The Secret of Powerful and Effective Prayer
Why do some people pray and it seems like God answers immediately and powerfully yet others feel that when they pray nothing happens?
This verse was brought to light by our pastor yesterday and it came to my mind again this morning. Read it below:
Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. James 5:16
Our prayers caaaaaan be powerful and effective. This verse makes that very clear, but how?
There is a difference in praying TO God and praying FROM God. What does that mean?
Well, praying TO God usually means that we come with a checklist, a want list, and a desperate needs list and we want God to just "do something."
Praying FROM GOD means we have spent time getting to know Him and we have learned what is on HIS heart in a situation. We not only learn what the words and verses in the Bible say, but we start connecting on a spiritual level with them. We connect with the Father's heart and we can feel the life that is in those words. The Bible is alive and active and when we start to understand His power in the truths of His word and believe it, we speak it. It's like a connection so deep in our inner being that is prompting us to pray a certain way or to declare a certain promise. We literally bring the power of God's word into our situation by speaking it forth.
The key word to me in that verse is the word "righteous." To be "right" with God....or to be in alignment or acting in accord with divine law (as Webster's puts it). When we are in alignment with what God desires, you better believe power will come and miracles will be evident. But sometimes our flesh gets in the way and things don't quite turn out how WE hoped they would. But God is still at work. He is working to bring us to a deeper understanding of His ways even when those answers are different than what we hoped for. God is bringing us up to a higher way of thinking and even praying if we are humble enough to keep pressing in and learning.
Take what you know from the word and don't be afraid to speak it and pray it over your situation. Then keep trusting God to show you how to pray and see HIS power manifest and bring about His perfect plan. Our prayers could literally be what brings salvation to a wayward soul or healing to a dying man or even purpose for one spiraled down into depression and despair.
Speak life! And watch God do what only He can do through the very words we speak!!
