Prayer Tools: Prayer Course

Hebrews 11 clearly teaches that without faith it is impossible to please God. This also applies to prayer. Prayer without faith is no different to a fool senselessly mumbling to himself.

To be able to pray effectively one has to have faith in the existence of an omnipotent, omnipresent God. Furthermore you also need to have faith in the ability of God to change your situation and in his love for you that will cause him to have this desire to better any and all situations that you are in.

God is a loving, selfless father, whose love is depicted clearly in Christ’s self-sacrifice on the cross in a bid to save all mankind. Regardless of your actions, past, present or future he loves you and will always do. This is not to say that you should act anyway and anyhow you like.

My point on this is that, a father will always love his child, and will always have a child’s best interests at heart. More often than not this has not been the case with our earthly parents, which is why it becomes an alien concept for some individuals. Think of it this way, he has already paid the ultimate price (his life) by his own death! Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ, not even death can do this.

Now that you understand that God can and wants to be involved in all aspects of your life, your prayers should not hold anything back. There is nothing too big, or too small to ask of God. In the same way that a child will ask for his father to bring him some candy (a small request) and also ask the same father to protect him in dangerous situations (a bigger request).

Not only is the Heavenly Father able to deliver all requests, he can do more than that. He promises to go beyond all that you ask of him. To build up your faith you need to have an understanding of the word of God, and more so the character of the God that gave that word. He watches over each and every word to perform it. Not a single word that comes out of his mouth will return void, each word performs what it was sent to perform. He makes sure of this.

God is not a man that he would lie, if he said it, it will come to pass. He will personally see it through. Imagine making a request of an employee who then goes on to drag his feet on carrying out the task that you have asked, then you are given access to his employer, who then makes you a promise that he will “SEE TO IT PERSONALLY!” That would effectively give you more confidence in the results that are to come.

This is the same way you should feel when praying to God, and praying his word. He has already promised to personally see to it that your requests are performed.

Your confidence in God’s word makes your prayers bolder. When you understand who God is you understand the necessity and the power of prayer. You are asking the highest authority available to take control of your situation.

You are granting him access to exercise his influence/dominion over your domain. I often share on the faith of the centurion, who refused for Christ to travel to his home to heal his servant. He declared that the Lord only had to say the word and his servant would be healed.

Your prayers should not be limited by the testimonies of other individuals. God says “I will do a new thing…” Faith gives wings to your prayers! By faith the centurion understood that he was standing before the God who did not have to enter darkness, but sent his word forth “Let there be light”. The arrival of his word brought light into that darkness.

Before the centurion, all miracles that Christ had performed had been in his physical presence. The fact that you have not heard of it or seen it happen should not place a limit on what God can do. If he can construct all that is from nothing. John 1:3 says “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything that made that was made” If he can create all that is seen, the spectacular mountains and oceans, how much more could he transform your situation?

If he can carry the whole world, how much weight can your burden add to his broad shoulders? From his experience in authority, the centurion understood what you should also understand today, he was in charge of 100 men, and when he said “go there” or “come here”, they did as he commanded, that is the way it is with Christ.

He is in charge of the whole universe, when he says “go”, everything will go, and when he says, “Come” everything will come. He has dominion overall if we would grant him in our spheres. Prayer grants God dominion in our spheres!

As a believer you need to place yourself in situations and around people that build your faith. The bible says deep calls unto deep. I get physically ill when I am surrounded by negative people. Place yourself with kingdom builders, those who will push you to believe more in yourself and more so in God.

While ministering to many people I have been confronted with the sad truth that individuals do not necessarily doubt God, but they have so little self-esteem that they do not believe such a mighty God would even have their issues on his mind. The bible says not a single sparrow will fall out of the sky without the Father’s knowledge.

You are more important than a sparrow, you are his delight. He loves you so much such that even if you were the only one on this earth Christ would have still been sent to die for you. While we were sinners, he loves you despite your flaws.

He says come to me as you are, even though your sin may be red as crimson, I will make them as white as snow. Regardless of how the rest of the world may look down upon you, how you may feel hated or as if no one cares for you, the Lord does.

He knew you before He formed you. Think about it, he took time to form you! You are not a product of a template. You are unique; there is absolutely no one else like you in all the billions of other individuals in this world. He has a purpose solely for you.

Faith is what turns a prayer from “God can do it” to “It is done.” I learned from the book of Daniel, that even before you say a prayer, the moment you think of it, God has already sent your answer. It is done, even before you ask for it.

Take stock of your life today. The people you currently have around you and those whom you have had in the past, all account for your degree of faith or lack thereof. Shadreck had ridiculous faith because he spent time with Misheck, Abednego and Daniel. Having too many “doubting Thomases” around you will also have the opposite effect.

Some will argue, “Well I am the Daniel in these people’s lives”, to that I say more power to you. However every stream that keeps being drunk from and not also feeding off the oceans to be refilled will eventually go dry. To achieve great faith you need to feed of God and men and women that he places around us. Get a mentor in the faith.

Join a prayer group or bible study group; keep some like-minded individuals around you. Stick with those who are not just riding along with the “faith”. Be around those who are still crazy enough to take God at his word. God has given us a great team (The Prayer Relay team).

Often I find myself crammed with deadlines and great workloads, some of it insurmountable, until I speak to some of these wonderful people. They push me to push myself to greater heights for the Lord. Paul says when you have stood, stand again! Surround yourself with people who make you want to stand again even after you have stood.

Hebrew 11 teaches that “faith comes by HEARING and hearing OF THE WORD of God.” Blind Bathemaeus was in a marketplace. Therefore he was always surrounded by people who would discuss their wait for the Messiah. That way he was hearing of the word of God. He then heard about this new man, Jesus Christ who was from Nazareth, whom some thought was the Messiah, Bathemeus was hearing of the word of God.

I’m sure people would debate and refer to the scroll to validate their points, this was Bathemeus heard from the word of God. As a result, his faith came. It came so much such that even while he was blind he recognised the Messiah’s presence when Jesus passed by! As he called out to him, he may have not realised who he was actually speaking to. He may have never realised that he was, in fact, praying (conversing with God).

Faith when exercised in prayer, calls out unto things that are yet unseen. It brings forth the unseen realm into the physical realm. Faith is EVIDENCE of things that are not yet seen, so by faith blind Bathemaeus already saw, even before his eyes were opened.

Join people who you admire. Do not just admire them from a distance, get closer. Joseph of Arimathea admired Jesus; he saw something in him that he desired. He pursued him, even after his death. You ought to be around people who challenge you for greatness.

You need people who see the greatness in you even before you see it yourself. Jesus saw in Peter, a rock that he would build his church on. By faith I see a greater awareness of prayer developing in all who go through this course. I see mighty prayer warriors rising from this foundation in Jesus’ name.

Prayer: Father, open my eyes that I may see your ways. Teach me to walk by faith and not by sight from this day on. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen

Scriptural reference:

1. Hebrews 11
2. John 3:16
3. Romans 8:38-39
4. Ephesian 3:20

Here it is in audio form: