You've had Prayer... Now What?

Prayer is the most powerful medium of communication in the world. In fact, prayer is our only way to connect to heaven. YOU NEED TO PRAY! Prayer is how we respond to God! The prayer of Thanksgiving is our response to the goodness of GOD. Confession is our response to GOD’s Holiness. Intercession is our response to the will of GOD. Supplication is our response to the Promises of GOD. The prayers of men and women of GOD are recorded throughout the Bible. Elijah prayed and it didn’t rain for three years. Barren Hannah prayed and had a son named Samuel. A dying king named Hezekiah prayed and his life was extended for 15 years. Prayer is the birthing place for our relationship with God! God’s promise to answer the prayers of the righteous is the basis for our faith. ‘The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.’

Christ Jesus raised prayer to its pentacle when he taught us to pray to GOD as our Father, protector and provider. The problem is that we have, too often, forfeited this privileged, powerful communication with GOD and become a virtual assembly line of spiritually weak, dependent, immature spectators who run from one prayer line to another. We have sought out prophets for profit, and healers for hire to pray for us because we do not have a disciplined committed prayer life ourselves! Am I speaking against receiving prayer? Definitely not! The bible instructs us to pray for one another. 1Tim 2:1 says, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men.” And “Confess your trespasses and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”(Jam 5:16) So,I’m not against you receiving prayer, I am against the motive behind people needing other people, esp. leaders in ministry, to always lay hands and pray for them. I’m against the motive behind the ‘prayer lines’ that has become the rule of thumb for church services. Simply because, too often, people want someone to pray for them because they do not (or will not) pray themselves!

When a person comes up for prayer and their request is that you pray that they are more obedient to GOD, or kinder to their mate, or to stop eating so much, or to get to work on time…you can be sure that they do not have a productive, consistent, personal prayer life. And while these are all very valid reasons for prayer, they are also reasons why YOU need to pray! These challenges are opportunities to bring GOD into your situation and see your victory! Your prayer life positions you for power in a crisis, and the reason so many fail to experience that power…is that they have someone else’s hand on their head to pray for them… and that’s it, until the next time! Yes, there are times when you need someone to agree with you in prayer; there are times when you need someone to help you ‘breakthrough’, there are even times when there is an impartation of the anointing through prayer! But, after you have received prayer there’s something that YOU need to do! And that’s what I want to deal with. What to do after someone prays for you! Apply these three steps to break the pray-for-me prayer-line cycle!