PRAYING WITH ALL PRAYERS
By Pastor Chinedu Emmanuel
Eph 6:18 “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;”
Prayer is communion and fellowship with God. Prayer is like a child’s conversation with his/her father. Prayer is a two-way conversation with God. We should not only talk to Him but leave room to listen to Him. When taken seriously, prayer generates power in the life of a Christian.
James 5:16 “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”
We are encouraged in the bible to never stop praying (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Don’t relent in prayers even when the answers are yet to manifest. Prayer cannot be substituted for any other religious ritual. Nothing can take the place of prayer. We cannot live a spirit-filled life without a vibrant prayer life.
Rom 8:26 “So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.”
There are ten different types of prayer recorded in the scriptures. Sometimes we pray a combination of several types. We pray as inspired and led by the Holy Spirit. We will be reviewing 5 types of prayer in this post.
- PRAYER OF INTERCESSION: An intercessor is a person who takes the place of another. The Lord Jesus is our intercessor. He took our place by dying so that we can have life. So intercessory prayer is a prayer said in the place of another. Prayer said to intervene on behalf of another. Intercession is mainly for people that are not in good standing with God. That is why we are called priests of God. We are to pray for all men and especially so that they may be saved.
1 Tim 2:1-4 “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
The above verse clearly tells us that Interceding for unbelievers is the first type of prayer we should pray. God desires all man to be saved, so we must pray for those not saved first.
- PRAYER OF SUPPLICATION: This is a heartfelt prayer said on behalf of another believer. This word supplication has unfortunately disappeared from the new translations of the bible. They translate as scholars and miss the spiritual insight and true context of scripture. We have to go back over hundred years to read the versions of those days to get the true context of some words. The King James Version of the bible still retains the word supplication in some verses. Intercession is very different from supplication. Supplication is said on behalf of another person just like intercession. But unlike intercession, supplication is said on behalf of another believer who is in right standing with God. So it is wrong to say we are interceding for another believer, but we can say a prayer of supplication for all saints.
- Act 1:14: “These are continued with one accord in prayer and supplications, with the woman, and Mary mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.”
- PRAYER OF COMMITMENT: This is a prayer made to completely commit things or a situation into the hands of the Lord. When saying this prayer, you must switch off all anxiety and worries and follow it up with praise and worship. (Philippians 4:6). Keep those things you handed over to God in prayers off your mind and off your to-do list. Just consider them done. If it crosses your mind just say a little word of thanks and say “thank you Lord because I know you have answered me”. When you are pressed to worry, just keep on thanking the Lord for taking it over. Things may even go south after that. Just roll up your sleeves and fight the good fight of faith. Your victory is on the other side of your consistency. This type of prayer should be said once for each thing or situation. Committing the same things into God’s hands repeatedly means we haven’t really handed it over to God. Commit it over to God wholeheartedly and don’t take it back. God intervenes in our situations when we commit them to Him.
1 Peter 5:7 “Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.”
- PRAYER OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP: Prayer of praise and worship is said with just about all other types of prayers. Praise and worship bring us into the presence of God, in fact it is a requirement to enter into the presence of God.
Psalm 100:4 “Enter into His gate with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.” Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. Once you start thanking God in praise over an issue, you cannot go back in prayer for the same issue.
2 Chron 5:13-14 “It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord;14 So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.”
- PRAYER OF CONSECRATION. This is one of the very important prayers we need to pray always. The prayer of consecration is a prayer of submission. Submitting everything (our lives, will heart, soul, strength, etc) to God’s perfect plan. This prayer is the most common prayer we see in the new testament prayed by Paul and other Apostles and Saints for the church. I say this prayer over my congregation every Sunday. There are many examples of this kind of prayer in the new testament. The one in Hebrews 13;20 is my favorite.
Heb 13:20-21 “Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
The other types of prayer will be reviewed in our next blog post. May the Lord continue to lead us by His Spirit to pray His will in all things.
Pastor Chinedu Emmanuel is the Senior Pastor of Fountain of The Living Word Church East Orange, New Jersey.