by Lynne Hammond
One well-known minister said many years ago that it seems God will do nothing on the earth unless someone prays. Why is that? It’s because, as Psalm 115:16 says, “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.”
God gave authority on this earth to mankind, and through His mercies and grace, He desires to do great and wonderful things in and among people. He waits for a man or a woman to ask Him. He waits for someone to pray.
Prayer Is Not Difficult, It’s Delightful!
One reason Christians haven’t taken up this great opportunity and responsibility as we should have is because we’ve allowed the Devil and religious tradition to convince us that prayer is hard. We’ve thought that prayer had to be dry and tedious and unrewarding. But that’s a lie!
The truth is, prayer is a delightful thing for every true child of God because it takes us into the presence of our Father.
What Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 56:7 NKJV has come to pass for us.
Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.
Prayer is not hard for those who have been born again into the family of God. It’s a joy! Prayer comes as naturally to us spiritually as breathing does physically. True prayer rises naturally from the hearts of those who are joined to Jesus.
It is an expression of a personal and intimate relationship with God. Such prayer doesn’t have to be eloquent to be pleasing to the Lord. It just has to be sincere.
Have you ever seen a family gather around a baby who’s just learning to talk? That baby doesn’t have to say much to bring great joy to those who love him. He can babble something unintelligible and everyone – mom and dad, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles – will rejoice over his efforts to communicate. “Oh, isn’t he cute!” they’ll say. “Isn’t he smart?”
How much more does your heavenly Father rejoice over the words that rise to Him from the hearts of the children He so dearly loves? Just think how pleased He is when His children reach out to communicate with Him!
In the same way that a baby grows in his ability to communicate with his parents as he matures and keeps practicing those communications, so our ability to pray grows and develops the more we pray. Although studying books can help, we really learn how to pray by doing it.
Doing What Comes Naturally
Doing it is not a great strain or effort either, if we’ll just stay fully connected to Jesus. Think again about what Jesus said in John 15:5,7 AMP:
I am the Vine, you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. If you live in Me – abide vitally united to Me – and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you.
When we’re living in vital union with Jesus, praying effective prayers comes from us just as naturally and easily as fruit grows on the branch of a vine. Have you ever seen a branch straining, grimacing and saying, “Come on, fruit…grow, grow, grow”? Of course not. That branch simply does what it does naturally, by virtue of the life that flows to it from the vine.
It’s important to understand, however, that living in vital union with Jesus means more than just being born again. As Christians, we all have a connection to Jesus. But we can all look back over our lives and realize there were some times when we were more strongly in union with Him than we were at other times.
If you’ve ever seen a tree with a broken branch, you know that if it isn’t broken completely, a single connection to the tree will keep it alive. There won’t be enough life there, however, for the branch to bear fruit.
In the same way, if your fellowship with God is broken because you haven’t been walking with Him in accordance with His Word, that doesn’t change your position of righteousness. You are still a righteous branch, but there probably won’t be enough life coming from your connection with God to enable you to bear fruit.
Being vitally united to God will bring you to a place where all you ask will be granted because, when you are in full union with Him, everything that is in you comes from Him.
When you are vitally united with Him, you’ll want what He wants. You’ll have in your heart what He has in His heart. Therefore, your prayers will be His prayers. And you can be sure He will answer every prayer that originates with Him.
That just makes good sense! God would never initiate a prayer He does not intend to answer. The prayer that’s started in Him will be finished in Him.