There are different kinds of prayer in the Bible and the same rules don’t apply for each type of prayer. Using sport as an analogy, Basketball rules don’t apply to Golf, Soccer rules don’t apply to Baseball and so on. There are unique requirements and conditions for each type of prayer, whether petition, dedication, agreement, intercession or supplication. Some believers mix up the prayer of petition with dedication in particular. Don’t ask God, ‘if it be thy will,’ if His will is already known in His Word. We must know the promises in God’s Word, and the rules pertaining to each prayer type, before we believe for an answer. Get ready, as Carl clears up some common misconceptions regarding prayer…
Here is a complete transcript of the podcast (below)…
Prayer by definition is having a dialogue with God, not a monologue and the reason I say dialogue is because the basis of prayer is communication and that works both ways. Often times we have a monologue with God, spouting all our cares, concerns, needs and desires, but it’s imperative that we take time to listen as well as talk when we spend time with the Lord. In its purest form one could say that prayer is simply talking to God, talking to the Father. The Heavenly Father is the ultimate authority in the universe and He is the one we seek in prayer and no-one else. Because He is a just God, God needs permission to move in your life. If he moved without permission, he would be a usurper or subjugater, and he is neither. Satan is a usurper, he oppresses by force, without permission. God however is a gentleman and requires permission to move, this is why the bible speaks so much about asking, seeking, knocking, etc.
Although it’s not listed as a type of prayer, I cannot stress enough the importance of taking the time to listen. It’s crucial that we are led by listening to the Holy Spirit or inner witness. The voice of the Spirit is in our heart, it’s not in the mind. The heart is the gatekeeper of decision making, not the mind. We are led by the inner voice and the inner witness which equates to our gut feelings. Listen to both of those and you will not stray from the Lords will in your life. Peace is the voice of the inner witness, listen to it. Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God:” There is an art to being still and listening before the Lord that has been lost in this age my friend, and I would urge you to do it more often. Now several people will argue with me, that they can’t hear the voice of God but in doing so, they actually make God out to be a liar. Remember Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27), this is a definitive statement, not they might hear my voice, but they WILL hear my voice. The problem is on the receiving end and never with the transmitter. Remember friend, it was the still small voice that Elijah heard, he didn’t hear God in the thunderstorm, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire but the still small voice and that voice should take precedence in our lives, in line with His Holy Word.
One could posit this still small voice is actually the voice of your conscience. Keep your conscience tender before the Lord by keeping a heart of forgiveness, walk in love and you will hear the Father’s voice better. Offense my friend is a trap, please get out of it. If you want to be a successful Christian you must be quick to repent and quick to forgive; without this attitude you will struggle in your walk with the Lord. Also know that the longer your heart remains in a place of offense it will begin to harden and it will become harder for you to hear that still small voice of God, deep down on the inside of you. Now lest discuss the various types of prayer today and having studied the word, I could find seven types of prayer and I will list them for you now:
- The Prayer of Petition – Asking God for stuff.
- The Prayer of Agreement – Binding yourself to God’s word with a witness present or binding the works of darkness.
- The Prayer of faith – Standing on a covenant promise and speaking to obstacles.
- The Prayer of consecration or dedication – you are dedicating a part of your life to the Lord.
- The Prayer of intercession – this is typically praying for someone who doesn’t know the Lord in a time of danger or trial.
- The Prayer of supplication – this is praying for another believer for the Lord’s help.
- and finally Praying in the Spirit or Tongues which has a multitude of applications in God’s word.
There are different forms or prayer just as there are different kinds of sports. The rules of some prayers don’t apply to the others. For example, the rules of basketball do not apply to golf. The rules of golf don’t apply to football etc. So, one simply cannot say sports are sports or prayer is prayer. There are stipulations for each kind of prayer. You might ask why make it so complicated Pastor? You have 7 kinds of prayer listed and this Christianity stuff is complicated enough. Well, that’s a great question, I’m glad you asked…lol, but the answer is simple, you don’t need to define the boundaries of prayer, because God does that. Many of you listening have already moved in perhaps 80% of these prayers without realizing it. We are simply clarifying these boundaries for better understanding. If you’ve said in the past, Lord If it be thy will? Then you prayed the prayer of dedication. Lord, help me? That’s petition, Lord help sister Susie next week that is supplication etc. I don’t want you to be bogged down by these categories; we’re just bringing some clarity to the types of prayer available to us. Now the first thing I’d like you to notice is that in the instances of faith where the name of Jesus was mentioned, there was no prayer made at all. When the apostle went around saying, “in the name of Jesus rise up and walk”, this was no form of prayer asking the Father to do anything but simply standing on the covenant rights and the name of Jesus to perform the works of Jesus:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” John 14:12.
Doing the ‘works of Jesus’, is different from the prayer of petition. You must ask yourself, what are the works of Jesus …the answer is they are…’destroying the works of the devil’? Jesus explicitly came to destroy the works of the devil 1 John 3:8 and we should be destroying his works also:
“38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38)
In the name of Jesus, we can cast out demons, heal the sick, pray with new tongues and there is no petition involved, you simply do it in His name! We are standing upon the promises laid out in Mark 16:17, and Jesus made this very clear to his disciples, when He said:
17 And these signs shall follow them that believe in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
Doing the works of Jesus is clearly evident as doing good for other people and helping others get out from underneath the bondage of Satan the oppressor on this earth. Please understand that in all the instances of prayer I am going to talk about, I am not talking about declaring the name of Jesus, this is a different topic. People have confused this topic. There is a chasm between, doing the works of Jesus and petitioning God in prayer for our needs, or interceding, or supplicating or dedicating. We never have to pray for things that are already granted to us in the word of God. We simply stand upon the covenant rights and privileges God has granted us in the name of Jesus and that is why it is crucial you know your own covenant rights and that’s why I keep stressing this time and again.
So, how do we pray? We pray to the Father, in the name of Jesus. We don’t pray to Jesus, no we pray to the Father and we don’t pray to the Holy Spirit either. Jesus Christ is a brother to us (Rom 8:29), and we are joint heirs with Him. Although Jesus and the Holy Spirit are part of the Godhead, and certainly personalities of the same God, there is one God with 3 personalities. For example, an egg has three components, the shell, the yolk and the white, so we have one egg with 3 components. Water is water, but it comes in three forms, ice, liquid and condensation and there are several other analogies we could use here. The point is one God, with 3 personalities. You don’t petition your brother (Jesus), you petition your Father who is in Heaven. So, when it comes to petitioning in prayer, or asking God for stuff, Let’s talk now about how we approach our heavenly father. Right now, I’m going to list Six things that will help you in this endeavor:
We should come boldly (but not arrogantly), unto the throne of grace, why? because we are seated in a position of right standing with the Father. We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so we come boldly:
Hebrews 4:16 -“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in our time of need.”
We come confidently, if our hearts are clean before God:
21 Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, then have we confidence toward God.22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.23 And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.” 1 John 3:21-2
We come believing, not in unbelief:
24 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).22 “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive”. Matthew 21:22…
So, when do you believe you receive? When you pray…the time to believe is when you pray not when the answer turns up…if you don’t believe when you pray the answer won’t turn up
We ask in faith, with a strong expectation:
James 1:6-7 says, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.”
So, you might say, “I don’t have faith in the area I’m believing God for, I don’t believe God heals today.” friend, go to the specific scriptures that promises healing, meditate on them and your faith will rise in that area. If you need deliverance from habits, meditate on scriptures that mention freedom in Christ. Whenever you come to God with a petition, you must have the corresponding promise in his word to stand upon otherwise you have no basis for the prayer to be answered.
We come with a heart of forgiveness:
“25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. Mark 11:25-26
It also says in the OT in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah 59:2 says, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.“…ouch.
Friend, we come to the Heavenly father boldly and confidently but if we have sin hidden in our hearts then we cannot come boldly or confidently because our conscience will convict us. We need to separate from sin consciousness and enter into Righteousness consciousness. We have been made righteous by the blood of the lamb, not by our own works that any man can boast. We boast about his mercy and grace, we give the Father the glory for all things. If we have lost our confidence towards God hearing us, what should we do? We confess our sins and get right with the Father:
1 John 1:9 -“9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We have a relationship with God, but fellowship is temporarily interrupted if we have purposely sinned, it is up to us to get back into right standing with the Father. Finally we come with a heart of thanksgiving:
Philippians 4:6 “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Once we’ve prayed, we know we have the answer, there and then and we can be confident, we express our confidence with thanksgiving because we know we already have our answer, now is the time to celebrate!!!! Some say we are supposed to Ask and keep on asking but that’s obviously not talking about the same petition. We don’t ask God for the same thing, over and over, remember what Jesus said. Matthew 6:7 7 “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen does: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” Friend, ask your Heavenly Father today, believe and you shall receive the petition of your heart.
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