Prayer
Solfried Quist of WYWAM said something like this...(I hope I understand it right).
This is my own understanding of prayer but it is not complete by a long way .
I am almost sure that there is a difference from praying (on our own) and praying (in the Spirit)
A lot of the time, when we start to pray, we are not in the Spirit, even though God wants us to pray it. We have to, as it were, bring the Holy Spirit down into the prayers that we want to pray, and then we can be carried along with Him. Just bringing a 'Shopping List' to God is, somehow, not the way to do it for we feel 'on our own'. Sometimes we pray and it is in the Spirit, but most of the time we start - out of the Spirit, it seems, and we need to do two things. (1) Bring the Holy Spirit down so that He prays through us. (2) Pray the prayer
In the Christian Church there are people who have supernatural power to heal. Although there can be some disappointments, some of their successes can be instantaneous and very dramatic. They can cast out the illness in the name of Jesus and the person gets better. But, by far, the majority of miracles in the Christian Church, (both Protestant and Roman Catholic), are brought about by ungifted men, women and children like you and me. The way we do it is with the use of prayer.
Prayer means talking to God, and it seems as if just talking to God and asking Him to heal is all that is needed to bring a miracle about.
We do not need great faith to heal. The only faith we need is faith that there is a God and He has the ability to give us what we want.
Jesus said a parable that explains about prayer ..(Luke 11)
Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, "Friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine is come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him", and he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give you? I say to you, Though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will arise and give him as many as he needs.
The man who wanted the food was not great friends with the man who had the food.He was not even a Christian.
He was not more holy than you.
He was not more gifted than you.
God, (our loving Father), loves you much, much more than either of these men.
The only thing he had was nerve, and persistence. That is all we need.
Someone once said that "If you have to pray to God more than once.....The first time was not in faith"
He knew what FAITH was...but this saying is not entirely scriptual and can confuse us.
God will not give you anything that harms you. He probably would not let you win the lottery, or marry your favourite actor, but there are many things that He wants us to pray to Him for. He seems to need our prayers so that He can give it to us.
The miracles He gives are often natural miracles. There is often natural reason that the person has got better. He has been very lucky, or the pills have worked very well.
There are more miracles, natural and supernatural, in the Christian Church than elsewhere
just because we pray more.
Rabbi Eleazer, about 100 years before Christ said
"When you have to pray, go and pray in the Synagogue of your town; if you cannot pray in the Synagogue, pray in your field. If you cannot pray in your field, pray in your house. Pray in your bed, and there at least, speak to God in your heart and be silent"
A doctor told us that our baby daughter would not live to be a month old. She would be definitely dead in a month. No one lives with what she had. We got everyone to pray. When she started school, six years later, the Liverpool Echo printed half a page on Mums Little Miracle.
Last month, (January 2002), someone where I work was told that his wife had throat cancer. He got everyone in his Roman Catholic Church to pray. When the surgeon operated on her he could not find the tumour. It had gone.
These miracles regularly happen in the real Christian Church, just because of prayer, (and God).
You can not do your best for any one, or any thing, unless it includes prayer.
Here are some practical tips to help with prayer.
Answered prayer often follows a sequence.
1. Always do your best naturally. Be willing to give time and money etc. if you have it.
2. Pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray, not that your prayers do anything other than talk to God.
3. Pray with your heart. (God looks on the heart). Just saying the words is a waste of time. If you find yourself slipping into repetition without any heart talking, stop, and get your heart talking again.
4. Keep your ears open. Jesus often gives a simple word - something simple to do, which precedes answered prayer. The disciples were praying for fish all night, then Jesus said "Put the nets on the other side of the boat". If that sort of thing happens - jump to it, and do whatever He says.
5. God honours the order of things. Parents have more power, when they pray for their own children than if more spiritual people pray for their children. If you pray for a child try to get the parents to pray with you. If there is a sick dog, get the owner of the dog to pray, even if it is a child.
6. God honours the babe as much, if not more than the mature adult. He is a loving Father, not an efficiency expert. Our desire for Him means more to Him than our knowledge or maturity and He will respond and move mountains for the little babe who asks Him more than He does for the mature adult, (unless the mature adult thinks of himself as a babe as well).
7. Purity of motive. There are people who are using God to get a good life. (Good home in a good area, good wife, job, children etc.). their prayer life, usually is lacking power.
8. Heartbreak gives us greater power. Jackie Pullinger says that "You can not have real power until you have had your heart broken." God uses failure in prayer. If we get a failure in an important prayer then it sharpens our resolve the next time we pray. If you care for others it is a good thing to get angry with God.
9. Remind yourself that you are, very much, loved. We do not understand a lot of things. We often only go by what we see. We live in a rough, tough, sometimes rotten world, but it does not mean that we have a rough, tough rotten God. Remember that He loves you with a tender, whole hearted, life giving love. He lives to die for you. I know you can cause Him pain when you sin, but what has that to do with it? You might not think you are worth it, but what has that got to do with it. He loves you, and you are very precious to Him.
10. God always answers desperate prayers.
In addition to these practical tips, there are scriptures.
1. The prayer of a righteous man avails much.
"Is any among you afflicted ? let him pray.
Is any merry ? Let him sing psalms.
Is any sick amongst you ? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he has committed sins they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults, one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Get serious about getting rid of sin. The real God does not like sin. I would guess that prayer power increases over four times as much if you are free from the habit of sin.
2. Fasting. "These can only be healed with prayer and fasting" Fasting focuses the soul on the prayer and shows God your earnest. There are many Christians who pray half-heartedly
3. Pray earnestly.
"Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not for the space of three years six months, and he prayed again, the heavens gave rain and the earth bought forth her fruit"
1 Peter 5 v13-18
4. Prayer power increases with increased faith. (this is merging prayer and faith but is included here).
5. Keep your good works secret. This is the hardest one to keep. Sometimes you have to literally stop yourself in mid-sentence. Telling people of your successes with God can put future successes at risk. You have had your reward if you are after the praise of people in any way. On several occasions, Jesus told the healed person not to tell other people what had happened.
"Take heed that you do not righteous works to impress people, to be praised by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.- - - -but when you are giving, let not your right hand know what your left hand is doing that your giving may be in secret and your Father who sees in secret will give you the reward."
Matthew 6.v1-2
6. Prayer power increases if a husband honours (respects) his wife.
"You husbands, dwell with your wife according to knowledge, giving honour to the wife as to the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life - that your prayers be not hindered. "
1 Peter 3v7
7. Prayer power increases if a wife honours and submits to her husband. (with a willing heart).
"Every woman praying or prophesying, having his head uncovered, dishonours her head for that is even all one, as if she was shaven. For if a woman be not covered, let her also be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he is in the image of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman but the woman for the man.
For this cause ought a woman to have power on her head because of the angels - - - - But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God."
1 Corinthians 11v4-16
Scripture indicates that the man is head of the family, and if the wife accepts that, then the order of God is shown.
Prompted by Lucifer, some angels, rebelled against God, because they did not like the order of God. Those angels were thrown out of heaven, (Committed the 'Unforgivable Sin' ?), and became devils. The remaining angels still remember that, and are aware of the Christian who accepts the order of God.
This seems to indicate one of the instances where the angels and God differ. Angels seem to look on the outward appearance, (head covering), whereas God looks on the heart.
The Holy Spirit, these days, seems to be very gentle with the woman on this. He needs her love and respect, and knows how to win her with love. He thinks that her submission is not something "to be grasped after". but has made Himself "a little lower than the angels" and makes himself the servant of many, in order to win this great prize - The prize of her love.
There are many Christian women who do not submit themselves to men, but submit themselves to God. They are finding that if they cover their heads when they pray or prophecy, then their power is increased.
There also are times when women teach and preach in the Christian Church, and it is puzzling, because it is in the Spirit. The quality is excellent and purity of motive is impeccable. These women naturally submit to their husbands and to other men in the Church. They are very willing to give power to their husbands at their expense. - (To decrease so that their husbands can increase.) Shall we deny the Catherine Booths or Jackie Pullingers ? Please do not.
If covering your head gives you power then have your head covered
If it shuts you up - don't have your head covered
If all women are quiet in the church it reduces the voice of the church to half strength.
We are living in times approaching a harvest and it seems as if the need for women to proclaim the Good News is very important with God.
Joel 2v28 "And it shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and your DAUGHTERS shall prophecy....."
1 Corinthians 14v31 "For you may ALL prophecy, one by one that ALL may learn and ALL be comforted."
1 Timothy 2v11 & 13 "Let a woman learn in quietness, with all subjection. but I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness."
John 4v28, 29, 39 "The woman then went her way into the city and saith to the men come and see the man.....and many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman"
Look at Queen Esther's courage at talking to King Ahazuerus......
Deborah's courage and fearlessness in defeating Sisera
Did they sit back and just cook cakes and rely on the men ?
But, having said that - - -
A wife should be aware that her life and vitality could make her husband timid.
A husband should be aware that his life and vitality could make his wife timid.
Should a wife with a lot of common-sense submit to her husband who has no common-sense ?
I don't know.