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How to Pray
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God isn't a magic genie! When we are experiencing a hard time or witness someone else going through a difficult trial, you may feel the need to call upon a higher power with a problem you can't handle. Keep in mind Prayer should not be our last option, it should be our first. God wants to be first in everything; putting him above everything else in our lives is best for us. Gods timeline is not ours and He isn't a genie in a bottle that is required to do everything we ask!
Prayer & Obedience. The last thing we want to hear is that we have to obey God, but why would God do a bunch of good for people that are rebelling agianst him!? Prayer is how you communicate directly with God the maker of Life, Heaven and Earth. Obedience is how you show God you believe Him. God answers prayers when you are in His will and obeying Him! God has a will for your life that is far greater than what you can dream up, and it is not about you! Get in the will of God and you will see prayers fulfilled. Jesus is faithfull.
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. [NIV]
Hearing God
.. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire.
And after the fire came a gentle whisper. [NIV]
Elijah didn't hear God in the winds, earthquake, or the fire; but in a gentle whisper. Why? Because this is how God speaks. Notice how Elijah had these encounters and knew God didn't speak in the noticable things, but through the whisper. With Holy Spirit you are able to discern the voice of God. You may get a burning bush type of encounters like Moses but in your daily walk it's that still small voice where God speaks.
God also speaks through people and His Word. This doesn't mean you should go around looking at everything people are saying because when God speaks to you, you will know because He speaks to your spirit - A person can't do that, God uses willing vessels. The Word of God is literally the Word of God, the Bible. If you ever receive a prophecy, if you are in fear or awe make sure it's in awe or fear of God, not the person prophesying.
The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. [NIV]
Try to explain what love feels like and you won't touch the surface to someone who has never loved. Love is a knowledge and feeling you can't put inside someone else because it is something you grow into. When you hear from God it's kind of like reading without glasses and it's blurry yet you understand what you are reading and out of nowhere God takes of the glasses and your focus goes, "BAM!" testifying to your spirit.
Questioning God
Don't be timid to ask God questions, it's not wrong. In the Bible the people asked Jesus tons of questions. The following is an excerpt from Woodrow Kroll (Back to the Bible):
Part of the privilege of access [to God through prayer] means that we can pray about anything and everything. But along with our freedom to pray comes a responsibility to have legitimate expectations. We can ask God to break His Word, but that will be a waste of time because He won't do it. We can insist that we are in a situation where a certain command doesn't apply, but it does. We all experience the temptation to justify wrongdoing [..] by saying, "I prayed about it."
One of the reasons we often feel like God isn't answering comes from our tendency to reduce prayer to just submitting requests. We don't spend time with God in prayer; we simply stop by to hand over our shopping list of things we want for ourselves and others.
God will answer your questions through His Word. We can disregard his answers, and debate them; though we cannot deny them. It's up to you if you choose to accept His answers. Gods answers won't always parallel our own. Do we and God think alike?
Approaches God His Way
Read the Bible! If you live by His word you should be reading it every day, it's your spiritual food. You don't go many days without eating do you? You would die. Well if you aren't feeding off the Word of God then your spirit is starving. Humility and Dilligence is what God looks for.
"If you are strangers to prayer, You are strangers to power." - Billy Sunday
God answer prayer in different ways than our little minds think up, again man and God do not think alike! God wants you to use your faith and also take time to develop a relationship with Him. You must walk His Will. God is not like TV Evangelism where you buy an item like a hankerchief or holy water to get blessed. You can't buy God. If you want blessings then chase God and blessings will chase you.
Here is a note from a sermon by Duane Vanderklok at Resurrection Life Church in Grandville, MI - "Many go through their life defeated and depressed because that's what they expect, they expect to fail. They expect defeat, so that's what they receive. In the Bible it says: As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. According to your faith, so will it be unto you.".
How Do I Pray?
Many people think you have to pray a certain way, for example, with "Hail Mary's", using rosaries, or some formal repetetive recited prayer. God didn't make you a robot! He didn't say follow religion, men's teaching, ancestors, traditions or church, they are not the way.
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. [NIV]
I may need to mention that "Hailing Mary" is not found in the Bible, nor did God say to do it. You won't find anything about prayer beads, or "Rosaries", they also serve no purpose and mean nothing. The Bible never says to pray through a priest in a confessional. Jesus is your Intercessor, Mediatior, Lord and Savior, nobody else. So talk directly to Him, don't bounce from Saint to Saint and back to Mary, these people don't hear you because they are not God. (Hebrews 7:25)
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time [NIV]
If all your prayers rely on material things and being at a "special place", then you are in the wrong place.
You can speak to God through the blood of Jesus Christ at any moment. So speak to God from your heart! Talk to him like he exists, not like you're reading a book! Get religion out of the way and expose your heart to God, and cry out to Him any way you know how.
Just like you'd talk to a person, you first say their name, and then talk to them. Instead of saying, "Bye". You would say, "In Jesus Name, Amen." Amen simply means to express agreement.
God isn't a stranger to who you are, so talk to Him the way you would with someone who knows you. To put it simple: "Be Real To God." You can't trick Him! He knows Everything!
Try to give God important quality time. Instead of wasting it watching TV, take time to thank God and pray. God loves you and wants to spend time with you, but you have to be willing to put Him at Number 1 in your life. It's up to you how close you want to get to God, and the only way you can do this is by constant communication through prayer and obedience to Him!
