The Character and Nature of Prayer

Introduction

In this discourse, on the practice and nature of prayer, I am going to look at prayer as being the major part of the relationship we have with God, which brings much glory to him. I will use the analogy of two people deeply in love, or perhaps it is more like a suitor pursuing us winning us over with their love for us, and as we become more aware of that love for us, we too in kind start reciprocating that same love back to our suitor. Like any good relationship, there are needed at least two individuals or groups of people to be involved in some form of active communication, both with their individuality and common bonding as well. To use a coin as an example;

The first side of the coin having the royal head imprinted on it represents God and his sovereignty. Here I will explain this as the, “Nature of Prayer”, looking at the Trinitarian aspect of relationship within the Godhead, and how God draws us to himself in relationship, and prayer is the dialog within that relationship.

The opposite side of the coin is imprinted with Gods creation, and here I will speak about our human side of prayer, how we pray, why we pray, labelling this, “The Practice of Prayer”. It is my aim to show that the practice of prayer is the only means through which we can truly glorify God.

Like all money, a coin is only representative of worth, and so thirdly I am going to look at what I will call the Results of Prayer, or the Worth of Prayer, which is what, happens when both parties come together in healthy relationship with each other. Here I will show that the result of prayer is the means to which we enjoy God. We enjoy God through basking in his presence, enjoying his company throughout life, putting into practice what Brother Lawrence learnt to do, in practicing the presence of God, [1] as well as enjoying all that God wants us to enjoy.

Nature of Prayer.

Pinnock says, “That the Spirit of God is known through prayer”[2], and that each member of the Trinity gazes their eyes on each other in unadulterated love. Therefore prayer is the means to which we join in the celebration of the Trinitarian dance adding a 4^th dimension to it, through the invitation of God[3] to come and partake in him. It is the means in which we commune with our living God, and it is the means through which we receive from God. This invitation to pray is both individualistic and corporate, God woos us to himself, to come and spend time with himself, to receive from himself and he also beckons us to come together corporately whether it be only two or three people coming together to pray, or a whole congregation /s of his people coming together to seek him out, for he also promises to be in our midst. (Matt 18:20)

Gods invitation to us to come to him and spend time in communion with him is a open ended invite, one in which he expects that we will boldly come to him any time, any place. He is continually calling and drawing us to himself through the person of the Holy Spirit. In prayer we dialog and commune with the fullness of the God head, we pray to the Father, in the Holy Spirit, through Jesus the Son.

For it is the Holy Spirit whose role is to convince us of our need for God’s redemption, it is the Holy Spirit who brings about the truth of Christ into our inward parts, as well as showing us the judgement of the devil. (John 16: 8-14) It is the Holy Spirit who deposits into our hearts the gift of faith to believe in him (Eph 2:8). And it is the Holy Spirit who is the ultimate gift to us from God, who dwells within us, who empowers us, who gifts us, who prompts us to pray, continually calling us to him self. True prayer then is initiated by God; His Spirit makes known to us Gods thoughts, who then after we have prayed (Rom 8:26) God hears them as we have prayed according to his will and will grant what we have requested. (1Jo 5:14-15)

God is also absolutely faithful, there is no deceit within the Trinity, and is bound together with love and this same faithfulness and love also extends outward towards us in that he is completely trustworthy according to his word to us, calling us with arms open wide ready to embrace us.

The Practice of Prayer.

Prayer is the initial action in which we glorify God by being truly humble before him, and the greatest way to humble ourselves before God is to boldly come to him, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, seeking Gods mercy and provision in a time of need, and not only for our own needs, also for the needs of the community and world in which we live. [4] Prayer is our communication to our Living God, and to truly be effective it involves an ever deepening level of honesty from within us.

Our prayer life should represent two people in love spending time with one another. It involves non verbal communication like two people who are communicating to each other on a spiritual / emotional plane. (Rom 8:26) as well as using our vocal abilities of confessing wrongdoings, asking for forgiveness, asking for help, singing praises, allowing ourselves to allow our emotions full reign and giving thanks to the lover of our souls for what ever it is he has done for us.

Prayer is to bring glory to God, and never to our selves and it ensures this through the action of our humbling ourselves before him. Prayer is the first fruit of humility and while the way we live our lives, showing forth the fruit of the Spirit, living in harmony with each other also brings glory to God, we can only do this through living prayerful lives, and is the only evidence of our dependency upon God.[5]

True humility means that we want and desire for ourselves all that God wants for us, and not only just for ourselves, we are to desire for our families, communities, nation and the world in which we live to have all that God desires for them, bringing their true needs to God in prayer.

Therefore to come to God in true prayer we must first have the mindset of what it is God wants for us, and then we can be sure of receiving the very thing we ask for. (Jam 1:5-6, 1 Jo 5:14)

The very first step of humility is when we acknowledge our need for forgiveness, in that place where we become born again. E. M Bounds describes this perfectly in saying,

Humility is born by looking at God, and his holiness,

and then looking at self and mans unholiness.[6]

Ones prayer life must always be continued in the attitude of being humble before God, and in fact prayer can and will be meaningless ritual when we take our eyes of the majesty of our living God and how he wants to continue in relationship with us. This attitude of humility must also be born out in community, where Gods people live, and worship together, each loving their neighbour and in this state of humility God promises to answer all our prayers. (1 Jo 3:21-23)

The Result of Prayer.

Piper in his book, “Desiring God” which is about Christian Hedonism, writes “…that the pursuit of our joy, and the pursuit of Gods glory are meant to be one and the same is the teaching of Jesus on prayer in the Gospel of John…”[7]

The result of prayer is unbroken communion with God. An important element of relationship is in the doing things for each other, living a certain way that is pleasing and beneficial to the other, trusting one another and a result of prayer is that we find what pleases God and when we ask God to provide things that pleases him to do so, we know he will do it, in the same way that we also start to live a live pleasing to God. The difference being is that we are sinful and God is not, we will fail, while God will never fail, we can be faithless while God is and will be always faithful.

Prayer is what brings about revival, renewal, sustenance and empowerment in our individual lives and corporate gatherings as well as into our communities and the world in which we live. It is through prayer that we truly come to know the character and nature of God; it is through prayer that we come to the personal knowledge of God and not just knowledge about God. God promises that if we truly make him the desire of our hearts, then we will receive that very desire. (Pro 8:17)

Another result of prayer is that it brings about deeper and committed relationships between those who pray together and for one another. True prayer helps us to stop judging and criticising others; instead it builds love in our lives by directing us to pray for the building up of the other person/s and our selves as well as changing the community in which we live. [8]

True prayer causes us to live within a life that shows the truth of what is known as the Lords Prayer (Matt 6:9-13) It brings about relationship with our living God, it brings about a knowledge of and obedience to of Gods will, it brings about a honesty within ourselves, acknowledging our lack as we ask God to provide all that we need, accepting his feeding and providing for us on a daily basis, forgiving us and helping us to forgive others, strengthening us against temptation and delivering us from the evil one instead of relying on our own pitiful weakness to live the Christian life in our own strength.

Conclusion.

I have been keeping to the theme of Prayer being the dialog between two people in love, the reason being is that for far to long Christians have thought of prayer as being something they have to do, and with that mindset come to God in a state of legalism, and whenever we come under legalism there can be no enjoyment in what ever it is we do.

Prayer by its very nature has to be experiential and I would like to share a deep and personal experience I had about this very issue.

In 2001 I was walking down the back paddock of the property we were renting, holding my then three year old sons left hand, and a huge feeling of pride and joy welled up within me, as we talked about the clouds, the grass, the animals and life in particular and I truly enjoyed my sons company, proud to be his dad, when my left hand suddenly was lifted up and I had a vision of God walking down the paddock holding my left hand, while I held my sons left hand and felt him say to me, “Craig, in the same way you love your son and appreciate his company in a way he can never know, I too love you and enjoy your company more then you can ever know”

The Westminster Confession of Faith states that, “Mans chief and highest end is to glorify God and fully to enjoy him forever.”[9] This statement I believe captures the essence of prayer, and that we are to enjoy God, we are to enjoy his company through out life and that God enjoys our company in return, and like two people deeply in love with each other we too are to hold Gods hand, as we walk through life, talking to him about ourselves, what is happening in our lives, what is happening in the life of others, and in the community and world in which we live, and not only just talk, but also exercising the gift of listening, allowing God to speak back to us, allowing him to share his love, and his answers to our prayers. The result of prayer is that each looks out for the best interests of each other, which brings about the glorification of God in doing this. God is glorified by looking after us, and we Glorify God through the way we live our lives keeping in step with God.

Bibliography

Bounds, E.M., The Complete Works of E. M. Bounds on Prayer (Grand Rapids Mi, Baker Books 1990)

Carson, D. A., A Call to Spiritual Transformation (Grand Rapids Mi, Baker Books, 1992)

Castelli, Jim., How I Pray (New York, Ballantine Books, 1994)

Copeland, Germaine., A Call to Prayer (Oklahoma, Harrison House Inc, 1987)

Eastman, Dick., No Easy Road (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 1971)

Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms

Harper, Michael., Let My People Grow (Great Briton, Hodder and Stoughton, 1977)

Laurie, Greg., Wrestling With God ( USA, Multnomah Press, 2003)

Maxwell, John., Partners in Prayer (Nashville, Thomas Nelson 1996)

Murray, Andrew., The Prayer Life(Moody Press, USA)

Pinnock, Clark H., Flame of Love (intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, 1996)

Piper, John., Desiring God (England, Intervarsity Press, 1986)

Revell, Fleming H., The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 1958)

Rinker, Rosalind., Prayer Conversing With God (Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing, 1974)

Torrey, R.A., How To Pray (U.S.A, Whitaker House, 1983)

Wagner, C. Peter., Praying with Power (California, Regal Books 1997)

Watson, David., Discipleship (Great Briton, Hodder and Stoughton, 1981)

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[1] Fleming. H. Revell, The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 1958) [2] Clark H, Pinnock, Flame of Love (intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, 1996) p. 13[3] Ibid., p. 46[4] David Watson, Discipleship, (Great Briton, Hodder and Stoughton, 1981) p. 121

[5] Pinnock, Flame of Love, p. 146

[6] E.M. Bounds, The Complete Works of E. M. Bounds on Prayer (Grand Rapids Mi, Baker Books 1990) p. 88

[7] John Piper, Desiring God (England, Intervarsity Press, 1986) p.137

[8] David Watson, Discipleship, (Great Briton, Hodder and Stoughton, 1981) p. 131

[9] Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms