the only one doing the talking and after you said so much in 10 minutes they're just not their head as it oh yeah I got it okay and they never said anything back to you how would you feel you will be bored because this is not a dialogue you're just talking at the person the person is not giving you their input the person is not responding to what you have to say so that would be a very boring conversation to add when you are the only one talking to the person so sometimes I believe that the reason why person is boring for so many people many people don't long to pray it's because we sometimes do prayer religiously it's a religious duty to many of us
we just want to oh I got a prayer today I got a prayer today because if I don't purchase I'm gonna feel bad because I have appreciative and the one would get to that place of prayer I guess what would you we'll just tell God everything that's on our mind would bombard him with everything now say and we don't wait for him to speak back to us we in the way we're in a rush you know we said God I've only got five minutes you got to do everything we got to do in five minutes I gotta catch my bus I gotta go to work I've got five minutes to give to you so I'm just gonna tell you what's on my mind and I'm just gonna get off so if you don't say what you gotta say in five minutes then we're done so sometimes we get into that mentality of it's just really just duty we just gotta do this because if you don't do this then you know what then I'm gonna feel guilty and
I got that but that shouldn't be the motivation for prayer the motivation for prayer is so know that first of all in as much as you want to talk to God God would like to talk back to you and as much as you would like to unburden everything that's on your mind and just talk about how you feel how your day wanes and all that and that's good but beyond you telling God what you went through which he already knows by the way because nothing is hidden to him he already knows you still in still want you to tell him about it don't get me wrong which is the whole purpose of Prayer even though God already knows everything that happened in your day but still enjoyed listening to you talk about it but don't forget in as much as it loves to hear you talk to him he also loves to talk to you it loves to share his heart with you it loves to be able to commune with you and that's what makes prayer a two-way communication if we violate this law pray
I will only just be a religious duty it would just be so boring it would just be an endless time of endless talking to somebody that you can't even hear what they're saying and that's why it's very important that we not only do the talking but we make sure why we're talking we give room for him to speak back to us communication actually have two sides to it there's a talking side to communication there's also the listening side to communication if you are only talking and you're not listening you are not communicating you are just talking to yourself you're just having a talk that's what you are doing but
when you talk and you listen then you actually truly communicating and I think a lot of people have mastered the heart of talking a lot of people can talk like so many by just give tech stalkers they can talk from now til forever if we give them the chance to do that a lot of people are stalkers but not so many of us are good at listening not so many of us are good at listening and just say no what is being said this is what we do most of the time well we'll listen we're not only listening to understand we're listening to respond so you having a question with somebody and they're telling you their own perspective on an issue while you're talking you're already thinking of your response you're already calculating what
you're gonna say already programming your mind you're not actually listening to understand what the other person have to say your mind is already program and what you're gonna say in return to what the person is actually saying listening is a very big part of communication if you don't listen you've gained nothing you've just only talked but you I will learn something new you haven't really gained something from the other person you know in my walk with God one thing I've learnt is especially in terms of praying to God nothing I said during my time of prayer changes God the Bible says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever nothing I have to say doing my prayer time changes God I can pray for three hours and just be talking and talking and talking and telling God what I feel how I feel about him but guess what nothing I have to say changes God it is
what God says back to me in those moments of prayer that truly changes everything listening to the voice of God during prayer time is the most important aspect of prayer when you go into prayer and all you do is talk you've just only fulfilled a religious duty you've fulfilled a religious obligation because you've not allowed God to speak back to you so what I learnt this very early in my walk with God I in the world and as much as I want to talk to him I'm gonna tell him what I want to say but I'm gonna pay attention throughout the day even after my prayer is done to listen to what the Holy Spirit want to say to me to listen to what God wants to pass across to me on the prayer that I prayed earlier because if we don't do that we'll miss out on many many great instructions information revelation that God would like to share with us so this year as you seek the face of God as you pray
I want you to make sure that you're not only talking to God but you are waiting and you're anticipating of not only talking to God but earring back from God so what I want to encourage you to do this year is to practice something that I called listening prayer it means that you're praying and you're listening so when you pray and in that moment even if you don't hear from God but you are listening throughout your day it's like you give somebody of call and it goes straight to their voicemail and they'd be like oh after this tone leave your voice message and then you leave a voice message of everything you're trying to talk to the person after you drop the phone you're waiting for them to call you back because you placed a call through you are expecting that they would call me back so you are making sure that your phone is on ring especially if it's a very important call now with making sure that your phone is on ring you are not distracted you're in a place where you can hear your phone line is ringing where you can answer a phone call you're waiting to hear back the same thing when we place a phone call to heaven when we speak to Guardian prayers we wait two hours a day in anticipation for
what God wants to say to us and one thing I can guarantee you is God said it wants to lead us it said I will lead you and I will instruct you in the way that you should go so we just have to make sure that we're in a place with credit and that's what we're we're what we're anticipating for him to speak to us that's how I duty as gods you need to speak but we gotta make sure when the same frequency with him that we can hear him firm and that is the beauty of prayer in itself we are able to talk to God and God is able to talk back to us so what are some of the benefits of prayer as it relates to making the best out of know there are many benefits to prayer I'm just going to share three benefits of prayer with you number one is the prayer helps me to evaluate my desires the absolute to evaluate my goals and my plans and to make sure that those things aligns with God's plan and God's will for me for this year you know a lot of us probably I've written out our goals what we want to achieve this year I want to do this I want to do that but how many of those goals came out of your conversation with God how many of those goals would you say passed with God and did you run it by
God before you make those goals or this just something you just want to do so what Brad does is he helps me to sift out what is necessary and what is not the option to kind of be able to sit through my desires and sit through my plans and say is this really driven by God or just driven by my own selfishness or driven by my own ego or driven by my own pride where is this desire coming from why am i designed to achieve this in yeat why am i chasing this goal in year person is like a litmus test it helps me to know that this is the right thing to go with so when we pray we allow God to invade our space and to be able to evoluate our desires unable to check ok this is right oh this is not right what you should do this or you should not do that the Bible said in the Book of Proverbs chapter 14 verse 12 it said there is a way that seems right to a man at the end of it is destruction he said there is this way at man it seems right to a man to go through it but the end of it is destruction so when we make our plans and we make ago sometimes our visions are limited we can't see beyond what's right in front of us but we serve a God who can see years down the line we serve a God who can see the impact to this show you're about to make all your next generation
so I think we're only doing our seventh disservice if we don't seek its input inside my goals and setting our plans because you can't really see further than what's in front of you but God can see every band along the road he can see the pit holes you can see the issues along the road and God can actually help you navigate through that by running your desires and your goals by him and just making sure that God is involved so prayer really helps you to evaluate the desires he evaluates your mind but also says that you know what you ask I did not receive because you ask amiss you ask because you want to spend it on your own selfish purposes which is why sometimes our prayers are not answered because what we are asking for it is not in line with God's purpose and God's will for our lives so we keep asking for it but we like I'm not getting messages what good is that that's not my will for you I'm not gonna give it to you because it does not align with my purpose for your life so it is important that we know that as we press we seek God and as you seek to maximize year now whatever goals you've set whatever desires you have they are in line with God and with God's Word Bible says that
I will give you the desires of your heart I should delight yourself in me as we delight ourselves in God then it begins to gives us the desires of our heart which means he is the one that gives us the desires and what to believe for and what to chase and what to run after so number one remember prayer helps you to evaluate your desires your goals your plans and to make sure that they are in alignment to God's will and purpose for you in so number two player also helps me to know what's on God's mind remember I said I will pray to God in the name of Jesus by the older spirit Jesus said when I was living I were giving the old spirit that would teach you all things and will lead you into all truth the Bible said in the book of first Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9 and 10 says eyes have not seen years have not heard it is not even entered into the heart of man the things others promised but it has been revealed to us to his spirit is that because this spirit searches the deep things of God he gave the very deep things of God so prayer allows me to get into God's mind to know what's on his mind what is God purpose for me what does he want me to he allows me that access to know what has been freely given to me to know what is my rights in Christ what does Jesus paid for that I don't have to pay for what does Jesus really give me a victory over I'm still bound by so that's what prayer does yelps you to peep into the mind of God to know
what really God wants you to do when we have the mind of Christ on an on an issue when we know what God thinks about something that we're believing him for the prayer is very easy because you now you know you are chasing something that is in alignment with this will you're not even questioning it because you send the mind of God the mind of God about that then has been revealed to you so you are not actually you have believing in faith because you know that I'm not praying against the will of God imagine praying in line with the will of God so prayer gives you access to the mind of God and that revelation comes through the oldest spirit that shows us what the deep things of God what are the deep secrets of God and what is God actually thinking about our lives and number three the other thing that prayer does is it allows God access into my life you know when we pray what we actually see in this resonant an invitation to God and say you know what come and invade this space we're inviting the Holy Spirit come and do a check on me come and do a check in my heart
I know at the beginning of the year a lot of people are praying and fasting a lot of churches they're praying and fasting waiting on God for direction and seeking the face of God at the beginning of the end which is great he's great a lot of it by believing God for instructions and and in those woman code will give you an instruction but you know the other thing about that is a lot of people's prayer actually ends in January once that prayer fasting period is gone and for the rest of the year we just do what we want for the rest of the year we don't bother to go back to God anymore we don't bother to check in with him we don't bother to say okay you gave me this instruction I'm actually doing the right thing or I've had misty have I gone the wrong way and that's why most of us end up at the wrong destination at the end of the year because we only got an instruction from God but we didn't get to follow up because God would never reveal everything to you in one go God shows us the next step that we need to take so God will reveal the next thing to you you have to go back to him for the next step after that but guess what was the force do you we get the first step from God and then we try to figure everything out after that we're trying to figure it out as we go along no you don't have to you that's why we have the Holy Spirit that's why we can pray to God
so what prayer does is he helps you to be able to go back to guys thank God please search my heart like David prayed in the Book of Psalms it said such my heart O God and search everything in me and if there is anything that is not right take it away so while you're waiting and go while you're fasting and praying at the beginning of this year don't let it stop here let it continue throughout the year begin to check in with God check in with him occasionally just to make sure that you are still doing what they ask you to do just to make sure that you have not drifted away from the instructions that they gave you at the beginning of the year just to do a quick recap on the benefits of prayer number one he allows me to evaluate my desires I make sure that they're in alignment with God's will and God's purpose number two he allows me to know what's on God's mind when you know the mind of God concerning it 10 the rest is history so what prayer does is it reveals the mind of God to you through the Holy Spirit and number three Korea allows going access into my space when I pray I'm saying to God I don't have it all figured out so I need your help I need you to check me up I need you to see if there's anything that's not right if there's anything that you don't like in this person I need you to take it away so what prayer does is it's an invitation to God to come and do a check or not so that would make sure that we're still doing the right thing the way he asked us to in conclusion
I would like to leave you with this thought you know we've talked so much about Prayer the importance of prayer in making the best of year there was a man of God his name was Smith Wigglesworth it was a great man of God in his own time you know this was a great man of God he did many miracles many aliens many many great things for God and somebody was wondering I was able to do all these big big and great things I did and so they went and asked him a question he said how long do you pray for you know because we think that for each be able to do all this thing you are doing you must be a man of Prayer like intense prayer so they asked him how long do you pray for and the answered their question by saying I don't pray for longer than 30 minutes at a time people were shocked like what do you mean you don't pray for longer than 30 minutes you can't be doing all this thing you're doing without praying for longer than that like you know you should be praying for hours and hours but he said no I don't pray for longer than 30 minutes at a time he said but but
what I do is I don't go 30 minutes without praying he said I don't pray for longer than 30 minutes at a time but I don't go 30 minutes without praying what is essentially saying is I pray all the time it's not about how long your prayer session is oh yeah I prayed for three hours and then I don't pray for the next 18 hours no it's not about how long is the consistency of your prayer is the frequency of your prayers how often you pray and that's why the Bible and comedy shows in the book of first Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 17 he asked us to pray without ceasing you know another translation said which you make prayer our life
which means I thought about how long you pray for is the consistency's the frequency is how often do you pray that even you actually go about your day you are conscious of God's presence around you and you can even speak a little prayer to go and say God I thank you for this day I thank you for this time I thank you for this problem that I'm going to right now I thank you because your spirit is with me in Jesus name that is less than 30 seconds it's about how often do you come in with God and like I said not just talk to him but wait for him to talk back to you
so this year make prayer your first line of defense your first line of action when something happens your first response should be I'm going to pray no I'm gonna pick up the phone I'm gonna talk to these numbers I'll speak to them to this person that I'm going to go to counseling your phosphorous one should be I'm going to pray and then out of that prayer God will lead you into what I need to do next because what we often do is pray is often the last thing with you we've done everything else we've talked to everybody about our problems we've called every number that we have on our cell phone and guess what none of them can help us so we then finally come back as a god I'm here help me out God should not be your last option should be your first and your only option we talk to God and then it leads us to the right people it needs you to take the right steps it leads you to do the right thing so remember it's not how long you pray for it's our often do you pray prayer is powerful if we can make sure we stay in step with God throughout our day our lives would be
so much better I love imps you probably know this by now if you listen to my piano instrumentals and play aims all the time and there's a hymn that I love so much it's called what a friend we have in Jesus a section of that I am says that all what peace we often forfeit and all what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer the son was simply saying we'll lose so much peace and we bear pain that I know necessary and he said the reason why we do this because we forget to carry everything to God in prayer the Bible said cast all your cares on to him for he cares for you don't make prayer this year a one-time thing don't make it a seasonal thing make it an everyday adventure hour-by-hour constantly in touch with your everly father either things is going well either things are going by when is going well giving things when is going back give him things also praise them to the good and the bad and watch our spirits continues and begin to lead you in the right directions as you begin to make some crucial decisions that will shape the kind of year that you have I really do hope this has been helpful ..
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