Author: Pastor Rufus Ajiboye

«If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.» (John 15:7).

There is a God´s promise in this scripture: «whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.» Which one of you had prayed for something but it was not given to you? I guess many of you had, so where is the problem? We often read in the Bible that people prayed and received the answer to their prayers. God Himself told us to pray, and He promised to answer our prayers.

God cleanses and heals us from inside out. And one of the most important elements leading to the inner healing is confession of our sins before God and forgiving of other people’s transgressions. «And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors» (Mathew, 6:12).

When we come to God in prayer, we must confess our sins and ask Him to heal us. Such a prayer brings healing and deep inner cleansing.

Everything that bothers us can be brought to God in prayer.

«Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus» (Philippians, 4:6-7).

When we continually pray and worship God, then our main desire is doing the will of God. Many prayers remain unanswered by God, because these prayers have a wrong foundation and demonstrate wrong priorities. For example, you may pray for a person with some serious problems. And you ask God to remove his or her problems or to solve them. At the same time you know that even if the answer to this prayer comes, the problems might return, since the cause of them has not been removed. That is why when Paul prayed he always asked for the people to learn the will of God and have a desire to do His will and be fruitful.

When things go fine and when God answers our prayers, it is easy to thank God, – at those times we thank God and adore Him. But as soon as God decides to answer us in a way that does not fit our plans, we start thinking whether there is any sense in prayer. The Bible calls us to thank God in everything. The Bible calls us to praise God aloud so that other people would hear it. Be grateful to God, praise him, and sing to Him – aloud! Thanksgiving is the very model of prayer that Jesus gave to His disciples.

Thinking about God and His Majesty, focusing our mind on Him should become something we are constantly worried about. That´s what Jesus taught His disciples. You have to look at God with the eyes of your heart before you open your mouth for prayer.

Humble meditation of the God´s character He revealed to us is another way of how to worship Him. We receive His mercy when reading His Word, this, in turn, testifies about God´s character.

God wants us to talk to Him the way we talk to our father. Jesus said in His prayer: “… blessed be Thy Name!” The word “bless” means He worshipped the God Father in reverence to Him. Worship prepares our soul to meet the God. It also involves our spirit. Just like in order to listen to a broadcast on the radio you need to tune it up first, worship helps us to turn our spirit on and tune it up on the God´s wave. Jesus taught:

«You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve»

In order to pray effectively one needs a sample. Christian life is a spiritual life, therefore, connection with Heaven is vitally important. Our God is a spirit, but we all live on Earth, so we need to stay connected with God. There are only two ways of having fellowship with God – The word of God and a prayer. The God speaks to us through His word. The word of God is His revelation about God himself. Neither you can create the character of God by yourself nor you can imagine what kind of person He is, because you can easily fail getting it right. The God tells us in His word about who He is, what He can do and how He acts.

1. Set apart some time for prayer and commit to it.

2. Plan where you will pray.

It does not have to be at home, but you also do not need to turn prayer into some religious ritual. Be creative when you choose the place for prayer. For instance, there was a time in my life when I made walking into prayer time. I called it “a prayer walk”. I went out in the street for the purpose of prayer.

If we want to have fruitful prayer life, then prayer must become a habit. In order for that to happen we must gain some skills in the area of prayer. Skill means how we do something. When you know what you need to do and why you need to do it, the next step is HOW to do it. If you don’t know how, this activity can’t become a habit. But you won’t be able to learn how, unless you actually start doing it. I won’t know how to pray, unless I start praying. I am sure we already know very much about prayer. You can put to practice this knowledge that you have. Thus you obtain skills. Skills are developed by putting knowledge to practice.