Author: Pastor Rufus Ajiboye

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.

Prayer is meaningful time with God.

I will explain what I mean by that. Quite often I use the word ‘time’. Prayer is one of the means of organizing and managing the time we have been given. What is the topic of our prayers is a very interesting question. We all talk about it. There are so many books written on prayer. But who is the person who prays truly effectively? This is a very serious question. God desires us to arrange our lives for effective prayer; it will take our ministry and our whole life to a much higher level.

Prayer is getting close to God.

Let’s look at James (4:8): «Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…».

Prayer means to consciously draw near to God. Prayer means to approach God on purpose.

Who of you wants to draw near to God? Who of you desires for God to draw near to you? God cannot be closer to you than He is. But you can draw near to Him. God is so close to us; He says: „I am here!” You are asking: «God, where are You?” Remember when Elijah ran away and cried: «God, where are You?” But God was with him. God is everywhere! And we can draw near to Him through prayer.

Prayer is spiritual effort.

Prayer has nothing to do with our intellectual abilities. It has everything to do with our spirit, so it is spiritual labour. Prayer is the spirit of man appealing to God Who also is Spirit. God is Spirit and a man is spirit, so effective prayer is communication and fellowship of human spirit with the Spirit of God. Prayer is spiritual aspiration for God. Of course, our mind has its part in prayer, but if prayer only stays in the realm of mind, but the spirit does not connect with God, then it is not prayer at all. Every time I have touched God in prayer, my spirit knows it has connected with God and I know I have communicated with God.