Author: Pastor Rufus Ajiboye

Why does Satan hate it and is afraid of the prayers of the children of God? This is because in a prayer, we and God become a team – an invincible team. In the Book of Daniel, there is a description of an event when a certain group of people prompted the king to issue a law prohibiting contact in a prayer with the living God. Except for the living God, they were allowed to pray any other gods. They were allowed to ask for help to people, but not only living God. And it was Satan´s plan. Why does Satan put these obstacles? Because he realized that the prayer is power.

Prayer is the living breath of heaven. As believers, we can be givers and can be involved in many important activities; nevertheless, without prayer all this ‘work’ will lack the heavenly breath of life. Take a look at artificial flowers: they are beautiful, but have no aroma. We are able to do good works without prayer; but we have to realize that our works will lack the aroma of life, the footprints of heaven. If these flowers were alive, then they would smell.

God does not come into our lives without being asked. Praying means to invite God to come and help us. It is a realization of the fact that I am weak and there is One Who is stronger than me, Who loves me and cares for me. Prayer is an invitation to the One Who is stronger than me and my circumstances.

Do you remember Jairus? We read about him in Mark (5:22-23). He had sent his people to Jesus to invite Him to his house, because his daughter was on the verge of death.

When we pray we place ourselves in submission to God’s will for our lives. The very fact that you come to God in prayer is the proof of your submission to God.

The Bible tells us to pray always; it is the command of the Lord. That is why when I come to God in prayer then the very act of praying places me in the position of submission to this command. In other words, if I don’t pray, thus I demonstrate the lack of submission to the will of God; because praying is the command of God.

Ask God for grace to arrange your life for effective praying. Be honest with yourself today. Is your prayer life effective, or it has turned into fruitless routine? Maybe your really do not have any prayer relationships with God? You alone can answer these questions. We often talk of prayer; we hear of prayer. It makes us think that we know what prayer is. But do we practise praying? We know that prayer is necessary for our spiritual life, just like air is necessary for our physical life. We must be enough diligent and disciplined to pray.

Prayer is one of the ways to find out the will of God. Why did Jesus say that He did nothing but what He saw His Father do? Why did Jesus pray? Why did He do what He did? Because He sought the will of God in prayer and received the revelation of God’s will.

Let’s look at Moses. God gave Moses the law; God told him to deal with the nation according to it. But while the nation of Israel was in desert Moses faced different situation that were not described in the law.

«Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened» (Mathew, 7:7-8).

This passage of Scripture reveals three levels of praying. I really want you to see it. There are quite many places in the Bible where God has made known to us His desires and His will and promises. We can ask in prayer when the will of God has been revealed and made known.

When I pray I pour out my soul before God. I will not dwell on it for long, because we mostly know how to do it. We know how to open our hearts. As soon as we find a listening ear and as soon as we find a person we can trust, we open our hearts. We know that God is always ready to hear us out. Besides, God is totally trustworthy. It means that you can boldly come before God with everything that concerns us. That is what we call prayer. And that is why Paul says that we shouldn’t think and worry too much, but always reveal our desires before God in prayer and then His peace will fill our hearts.

Like I said, it is not what I tell God that it is the most important thing in prayer; it is what God wants to tell me. I will explain why it is so. Is there anything you can tell Him that He does not know! Is there anything at all? He knows everything. You may think that nobody knows what you are going through and that nobody knows the problems you have and how hard your life is. That may apply to people, but not to God. God knows everything! Even before you start praying, God knows everything you may want to tell Him. God also knows why these things are happening to you.

Today I would like to talk more about the third point. I finished saying that prayer is more about what God wants to tell you and what He wants to do in your life and not what you want to tell Him. So you do not need to tell God what is on your heart; allow God to work through His Word giving Him opportunity to work in your heart and reveal to you His plans. If you want to hear God, you cannot be in a hurry. Effective prayer has nothing to do with haste.