PRAYER & SUPPLICATION

For the next few weeks, our ministry will be covering the topic of spiritual warfare from the epistle of Ephesians. This epistle is a GREAT call to work, meaning live worthy of our call. To do this requires us to continually be arrayed with spiritual armor. This message is about the “Helmet of Salvation”, using the King James Thompson Chain Study Bible for text.

Ephesians 6:18: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.”

PRAYER (proseu’chomai) worship; pray earnestly

SUPPLICATION (de’esis) a petition; an earnest request; asking for something.

PRAYER is communion between God and man! It takes place in the innermost part of man’s being! It’s the language of spirituality! When prayer is developed in man, it causes him or her to become an authority in creative thought or belief!

The synonyms for communion are: talk; conversation; intercourse; agreement; unity! So it’s the sharing, mixing, and exchanging of thoughts or feelings!

In order to transact business in the natural, there has to be communication between parties whether it’s face to face or electronically. How much more to transact KINGDOM business! We must communicate with our Heavenly Father by the Spirit. For God is a Spirit, and we must commune with him by spirit! We must be connected to Him, have a relationship with him, talk intimately, have a close rapport with God, and share with Him!!

In Exodus 25, God gave Moses instructions on the making of the ark and the mercy seat. In verse 21 God told Moses, “ Put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the Testimony that I will give thee.” Verse 22 “And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the Testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.”

This lets us know that Aaron wasn’t the only one God had ever spoken to in this most holy place. He also spake with Moses there! Moses knew how to commune with God! God said in Numbers 12:8, “With him (Moses) will I speak mouth to mouth! My God what a conversation!!

There are different kinds of prayer and different parts of prayer. There are different positions one can be in to pray, but the position is not what determines the answering of the prayer. I certainly believe that our attitude toward and in prayer should be seasoned with love!

Throughout Scripture, it speaks of the different ATTITUDES of PRAYER!

BE INSTANT (Romans 12:12) “Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer.” Instant (proskartere’o) earnest toward (i.e. to a thing); persevere; constantly diligent; give yourself continually to.

PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT (1Corinthians 14:15) “I will pray with the spirit, and will pray with the understanding also.”

BELIEVING (Matthew 21:22) “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”

It’s all by faith because without it, we cannot please God!

I’ve heard people say that as they pray, they are “sending up their timber”. My thought is where do they think their timber (prayer) is going? Up where? In actuality, it isn’t going any higher than your head because God is in you. Yes, God is everywhere, but God is in you! “Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands” (Acts 7:48)! Hands did not make these bodies we live in. Man is God’s masterpiece - the crown of God’s creation!

In the natural, light travels at a speed of over 186,000 miles per second. That’s FAST!!

(1 John 1:5) “God is light”! If God had to travel from the heaven beyond the blue to keep you from being destroyed in a car wreck, he wouldn’t reach you in time traveling at that rate of speed. The good news is that He is already here! He is in us! (Isaiah 65:24) “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and whiles they are yet speaking, I will hear”! He doesn’t hear or answer from afar! He speaks from within you!! That’s why he can speak to you in a room full of other people, and they not hear what he said to you! What an awesome God!

DIFFERENT KINDS OF PRAYER

SECRET (Matthew 6:6) “Enter into thy closet”

We know that this doesn’t mean go into the closet where you hang your clothes. But it’s your tameion [interior or private place] within yourself - your innermost being! God hears and speaks from within you.

FAMILY (Acts 10:2) Cornelius and his house: “A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.”

GROUP (Matthew 18:20) “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

The two or three doesn’t have to always be other people because as long as you are in agreement with the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, that’s all you need! People might not be there for you all the time, but God said he would never leave us nor forsake us! (Hebrews 13:5) Halleluia!!

PUBLIC (1 Corinthians 14:14-17) This could be in a school setting, church setting, etc. But these verses are letting us know that we need to pray with understanding. If you pray with unknown tongues, there should be someone to interpret or the one speaking should interpret that all may understand.

PARTS OF PRAYER

ADORATION (Daniel 4:34-35) Nebuchadnezzar gave God praise after God delivered him. This “adoring” is a manifestation of love and worship for and of God!

CONFESSION (1 John 1:9) “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

This confession is not to other folks but to God. There are those that will take what you say and use it as a weapon against you! It is an open acknowledgment and admitting of you missing the mark with God and correcting it! God will forgive you and forget it, but there are those who will not forgive you and constantly remind you.

SUPPLICATION (1 Timothy 2:1-3) “I exhort therefore that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men.”

Supplicate is to ask for something. God knows what we need before we ask. James 4:2 “Ye have not, because ye ask not.” But we must “ask in faith, nothing wavering; for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed”! (James 1:6).

INTERCESSION (James 5:15) “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.”

The synonym for INTERCEDE is mediate, arbitrate, or intervene! That’s what Jesus did for us, and like-wise we must do the same for our brothers and sisters. “For as he is so are we in this world”! (l John 4:17)

That’s why the Word of God says in James 5:14 “Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord”!

Scripturally “elder” is not used. The word used for elder is the word “presbytery” as used in 1 Timothy 4:14: “Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.” This word is the Greek word presbuterion (the order of elders or an assemblage of aged men).

But in God “ELDERSHIP” has absolutely nothing to do with age, but it has to do with MATURITY in GOD! This is the calling forth of those that believe Luke 10:19 “I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy”! Mark 16:17 “These signs shall follow them that believe”! Verse 18 “They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover”! These are the ELDERS or PRESBYTERY that the Word of God speaks of in James 5:14! GLORY TO GOD!!!!!!!

THANKSGIVIING (Philippians 4:6) “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”

When praying, we don’t have to tell God how big our problems are, but we can certainly tell that situation HOW BIG OUR GOD IS!!

THERE IS NO PARTICULAR POSITION FOR PRAYER

STANDING (Nehemiah 9:5) The Levites said “Stand up and bless the LORD your God for ever and ever.”

KNEELING (Ezra 9:5) “I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God.”

SITTING (1 Chronicles 17:16-27) David sat before the Lord and inquired of Him.

BOWING (Exodus 34:8) Moses “bowed his head to the earth, and worshipped.”

HANDS LIFTED (1 Timothy 2:8) “I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.”

When we pray to our Heavenly Father with a sincere heart, regardless of the position, he hears and responds!!!

PERSONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR PRAYER

PURE HEART (Psalms 66:18-19) “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.”

One of the hinderances to prayer I’d like to briefly mention is unforgiveness! Matthew 6:14-15 “If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

We certainly don’t want anything interfering in our communication with our Father!

BELIEVE (Matthew 21:22) “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”

Hebrews 11:6: “Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. “

IN THE NAME OF JESUS (St. John 14:13) “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

There is power in the name of Jesus! Healing in the name of Jesus! Deliverance in the name of Jesus! Whatever we need, we can get from the Father through the Son!

FORGIVING SPIRIT (Matthew 6:14) “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”

UNCEASINGLY (1 Thessalonians 5:17) “Pray without ceasing.”

It doesn’t have to be just in the morning, the noon, or night, but at any time we can call on our Father, and he’s available. He doesn’t go on vacations, and he never sleeps!

WATCH as well as pray. (Matthew 26:41) “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mark13:33; Luke 21:36)

Watch [gregoreu’o] keep awake; be vigilant; on the alert for danger. A better way to say it is, God wants us to be keen in discernment.

When we pray, we do not have to have our eyes closed! You can pray while driving your car. I know we won’t close our eyes then. Let’s not become traditional with prayer in relation to time or position. But let us keep our “line of communication” open at all times with God!

~ Apostle Gracie Perry