God made us exactly like him (in his image and likeness), to be his companion and eternal associate; and conversation is a common phenomenon amongst companions.
Prayer is simply conversation or dialogue with God. It is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with God. Prayer was an integral part of Jesus’ Life and Ministry, and he encouraged us to pray, saying, Men ought always to pray and not faint, meaning that we should have a consistent prayer life.
Prayer is so important in that before the new covenant came into force or became a reality, Jesus spent time praying for the new creation, me and you. Hear him: I am not praying for these alone (disciples) but also for the future believers who will come to me because of the testimony of these (John 17:20 Living Bible).
Many believers are praying but not a lot are getting results or answers to their prayers. However, “If we are not getting results like we should, it means we are not praying like we should.”
In order to get results or answers to our prayers, we must have an understanding of the word of God, which the will of God… And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us (1 John 5:4).
You see, when we read the Apostles saga, in “Acts of the Apostles” we are thrilled by the outstanding results that followed their life and ministry.
However, the Apostles did not get results because they were Apostles. They had results because they were praying, as they should. They prayed like they operated under a new covenant.
You see, God pays attention to our prayers. But we need to know what is already ours and quit asking God to give us what he has already given to us.
As New Creation, there are some things that are ours by virtue of our position, so we do not need to waste our time praying to God to give us such things because he already gave them to us.
For instance, if we spend the rest of lives here on earth, praying to God to make us more righteous after we are born again, such a prayer will go unanswered because he made us righteous when we became born again… God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2Corinthian 5:21). God is not going to make us more righteous than he did the day we received Jesus.
Similarly, if we spend the whole week praying that God should give us faith or increase our faith – that is one week we just wasted, because we are not praying like we should and he is not going to answer such prayers.
You see, God has already dealt to us a measure of faith at salvation – we could not be saved without faith… By grace are ye saved through faith. Increase in faith comes by hearing God’s word “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word.” It is impossible to have faith, if you stay away from the word of God.
If we desire an increase in our faith in any particular area, what we need to do is feed on the word along those lines, by listening to the word concerning that issue, and meditating on the word on that subject matter.
In the same vein, if we spend the rest of our lives asking God to do something about the adversary, he will not do it, because he already rendered Satan inoperative or ineffective, by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus … “through death he might destroy him who has the power of death that is the devil.” – “[God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross].” (Colossians 2:15)
And gave us all power (authority) in heaven and on earth to effect the victory, saying; Go ye therefore.
Go ye therefore connotes “in same manner my father has sent me, i am sending you”. It infers transference of power.
Jesus gave us his power of attorney or power to act in his stead, thus inferring that if we want to do anything about the devil, we have to do it ourselves, and not pray to God to do it for us. He gave us the right to use his name and asked us to cast out devils in that name.
Emmanuel Emeke Asiwe(Ps)
