ISBN 978-1-898444-29-3

9 781898 444299
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Effective Prayer
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The Sword of the Spirit series:

1 Effective Prayer
2 Knowing the Spirit
3 The Rule of God
4 Living Faith
5 Glory in the Church
6 Ministry in the Spirit
7 Knowing the Father
8 Reaching the Lost
9 Listening to God
10 Knowing the Son
11 Salvation by Grace
12 Worship in Spirit and Truth

www.swordofthespirit.co.uk

Copyright © 2007, 1997 by Colin Dye

Second edition
Kensington Temple
KT Summit House
100 Hanger Lane
London, W5 1EZ
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written
consent of the author.
Scriptural quotations, unless otherwise stated, are from the New King
James Version. Thomas Nelson Inc. 1991.
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Sword of the Spirit

Effective Prayer

Colin Dye
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Contents
Introduction 7
1 Prayer in the Old Testament 11
2 Prayer in the New Testament 27
3 The Spirit and prayer 43
4 Intercession 53
5 Thanksgiving 69
6 Paul’s prayers 81
7 Spiritual warfare 91
8 Fasting 107
9 Tongues 115
10 Towards effective prayer 127

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Introduction
Almost everybody prays to God when they have a
tremendous need. No matter whether they are a Christian
believer, an agnostic or an atheist, men, women and children
ask for divine help when they are in severe difficulties.
For many people, prayer is a last resort. They pray only
when they are desperate. They are not sure whom they are
addressing or quite what to expect from their prayer. If their
need continues, it is ‘proof’ that there is no God. If their need
disappears, God is forgotten until the next emergency.
For Christians, it should be the exact opposite. Prayer should
be as natural and instinctive as breathing. However, it should not
be restricted merely to asking God to meet needs; it should also
be an expression of an intimate relationship with God.
This book on prayer has three aims. Firstly, to help you
discover and understand the biblical teaching about prayer.
Secondly, to introduce you to an exciting life of prayer. And,
thirdly, to encourage and equip you to pass your understanding
and excitement about prayer on to others.
I am sure you do not need to be told that you should pray
more! All Christians, everywhere, feel like this – whatever their
spiritual maturity. I know several people who have helped large
numbers of believers to pray more effectively, but none of them
is entirely satisfied with the quality of their own prayer life.
Yet although we know that we should pray more, we may
not be quite so sure why we should pray more, how we should
pray or what we should pray. That is why this book aims to
help you both to learn about prayer from the Bible and to pray
following biblical principles.

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Effective Prayer

By the time of the events recorded in Luke 11, the disciples

had been with Jesus for a considerable while. They had
watched him at work. They themselves had preached, healed
the sick and seen demons submit to them. From childhood,
they had prayed in the Jewish synagogues and the temple.
They had even been with Jesus when he prayed. Yet they still
felt the need to ask, ‘Teach us to pray’.
Their passion for Jesus and the example of his praying
inspired the disciples to desire to learn to pray. They realised
that – despite their years with Jesus and their ministerial
experience – they were beginners at prayer who needed to
learn from the Master, from Jesus.
Most of us have learnt to pray by listening to other people
pray. This is why Christians in particular traditions or
denominations often pray in a similar way. But if our personal
and corporate Christian life is to be mature and Christ-like, we
need to base every aspect of our lives on God’s word rather
than on human experience.
In 2 Timothy 3:16–17, Paul reminds us that ‘All scripture is
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that
the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for
every good work’.
This book is essentially for those believers who are
prepared to set aside their own ideas about prayer and study
God’s word to discover God’s biblical principles. In order to
receive the most out of this book please read through each
Bible reference. Before moving on to a new section, carefully
think through the implications of what you have studied for
yourself and for the people around you. Please allow God to
speak to you as you study his word.
There is additional material available to facilitate your
learning, which can be found in the Sword of the Spirit Student’s
Handbook and at the website www.swordofthespirit.co.uk. In
these resources you can find knowledge reviews, quizzes and

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Introduction

exams, which will help you test, retain and apply the knowledge
you have learnt in this book.
You will also be able to use the knowledge reviews with small
groups. You may wish to prayerfully select those parts that you
think are most relevant for your group. This would mean that at
some meetings you might use all the material whilst at others
you might use only a small part. Please use your common sense
and spiritual insight. Please feel free to photocopy these pages
and distribute them to any group you are leading.
Establishing a lifestyle of scriptural prayer is a basic part of
developing your relationship with God. It is my prayer that, as
you study this book, you will experience a new quality in prayer
which has deep consequences for you, for your family, and for
those who may be in need around you.
Colin Dye

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Part One
Prayer in the Old Testament
Throughout the Bible, the word ‘prayer’ is used to describe
every type of communication from men and women to God.
For example, Hannah’s song, in 1 Samuel 2, is introduced as a
prayer even though it is a thanksgiving. And Habakkuk 3 is
described as a prayer although it is written as a psalm.
There are about eighty-five prayers in the Old Testament,
and these include prayers of adoration, confession, praise,
supplication and thanksgiving.
Any one prayer may be all thanksgiving, or all adoration, or
all pleading. Or a prayer may include many different aspects of
prayer. Please read Isaiah 63:7–64:12 and see how praise,
thanksgiving, pleading, confession and supplication are blended
together. Old Testament prayers may also include elements of
prophetic revelation, declaration of faith, pronouncements of
blessing or cursing, statements of warfare, rebuke and calls to
repentance.
Most Old Testament prayers are concerned with physical
needs and practical difficulties. Unlike the New Testament, few
Old Testament prayers focus on spiritual and moral matters.
However, the Old Testament takes three prayer principles very
much for granted.
Although the Scriptures never explicitly state this, they
always clearly imply that:
God hears prayer
God is moved by prayer
God does not grant every request.

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Old Testament terms for praying

The Old Testament uses six main Hebrew verbs to describe
the different ways that men and women pray to God. The
various translations of the Bible do not always translate these
Hebrew verbs with the same words, so sometimes it is difficult
to appreciate the variations in meaning.
Qara – to call
This is the oldest and simplest phrase for invocation or praying.
Genesis 4:26 is the Bible’s first mention of prayer, and it shows
that people began praying by calling on the name of God: they
appealed to God directly by using his sacred name. We can
read about this in Genesis 12:8 & 21:33.
This means that there is a simplicity, directness and
familiarity in the early prayers. We can see this in Genesis
15:2–8; 18:23–33 & 24:12–14.
God’s people ‘called on the name of the Lord’ throughout the
Old Testament. There are examples of this in 1 Samuel 12:17; 2
Samuel 22:4; 1 Kings 18:24; 2 Kings 5:11; Psalm 116:4,17; Isaiah
12:4; Jeremiah 33:3; Joel 2:32 & Zechariah 13:9.
God’s people continued to call on God’s name in the
New Testament – for example, in Acts 2:21 & 9:14. And so,
today, when we pray, we know that we must still pray ‘in the
name of Jesus’.
Palal – to pray
This is the most common Hebrew phrase for praying. However,
it literally means ‘to pray habitually’ or ‘to pray repeatedly’.
When people promised to palal they were not promising to pray
one prayer, they were promising to go on praying, to persevere.
The word is used specifically to express ‘to intercede’ or, ‘to ask
on behalf of another’, as in Genesis 20:7.
It is first used to describe Abraham’s praying in Genesis
20:7, 17, and then to describe Moses’ praying in Numbers
11:2. Deuteronomy 9:25–26 makes it clear that there is a
persistence in biblical palal praying, as does 1 Samuel 1:10–12.

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Prayer in the Old Testament

God’s people ‘prayed’ throughout the Old Testament. You

can appreciate this in 1 Samuel 7:5; 1 Kings 8:28–54; 2 Kings
4:33; Ezra 10:1; Nehemiah 1:4–6; Isaiah 37:15; Daniel 9:4,20
& Jonah 2:1.
The New Testament continues with the same emphasis of
needing to persist in prayer – for example, Luke 18:1–8 & 1
Thessalonians 5:17.
Paga – to approach in order to plead
The Qal form of this word in Hebrew means ‘to meet, to
encounter and to reach’. In the Hiphil form it can mean ‘to
cause to entreat’ as in Jeremiah 15:11. This is the phrase for
the strongest form of Old Testament pleading, and is often
translated as ‘intercede’ or ‘entreat’. It also can mean ‘to
approach with violence’ or, as in Job 36:32, ‘to make attack, to
assault or to mark’.
The general idea we obtain from this Old Testament word
is that intercession is a violent intervention, a strong form of
pleading for and on behalf of another. We will look at this in
detail in Part Four when we study intercession.
Prophets were the only people who interceded with God
in the Old Testament, as only they had the necessary anointing
with the Spirit which enabled them to approach God’s face.
We can read about the general relationship between prophets
and intercession in Genesis 20:7 (palal); Exodus 32:11–14
(chalah); 1 Samuel 7:5 (palal); Jeremiah 7:16; 27:18 (paga) &
Isaiah 59:16 (paga).
Isaiah 53:12 shows that intercession is central to the
ministry of the Messiah – God’s Suffering Servant. This is
carried on in the New Testament where Hebrews 7:25 and
Romans 8:34 describe the work of Christ as the eternal
Intercessor for the saints.
Shaal – to ask, to ask for, to inquire
This is the word which the Old Testament uses to describe
praying for matters like grace, deliverance, information and

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guidance. It is used as a word for prayer in Numbers 27:21 and

in Judges 1:1, when the Israelites needed guidance for the war
against the Canaanites.
God’s people ‘asked’ God throughout the Old Testament.
There are examples of this prayer activity in 1 Kings 3:5; Psalm
2:8; Isaiah 7:11–12 & Zechariah 10:1.
Again, this type of praying continues in the New Testament.
In Luke 11:9 and John 14:13, Jesus makes it plain that God
wants us to go on asking him for whatever we need.
Chalah – to beseech
This is an unusual phrase used for prayer to God, and it literally
means ‘to smooth God’s face’ or ‘to make God’s face pleasant
or sweet’. It means ‘to beseech, to pacify or to appease’. It
carries the idea of inducing one to show favour in place of wrath
and chastisement, but it is usually translated as ‘beseech’. Chalah
suggests talking sweetly and quietly to God – reasoning gently
with him – as opposed to the noise and violence implied in paga.
Moses prayed like this, in Exodus 32:11, when it seemed
that God was about to consume the people of Israel. This sort
of praying is also described in 1 Kings 13:6; 2 Kings 13:4;
Jeremiah 26:19 & Malachi 1:9.
The association between prayer and incense grew out of
this type of praying. As people realised that God delighted in
the prayers of his people, so incense – a sweet fragrance –
was often offered to God by the priests along with the
prayers. Psalm 141:2 shows that some prayer (palal)
eventually came to be considered as incense. This association
is repeated in Revelation 8:1–6.
Zaaq – to cry, to cry out, to call
The Old Testament uses this phrase to describe prayer which
asks God to correct a wrong or free his people from some
trouble. The word related to this in Arabic suggests ‘sound as
thunder’. The children of Israel often ‘cried out’ about their
troubles – for example, Exodus 2:23; Judges 3:9,15 & 6:6–7.

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This is a very common type of Old Testament praying and it

seems to be essentially a loud and desperate form of prayer.
We can read examples of it in 1 Samuel 7:9; Nehemiah 9:4;
Psalm 107:13; Joel 1:14; & Micah 3:4.
In Romans 8:15 & Galatians 4:6, Paul suggests that it is the
Spirit who prompts us to cry out to God in prayer.

Old Testament postures for praying

Not only does the Old Testament use many different words to
describe many types of praying, it also shows that people
adopted different postures when they prayed. There was not
one right way to pray.
Standing
People usually stood in the Old Testament to pray. You can see
this in Genesis 18:22 and 1 Samuel 1:26. Mark 11:25 shows
that Jesus assumed his followers would stand to pray.
Kneeling
Knees can show the relationship between people; for example,
they may be bent in terror or homage to a superior. In the Old
Testament, people knelt in prayer and worship to demonstrate
both their fear of God and also his superiority. You can see this
in Psalm 95:6; 1 Kings 8:54; Ezra 9:5 & Daniel 6:10. In Acts
9:40; 20:36 & 21:5, Paul and Peter knelt to pray at special times.
Prostrating
At times of great reverence in the Old Testament, people lay
flat on their faces before God. You can see this in Numbers
16:45 & 1 Kings 18:42. Matthew 26:39 shows that Jesus
prayed like this in his most urgent hour, in Gethsemane.
Sitting
2 Samuel 7:18 is the only biblical example of anyone sitting to
pray. This was not the Jewish way. Today, many traditions and
cultures still use different postures – God is more interested in
our attitudes and our motives than our positions.

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Raising hands
Psalm 63:4 describes hands being lifted to God in prayer –
perhaps in a gesture of surrender to God. Exodus 9:29 and
Isaiah 1:15 describe praying with hands spread out – with
upturned palms – which suggests receiving from God. Paul
instructs Timothy to pray like this in 1 Timothy 2:8.

Prayer in the Pentateuch

The first five books of the Bible are often called ‘the
Pentateuch’, though Jews usually call them ‘the Law’, or ‘the
Torah’. Except for Deuteronomy 26:1–15, there is no teaching
about prayer in the detailed rules and regulations which God
gave to Israel through Moses. However, we can learn from the
six types of prayers recorded in the Pentateuch.
Conversations with God
Many of the prayers made are conversations between a human
and God. These are not merely occasions when people draw
near to God to speak, they are also times when God comes
close to his people to reveal his purposes. There are examples
of these conversations in Genesis 15:2–8; 18:23–33;
24:12–14 & Exodus 3:1–4:17.
Important intercessions
Most of the prayers which are recorded in the Pentateuch are
important intercessions. Abraham interceded for others in
Genesis 17:18; 18:23–32 & 20:7. Moses interceded for
Pharaoh to have relief from the plagues in Exodus 8:12; 9:33
& 10:18; and he frequently interceded for Israel whenever
they murmured against God and rebelled – for example,
Exodus 32:11–13.
Personal requests
However, several private prayers are also recorded in the
Pentateuch: Abraham prayed for a child (Genesis 15:2);
Eliezer prayed for a successful journey (Genesis 24:12); Jacob
prayed when he was frightened (Genesis 32:9–12); Moses

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prayed both when he was perplexed (Exodus 5:22), and

when he was frustrated (Numbers 11:11–15).
Family blessings
When a father blesses his son – as in Genesis 49:1–28 – it is
essentially a prophetic vision of God’s purpose for the person
being blessed. But Deuteronomy 33 shows that it is also a form
of prayer, as God is being asked to bring about what he has
revealed.
Oaths and vows
The Pentateuch describes several people making oaths and
vows. Abraham made the first oath in Genesis 14:21–24, and
it is plain that this is a form of prayer. Oaths like Jacob’s, in
Genesis 28:20–22, became quite common, and they are even
used of God himself – as in Deuteronomy 32:40.
Sacrificial prayer
Prayer was closely connected with sacrifice in the Pentateuch.
We see this in Genesis 13:4; 26:25 & 28:18–22. The offering
of a prayer in the context of making a sacrifice suggests complete
abandonment to God and total submission to his will.
However, the fact that prayer is not mentioned in those
parts of the Pentateuch which describe sacrificial ritual suggests
that sacrifice without prayer was more usual.

Prayer in the kingdom books

Following the Pentateuch, there are twelve books which
record Israel’s history – Joshua to Esther. These books describe
all the important events in the developing story of Israel – from
the Judges, through the Kings, to the nation’s exile and return,
and the rebuilding of Jerusalem.
The books tell a story which is packed with prayers, and we
can see both leaders and ordinary people crying to God to
help, guide, save and deliver them. However, we learn most
about praying from these books by examining the prayers of
the great men of that era.

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Samuel
Jeremiah 15:1 suggests that Moses and Samuel are the two main
intercessors in Jewish history. In 1 Samuel 7:5–12, Samuel twice
intercedes with God over the nation, and in 1 Samuel 8 & 12, he
intercedes about the people’s request for a king. In 1 Samuel
12:23 he refers to his continuous pleading for the people, and
expresses his understanding that this is part of his prophetic calling.
And after Saul’s rejection, in 1 Samuel 15:11, he prays all night.
David
The story of David is littered with references to David ‘inquiring
of the Lord’ – as in 2 Samuel 2:1; 5:19, 23. These references
indicate the depth of David’s prayer relationship with God and
his dependence on God for guidance.
Most of David’s recorded prayers are included in the
Psalms, but 2 Samuel 7:18–29 contains a less formal, more
personal prayer. 2 Samuel 12:16 graphically describes David’s
desperate prayers after God had punished him because of his
sin. Psalm 51 – one of only five psalms to be entitled a prayer
– was written by David at this time.
Elijah
Both Elijah and Elisha were great intercessors. Elijah’s prayers
in 1 Kings 17:20 & 18:36–37 are without precedent in the
Bible. The great test on Carmel is based on who hears prayer.
It is Elijah’s confidence in the Living God who hears and
answers prayer which brings about such a dramatic moment.
Ezra
Ezra 8:21–23 shows that Ezra depended on prayer for the
safety of his expedition. His prayer in Ezra 9:5–15 must be one
of the greatest of all biblical prayers. Here Ezra confesses sins
which he has not personally committed but of which he
considers himself guilty because he is part of the nation which
has committed them.
This is a significant prayer, for it introduces the scriptural idea
of representative confession.

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Nehemiah
Constant prayer is typical of Nehemiah. There are examples
of this in Nehemiah 2:4; 4:4; 5:19 & 6:9. Nehemiah’s great
prayer, in 1:4–11, is similar to Ezra’s. He takes the sins of
Israel on himself and confesses them as a whole. He does
not stand apart from the people – he regards himself as
involved in their guilt.
The twelve books from Joshua to Esther show us two further
interesting aspects of prayer:
Special places
These books contain prayers which suggest that there were
special places for prayer. The ark of the covenant denoted the
local presence of God and so was a place of prayer – as in
1 Samuel 1 & 2 Samuel 7.
Sacrifices were offered at ‘high places’, so prayer was
made there too – as in 1 Samuel 7:5 & 1 Kings 3. And
when the temple was dedicated, in 1 Kings 8, it was partly
as a place of prayer.
Fasting
These books introduce the practice of fasting – going without
food – and praying. This is usually in the context of mourning
and weeping and asking God for help.
Judges 20:26–27 is the first mention of fasting. There are
further examples in 2 Samuel 12:21; 1 Kings 21:27; Ezra 8:23;
Nehemiah 1:4 & Esther 4:3, 16.

Prayer in the Psalms

The Hebrew word for psalm means ‘song of praises’. Although
only five psalms are specifically entitled ‘a prayer’, many people
feel that all the psalms are prayers. Certainly there is a telling
verse at the end of Psalm 72 which suggests that all previous
psalms are prayers.
There are psalms of adoration, thanksgiving, petition,
celebration, lamentation, meditation, penitence, warfare and

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worship. There are individual and corporate psalms, psalms

which recount history, and psalms which plead for vengeance.
The psalms express almost every possible human emotion –
for example, hatred, repentance, piety, patriotism, wonder,
trust, love and devotion.
It seems that there are ten different types of prayer in the
Psalms. Here are a few examples of each type of prayer. Please
read them and wonder at the creativity and honesty in prayer
of the psalmists.
Prayers which ask God for blessing and protection –
86, 102.
Prayers of praise and thanksgiving – 47, 68, 104,
145–150.
Prayers for deliverance – 38, 88.
Prayers which confess faith in God as Creator, Lord,
King, Judge, etc. – 33, 94, 97, 136, 145.
Prayers of repentance and pleas for forgiveness – 6,
32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143.
Prayers of intercession – 21, 67, 89, 122.
Prayers which plead for vengeance – 35, 59, 109.
Prayers of wisdom or instruction – 37, 45, 49, 50,
78, 104–107.
Prayers which ask questions – 16, 17, 49, 73, 94.
Prayers which praise God’s word – 1, 19, 119.
Taking the Psalms as a whole, they appear to suggest five
general principles about prayer:
Pouring from the heart
The Psalms seem to regard prayer as the pouring out of
everything in the heart. We can see this in 42:4; 62:8; 102 &
142:2. The Psalmist does not go before God in prayer with a
fixed and orderly list of requests; instead he pours out his
feelings and desires – whatever they are!

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Blending of moods
It follows from this pouring out that prayer is a mixture of
moods. The prayers in the Psalms pass from praise to
complaint, from confession to depression, from devotion to
revenge. There are examples of this in 57, 69 & 139.
Corporate and personal
Some of the prayers – for example, 60, 79 & 80 – are corporate,
and some of them are personal – including 23, 51 & 63. But while
44 is clearly corporate, ‘I’ and ‘me’ occur in verses 6 & 15. And
while 102 appears at first to be personal, it soon becomes clear
that it expresses the complaint and needs of the nation.
Somehow, almost every prayer in the Psalms is both
personal and corporate. They express the Jewish
understanding that ‘in prayer, a person should always unite
himself with the community’.
Material and spiritual
Although most of the prayers in the Psalms are concerned with
material needs, spiritual requests thread through them as well.
Until this point, most Old Testament prayer has been for
physical concerns.
The Psalms introduce the whole dimension of spiritual
needs as a prayer topic. Three spiritual concerns can be seen:
Prayer for communion with God – as in 63
Prayer for forgiveness – as in 51
Prayer for knowledge of God’s will – as in 119.
Extreme urgency
Throughout the Psalms there is a feeling that God must be
made to hear. He needs to be wakened, urged, persuaded –
as in 13:1–2; 28:1–2 & 44:23. But this is because the needs are
often urgent, immediate and desperate – as in 70 – not
because God is reluctant or deaf.
These prayers are different from Abraham’s and Moses’
dialogues with God – where they almost seem to converse as

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equals. Instead these prayers are more like urgent requests

from children to their parents in times of great personal need.

Prayer in the prophetic books

The last seventeen books of the Old Testament are called ‘The
Prophets’. These are the collected writings of some of Israel’s
prophets who lived over a very wide period of time. Some of
them, like Jeremiah, ministered when the Jews were ruled by
kings. Others, like Daniel, prophesied during their exile. And
Zechariah and Haggai were active after the Jews had returned
from exile to rebuild Jerusalem.
Prayer has a high profile in these books, especially in the
books written after the Jews were expelled from Jerusalem and
their temple was destroyed. Because of this:
They were unable to offer God any sacrifices and
had to worship him through prayer instead
They felt abandoned by God and pressed him both to
explain what had happened and to bless them again.
Daniel 6 illustrates how prayer was the distinctive mark of the
Jews in exile. Daniel’s enemies use prayer as the basis and
opportunity for their attack.
This chapter contains the first mention of special times for
prayer – although Psalm 55:17 may hint at them. The Jews
used Genesis 19:27; 24:63; & 28:11 to justify their three hours
of prayer. Acts 3:1 shows that these special times for prayer
were still used in the early church.
All the prophets were intercessors – it was part of their
prophetic calling. They were prophets because they had a
special anointing of the Spirit, and this anointing gave them:
The right of access to God in prayer
The power to wrestle with God in intercessory prayer
The ability to interpret God’s word to the people
The insight to appreciate the people’s real needs.

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We will look at the prophets’ general ministry of intercession in

Part Four, but – beyond that special aspect of prayer – the
prophetic books seem to contain four general aspects of prayer:
Personal prayer
Although the prophets were primarily intercessors – which
means praying for or on behalf of others – they did not neglect
to pray for themselves. Jeremiah 17:14–18; 18:19–23 &
20:7–18 show the special difficulties and trials faced by the
prophets and illustrate how they prayed for themselves when
they had problems.
Hearing God’s word
It was in prayer (at least, in part) that the prophets heard God’s
word. God’s promise to Jeremiah in 33:3 was a personal
promise to him as a prophet which – since Pentecost – is
relevant to all believers. However, Jeremiah 42:1–7 records
that Jeremiah had to wait ten days in prayer before he heard
God’s word.
Averting evil
The prophets often prayed to avert present or predicted evil.
Amos 7:1–6 & Jeremiah 15:1–21 illustrate this aspect of
prophetic praying. In these passages, the anointed prophets
directed their prayers to God, begging him to intervene and
avert the evil. They did not direct their prayers to the evil. We
will study spiritual warfare in Part Seven.
Fasting
Fasting became more closely connected with prayer. Isaiah
58:1–14 & Zechariah 7:1–7 contain corrective teaching,
explaining to the people the sort of fasting which God requires.
It is easiest to understand the type of prayer which is typical of
the prophetic books by reading three outstanding examples of
the prophets’ prayers. These great prayers illustrate the
wrestling, prevailing, and prophetic prayer which God expects
of those people who have been anointed with his Spirit.

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Isaiah 63:7–64:12
In this amazing prayer, the prophet seems almost to step
forward and lead the worship of God’s people in exile. This
prayer contains a giant leap forward in the Old Testament
understanding of God with its appeal both to the Fatherhood
of God and to the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 63:16 & 64:8 (together with 1 Chronicles 29:10) are
the first recorded scriptural prayers to ‘Our Father’; this is taken
up by Jesus in his ‘Lord’s Prayer’. 63:10–11 is one of only two
Old Testament references to the ‘Holy’ Spirit – the title which
is adopted as the definitive name for God’s Spirit throughout
the New Testament.
Daniel 9:1–27
This is another corporate, or representative, confession,
similar to the prayers of Ezra and Nehemiah. In his prayer and
fasting, Daniel fully identifies with all God’s people in their
wickedness – even though he had not sinned personally.
Because he was part of the one people, their sin was his sin.
This type of prayer seems to be developed in the New
Testament in passages like 1 John 5:16.
Jeremiah 14:1–15:21
This persistent intercession goes on wrestling and arguing with
God to avert evil even when God has told the prophet to stop.
Usually, God’s announcement of judgement is an invitation to
intercede for mercy; however, this story shows there is a point
when God will not relent.
An intercession – 14:2–9
God’s answer forbidding intercession – 14:10–12
More pleading, despite the divine ban – 14:13
More warnings from God – 14:14–16
A wail from the prophet which ends in more
intercession – 14:17–22
God’s answer of final condemnation – 15:1–9

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Even more dialogue in prayer which continues to

15:21.
These prayers reveal the deeply intimate relationship which
exists between God and the prophets. They superficially
resemble the dialogue prayers used by Abraham and Moses.
But there is more intensity, fasting has been added, and the
prayer is characterised by wrestling, prevailing, agonising, and
intense, often exhausting, intercession.

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Part Two
Prayer in the New Testament
If ever there was a person whom it might be thought did not
need to pray, surely Jesus was that person. Yet the four Gospels
make it clear that prayer was absolutely central to his life.

Jesus’ earthly prayer life

The Gospels record the following facts about Jesus and prayer.
Through these passages we can grasp the extent of the prayer
example which Jesus sets.
He prayed:
Early in the morning – Mark 1:35
Late in the evening – Luke 6:12
At his baptism – Luke 3:21
After much ministry – Mark 1:35, 6:46 & Luke 5:16
For a night before selecting the twelve disciples –
Luke 6:12
Alone in the presence of his disciples – Luke 9:18
At his transfiguration – Luke 9:28–29
After the last supper – John 17
In Gethsemane – Mark 14:32 & Luke 22:41
For Peter – Luke 22:32
For small children – Matthew 19:13–15
At his crucifixion – Luke 23:34
After his resurrection – Luke 24:30
At his ascension – Luke 24:50
After his ascension – John 14:16.

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Jesus also:
Asked others to pray – Luke 22:40
Urged the crowds to pray – Luke 21:36
Taught people to pray – Matthew 6:5–18 & Luke
11:1–4
Taught about prayer – Matthew 21:22; Mark
11:24–25; Luke 11:5–13; 18:1–14; John 14:13 &
16:23–28
Was angry when people traded rather than prayed
in the temple – Luke 19:45–46.

Jesus’ heavenly prayer life

The New Testament shows that after Jesus’ ascension he is a
still a man of prayer – he is ‘The Intercessor’.
Romans 8:34 states, ‘It is Christ who died, and furthermore
is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also
makes intercession for us’.
And Hebrews 7:25 declares, ‘He is able to save to the
uttermost those who come to God through him, since he ever
lives to make intercession for them’.
These two verses reveal the eternal activity of the
resurrected Christ. As I write this, as you study this, as we live,
and on until we die, Christ continues to intercede for us and
for all believers everywhere.
Christ prays in heaven
The verses show that Jesus Christ lives essentially in heaven,
rather than in human hearts. If he lived primarily on earth in
believers’ hearts, he could not be at the Father’s right hand
interceding for them.
The scriptural principle is that we receive the Holy Spirit into
our lives, and that we believe in God’s Son who rules in the
heavenlies – where he engages in this everlasting, agonising
prayer with the Father.

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Christ prays for the saints

Romans 8:34 & Hebrews 7:25 present Christ as praying for
the saints, for those who have come to God through him. This
is an important prayer principle.
Some recent intercession in the Church has focused on
praying for unbelievers – especially that they be saved. Whilst
this is not wrong, the scriptural emphasis is on two other
matters. Firstly, that believers are motivated and equipped to
take the message of salvation to unbelievers and that the
gospel is presented powerfully. Secondly, that obstacles which
are blocking unbelievers from hearing or receiving the
message of salvation be moved and that unbelievers are
powerfully convicted of sin. We will examine this topic in Parts
Six and Seven.
As we study the scriptural material on prayer, we should
always watch out for the focus of the praying.
We should try to discover:
Whom we are being asked to pray for
Why we are being asked to pray for them
What we are being told to pray for them.

Jesus’ teaching on prayer

Jesus taught much about prayer. In fact, he taught more about
prayer than about any other topic except two – the kingdom
of God and finance. By his teaching, Jesus expressed in words
the truths that his life demonstrated.
Here are the ten basic prayer principles which Jesus taught
to his close disciples. We can ask ourselves which of these we
are following and which we are ignoring.
Jesus taught his disciples:
To pray privately – Matthew 6:5–6
To agree with other people in prayer – Matthew
18:19

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To keep public prayers plain and short – Matthew

6:7–13
To make specific requests which related to their
immediate needs – Matthew 6:11 & Luke 11:3
That effective prayer was related to the way they
forgave others – Matthew 6:11 & Luke 11:3–4
That effective prayer was related to the degree to
which they obeyed his instructions and God’s word
– Matthew 7:21–27
To go on praying, to persist with their requests, to
persevere – Luke 11:5–13 & Luke 18:1–8
To pray with a penitent attitude and not with an
arrogant confidence – Luke 18:9–14
To pray with faith – Matthew 21:18–22 & Luke
17:5–6
To pray in his name – John 14:13–14; John
16:23–24, 26.
This last point is especially significant. As Jesus was approaching
his death, he told his disciples that prayer was henceforth to
be addressed to the Father in the name of the Son – such
prayer was sure to be granted (John 16:23–24,26). This is the
essential difference of Christian prayer: it is offered in the
name of Christ.

Jesus’ parable about prayer

Jesus’ clearest teaching on prayer is found in Luke 11:1–13
(see also Matthew 5:9–13). Luke records that the disciples,
having watched and listened to Jesus praying, asked him to
teach them to pray.
Jesus responded to their request with:
A prayer to use
A parable to understand
Some principles to follow.

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The parable of the persistent friend, in verses 5–8, teaches

much about prayer. In this story, Jesus – who lives for ever to
intercede for his friends – reveals the necessary elements of
perfect praying.
An immediate need
In the parable, the man prayed because an urgent need arrived
unexpectedly at a most inconvenient time. This suggests that we
should start praying when God presents us with a need, or burden,
which must be dealt with; then we should continue to make that
request until it has been dealt with. This implies that God chooses
both what we pray for and the time when we start praying.
A necessary relationship
In the parable, prayer is the man’s loving response to his
friend’s need. One man visited a friend who, in turn, called on
another friend. This suggests that prayer is an expression of
relationship, and that we should focus mainly on praying for the
needs of our friends and people known to us. But the Holy
Spirit will also enable us to love and identify with those whom
we don’t know personally.
Jesus seems to follow this principle. John 15:3–15 shows that
believers are Jesus’ friends; and Romans 8:34 & Hebrews 7:25
present Jesus as praying for ‘us’ – for those whom he has saved.
Obvious love
In the parable, the man took his tired and hungry visitor into his
home. He did not make the excuse of no food or the late hour.
He gave up his night’s sleep, the comfort of his bed and risked
his popularity with a neighbouring friend to get some bread for
his guest. Why? Surely it is because he loved the visitor.
Love – not mere habit or duty – should be one of the main
motives behind prayer. True love gets us out of our beds and
on to our knees.
A helpless state
The man in the parable had no resources of his own with
which to feed his friend. Great love can be utterly impotent.

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Parents may love their sick children, but still be unable to help
them. The man was willing to feed his friend himself, but he
had nothing to give him.
It is this helplessness which sent him out begging to someone
whom he believed could meet the urgent need. This suggests
that it is only those people who recognise and accept their own
weakness who can receive the strength of God. It also suggests
that we should ask God only to meet those needs which we
ourselves lack the resources to meet. Sometimes we ask God to
do things which we are perfectly capable of doing ourselves!
So Christ intercedes for those whom he has saved because
there is nothing else he can do. He has laid down his life, shed
his blood, risen from the dead, ascended to the Father and
baptised his bride in the Holy Spirit. He can do only one more
thing: ask his Father to intervene.
The prayer of faith
The man in the parable was sure his friend would help. He was
confident that his friend would not mind being woken at
midnight. It was this confidence, this faith, which took him into
the dark and the cold. It is this confident faith which makes
prayer purposeful. There can be no point in praying if we think
God is unlikely, unwilling or unable to meet the need.
After telling this parable, Jesus went on in Luke 11:13 to
teach that God is poised, ready and eager to deliver good
things, especially the Holy Spirit, to those who ask. Surely the
astonishing promises of John 14:16 should lead to a confident
faith which causes prayer to pour from our lips.
We can be certain that Jesus has absolute confidence in his
Father’s ability to hear and answer his prayer. Jesus knows that
his intercession is not in vain. We can be equally sure that his
prayers for us will also be answered.
The vital boldness
There is a twist in the parable. The man’s hopes were dashed.
His friend would not help. This is the point of the parable.

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Prayer – especially petition and intercession – is surrounded by

difficulties and God wants us to be bold.
The man had to be bold to wake his neighbour at midnight
to borrow some bread. The Greek word anaidei in Luke 11:8
is translated as ‘boldness’ or ‘importunity’, but it literally means
‘shamelessness’, ‘cheek’ or ‘nerve’.
We need the boldness and determination to think, ‘I need this
provision, and I will not be put off by anything until I have
obtained it’. We need holy audacity – based on the strength of
our relationship with God – to ask him with nerve and cheek.
The essential persistence
The application of the parable in verses 9–13 uses a Greek tense
which is best understood as ‘keep on asking, keep on seeking,
keep on knocking’. If the man persists in calling to his friend, he will
get his bread. If he gives up, he will return home empty-handed.
So we should keep on praying boldly until we receive God’s
answer – just as Jesus keeps on interceding for us. Nothing will
make him stop.
The certain result
The parable has a happy ending. The man got the three loaves.
It does not matter whether he obtained them because of his
relationship, or because of his persistent boldness. What
counts is the bread in his hands.
It is possible that Jesus is contrasting the rich friend of verse
8 with the heavenly Father of verse 13. This underlines the
absolute certainty of a result in prayer. Disappointment is
impossible with our friend the Father. He will give us good
things. He will give us everything we need – the Holy Spirit. So
too, Jesus’ heavenly requests will not be frustrated. His bride
will be made ready for the wedding.

Jesus’ model intercession

After the last supper, having taught the disciples about the Holy
Spirit and prayer, Jesus prayed the ‘high priestly prayer’ which

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is recorded in John 17. This prayer is our clearest scriptural

example of Christ’s intercession. If Matthew 6:9–13 is our
model prayer, then John 17 must be our model intercession.
John 17 is three prayers rather than one prayer:
Verses 1–8 record Jesus praying for himself
Verses 9–19 show Jesus praying for the eleven disciples
Verses 20–26 are his intercession for us.
Five features are common to all three prayers:
Each prayer begins with a precise statement showing
for whom Jesus is praying – verses 1, 9 & 20
Each prayer has glory as a main theme – verses 1–5,
10 & 22
Each prayer is addressed to the Father – verses 5, 11
& 21
Each prayer mentions the people given to Jesus by
the Father – verses 2, 9 & 24
Each prayer contains the theme of Jesus’
proclamation about the Father – verses 6, 14 & 26.
Jesus’ prayer for himself
In this section of his John 17 prayer, Jesus’ great cry was that the
Son would be glorified so that he could effectively glorify the
Father. ‘Glory’ has been defined as ‘a visible manifestation of
majesty through acts of power’. If we follow this pattern, we will
cry out for the Father to glorify the Son in us and John 16:13–14
indeed shows that this is one of the Holy Spirit’s special functions.
Calvary and Easter morning were God’s answer to Christ’s
request for glory. Suffering and transformation can be God’s
answer to our prayers.
Jesus had revealed the Father’s name to the twelve
disciples. In John’s Gospel, with its emphasis on revealing Jesus
as the divine Son of God, the name of God is an important
theme. It seems that John understood this name to be ego eimi
– the Greek equivalent of the name which God had revealed

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to Moses in Exodus 3:13–15. This means ‘I am who I am’, or

perhaps, ‘I will be who I will be’.
In the Bible, God’s name is his active nature. This means that
Jesus had revealed God’s name by revealing himself as God.
There is a mystery here which will never be fully unveiled, not
even when he comes again in glory – Revelation 19:12.
Today, Jesus is known by the name Jesus. He can also be
identified by the names The Word of God and The King of kings and
the Lord of lords – Revelation 19:13 & 16. But Revelation 19:12
shows that he has another name which is not yet known.
Together with the three hundred other biblical names and titles of
God, this is what we hint at when we pray ‘in the name of Jesus’.
Every time we pray in his ‘name’ we anticipate the end of
this age. Deuteronomy 12:5; Psalm 9:7–10; Psalm 20:7; Psalm
22:22 & Isaiah 52:6 all look forward to that day when God’s
name will be known. This suggests that the work of proclaiming
and revealing God’s divine name and nature should be an
important part of our prayers for each other and ourselves.
Jesus’ prayer for the Eleven
This section of Jesus’ prayer in John 17 is an extension of his
prayer for glorification. It is in the perseverance and witness of
the disciples that the name of God will be glorified.
Opposition is a key theme of this prayer. The disciples are to
be left in the world, but they do not belong to it. They are aliens
and, therefore, will provoke trouble. Jesus has given them
God’s word, so the world will react with inevitable hatred.
Verse 11 says, ‘Holy Father, keep through your name those
whom you have given me’. The Good News Bible helpfully
translates this as, ‘Keep them safe, by the power of your name,
the name you gave me’.
It is interesting to see what Jesus does not pray in this
situation. He does not pray for the world and he does not pray
for the hostility to cease. Instead, his prayer in verses 11–15 is
for the disciples’ safety.

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It is a common Old Testament idea that the name of God is

both the place and the means of safety. Psalm 20; Psalm 91:14;
Psalm 124 & Proverbs 18:10 all illustrate this.
Many believers today often pray for an easy option when
God wants to reveal his depth of love in the face of
adversity. Christ could not leave the world without facing
the evil one. Neither can we. This suggests that we should
pray for safety and strength, rather than for the ending of
any opposition.
Jesus did pray positively for the Eleven. He asked that they
be set apart – consecrated – for service, and set apart in the
truth. Following on from John 15:26–27, this must be a setting
apart in the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of truth – for service.
This suggests that we should plead for the believers for
whom God has burdened us to pray – that they be
consecrated in the Spirit for action. This is the most effective
prayer for evangelism. Instead of just praying for people to be
saved, we also pray for those who have been saved. We pray
that they will serve God more and more by powerfully
proclaiming his name to those who do not yet know him.
Jesus’ prayer for us
In the last section of John 17, Christ offered two prayers for us.
Firstly, he prayed, that we should be one. The Trinity is the
model for this unity. It is a unity which has its origin in divine,
not human, action. It is a visible unity which will challenge the
world about the deity of Christ.
Jesus challenged the world by his obvious oneness with the
Father. We too will challenge the world when we are one with
each other and with the Godhead.
Jesus also challenged the world by revealing God’s glory in
acts of power. We too will challenge the world when we do
likewise. This suggests that signs and wonders are intertwined
with unity. If we want signs and wonders perhaps we should be
praying for oneness.

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Secondly, Jesus prayed that we would be with him for ever.

The Bridegroom is praying for the rapid arrival of his wedding
day. Revelation 22:17 says that the Spirit and the bride are also
crying, ‘Come’. But is the bride really praying that today?
It is a New Testament promise that we will see and enjoy
the glory of God after enduring the sufferings of this world.
Christ is hastening this day by his constant prayers for his bride’s
perfection. He calls us to follow his example.

Jesus’ model prayer

Jesus’ model prayer in Matthew 6:9–13 & Luke 11:2–4 is the
most well-known and frequently used prayer in the world.
However, most people miss the point of this prayer, for Jesus
is giving a framework for all praying rather than a set prayer to
be prayed over and over again.
Matthew 6:5–9 sets the scene for the model prayer. He
does not want us to pray in the hypocritical manner he
describes in verses 5–7. He does not want us to pray just to
make an impression on others. He does not want us to pray
publicly at enormous length. He also explains that we are
approaching God who already knows all our needs and who,
therefore, does not need to be educated about our
circumstances.
Instead, Jesus tell us to pray ‘in this manner’. The Lord’s
Prayer is his example prayer. He gives us a ‘prayer skeleton’ to
flesh out. As we pray, we fill in the few specific details which are
relevant to our situation.
Our Father
The prayer is both personal and corporate. This is clearly a
personal prayer which can be used privately – and yet it uses
‘we’ and ‘our’ throughout. It is another reminder of the Jewish
principle that we should unite ourself with each other
whenever we pray. This phrase suggests that, when we pray,
we should remind ourselves both about the relationship we
have with God through faith in Christ and the fellowship we

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share with others. In prayer, we should tell God what his

fatherhood means to us, and thank him for it.
In heaven
Our prayers should be governed by the realisation that God is
on the throne and in total control. We can ask him to help us
to become more aware of his greatness and presence.
Hallowed be your name
This phrase reminds us to pray as Jesus does in John 17 – to
ask for God’s glory and the holiness of his name to be
recognised and experienced in specific ways. God is a good
Father who delights to give us good things and he reveals
different aspects of his nature through his varied names.
When we pray, it is helpful to address God by whichever of
his names is most appropriate to our prayer – for example,
Healer, Provider, Deliverer, Guide, Creator, Saviour, Shepherd
and so on.
Your kingdom come
This helps us to remember to pray that God will establish his rule
by extending his influence as people bow their knees to Jesus
Christ, and as we submit increasingly to Christ’s reign. Asking for
his kingdom to come means asking God to rule – to have his way
– in the situations and lives for which we are praying.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven
The coming of God’s kingdom means that the conditions of
heaven are revealed on earth. Of course, this will not take
place fully until the kingdom comes in its final manifestation, but
in the meantime we should pray for God’s revealed will to be
done in those specific situations on earth that concern us.
We can thank him that he wants his will to be done on
earth, and we can have faith that this will happen as we pray.
Give us this day our daily bread
This shows us that we should pray for the physical needs of
daily life. It is God’s intention that all his children should receive

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what they need, but we must take whatever action is necessary

to provide for ourselves.
Like the man in the parable, we pray for needs which we
ourselves are helpless to meet. We will experience the truth of
God’s provision only through a combination of prayer and action.
And forgive us our debts
We need to pray for spiritual forgiveness from our heavenly
Father and for financial forgiveness from merciless or unjust
human creditors. As redeemed believers we already have
judicial forgiveness, but we need daily cleansing to maintain our
personal communion with God.
As with daily bread, forgiveness from debts is attained by a
mixture of prayer and action. We should pray only for those
needs which we cannot meet ourselves, or that God will enable
us to meet the needs through the resources he has given us.
There is something rather wrong about asking God to
meet needs when he has already answered the prayer by
providing us with the resources which could meet the need
and we have not taken action. Of course, if we have done
what we can with what God has provided we can ask him to
do even more.
As we forgive our debtors
Jesus makes it plain that our heavenly Father will withhold
forgiveness from those who refuse to forgive others. This is
emphasised in Matthew 6:14–15. Obviously he does not
mean that we will be brought under God’s judgement or
condemnation. Rather he speaks of God’s parental
forgiveness being withheld until we learn to forgive others. He
is speaking to us as sons and daughters who may displease our
Father from time to time but, as our heavenly Father, he will
discipline us in love.
Forgiving others is not always easy to do – we need God’s
help to do it. But it must be done or we ourselves will not
receive God’s mercy.

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And do not lead us into temptation

This phrase shows that we should ask God to keep us from
falling into sin and to help us overcome the trials of our lives.
But deliver us from the evil one
When most people recite the Lord’s Prayer, they use a translation
called ‘The Great Bible’ which is even older than the Authorised
Version. It unhelpfully refers to ‘evil’ rather than ‘the evil one’.
We are all involved in a spiritual struggle, and we all need to
pray that God will rescue us from the attacks of the enemy.
For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever. Amen.
Jesus’ model prayer ends in a phrase taken from 1 Chronicles
29:11–12 which is packed with praise and triumph. So we can
end our praying by thanking God for his power – and for his
victory in the specific situations we have prayed about.

New Testament words for prayer

Having seen Jesus’ teaching and example of prayer, we can
now look at a few New Testament words for prayer.
The variety of expressions used to describe ‘prayer’ in the
New Testament is a demonstration of the richness of prayer in
the life of the early church. As one commentator remarked,
‘prayer was the breath of the early church’s life’.
We will of course explore the New Testament understanding
of prayer throughout this book, and we will look specifically at
Paul’s prayers in Part Six. However, 1 Timothy 2:1 gives us an
example of some of the types of prayer in the New Testament
and it will be helpful to look at these briefly:
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers,
intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men…
This verse can be broken down into four sections:
Deesis – requests
The Greek word deesis carriers the idea of asking out of a
sense of need. Here the need is uppermost, and we come

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before God because we are burdened. In intercession we

must identify with the need, even to the point of feeling it
ourselves. Our prayers should come out of that identification
and sense of need.
Deesis is used 19 times in the New Testament, and though
it can be translated simply as ‘prayer’, it often has the more
specific meaning of ‘petition’, as in Philippians 4:6. Deomai
which means ‘ask’ or ‘seek’ denotes the powerful prayer of the
righteous person in James 5:16.
This reminds us that prayer is also a request for our needs
and the needs of others.
Proseuche – prayers
The Greek word proseuche implies ‘to ask in dependence on
God for his provision’. We must focus on God’s ability to meet
and provide for that need.
Proseuche is used 37 times in the New Testament and is the
most general term for ‘prayer’ and making petition to God,
either for the petitioner or for others. The verb proseuchomai
covers every aspect of invocation, including request, entreaty,
vow or consecration. It was used in ancient Greek as a
technical term for invoking a deity.
Enteuxis – intercession
As we shall see in Part Four, the Greek word enteuxis (verb
entugchano) is a technical term for approaching a king with a
petition. It also carriers with it the idea of representing
someone, of praying on someone’s behalf.
Eucharistia – thanksgiving
In eucharistia prayer, we offer thanks to God for the answers
to requests. We should thank God both before and after we
have received. Thanksgiving does not influence God’s
willingness to bless but rather it makes us more able to receive.
We can see in the four sections of 1 Timothy 2:1 a
progression in prayer:

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You start by having a sense of the need

The Holy Spirit then shows you God’s ability to
meet that need
You then intercede and pray for that particular need
to be met
Finally, you enter a time of thanksgiving as you sense
of a release that the answer has been given.
Other New Testament words for prayer
The New Testament also uses another term for prayer, aiteo,
which means to ‘ask’, ‘petition’ or ‘demand’. This is the word
used in 1 John 3:22 which promises that obedient believers can
receive from God whatever they ask.
Hiketeria is used only once in the New Testament in
Hebrews 5:7 and means ‘supplication’.
Also, the Greek word epikaleo occurs frequently in contexts
of calling on God or his name in prayer, as in Acts 2:21.

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Part Three
The Spirit and prayer
When we read about the praying of men like Moses, Elijah,
Ezra, Daniel and Jesus, most of us wonder how we can ever
pray like them. We want to pray more. We want to pray more
effectively. We want to know God better. But we cannot
imagine how it will happen.
Whenever we ask the question ‘How?’, the biblical answer
is always the same. ‘The Holy Spirit. He will come upon you.’
Nowhere is this more true than with prayer.

The Spirit of prayer

We noted in Part One that the prophets were the intercessors
of the Old Testament, and we stated that this was because they
had the necessary anointing of the Spirit.
The Old Testament does not explicitly state that the only
people who could intercede were those who had received the
Spirit. The only people it records interceding are prophets –
and, of course, prophets were the largest group of people in
the Old Testament who received the Spirit.
Zechariah 12:10
This is the passage which most explicitly links the Spirit and prayer:
‘And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of
Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication’. (Many versions of
the Bible translate this as ‘the Spirit of mercy and prayer’.)
In promising that a day will come when God’s Spirit will be
poured out, Zechariah is repeating a common scriptural
promise – of which Joel 2:28 is the best known example.
However, in describing God’s Spirit as ‘the Spirit of prayer’,
Zechariah is foreshadowing, or introducing, a truth which is
seen plainly in the New Testament.

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John 14:13–17
In this account of the last supper, Jesus reveals the potential in
prayer and the Holy Spirit as parallel and inseparable.
Jesus makes his greatest prayer promise in verses 13–14. It
is in this clear prayer context that he promises the disciples will
have allos parakletos – another Helper – who will be with them
for ever, the Spirit of truth.
The Greek words allos parakletos mean that:
The Spirit is exactly the same as Jesus
The Spirit is called alongside us to assist us by calling
from beside us.
Some versions of the Bible translate parakletos as ‘Helper’
or ‘Comforter’, but these words do not make his ‘calling’
function clear. However, a few modern versions now helpfully
translate parakletos as ‘Advocate’, an English word from the
Latin advocatus which means ‘one called to another to take his
part’ or ‘one who works and argues in support of another’s
cause’. This communicates the idea that the Spirit is sent from
God both to help us speak and to speak for us.
The New Testament stresses that the Spirit draws attention to
Jesus by helping us to speak prophetically and evangelistically.
However, many passages also reveal his prayer function: he is the
Spirit of prayer who both helps us to pray and prays for us. We can
see this in Romans 8:15, 26–27; Ephesians 2:18; 6:18 & Jude 1:20.

He makes us cry ‘Abba, Father’

In Galatians 4:5–6; Ephesians 1:5 & Romans 8:15, the New
Testament teaches that Jesus died to redeem us and to adopt
us into the family of God. Because we have become the
Father’s sons and daughters, God has sent his Spirit into our
lives – and it is the Spirit who enables us to call ‘Abba, Father’.
Paul implies that the Spirit enters our lives as God’s adoption
gift, and that he helps us to call God by the intimate family
name which Jesus used.

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In the Aramaic language, Abba is the first word of Jesus’

model prayer in Matthew 6. This means that we can truly live
and pray that model prayer only with the Spirit’s help. We
cannot get beyond the first word of the Lord’s Prayer without
his assistance!

He comes through prayer

The Spirit is God’s gift to us, and he comes to us so that we can
know the presence of Jesus and can reveal Jesus’ presence to the
world. (This is dealt with fully in Sword of the Spirit volume two,
Knowing the Spirit.)
For now, please remember that Jesus made his promise in
Luke 11:13 – about the Father giving the Holy Spirit to those
who ask him – in the immediate context of his teaching about
prayer. In Luke 11, verse 13 is the climax – the conclusion – to
Jesus’ model prayer, to his prayer parable and to his teaching
about persistence.
This association between the coming of the Spirit and
prayer is stressed by Luke in his two books, Luke & Acts:
Jesus was praying at his baptism when the Spirit
came upon him – Luke 3:21–22
As the disciples prayed, the Spirit fell on them – Acts
1:14 & 2:1–4
After his Damascus experience, Saul spent three
days praying and fasting; then the Spirit filled him –
Acts 9:9–18
It was when Cornelius prayed – and because he
offered God prayers – that the Spirit was poured
out on him – Acts 10:30–44.

He helps us to pray
Please remember that the Old Testament word for
intercession – paga – means ‘to approach to plead’. We have
suggested that Old Testament prophets could intercede with

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God because only they had the anointing of the Spirit which
gave them the right of access to the Father’s face.
Access to the Father
Ephesians 2:18 shows that it is the Spirit who provides us with
the access to the Father we need. It is the death of Christ which
made reconciliation possible between God and humanity, but it
is the Spirit who enables us to grasp the possibility.
This is why Ephesians 2:18 describes our access to the
Father as ‘through Christ by the Spirit’.
Without Jesus, it is impossible for us to draw near to
the Father.
Without the Spirit, we are like all other people –
calling out to the Creator from a very great distance
with no guarantee that he will respond to our
requests.
With the Spirit, we are like the prophets of old –
able to come close to God and speak privately with
the Father in a face-to-face conversation.
Strength to speak
Micah 3:8 shows that the Spirit provides us with God’s power
to speak. The New Testament develops this with its emphasis
on the power of the Spirit – especially on his empowering of
believers’ speech. Acts 2:4 & 1 Corinthians 2:4–5 illustrate this.
This aspect of the Spirit’s power is to make our witnessing
and our praying more effective. Romans 8:26–27 shows that
he particularly helps us when we feel too weak to pray.
This means that he gives us:
The strength to resist natural and demonic
temptations not to pray
The energy to get down onto our knees and start
praying
The power to persist in prayer until we receive
God’s answer.

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Words to say
Romans 8:26–27 is a critical passage about the Spirit and
prayer. He knows that there are times when we do not know
what to pray. He knows when we are not certain of God’s will
for a situation and cannot pray with clarity. And he helps us. He
grasps the situation both with us and for us.
He provides us with the words to say. This works in the same
way as all Spirit-inspired speech. We provide the mind and lips.
He provides the words. All gifts of the Spirit – all prophesying, all
evangelising, all praying – follow the same pattern.
We come in weakness and ignorance and allow the Spirit to
speak through us. This is not automatic!
Sometimes, the Holy Spirit draws a memory from our
subconscious – a song we have sung, a Bible passage we
have read, a prayer we have heard – and prompts us to use
this in prayer.
At other times, he urges us to use our natural thought
processes and pray extemporarily. Occasionally, he so works in
us that we are moved to pray without words, with deep
groans – as if we are travailing to bring something to birth
which we cannot understand.
Normally, the Spirit provides us with the main themes and
thoughts and we fill in the details.

He prays for us
Romans 8:26–27 shows that the Spirit does not only help us to
pray, he also prays for us – on our behalf. This means that a
divine intercessor is resident within us who both teaches us to
pray and who also prays for us, from alongside us.
Entugchano
Romans 8:27 uses the Greek word – entugchano – to describe
the way that the Spirit intercedes for us. This is exactly the
same word used in Hebrews 7:25 to describe Jesus’ heavenly
intercession for the saints. This rare word underlines the truth

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that the Spirit is the same as Jesus – they do the same work for
the same group of people.
Entugchano does not mean that the Spirit – or the Son –
begs a reluctant Father to give what he does not want to give.
Entugchano literally means ‘to fill in with’ carrying the sense of
‘to be around’. It means ‘to intercede for’ or ‘to plead the
cause of someone’.
In heaven, Christ is ‘around’ God on our behalf. His presence
is proof that we are accepted. He speaks up for us. He asks for
what we need whenever we need it. He is in the right place all
the time to put in a word for us whenever it is appropriate.
It is the same with the Spirit. Whenever we struggle on
earth, God’s Spirit is ‘around’ us on our behalf. When we
agonise in prayer, he is there to speak up for us. We never have
to approach God on our own. The Spirit comes with us to act
as our Advocate. He expresses our innermost needs,
sometimes with groanings too deep for words. He makes sure
our prayers line up perfectly with God’s will and guarantees
that the Father always hears our deepest requests.

He speaks to us
In John 14:26, Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would teach
us and remind us of all that Jesus had taught. In John 16:13,
Jesus states that the Spirit will lead us into complete truth and
tell us about things which are to come. Through these verses,
Jesus makes it clear that the Spirit will speak to us. As we pray,
he quietly communicates with us.
This is exactly what happened in the Old Testament. Time
and again, the prophets show that they heard God speaking to
them. ‘The word of the Lord came to’ is the phrase which is
used most frequently in the Old Testament – for example,
Jeremiah 1:11; 18:1, 5; Ezekiel 3:16, Jonah 1:1; Zechariah 1:1
& 7. Jeremiah 27:18 shows that hearing God’s word was an
integral part of intercession for prophets.

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Circumstances
God closes one door and opens another. We need to be
sensitive to his leading and follow through the doors which he
opens. See Acts 16:10.
Other Christians
We need to allow our inner convictions to be tested by other
Christians. If our thoughts really have come from God, other
people who are open to the Spirit will confirm his leading. See
Acts 6:1–6; 13:1–3 & 21:11–12.
God’s Word
The Spirit speaks to us either as we read the Scriptures or when
he prompts us to remember passages that we have read before.
Ephesians 6:17 describes this activity of the Spirit in a prayer
warfare context. Colossians 3:16 describes God’s word dwelling
‘richly’ in us for ‘all wisdom’. This means that the Spirit speaks to
us through our wide and deep understanding of God’s Word,
not through the random selection of an isolated verse.
Praying
We need to learn to recognise the particular way that he slips
his directive thoughts into our minds so that we are ready to
act on them. Many people find it helpful to carry on praying
about a situation until they reach the point where they have a
deep inner peace about God’s will. This is not an intellectual
certainty coming from the natural mind but a practical
confidence arising out of genuine witness of the Holy Spirit
which allows us to act with joyful assurance.

He gives us a new language

1 Corinthians 12:10 shows that the Spirit helps us to pray by
giving us the gift of tongues. We will look at this in more detail
in Part Nine.
For now, we need to appreciate that the primary purpose
of tongues is to help us pray to God at a different level than our
conscious mind.

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1 Corinthians 14:14 suggests that we do not use our minds

when we pray in tongues to God, but rather that we pray with
our spirits. Some people are uncomfortable with tongues
because they are over-concerned with conscious levels of
understanding. However, when we pray in tongues, the Spirit
seems to affect and use the subconscious thoughts and feelings
of our spirits.
The gift of tongues can be used in every area of prayer – in
thanksgiving, confession, petition, adoration, supplication,
intercession, warfare, praise, etc. However, there seem to be
six areas where praying in tongues is especially helpful:
Worship
Praying in tongues helps us to express our love for Jesus in a
different way from natural language. We struggle in human
relationships to find more creative and meaningful ways of
saying ‘I love you’. Praying in tongues helps us to express our
love for God when we cannot put our feelings into words.
Intercession
The gift of tongues is useful when we do not know what to
pray. We are often asked, or feel prompted, to pray for people
yet have no idea what to pray. When we pray in tongues, the
Spirit intercedes through us according to the mind of God.
Breakthrough
The gift of tongues helps us to break through in prayer –
especially in warfare prayer. When God’s reply is slow in
coming – and our faith is low – we can pray with our spirit.
God’s faith is never low, and our spirits are more in tune with
his faith than our minds are.
In seemingly impossible situations, when opposition is great
or circumstances are grim, our prayers can easily become
statements of doubt. These are times when tongues are most
helpful, for prayer with the Spirit is full of God’s faith. It is full of
the Spirit’s confidence that God will answer the prayer and
overcome the enemy or difficulty.

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Lamentation
Many of us have a problem lamenting to God. How can we
pour out our anguish over events like an earthquake, a plane
crash, a terrorist bomb, an epidemic, a murder? How do we
share in God’s agony? Prayer in tongues can be a meaningful
lamentation about the unspeakable horrors of a world which is
reaping the results of sin.
Thanksgiving
How can our own natural language adequately express our
gratitude at the healing or conversion of a close friend? ‘Thank
you’ does not feel enough. A prayer in tongues could be more
appropriate. We know that we have expressed our gratitude
from the depth of our beings.
Preparation
1 Corinthians 14:4 shows that prayer in tongues builds us up –
it strengthens our spirits. It is the experience of many that
regular, frequent, consistent praying in tongues has played a
significant part in transforming them from people with an
ineffective witness into people whose witness brings lasting
results. Perhaps prayer in tongues, like fasting, is a spiritual
version of press-ups!

Prayer in the Spirit

Jude 1:20 & Ephesians 6:18 describe believers as ‘praying in
the Spirit’. All true prayer is offered in the Spirit, but
Ephesians 6:18 implies that there is an aspect of prayer in the
Spirit which is special warfare prayer. We will look at this in
detail in Part Seven.
Ephesians 6:10–17 describes the armour of God. Ephesians
6:18 describes the activity we engage in when we are
equipped with the armour. Prayer in the Spirit is our contact
point with the army of evil. It is the battlefield.
In Isaiah 59:15–19, the Lord was so appalled that there was
no one to intercede about the evil that he personally decided

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to intervene. But notice how God first equipped himself, and

then appreciate the promises made in verses 19–21!
Many of us will have experienced lengthy times of prayer
when the Spirit has led the group of which we are part to pray
with unusual intensity, authority, confidence and perseverance.
Or we might have experienced a free and intensive time of
prayer when the Spirit was allowed to direct the prayers, and
when time almost seemed to stand still. These are the sorts of
prayer which merit the label ‘prayer in the Spirit’.

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Part Four
Intercession
The common understanding of intercession is simple: it is
prayer to God for someone other than yourself. However, this
can suggest that intercession is like any other prayer, the only
difference being that it is prayer for others – with ‘others’ as the
distinguishing feature. But this dilutes its strength, for
intercession is a strong and unique type of prayer.
The English word ‘intercession’ is derived from the Latin
intercedo which means ‘to come between’. The principle of
intercession is that we stand between God and another person
– representing them and pleading their cause. This is similar to
the role of an advocate or mediator.
Biblical advocates knew the culture and temperament of
both the person they were representing and the ruler they
were addressing, and they came alongside both parties. They
did not need to worm or manipulate their way into the king’s
presence, for they were already known to him.
The same is true of us. We approach God in intercession
because of our intimate relationship with him. As we stand
boldly before him, we ask him about the needs and concerns
of other people.

Old Testament intercession

Exodus 32:30–34:35 shows us outstanding examples of biblical
intercession. Please read it carefully and grasp the following
points, which are typical of biblical intercession:
Moses was involved in a face to face confrontation
with God on behalf of others
He pleaded for the glory of God to be seen

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He was given a task to perform and a message to

proclaim
He had to persist in his intercession
He called on the name of God
There was an enormous personal cost
He was transformed as a by-product of his
intercession.
Paga
Paga is the Hebrew word which is usually translated
‘intercession’. It is difficult to translate precisely, but carries the
meanings of ‘standing between or before’ and ‘approaching
with violence’. Paga has several Old Testament uses other than
intercessory prayer, and these help us to understand
intercession.
The boundary
Paga is used in Joshua 19:11, 22, 26, 27, 34 as the word to
describe a boundary between tribes. The tribe could go to
the paga and no further. Most tribal struggles were attempts
to break the boundary or to push it back.
This suggests that intercession is praying at the front line,
and that it involves pushing back the boundary until we
reach the limit of what we can do in prayer.
In Genesis 18:16–33, when Abraham had finished
interceding, the matter was closed. He returned home to
await the verdict. He had reached his spiritual boundary.
Violence
Paga is also used in Judges 8:21; 15:12; 1 Samuel 22:17–18;
2 Samuel 1:15; 1 Kings 2:25, 29, 31, 32, 34, 46 to describe
a violent meeting – some of which ended in death.
This is the same word which describes our meeting with
God in prayer. It shows that intercession is not a cosy, quiet
activity – it is a costly and often spiritually violent
intervention.

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In Jeremiah 7:16, paga is contrasted with other forms of

prayer. Jeremiah was told not to palal – habitually pray – for
the people. Then, he was instructed not to rinnah – cry loudly
– for them. Next, he was told not to tephillah – bring
supplication or sing praises – about them. Finally, as the end
of the matter, Jeremiah was commanded not to paga for
them. He must not wrestle violently with God on their behalf.
Jeremiah 7:16 can also be seen as a revelation of how
prayer usually progresses from lower, more general levels
of prayer to higher, more intensive and effective
intercession. It involves habitually bringing needs to God,
leads to times of intense crying out to God, develops as
supplication mixed with praise and thanksgiving, and
climaxes in violent intervention in the realm of the Spirit.
Begging
Paga is used to describe the strongest Old Testament
form of asking. It is often translated as ‘entreat’. It means
begging for something which is desperately wanted. In
Genesis 23:8, Abraham asked the sons of Heth to paga
for a cave. And in Ruth 1:16, Ruth told Naomi not to paga
her to turn back.
Prophets
Prophets were people of prayer and were the intercessors of
the Old Testament, and – by their anointing with the Spirit –
they had the right of access to God’s face which was essential
for this work.
Genesis 20:7, the first reference to a prophet,
reveals this link
Jeremiah 27:18 presents intercession as part of the
true service of a prophet
Exodus 18:19 records Jethro’s suggestion that
Moses should make intercession his priority
Numbers 27:5 shows that Moses implemented this
advice

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Isaiah 59:16 implies that God was saddened by the

absence of prophets to intercede with him
Joel 2:28–29 promises that one day all God’s
people will prophesy – and thus all will be able to
intercede.
The Old Testament prophets needed to receive either the
word of the Lord or the Spirit of the Lord before they could
prophesy. They dared not initiate a prophetic message. This
also applied to intercession.
Jeremiah 27:18 shows that the prophets who had received
the word of the Lord were the ones who should have been
interceding. This suggests that we should not choose the object
or occasion of our intercession. We should intercede only
when God commands, and only about those matters that he
reveals to us by his word or by his Spirit.

New Testament intercession

The Greek word enteuxis is usually translated as ‘intercession’
in the New Testament. In everyday use, it described a petition
to a king about another person, and was absorbed into the
Church to describe the Old Testament idea of paga praying.
Enteuxis is a slightly gentler word than paga. Enteuxis – or
words related to it such as the verb entugchano – occurs eight
times in the New Testament:
Hebrews 7:25 & Romans 8:34 describe the work of Christ
as the eternal Intercessor for the saints – in fulfilment of Isaiah
53:12. We looked at these passages in Part Two.
Romans 8:26–27 shows the work of the Holy Spirit in
intercession as the partial fulfilment of Zechariah 12:10. We
examined this passage in Part Three.
Acts 25:24 uses entugchano in its everyday meaning. Festus
stated that the whole Jewish community interceded with him,
‘loudly protesting’. Intercession is not necessarily a quiet,
private or orderly activity! The Jews were all simultaneously

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interceding with Festus for the death of Paul. This returns to the
Old Testament link between intercession and violence. There
is no need for people always to pray neatly one after the other
in a regulated fashion. God hears all our prayers even when we
pray at the same time!
1 Timothy 4:5 reinforces the Old Testament link between
the word of God and intercession. The food was sanctified by
God’s word and by enteuxis prayer. Some Christians assume
that they have a general responsibility to pray for the whole
world. This is not so. We need to restrict ourselves in
intercession to those matters which God has specially
entrusted to us. We do not have a general duty of intercession.
We have only a particular duty to pray about those matters
which God presents to us.
The result of the intercession in 1 Timothy 4:5 was total
transformation. Food which had been deemed unacceptable
became holy – set apart for God. The consecration of the
saints should be one aim of intercession. We should engage in
intercession to bring about the setting apart of God’s people for
useful service.
In 1 Timothy 2:1 Paul speaks of four types of prayer:
supplications (deesis), prayers (proseuche), intercessions
(enteuxis) and thanksgivings (eucharistia). We examined this
passage in Part Two.
Romans 11:2 refers to Elijah’s intercession in 1 Kings
19:10–18 – which was a complaint about the behaviour of
Israel. Elijah hoped for some action as the result of his praying,
but instead he received a revelation: God was not going to do
anything. Instead, Elijah had to do something.
God often replies in ways we do not expect. We intercede
with God to do something, and he replies with a command
for us to do something. This means that we must listen whilst
interceding and be ready to receive our instructions from
God. Often, these instructions will involve a challenging and
costly call to change.

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Intercession today
Intercession is the natural expression of a life filled to
overflowing with the love of God. In John 13:34–35, Jesus
taught that we should love one another in the same way as he
had loved us. Today, he expresses his love for us by interceding
for us. Therefore, if we are to love in his way, intercession must
be a priority in our lives.
An expression of love
Intercession and love are inseparable. This means that the
level of our intercession is one measure of our loving. We all
discover a fresh zeal to pray, and new depths in prayer,
whenever our children are ill or in trouble. Why? Because
we love them.
Matthew 7:12; Luke 10:25–28 & 1 John 4:7–21 demand
that we love our brothers and sisters. Intercession is
frequently the best and most useful way of expressing this
love. There is a natural limit on the number of people we can
help practically, but there is no limit on the number of people
that we can help prayerfully.
This intercession of love has a side-effect. As we pray for
others to be changed, we are changed ourselves. The
scriptural principle, ‘those who forgive others themselves
receive forgiveness’ applies in intercession. As we pour our
lives in heavenly love and holy intercession, so we are
cleansed, purified and renewed.
The discipline of intercession brings an inevitable control
upon our tongue. As we intercede for God to bless others –
to fill them with the knowledge of his love, to deliver them
from imprisoning circumstances – so these thoughts become
our natural attitudes and wishes for others.
There is nothing that makes us love someone like praying
for them. Once we start to intercede for a person, it is hard to
be other than at peace with them. In intercession, we begin to
allow God to cement his love between us, not by worldly

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compatibility, but by the mutual communication of spiritual

blessings in prayer.
An identification in need
In Western Europe, we are taught to rely upon our intellects.
The mind and factual knowledge have become so elevated in
our value system that we can find it hard to involve ourselves
emotionally with people and identify with them in their needs.
But we cannot have genuine intercession without a real
identification – which develops from true love. In fact, the
effectiveness of our intercession depends upon the strength of
our identification.
Identify with the need
True spiritual identification is not something which comes
from our emotions or soul – it comes from the Holy Spirit.
Identification means getting involved in other people’s
problems, and most of us usually react against this. We do
not want to feel other people’s burdens, but we have to put
these natural human feelings to death.
As we do this, we are co-operating with God. Our spirit,
soul and body are submitting to him, and our intercessions
are available for the Holy Spirit to use. Once we submit to
the Spirit in this way we start to identify supernaturally and
to take on the feelings associated with the situation for
which we are praying.
Identify with the people in need
Intercession focuses on other people. As we actively think
about them and identify with their needs, we begin to take
on their pain and their burden. As we learn to pray, so our
identification grows and deepens – and often the Holy Spirit
will place a burden on us which causes us to ‘travail’.
Be sensitive to the intercessory burden
Once we feel a deep identification with the need, we must
hold on to it and pray for the burden. We may not
understand the need with our minds, but – as we identify

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with the people who are in need – we often feel the need
in our spirits and emotions.
Persevere
From the initial prompting to intercede, we can take a
moment – or many months – to reach the point of effective
intercession. As we grow spiritually, intercession can begin
to flow more easily. But there are always challenges, for
intercession is wrapped in spiritual warfare.
Intercessory prayer involves persistence – praying
through until there is a release or a witness in the Spirit that
the thing is ‘accomplished’. There is often a great agonizing
in the Spirit until breakthrough comes. An intercessory
concern is rarely fully resolved in five minutes, and we must
be prepared to persevere – sometimes for many years. We
should continue to pray about the matter until we feel a
‘release’ and the burden lift – this is often coupled with a
sense of joy and a feeling of praise and thanksgiving.
When we carry prayer to these levels, there is often a
resistance from the enemy. We may have a sense of
heaviness when we start to pray, and spiritual warfare may
be needed before the breakthrough comes. We will look at
this in Part Seven.
A heavenly location
Please remember that all intercession takes place in the
‘heavenlies’. If we are to intercede we must enter into the
heavenly realm.
We know that Jesus now lives in heaven making
intercession for us. His time on earth was – in part – a
preparation for his heavenly ministry of intercession.
However, Ephesians 2:6 shows that we already share his
heavenly location – which means we can pray with an
understanding that our place is at the right hand of the Father.
In the book of Job, Job really needed someone to stand
between him and God and plead his case in the

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heavenlies. Yet his friends did not intercede or stand with

him when he was suffering; instead they accused him of sin
and were judgemental. In his loneliness, Job longed for an
advocate or mediator to intercede with God for his cause.
Job had plenty of accusers, but he needed an intercessor.
There are many around us today who are in Job’s
position. They have no one to plead their cause with God
and are dependent on the Church to intercede on their
behalf. True intercessors are sensitive to these ‘Job’
situations where there is no representative.

Stages in intercession
There is always so much to pray about, and often we do not
know where to begin. We need God’s instructions. We need
to hear from God what he wants us to pray about. Having
some identification with the needs of the world is not enough.
We also need to have a sense of God calling us to pray about
a particular issue at a specific time. The revelation of God’s
agenda for us is indeed the starting place for prayer.
Wait for an understanding of God’s will
We do not need a complete revelation before we begin to
pray, for the Spirit will guide and advise us as we pray. But we
do need a general sense of God’s will to give us direction in our
praying. Prayer is not us presenting our own ideas to God,
rather it is us aligning ourselves to his will and purposes.
Daniel 9:1–20 shows how Daniel received God’s revelation
before praying. He understood from Jeremiah 25:11–12 &
29:10 that the captivity would last for seventy years, and he
knew that the time for freedom was near. He did not sit back
and wait for it to happen but, knowing the will of God, he
turned to intercession – an intercession which involved both
personal and representative confession.
1 Kings 17:1–18:46 & James 5:17–18 reveal the link
between intercession and prophecy. Elijah’s many prophetic
declarations to Ahab had to be supported by prayer. This was

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made both before he spoke to Ahab – giving him the assurance

to speak – and after he had spoken – making sure that his
words were supported by prevailing prayer. Elijah worked with
God through intercession and prophecy. He received the
revelation, then prayed it into reality – from the invisible to the
visible realm.
All prophetic messages are not automatically fulfilled. We
have a responsibility to pray until they are fulfilled. Sometimes
a prophecy can be prevented from being fulfilled through
prayer and repentance.
In Jonah 3:1–10, the true word of judgement did not come
to pass because the people repented and sought God.
However, a century later, the book of Nahum reports that God
did destroy the people of Nineveh when they reverted to
wickedness.
Pray the Word of God
The Bible is our prayerbook. It reveals God’s will, so our
prayers must be in line with its revelation. The Holy Spirit will
often ‘quicken’ a verse or a passage from the Bible to us, giving
direction to our prayers. This is probably what Paul means in
Ephesians 6:17: the Spirit brings to our attention a passage of
Scripture which is God’s word for a situation we are facing. We
are then called to pray that Scripture into the situation until it
conforms to the reality of the Word of God.
When we pray the Scriptures, we need to be careful that
we do not take a verse out of context or use human reasoning
unaided by the Holy Spirit.
Praying the Word of God is not simply coming before God
with a need and then finding an ‘appropriate’ verse about that
need. It is God who gives us particular verses to use on specific
occasions. We need to keep on asking him for an
understanding of his will – and to keep on waiting until it
comes. The Spirit sometimes highlights a particular verse when
we are reading the Bible, at other times he prompts us
suddenly to recall a verse we may have read many years ago.

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Once we have a scripture verse or passage which we are

sure is God’s will, we should not deviate from it. These God-
given prayer scriptures are particularly important for churches,
when all the members can unite in praying along the same lines
for specific situations.
Use the revelation gifts of the Spirit
All the ‘revelation gifts’ of the Spirit operate in intercession.
These gifts are invaluable tools that the Holy Spirit gives us to
help us come into line – and stay in line – with his direction in
intercession.
Praying in tongues is useful when we do not
understand clearly how to pray. Sometimes we
receive new revelation whilst praying in tongues,
and have a greater understanding of the situation
when we return to praying with our minds.
The interpretation of tongues is given to help us
understand what we are praying when we pray in
tongues.
Prophecy is given for revelation and direction in
prayer.
The discerning of spirits is given to help us grasp
how the Holy Spirit is leading us in intercession, as
well as understanding how the devil is working in a
situation we are praying about.
The word of knowledge is given to provide specific
information by revelation concerning the situation
we are praying for.
The word of wisdom is given to show how to
proceed in intercession and how to use any
revelation. We need to ask whether God has given
us information for prayer or for sharing. We need
God’s permission to share his revelation.
As well as being sensitive to ‘the revelation gifts’ of the Spirit,
intercessors should be open to ‘the power gifts’ of faith,

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working of miracles and gifts of healing. God often enables

intercessors to be instruments of his supernatural and
miraculous intervention in the situations they are praying about.

Common features of intercession

Loud prayers
We have seen that the natural enteuxis of Acts 25:24 involved
a great deal of noise. Often when we are led by the Spirit we
experience great crescendos of prayer. Yet we are never heard
by God because we pray loudly or in any other way. We are
heard by God only because of the condition of our hearts and
our faith in Jesus Christ.
However, we must not use this as an excuse to justify
human timidity or cultural inhibitions. Some people do not pray
loudly because they are afraid. But other people shout
frequently in prayer because they have a fleshly motivation or
a cultural habit. This is an area where we all need to examine
our hearts, for it is our inner motive which counts.
Silent prayers
Nehemiah 2:4–5 is an example of silent intercession. We can
pray and call upon God at any time, even when it is
inappropriate to pray out loud. We have access to God
whether our prayer is audible or silent.
Praise, worship and thanksgiving
Praise and worship are both powerful and effective at the time
of prayer. We need to ensure that we thank and praise God for
what he is doing after every time of prayer.
Travailing in prayer
Christ’s death accomplished many things for believers which
are brought to birth – that is, brought into the physical realm –
through intercessory prayer. Through his life, death and
resurrection, Jesus brought forth the spiritual realities of the
new creation: he rescued humanity from Satan’s grip; he
appeased God’s wrath and delivered humanity from sin,

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sickness and death; he provided for mental, emotional and

physical wholeness; he gave an example of the ideal way for all
people to live and die; and he gave birth to a new creation
which could reproduce the divine nature. But the experiential
benefit and enjoyment of many of these things often depend
on prevailing and travailing in prayer.
In Romans 8:22–23, Paul writes about creation groaning or
travailing with birth pangs. There is a deep longing throughout
all creation for the new creation which is to come.
Those who have the first-fruits of the Spirit have a taste of
the new creation, and so we groan in prayer – as if we were
giving birth – for the adoption and redemption of our bodies.
This hints at Exodus 2:23–25 when the slaves of Israel
groaned to God about their plight: they reminded God of the
difference between his covenant promises and their current
experience.
We know what we have experienced in and through the
Spirit. We know what Christ’s death accomplished and what
God has promised. And so we agonise in prayer for these
things to come about – to be realised in our lives and in the
lives of people around us in the Church.
We cannot force this type of intercession. It is deeper than
prayers in our own language. It is deeper even than interceding
in tongues. In travail, the Holy Spirit takes over completely. All
we can do is yield to his groanings within. It is a powerful way
of praying.
Prayer and fasting
We will examine this in Part Nine, but it is important to note
that fasting is an aid to prayer. It is a means of empowering our
prayers. Mark 9:29 shows that there are some situations which
will just not yield without prolonged prayer and fasting. Some
have suggested that, because the phrase ‘and fasting’ is not
included in all the early manuscripts covering Mark 9:29, fasting
is not an important part of Jesus’ teaching on prayer. However,

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even if we conceded that this phrase is a later interpolation, it

does accurately reflect the practice of the very early church and
can therefore be seen as implied here. Indeed, Acts 10:30;
13:2–3; 14:23 & 1 Corinthians 7:5 all show that prayer with
fasting was a vital part of the life of the early church.
The result
Manifestation is the fruit of intercession. We pray to get a result.
We aim for a one hundred per cent answered prayer. We need
to keep on praying until we feel a release in our spirits. If God
is calling us to persist in prayer, we must not stop too early!
If we have heard from God, and have prayed the matter
through, we should look for the results of our prayers. We
need to measure our praying realistically and expect to see an
outcome. However, intercessors may not always see all the
fruit themselves. Prayer is a ministry of ‘sowing’ rather than
‘reaping’. Most of us will have to wait until heaven before we
see the full fruit of our prayers.
However, our intercessions will often be answered in a way
we can see – as in Mark 9:28–29 & 1 Kings 18:41–46.

Interceding with others

It is important for us to pray with others, so that the Church’s
corporate strength and power is released. This also ensures
that we keep ourselves in check – maintaining a right focus and
direction rather than going off on a tangent.
The law of agreement
In Matthew 18:18–20, Jesus draws on the principle in
Deuteronomy 19:15 that a matter is established by two or
three witnesses: this is also followed in 2 Corinthians 13:1.
The prayer of agreement is a coming together in mind and
heart concerning God’s will in a situation. When we pray
together – in agreement with the will of God – he multiplies
the effectiveness of our prayer.
Matthew 18:18 uses an unusual ‘future perfect passive

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participle’ which is best translated as ‘whatever you bind on

earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you
loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven’.
This means that we can only pray into being on earth what
has already been purposed and agreed within the Godhead in
heaven. This is the prayer of agreement. First, we discover the
things which are planned and accomplished in the purposes of
God, and then we pray them to be done ‘on earth as they are
in heaven’, just as Jesus instructed to do in Matthew 6:10.
The ministry of helps
Intercession is a supportive ministry which upholds the hands of
leaders – much as Aaron and Hur helped Moses in Exodus 17:12.
As intercessors we have a particular responsibility to uphold
our leaders before God and to pray and wage war for them.
When we pray for our leaders, we should support them in
their tasks. For example, when Aaron and Hur held up Moses’
arms, they supported his calling and authority.
While leaders must be given strong prayer support, they
must be careful not to shirk their own calling and responsibility
in prayer. A leader must be a person of prayer and take the lead
in prayer. Leaders need to know that they cannot delegate
prayer. They must set an example in prayer.
We must ensure that we handle carefully any revelation or
insight that the Spirit gives us. Unfortunately, many church splits
have come about because ‘splinter’ prayer groups – who may
initially have met to pray for the leaders – have ended up
mishandling the revelation God gave them. They have not
understood their servant calling, and have usurped the leaders’
authority by bringing them directive words and exercising
manipulative tactics.
We need to ensure that – throughout our entire intercessory
life – we support and serve those in leadership over us.
The whole body
Acts 12:5–7 illustrates the power that there is in the body of

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Christ. When the body comes together to pray, the power

which flows out of the unity is multiplied.
Intercession is not a calling or a gift for a few but a basic
requirement for the whole body. Although the prophets were
the special intercessors of the Old Testament, it is wrong to
assume that there are special intercessors today.
Since Pentecost, all believers have been called to intercede.
There is no mention anywhere in the New Testament of a
special gift or ministry of prayer – it is for everybody! If we are
part of the body of Christ, we are called to be an intercessor.

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Part Five
Thanksgiving
Christian prayer should never be just the recitation of a series of
requests. Our God may be a good Father who delights to give
his children good gifts, but the Bible also teaches that prayers
should include thanks to God for his generous provision.
For example, Philippians 4:6 states that prayer should be
made ‘with thanksgiving’. Ephesians 5:19–20 also shows that
corporate worship should be offered in the context of ‘giving
thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ’.
Yadah
The main Hebrew verb for ‘to thank’ is yadah – which literally
means ‘to stretch out the hand’. Yadah carries the twin ideas of
close contact and words linked to action. In English, thanks is
the spoken element of yadah and giving is the activity.
Today, when we thank a person, we often say ‘Thank You’
and we also stretch out our hand to give them a small gift as a
token of our gratitude. This is true yadah thanks.
Here are a selection of Old Testament verses which
describe people giving thanks to God. In these verses, we can
begin to see how, when and why God’s people thanked God:
2 Samuel 22:50; 1 Chronicles 16:4–41; 2 Chronicles 31:2;
Psalm 6:5; 18:49; 30:4; 30:12; 35:18; 75:1; 79:13; 92:1;
97:12; 105:1; 106:1; 106:47; 119:62; 136:1–3 & 140:13.
Towdah
Although yadah is used in Nehemiah 11:17 & 12:46,
towdah is the most common Hebrew noun for
thanksgiving. Like yadah, it implies speech and activity,
however towdah also adds a formal element. We can yadah

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God anywhere, but towdah is offered to God in the context

of organised public worship.
We can read about Old Testament thanksgivings in Leviticus
7:12; Nehemiah 12:27–40; Psalm 26:7; 50:14; 69:30; 95:2;
100:4; 147:7; Isaiah 51:3 & Jeremiah 30:19.
Eucharisteo
In the New Testament, the verb eucharisteo and the noun
eucharistia are the common Greek words for ‘to thank’ and
‘thanksgiving’. These words are made up of eu which means
‘good’ and charizomai which is rendered ‘give freely’.
The Greek word charis is the root of eucharisteo, and
charis is usually translated as ‘grace’. So New Testament
‘thanks’ and ‘thanksgiving’ involves good and gracious gifts
which are given freely.
This is underlined by 2 Corinthians 4:15, which shows that
grace causes thanksgiving, which – in turn – causes God to be
glorified, and by 2 Corinthians 9:11–12, which points out that
giving causes thanksgiving.
In fact, charis is itself the Greek word for thanks in Romans
6:17; 1 Corinthians 15:57; 2 Corinthians 2:14; 8:16; 9:15; 1
Timothy 1:12; 2 Timothy 1:3 & 1 Peter 2:19. This must
suggest that ‘thanksgiving’ should be central in those people
and congregations which claim to be charismatic.
A few New Testament examples of prayers of thanks are
set in the context of prayers before meals or at the ‘last
supper’. This is why a prayer of thanks for food is usually called
a ‘grace’ (charis), and why –in many Christian traditions – the
service of holy communion is called ‘the Eucharist’ (the
thanksgiving).
Prayers of thanks for food are referred to in Matthew
15:36; Mark 8:6; John 6:11, 23 & Romans 14:6.
Prayers of thanks at the last supper are found in
Matthew 26:27; Mark 14:23; Luke 22:17–19 & 1
Corinthians 11:24.

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General thanksgivings to God are mentioned in

Luke 17:16; John 11:41; Acts 24:3; 27:35; 28:15;
Romans 1:8; 7:25; 16:4; 1 Corinthians 1:4; 14:18;
2 Corinthians 4:15; 9:11–12; Ephesians 1:16; 5:20;
Philippians 1:3; Colossians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 1:2;
2:13; 3:9; 5:18; 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 2:13; 1
Timothy 2:1; 4:3–4; Revelation 4:9 & 7:12.

Thanksgiving and praise

Passages like 1 Chronicles 23:30; 25:3; 29:13; Ezra 3:11;
Nehemiah 12:24, 46 & Psalm 100:4 make plain the close
association between praise and thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is primarily a prayer, directed to God, which thanks
him for what he has done. Praise is essentially a commendation or
extolling about God which is either directed to other people or
is embraced by other people when directed to God.
Thanksgivings give God thanks for something that he has
done. Praises glorify, commend or extol God’s activities and
attributes. When we thank God, we speak personally to him –
we shake his hand with gratitude. But other people are usually
involved when we praise God; either we tell them how
wonderful he is, or they listen and agree when we tell God
how wonderful he is.
The order in Psalm 100:4 is clear. We come individually to
his gates with our thanksgivings, but then we enter together
into his courts with our praise. In our lives, therefore, there
must be thanks and praise.
In the Old Testament, there are three main Hebrew words
which are usually translated as ‘praise’:
Halal is connected with making a loud noise, a cry of joy, a
cheer or a shout. It is a widely used word – these are just a
small selection of verses where it occurs: 1 Chronicles 16:4;
23:5; 2 Chronicles 5:13; 20:19; Ezra 3:11; Nehemiah 5:13;
Psalm 22:22; 35:18; 69:30, 34; 74:21; 84:4; 107:32; 145:2;
146:2; 148:5; 149:3; Isaiah 62:9; 64:11 & Joel 2:26.

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The expression hallelujah – ‘praise the Lord’ – occurs at the

beginning of Psalms 106; 111–113; 135; 146–149; and at the
end of Psalms 104–106; 113; 115–117; 135 & 146–150.
Yadah literally means ‘to throw’ (as in Lamentations 3:53)
but it is translated as praise when bodily movements and
gestures – like clapping, dancing, raising arms – are used to
glorify God. It is frequently used to describe the way God’s
people praise him, for example, in Genesis 29:35; 2
Chronicles 7:3; 20:21–22; Psalms 7:17; 28:7; 45:17; 54:6;
67:3; 86:12; 99:3; 108:3; 111:1; 138:1; 142:7; Isaiah 12:4;
25:1; 38:19 & Jeremiah 33:11.
Zamar signifies singing and playing music. It is used in the
titles of 57 psalms to specify a song which is sung to the
musical accompaniment of a stringed instrument. It is also
used throughout the Psalms to describe sung praise – for
example: 7:17; 18:49; 27:6; 47:6; 57:7; 61:8; 75:9; 98:4;
104:33; 108:1,3; 135:3 & 147:7. The verb zamar is used
four times outside of the Psalms – in Judges 5:3; 2 Samuel
22:50; 1 Chronicles 16:9 & Isaiah 12:5.
There are three main Greek words which are commonly
translated as ‘praise’ in the New Testament:
Aineo means ‘to mention with honour’ or ‘to vow’. In ancient
Greek the noun ainos could also mean ‘to narrate a story’. It
is used for speaking praises about God in Luke 2:13, 20;
19:37; Acts 2:47; 3:8–9; Romans 15:11 & Revelation 19:5.
Epaineo (and the noun form epainos) is a stronger form of
aineo and means ‘to commend’. It describes the praise of
God in 1 Corinthians 11:2,17,22; Ephesians 1:6,12,14;
Philippians 1:11 & 1 Peter 1:7.
Humneo means ‘to sing the praise of something or
someone’. The English word hymn is derived from this and
literally means a sung praise. Humneo is used in Acts 16:25
& Hebrews 2:12. It is also used in Matthew 26:30 & Mark
14:26 at the Last Supper to describe the singing of Psalms
113–118, which the Jews referred to as ‘the Hallel Psalms’.

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General biblical ideas

Here are six general biblical ideas about praise:
God takes pleasure in his works of creation, and all
creation – including the angels – expresses its joy in
praise – see Genesis 1; Psalm 104:31; Proverbs
8:30–31; Job 38: 4–7 & Revelation 4:6–11
Humanity was created to rejoice in God’s works,
and we fulfil this by accepting God’s gifts – see
Psalm 40:14–16; Ecclesiastes 8:15; 9:7; 11:9 &
Philippians 4:4, 8
The coming of the kingdom of God is marked by
the restoration of joy and praise – see Isaiah 9:2;
Psalm 96:11–13 & Luke 2:13–14
God is praised for both redemption and creation.
Even in heaven, the eternal praise of God’s people
extols both these gifts – see Exodus 15:1–21; Psalm
24; 136; Revelation 4:11 & 5:9–10
Praise is a duty, and should not depend on feelings or
circumstances – see Deuteronomy 12:7; 16:11–12
& Job 1:21
Although personal praise is mentioned, corporate
praise is given a much greater emphasis. Most
descriptions of praise and pleas for praise are
corporate – see Psalm 22:25; 34:3; 35:18 &
149:1.

Thanksgiving and sacrifice

Although Jeremiah 17:26; 33:11 & Hebrews 13:15 refer to a
sacrifice of praise, thanksgiving is identified as a sacrifice far
more frequently. This may suggest that praise comes naturally
to believers but thanksgiving is more demanding.
Here are some passages which show the biblical association
between thanksgiving and sacrifice. They show that sacrifice
was a key way of expressing thanksgiving: Leviticus 7:12–15;

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22:29; 2 Chronicles 29:31; 33:16; Psalm 107:22; 116:17;

Amos 4:5 & Jonah 2:9.
Sacrifices were gifts given directly to God. In the Old
Testament, whenever people turned to God, they worshipped
him with sacrifices.
The Jews offered sacrifices personally and nationally,
privately and publicly, regularly and as special needs arose.
Numbers 28–29 gives a full list of the daily, weekly, monthly
and annual public sacrifices, and Exodus 12 shows how the
Passover was celebrated within families.
Sacrifices were offered as thanks to God on many different
occasions. The Bible provides examples rather than an
exhaustive list, but it is clear that thanksgiving was a vital
element in these examples:
Numbers 6:13–20 – at the release of a man from a
vow
Leviticus 12 – after a woman had given birth
Leviticus 14 – when a leper had been healed
Leviticus 8 & Numbers 8 – at the ordination of
priests and Levites
1 Kings 1:9–12 – at royal coronations
1 Kings 8:1–13 – at the dedication of holy buildings.
Only the best would ever do for God. Exodus 10:24–26
makes it clear that sacrifices had to deplete the worshipper’s
personal resources – there had to be a real element of self-
denial for the sacrifice to have any meaning. It also shows that,
because the worshippers wanted to please God, they allowed
him to direct their sacrifices.
The Jews could not offer God anything which had been
unlawfully obtained or anything which was blemished. Both
poor and rich alike had to offer God the best that they had.
They could not hold back the best for themselves and offer
God their leftovers as a ‘thank you’.

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Leviticus 1–7 outlines the five principle Jewish sacrifices:

The holocaust, or wholly-burnt offering
The oblation, or cereal offering
The communion, or peace offering
The sin offering
The reparation, or guilt offering.
Two of these sacrifices were particularly used in thanksgiving
– the holocaust and the communion sacrifice. Both of these
helped Jewish people to express their feelings of being
creatures who belonged to God – to their maker.
The holocaust or burnt offering
In the ‘wholly-burned’ holocaust, every part of the sacrifice
(except the skin) was burnt as a gift to God: everything was
offered to him. This represented the dedication by the
worshipper – and the acceptance by God – of everything that
the worshipper had and was.
1 Chronicles 29:13–14 expresses this idea:
Now therefore, our God, we thank you and praise your
glorious name. But who am I, and who are my people, that
we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things
come from you, and of your own we have given you.
The communion
In the communion offering, part of the sacrifice was burnt as a
gift to God, and the remainder was eaten by the priests and the
people. This ‘eating together’ underlined the vital relationship
between the people as creatures and their Creator.
Some leaders think that this ‘foreshadows’ the ‘communion’
service of the Church. We have seen that ‘thanksgiving’ is a key
element of the Last Supper, and this has been taken up by
those parts of the Church which identify the ‘communion
service’ as ‘the Eucharist’. As this service is a thanksgiving for
Christ’s sacrificial death and the promise of his coming, perhaps
thanksgiving should feature more clearly in it.

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The link between thanksgiving and sacrifice is vital. When

God’s people wanted to thank their Creator and Redeemer,
they did not merely thank him with their mouths – they also
thanked him by offering him the best that they had. This is why
the Scriptures teach thanksgiving rather than thankspeaking. We
have much to learn from this.

Thanksgiving and giving

The Jews gave in three ways – through sacrifices, tithes and
freewill offerings. All their gifts were given to God, and
thanksgiving was the essential motive behind all of them.
Tithes
The Jews gave their tithes to God (one tenth of their annual
income) and these provided for the religious leaders and for
the poor. Tithes were given willingly. Two years out of three,
the people travelled to Jerusalem and presented their tithe –
with thanksgiving – to the Levites. The gift of their tithe was a
means of expressing thanks to God for his material provision
through the harvest and for his spiritual care through the
priestly and Levitical ministries.
In the third year, the tithe was not taken to Jerusalem. It was
stored locally and used to provide for the poor and any
strangers in the area. The biblical teaching about tithes is found
in Leviticus 27:30–32; Numbers 18:21–32; Deuteronomy
14:29 & Malachi 3:2–12.
Sacrifices and freewill offerings
From the remaining nine-tenths of their income, the Jews
offered sacrifices and freewill offerings to God. Some types of
sacrifices expressed thanks for God’s goodness and other types
pleaded for God’s forgiveness. Whenever the people wanted
to thank God, they did so through spoken words of prayer and
the gift of a holocaust or communion sacrifice.
Freewill offerings were used for particular projects: they
were special, occasional thankofferings which the people gave

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as an expression of their gratitude for God’s goodness.

Exodus 25:1–4 records God’s instructions for collecting the
materials needed to build the tabernacle; and Exodus 35:1–29
& 36:2–7 describe the details of the offering:
It was voluntary – 35:5
It was specific – 35:9
It was purposeful – 35:11–19
It was divinely motivated – 35:21–22
It stopped when enough had been given – 36:3–7.
The passage makes it clear that the people gave willingly,
generously, and enthusiastically, as their hearts and spirits were
stirred.
A similar attitude is seen in 1 Chronicles 28–29, when
David asked the people to give for the first temple; and also in
Ezra 1:2–6; 2:68–69; 3:5; 7:16 & Nehemiah 7:70–72 when
thankofferings were made for the second temple.
1 Chronicles 29 is one of the greatest of all biblical passages
about thanksgiving, and shows the clear scriptural association
between prayer, praise, thanksgiving, sacrifice and giving.
Some people might ask what possible connection exists
between a collection for a building and prayer. But the biblical
examples of thankofferings were collected for places of prayer,
and the motive behind all the examples was gratitude for all
God had done – for individuals, for families and for the nation.
Spoken thanks was not enough, the arm had to be stretched
out with a gift as well.
Prayer is not always a mere quiet recital of words. Prayer
can involve wrestling with God, sweating and agonising before
him. It can entail persistence – going on and on and on. It can
mean fasting – consuming no food to show genuine sincerity
and to create more time for prayer. And it can include giving –
sacrificial thanksgiving which reveals the depth of our gratitude
in a supremely practical way.

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Thanksgiving and Paul

Thanksgiving plays a very important part in Paul’s thinking and
writing. It has been said that Paul mentions the subject of
thanksgiving in his letters more often (line for line) than any
other Greek author, Christian or pagan. Indeed, Paul’s letters
record many examples of him offering God thanks and also of
him instructing his readers to offer God thanks.
Paul’s prayers of thanksgiving
Obviously these prayers are not an exhaustive list of Paul’s
thanksgiving; however, it is instructive that one topic occurs
almost as often as all the others added together. Paul thanked
God:
For fellow believers
Many of Paul’s letters begin with him thanking God for the
faith of the people to whom he is writing. For example,
Romans 1:8; 1 Corinthians 1:4; Philippians 1:3; Colossians
1:3; 1 Thessalonians 1:2; 2 Thessalonians 1:3 & Philemon
4. This expression of thanks by Paul is not an empty formula,
as its absence at the beginning of Galatians seems to be
deliberate.
Paul also thanks God for fellow believers in 2 Corinthians
8:16; Ephesians 1:16; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 3:9 & 2
Timothy 1:3.
In many of these thanksgivings, Paul uses words like
‘always’ and ‘without ceasing’ which draw attention to the
importance he gives to thanking God publicly for fellow
believers and leaders – many of whom were not known to
him personally. It is important to note that this persistence and
urgency is absent in the examples of his other thanksgivings.
For food
As throughout the rest of the Bible, Paul emphases the
importance of thanking God for food: Romans 14:6; 1
Corinthians 10:30; 11:24 & 1 Timothy 4:3–4.

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For Jesus
Romans 7:25 & 2 Corinthians 9:15
For his ministry
1 Corinthians 1:14 & 1 Timothy 1:12
For victory
1 Corinthians 15:57 & 2 Corinthians 2:14
For spiritual gifts
1 Corinthians 14:16–18
Paul’s instructions about thanksgiving
Paul constantly urged his readers – and prayed for them – to
make thanksgiving a continuous activity – both in word and deed.
It is impossible to read these verses without concluding that
thanksgiving should feature very highly in our private and public
prayers – see Ephesians 5:4, 20; Philippians 4:6; Colossians
1:12; 2:7; 3:15–17; 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:18 & 1 Timothy 2:1.
Paul expects us to ‘always give thanks for all things’. He makes
it clear that it is God’s will for us to give thanks in everything. He
shows that our requests in prayer should be surrounded with
thanks. According to Paul, thanksgiving should be one of the key
characteristics of committed Christian believers.

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Part Six
Paul’s prayers
The newly-converted Saul is introduced to us, in Acts 9:11, as
a man at prayer. And throughout Acts and his letters we can
see that prayer was the bedrock of his extraordinary ministry.
Several times in the Scriptures, Paul suggested that his
readers should live in the way he lived: 1 Corinthians 11:1;
Galatians 4:12; Philippians 3:17; 4:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:6 &
2 Thessalonians 3:7–9. Those believers who are serious about
prayer will pay special attention to this mighty man of prayer
and learn from both his teaching and his praying.

Paul’s teaching
In 1 Timothy 2:1–4, Paul advised that the practice of prayer in
Christian meetings should include supplications, prayers,
intercessions and thanksgivings. These should be offered for all
men, especially secular and political authorities.
Prayer for authorities
When Paul asks us to pray for people in authority, he uses the
Greek word huper, which means ‘on behalf of’, rather than
peri, which means ‘about’. Huper is the word used throughout
the New Testament to show that ‘Jesus died for us’ – for
example, in John 10:11 & 1 Timothy 2:6.
This means not only that we should pray about those in
authority – give thanks about them, make requests about
them, and so on – but that we should also pray on their behalf
– in their stead. We do this as priests, pleading with God on
behalf of the world, in the same way as Christ – the great High
Priest – prays huper us in Hebrews 7:25 and the Spirit
intercedes huper us in Romans 8:26–27.

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Prayer for God to ‘save’

There is no scriptural record of Paul praying specifically for
Gentile unbelievers ‘to be saved’. Of course, he wanted them
all to be saved and prayed in a way which he hoped would
hasten their salvation. But instead of praying ‘God save X’, he
prayed that the obstacles which were preventing X’s salvation
should be removed, and that the believers who should be
passing on the gospel message to X would be equipped,
energised and motivated to witness effectively to X.
In Romans 10:1, Paul describes that his dearest wish and
prayer to God was huper the Jews – ‘that they may be saved’.
This verse does not state that the content of Paul’s praying was
‘Dear God, please save the Jews’. Instead it reports that the
aim of Paul’s praying was that the Jews ‘may be saved’.
Romans 10:1 does not support, ‘Dear God, please save my
husband’ type prayers.
If we long for our friends and relatives to be saved and ache
for the people in our area to be converted, we will wrestle in
prayer to bring about their salvation. Like Paul, we will spend
long hours praying ‘so that they may be saved’.
However, we should want to find the best and most
effective way of praying to bring about their salvation. We will
not want to pray in an ineffective manner. Paul’s prayers and
teaching suggest that praying for the obstacles blocking salvation
to be removed – and praying for believers to be empowered
and motivated – is a very effective way of praying for the
salvation of unbelievers. We will examine ‘obstacle removing
prayer’ in Part Seven.
Prayer for peace
In 1 Timothy 2:1–4, Paul taught that our prayers for the
government should be ‘that we may lead a quiet and peaceable
life in all godliness and reverence’.
Peace is crucial for the effective proclamation of the gospel.
Any form of war is an obstacle to evangelism. This means we
should pray for peace so that God’s work may not be

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disrupted, and that we may continue with the task of witnessing

to those who do not believe.
Pray with perseverance
Paul repeated Jesus’ teaching of the need for perseverance in
prayer. Romans 12:12; Ephesians 6:18; Colossians 4:2 & 1
Thessalonians 5:17 all emphasise the need to press on in prayer.
Pray for priorities
Paul stressed that our prayers should be for priorities rather
than luxuries. Ephesians 6:18 & Philippians 4:6–7 show that we
should ask and pray for whatever we need – whether material
or spiritual. This echoes Matthew 6:25–34.

Paul’s prayer requests

In addition to Paul’s general requests for prayer in passages like
1 Thessalonians 5:25, the Bible records seven detailed prayer
requests. Four themes run through these requests for prayer.
Rescue
Six times, Paul asked for prayer that he would be kept safe in,
or would be rescued from, a situation which was preventing
the proclamation of the gospel.
Like Christ, Paul did not ask for the hostilities to cease but
for safety as he walked away from the difficulty. This means
that, in our prayers, we should not ask for an easy life. Instead,
we should try to discover what God is doing and wants to do
in the person through their circumstances. We should
concentrate on God’s work in the person, rather than be side-
tracked by the surrounding events.
Paul asked:
To be rescued from evil men – 2 Thessalonians
3:1–2
To be rescued from unbelievers – Romans 15:31
To be rescued from a deadly peril – 2 Corinthians
1:9–11

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To be kept safe in prison – Philippians 1:19–20

To be released from prison as a special favour –
Philemon 22
That a closed door be opened – Colossians 4:3.
In all these verses, Paul’s prayer request was made in order
to enable him to witness more effectively.
Acceptance
In 2 Thessalonians 3:1–2, Paul requested prayer that the
message he spoke would be well received by unbelievers. And
in Romans 15:30–32 he asked for prayer that his message
would prove acceptable to the Jerusalem believers.
Boldness
In both Ephesians 6:19–20 & Colossians 4:3–4, Paul asked for
prayer for fearless boldness. He wanted to speak the good
news as it should be spoken.
He knew his normal state was ‘fear and trembling’ and that
boldness did not come naturally to him. If Paul needed people’s
prayers for boldness, how much more should this feature in
our prayers today?
Travel
Paul requested prayer, in Romans 15:22–32, for the
opportunity to travel to Rome. He asked this so that he could
take a blessing from Christ to the believers in Rome.
Prayer for evangelism
These four themes in Paul’s prayer requests suggest much
about prayer for evangelism which is relevant today. If our
passion is the biblical passion for evangelism, how can we best
pray for our unbelieving friends and family?
Like Paul, we know that it is God’s will for all our friends to
be saved. We do not need to persuade a reluctant God to save
them. Instead, if we follow Paul’s example, we will pray:
That we are rescued from the imprisoning
circumstances which are preventing our witness

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That we are filled with boldness to speak God’s

word
That we are enabled to spend time with our
unsaved friend
That the words we speak will be empowered by
the Spirit and heard and accepted by our friend
That the Spirit will convict our friend of their sin and
need.
If we have a burden for a particular unsaved person, an
effective and biblical way of praying for their salvation is to:
Listen to God to establish precisely how he wants
us to take the message of salvation to the person on
our heart
Pray specifically and persistently for God to remove
the obstacles, to equip the saint he has chosen to
speak to the unsaved person, and to empower
their words with his grace and favour.
Of course, God always honours our sincere motives when
we pray ‘Please save my friend’. Such prayers are never a
waste of time – but they can be a little bit lazy! God wants us
to press on in prayer, seriously to seek his will for a situation
and then to pray it into being.

Paul’s prayers
Romans 1:9; Ephesians 1:16; 1 Thessalonians 1:2 & Philemon
4 show that Paul’s prayers were full of requests for the
believers with whom he had had contact.
However, Paul’s letters also contain nine prayers which
teach much about the content of prayer. Eight themes run
through these prayers.
Knowledge
His most frequent prayer was that believers be filled with
whatever knowledge Paul understood them to need.

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He prayed that they would know:

Jesus better by receiving the Spirit of wisdom and
revelation – Ephesians 1:17
The hope to which they had been called by
receiving enlightenment – Ephesians 1:18
The riches of Christ’s inheritance – Ephesians 1:18
The vastness of Christ’s love – Ephesians 3:18
The will of God by receiving wisdom and
understanding – Colossians 1:9
Growth in the knowledge of God – Colossians 1:10
The righteousness which comes form God and be
able to distinguish it from their own righteousness –
Romans 10:1–4
Every good thing that was available to them in
Christ – Philemon 6
Even greater knowledge so that they could discern
what was best – Philippians 1:9–10.
Paul used the Greek word epignosis in all but two of these
passages. This means a full, experiential knowledge. He
prayed for them to experience these things in as full a manner
as possible.
Ephesians 3:18 is one exception. Here Paul used ginosko
which signifies a grasp of the concept rather than of the detail.
The vast love of God cannot be known fully, even though it can
be enjoyed and appreciated.
The other exception is Ephesians 1:18a, where Paul used
the Greek word eido to stress that the hope is a present
understanding of a future reality. The hope will come to pass,
but it cannot be known fully and completely at the present time.
All this suggests that, before we begin to pray for a person,
we should ask God what knowledge the believer needs
most. We should then wait for God’s answer before starting
to pray for them.

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Paul was always specific in his prayers for knowledge. They

varied with different needs. Our prayers should develop into
this real prayer struggle for the believers we know – that they
will know, fully and completely, all they need to know to help
them in their evangelism.
Strength
Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:16 that his readers might be made
strong with power through the Spirit. This was so that –
eventually – they would be made strong enough for Christ to
dwell in their hearts, and it was linked with being filled with the
utter fullness of God.
He prayed in Colossians 1:11 that we would be made
powerful with the power of God’s might for endurance and
patience. When a believer is in danger of giving up, we should
not pray that things will become easier for them. Instead, we
should pray that the Spirit will make them powerful and
resolute to press on.
Paul prayed in 1 Thessalonians 3:13 that our hearts would
be made firm so we might be blameless and holy at the second
coming of Christ.
Love
In Ephesians 3:17, Paul prayed that God’s love might be our
root and foundation. And, in Philippians 1:9 & 1 Thessalonians
3:12, he begged that God’s love might flow out to us over and
above our present experience, and overflow to others.
God’s love is agape. It is God’s deep, constant and practical
love. We need to pray for this in today’s Church, that agape
may abound and overflow. It is this which will challenge the
world.
Pure and blameless
In Philippians 1:10, Paul prayed that his readers would become
‘pure and blameless’ before men. He wanted God to make
them eilikrines and aproskopos – that is, pure and untainted by
the world, not giving anybody offence or a reason for stumbling.

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In 1 Thessalonians 3:13 he prayed that they might be ‘pure

and blameless’ before God. This time he prayed for them to be
amemptos and hagiosune – to be blameless before God and
holy in their conduct.
He asked in Colossians 1:10 that their lives might give
pleasure to God. Paul wanted them not merely to keep God’s
commands, but also to anticipate his wishes.
And he prayed for their ‘perfection’ in 2 Corinthians 13:9.
This is katartisis which means ‘completeness of character’ not
teleios which means ‘fully accomplished’. The difference
between these words shows that this is a realistic prayer for us
to be ready or fit for evangelistic action. It is not a prayer for our
absolute maturity or total perfection.
Worthy
Paul wanted his readers to live in such a way that they would
reflect God’s character and thoughts. So, in Colossians 1:10,
he prayed that they would live worthily towards the Lord, and
in 2 Thessalonians 1:11 he prayed for them to live worthy of
God’s calling.
Righteousness
In Philippians 1:11, Paul prayed that we would be filled with the
fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus. In Romans
10:2–3, he prayed that we would know the righteousness
which comes from God.
Results
Paul prayed that his readers might bear fruit in good works – as
in Colossians 1:10; and in Philemon 6 he asked God that they
be would be energes – that is powerfully active and effective –
in sharing their faith.
Glory
In 2 Thessalonians 1:11–12, Paul prayed that the name of our
Lord Jesus may be glorified in us – and us in him. He uses a
Greek construction which stresses the present possibility of this
experience, and underlines it by using the same construction in

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verse 10 to stress the future certainty of Christ’s glorification in

his bride.
These prayers of Paul were not polite words – they were
dynamic requests which he knew God would answer! When
we follow his example in our praying, and depend on the Spirit
in the same way, we can share his certainty and assurance. Our
prayers will be answered.

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Part Seven
Spiritual warfare
Spiritual warfare involves the whole of our Christian lives. It
includes living a holy life, preaching the gospel and praying.
Some leaders reject the view that spiritual warfare brings us
into conflict with demonic powers. They say that addressing
spirits directly is not a form of prayer and that this is outside the
bounds of scriptural teaching.
However, every form of prayer is an act of spiritual warfare.
Whenever we pray and seek God’s will on earth, we find
ourselves in opposition to the enemy.
Ephesians 6:10–18 is the foundation passage for spiritual
warfare. It describes the Church at war. It is about ‘us’, not ‘me’,
and offers a picture of an army standing and fighting in hand-to-
hand combat. Therefore, we should expect to confront spiritual
forces and to engage them directly. This is surely what Paul
meant by ‘wrestling against principalities and powers’.
The image is of a company of soldiers in one-to-one
confrontation in prayer against demonic forces. Prayer is the
point of this passage. We need to wear the armour of God so
that we can be ready to engage the enemy when we pray.
1 John 3:8 shows this is God’s will.

The reality of spiritual warfare

Daniel 10:12–13 contains some unusual glimpses of the
operation of the spiritual realm and how it is influenced by our
prayers. Daniel, through prayer and fasting, sought understanding
concerning a vision. God sent a powerful angel to meet with him
and explain the vision, yet this angel met opposition from the
‘prince’ of Persia. As Daniel continued to pray, the archangel
Michael was sent to help and God’s message got through.

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The passage shows that:

Demonic beings (here called princes) do exist, and
try to oppose the work of God
These demonic princes are associated with
particular territorial and temporal areas
There is a link between heavenly and earthly
activity. What happened in the heavens affected the
situation on earth, and Daniel – through his prayers
– affected what was happening in the heavens
By his persistent prayers, Daniel achieved a spiritual
breakthrough – even though he personally saw
nothing of the battle.
Although it cannot be denied that Daniel’s praying was
spiritual warfare, some leaders use the fact that Daniel did not
himself address the demonic powers and principalities to deny
the need for conscious, active and aggressive spiritual warfare.
They say there is not need for personal, direct confrontation of
demonic forces in prayer.
Those who argue like this point out that, in Zechariah
3:1–5, the angel of the Lord said, ‘The Lord rebuke you’,
not ‘I rebuke you’. It is the same in Jude 9. However, when
Jesus was confronted by the devil in Luke 4:1–13 &
Matthew 16:22–23 he did not converse and reason with
Satan – he commanded him. And, in Matthew 12:22–29,
he taught that spiritual warfare characterised the coming of
the kingdom of God.
Of course, we will probably never be called to confront
Satan himself, personally, as Jesus did. Our struggle is with his
representatives: principalities and powers and other demonic
forces.
The Daniel and Zechariah passages are before the cross.
They did not share our benefits of the victory at Calvary.
There, Jesus disarmed every power and principality and was
raised far above them in the heavenly places. We have been

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raised with Christ and carry his delegated power and authority.
Ephesians 1:15–2:7 makes this plain.
We do not have power to rebuke spiritual beings. But Jesus
does – and we receive that same authority from him. As his
representatives on earth we can say, ‘In the name of Jesus, I
rebuke you.’
There is a need for balance. Satan may tempt us to ‘prove
it’ and to step out of the will of God to confront the devil’s
forces in our own strength. If we ‘go it alone’ we will quickly
discover the reality of warfare which is written about in
1 Peter 5:8.

Personal spiritual warfare

Only four Old Testament characters are recorded as having
been personally confronted by Satan. With each one, Satan
used a different weapon, attacked different aspects of the
individual’s life, came in a different disguise, and with a
different objective. A study of these four spiritual battles gives
an overall picture of the way the enemy’s forces seek to
attack us today.
Eve
In Genesis 3 Satan appeared to Eve as the deceiver, deceiving
her as to the nature of true human happiness. Revelation 12:9
calls him ‘the great dragon, the primeval serpent, known as the
devil or Satan, who has deceived all the world’.
He attacked Eve’s mind, using the weapon of lies, with the
aim of making her ignorant of God’s will. He brought confusion
by suggesting Eve should doubt God’s goodness: ‘Did God
really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the
garden?’ This was a lie. God had not prohibited the eating of
fruit from every tree, only one.
Satan also attempted to provoke Eve into questioning
God’s word: ‘Did God really say…?’ Satan began by getting
Eve to question God’s word because he knew that there is

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only a small step from doubting God’s word to being ignorant

of God’s holiness.
Finally, Satan lied again: ‘God knows, in fact, that on the day
you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods,
knowing good and evil’. He was trying to smother her
knowledge of God’s will.
Job
Job chapter 1 shows that, this time, the devil came in the guise
of a destroyer, using the weapon of suffering to attack Job’s
body with the aim of making him question God’s will and
pitying himself – instead of glorying in his sonship.
Satan did not employ the weapon of suffering as an end in
itself, but as a means to make Job question God’s will. After
seven days of silence, chapter three records Job’s ‘Whys?’ The
false assumption of Job’s friends was that the justice of God
must always and automatically reward virtue with the twin
blessings of wealth and health, and that, therefore, suffering can
only be a consequence of sin.
David
The third biblical encounter with Satan is recorded in 1
Chronicles 21. Here, Satan donned the disguise of a despotic
ruler to attack David. He wielded the weapon of pride, with
the aim of causing the king to exercise authority independently
of God’s will.
Satan incited David to take a census of the Israelites without
any word from God. Despite Joab’s initial opposition, this was
carried out.
Joshua
The High Priest Joshua was the fourth Old Testament
character who had to wrestle with Satan. In Zechariah 3, the
defamer attacked Joshua’s conscience with self-condemnation
in order to lead him into a wrong sense of guilt at falling short
of God’s will. He did this by tempting the priest to think that
he was disqualified from service because of his dirty clothes –

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when Joshua should have been relying on his God-given

justification.
The attack came at a critical time in Jewish history; after forty
years in Babylonian exile the Jews had begun to return to
Jerusalem. Joshua’s grandfather, Seraiah, was High Priest at the
time of the capture of Jerusalem and had been executed at
Riblah by Nebuchadnezzar in 2 Kings 25:18–21. His father,
Jehozadak, had been carried captive to Babylon, and as Joshua
is not mentioned in 1 Chronicles 6:15 it is reasonable to
conclude that he was born in exile.
It must have been suggested that Joshua was not fit to be
High Priest because he was a slave, born in exile, and so
defiled, hence the dirty clothes – and Satan seized upon
this when he came to make his attack. Wonderfully, God’s
grace came to Joshua and he was given the gift of clean
clothes to wear.

Old Testament warfare

The Old Testament was written as a record of God’s dealings
with his people which would serve as a warning and an
example to us. There are many instances of Israel fighting
against God’s enemies. Our battle today is spiritual – not
against flesh and blood – but the Old Testament examples of
physical battles demonstrate spiritual principles which help us in
our kind of warfare.
Each battle was fought with a unique strategy: there was no
set battle plan. Exodus 17:9 shows that God has specific
directions for each battle. We need to ensure that we receive
our instructions for spiritual warfare from God, and do not
move unless he directs us. However, there are distinct
principles of warfare which we need to know.
Victory depends on the right use of God’s authority
In Exodus 17:9, Moses held the rod of God as a symbol of his
authority. The rod represented his calling, but Moses had to lay
it down before he could take it up properly.

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The following passages speak of our authority in Christ:

Luke 10:16–20
Matthew 28:18–20
Matthew 16:19.
Victory depends upon unity
Moses, Aaron, Hur and Joshua were working together as a
team to hold up Moses’ arms and the rod of God. There was
no fighting over who would hold the rod – there was no
division or competition, and this unity made the difference
between victory and defeat. When they held up Moses’ arms
they won; when Moses’ arms fell, there was defeat.
Passages like Psalm 133:1–3; Matthew 18:18–20; John
17:20–26 & Philippians 1:27 illustrate the importance of unity
in warfare.
Victory depends on breakthrough
A breakthrough is ‘an act or point of breaking through an
obstruction or defensive line; it is an important advance in
knowledge or achievement’. The account of David’s battle
against the Philistines in 1 Chronicles 14:8–17 shows that God
is the God of the breakthrough. It is helpful to look at the
passage in detail.
Verse 8: The Philistines attacked David because of his
anointing and authority. David’s response to hearing of the
imminent attack was to go into the stronghold. Nahum 1:7
& Psalm 18:2 show that we need to be in our stronghold –
the Lord – in times of warfare.
Verse 10: David inquired of the Lord. It is crucial at all times
to be led by the Holy Spirit, but especially in spiritual warfare.
Verse 11: David defeated the Philistines at Baal Perazim but
acknowledged that it was God who had broken through. It
is clear that it was a partnership.
Verse 12: The Philistines abandoned their idols. Here was
the real issue: the battle was spiritual.

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Verse 13: The enemy regrouped and attacked again. Notice

the persistence of the enemy. But they over-reached
themselves.
Verses 14–15: There was a change of strategy. This time
David had to wait for God to act on Israel’s behalf.
Verse 16: David drove the enemy back. The victory was
complete!
Hebrews 4:14 describes the greatest breakthrough of all
time. We need to take hold of the breakthroughs that have
already been achieved for us by Jesus. We need to speak out
the faith that we have, and firmly hold on to each promise from
God – especially Ephesians 3:20 – and go on professing them
in prayer until we have a breakthrough.
Victory
Exodus 17:15–16 can be read in two ways. First, as ‘hands
lifted up to the throne of God’ implying prayer, or as ‘hands
lifted up against the throne’ implying rebellion. Both readings
help us to understand its meaning fully.
God acts both when there is rebellion against him and when
we intercede, executing God’s written judgements. God rarely
intervenes directly. He uses us, the Church, to carry out his will.
The reason that we are involved in warfare is to see victory.
John 12:31 shows that Jesus came to drive Satan out, and this
took place at the cross. Jesus has already won decisively. The
battle between him and Satan to determine the outcome of
the universe is over. Jesus has triumphed. Colossians 2:15 &
Hebrews 2:14–15 show that Satan’s kingdom has been
declared illegitimate and illegal, and he has been totally
defeated along with all his demons.
This is an important scriptural principle, and it is contrary to
some ‘spiritual warfare’ practice that seems to suggest we are in
a position of weakness rather than that of enjoying the already
completed victory of Christ, in the matter of spiritual warfare.
Jesus Christ’s headship and absolute victory over Satan is

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accomplished and totally guaranteed. (We examine this in detail in

in Sword of the Spirit volume five, Glory in the Church.) But this
headship is given to us, the Church, so that we can walk in the
victory of Christ and administer it on his behalf. In the present, we
are in ‘training for reigning’ and in the future kingdom of God, we
will live and reign with Christ forever.
Now Satan has been defeated but not yet annihilated or
finally judged; he has been rendered powerless and inoperative.
This has happened: Satan has been stripped of his power and
driven for ever out of his place in the heavens. He is:
Defeated – Matthew 12:28–29
Destroyed – Hebrews 2:14–15
Driven out – John 12:31
Disarmed – Colossians 2:15.
This victory has been effective for 2,000 years. We need to
realise this and come to prayer with an attitude of accomplished
victory, not struggle or defeat. From that position, we can
successfully administer the triumphant victory of Christ in the
world, according to his divine will and plan.

Spiritual armour
Ephesians 6:11–17 is the classic description of the equipment
given to us to use for spiritual warfare. Paul was imprisoned in
Rome and probably chained to a Roman soldier when he
wrote Ephesians. His description of our spiritual armour is
based on that of a Roman soldier – who was equipped for
hand-to-hand combat.
The armour of God represents truths about our lifestyle,
and putting it on is not a set of symbolic actions to be mimed.
The Greek word used means that we put it on only once, not
every day – though we must walk in it every day.
Belt of truth
The belt kept the Roman tunic tight and the soldier free from
entanglement, therefore enabling him to engage the enemy.

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The belt thus suggests a military attitude, ‘I’m ready to fight’.

The word used for truth, aletheia, means ‘truth, in contrast
to error’. What we disbelieve is as important as what we
believe. The enemy would try and deceive us by leading us to
believe lies. We must watch over our mind, filling it constantly
with the Word of God.
Breastplate of righteousness
The breastplate was made either of metal moulded to fit the
soldier’s neck and torso, or linen covered with protective strips
of animal horn. It gave protection to the vital organs, neck and
torso. The back had little protection, ensuring that no soldier
would ever turn and run!
We need to check our hearts and ensure that they are right.
We need to do this in a positive attitude of growth and desiring
to be right with God and with others.
We need to know that we have perfect righteousness
before God in Christ Jesus so we can come to him in faith, but
we must also walk correctly in confession and repentance. We
have a right to wear the armour, but we must wear it right!
Shoes of the gospel of peace
The soldier’s shoes were thick-soled, hobnailed boots which
were strapped up to the knees. They provided stability and
protection on rough terrain.
Our strength, stability, protection and sure-footedness all lie in
the gospel of peace. It brings reconciliation with God and does
not rely on human means of warfare. We teach reconciliation
and not revenge because Jesus is the Prince of Peace.
Shield of faith
Roman soldiers used two kinds of shield. One was a small,
round shield to fend off blows whilst fighting with a sword or
spear. The other was a heavy, thick plank of wood covered
with leather treated with oil to extinguish the burning pitch on
the tips of enemy arrows.

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These larger shields provided full protection for the soldier

in battle. We need protection from the fiery arrows of Satan’s
seducing temptations. It is faith that provides this full protection
– faith in the promises of God.
One way the soldiers would protect themselves was by
standing together and boxing themselves in with their shields.
When we close in together and put up defensive barriers
against the enemy, there is increased protection. We must
watch over each other. Every instruction in Ephesians 6 is to
the corporate body not to individual believers.
Helmet of salvation
Roman helmets were made either of strong leather covered
with metal, or cast metal, strong enough to withstand blows
from a heavy broadsword which could penetrate an
unprotected skull. Satan’s ‘broadsword’ is doubt and
discouragement. God gives us the protection of hope,
encouragement and perseverance.
Sword of the Spirit
Roman soldiers carried two types of sword. The first was a
large broadsword which required both hands to wield it, and
the second was a short sword or dagger for hand-to-hand
combat. Ephesians 6 refers to the smaller short sword. We
have a spiritually effective sword given to us by the Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 4:12–13 shows that it is a powerful and precise
weapon in the hands of the believer.
The true purpose of the armour
Ephesians 6:18 shows that the purpose of the armour was to
equip the soldier for combat. And prayer is the combat. Prayer
is not another piece of the armour, or else the analogy has
broken down. Neither is prayer a development of the sword
of the Spirit. Prayer enables us to use the armour. Prayer is the
battlefield. The Good News Bible comes closest to the original
with ‘Do all this in prayer’.
In Isaiah 59:15–19, the Lord was so appalled that there was

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no one to intercede that he personally decided to intervene.

But note what he first equipped himself with!

Warfare praying
In earlier sections, we suggested that effective praying for the
unsaved consists of two main elements: firstly that the human
messengers be equipped; and, secondly, that the obstacles
preventing their salvation be removed. This second part is
warfare praying.
Jesus took the common Jewish phrase ‘to move a mountain’
and vested it with new power and application. In Jewish
writings a great teacher, one who explained satisfactorily
difficulties in Scripture, was described as a mountain-mover.
This phrase is based in Isaiah 40:1–5, where the prophet
was told to prepare the way of the Lord. Among other things,
Isaiah had to knock down the mountains of difficulty which
were obstructing the wide revelation of the glory of God.
‘Mountain-moving’ is hinted at in Isaiah 2:11–16 and its
counterpart of ‘uprooting’ is suggested in Lamentations
3:65–66. The idea also appears in Zechariah 4:7.
In olden days, when an Eastern monarch wanted to travel
to distant parts of his kingdom, he would send a party of men,
some six months to a year in advance, to prepare the way.
These men would make good the bridges, repair the roads,
uproot trees and generally do everything they could to facilitate
the easy journeying and arrival of the monarch.
John the Baptist was the preparer of the way of the Lord,
but so also were the seventy-two in Luke 10. They went ahead
of Christ in pairs to all the towns and places he was to visit.
Jesus took up the idea of mountain-moving and developed it in
three parallel passages: Matthew 7:20; Mark 11:22–24 & Luke
17:5–6.
God’s faith
A right understanding of Mark 11:22 is crucial. Most translations

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suggest that Jesus said ‘Have faith in God’. But ‘have faith of
God’ or ‘have God’s faith’ is the literal translation of the Greek.
We could even say, ‘Have faith in God’s faith’.
God’s faith is absolute. He is totally self-confident. He
knows that he can achieve whatever he wants to do.
Mountain-moving is not a problem to the Creator of heaven
and earth. When we have a speck of God’s faith in us warfare
praying becomes straightforward. Jesus promises us that we
can learn trust in God’s faith. That way we can have the same
confidence that God has in his word.
Matthew 17:20 & Luke 17:5–6 show that we do not need
much faith to move mountains, just the genuine article. It is
quality, not quantity, that counts. On its own, our faith can
achieve nothing – it is God who moves the mountains. Our
faith merely engages us with the great power of God.
Paul promised, in 1 Corinthians 12:9, that the Holy Spirit
would give the gift of God’s faith to some people. Paul then
went on to urge his readers to be zealous for, or to desire
earnestly, the higher. Faith is high on the list.
There are five stages in warfare praying:
Knowing God’s will
This praying is futile without the absolute certainty of the
knowledge of God’s will. Time must be spent listening to the
Father. We must receive his identification of the mountains of
difficulty which are the obstacles preventing God’s glory from
being seen, and from the person being saved.
We need to ask the Father what are the circumstances,
factors and attitudes which prevent the work of God from
developing and growing in a person. Each of the passages
mentioned above suggests a particular type of obstacle for
removal.
Mark implies that personal relationships, especially where
unforgiveness exists, can be one barrier.
Matthew hints that difficulty in casting out demons may

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require this type of intercession.

Luke, if taken with other passages about the fig/mulberry
trees, suggests that those trees which look good but have no
fruit are ripe candidates for uprooting. Fruitless, hypocritical
Christians are often the greatest obstacle to people becoming
Christians.
Authoritative order
The verses do not say ‘Whoever prays to me’, but ‘Whoever
speaks to the mountain’. This prayer is addressed to the obstacle,
not the Father. It is violent, Old Testament paga intercession and
is characterised by such ‘faith commands’ as ‘be taken up’, ‘be
cast into the sea’, ‘move hence’ and ‘be rooted up’.
This is only strange to some because of their lack of
experience in the apostolic practice of uttering authoritative
commands in ministry. Christians in the early church, and an
increasing number today, spoke directly to eyes, limbs, storms,
demons, fevers and dead bodies ‘in the name of Jesus’ and
commanded them to be changed. We often cry ‘Do
something’, but God whispers back, ‘No, you do it’. This is the
secret of the healing of Naaman, the miraculous catches of fish,
the parting of the Red Sea and the temple tax paid by Peter.
This executive authority, which Christ gave to the seventy-
two in Luke 10:1–16, is ours to use today. This means in
practice that, if the obstacle preventing Steve’s conversion is
revealed in prayer as a cynical workmate, it could be right to
intercede as follows: ‘In the name of Jesus, I remove this
obstacle preventing Steve from hearing the gospel.’
Receiving God’s faith
Home produced faith is insufficient for this sort of prayer. God-
given confidence that this will happen is needed. When the
Holy Spirit gives his gifts of God’s faith, we are to accept the
event as already being done.
To believe is not to have a faint hope that something could,
or might, take place, for example, ‘I believe (but I am not really

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sure) James will come today.’ To believe is to know for certain

that it will happen: ‘I believe (he has promised me – and there
he is walking towards me) James will come today.’
Sustained speaking
The Greek tense used means that we are to go on saying to
the obstacle, ‘Get up and throw yourself in the sea’. It is not a
one-off command. Perseverance, as with all prayer, is required.
Visible result
The construction of the phrases ‘it will be done’, ‘it will move’,
and ‘it will obey’, emphasises the certainty of fulfilment. Luke
uses a Greek tense which refers to a time prior to the
command, for example, ‘it would have obeyed’ and this
underlines the fact that there is to be a visible result to this
warfare prayer.
When we know God’s will, receive God’s faith, and continue
in speaking out an authoritative order, there can be no doubt
about the outcome: the highest mountain, the most deeply
rooted tree and the most immovable obstacle will all have to go.
The way will be made level for the glory of God to be seen.

The battleground of the mind

All that we have said about the role of prayer in spiritual
warfare is part of the greater and prior battle for the mind. In 2
Corinthians 10:4–6, Paul reveals the true nature of spiritual
warfare. It is to bring every thought or belief held in the mind
into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
It is blatantly clear that we are rational beings and that our
ideas have consequences. Every spiritual battle with the devil has
to do with our thinking because our thinking influences our
choosing, which ultimately affects our actions and our feelings.
Therefore Satan always attacks our minds. He spawns false ideas
whether in the area of science, philosophy, politics or religion.
Ultimately, the greatest attack comes in the form of
deception concerning the being, nature and integrity of God

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himself. Read again the forms of spiritual battle outlined above

that Eve, Job, David and Joshua the High Priest faced. You will
quickly notice that each of these battles were against the spirit
of lies and deception.
Therefore, the ultimate weapon of warfare for the believer
is the truth of God and his word which is the only thing that
deals with the ‘the liar and father of lies’, Satan.
As you mix prayer with understanding and proclamation of
the truth, this will give you a sharp sense of perception of the
truth and discernment of deception. You will be able to bring
down the strongholds that Satan holds over the mind – both in
yourself and others.

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Part Eight
Fasting
In Part Four we saw that intercession is related in the Scriptures
to prophecy, and in Part Five we noted the association between
thanksgiving and sacrifice. In this section, we will examine the
close biblical link between prayer and fasting.
The Hebrew words for ‘to fast’ and ‘a fast’ are tsuwm and
tsowm, and they mean going without food and drink. The
Hebrew phrase anah nephesh also refers to fasting, but it
literally means – and is usually translated as – ‘to afflict the soul’.
Tsuwm and tsowm are used in Judges 20:26; 1 Samuel 7:6;
Ezra 8:23; Esther 4:16; Isaiah 58:3–6; Jeremiah 14:12; Joel
2:15 – and in many other places too.
Anah nephesh is used in Leviticus 16:29,31; 23:27,29,32;
Numbers 29:7; Psalm 35:13 & Isaiah 58:3–10.
The Greek verb nesteuo literally means ‘not to eat’ and is
always translated as ‘to fast’. Nesteuo and nesteia, ‘a fast’, are
used – for example – in Matthew 6:16–18; Luke 18:12; Acts
13:2–3 & 27:9.

Fasting in the Old Testament

Under the Old Testament law, there was only one compulsory
fast which took place every year on the Day of Atonement. We
can read about this in Leviticus 16:29–34 & 23:27–32.
Zechariah 8:19 shows that, after the Jews returned from
exile, four other compulsory fasts were observed as well.
Esther 9:31 can also be interpreted as implying the
establishment of another regular fast.
There were also occasional voluntary fasts. Sometimes
these were individual, as in 2 Samuel 12:22. At other times

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they were corporate, as in Judges 20:26 & Joel 1:14.

In the Old Testament, adding fasting to prayer:
Expressed grief – 1 Samuel 31:13; 2 Samuel 1:12;
3:35; Nehemiah 1:4; Esther 4:3 & Psalm 35:13–14
Expressed penitence – 1 Samuel 7:6; 1 Kings 21:27;
Nehemiah 9:1–2; Daniel 9:3–4 & Jonah 3:5–8
Expressed humility – Ezra 8:21 & Psalm 69:10
Pleaded for help and guidance – Exodus 34:28;
Deuteronomy 9:9; 2 Samuel 12:16–23; 2 Chronicles
20:3–4 & Ezra 8:21–23
Could be on behalf of others – Ezra 10:6 & Esther
4:15–17.
As time went by, Isaiah 58:3–4 shows that some Jews came to
think that fasting automatically gained them a hearing from God. But
Isaiah 58:5–12 & Jeremiah 14:11–12 report how the prophets
declared that fasting was useless without a godly lifestyle. Fasting is
not a type of hunger strike to get what we want out of God!
Some Old Testament fasting was for wrong reasons and was
an abomination in the eyes of the Lord. But there are,
however, outstanding examples in the Old Testament when
nations, cities and individuals turned to the Lord in fasting and
God honoured them.
In 2 Chronicles 20:3, Jehoshaphat proclaimed a fast in Judah
and the Lord brought a mighty deliverance. The people
prepared themselves by fasting, which also involved real
repentance and turning to God in intercession, and then
through praise they obtained a victory.
Jonah 3:5 shows how the Ninevites repented and fasted in
response to Jonah’s prophecy of judgement. When God saw
this, he saved the city in his mercy.
Although fasting is a God-appointed way of coming before
him in prayer in certain circumstances, 2 Samuel 12:15–18
shows that it is not a formula for getting prayer answered.

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Fasting in the New Testament

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ totally fulfilled the
Old Testament Day of Atonement. This means that there is
now no legal reason for fasting.
Colossians 2:13–23 implies that any actions for legal,
ritualistic or ceremonial purposes are now unnecessary
because Jesus has fulfilled the whole law. Hence ritual fasting
has been abolished, for it calls into question the finished work
of Christ now that we live by grace.
This does not mean that we must not fast. It means that we
do not have to fast either to be righteous or as a legalistic duty.
Jesus does not condemn fasting in Matthew 5–7, rather he
condemns fasting with wrong motives. In fact he instructs his
followers how to fast.
Jesus expected his followers to fast
Even though we have no record of Jesus ordering his disciples
to fast, his words in Matthew 6:16–18 must mean that he
expected his followers would fast.
Furthermore, Luke 5:35 shows that Jesus knew his
followers would fast – and seems to endorse this discipline. It
would be strange for Jesus to speak like this if fasting were not
part of the continuing discipline of Christian living.
In Luke 5:35 (and Mark 2:20 & Matthew 9:15), Jesus spoke
about the time when he would no longer be with his disciples
– and said that this would be a time for fasting.
As Jesus is now no longer physically present among us, this
must be the time during which it is appropriate for his followers
to fast in order to see God’s purposes fulfilled.
Jesus’ fast in the wilderness
Luke 4:1–14 describes Jesus’ long forty day fast – which seems
to recall and fulfil Moses’ and Elijah’s fasts in Exodus 34:28 & 1
Kings 19:8.
Jesus was doing two things in the wilderness:

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He was preparing for ministry

He was fighting the devil.
If fasting was an important part of both these tasks for Jesus,
how much more do we need to learn the value and power of
fasting today!
Before Jesus’ fast in the wilderness, Luke describes him as
‘full of the Spirit’. After the fast, Luke reports that Jesus is ‘full of
the power of the Spirit’. This is an important example to us.
The Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness where there was
no food. There he fasted – and this was a Spirit-directed action,
not a legalistic duty. It meant that, when Jesus met Satan, he
was completely empowered and prepared by the Spirit and
able to overcome Satan.
Fasting in the early church
The early church, as seen in Acts, appears to have valued
fasting, for it had an important place in its life and practice. Few
decisions concerning either the leadership or the direction of
the Church were made without prayer and fasting. For
example, they fasted:
When they chose missionaries – Acts 13:2–3
When they appointed elders – Acts 14:23
As part of their ministry – 2 Corinthians 6:5 &
11:27.
Following on from this, it seems that fasting should have a
voluntary place in our private and corporate lives. Both as
individuals and as churches, we must rediscover the purpose of
fasting and restore it to its rightful place in our lives.

What fasting is not

Fasting is not for asceticism
Asceticism, or rigorous and unnatural self-denial, is an unbiblical
practice. It harms the body and dishonours the Lord who
created the body to be the temple of the Holy Spirit.

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Ascetic ideas came into the Church in part through

erroneous Greek philosophy and some forms of Gnosticism
that looked upon the body as sinful and therefore a hindrance
to the life of the Spirit. This led to excessive fasting, incessant
vigils and other forms of physical self-abuse. Colossians 2:23
offers the biblical position.
At best the tendency for excessive fasting is misplaced zeal;
at worst, it can be demonic. Asceticism is frequently found in
pagan religions, among cults and in occult practices. We need
proper nourishment and sleep in order be strong and healthy
for Jesus.
These passages offer relevant biblical insights: Leviticus
19:28; Deuteronomy 14:1 &1 Kings 18:28.
Fasting is not for self-mortification
Fasting has no value as a means of dealing with the pull towards
sin in our lives – in the flesh. It does not make us holy. The flesh
is dealt with only in the power of the Spirit as we put to death
those deeds of the flesh which are associated with old, non-
Christian ways of living.
In fact, this kind of fasting indulges the flesh, which delights
in showy and external forms of so-called ‘spirituality’.
When Jesus taught people how to fast, he said that it should
be done in secret. However, although fasting does not deal
with the flesh, it is not wrong to fast over some aspect of sin in
our lives. But it is the repentance and consecration which
comes by the Spirit that changes us – not fasting in itself.
Fasting is not a form of self-merit
It is foolish to think that by fasting, or any other act, we win
God’s favour, receive his grace, or force him to bless us or
answer our prayers. God’s grace is freely given. He answers
our prayers only through Jesus Christ and because of his
finished work on the cross.
Fasting is not a means of self-aggrandisement
The Pharisees had an ostentatious approach to fasting – as they

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did to every religious practice. They drew attention to their

twice-weekly fasting in quite a forceful way. They were spiritual
show-offs. But Jesus condemned this, in Matthew 6:16–18,
and spoke of the rewards of fasting coming only to those
whose motives were right.

What fasting is
Fasting can be good for health reasons, particularly in the West
where the average person consumes far too much food.
Fasting can also benefit others. If every believer in Britain
went without one meal a week, and contributed the money
saved (about £2) to world missions, it would double Britain’s
annual missionary giving.
But the principal reasons for fasting are spiritual. Fasting is all
about seeking God. It is primarily a ministry which is directed
towards the Lord. There are three main spiritual reasons for fasting:
An expression of sorrow for sin
2 Samuel 1:11–12 shows how fasting is an expression of grief
and mourning. Fasting can be a natural reaction, but it can also
go beyond that and become a way of coming before God and
expressing our deep concern and sorrow over a range of
things – as in Nehemiah 1:4.
Nehemiah was devastated over the state of the nation. The
walls of Jerusalem were broken down and God's heritage was
in ruins. So Nehemiah fasted before the Lord and mourned.
Fasting in this way is legitimate and we can experience the
blessing of Matthew 5:4.
We can react in the same way over any serious situation –
to do with the nation, the state of the Church, or some
personal matter that confronts us.
In the Bible, fasting of this kind is often linked with mourning
for sin and humbling oneself before God and his mercy. Fasting
is not ‘doing penance’ for sin, but it does come out of a
personal understanding of the seriousness of sin.

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An expression of seriousness with God

Throughout the Bible, fasting is linked to prayer. It is not
enough merely to fast. The whole purpose of fasting is to
create more time to pray and to show a seriousness of
purpose in prayer.
When we fast, we say to God, ‘Lord, this situation, that has
brought me to my knees before you, is of more concern to me
than my normal bodily needs of food and nourishment’.
Fasting is powerful because we come to God at a deeper
level of seriousness. It is this determination that God honours,
and in fasting it takes on a new dimension. Isaiah 58 talks of
spiritual, and not merely physical or social, bonds being broken
through fasting by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This greater manifestation of spiritual power can also be
seen when we take time to pray and fast for our ministries.
After a period of prayer and fasting there is usually a greater
power and anointing – especially with spiritual gifts – which can
result in new personal breakthroughs.
A blessing
Jesus promised that the Father would reward sincere and
single-minded seeking after him. Matthew 6:18 shows that this
includes fasting in God’s way.
There is something powerful about fasting which, if done
with a pure heart and the right motives, brings us closer to
God. James 4:10 & Isaiah 40:31 illustrate this principle.

When to fast
In one sense, we do not decide when to fast, God does. The
call to fast comes as a deep God-given desire to seek the Lord
in prayer and fasting. Sometimes the prompting to fast will
come suddenly by the Spirit, but normally it comes as a
response to a situation or need. But when the Spirit prompts
us, we know that the time to fast has come.
Those who commit themselves to fast as a regular discipline

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on certain days or at regular intervals need to make sure that

they really are being directed by the Lord. Otherwise the fasting
will become nothing more than an external ritualistic practice.

How to fast
Here are some practical points to consider.
Begin with short fasts lasting one to three days.
Long fasts can be dangerous and need to be
approached with caution. Remember the whole
point is to seek God and not just to go without
food. Rigorous fasting can distract us from Christ –
so we must be sure that it is the Spirit we hear and
not our enthusiasm.
Never go without water on a fast. The human body
can survive several weeks without food but only a
few days without water.
Headaches can occur in the early stages of a fast and
are due to caffeine and carbohydrate withdrawal.
These can be minimised by gradually decreasing
our intake in the days before a fast.
Partial fasting – going without certain meals or types
of food – can be just as effective as total fasts. This
is the fasting in Daniel 1. Partial fasts are especially
useful for those who have a heavy work schedule
and find a complete fast difficult.
Remember, food is God’s gift. Times of feasting can
be as spiritual as times of fasting. We must ensure
that our fasting does not lead to nutritional
imbalance.

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Part Nine
Tongues
Throughout this book, we have concentrated on the many
different forms of prayer. All of these involve speaking to the
Father, through the Son, in the Spirit – in a language which is
known to us.
However, speaking in tongues – the Greek word is
glossolalia – is prayer to the Father, through the Son, in the
Spirit in a language which we neither know nor have learnt.

What is the gift of tongues?

A miracle
Speaking in tongues occurs when we pray to God in a language
that we have never learnt, and that must be a miracle! Speaking
in tongues is a supernatural phenomenon – it is the Holy Spirit
providing us with words we cannot understand so that we may
speak more effectively to the Father.
Important
Some leaders accuse Pentecostals of making far too much of
tongues. They suggest that the gift of tongues is a minor
irrelevancy, a Corinthian aberration tucked away in a half-verse
here and there. Others have argued that the phenomenon of
tongues ceased with the apostolic age and should not be
desired or practiced today. However, related to this debate,
there are five important passages of Scripture which need to be
examined and read most carefully: Mark 16:15–20; Acts
2:1–13; Acts 10:44–48; Acts 19:1–7 & 1 Corinthians
11:2–14:40. These suggest that we should believe in the
contemporary manifestation of tongues and encourage those
who have the gift to practice it.

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A language
Tongues are a language given by the Holy Spirit – who then
enables the believer to enunciate words. It is not just sounds.
Sounds may precede words, as in all language development,
but language, with proper syntax, quickly follows.
A sign
In Mark 16:17, Jesus said that tongues would be one of the five
signs which would accompany those preaching the gospel.
This means that tongues have a place in bringing unbelievers
to faith in Christ. Paul emphasised this in 1 Corinthians 14:22,
and it was seen at Pentecost when the praise and mystery of
the tongues were part of the challenge to the crowd.
Evidence
In Acts 10:44–48, tongues are accepted as the evidence that
Cornelius’ household had received the Holy Spirit. The person
who has not been filled with the Holy Spirit by Jesus will not
speak in tongues. Prayer in tongues is reserved for those who
have been filled with the Spirit.
A gift from God
1 Corinthians 14:5 teaches that speaking in tongues is a gift
which is available to all believers to enhance their prayers and
worship. It also shows that it is a gift given to the Church to
build it up in worship and challenge unbelievers.
From the way this gift is received and developed we can see
that tongues are a product of divine and human co-operation. On
our side, we cannot invent a language; and God, on his side, does
not impose a language against our will. We provide the vocal
chords, breath, tongue, palate, teeth and lips; the Holy Spirit
supplies the words. We move our speech-making mechanism and
– as the Spirit suggests the words – we speak them out. Volume,
speed, starting and stopping – these are all are under our control.
New and other
The gift is described as ‘new’ tongues in Mark 16:17 and as
‘other’ tongues in Acts 2:4. In Greek, this is kainos and heteros,

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which means it is new, not in the sense of never having been

heard before, but new to us, different from the language we
are accustomed to using.
Angelic
A particular tongue may not necessarily be a known human
language. 1 Corinthians 13:1 suggests the possibility that it
might be an angelic language.
Fire
Acts 2:3 describes ‘tongues of fire’. In the Old Testament, fire
fell upon the altar of the newly built temple to ignite the offering
– thus demonstrating its acceptance by God. Tongues are given
to believers today to equip us for ministry and ignite us for
action.
This gift has been a trigger releasing many people into
supernatural devotion and service, and is often a conscious
experience of assurance.
Prayer without ceasing
In John 4:14, Jesus indicated that the living water he was to give
– which we understand to be the Spirit – would continually well
up inside believers. This alludes to Psalm 36:9 & Isaiah 58:11.
Is it too much to suggest that the gift of tongues is one facet of
this fountain bubbling up inside, offering light and praise to Jesus?
Praying audibly in tongues would then merely be the adjustment
in volume to allow the inner, everlasting bubbling to be heard.

Common misunderstandings
It is not a message from God
Many make much of ‘messages in tongues’ but 1 Corinthians
14:2 is unambiguous: tongues are God-ward in direction, not
human-ward. Speaking in tongues is a mode of prayer, not a
means of communication. When we use the gift, we address
God. This means that any explanation or interpretation of
tongues will be in the form of prayer or praise. It will be us
speaking to God, not God speaking to us.

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This is not to say that an interpretation of tongues may not

be used by God to convey a message. For example, the
phrase, ‘Oh promise-keeping God, we praise your holy name’,
might be the very word to aid someone struggling with an
unfulfilled promise. However, the interpretation would,
properly speaking, have been a prayer of praise to a promise-
keeping God, not a message from God to remind us that he
keeps his word.
It is not a linguistic ability
The gift of tongues was not, and is not, a shortcut to
communication in missionary work. Tongues were not
necessarily languages of the people to whom the disciples were
preaching. The crowds on the day of Pentecost heard the
disciples praising God in their own languages, but when Peter
preached he used his native tongue.
It is not a psychological abnormality
Speaking in tongues is not an ejaculation from the
subconscious. It is not a result of suggestion, nor linked to
schizophrenia, catalepsy or hysteria. In fact, the lack of
excitement in tongues means that it can be a disappointment to
those seeking a spiritual thrill instead of an aid to deeper prayer.
It is not a miracle of hearing
Some suggest that the miracle of tongues does not take place
in the mouth of the speaker, but in the ear of the hearer. That
would be a remarkable miracle, but the Bible never suggests
this. In fact the opposite is true, for such a miracle would make
the gift of interpretation unnecessary.
It is not a restricted gift
Some, who correctly suggest that the ‘Do all?’ questions of
1 Corinthians 12:29–30 presume the answer ‘No’, go on incorrectly
to assume that this means tongues are not for all, but only a few.
But 1 Corinthians 12:27–30 refers to the structure of ministry
in the Church. It emphasises the plurality of ministry by listing
nine different categories of ministry. Paul’s implied ‘No’ is a reply

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to these two questions: ‘Should all believers bring public prayers

in tongues during the public worship of the church?’ And, ‘Should
all apostles, prophets and teachers – and so on – also have a
public ministry in miracles, healing, tongues – and so on?’
Paul’s ‘No’ does not suggest that only a restricted number
of believers will be able to pray privately in tongues. It seems
to me that 1 Corinthians 14:5 shows that it is possible for all to
pray in tongues. This echoes Mark 16:17.
It is not an involuntary act
Some still maintain that speaking in tongues is ‘ecstatic’ – that
we cannot control the gift, that we pray in tongues only when
God ‘makes’ us. But we have complete control over the
phenomenon. This is why tongues can be suppressed.
We can adjust the volume and vary the speed. Most people
can pray in tongues without making an audible noise. The
words are formed in the usual way, with the tongue moving
rapidly, but the lips are not opened, thus preventing the sound
from being heard. Unfortunately, some people ‘mutter in
tongues’ and it is this which conveys the impression that
tongues is involuntary.

The upbuilding of the church

1 Corinthians 11–15 contains detailed teaching about the
public worship of a local church. These chapters stress the
centrality of holy communion, the place of women, the
primacy of love and the need for spiritual gifts – including
praying in tongues – to be exercised in the worship services of
a local church.
The key verb of chapter 14 is oikodomeo. This is usually
translated as ‘to edify’, but is better rendered ‘to build’. We can
understand this more fully by the phrase ‘to build together in
order to build up’. If we desire the upbuilding of the Church we
must pay special attention to 1 Corinthians 14. The following
principles about the use of the gift of tongues in public worship
are taken from this chapter.

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The believer who brings a public prayer in tongues

during a meeting is built up.
It is desirable and possible for all to use this gift in public.
An interpretation is not a translation. The Greek verb
diermeneuo means ‘to explain fully’. This is used in
Luke 24:27 to describe Christ’s explaining of the
Scriptures. The word ‘interpretation’ creates the
impression that a tongue is translatable, but the
interpretation is the Spirit-imparted ‘gist’ of a tongue.
Prayer in tongues followed by the interpretation
builds together and builds up the local church.
The interpretation should be focused upon, as this
is the element which builds up the local church.
Prayer in tongues should not be brought during
worship without an interpretation.
Those who have received the gift of tongues should
pray for the gift of interpretation.
We should not be unbalanced and pray only with
the mind – or only in tongues. There should be the
four-fold balance in public worship of prayer with
the mind and prayer in tongues, singing praise with
the mind and singing praise in tongues.
We choose whether to pray in tongues or in our
natural language.
Prayer in tongues can be an expression of
thanksgiving.
Prayer in tongues is a sign for unbelievers.
Our motive for praying in tongues should be to benefit
the Church, not to draw attention to ourselves.
The gift of tongues must not be suppressed.
A prayer in tongues should be spoken euschemonos
(1 Corinthians 14:40). In most versions of the Bible
this is translated as ‘decently’, but it can be better

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understood by ‘gracefully’. A tongue should not be

‘gabbled’, but delivered slowly and beautifully so
that all can hear.
Some people think that an interpretation makes the
preceding tongue redundant. ‘Why the tongue?’ they say. ‘Why
not just the interpretation?’ There are two answers.
Firstly, though the two gifts do make a complete unit, each
element has a unique function. The tongue is a sign to
unbelievers in that it is an obvious supernatural manifestation;
the explanation builds up the Church. Taken together, they
glorify God.
Secondly, the gifts are presented in the context of ‘body’
teaching. Each gift requires another to be complete. This
underlines the point that nobody is omnicompetent. The
interpretation needs a tongue, and the tongue needs an
interpretation. Together they make a whole.

Tongues in evangelism
Mark 16:16–17 lists five signs which demonstrate to unbelievers
the truth of the proclaimed word and reveal an insight into the
power and glory of the living God. Speaking in tongues is one of
these signs which are given for use in serious evangelism.
1 Corinthians 14:22 makes it clear that tongues are a ‘sign
for unbelievers’. Here Paul reveals that tongues are a part of
Christian worship which particularly challenges unbelievers.
Some leaders reserve prayer in tongues for believers’
meetings. They think that praying in tongues will put the
unbelievers off, and they base this on the idea that the
reference in 1 Corinthians 14:21 to Isaiah 28:11–12 shows
that tongues are a sign ‘against’ unbelievers.
But the fact that the Samaritans would not listen to God does
not mean that God does not speak to them. All the Mark 16
signs can be – and often are – rejected by those who observe
them, but this is no reason for not using them in evangelism.

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Christians who have been exposed to false teaching about

the gift often profess to having been offended by the use of
tongues – even quiet, graceful, orderly, worshipful ones!
However, the right use of tongues and interpretations often
intrigues and amazes unbelievers.
The use of tongues in evangelism is essentially that of a
sign. It demonstrates that a supernatural God has broken
through; it drives back the evil one; it enables vital guidance
to be received. For the world’s sake, this use of tongues must
be rediscovered.

The use of tongues

The gift of tongues can be used in every area of prayer – in
thanksgiving, confession, petition, adoration, supplication,
intercession, praise and so on. However, there appear to be six
areas where, if we are living in the Spirit, tongues will naturally
be used – either personally, when we are praying on our own,
or corporately, when we are together.
Worship
When we are worshipping, the gift of tongues helps us to
express our love for Jesus in a better way than mere human
language. We struggle in human relationships to find a more
creative and meaningful way of saying ‘I love you’. In our divine
relationship, the gift of tongues does this more beautifully, more
aptly, than human artistry can ever attain.
Intercession
The gift of tongues is especially valuable in intercession when
we do not know what to pray. Romans 8:26 promises that the
Spirit helps us in our weakness. We are often asked to pray for
a person and have no idea of their needs. This is a time when
praying in tongues is most helpful. The Spirit will intercede
through us, according to the mind of God.
Breakthrough
The gift of tongues helps in the achievement of spiritual

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breakthroughs. We looked at ‘warfare praying’ in Part Seven,

and tongues can be used in this ‘warring’ way.
Replies to prayer are often slow in coming, either due to
demonic opposition or because God is pressing patience and
perseverance into our lives. When our faith is low because of
the delay, we should pray in tongues. God’s faith is never low,
and it is our spirits which are in tune with this sort of faith.
In impossible situations, when opposition is great or
circumstances are grim, our prayers can easily become
statements of doubt. These are the moments when the gift of
tongues is so helpful. Prayer in tongues is full of God’s faith. It is
full of his self-confidence.
Lamentation
The gift can be used to articulate sadness. Many of us have a
problem lamenting to God. How can we pour out our anguish
over events like Dunblane, Rwanda, an earthquake, a plane
crash, a terrorist atrocity such as 9/11 in New York and 7/7 in
London? How do we share in God’s agony? Prayer in tongues
can be a meaningful lamentation about the unspeakable
horrors of a world which is reaping the results of human sin
and divine judgement.
Thanksgiving
How can English express adequate gratitude at the conversion
of a wayward child or the healing of a close friend? ‘Thank you’
appears beggarly. Prayer in tongues is much better. We know
then that we have said ‘thank you’ properly. The gift of tongues
has a special place in thanksgiving.
Preparation
The gift of tongues builds us up. It is the experience of many that
regular, frequent, consistent praying in tongues has played a
significant part in transforming them from people with an ineffective
witness into people whose witness brings lasting results.
Prayer in tongues is recommended when we know a
specific conversation or meeting will take place and are unsure

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how to proceed. This gift is for those times when we are

uncertain of God’s will. We should pray in tongues, focused on
the person whom we will meet.
It does appear that we can focus, or direct, our praying in
tongues. The praying is with our spirit, and the directing is
with our mind. We can picture the individual in our ‘mind’s
eye’, then begin to pray in tongues for them. It is the
experience of many that this discipline, in conjunction with
prayer in their own language and fasting, brings results that
are not otherwise seen.

Corporate tongues
Some critics of tongues consider that congregational singing or
praying in tongues is forbidden by 1 Corinthians 14:23.
However, this verse deals more with a large number of people
all offering different prayers in tongues one after each other,
rather than with them all praying or singing the same prayer at
the same time in their heavenly languages.
In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul suggests that there should be only
a few consecutive tongues, and that the tongues should be
interpreted or explained in some way. He does not comment
on corporate tongues.
Many congregations move on from singing a particular song
in their own language to singing in tongues. When this
happens, they are expressing the theme of the song or hymn
in their heavenly languages.
Some people suggest that the Hebrew word selah – which
appears frequently in the Psalms – represents a congregational
pause to allow the musicians to play ‘theme music’ relevant to
the Psalm. Perhaps singing in tongues – singing with the spirit –
is the selah in a meeting.
When people sing or pray in tongues together, there is a
God-given unity to the praising or praying. When two hundred
people sing in tongues, there are not two hundred different
songs all needing a separate interpretation – that would be

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chaos. Instead, one song is being sung in two hundred different

ways – and that is beautiful.
It is the same when a congregation prays together in
tongues. There is only one prayer being prayed in a variety of
ways and languages.

Starting to pray in tongues

Prayer in tongues is only for those believers who have been
filled with the Holy Spirit. Those who desire to receive this gift
must surely believe there is such a thing as praying in tongues.
It might be helpful to ask a friend to give a demonstration of
praying in tongues – especially if we are worried about the
issue of losing control.
We also need to believe that speaking in tongues is for us.
Some people have the notion that, ‘If God wants me to speak
in tongues, he’ll make sure I do’. God does unexpectedly give
this gift to a few who do not ask, but normally those who
receive are those who have kept on asking.
We should ask the Holy Spirit to give us this gift and we
should receive it by faith. Faith is not persuading ourselves
about the truth of tongues. Faith is letting the truth about
tongues persuade us.
What I am going to suggest may appear somewhat
mechanical, but we have to start somewhere. Both the Holy
Spirit and us have a part in praying with tongues. Acts 2:4
states, ‘They began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit
gave them utterance’. The Holy Spirit does not provide lips or
breath as his part of the package. They are our responsibility.
We need to stop speaking in our natural language – for nobody
can speak in two languages at the same time – to take a breath
and trust the Lord, and then to form our lips into a word.
We then begin to speak that word, trusting the Spirit to give
the following words. Some people start immediately with a
complete language. Others stay at an elemental stage for
several weeks. Many agonise for months, persistently asking,

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seeking and knocking, before they pray in tongues. Patience,

perseverance and obedience are the keys to faith and maturity.
As soon as we receive this gift, doubts start to come our
way. The evil one sows disbelief in a frantic attempt to silence
the prayers flowing from our lips.
He has great success with two lies. Firstly, ‘You are making
it up’. Everybody who has prayed in tongues has heard this lie,
yet few people possess the ability to create a new language.
The gift of tongues is for most their first experience of hearing
God speak through them. It is always more natural and
‘everyday’ than they expected.
The second doubt will be, ‘It is not a language, it is
gibberish’. All have suffered the agony of this lie. The truth is
that most foreign languages sound gibberish to those who do
not understand them!
The best advice is to seek reassurance from a tongue-
praying leader. He or she should guide you from the first
faltering sounds to complete maturity in your God-given
language of prayer.

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Part Ten
Towards effective prayer
Prayer is the measure of our spiritual state. When we do not
have a desire or passion to pray there is something wrong with
our spiritual lives. Every believer has a responsibility to cultivate
a lifestyle of prayer as part of the development of their
relationship with God.
Prayer is not burdensome when it flows out of relationship with
God. A desire to pray comes only out of the passion for Jesus
which the Holy Spirit inspires within us. It is only as we pray with
the Holy Spirit’s help that we can truly learn to pray effectively – in
all the areas of prayer which we have examined in this book.

What is effective prayer?

James 5:13–18 is an important passage about effective praying.
It tells us that our prayers can achieve as much as Elijah’s.
We can all become as effective in prayer as Elijah if we learn
to move with the Holy Spirit. However, we do need to take
our eyes off ourselves and others and look to God alone.
Elijah was no different from us. But many of us wrongly
make something special of ‘prayer warriors’. We reserve the
achievements and demands of prayer for a ‘special’ group of
Christians – and miss the truth that effective praying is for all
believers. It is vital we grasp that effective praying does not
depend on our ability or expertise but on God’s power behind
our prayers. Never forget that prayer changes nothing. It is
God who changes everything through prayer.
God is raising up intercessors who will respond to the call
for a lifestyle of prayer. Through our prayers God can change
the destiny of nations and open or close the heavens according
to his word. Ezekiel 22:30 shows that it needs only one praying

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man or woman for God to turn a situation round.

James 5:16 is an important verse – yet nearly every version
of the Bible translates it differently. It contains four important
Greek words. Three of them are unambiguous, one of them is
harder to translate.
It is plain that:
The person who is praying is dikaios – righteous,
just, without prejudice or partiality
The prayer is deesis – beseeching, supplicating,
entreating, arising from a deeply felt need or want
The prayer is described as ischuo – strong, robust,
prevailing against enemies, capable of producing
results.
Then there is the fourth word – energeo. This means ‘to put
power out’, ‘to operate effectively in’, or ‘to work in’. The
difficulty is that it is not clear whether James 5:16 means one,
some, or all of these things:
The person is praying energetically because of
God’s work in them
Through the person’s prayers, God is working
energetically in the need that is being prayed for
Through the person’s prayers, God is energetically
at work in the person
God is working on the person’s prayers, making
them energetic.
At its simplest, the verse can be literally translated as ‘the
supplication of a righteous person is strong in its inworking’. We
can amplify this to ‘beseeching prayer, made by a righteous
person, arising out of a felt need, and as a result of the working
of God, has great power to overcome enemies, to produce
results and to work God’s will into them’.
It is hard to resist the conclusion that James 5:16 suggests an
effect is produced in the praying person through their prayers

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which brings them into line with the will of God – as in the case
of Elijah.
This important verse contains four principles of effective
prayer:
A felt need
In Part Two we met the two main Greek words for prayer.
Proseuche, which means to ask in dependence on God for
his provision, and deesis, which means to ask out of a deep
inner sense of need.
Proseuche is the most common word used for prayer in the
New Testament, and it emphasises the reason why we pray – we
are dependent upon God and in prayer we are looking to him.
However, in James 5:16 the word used is deesis. This
highlights the need that is moving us to pray. By this choice of
word the Holy Spirit is revealing the important principle that
effective prayer rises out of a deep sense of need.
Effective prayer is not praying down a long list of requests, it
is praying for the few needs which God has placed by his Spirit
deep inside us.
We all know how to pray when we need to! A woman
whose child is involved in a serious accident does not need
any urging to pray or any teaching on prayer – she prays
with her whole being. She is fully identified with the needs
of her child.
If we allow him, the Holy Spirit can help us to feel another
person’s needs as personally and as strongly as our own. God
identifies deeply with people’s needs, and he is looking for
believers who are prepared to think and feel in this way.
A righteous person
Proverbs 15:29 teaches that righteousness is a vital principle of
prayer, for we cannot live defectively and pray effectively.
Prayer flows from the heart of the righteous, but Psalm 66:18
& Isaiah 59:1–2 show that sin blocks our prayers.

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However, we must not be condemned or feel that we have

to wait until we have reached perfection before we can pray
effectively. God does not require sinless perfection, but hearts
that do not hold on to or cherish sin.
We need to silence the enemy who says that we are not
worthy to pray by reminding him, and ourselves, that the
blood of Jesus has cleansed us from our sin. Jesus is our
righteousness and it is by his grace and forgiveness, not our
performance, that we pray to God.
The work of God
Although we are saved by the work of God alone – there is
nothing we can do to make us saved – once we are saved we
work out our salvation in partnership with God. We see this
partnership in prayer.
Some people recognise God’s power, knowledge, love and
wisdom and think that there is no need for us to pray. Others
see the scriptural emphasis on prayer and think that their
prayers can change the world. Both groups are mistaken, for
God has chosen to work through prayer.
Prayer is meant to be an action. It is not enough to believe
in prayer as a principle or a theory. We must actually pray. But
prayer is the effective operation of God himself. When we pray
we are being caught up in the activity of the Holy Spirit.
There are two main Greek words for God’s power at
work: Dunamis, which means ‘inherent might’ or ‘potential
power’, and energeia, which means ‘active power in
operation’.
Dunamis is power not yet released. Like dynamite, once
detonated, the latent power is activated and becomes energeia
– power in operation. Prayer is the effective operation of God.
It is his energeia at work. Our prayers can never be powerful,
rather it is that the all-powerful God works through our
prayers. This is why it is better to speak about effective praying
than powerful praying.

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It also explains why the devil hates prayer so much, and

works so hard to prevent it. When we pray, we release the
omnipotent God to work in the situation – and in us.
Effective prayer is God’s power in operation. We can only
experience his power through prayer when we pray. As
powerful as God is, if we do not pray, his power is not released.
And effective prayer is both the result of and results in the
working of God. True prayer is always ‘in the Spirit’ – it comes
from the operation of God. It is not just that God is ready or
waiting to work when we pray, but he is actually at work
prompting us to prayer, at work in our prayers, and at work in
us through our prayers.
Ultimately, this holy divine and human partnership is a
mystery, but it is the key to effective praying.
Capable of results
James 5:16 shows us that true prayer affects change. It makes
a difference. The reality that God works strongly through the
prayers of his people should motivate us in our prayers.
The Greek word ischuo is used to signify robust health,
overcoming enemies, effective force, great strength, achieving
results, and so on.
Prayer is not just a conversation with God, it is also a
confrontation with God against an enemy. Prayer has
consequences. God gets results through the prayers of
righteous believers. We see God work strongly, bringing health,
overcoming enemies, and changing events – when we pray.

Unanswered prayer
Some people are concerned with what they call
‘unanswered prayer’. They think that God hears their
requests and makes no response. However, it seems to me
that while there may be prayers which God does not hear,
all the prayers that he hears are answered – though not,
perhaps, in the way that we want!

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Isaiah 59:1–2 shows that God does not always hear the
prayers of those who are separated from him by sin. God does
sometimes graciously hear a sinner’s prayer – as in Luke
18:9–14. But there is no scriptural promise to hear and answer
the prayers of a person who is not ‘in Christ’.
1 John 3:21–22 suggests that a believer’s sin will mean that
they are unable to approach God confidently. And James 4:2–3
shows that right motives are important in prayer.
The story of Paul’s ‘thorn’ in 2 Corinthians 12:7–10 is
significant. Three times, Paul prayed for the thorn to be
removed – and God did not remove it. But Paul’s prayer was
not unanswered. 2 Corinthians 12:9 makes it clear that God
spoke to Paul. God’s answer was a reminder about the all-
sufficiency of God’s grace. God loves us and knows what is best
for us – this means that his answer will often differ from our
request. But it will be an answer.
The wonderful promises of 1 John 5:14 and John 15:7 have
been misunderstood by some who consider prayer to be
some sort of spiritual slot machine. We must appreciate that
these promises are conditional. They are for those who are
abiding in Christ and making requests according to God’s will.
Of course, this does not mean adding ‘if it be thy will’ to the
end of every prayer. Luke 22:39–45 tells the story of the
supreme moment of temptation in the life of Jesus. The issue
to be decided was whose will would be implemented, the
Son’s or the Father’s?
The first half of verse 42 suggests that Jesus, confronted with
the cup of God’s wrath against humanity (with which he had
totally identified himself) earnestly longed not to have to
endure the cross. At that moment, Jesus was tempted with the
human desire for forgiveness without the cross and for grace
without righteous judgement.
The prayer in the second part of verse 42 must be the
climax of the entire Bible, perhaps the most important moment
in history. In his humanity, Jesus was tempted to look for an

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answer outside of God’s plan. But he resisted the temptation

and submitted to God’s will: ‘Nevertheless, let your will be
done, not mine.’
None of us will ever face a prayer struggle like Gethsemane,
but we are all called to submit ourselves to the Father’s will –
and we do this in prayer. This submission may mean that ‘our
will’ is not done, but never let it be suggested that our prayers
have not been answered.

Six aspects of effective praying

We know that prayer flows from our relationship with God.
This is why it is impossible to reduce prayer to a set of rules or
a formula. But we can draw out some basic principles to help
develop our prayer relationship with God. Remember, these
are pointers, not rules.
God wants us to ask
James 4:2 & John 16:24 show the importance of asking God.
This is the prayer of petition, or supplicatory prayer. We must
ask him. So often we try to work out everything in our own
minds and rely on our human ability. We must ask our heavenly
Father instead.
Some people are slow to ask God because they have a false
picture of God. They see him as a grudging figure who is rather
distant. How false! He desires to give us good things and
exhorts us to ask him.
One of the saddest ideas some have about true Christianity
is the notion that God is not friendly or favourably disposed
towards people. The truth is that we can come to Jesus Christ
directly. He intercedes for us and lovingly represents us before
our heavenly Father.
Imagine all the things that God is ready to give us, and think
what could happen if we would only ask him. Where would
we be? Who would we be? What would we be? If we found
our children stealing fifty pence from us we would be hurt,

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Effective Prayer

because we know that they only have to ask and we would

give it to them. How much more so in our relationship with
our heavenly Father?
Ask with boldness
We have seen that there is a wealth of teaching on prayer in
Luke 11:1–13. The man who woke his neighbour at midnight
to borrow some bread got it because of his boldness. This is
stressed in Hebrews 4:16.
The Greek word anaideia in Luke 11:8 is translated as
‘boldness’ or ‘persistence’, but it literally means
‘shamelessness’, ‘cheek’ or ‘nerve’.
We need the boldness and determination to think, ‘I need
this provision, and I will not be put off by anything until I have
obtained it’.
We need holy audacity – based on the strength of our
relationship with God, the confident knowledge of his will and
the assurance that we are welcomed into his presence – to ask
him with nerve and cheek.
We need the audacity to ask God for big things – as in Psalm
2:8. We should not be intimidated or limited by the suggestions
of the enemy in how often we approach God’s throne, or
what we ask when we get there.
Ask according to his will
When we pray we should not express our rights or point of
view. We need to identify the will of God, and pray that into
operation. If we are not praying God’s will in a situation, we are
praying our own will. James 4:3 shows that this is why many
prayers seem to be unanswered.
Prayer according to the will of God involves not just the
requests, but also the motives. We can ask for the right thing
with the wrong motives.
Prayer is not trying to persuade God to do our will, but making
sure that we align ourselves with his will. This does not mean
tagging ‘if it be your will Lord’ at the end of a list of selfish requests!

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Towards effective prayer

Some people teach that we should expect the answers

‘Yes’, ‘No’, or ‘Wait’ to our prayers. Such teaching may have
been born out of a struggle to identify the will of God in a
situation. But the reason we don’t know God’s will is often
simply our laziness.
1 John 5:14–15 shows that God’s answer is always ‘Yes!’ to
requests which are made according to his will – and this should
be the goal of all our prayers. We should aim to know God and
his will so well that we can ask and be confident of a positive
answer every time.
Praying in the name of Jesus is not a magical formula but a
recognition that our authority in prayer is being exercised in
alignment with the will of the Father. And John 14:13–14
shows what happens when we pray like this! When we pray
with the authority of Jesus it is as if Jesus is praying.
Romans 8:26–27 teaches that the Holy Spirit intercedes for
us according to the will of God. If we do not know what the
will of God is in a situation, we can pray in tongues and the
Holy Spirit will pray his will through us.
Ask in faith
James 5:15 identifies the prayer of faith. One prayer of faith
achieves more than many years of prayer without it. Sadly, our
faith is generally rather poor.
We cannot expect to receive unless we believe, and Jesus
taught us, in Mark 11:24, to believe that we have received
when we pray. This is the prayer of faith. James 1:6–8 helps us
to understand what this means in practice.
There are two major questions about believing God:
Is he able?
Is he willing?
In Mark 9:14–29, Jesus’ ability was brought into question
because the disciples had been unable to heal a young boy with
a mute spirit. But there is never anything wrong with God’s
power – only with our unbelief.

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Mark 1:40–45 deals with God’s willingness to bless. Many

people who are struggling with hurt and disappointment blame
God as unwilling. Like the leper, they say: ‘You could help me
if only you were willing.’ But Jesus’ response in Mark 1:41
settles the matter.
This is our challenge today. We must believe him and, by
our prayers of faith, demonstrate that he is both willing and
able to answer in time of need.
Ask with persistence
We have seen that there are different types of prayer and each
has its own particular principles. The prayer of persistence is a
clear example. Unlike the prayer of faith, this is offered
repeatedly until the breakthrough is experienced.
It is vitally important, as in the parable in Luke 18:1–8, not to give
up when our prayers seem to go unanswered. We must press on,
for the Judge who is willing and good will surely answer our cause.
In Revelation 5:8 & 8:4, the prayers of the saints rise up like
incense before God. This is an encouragement to keep
praying, for our prayer might be the last prayer required before
the bowls are full and the promise of Hosea 10:12 is obtained.
Pray with variety
Throughout this book we have seen many different aspects of
prayer and many different ways of praying. It is not a uniform
or monotonous activity. In our regular Bible reading, we will do
well to look out for the various examples of prayers we have
examined. We need to check that our prayer lives reflect a
similar wide range of praying.
We need to check that we are not ignoring loud or silent
prayers, intercession or thanksgiving, warfare or praise,
confession or asking, tongues or supplication.
It is too easy to become stuck in a prayer rut, always using
the same words and styles. We need to broaden our prayers
and become more creative in our prayer lives. Who knows
what God will do through our praying!

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