Mentoring Men for the Master

14 POWERFUL PRINCIPLES FOR PREVAILING PRAYER

Some years ago a poll was taken on the prayer habits of Americans and a high percentage of the respondents said they had quit praying because their prayers were not being answered.  Of course, the most powerful incentive to pray is the answers we receive when we pray.  On the other hand, the most powerful discouragement to keep praying is when we do not experience any answers.  But should we give up on prayer if our prayers are not being answered?  Illus.: Suppose I enter my house, switch on the lights, and no light comes on.  Do I give up on having light in my home?  Am I to conclude that Thomas Edison did not really invent the incandescent light bulb or that Progress Energy has shut down?  Absolutely not, but you will seek to know why your lights are not coming on and seek to fix the problem.  How, then, can we pray and see our prayers answered?  Based upon the teachings of the Bible and my own experience, I have found that there are at least 14 Powerful Principles of Answered Prayer:

  1. YOU MUST HAVE A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. – John 14:6.
  2. YOU MUST PRAY “ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD,” – 1 John 5:14.
  3. YOU MUST NOT ONLY BELIEVE THAT GOD CAN BUT WILL ANSWER YOUR PRAYERS – Jer. 33:3; Heb. 4:16.
  4. YOU MUST BE “INTERNALIZING THE WORD” OF GOD until you are Abiding (living by) the Word, knowing that true faith arises from knowing God’s will, whose will is set forth in the Bible.   “Whenever I want to know what God wants me to do, I go to the Word.  You hear people say, “I’m searching for the will of God.”  Is God’s will lost?  They think God is the celestial Easter bunny who stashes His will in earth’s bushes and then sits in heaven telling believers, “You’re getting warmer,” or “You’re getting colder.”  That isn’t true.  God’s will is easy to find; it’s right in His book.  When we study the Bible, we find over and over again the phrase, “This is the will of God.”[1]
  5. YOU MUST HAVE A RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD (vertical) and a right relationship with your fellow man. (horizontal). These two relationships as pictured in the cross (vertical beam and cross bar) and the Ten Commandments (1st 4 relate to God; the last 6 to man) – Isaiah 59:1-2; Matt. 6:14-15; Psalm 66:18.
  6. YOU MUST HAVE THE RIGHT MOTIVE FOR YOUR PRAYING – the “glory of Jesus Christ and Him alone,” not yourself or any human achievement. – John 14:13.
  7. YOU MUST BOW TO THE SOVEREIGN GOD in the timing of His answers to your prayers knowing that God is never in a hurry, but never late.
  8. YOU MUST PERSIST AND PATIENTLY WAIT UPON THE LORD (Psalm 27:13-14; Isaiah 30:18).
  9. YOU MUST RECOGNIZE YOUR IGNORANCE in knowing what to pray for and depend upon the perfect intercession of the Holy Spirit in your behalf as you pray – Romans 8:26.
  10. YOU MUST KNOW THAT WHEN YOU REALLY PRAY you are battling the world, the flesh and the devil – Romans 15:30. So it is hard work.
  11. YOU SHOULD NEVER GIVE UP. Praying is learned by practice, as is parking a car, typing, etc.- Gal. 6:9; 1 Cor. 15:58.
  12. YOUR CONSTANT PRAYER SHOULD BE, “LORD, TEACH ME TO PRAY.” You must grow in prayer to keep on praying.  If not, your prayer life will become dull, dry defeating – Luke 11:1.
  13. FOR SOME PERSONS, WE MUST “UNLEARN” SOME PRAYERS WE HAVE BEEN PRAYING. A world authority on prayer wrote, “The first thing the average person must do if he would have an effective prayer life is to “unlearn” some old prayers.”  There is what I call “Baptist Praying.”  It goes like this, “O Dear Lord, you know how our pastor needs you, so please bless him, bless the choir, save the lost, etc.”  Such are the “pitiful platitudes from the head” when real praying is the desperate cry from the heart.  Of Elijah, the great prayer warrior, James 5:18 says, “In praying, Elijah prayed,” that is, when Elijah prayed “he got with it.”  He poured out his soul unto God.” (Psalm 62:8). Dr. Robert Cook has often said, “All of us have a routine prayer in our system, and once we get rid of it we really start to pray.”  Prevailing prayer has within it 3 indispensable components – Adoration, Supplication, and Appreciation – Phil. 4:6-7; the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:9-15.
  14. YOU MUST THANK GOD FOR HIS ANSWERS BEFORE HE GIVES THEM. Adrian Rogers used to say, “We Baptists need to throw in some “Hallelujah, Praise the Lord” along with our groanings and pleadings.” Phil. 4:6-7.

[1] John MacArthur, How to Study the Bible, Chicago:  Moody Publishers, 2009, p.62.