Roger Thrower

The God of the Bible has a covenant name. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He is Almighty God, God Most High, Creator of all that is. Redeemer of fallen mankind. Refuge for the needy. Healer of the broken. Deliverer of the bound. Savior of the lost.
Father God reached to us through his Son Jesus Christ. Jesus came to reconnect us to the Father’s love. How? Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us dying in our place that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ.
Big words that mean that Jesus restores you to your relationship with Father God declaring you sinless in his sight. The Holy Spirit becomes the spirit of adoption within you giving you new life, eternal life, to live in this precious restorative relationship empowering us to call him Father and even Daddy, which is the definition of the term for Abba.

Romans 8:15 - For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

This is now the heart-beat of prayer for the follower of Jesus.

Jesus said when you pray say: Father who is in heaven, hallowed by your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

John 20:17 - Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Hebrews 1:3 - He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

So, when we talk about prayer in the Bible it is too a specific person. A person who loves us. Jesus told us to pray and when we pray to say our father which art in heaven. Prayer in the Bible is not ritualistic, some kind of chanting to some unknown deity.

Prayer in the Bible is relational. It’s personal. It’s conversational. It is private as well as communal.

Jesus taught in Matthew 6:6 - But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Yet prayer is also communal or corporate. Prayer involves a group praying agreeing with others. Jesus said if two or three of you guys agree in my name I will be there in your midst. Prayer is relational and communal and also the means by which God extends his authority.
Prayer is authoritative.

Matthew 18:18-20 - Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Prayer is spiritual and impacts the spirit realm, which impacts the physical realm.

Ephesians 6:11-12 - Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Why is praying necessary?

1 John 5:19 - We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

Matthew 11:12 - From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.

Prayer is God’s means by which his people can bring forth the dominion of his kingdom into the hearts and lives of people. Sometime back I had read a study that was done on prayer at a hospital. They had a group of people that would pray for half of the hospital and not the other half. What occurred was that they saw that the people who are being prayed for God healed and improved much quicker than the people who were not being prayed for. I shared this with a chaplain friend of mine and he said that’s the reason he has his job. Let’s declare this: Prayed for people get along better than non-prayed-for people.
We can hinder the works of the devil. Prayers involving the release of faith to accomplish things begin with the Lord speaking his word into your heart and you repeat aloud in decreeing prayer.

Prayers are stored up in heaven.

Revelation 8:3-5 - And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, 4 and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. 5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

This tells us that God stores up prayers releases the answer to prayers at specific times.

There are hindrances to prayer:
1. Praylessness
2. Sin
3. Wrong attitude

The Bible teaches that there are also hindrances to prayer. Sin is a hindrance to prayer.

Psalm 66:18 - If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Psalm 119:11 - I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Praying requires the right attitude as well. If you are deeply hurt you can pour out your complaint before God.
Psalm 142:2 - I pour out my complaints before him, I tell my trouble before him.

Matthew 5:44 - But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you….The protocol of prayer is thanksgiving.

Psalm 100:4 - Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Philippians 4:6 - do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God