Harrison Speaks

DR JOHN HARRISON

Education Influencer, Philosopher, Polymath, Writer, Humanitarian, and a Counselor

HARRISON speaks ……….

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER

Prayer brings out the divinity in us. It awakens spirituality within us. Prayer makes us find favour with God. God has promised to use anyone who is willing to pay the price, and the price is prayer. Time spent with God in prayer is the price. God hides Himself from us because He expects us to seek Him. The longer and the more we seek Him, the lesser the flesh (worldly things) remains in us. Prayer is the heavenly and spiritual function of our prayer life. It is communion with God. The absence of prayer opens the door to evil in our life. Prayer keeps the door closed. If we are prayer less, the devil becomes strong. If we are prayerful, the devil becomes weak. When we do not pray, we empower the devil. When we do pray, we empower God. The more we pray, the more of God will be poured in our lives. If you want to resemble God, spend more time in prayer. Every time we pray, we breathe in God and breathe out the flesh. The more I pray, the more the flesh dies and withers away. Prayer denies the flesh.

We can defeat sin in our lives only through prayer. We cannot fight sin without prayer. We will win only if we pray or else, we will lose. Praying every day activates God’s power and presence in your life. Prayer fulfils the promises of God. If God has promised you something then He will wait on us to pray and ask, it will not happen until we pray. It happens only when we pray. After that, he says he will do it. God will never force us to pray. It is up to us whether we want to be strong or weak. He never helps us to pray but he helps us while we pray.

Being sleepless unto prayer is what we should be. Given below are few points as to why it is imperative for us to pray.

1. As there is evil in this world, we should pray.

2. Prayer is God’s appointed way for obtaining things, and the great secret of all lack in our experience, in our life and in our work is neglect of prayer.

Prayer connects us to God. God will neglect us if we neglect prayer.

3. Prayer has the power to change everything in our lives. God’s power and strength becomes perfect in us when we pray.

4. Prayer is a spiritual discipline. We should begin our day with prayer and end our day with prayer. Prayer should be the means to seek God’s face and His righteousness every day.

5. Each and every person should have a ministry of intercession, meaning that we should pray for each other and bless one another in prayer.

6. The only way to receive God’s mercy and grace is through prayer. Mercy is what we need, grace is what we must have, or all our life and effort will end in complete failure. Prayer is the way to get them. There is infinite grace at our disposal, and we make it ours experimentally by prayer. Oh, if we only realized the fullness of God’s grace, that is ours for the asking, its height and depth and length and breadth, I am sure that we would spend more time in prayer. The measure of our appropriation of grace is determined by the measure of our prayers. Who is there that does not feel that he needs more grace? Then ask for it. Be constant and persistent in your asking. Be importunate and untiring in your asking. God delights in us when we ask Him, for it shows our faith in Him, and He is mightily pleased with faith.

7. Prayer makes us complete beings. It gives us joy. It makes God real in our lives. It gives us true contentment and happiness. When we ask something definite of God, and He gives it, how real God becomes! Prayer gives us communion with God.

8. Prayer gives us peace that passes all understanding and frees us from all anxiety. It makes our life more beautiful from within. Our inner world has the power to change our outer world.

Illustration by Shireen Harrison

9. Prayer makes us receive the spirit of God who becomes our mentor, our guide, our teacher, our friend, our comforter, our protector, etc.

10.Prayer prepares us for heaven and rules out the possibility of us going to hell.

11. Prayer makes us accomplish much.

12. Prayer promotes our spiritual growth. It creates a pure heart in us and cleanses us from our sin and all iniquities. It gives us wisdom and strength in our walk and talk with God.

13. Prayer brings power into our work because when we pray God works alongside us.

14. Prayerful life will help us to transform people with whom we work or fellowship.

15. Prayer brings blessings. Prayer will root out heresy, allay misunderstanding, sweep away jealousies and animosities, obliterate immoralities, and bring in the full tide of God’s reviving grace.

Prayer brings us into God’s presence. We can really meet Him face to face in the place of prayer. Real and true prayer gets us an audience with God. Prayer can change circumstances and situations in our life. God delights in the unity of His people and there is lot of power in united prayer. Prayer also pleases God; He loves obedience of His children. God loves and answers prayers which are sincere and persistent. We must pray according to God’s will, then will we beyond a peradventure get the thing we ask of Him. But can we know the will of God? We can know His will by reading His word, being filled and led by His spirit. The spirit of God will help us while we pray, the spirit lets us know what God’s will is for us. True prayer is prayer in the spirit; that is, the prayer the spirit inspires and directs.

Prayer should be a lifestyle and not a periodic ritual that we indulge in every now and then. Prayer and faith go hand in hand. There is no more blessed training in prayer than that that comes through being compelled to ask again and again and again even through a long period of years before one obtains that which he seeks from God. We should never practice spiritual laziness and give up. The key lies in the fact that we should live our lives in God’s presence, obeying His commands. We should know he is the vine, and we are the branches. If this happens, we will bear much fruit all our life. When we do this, and in so far as we do this, our prayers will obtain that which we seek from God. This must necessarily be so, for our desires will not be our own desires, but God’s, and our prayers will not in reality be our own prayers, but God praying in us. Such prayers will always be in harmony with God’s will, and he will always answer them. The prayer that is born of meditation upon the Word of God is the prayer that soars upward most easily to God’s listening ear. This way God becomes the author of our prayer.

God is deeply grieved by the thanklessness and ingratitude of which so many of us are guilty. We should never ever forget to thank God for answering prayers. Thanksgiving adds power to our prayer life. Life should be prayerful and not prayer less.

Hindrances to Prayer

1. A selfish purpose in prayer robs prayer of power. Very many prayers are selfish. The true purpose in prayer is that God may be glorified in the answer.

2. Unspoken and unconfessed sin hinders prayer. God is sinless.

3. When we replace God with something else in our lives, our prayers will not be answered. God alone has the right to the supreme place in our hearts. Everything and everyone else must be subordinate to Him. God should be our first love. Is God absolutely first? Is He before wife, before children, before reputation, before business, before our own lives? If not, prevailing prayer is impossible.

4. There is perhaps no greater hindrance to prayer than stinginess, the lack of liberality toward the poor and toward God’s work. It is the one who gives generously to others who receives generously from God. The generous man is the mighty man of prayer. The stingy man is the powerless man of prayer.

5. An unforgiving spirit is one of the commonest hindrances to prayer. God cannot deal with us on the basis of forgiveness while we are harboring ill-will against those who have wronged us.

6. A wrong relationship between husband and wife is a hindrance to prayer. It is an unpardonable neglect. Marriage has to be kept sacred and holy.

7. Prayers get hindered by unbelief. God demands that we shall believe and trust Him fully.

Conclusion

We should pray early morning and seek God’s face in first place, this way the whole day is sanctified. The first thing we do each day should be to go alone with God and face the duties, the temptations, and the service of that day, and get strength from God. We should get victory before the hour of trial, temptation or service comes. The secret place of prayer is the place to fight our battles and gain our victories. We should pray before all the important things in our life. All our important decisions should be taken in prayer. Prayer must be a habit and a lifestyle and should happen daily. Our whole life should be a life of prayer. We should walk in constant communion with God. There should be a constant upward looking of the soul to God. We should walk so habitually in His presence that even when we awake in the night it would be the most natural thing in the world for us to speak to Him in thanksgiving or in petition.

Wishing you a happy, successful, and fruitful prayer life.

Dr. John Harrison

MA in Education, MBA, Doctorate in Divinity (Education Influencer, Philosopher, Polymath, Writer, Humanitarian, and a Counselor)

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