His Heart of Prayer

PRAYER IS MADE for those things which the Spirit of God would have us pray for. And we pray not from our mind, from our personal thoughts, but from the point-of-view of the Word of God. We pray His heart. For He is who is praying through us. We lay down our will, our choices, and take up His. His presence blesses it and causes it to bear fruit. Prayer was made in the Temple in Jesus’ day without the presence of God there to bless it. Not that God did not hear because He hears all things, but the Spirit was working through John the Baptizer and Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, outside of the temple, and those given work in the temple did not recognize it. One man entered in a show, making vocal his gifts and offerings, yet it was a widow giving all she owned who drew God’s eyes.

There is no place for pride in prayer. Not just in “bless me” and “bless us” but sometimes, often, in “bless them.” Humbleness is the only attitude of prayer. We pray with thankfulness (Philippians 4:6) and in confidence that God is faithful to answer. Whether our words are in English (or one’s native language) or in the Spirit’s language (tongues), the words come from Him and will thus be in the will of God (Romans 8:27). A selfish prayer is no prayer at all, whether it is personal, “us four and no more,” or corporate, “bless us” without any care for “them.” There is one body of Christ, one church, not many different ones doing as they see fit.

“Whenever we pray for you, we always begin by giving thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard how much you trust the Lord, and how much you love his people.” (Colossians 1:3-4 TLB)

The Spirit delights in our sincere prayers, but many times we pray from our heads and not our hearts. We miss His heart. Not that it was wrong to pray for certain things, but what did He need of us? There are two sides to every coin. We must make sure we see both. Do we pray to say what we want in the pulpit and the hearers won’t be offended by it? Or do we pray that our words will be seasoned with salt and show the love of Christ? We choose to not give offense. We pray for the right words and for God’s presence to be seen. Do we pray for a “move of the Spirit” or do we, instead, seek Him? We seek Him and not flashy experiences. It is those with sincere hearts that He honors and reveals Himself to.

Our desire must be for Him and not for what He can do. We cannot desire the trophy without having entered the race. We cannot run the race without training for it. To ask for things – money, job positions, favor, even healing – with no desire for the Provider, for the Healer, is to write of creation and never acknowledge the Creator. He isn’t a bank vault. He is our Father. It isn’t a church service. It is the unity of believers, seeking the face of God because of our love for Him. It is sharing His love with those in attendance and through word and song, showing how great and beautiful He is. We stand in the pulpit, knowing others do the same, and we choose to pray for them as much as we pray for ourselves. In preference to ourselves.

The apostle Paul said for those who were weak, he would be weak (1 Corinthians 9:20-22), and that believers should never do what would cause another man to fall into sin. If food was openly spoken of as being offered to idols, then they should not eat of it lest the other man misunderstand their actions. Jesus spoke of people’s image of Himself saying, “And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me (Matthew 11:6).” Not to lay the guilt of being offended onto those hearing Him, but because He was meek and lowly and did not want to willfully cause offense. He knew some would be offended, He knew Judas would betray Him, He didn’t rejoice in it.

“It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.” (Romans 14:21)

“We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” (Romans 15:1)

All things must be done in the Spirit, through the Spirit. Only then can we be sure that we are walking rightly in all things. To pray in the Spirit’s language is a must. There are things only He can pray through us. To pray in our native tongue is a must. We must choose our words and show we have heard Him, and we submit to Him. We must also be specific to the needs of groups and individuals. “Father, I want to lift up Suzanne to you. I know she’s been struggling with her finances.” This is just an example. “Father, I want to pray for Pastor Smith and his congregation at the Lord’s Church.” Another example. Call government officials by name, whether local, state, or national, and pray without doubt, pray in belief in God who is faithful. Pray from a position of hope, seeing the prayer answered, and not from fear. Where you have fear, give it to God, and pray the Word of God. Pray from a place of peace. Personal, we stand in the peace of God and to others. We seek peace for them.

“So ever since we first heard about you we have kept on praying and asking God to help you understand what he wants you to do; asking him to make you wise about spiritual things; and asking that the way you live will always please the Lord and honor him, so that you will always be doing good, kind things for others, while all the time you are learning to know God better and better. We are praying, too, that you will be filled with his mighty, glorious strength so that you can keep going no matter what happens—always full of the joy of the Lord, and always thankful to the Father who has made us fit to share all the wonderful things that belong to those who live in the Kingdom of light. For he has rescued us out of the darkness and gloom of Satan’s kingdom and brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who bought our freedom with his blood and forgave us all our sins.” (Colossians 1:9-14 TLB)

Image by Gizelle Kei from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com