Lesson 1. What Is Prayer? Mary Alice Isley reveals the secrets of effective prayer.
…The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.James 5:16
What an encouraging promise! The power of the Lord is available to us today! It is not locked away in some inaccessible place, so far away that it is impossible to reach and possess.
There is a way to experience this power and make it accessible to our generation. And that way is through fervent prayer. Such prayer is a source of the Lord’s power and can transform both individual lives and entire cities and nations.
There is nothing prayer cannot touch and change. Prayer is a spiritual response to people's needs. In fact, we pray because we love people and love the Lord! Every time we pray and do so correctly, the mighty power of the Lord is released to achieve victory and resolve a situation that at first glance seems impossible.
We thank God that Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead, because through this He paid for what we need. Everything is now available to us in the Kingdom of the Spirit. God hides nothing from us. Although many people imagine God as a fussy old man who promises us much and then, when we are almost ready to grab it, hides it away, this is not so at all. He is not angry with us or trying to lecture us either; we do not need to overcome God’s displeasure when we pray—there is no such problem.
When we pray, we break through the opposition of the forces of darkness and receive God’s will so that we can fulfill His plan on earth. Through prayer, His power is released to accomplish what we ask. God is not against us. He is for us! The Lord’s power is in the spiritual realm. We cannot always see it, and sometimes we do not feel it, but nevertheless, it is there.
Many cities and nations have been hindered for years. This was likely not because God refused to act, but simply because people lacked the spiritual understanding necessary to see that their prayers had been answered. This book will teach you to pray so that the Lord’s power becomes evident and tangible in your life!
For example, this spiritual situation can be compared to a sweater factory. Such factories usually consist of two parts: one is where the sweaters are produced—that is, the factory itself; the other is a small factory store where the finished garments are sold in a variety of styles, colors, and sizes.
The most important part of the entire factory is not the store, but the workshop behind it, where everything needed to produce clothing is available—wool and cotton in every color, buttons of all sizes, and other materials. In fact, sweaters are made in the factory workshop, but they become available to people in the store. It is in the store that customers see the finished product and can buy it. It would be ridiculous if a factory had a store but it were empty. You would ask, “Where are the clothes? Don’t you produce sweaters? You have everything necessary at the factory; so why are there no sweaters in the store?”
The reason the shelves are empty is that someone failed to do their job. The clothes are ready at the factory, but no one has stocked the shelves so that people can come in and buy what they need. The products are not available.
Someone must pray through the price.
That is exactly how things are in the spiritual realm. Everything we need is available in the “heavenly factory.” It has been waiting for us for a long time, but someone must pray through the “price” so that it can be brought to where people can come and freely receive what they need.
Prayer to fill the “shelves” of life! Prayer makes the power of God available. We need to fill our “shelves” with healing, miracles, restoration, and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our generation!
Everything we need has already been paid for by the crucifixion. Now we must receive it through faith in our hearts and prayer, making the power of the Lord available on earth.
We have been given an active role on earth in the Kingdom of God.
Who should pray this prayer? Every believer is called to pray. This is a gift from Jesus that He has given us. God is pleased to hear the prayers of His people. He always answers the request of the righteous, but when no one prays on earth, the Lord’s heart is grieved.
In the Bible, in Revelation, it says that the prayers of the saints are like incense, giving off a fragrance before the throne of God. God loves the prayers of His people.
God is waiting for us to rise up and begin to pray. He passionately desires us to break the resistance of the flesh against a life of prayer. He wants to teach us and help us. Prayer was given not to the state or any other institution, not even to a religious organization, but to the living Church, the Body of Christ.
If you are a believer, you are called to pray—confidently, passionately, and continually! I am convinced that prayer should not be limited to a particular group! Every member of the church should pray, not just the pastor or leader.
The goal of every local church is to make every church member a strong and skilled warrior of prayer. You can do this! God will help you!
What is prayer?
Simply put, prayer is friendship with God. It is an opportunity to act with an understanding of the spiritual world. Prayer is communication with God; it is seeing the spiritual condition of people and situations. Prayer has tremendous power, it works, and it is essential for your Christian life.
Prayer is not only what the Bible teaches us; prayer is a lifestyle. Someone once said that prayer is to your spiritual life what the ability to breathe is to your physical life. If we stop breathing, we know what will happen—we will die. Prayer is the breath of God that sustains your living, vibrant relationship with God. It also preserves your freedom and strength to fight the enemy.
You may not even know that your born-again spirit has both the desire and the potential to pray! Your flesh may be weak and untrained, even bound, but your spirit needs prayer as the body needs food. It longs to know God, speak with Him, and be friends with Him. It longs to see the devil defeated!
Zechariah 12:10 foretells that a spirit of grace and supplication will be poured out on the house of David. This passage reveals in literary language that Israel will endure the final days of God's judgment, but today we know that the spirit of grace is being poured out on us, on the Church.
The Importance of the Principles of Prayer
When we decide to live a life of prayer, it is most important to understand the principles on which prayer is built. The strength of the Christian life—and, in particular, of the prayer life—is based on the fundamental truth of the Word of God, which works in our lives.
These principles make us strong and help us walk the path of life to the end. You are as strong spiritually as the biblical principles within you are strong. A person ruled by the flesh can easily abandon their principles because they seem so simple and superficial. But you cannot simply discard or replace the deep principles of your life. The principle of a life of prayer consists of three parts.
The first is faith in God according to the Bible. It has already been said that prayer can change much, but the point is that it is not prayer alone that changes life—it is prayer with faith. Our prayers are strong and powerful because of our faith in God, not merely faith in our plans.
We believe in His Word and in His nature, and this determines the strength of faith in our lives and in our prayers. Our prayers should be spoken before the Lord without doubt or uncertainty, for He hears and answers them.
Your life is weak if it is not built on biblical knowledge of who God is and what He does. If you think incorrectly, you will believe incorrectly as well. If you think rightly, based on the Bible, strong faith will come into your life.
Everything in the Kingdom of God must be done in faith. Hebrews 11:6 says: “And without faith it is impossible to please God.” We can also say that without faith in your prayer life, it is impossible to please God. We must pray in faith. No matter what we pray for, we must pray in faith, for without faith it is impossible to please God.
It is not prayer alone that causes God to act. It is not prayer alone that moves mountains, but the prayer of faith. We know who God is and what He can do. Only faith that comes from a believing heart can change something in your life.
Let us turn to the Gospel of Matthew:
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? And if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him! Matthew 7:7–11
Here we see that an important aspect of prayer with faith is found in the word “ask.” Asking is so simple; it almost makes our thoughts turn to different things. Jesus said that we should ask God, our Father. How should we pray? Ask, seek, knock—and we will find.
One of the most important things that should be in your heart is God's will concerning what you ask for. It is His will for you to ask Him when you pray, and He will answer you. If you believe and act this way, it will be true faith. When you ask in prayer, a door opens for God's blessings.
Realize that the Father eagerly awaits your coming to Him and asking. He loves you and wants you to ask, seek, and knock. It is very simple. Religious tradition and fear of punishment leave us outside the door, but this door is wide open. Through the blood of Jesus, we come directly before the throne of the Lord and ask for what we can receive—and our joy will be complete.
In verses 9–11, Jesus speaks about our relationship with the Father; about the fact that our Father is a good Father who wants to give gifts to His children. “All right,” you may say, “then why should I ask? If He is my Father, surely He knows what I need?”
Yes, He knows, but when you ask, it shows that you are interested in what He wants to do. It is also a way to test your faith. God acts when people believe in Him. He does not bestow His grace when people do not care. He gives it only to those who want to receive it, believe in it, and ask. He does not simply give His grace.
The Lord is good and generous, and sometimes we receive what we have not even asked for because He loves us so deeply. But this is not always the case. He wants us to ask; He wants us to act in faith; He wants us to believe in Him and that He hears us and will give us what we pray for:
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
These verses are very simple, yet extremely important. Theoretically, we can become religious people if we pray simply knowing that we are supposed to, or if we do it for show, without faith in our hearts. In these verses, Jesus speaks about a great work, and He emphasizes that a great work will be done in our lives if we ask in the name of Jesus. We pray to the Father in the name of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.
When we ask in the name of Jesus, He is as though standing beside us and giving His approval to our prayer—if, of course, we pray in agreement with His Word. “And whatever you ask in My name,” Jesus says, “that I will do, that the Father may be glorified…”
Do you believe that He will do it? He says, “Yes.” When you pray with faith in God and He answers your prayers, it glorifies Him. A weak, hopeless prayer does not glorify God! Only a faith-filled prayer produces results that bring glory to God! In the Gospel of John, chapter 15, verse 7, Jesus teaches us again: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Notice that this verse has two conditions: “If you abide in Me…”—the condition of living in Jesus; “and My words abide in you…”—the other condition.
Living in Him and having His Word in you are not so unattainable; God would not teach us through His Word to live this way if it were impossible. You came to Christ through the new birth, and now He lives in you, and you live in Him. You allowed His Word to enter your heart, and it began to abide in you. You come to Him with a pure heart, so this verse is for you: “Whatever you wish, ask, and it will be done for you.”
Of course, we must understand that when we abide in Jesus and His words abide in us, He begins to change our desires. Through the power of His Word and the Holy Spirit, our desires come into agreement with His desires.
Jesus also wants us, in some areas of life, simply to have what we want because He loves us: “Whatever you wish, ask.” Jesus stands and asks, “What do you want?”
God wants us to ask for what we desire, not only for what He desires. Many people do not think that God wants to know their desires. I am not talking about fleshly desires that make you dependent on yourselves, but about what your heart wants and what God approves. He Himself placed these desires in your heart, and therefore He wants you to ask Him for them in faith.
If you live in Him and your desires accord with the Word of God, you can ask, and it will be done for you. This brings glory to the Lord! This is what Jesus says! He wants you to believe it, believe that it will be done, and pray with all the strength of your faith.
God Answers the Prayer of Faith
In the Gospel of John, we again find Jesus speaking about asking:
And on that day you will ask Me nothing. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be complete. John 16:23–24
God wants your joy to be complete. He wants you to be satisfied and blessed by His will and by what He plans for your life.
How can this be done? You simply put the last three quotations together: ask in Jesus’ name, with His Word abiding in you, and ask for whatever you want, and you will receive it, and your joy will be complete. God answers the prayer of faith; He wants you to be confident that you will receive what you ask for.
Some will think, “I never even expected to receive anything.”
And the Bible tells us exactly how we should pray: expecting to receive. If you pray as the Bible teaches, you should expect to receive what you ask for.
Yes, we should pray according to God's will, and His will is revealed to us in His Word, so it is not difficult at all to know His will. When we pray, we expect to receive what we ask for.This is faith. Faith pleases and glorifies God, and makes not only the Lord's joy complete, but yours as well.
I am more than convinced that God wants us to relate to Him as children relate to their parents. You know what children are like. When they come home from school, they confidently enter their house because it is their home. They feel safe in their home! So they simply go into the kitchen and say, “Hi, Mom! I’m hungry!” They open the refrigerator at once and take what they need. They do not stand there wondering whether they may take it. They are confident in their relationship with their parents. They know and believe that their parents will always give them what they need and accommodate their wishes.
Another interesting characteristic of children is that they ask for and receive what they want without any problem. By nature, they are trusting, and this trait is so strong in them that they become quite persistent. They do not hesitate because they know that their parents are loving and generous.
And God wants His children to be the same way. He wants us to feel completely secure in His presence, to approach Him freely, knowing that He is our Father who cares for every area of our lives. He wants us to have faith that He will provide everything we need.
God our Father wants us to expect to receive what we ask for. Of course, we pray with love and respect in our hearts, but the Word of God says in Hebrews 4:16 that we can go directly to the throne of grace to receive—not merely with hope for something, but in order to receive what we desire.
Let us now turn to First John 5:14–15:
And 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 what we have asked of Him.
These verses confuse people somewhat because they are not sure what God's will is. But God reveals His will in His Word. Whatever His Word says is His will! For your prayers to be answered, you must pray in agreement with His will, in agreement with His Word.
We do not pray as someone tells us to, or according to our past experience, circumstances, religious upbringing, or emotional state. We pray according to God's will, given through His Word, and as His Spirit leads us.
Verse 15 says that if we pray according to His will, He hears us; He listens to us and gives us what we ask for. This may seem too simple, but that is exactly what His Word says. This is the way God shows us. God wants us to believe this and pray in an expectant spirit of faith. We know that receiving something takes time. But when we pray, we must know that we already have it if we pray as the Lord's will requires. Only confident prayer can change circumstances—and that is exactly what happens!
So, the first step toward a life of prayer is our faith in God. The next step–is covenant (a contract or agreement), or knowing who God is. It is not difficult for us to know exactly who God is. We have no doubt about who He is or what He is like. His Word reveals exactly who He is, exactly what He is like, and exactly what He will do.
In the Old Testament, whenever God appeared to a man or woman, He told them who He was and made a covenant with them. We also have a covenant with Him through the blood of Jesus. It is very important to bring this into our lives, because our prayers are based on who God is and on knowing Him according to the covenant. Knowing who God is will make us strong, confident, and secure in prayer. Do you know whom you are truly praying to? You must know!
God Revealed Himself Through His Names
In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 11, we read how Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray. Jesus gave them several principles of prayer, which we call the Lord’s Prayer. Taking the second step in accordance with the covenant, we should pay special attention to what Jesus says in the second verse: “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name…” The word “hallowed” means “to exalt, glorify, and worship.” When we stand before the Father, we must praise His name and exalt His name.
God is a covenant-keeping God, and He reveals Himself to us through His names. His names reflect His character and nature. Our God is greater than many have allowed Him to be. God wants to reveal to us every aspect of His character. And you must know your Lord!
If we do not know Him, His names, His character, or the essence of the covenantthat we have with Him, we can easily be led astray by what is not the truth.
For example, some people believe that God is a force, a cloud, or an old man sitting in heaven with a gray beard who punishes us when we do something wrong. He is neither the one nor the other. He is the covenant-keeping God who reveals Himself in His Word and through His names.
If you build your prayer on wrong principles, you will have a weak prayer with insignificant results. If you have no revelation that our God is Jehovah, you may believe that He makes people sick, but that is not true at all, because Jehovah has no sickness in Him. Sickness is a consequence of sin, death, and the Fall. Jesus broke this curse by being crucified on the cross. God wants us to know His character so that we may have faith in Him and know why we believe and what we believe.
It is very important for you to understand that when the covenant was made with us through the blood of Jesus, God gave us all of Himself. He promised to keep the covenant with us forever!
The Old Testament lists 12 names of God by which He calls Himself. They reveal who God is. Remember, He is unchanging: yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8).
We encounter the first name in Jer. 23:6, where God calls HimselfJehovah-Tsidkenu:The Lord is our righteousness, the righteous God.
We must understand that everything God spoke about in the Old Testament was fulfilled by Jesus in the New Testament. These names from the Old Testament were revealed in Jesus and are real for us today. Jesus is our righteousness today.
We find the second name in Lev. 20:7–8.Jehovah-M’Kaddesh:The Lord God who sanctifies us and who is holy. He is the same today: He is just as holy and still sanctifies us. Jesus became our sanctification, as stated in First Corinthians 1:30.
God is Jehovah-Shalom: the Lord God of peace. God reveals this name in Judges 6:24. He is our peace today. “My peace I give you,” Jesus tells us. This includes prosperity, harmony, and fulfillment in life. He is Jehovah-Shalom for us today, every minute.
The next name is Jehovah-Shammah: the Lord God who is always present. This is mentioned in Ezekiel 48:35 and Hebrews 13:5.
Jesus reminds us that the Father is always with us wherever we go, even to the ends of the earth. If you know Him as Jehovah-Shammah, you will never be alone. He is the Lord God who is always present, always here.
The next name of the Lord God is Jehovah-Rapha: the Lord who heals, or Jehovah the Healer. We read about this in Exodus 15:26 and Psalm 103:3. “I am the Lord God who heals you,” He says. Then Jesus came, and what did He do? He healed everyone. We are healed today by His wounds.
God also reveals Himself as Jehovah-Jireh. Translated from Hebrew, this name literally means “the One who provides everything (Genesis 22:14).”
God blesses us in every area of our lives: emotionally, financially, spiritually, and morally. He is our success. He desires and is able to meet all our needs. One reason we can pray for financial prosperity is that we provide room for the Lord God, who is the One who provides, to work.
Another name of God is Jehovah-Nissi: the Lord God who is the banner of our victory. He is our victory, our banner, and our deliverer. You will find the corresponding passage in Exodus 17:15. Our Father is the Father of victory. He is victory itself. Healing flows from His being. Prosperity flows from every part of His being.
He also calls Himself Jehovah-Rohi: the Lord is my Shepherd. I lack nothing because of Him. This is stated in Psalm 23:1. He gives me peace and leads me along the path of righteousness.
The next name, Jehovah-Adonai, means that the Lord God is our Master. We are His servants and must live in obedience. He is our only Master.
He is El Elyon: the Most High God. This is mentioned in Psalm 91:1.
Elohim - the name of God meaning the Lord God the Creator. He is the Creator of heaven and earth, as stated in Genesis 1:1–2.
The final name of the Lord is El Shaddai. The one and only Almighty God, as stated in Genesis 49:25.
In all the names, God reveals to us who He is. He is neither more nor less than what is explained in His names. Recall the quotation with which we began this section: “Hallowed be Your Name.”
Use the names of God in your prayers, for example: “Today I call upon You, Jehovah-Tsidkenu, Lord God of my righteousness. Today I praise You as the God of righteousness.”
Be very specific in your prayers. The names of the Lord reveal to us who He is, His character, and what He can do as the bearer of one name or another. Understanding this is a very important principle of your life of prayer. You are praying to the living God.
Our relationship with Christ is one of the conditions for victory
The third step toward developing our prayer life is fellowship with Christ. Through fellowship with Him, we can pray persistently and confidently. Ephesians 2:6 says that we have been seated in the heavenly realms together with Jesus. We have a place in the Kingdom of the Spirit, and we can pray from our spiritual position—being close to Christ! Our prayers are not determined by defeats or circumstances, but by the position we occupy as we live in Christ, by the fact that we have been redeemed by His blood. Ephesians 6:10–12 says:
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might; Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil; For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Paul speaks about how important it is to be strong in the Lord in order to know how to fight against principalities and powers. And in this case, the means of fighting is prayer.
God sees you as strong warriors who fight the enemy through prayer. He wants you to be His warrior, using the weapons He gives you, and praying in the Spirit of God.
We must realize that in Christ we have everything we need to win. Even if you do not feel like a warrior, the Lord says that you are still one in Christ. Receive this by faith. Rise up and go into battle! Rise up and pray!
We have already been seated in the heavenly realms with Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father, far above all principalities and powers! And we must never pray from a position as though we were merely part of a particular religious concept or philosophy.
We do not pray trying to obtain something that is already prepared on earth; we already have a definite position in the spiritual realm and the weapons the Lord has given us.
God simply wants us to take up our weapons and fight. We do not pray out of fear, but because the Spirit of the Lord lives within us and because we have victory in Christ. As soon as we begin to realize the significance of our position in Christ, we will come to persistent and confident prayer.
God has given us a powerful foundation for a strong, mature prayer life—a faith in God, harmonious relationships, and a secure position in Christ. On this foundation, we are ready to build the structure of our prayers and use passionate, fervent prayer to make the power of God available to our generation and today’s world.
End of lesson.
