Never forsake the place of prayer where His thoughts and ways are revealed to us.  Let prayer be on top of our list.  

Never underestimate the power of our prayer.  The Bible says,  “The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man (believer) can accomplish much [when put into action and made effective by God—it is dynamic and can have tremendous power].” (James 5:16 AMP)

The true essence of prayer is not only concentrated on us asking the Lord our God to meet our needs.  But it is more on pursuing to be consistently and constantly connected with Him Who is the Answer to all our needs.  In Him, all things consists. Nothing was made that was made apart from Him.  He is the Source of all.  He is the Creator of all.  He is the Supply to all.  The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.  Therefore, when we seek Him wherein He promised that He will be found by us, we have it all.  When we SEEK FIRST the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED unto us (Matthew 6:33).

I love what one preacher said, “I no longer pray God give me what I think I need, but give me what You KNOW I need.  God is the only one Who has been in my tomorrow, so He is the only One Who knows what I’m going to need when I get there.  And if He knows I need to fight a lion so I’ll be ready for Goliath, I want to fight Goliath.  I don’t want Him to prevent the fight, but to provide the faith for me to fight.”  It is indeed time to upgrade our prayers. 

Prayer is our intimate connectivity with Him that sets our hearts to rest in His presence. Prayer is when we, His creation, powerfully encounters the presence of our Creator. It is where our need of Him is met by the Supply of His manifest presence. It is zeroing our every thought into Who lives inside of us, Christ in us, the Hope of glory. When we know that in Christ we are His tabernacles, His temples, His dwelling places, His holy habitation, it gives us the assurance that He is with us ALWAYS. The cares of the world may come between us and His mighty compassionate presence, but we fight a good fight of faith to set the course of our thinking in congruency to His Word until we get fully convinced and persuaded that nothing can separate us from Him, and that He is always with us ever ready to uphold us, to help us, to comfort us, to guide us, to rescue us, to refresh us, to embrace us, to heal us and to show His steadfast love towards us in a strong and mighty manifestation that will cause our hearts to yearn for more of Him.

When we get ourselves into the secret place where our hearts are saturated in His presence, it is beyond comprehension.  It is this place where we can totally abandon ourselves into HIs loving lordship that no amount of opposition can be found in us.  His love enables us to yield into His perfect will and say, “Be it done to me according to Your Word, Lord.”  We are in the most freeing state when we humble ourselves into His lordship, knowing that He is all the while effectually at work in us, energizing us, creating in us the power and desire both to will and to do whatever it is that He calls us to do for His own pleasure, delight and satisfaction.

There may be times when we are in prayer, distractions come and give its best shot.  Oh yes, our phone rings, an errand comes up or thoughts suddenly pop up in our minds that tend to pull us out and away from this awaited encounter.  Don’t worry.  Don’t be condemned.  The enemy will always  try to sow guilt into our hearts so that we may lose our confidence to come before our Loving Father by being distracted.  That is his job.  He is the accuser of the brethren.  Thus, we are called to not be ignorant of his schemes.  Instead, we get ourselves in tune to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit’s conviction. 

A conviction is when God draws us nearer to Himself and asks us to adjust something in our lives because He knows we have the potential and ability to walk a different way.  Whereas condemnation is not of God.  It is the lie of the enemy to disqualify us before the presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords.  It always points to our mistakes, makes us feel guilty and inflicts doubt instead of us being certain about the truth of who are before God.

The secret is, we need to pray through. We need to pray past the doubt, past the voices of this world, past the obvious distractions and into the victory that God has promised us. We give thanks to Him Who is worthy and acknowledge Him for what He has done, is doing and is about to do. We praise Him for Who He is. These adjust our focus from having a wide lens that covers a bigger picture into having Him alone in the picture. It may take time, but the outcome is surely overwhelmingly rewarding. We get our eyes set with the eyes of faith in the promises of God that are yes and amen! We get to be the violent that take it by force, pressing in and pursuing the precious revelation of God’s Word that He is about to release during our divine encounters.

In prayer, we need to keep in mind that we cannot fight a thought with another thought.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.  It is then imperative to hear ourselves speak and declare His revealed promises that will dislodge thoughts that are not of Him.  This is not the time to run to another preachers’ sermon to be encouraged.  There is a time for that.  But when we are in prayer, we prophesy and speak out the word that has been deposited into our hearts, for out of the abundance of our hearts, our mouths speak. 

“A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:45 NIV)

Our heart is a treasury. It is a place where treasures are stored. It is where valuable and delightful things are collected and stored. It is our spiritual reservoir. This is where both previous and new revelations of God’s Word unveiled to us are kept. This is where the documentation of our intimate encounters with Him are stowed. This is from where the Holy Spirit brings out the weapons of our warfare that perfectly suit the battles we face and be released through our mouths as His Word is the sword of our spirits.

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

This is why we need to be vigilant what we allow to enter in into hearts through our gateways, our eyes and ears.  There are many things around us that fight for our attention and affection.  It is for us to choose what is most beneficial to us.  Thankfully, the Lord has given us the five-fold ministry to equip us.  You see, God does not call us to a place where He did not prepare and have provision for us. 

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” (Ephesians 4″:11-16)

No one stops learning.  We are all a work in progress.  As we sit under the authority of these chosen anointed people, we are being equipped and trained how to fight our battles in the spirit realm, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God in pulling down of stronghold.  “We are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

What we take in and learn that are personally revealed to us, they become a part of us. We become what we eat. Our daily bread is from every word that comes out from the mouth of God through indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us. Our daily drink is the refreshing water that comes from deep within us. Jesus said, “whoever drinks the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. But the water that I give him will become in him a spring of water [satisfying his thirst for God] welling up [continually flowing, bubbling within him] to eternal life.” (John 4:14 AMP) The Lord makes us grow in the growth that He has ordained for us, equipping us for the battles that are specifically designed for each one of us to overcome. Our prayer time is where the Holy Spirit will illumine and highlight to us the clearly defined and identified weapon to use.

In prayer, as we behold Him, our revelation of Who He is changes us. It changes our identification to be more like Him, for His Word is like a mirror to us. The more we come to know Him, the more we come to know who we are in Him, for we are created according to His image and likeness. Our identity is never meant to be independent, separated and isolated from Him. We are IN HIM and HIM IN US. We are His co-laborers here on earth to transform where we are into a place where His glory and goodness manifest.

Our revelation knowledge of Him is not for us to become debaters.  Debaters are mindful of opinions.  We do not live in the world of opinions.  We are in this world but not of it.  We live in the world of the revelation of the Word of God where what He says become the final authority of our lives.  All these are nourished and cultivated when we find and spend time with Him in prayer.  We constantly drink from the river that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb that we may bear fruit unceasingly, our leaves never wither for the healing of the nations and everything that we touch prospers because He is with us and we are one with Him.

I once experienced the power of prayer years ago.  This was when I was off and on with my connectedness with God. 

One day I went to church and saw a woman who was fervently praying. I did not know who she was nor what she was praying for. Every time I looked at her, I could strongly sense something powerful. Yes, it was alien to me, yet very pursuing. The next day, I went back to the same church and there she was again and the effect that she had with me still remained the same. So, with my curiosity awakened to a higher degree, I confidently went up to her. I introduced myself and simply asked her what she was praying for that I got so affected by its power. Her answer stunned me. She said she was praying for her friend who stopped going to church and was asking God to restore her. I admitted to her that I somehow was on the same boat. I did not stop going to church, but I was not regularly attending like I used to. I considered myself in a lull season at that time.

But after such encounter with the power of her prayer, it totally changed me.  I went back to church more and more.  I read my Bible more and more.  I worshipped more and more. I spent time with Him more and more.  I went to Bible studies, listened and watched teachings and preachings and that, too, attended conferences locally and overseas.  I believe the reservoir of my heart was enlarged to accommodate more revelations of Him and the satisfaction that came with it was without measure. 

Oh how the Lord is so mindful of us and He knows how to win us back to Himself. It took one woman’s prayer for me. It may be the same way for you. Somewhere around the world is praying for you or praying for the same situation as you are where you will get suddenly touched by His presence unprecedentedly. Get ready! Get ready, too, to pray for others that they will have deep encounters with God that will change their lives forever.

Indeed, we are conduits of His power. We are His co-laborers to win more people to Himself. What becomes of us, we can be to those around us. The true essence of the cross is always FROM HIM TO US (the vertical part of the cross) and THEN TO OTHERS (the horizontal part of the cross. With this in mind, our relationship and degree of influence with others cannot effectively stand (horizontal) without being firmly rooted and grounded in the love of God (vertical). The horizontal part of the cross cannot lie hanging by itself. It needs the foundation of the vertical part which is our intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

Due to what happened to me, my mental inclination and attitude in prayer changed and became power-charged. I no longer take for granted when I pray, being fully convinced that prayers for me are like Jesus’-blood-dipped-polished-arrows directed to the one I am praying for and the ones who are in the same situation. There is no distance in the spirit realm, therefore, it can get into the heart of whoever the Lord chooses to be touched.

It is time for us to pray fervent prayers that will transform peoples’ hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, into fertile grounds made ready to receive the implanted word of God that is able to save our souls and that we may bear much fruit unceasingly.  He promised to pour out His Spirit upon ALL flesh and we have our part to play.  PRAY!!!

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, God declares, that I will pour out of My Spirit upon all mankind, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy [telling forth the divine counsels] and your young men shall see visions (divinely granted appearances), and your old men shall dream [divinely suggested] dreams.

Yes, and on My menservants also and on My maidservants in those days I will pour out of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy [telling forth the divine counsels and predicting future events pertaining especially to God’s kingdom].” (Acts 2:17-18 AMP)

Our confidence that our personal prayers are established determines our confidence to pray for others.  We cannot give what we do not first receive from God.  We cannot love others without first being loved by God.  

“We love because He FIRST loved us.”  (1 John 4:19)

Powerful prayers are not always spectacular in nature.  The greatest miracle one could ever receive is when we come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten and beloved Son to become Man, so that we, men, can become sons and daughters of the Most High God, as the Holy Spirit bears witness to this truth to us. 

Our spiritual conversion comes in an instant but to walk out in our lives what it means to be saved takes a lifetime to discover. There are yet so many things we simply do not understand, so many things we do not know, so many rivers to cross, so many wilderness to tackle with fear and trembling, but in the midst of all these, God is still speaking. We live because He speaks and what He speaks He confirms them with signs following. We can hear Him clearly in prayer when we charge our atmosphere with the frequency that matches where He is speaking from. When we do, His Word lifts our burdens, silences the storms, brings light into darkness, gives hope when hope is not found and makes a way where there seems to be no way. With God, all things are possible. God is still moving behind the scenes even when we are unaware of it. God is still answering our prayers His way. God is still in pursuit of us and inviting us to go deeper with Him.

Our part is to keep following, keep pressing on, keep meditating His Word, keep moving forward, keep seeking, keep knocking, keep asking, keep believing, keep hoping, keep inclining our ears to His voice and keep being used by Him. 

KEEP PRAYING …. for what He promised He is faithful to perform and make it good.

“My covenant will I not break or profane, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips.  Once [for all] have I sworn by My holiness, which cannot be violated; I will not lie …” (Psalm 89:34-35 AMP)

KEEP PRAYING … for Christ is making intercession for us.

“Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”  (Romans 8:34)

KEEP PRAYING in the Spirit … for the Holy Spirit helps us.

 ^“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.    And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27)

KEEP PRAYING even when we cannot find the words to say.  SAY THE NAME OF JESUS!

“In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.” (Exodus 20:24)

KEEP PRAYING!!! Call upon Him.

“Call to Me, and I will answer you. I will tell you of great things, things beyond what you can imagine, things you could never have known.” (Jeremiah 33:3)

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us Jesus Christ. Jesus, as we receive and acknowledge You as our Lord and Savior, we become cleansed, purified, sanctified and justified by the power of Your blood. You made us worthy to call Your Father, our Father; Your God, our God! Thank You, Jesus, for revealing to us Who our Heavenly Father is and how great is His love for us, His sons and daughters. In You, we are no longer spiritual orphans longing and aching to be loved, accepted and approved. You stamped and sealed us in Your love that nothing and no one can ever separate us from You. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for perpetually revealing more of Who Jesus is to us. The more we know Him, the more we know the Father. As we are loved by You, Your love is perfected when we love others the very same way you love us.

As we journey in this life being given the Spirit of Wisdom and Spirit of Revelation in the knowledge of You, only then we can make You known to the ends of the earth until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of Your glory as the water covers the sea.  It is not by our might, not by our power, but by Your presence Who dwells in us.  Amen!

Photo Credits: Jana Therese Paz