Prayer as a Communication with God

Today I want to share with you couple thoughts about Prayer.

Every born again believer is Able to communicate with God through Jesus Christ. In the Gospel of John 3:8 we read: “The wind blows where it listen, and you hear the sound thereof, but can not tell whence it comes, and where it goes: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit".

Communication contains two parts: talking with God (or how we used to call it - a prayer), and listening, what the Holy Spirit is saying. As prayers differ, so do listening.

We read in Bible, that God is saying: "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3.

“And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing." 1 Kings 19:11-12.

“Whoever is of God hears the words of God”. John 8:47.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand”. John 10:27, 28.

As for me,  prayer is a hard thing to do. It is a real fight. There is too much noise in my soul,  there are lots of thoughts and plans. All the time I think about future: what to cook for supper, what to buy in the store and so on. It is difficult to concentrate in such a noise and simply Thank God for all the blessings and Praise Him for all His deeds. 

I know that the biggest obstacle for effective prayer is a sin in our life, which stops our fellowship with the Holy Spirit. We need to repent and stop sinning. But sometimes we can't notice what kind of sin is bothering our spirit. In such cases we need to take seriously this situation and make peace with God. As for me, I know for sure, that my prayer life depends on the right day schedule. I need to start and finish my day with reading a book of Psalms. Also my life changes when somebody is praying for me. 

I want to talk more about such aspects of prayer as consistency and travailing in prayer. What passages from the Bible pop up when you hear this? Yes, Luke 18th chapter speaks about the widow who was asking a judge to help her, even he wasn’t fear of God or man. So Jesus told us that “ a man ought always to pray and not faint”. Paul wrote to Ephesians in 6: 18: “ praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints”. And also this: “Pray without ceasing” 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

Once you are born again, the whole reason for your existence is to bring glory to God. As you grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, your prayer life will also grow in intensity. You are being transformed into the image of the Son of God, who created you, redeemed you, sustains you, and lives through you.

Now consider this with me please. What is the difference between two situations?. In first a person has a desire to eat sweets and goes to the refrigerator or even to the store and satisfies that desire. In the second situation a person  has a desire about salvation of her friend and is praying for that.

If we will make a schema, it will lookl like this:

1). Desire----> Action-----> Satisfaction

2). Desire----> Prayer.

The first type of desire is worldly, ungodly meaning that it does not lead to knowing God. This type always leads to Actions, and the longer desire can’t be satisfied, the harder we try and put all our efforts.

The second type by some reason doesn’t lead to actions, but only to prayer. Although in Bible we see that prayer is not only saying words but doing actions also. Jesus “being in agony was praying more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were drops of blood falling down to the ground” Luke 22:45. In the New Testament we read that a prayer of faith can lead to healings, raising from the death and even mountains will be removed.

But we can’t say honestly that we have such faith and our prayers are so powerful as they maiht be. Something is missing. Our soul needs to have an alliance, right alliance - Holy Spirit. We need to be a spirit-filled when we pray and don’t stop until we receive an answer from God. It doesn’t mean that we will pray and seek a will of God and if we will not receive the answer, we decide that it wasn’t God’s will at all. No. If from the very beginning our desire and prayer were right and didn’t contradict with the Scriptures, so it is the will of God. And all His will is written in the Bible.

To travail in prayer means to be in a process of bringing forth, to deliver a new life, through anguish and sometimes through agony. The apostle Paul said in Galatians 4:19, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” Here, “travail” means, “I feel the pains of childbirth. I feel the pain of having Christ formed in you.” It speaks of identification, development through discipleship, and the application of Bible doctrine in real life situations. Paul continued to pour out love and to invest Christ’s life in others, and that became a very heavy responsibility.

We should desire to treat others as though they are more valuable than we are, (Philippians 2:3). But how do we reach that place, practically speaking? The only way a believer can honestly change from a self-serving existence to a laid down life is through travailing. Travailing is a process whereby God promises miraculous results to the person who travails. Unless the Holy Spirit leads, it is very difficult to travail.  There is such satisfaction when a child is born into the Kingdom of God. And once a person is saved, we need to guide them and pray as the apostle Paul did, that Christ would be formed in his converts.

It is so easy to be touched by a message but not be changed by it. Yes, there are people who faithfully get together to have a prayer, and that’s good. But beyond including prayer in our schedules, we need to be taught how to travail through the Spirit of God in prayer.

No one will ever know what travail will bring forth until they experience it. The experience is not automatic. It is not a system of works, but it is a lifestyle. Therefore, travailing in prayer has to be developed, because it means to be separated from the world and the flesh — separated to intercede for others.

Today I want to hear your thoughts about Prayer as a communication with God. Tell me please, what kinds of prayer do you know and practice? What obstacles for effective prayer are in your life? What hinders you from listening to God? What helps you to have an effective prayer life? Why do you think God does not answer our prayers sometimes?