An important principle of prayer that needs to be mentioned here is to whom are we to direct our prayers? John 16:23 says, "And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." We see that in our prayers we are to address the Father, in the name of Jesus. Never are we to pray to the Spirit as He abides within. Of course, it is permissible to address the Lord by other names such as Master, God, Jehovah, Righteous King, Emmanuel, etc. However, our prayers are to be directed to the Heavenly Father, regardless of the Scriptural name we may use. We may speak to the Father and Jesus interchangeably as we pray, but the Father is the one who will answer our prayers.  

Volumes have been written about prayer and this subject could be an exhaustive one in itself. However, it will suffice for us to mention only a few more things here. Prayerlessness is sin for we are admonished in I Thessalonians 5:17 to "Pray without ceasing." How is this possible? Our petitions to the Lord should be continuous. This can only take place as we bring our thoughts and hearts into a constant attitude of prayer. The Lord desires that we have unbroken fellowship with Him.

We also are not to be discouraged if our prayers are not answered immediately. We are instructed in Matthew 7:7-8 to
"Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking (reverently) and the door will be opened to you. For every one who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking it will be opened" (Amp. Bible).

This does not mean we are to beg God for our answers, but we are to be diligent and to persevere until our answers come. We don't have to ask for the same thing over and over as the Lord remembers every prayer we pray. Nevertheless, we can pray many ways about the same problem until it is resolved and we obtain our answer.

There are two extremes that the enemy attempts to put upon people in this area. One is to make them think that it is sin and shows lack of faith to ever mention a request to God a second time. He gets them to refuse to ever ask prayer over a problem after praying once. This erroneous belief opens the door to the enemy in situations where he is hindering prayer answers. It sometimes takes considerable spiritual prayer force applied to a specific problem before its answer comes. The problem needs to be prayed completely through before we cease to ask. The other extreme is to continually ask, beg and be prayed for in every prayer line, over and over. This lets the enemy keep our eyes on our problem instead of on the Lord. There is a balance that needs to be applied as we seek God for our answers. If we have peace about something, then we need not continually ask God about it. If we do not have rest in our heart about it, we need to keep praying until we pray the matter through and get peace about it.

Praying in the Spirit is helpful here, as many times we do not know how to pray about a situation. I Corinthians 14:14-15 says, "For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also."

Any teaching on prayer would be incomplete without including the "Lord's Prayer." It is a classic memorized by millions, yet lived by few. Matthew 6:5-13 covers the principles that the Lord Jesus laid down in regard to prayer:
"And when thou prayest, thou shall not be as the hypocrites are: For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."

The most important thing the Lord is stressing here is that our hearts need to be right before Him when we pray. Hypocrites that are praying to be heard by others will not be heard by God. The reward they receive is the pleasure they derive from being able to be seen and heard of men, yet they have no reward from their heavenly Father. The Lord instructs us to pray from the secret chambers of our hearts; this is what He means by entering into our closets. We are to pray from our hearts to the Father and not pray just to be heard of men.

He also says that the heathens use vain repetitions and we are not to do this. These would be memorized prayers that come from the mind with no "heart" to them. They believe their "much speaking" will get through to God. Hindus and Moslems chant prayers such as these. Some use prayer beads as they rotely repeat the same prayers. God is not as interested in the quantity of our prayers as He is in the quality.

Jesus, in His prayer to the Father, begins with an attitude of worship, then asks that the will of God be done in earth. Notice the words "in earth." We are referred to in II Corinthians 4:6-7 as "earthen vessels." "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." The will of God is to be accomplished "in us" as it is in heaven. Is there any sickness, worry, evil, fear or sin in heaven? Since there is not, then we are not to have these things dwelling in us either.

Then we are to ask for our daily bread, but we need a spiritual supply also. We should receive "fresh manna" from the Lord every day and not live on yesterday's prophecies or words from the Lord.

We are to ask for forgiveness of our sins. Then we are especially to forgive those that have trespassed against us. We can block the receiving of our blessings from God if we do not pray for the forgiveness of those who have wronged us.

We are to daily ask for deliverance from evil. We need to ask the Lord to cleanse us from unrighteousness and deliver us from all that would offend our Father. We can stay ahead of the devil by asking the Lord to "lead us not into temptation." If we aggressively stand against Satan's devised attacks and temptations, then we can thwart his plans before he comes against us. We know that he shall be defeated because our God has the true kingdom, the power, and the glory forever! Amen.

This teaching was taken from the book, Keys to the Kingdom.
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