Learn To Pray Effectively

by Olga Hermans

 

Last year I wrote my book on prayer, because I truly believe that you have to do things the right way. Many people want to build their business or find their purpose in life and are very fervent about it, which is a good thing. They want to climb that mountain so to speak. BUT….. you have to climb the right mountain first and then come down from that mountain to your own mountain. 

Does that sound complicated? Let me explain; first you have to go to God and get all the instructions you need. Your greatest need right now might be to hear from heaven and know the plan of God. The Bible says tells us in Psalm 37:4 that God will put His desires in us until His desires become our desires and our desires become His desires. One of the aspects of delighting yourself in the Lord is definitely prayer. 

This is what E. M. Bounds says about desire: ” Desire is not merely a simple wish: it is a deep seated craving; and intense longing, for attainment. In the realm of spiritual affairs, it is an important adjunct to prayer. So important is it, that one might say, almost, that desire is an absolute essential of prayer. Desire precedes prayer, accompanies it, is followed by it. Desire goes before prayer, and by it, created and intensified”.

Prayer is the oral expression of desire. If prayer is asking God for something, then prayer must be expressed. Prayer comes out into the open. Desire is silent. Prayer is heard; desire, unheard. The deeper the desire, the stronger the prayer. Without desire, prayer is a meaningless mumble of words. Such perfunctory, formal praying, with no heart, no feeling, no real desire accompanying it, is to be shunned like pestilence. Its exercise is a waste of precious time, and from it, no real blessing accrues”.

There are some things we need to know about prayer for our prayers to be effective. I want be prayer to be effective, what about you? If I have the idea that something might not be working or that I might be missing something; I want to know it and I want to know it to the detail. Why bother otherwise, right?

We are to be effective in prayer; we could say that we should bear “prayer fruit.” On a natural tree, let’s say an apple tree, if the branches were injured by a storm and somewhat disconnected, they could still receive nourishment and live. They would still leaf and survive, but they would no longer produce fruit.

We can be this way as Christians—we are still on the vine, but because there has not been pruning and purging of those damaged areas we produce no fruit. On a natural fruit-producing tree they would cut away any unnecessary branches so that the fruit is the very best.

The purging and pruning in us is so important. Do not shy away from consecration and separation; these are the things that would keep us from moving forward in Him. Are we abiding in the Vine fully? In the Word and in prayer and in His presence daily? God takes out things in us that are not necessary, they are pruned away. Why? To produce better fruit.

We are never to stay in the same place, we’re always to be moving on in God. More fervency, more fire released through His Body; always moving further in God. Then, we will not become religious or stale in the Spirit. We are to be strong in our union with Him in Word and in prayer.

Ephesians 6:10 (AMP) says, “In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union with Him]; draw your strength from Him [that strength which His boundless might provides].”

We are to have a quality to the time we spend with Him, in our fellowship with the Lord, so that when we pray it is truly God propelling us. When we do this we pray what He gives us to pray and the answer is sure. We are to have a precise walk with the Lord, perfectly precise prayers. When you want to pray about in the final leg of the race, and we need to have a mindset and our hearts on precise prayer—those things that the Lord would have us release in prayer that are completely effective.

Probably the greatest need you might have right now in discovering the life you were born to live is that you desire to hear from God and know the plan that He has for your life. I might dig into that another time and you can read more about this in my book on prayer. God will show us things to come, and we can tap into those things through prayer. It can happen when things rise up on the inside of us along with a knowing. There are things that you know that yo know are from God.

God often deals with us ahead of time, especially if it involves a major change. If there is something coming in the future, then He deals with us six months to two years in advance. This happened to us when we moved to America and when we moved to Canada as well. It is a great experience when you know that God went ahead and prepared everything for you.

We can find out so much about the future through times in prayer. We can pray in the Holy Ghost and hear from heaven about things concerning our future. The easiest place to hear from God and to find God’s plan for our life is through prayer. Prayer processes the plan of God. If we will take time to pray our future out, over, down, and through, it will be much easier to walk it out!

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