How to Pray
Often after I
have ministered to a group, someone will come up asking,
“How do I learn to pray? I want to pray just like
you?”
I smile to myself. I remember that hunger!
I remember reading
Prison to Praise by
Merlin Caruthers
and
saying, “O God, I need what he has or I will
die!” I had grown up loving and honoring God, but now
hungered for the living faith and fruitful prayer life that
Caruthers was describing.
God was almost instantaneous in responding. Hard to explain
what happened! Even as I was crying out in prayer, the
power of God poured over me and life has not been the same
since.
Prayer:
A Conversation
Immediately I
was thrust into a conversational prayer that just never
ended. I talked my head off and occasionally was quiet
enough to hear what God had to say. Eventually, I learned
to listen more. Realizing that God wanted to talk to me
even more than I wanted to talk to Him helped with that.
Hearing God came more as a KNOWING something, rather than
hearing His voice. As you heed the knowing
more and more,
then more and more knowing
comes.
In those early years acting on the knowing
was
awkward, but God confirmed it again and again.
I recall yelling at my husband to slow down. He was in the
fast lane and over-doing it. He immediately slowed down,
shocked by my outburst. As he slowed down, the car in front
of us pulled to the right exposing an accident scene. A
child’s body lay across the lane with flares going
around him. Had Dwaine not slowed down, we surely would
have run over the boy.
Situations like this happened regularly. As they did, I
became confident is the fact that God was listening to all
my chatter and that He liked being involved in my life.
My prayer life had definitely gone to the next level. I was
always “walking and leaping and praising the
Lord.”
Prayer:
With Results
I was a happy
person of prayer and probably would have stayed that way
except I was exposed to prayer that produced results:
healings, problems solved, relationships restored. Results
of an Agnes Sanford prayer workshop turned me on my ear.
Wow, did it ever! You can read that story in the article
on Agnes
Sanford.
I got to see number of miracles up close. Dwaine
experienced two dramatic healings. In both instances he was
taking a nap as I took part in group healing services. One
healing was a 15-year-old knee injury and the other was a
hernia, both serious situations that were destined for
surgery.
Prayer with results!
Have you ever noticed that some people get more regular
answers to prayer than others? Now I had to know why. New
pursuit!
Learning
to Pray Effectively
I didn’t
know where to turn back then for training in prayer. And,
some of the most powerful books on prayer had not yet been
written, like the ones by
Dutch
Sheets and
Jack
Hayford. Both are
must-reads!
But back in the good ole days…I really learned to
rely on the Holy Spirit to teach me to pray. Often I would
pray, “Holy Spirit, You are my Teacher. I need to
know how to deal with this or that in prayer.” And, I
would get that knowing.
What I learned most in this season of development was about
exercising authority in prayer. Now I believe you cannot
learn this authority any other way, but on the job. And the
Holy Spirit was my job-coach. Holy Spirit is coach to
anyone who asks. I had asked.
Books and workshops are so helpful in learning to pray, but
nothing can eclipse the instruction of the Holy Spirit!
Learning about faith and agreement and persistence is a
good thing.
Learning to pray the Our Father is a good thing.
Learning to pray like Jesus is a good thing.
But, learning these things with the mentoring of the Holy
Spirit is dynamite.
There is something about the Spirit of Supplication and
Prayer that takes you into a whole new realm of prayer.
How does the Holy Spirit get involved?
Just invite Him!
"Holy Spirit, teach me how to pray!"
Further
Resources on How to Pray
Almost every page of this website is written to help you
learn to pray more effectively. However, if you are just
starting out, read through these:
How to Pray
Scripture
Confession of
Faith
The Power of
Words
The Power of Scripture
Words
Finding
Rhema
Meditation
How to Pray - fine
article by Pat Gray