What do I like about this? Is it that we are to pray in the spirit, led by God himself? Is it that we are to be creative? Finding all kinds of ways, old and new ways to communicate with our Father? Is it the open invitation to lay our requests before him? Is it that our father wants to know what we feel and what we need and what we think we need!? Is it that we are to carry our brothers and sisters in prayer, before our father and to know in turn that they carry me?
yes.
But what I love about prayer is that it is our communication with the side of Heaven. Prayer is our radio, in military terms. We speak, we relay what we need, supplies and re-enforcements are issued according to the wisdom of command. We listen, we receive instructions, advancements, retreats and strategies that can turn battles if we obey them. We see weakness in our lines, we call in air support. We speak in code and the enemy is baffled. One code is love and sacrifice, a language he cannot decipher. Another is tongues, heavenly language that nourishes our spirit.
Prayer is our life-line. Without it we lose touch and become like some troops who broke ranks and got stranded behind enemy lines, stumbling lost through the forests.
Prayer is a conversation. There are as many styles of prayer as there are saints. Every one of us has a unique conversation with our heavenly Dad. I love my son Noah and communicate to him in a special way but there are conversations I will have with Ethan that will always remain Ethan/Daddy conversations, Noah could never be part of that intimacy. And, naturally, vice versa applies.
It is a conversation that can take many forms including.
- Meditation (Biblical/visual/silent etc)
- Prayers of request.
- Prophetic prayers
- Battle prayers,
- Praise prayers
- Chatty prayers,
- Silent prayers
- Recited prayers
- Sung prayers
- written prayers
- Prayers of confession
- "Arrow" prayers
- Healing prayers
- group prayer
There are so many forms to experiment with and on each of these we bring our own unique slant and understanding. Prayer is much, much deeper than words, it is so much more than "dear Lord Jesus, please bless.... (add names, add infinitum)."
We are always saying something to God. Right now as you read this, as I write it, we are speaking to the father about how we feel about him, about serving him. God picks up on body language and heart language and thought language. Its just a question of what we are saying. Sometimes, to my shame, I am saying, 'Lord I'm not that bothered right now, can you come back later?'. Our whole life is a prayer, half a conversation between us and God. Paul refers to being poured out like a drink offering. There is a physicality to our prayers, not mere words. When I let that lady across the road it is part of my conversation. When I do not, it is as much part of the conversation. Our words and actions are supposed to be extensions of who and what we are. I like to think of Prayer being our trying to get back to that state of openness before God that we had in the garden of Eden, before we felt shame. To know and to be fully know in return, nothing hidden*, walking humbly before our God.
Prayer does a lot of things but I have loved C.S. Lewis' description of prayer from the moment I heard it in the film Shadowlands, 'Prayer does not change God, it changes me". This is why intimacy and consistency in prayer are so vital to warfare. Yes it makes us co-workers with the holy spirit, but it also turns us into elite special forces warriors, ready to sacrifice (and therefore succeed) all for our cause. It is that daily dying to self, through our prayer and walk, that gives us the edge. You cant kill a dead man & you cant scare a dead man. A dead man has nothing to lose. Prayer is the offering of our lives to God. If we set out on that journey, if we begin that amazing conversation we will see victory upon victory.
*Footnote; when we are intimate with the Father and feel ourselves loved and accepted we have less to hide from our brothers in arms, we fear reprisals less, grace is extended to our church family as well as to us. we receive grace and, in ourselves, become a means of grace. Morale in the camp, and a better fighting unit must be the results of this increased openness before God.
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