Stages of Prayer (Apostle Tracey Robinson. All Rights Reserved)
Stage
is a step in some development, progress, or process
How to pray to our Holy God
Entering into His Presence
Reverencing God
Intimacy with God
The Holy Spirit aids in prayer
Fellowship with the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ
Praying amiss
Selfish prayers
Questions that you should be asking
What is prayer? What is the purpose of prayer?
Why is prayer a requirement with God? Why is it needful?
Where does prayer take us? What does prayer get us?
Does God answer prayers? Are your prayers being answered?
Does God answer prayers according to His Will or your Will?
How do you know if God has answered your prayers?
What is God’s process for prayer?
What is man’s process for prayer?
When people say, “I know you’ve been praying for me.” Does God allow us to hear the prayers o others that say they have been praying for us?
What is prayer?
What is the purpose of prayer?
Prayer was first mentioned in
Genesis 4:26, And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.
Prayer by definition is a solemn request to a “Holy God” for help or expression of thanksgiving addressed to God. Solemn
means characterized by majesty, mystery, or power; exciting grave or serious thought; impressive; awe-inspiring; sacred.
Prayer is a way for the believer to
earnestly
(intent and direct in purpose) communicate their emotions, desires, and to be informed by God of His Will, Plan, and Purpose in your life.
The human soul of man has a great need to communicate with His Creator. The soul has God’s breath and through God’s breath man became a living soul (
Genesis 2:7
) Man’s soul has a void in it, in it’s his life without Christ Jesus.
Prayer can be audible, silent, private, public, formal, or informal, but must be offered in faith and believed by faith in the Name of Jesus.
The sinner and the wicked have no desire to pray, unless they are repenting to God; but the believer that has salvation has a desire to pray. This comes with the salvation process.
Psalm 10:4
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
St Luke 11:1 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. Verses 2-4 is the Lord’s prayer
.
Prayer is a method of seeking God’s favor; pouring out your soul to Him as you cry out to Him and He draws you near to Him.
Psalm 51:17
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God thou wilt not despise.
Contrite
is broken in spirit because of a sense of sin; sorry.
In prayer we should talk to God about everything and anything, hiding nothing. This is a part of acknowledging Him in all our ways too!
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Prayer gives us guidance with instructions as we listen to the Lord God speak. Yes, He will speak back to you if you are in a place with Him that will cause Him to speak.
Prayer is not one-sided. He hears and will speak.
Prayer will develop relationship with the Lord God.
Prayer will demonstrate your trust and dependence in Him.
Prayer is our gateway and path to learning and knowing how to love the Lord God and how to become intimate with Him and through His Word.
Prayer is also a means of going to God not wanting anything, but to find out what God Will is from you; what He desires of you today for Him; just to find out what is it that God is in need of through you down here on this Earth. This is spiritual growth in Spirit and in Truth!
Reverencing God
Intimacy with God
Reverence
is a feeling of profound respect often mingled with awe and affection; veneration; an act of respect.
We don’t go to God thinking that we are on the same level as God; or even so that we are so in tuned with Him that we forget to reverence Him.
When we reverence God, we show that we love and respect Him by acknowledging His sovereignty, His Excellency, His Greatness, His Power and Authority, His Word that governs all that He has created.
Romans 13:1-2
LET every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
In prayer we acknowledge that we are nothing and God is all, and that He knows what is best for us. We don’t know the way, but He knows our way.
Jesus told the rich young ruler in
St Matthew 19:17
that there is none good but one, that is, God:
St Luke 17:10
So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.
Intimate
is closely connected by friendship or association; personal; confidential; pertaining to the inmost being; innermost proceeding from within; inward.
Intimacy comes with the more we trust God and have confidence in him by not leaning to our own understanding, but acknowledging Him in all our ways, plans, and actions.
Psalm 73:8
But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.
James 4:8
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye doubleminded.
To intimately know God, you will have to get up on God to learn of Him and His Ways through His Word.
Knowledge is not intimacy. God is impressed by our faith in Him, not our knowledge in Him.
Look at Enoch, he walked with God (
Genesis 5:24) and instead of seeing death he was translated that he should not see death and his testimony was “he pleased God”. (Hebrews 11:5
).
How to pray to our Holy God
Holy
means of highest spiritual purity; worthy of veneration
To pray to our God, who is HOLY is to humble yourself before getting in His presence by having your mind, spirit, soul, and body in a reverential (respect, honor, adoration, awe, and affection) state as you enter into His Presence, leaving all your baggage of self and its worth at the feet of His Throne.
Knowing and understanding in thanksgiving His Worth by magnifying His Glory by His Works.
Begin praying to Him His Word, start out with the Lord’s Prayer, if you desire. Addressing Him as “Our Father” who art in Heaven, Hallow be thy name. Recognizing Him as being the Supreme Being with all sovereignty (Supreme Authority), all power and authority over all He has created in Heaven, in Earth, and underneath the Earth.
Hallow
is to make holy; consecrate; to look upon as holy; reverence.
Psalm 8:1
O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
Entering into His Presence
How you begin to pray to God’s Holiness will give you entitlement to enter into His Presence. How you begin prayer will determine your entering into His Presence, not to mention to be heard by Him.
To enter into His Presence one will need Holy boldness
to enter into the holiest of God by the Blood of Jesus. In other words, having the freedom to enter into His Presence to be freed from everything, literally emptying you out without fear, form, or fallacy. Having a security of who you are; confident in the righteousness of Christ Jesus in you, with nothing to hide; and able to stand before anyone with a clear conscience.
Ephesians 3:12
In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
Hebrews 4:16
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
If you sin, come before Him and say you have sinned. Don’t try to cover up your wrong, put it on the altar and leave it there before the Lord with your confession of guilt.
Psalm 16:11
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for ever more.
Joy is promised in the Divine presence of the Lord.
The Holy Spirit (Ghost) aids in prayer
Romans 8:26-27
The Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost makes intercession for us when we don’t know what we ought to be praying for, the Spirit will help with our
infirmity
(a physical, mental, or moral weakness or flaw) there.
The Holy Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness since we don’t know what to offer in pray or how to offer it worthily as we should, so He will meet our supplication and will plead on our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groaning that cannot be uttered.
And He (meaning God) that searches the heart knowing what is in the mind of the Holy Spirit (what His intent is), because the Spirit intercedes and pleads before God on behalf of the saints according to the Will of God.
Does God answer prayers?
Are your prayers being answered?
Does God answer prayers according to His Will or your Will?
How do you know if God has answered your prayers?
The
key to answered prayers is to pray in the Will of God, His written word and His spoken word toward you concerning His Plan and Purpose, and His Calling of you. This is your sure confirmation that God has answered your prayer.
Prayer does not seek the Will of man, but is to line up with the Will of God.
Unanswered prayers could be for many of reasons: disobedience, secret sin, stubbornness, despising the Law of God, self-indulgence, even down to the thoughts of your imagination. These things and more the Spirit of the Lord knows about us, not one of us is exempt from the discerning power of the Lord God, along with our intents.
The works of your hands in what God has spoken is also a certainty of an unanswered prayer. If God wanted us to fulfill His Plan and Purpose in us He would have told you right up front to use your means and substances to accomplish what He has called you to do for Him.
The master key to prayer.
St John 15:7
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
An answer to prayer is promised.
Psalm 91:15
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
Praying amiss
James 4:3
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Amiss is out of order or relation; wrong; improper. This is not in the Will of God!
1 John 5:14-15
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his Will, he heareth us; 15 And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Prayer will build you up in your most Holy faith to communicate and pray in the Spirit in the Holy Ghost.
Jude 20-21
But ye, beloved building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
In Closing,
pray for those that misuse you or wrong you. Pray that the Lord will open up your eyes of understanding to be enlightened to know and do that which He has willed to do in you on this Earth.
Pray not to be selfish over what God is doing in your life, because what God is doing in your life is always for someone else. You are being prepared and perfected for the preparation and perfection of someone else. You can’t hoard this salvation and keep it in the family only that is that flesh and blood family.
St Matthew 5:44-48
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray or them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven; for he maketh his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same?
47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Our prayer life is our way of covering all that goes on in our life on a daily basis.
A prayer life will govern your every step, words, actions, and thoughts.
Personal Touch Int Ministries Inc 