PRAYER SERIES—WHY PRAYER IS IMPORTANT IN OUR DAILY LIVES?

1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing.

Have you ever grown tired of praying for something or someone? Paul said that believers should never stop praying. God always hears us and always answers. He is sovereign and has a plan. Sometimes He answers us with a yes or no, but often He tells us to wait. Praying and waiting humble us before God and teach us to rely on his plan instead of our own. God commands us to never stop praying. To spend all our time on our knees would be impossible, but we can have a prayerful attitude at all times, regardless of our posture or the place. Such an attitude is built upon acknowledging our dependence on God, realizing his presence within us, and determining to obey him fully. Then we will find it natural to pray frequent, spontaneous, short prayers. Regular times of prayer will lead to God’s transforming power in our lives. A prayerful attitude is not a substitute for regular times of prayer but should be an outgrowth of those times.

Why is prayer important

1. Prayer is God’s authorized system of communion and fellowship with Him. (Luke 6:12; Matthew 26:36-39,44; John 17). Prayer Spiritual system of intimacy not just petitions. Must have the secret place to hear and know God’s voice, this is why we hear anything and say it’s God. Let God train you to hear His voice. God must know how to train us to hear His voice in the realm of the spirit, intimacy.

2. Prayer creates a legal platform for God, Angels in the spirit realm, to gain entrance and access in the affairs of man. The dealings with God and man are on legal grounds, and legal realm this is why God couldn’t announce man as being justified, the system had to be followed to the latter. (Psalms 115:16; Ezekiel 22:30-31). Who will rise up like an alter, that will activate something different, who will stand in the gap? He must find a people. Many pastors act without a system. An alter give life to a covenant.

3. God’s authorized system for enforcing dominion and compliance. God gave man dominion over creation, and prayer is the authorized platform for enforcing dominion. For as long as the alter is alive the covenant will keep working. That’s the concept of priesthood. Priesthood is a system to keep alters alive so that covenants will remain enforced, so that dimensions will continue to operate. There are many things that will not obey you until you force them to, there are many things in your life, your destiny will not open up because you think you should have a good life, it us a costly joke, you will not get a job just because you’re first in class, you will not be promoted because you think you are cute, nothing is fair in this life, every thing that is forced on you is because of your knowledge. Your church will not grow just because you are a nice pastor, you must learn to exercise dominion, it take prayer. There is a dynamic to manifestation, consistency in prayer.

Why Do We Have To Pray?

1. We pray because it is a command, believers are commanded to pray (Luke 18:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:17).

2. It is one of the strategies for fellowship with the Father, one of the major platforms for fellowshipping with God. (Corinthians 14:2) intimacy, oneness.

3. It is a platform for growth and transformation. Believers who don’t pray cannot grow (Luke 9:28-29; 1 Corinthians 14:4; Jude 1:20). One of the classic signs of pray-less lifestyle is lack of discernment. When our prayer life is dead so is our discernment. Discernment—“the faculty of spiritual perception”

We are to maintain an uninterrupted and constant spirit of prayer. We are to be in such a frame of mind as to be ready to pray publicly if requested; and when alone, to improve any moment of leisure which we may have when we feel ourselves strongly inclined to pray. A Christian in a bad state of mind who has suffered himself, by attention to worldly cares, or by light conversation, or by gaiety and vanity, or by reading an improper book, or by eating or drinking too much, or by late hours at night among the thoughtless and the vain, to be brought into such a condition that he cannot engage in prayer with proper feelings. There has been evil done to the soul if it is not prepared for communion with God at all times, and if it would not find pleasure in approaching his holy throne.

Jesus teaches the parables of prayer in Luke 18:1-14—

We understand these two stories about prayer best when we consider the context of Jesus’ previous teachings on how we should live during the time before He comes again. Persistent prayer is the answer. To persist in prayer and not give up does not mean to subject oneself to endless repetition or painfully long prayer sessions. Being in constant prayer means keeping our requests continually before God as we live for Him day by day, believing He will answer. When we live by faith, we are not to give up. God may tell us to wait, but His delays always have good reasons. As we persist in prayer, we grow in character, faith, and hope.

James 5:16—Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

As Christians, our most powerful resource is communion with God through prayer. The results are often greater than we would have thought possible. Some people see prayer as a last resort to be tried when all else fails. This approach is backward. Prayer should always come first. Because God has infinitely greater power than we have, to rely on prayer from the start only makes sense—especially because God encourages us to do so.

Christ has opened the way for us to go directly to God for forgiveness through prayer. But confessing our sins to each other still has an important place in the life of the church. By “righteous person,” James isn’t talking about sinless people but rather those who can effectively pray for others because they have confessed their own sins and are in right relationship with God. This verse points us toward several important scriptural principles related to confession:

1. If we have sinned against an individual, we must ask that person to forgive us.

2. If our sin has affected the church, we must confess it publicly.

3. If we need loving support as we struggle with a sin, we should confess the sin to those who are able to provide that support.

4. If, after confessing a private sin to God, we still don’t feel His forgiveness, we may wish to confess the sin to a fellow believer to receive assurance of God’s pardon. In Christ’s Kingdom, every believer is a priest to other believers (1 Peter 2:9).

This is why Peter says—“Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.”

We should live expectantly because Christ is coming again. Getting ready to meet Him involves continually growing in love for God and for others. To be prepared, we should PRAY regularly and reach out to people who are in need. Our possessions, status, and power will mean nothing in God’s Kingdom, but we will spend eternity with other people. let’s invest our time and talents where they will make an eternal difference.