Requirements for Prevailing’ Prayer
Hudson Taylor, the missionary to China, was a man of prayer. He had read about the prayer life of George Mueller and understood how God answered the prayers of Mueller to meet the needs of thousands of orphans. Taylor started believing in the importance, of prayer and gave himself to pray for all his needs and the needs in ministry. Taylor’s motto was to move men through God. He told people about the needs in China, but never asked them directly to give money. He prayed only to God, when there was a need for money or workers. In his room, there was a map of China, with eleven provinces. He looked at these provinces in the map, and prayed for two missionaries for each of these provinces – 22 missionaries. The Lord answered his prayers by sending not only twenty-four missionaries within a year, but also missionaries at the time of his death. For the funds and workers in China Inland Mission, Hudson Taylor had a faith rule. “Make the desires known to God in prayer and then rely on God to move men to do what He would have done.” Our God is a prayer answering ‘God. He grants your requests immediately; sometimes He delays for your benefit. Certain times His answer to your prayer is ‘no,’ but if you persist and ask and pray fervently, He grants it finally if it is as per His plans. If it is not the will of God, then He grants you the peace to accept the negative, answer. Let us study some of the requirements of prayer.
- Pray with Holiness and Righteousness: “I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting” (1 Tim. 2:8). “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry” (Ps. 34:15).
- Pray with Purity in Heart: “lf I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. But certainly God has heard me; He has attended to the voice of my prayer” (Ps. 66:18-19).
- Ask God in Faith: “And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive” (Matt. 21:22). “And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (James 5: 15).
- Pray According to His Will: ”Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5: 14-15).
- Ask in Jesus’ Name: “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:13-14).
- With Forgiving Spirit: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6: 14-15).
- Ask in Unity: “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven” (Matt. 18: 19).
- Ask with Humility: “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chr.7:14).
- Keep the Commandments: “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:22).
- Abide in Christ: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). Prayer is the important discipline in the life of a believer. Edward Payson wrote on the importance of prayer, “Prayer is the first thing, the second thing, the third thing necessary to a minister. Pray, then my dear brother, pray, pray, pray.” The devil takes all efforts to prevent you from praying because he dreads nothing but prayer. He is not afraid when you involve in the ministry. He laughs when you work very hard. But trembles when you pray. Remember Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint on his knees.
(Dr. C. Barnabas, taken from True Discipleship, Jan-Feb 2006)