Prayer - Spiritual Communication

Most people struggle with prayer, myself included. Prayer takes many aspects working together at the same time: faith and surrender and humility.

Humility considers the fact that we are sinners and need to check to see if we need to get anything right before we enter into God's presence. Do we need forgiveness? Do we need to forgive?

With Childlike faith, in spirit and truth

Through Spirit and Truth

A key Bible verse for prayer is John 4:24:

"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

Many times people become unable to worship God in prayer because they only possess a head knowledge of God and try to approach Him in their mind alone. Prayer is not something we do physically or mentally or even by ourselves. 

The Basics:

Humans are physical bodies that have their soul (mind, will and emotions) and their spirit.

 Faith is believing God. It is birthed and developed by hearing God's Word, which is complete everlasting Truth. (Do you live out what you say you believe?)

If we want to know God in truth, we must read, study and learn His Word, the Bible. 

Since God is spirit, we must pray in spirit and truth. We must approach God in spiritually. My spirit must reach out to connect to His. Simply prayer is a spiritual act of the believer.

While we can pray in any physical position of our body, it helps us to find a way to bring ourselves into an entire unison with God. This is why many people kneel to pray. In bowing before God, our physical body expresses the actions of our soul and spirit. We can just as well sit and bow our heads or layout on the floor before God. Each person and situation will determine the best physical position to worship God in prayer. There is nothing mystical about a physical position. However, we must position our being before God, both surrendering and trusting Him. 

By Faith

In faith, mentally believing God is who He says He is and that He has done and will do what he says, we spiritually bow our being to Him. The gateway to God is praise. Prayer is worship. We come to God because we need, adore, and want Him in the center of our life. 

Psalm 100:4 says,

Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

As we turn our hearts toward God, we approach Him with thanksgiving and praise. Jesus said our first step in prayer is "Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." In recognizing where God is and who He is, we are spiritually beginning to worship Him. It is essential that we recognize that we are not just giving mental consent, but that by our spirit we approach Him. In coming to Him by spirit, we naturally must examine our spiritual condition before Him. He is holy and therefore we must confess any unholiness in our life if we expect to engage in communication with Him.

We can talk to God using our mind, choosing to spent time with Him, and emotionally wanting to be touched by Him but still never get beyond our humanness until we focus ourselves spiritually. Often this takes practice. Just as you have to practice piano or ballet or yoga; you have to practice prayer. 

Certainly, God takes us into prayer sometimes and we don't have to practice anything. But daily devoting ourselves to prayer is a disciplined life. 

God is Spirit. We must pray in Truth and Spirit.

With Focus

Focusing can be our biggest hindrance, once the hurdles of faith are overcome: such as, "Is God real?", "Does prayer work?", "Can God hear me?", "Can I hear God?", etc.

Focusing requires us to find a place and time with limited distractions.

We also must quiet our minds which can be bombarded with to-do's or ideas that take our thoughts off of God and carry us away. Some people find playing instrumental music can be helpful. Other people have a pencil and paper available to quickly jot down thoughts to remove them until later. 

Part of the reason we have so much difficulty is spiritual warfare. God's enemy (who is also spiritual) does not want us to have a relationship with God, so we must be spiritually prepared to battle through the distractions and not so easily give up. 

A prayer warrior is a winning warrior that does not give up or give in. 

With childlike faith, eagerness to spend time with God, we must allow our spirit to freely connect intimately with Him. Imagery is a wonderful resource to use. I often visualize myself entering the throne room of the king of Kings and seeing his loving smile and open arms. I know He delights to see me as a good father does when he sees his child. I know I am welcome to come close to allow myself to be hugged or lifted up to him. 

Beyond Basics

Once prayer is something we can frequently enter into, we can build upon how we spend our time with God. Having a prayer and praise list is a wonderful track record to increase your faith in seeing God's faithfulness. I have looked back in old prayer books and found that I prayed decades ago for neighbors and people who are all now Christians. If I didn't record this I would never remember. Knowing this gives me more confidence. I clearly see that God answers my prayers. 

But the best beyond the basic part of prayer is LISTENING!

God speaks. However, we must stop speaking and listen if we are to ever hear him. When I was a young mother or even a young Christian I would fall asleep praying. I would feel like a failure, but I now know God gave me that sweet rest in His presence. He knew what I needed and gave it to me. 

Some people are afraid to listen because then they are accountable for doing what God says or requests.