Written by Barbara Gould of Emmanuel Ministries International
In these days of the end-times, God has poured the Spirit of prayer upon His Church. I believe it was Charles Finney who once said that it seems that God will do nothing unless His people pray.
In 2 Chronicles 7:14, the Holy Spirit tells us: “If My people who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and forgive their sins and heal their land.”
The Call To Prayer is a call for God’s people to take responsibility, not just for ourselves, not just for our “church” or the Body of Christ at large, but for our cities, states, nation, and the world. Now, more than ever, we must heed the call of God to pray, but before we can be truly effective in our praying there are prerequisites — essential things we must understand before we can be effective.
PREREQUISITE #1: WE MUST KNOW WHO GOD IS
Numbers 23:19 says: “God is not a man, that He should lie, neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?”
Jehovah God is the one true and living God. There is no other God above Him. He is the God of Integrity. To say it a better way: He is Integrity. His Word never changes. What He has promised, He will surely do. His Word is forever settled. We can bank on it.
He is the unchanging God. God declares, “I am the Lord, I do not change” (Malachi 3:6). He reaffirms this in the New Covenant through His Son in Hebrews 13:8 when the Holy Spirit says, “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever.” He is the unchanging God!
He answers prayers. He has a track record of answering prayers. In Jeremiah 33:3 (Amplified) God encourages His people to pray. He says, “Call unto Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know (do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand).” Then in John 16:23 (Amplified) Jesus tells us that “whatever we ask the Father in His [Jesus’] Name, He [the Father] will give it to you.”
There is so much more about who our God is, but for the subject of prayer these scriptures give us insight to the God and Father who we serve and helps to build our confidence to believe that when we pray, He is willing and ready to hear and grant us our requests, if we pray according to His will. We must keep in mind that His Word is His will. The Holy Spirit settles the issue of God’s integrity, love, goodness, faithfulness and mercy when He says:
“And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him:
[we are sure] that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His plan), He listens to and hears us,
“And if (since) we [positively] know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we also know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted us as our present possessions] the requests made of Him” (1 John 5:13-14 Amplified).
So knowing who our Father, God is, and knowing our responsibility as God’s children, that is, to pray according to His will, let us “Come boldly (with confidence) before the throne of grace, where we shall obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)
We are in a time of great need, but our God is greater. Let’s trust Him to deliver us — to deliver this nation.
In my next writing, we will talk about the second prerequisite to effective prayers which is KNOWING WHO WE ARE.
Find out more about Barbara Gould and Emmanuel Ministries International at www.emmanauelministriesint.org