How to Pray

Friday, 08 April 2022 - 11 minutes to read

How to pray: Some causal notes from my experience on how to pray. Feel free to leave comments or suggesting changes.

Note: This is just a compilation of my own "lessons learned". Use with caution.

Introduction

All prayer is the means to fellowship with God. All prayer is born of him, and he is the ultimate reason and goal for prayer.
All prayer should be led by the Holy Spirit
- Prayer led by the Holy Spirit and in God's presence flows easily and naturally; proceeds from one topic to the next in graceful succession; and is a joyful and delightful service.
- In groups, prayer led by the Holy Spirit will be harmonious, each person contributing in turn, and will build towards the main point of the meeting. It's pretty cool to watch.
- Prayer not led by the Holy Spirit is dry, dull, boring, empty, and more similar to a workout than anything else. It might be completely ineffectual.
There are largely three directions in prayer: Upwards, inwards, and outwards
- Upwards is our prayer to God; praise, worship, seeking him and drawing near to him
- Inwards is for ourselves; to see God's love working more in ourselves, to be broken down before him and dealing with the problems we're facing
  - See the section on praying in tongues; it's a real key here
  - Also, try to meditate on the word
- Outwards is for the broken world around us; for God's love to touch it, and for his power to overcome it

Drawing near to God

Seeking God is the action; the presence of God is the reward
- It takes time to enter into his presence
  - Sometimes an hour, sometimes a few minutes
  - The more often you seek God like this, the quicker you will enter in
  - See the section below on "Waiting for God"
- If the presence of God isn't there - are you doing something wrong?
  - You could be under attack
    - Keep praying and worshipping until you break it
  - There could be hidden sin to deal with (is God telling you about something?)
    - Matt 5:23-24
  - Life could just be incredibly busy
    - Learning to clear your mind and letting go in prayer is hard
    - But it's essential
    - A lot of famous preachers have to pray for an hour to just clear their head and start hearing God
    - Try worshipping for a bit (see below)
Praise and worship is the easiest way to enter into the presence of God.
- Make sure you're actually worshipping Him; not just singing songs about him or singing along to modern Christian music
  - Sing to him. Sing out how much you love him.
  - It's God's love language
- There is a flow of the spirit in praise and worship
  - Initially, pick a worship song and brute-force your way in
  - As you enter into his presence, you'll become more sensitive to the flow of the spirit
    - Sometimes he wants to pray and intercede instead, or just talk - be open
  - There are songs that lift you up, right away - you'll feel it. When you're working with the flow, the presence grows stronger.
  - If this confuses you, just ignore it and sing to him. He loves it.
- From praise and worship, there's usually a spiritual flow that moves into other areas (intercession, talking to God, preaching, etc etc)
  - Stay with the flow
  - The presence dips when you leave the flow
God the Father is the ultimate destination
- He longs to spend time with you
  - Interesting parallel to "Mio, my Mio" by Astrid Lindgren
- Jesus was there to redeem you, so you could stand next to him as his brother, and approach the Father as equal in standing
- The Holy Spirit empowers you to draw into the presence of the Father

Waiting for God

Sometimes when you pray, it takes a while before you start "feeling" anything
- When you persist in prayer anyway, it kills your flesh and trains your spirit
  - It's a bit like weightlifting. You get stronger over time if you push yourself.
- Part of it is Jesus pulling you in deeper
After a while, his presence comes quicker, and eventually, his presence will be there immediately when you start praying
- Times of not praying will put you back into this seeking-before-feeling time
- Don't be discouraged; you're not being punished - keep seeking
  - A large part of being a Christian can be summed up in the words "keep seeking". Don't stop. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
    - The reward is amazing. Kings and presidents will be green with envy.
Faith comes from hearing the word
- While the written word is the foundation and the ultimate truth against which we verify each spoken word, it is really the "spoken word of God" that Paul refers to.
  - The rhema, not the logos
- When God reveals his truth to you, and knowledge and understanding explodes in your mind, that's what we're after
- It is easy to believe when God whispers in your ear "I am the Lord that healeth thee."

Praying in tongues

Praying in tongues is perfectly normal for a Christian and you should do it - more than you think
- It is the easiest way to focus in prayer
- It is the easiest way to break through your flesh and focus on God
Prayer in tongues
- edifies you
- focuses you
- may seem like a waste of time, but it's not
- is literally the Holy Spirit praying for you, within you, and through you
Pray in tongues more than you want (1 Cor 14:18)
Four modes of operation
- Tongues for personal edification
  - it builds you up, and brings you deeper into God
  - it reveals God's truth to you
- Tongues for interpretation
  - Basically works like two-stage prophecy
  - Be wary of public tongues without any interpretation, the enemy can operate in tongues as well
- Tongues for intercession
  - Feels like a burden on you
  - When you lean into it and start interceding in tongues, it can become extremely powerful
    - Sometimes you will feel situations change and bonds breaking in the spirit as you pray
    - Keep interceding until there's a "release of joy"
    - Sometimes there will be several breakthroughs before the burden finally lifts
    - It is hard work, but so glorious when you break through
- Tongues as a sign to the unbeliever
  - God uses you to speak a foreign language you don't know
  - Very rare, but intercredibly powerful as a testimony
There is never a wrong time to pray in tongues
- But if you're around people, maybe do it quietly so you don't come across as a weirdo
- But still listen to the Spirit and led him lead you. It can still become dry and dull.
Be respectful if there are people around you who don't agree with it

Meditation

Meditation is biblically sound (Jos 1:8)
- Not some eastern philosophy
- Meditating on the word is different from just reading or studying the word
Gross oversimplification: "Say this passage of scripture out loud 50 times."
- Mutter it to yourself
- Pray in tongues over it
- Try to listen to the words more than breaking down the meaning of it
- Let the Holy Spirit speak to you about what happens in the passage
Step by step, the Holy Spirit will open up the scripture passage to you
- Words will start make sense, verses will open up, and He will start explaining them to you
It will anchor you in the word, guarding against spiritual flakiness

Listening to God

It takes experience to learn how to listen to God
- But it's necessary
- God expects it of us
- Wisdom is a promise given to us so we can make good life decisions (Jas 1:5)
  - Ask him about important decisions
  - He will answer
If in doubt, pray for two things first
- Ask the Holy spirit to open your ears, and shut down the flesh so you can hear Him clearly
- Bind the enemy and forbid him to speak to you
Sometimes you need to set time aside to seek God until he answers
- He is a rewarder of those who seek him diligently (Heb 11:6)
- Set an evening aside and seek God
  - "I won't leave until I hear from you"
  - Pray in tongues quietly, keep a listening attitude
  - Keep pen and paper with you
  - Sometimes I've fallen asleep while doing this
    - Keep at it the next evening
Making a prayer map can be very useful
- Like a mind-map, but for areas of prayer
- As your questions come up, expand the mind-map
- As God speaks, write in his words
- When done, transfer the prayer map into a "what to do" list and/or "what God said" list
Even experienced people get things wrong sometimes; be cautious of what you hear and try it carefully
- Don't feel bad
- Try again
- Be careful to listen to and weigh the input of others; I've seen people get caught up in their own relevations to the point where they run blindly off in a wrong direction
Also, don't listen to every spirit, but try things properly (1 Jn 4:1)
- Any spirit or angel that testifies that Jesus is God, born in the flesh, crucified on the cross, and resurrected from the dead is from God
- Any spirit or angel who gets really vague about that, is not from God

Praying for others

Everything done to others should be done in love.
- The Father is love. Jesus is love. The Holy Spirit is love.
- If you do not love the people around you, try to be quiet
- If all you can do is condemn someone, please be quiet
If you're unsure of what you feel led to do, pray in tongues over it
- If it's from God, the leading will get stronger
- If it's not from God, the leading will weaken over the next few minutes
- Keep in mind the Holy Spirit always leads, never pushes
  - There is a demon whose voice is very similar to that of the Holy Spirit
  - The discerning difference is that this strange voice will always push you and drive you
  - A lot of Christians get fooled, at least some of the time, by this voice
    - So did I, but praying in tongues helped me discern it more clearly
    - The temptation was actually to boost my own standing among others
You don't get to decide when the gifts or the anointing operates
- It requires cooperation with the Holy Spirit
- But the gift of prophecy is subject to the control of the prophet
  - Try not to disrupt, but let everything happen in order (1 Cor 14:40)
  - It is always appropriate to ask permission before prophesying or operating in a gift
If you prophesy over someone, make yourself available for questions afterward
- One pastor left his business card so people could contact him with questions; I thought that was classy

Spiritual authority

There are tremendous weapons in the heavenly realms. These are accessible.
- The best way to access them is not to seek them, but to seek God and spend time with him
- God will teach you how to use them
- It is awesome to behold heavenly artillery rounds drop in - at your guidance - and see them explode fortresses into bits
  - Like when Moses crossed through the Red Sea; or the walls of Jericho came down
    - Still for today. Not just history.
  - The impact will literally shake the earth. You will feel it.
  - The sound of it will travel outward from it (mostly as testimony)
The key is to walk on a word that God spoke to you
- Every time a strong miracle happened in the bible, it's because God told someone to do something specific
- Not the written word, a word specific to you, straight from God
- Peter walked on water not because he "named it and claimed it", but because Jesus told him to
- Jesus, as a human, was equally dependent on the leading of the Spirit
  - He didn't put mud on someone's eyes because he decided to do it, it was the Holy Spirit who told him
- Moses got rebuked because he hit the rock with his staff again
  - God never does anything the same way twice. It's always different.
  - You need his spoken word for each situation
There is a place in God where judgement upon situations and people will become needed
- It is to be handled extremely carefully and always, always as led by the Holy Spirit
  - It is far better not to judge
  - If you're not walking strongly in love, do not even think you can judge
  - Keep in mind, God asked us to "bless your enemies and pray for those who persecute you". Not once did he suggest we condemn them.
    - In fact, cursing and condemning people may be closer to witchcraft than prayer.
- Always let the word cut into your heart before it cuts into others
  - It's a double-edged sword for a reason
- When God judges, scary things can happen
  - People may get hurt or die
  - Things may burn down
  - Never, ever pray for people to get hurt or die, or for things to burn down
    - Again, bless your enemies. No cursing or condemning allowed. Love them.