ON PRAYER

Recently we’ve seen a huge increase in teachers and teachings on prayer. These teachings have been around a while, but only now is it coming into mainstream churches in force.

You know, there are few specifics on how to pray that are taught in Scripture. The disciples asked Yahshua how to pray, and He gave them the most basic of instructions as well a model for prayer that was astounding (some might have found it insulting) in its simplicity. Also interesting is that He taught a 'one-way’ prayer that did not assume or expect God to speak back! The instructions were to pray simply, directly and privately to our Father, in confidence, faith and trust that He hears. That kind of faith is not necessary if it is expected that our answers will be received in prayer.

In questioning the many different teachings on prayer, and wondering how it was that God wanted us to pray, I turned to the Bible. In reading through the gospels, I did not find any instances where Yahshua prayed to the Father, and the Father answered back! Even and most notably in His longest recorded prayer in John 17, there is NO recorded response from the Father! Is that not something to bear in mind? Popular teaching claims that if we, at our initiation, clear our minds of distractions and make solitude our physical presence, that WE will hear the voice of God, that He will speak as we desire? If Yahshua did not pray in order to hear this voice should we be entering into this?

Are we meant to go beyond what is clearly taught in Scripture in this way? Or to spiritualize and reinterpret the literal meanings of Scripture verses, taking them out of their intended context to fit a teaching? Does this please God, or make us feel more connected to Him (or what we think is Him)?

I searched the Scriptures to find instances of a person praying in certain ways, and listening, and God responding in the stillness of that prayer, and did not find any. I also looked up any Scripture verses given in these teachings on prayer, and found the vast majority of them were spiritualized often completely out of context. There is great warning here, these are not clean’ things.

An obedient life and a washed clean pure heart coupled with knowledge of spiritual light and darkness, the understanding that comes from diligent study, the wisdom that comes from above, and a heart yielded to His will, will enable and equip us with power to test everything we hear, and to come into a right prayer relationship with Him. And to rest in confidence in that. While it is definitely true (biblical) that the Spirit of God will counsel, guide and direct us, nowhere are we told that God requires our stillness or silence in order for this counsel to be ‘heard’.

He is God, He will be heard.