What Is Prayer:
Prayer is any talk that we have with God. Sometime, you are feeling good and just want to praise God. In this case, it is called a prayer of praise. If you are just thanking God for your joyous situation, that is called Thanksgiving Prayer. Sometimes you are asking God for things that you need. This is called supplication. And there are those times in which you are asking God to grant needs for other. This kind of prayer is called intercession. So, if you hear a Christian say I am an Intercessor, what he or she means is that he prays for others. In any of these cases, your prayer involves talking with God; expressing your needs and feelings to Him.

How Do We Pray?
One day, the Apostles asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. What Jesus taught them is usually referred to as The Lord’s Prayer. Christians generally memorize and recite this prayer, but a careful study indicates that this is a general prayer that can serve as a model from which we can learn to pray. Here is the Lord’s prayer, and what it teaches us on how to pray:

The Model Prayer Called The Lord’s Prayer 

(Matt. 6:9-13 or Luke 11:2-4)
1. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
2. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
3. Give us this day our daily bread.
4. And forgive us our sins, As we forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
5. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
6. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

What We Can Learn From The Model Prayer
1. Always Start Your Prayer With Praise
Line 1 of the Lord’s prayer says: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name”, and it is the opening portion. First of all, “our Father in heaven” acknowledges that God is our Father, and being in heaven above, He is Higher than all on earth. Secondly, the word “hallowed” means “honored as holy”, or praised as holy. So, “hallowed be Your name” simply means, holy be Your name. Therefore, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name”, is an honor or praise to God for His superior Fatherhood, Highness and holiness. By this, Jesus is teaching us to always start our prayers with praise unto God.

Praise is any statement that acknowledges God’s greatness, glory, power, righteousness, holiness, truth, mercy, grace, compassion, faithfulness, etc. Examples: “Your faithfulness is very sure, and it has sustained me mightily.” or Let all glory and honor and blessings forever remain yours.”

2. Pray For God’s Will To Be Fulfilled:
Line 2 of the prayer says: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Both sentences speak of God’s will. When Jesus taught this prayer, the kingdom of God had not yet arrived on earth. But it did arrive as soon as He arose from the dead. So we are not to pray for the kingdom of God to arrive anymore. Rather, we are to pray for the other will of God to be fulfilled on earth as stated by the second sentence. At the center of this will are these:
i. All Christians should preach the gospel to all people so that no one should perish, but that all should hear the gospel, repent and be saved (Matthews 28, 2 Peter 3:9).
ii. Christ Jesus will return to earth to take Christians home to heaven and execute judgment and condemnation against all who refused to be saved. Jesus is hereby teaching us that in our prayers, we should pray for these events to be accomplished on earth. Here is where we pray for churches and ministries to be strengthened in God’s work. Here is where we pray for the Holy Spirit to help us do God’s work. And so on, and so forth.

3. Pray For Your Daily Needs And The Needs Of Others:
Line 3 of the prayer says: “Give us this day our daily bread.” The word bread is symbolic of food and other things that people need for daily sustenance. So, “Give us this day our daily bread.” teaches us to pray for our needs. So, pray here for the material and spiritual things that you want to ask God for.

You should also pray for the material and spiritual needs of others(intercession). Indeed you should pray for the needs of not only people, but of families, communities, nations and continents.

4. Pray For Forgiveness:
Line 4 of the prayer says: “And forgive us our sins, As we forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” Jesus is teaching us here to pray the Father to forgive us not only of our sins, but also of our debts to God and even our debts to other people.

When we sin against God, we become indebted to Him. If we don’t give willingly to God, we also become indebted to Him. And if we owe money, material goods or favor to people, we likewise, become indebted to them. Whether, we owe to God or to a human, God will forgive us when we genuinely ask Him, and if we also forgive others who owe us. Jesus is teaching us to ask God to forgive us of not only our sins, but also money, material goods and favors that we owe to others and of which we are unable to pay.

We should also pray for the forgiveness of our fellow Brothers and Sisters in Christ. For Jesus teaches elsewhere in the scriptures that we should pray for the forgiveness of fellow Christians (I John 5:16)

5. Pray For Protection Against Satan:
Line 5 of the prayer says: “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Praying for protection against satan or the evil one is very important. That is because, satan is the biggest threat to your Christianity and the joy of it. He is a mean spirited being; full of evil powers and quite ready to hurt people whom he can get to fall for his temptation and as such sin against God.

Temptation is the means by which he gets people to sin against God, and he uses this sin to bind them and afflict them with many sufferings, and at times, causes some to loose their salvation. Temptation is tough to overcome, and so it is wise that we should not be tempted at all, and that is what Jesus is teaching here.

Being the humans that we are, times may come when we fall for satan’s temptations and give him a chance to hurt us. Because of this possibility, Jesus is also teaching us in line 5 to pray that God would deliver us from satan. Isn’t it very consoling to know that God has made such great provisions for us?

6. Close Your Prayers With A High Praise To God:
Line 6 of the prayer says: “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” Here Jesus is teaching us that we should always close our prayers with a high praise of God; extolling Him for His power over all things. For such power ensures that He is well able to grant our request.

What Order To Follow:
Although the Lord did not advise us on which prayer point comes first, or second or last, Let me suggest the following to you, based on my experience. As you become more experienced in prayers, you’ll be able to do it by yourself.
First Prayer Point: Praise God. Always start your prayers with praise.
Second Prayer Point: Pray for forgiveness.
Third Prayer Point: Pray God’s will.
Forth Prayer Point: Pray For Your Daily Need, And The Needs Of Others
Fifth Prayer Point: Pray for protection
Sixth Prayer Point: Praise God; extol Him for His power and glory.

1. Come To God Believing:
The scriptures declare: “He who comes to God must believe that He Is, and that He is a Rewarding of those who diligently seek Him.” (Heb 11:6) The first portion of this scripture: “He who comes to God must believe that He Is” gives us a good starting point in learning the application of faith. We begin by coming to God as in prayers: We come singing, praising and giving thanks to Him so that we can enter into His presence (Psalms 100). Upon entering His presence, we begin to worship Him, and believe in Him: that He exists, and is real, and that He is the all powerful, all knowing, and all mighty God who is the source of all existence. As such, He is the only One who has power to grant our prayer requests. As we continue to worship Him, we deepen our believe to enable us become fully persuaded that He will reward us according to His promise in the second part of this scripture: “He is a Rewarding of those who diligently seek Him.”

2. Confess And Release Your Faith While Praying:
At this level of full persuasion, we notice that the presence of God that we feel remains constant, we feel strengthened, peaceful and bold. At this time, we release our faith into God by confessing our requests to Him. This confession is simply our prayer request to God, expressed in a way that reflects our persuasion that God is able and willing to grant our request. We do not prepare what to say. Rather, our mouth simply speaks as it is being driven by the persuasive force of the faith that has filled our heart; just as the scriptures declare that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt 12:34).Indeed, the more persuaded our heart is, the more convincing and powerful our confession is.
As an example, a Roman centurion heard about Jesus and became 100% persuaded that He has the power and the authority to heal his dying servant who was at home (Matt 8:5-11). So He came to Jesus and asked Him to heal the servant. When Jesus agreed to go with him, He made a powerful confession that acknowledged that Jesus has full power and authority over diseases and, therefore can heal a sick person at will. This how He said it.”Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed” (read more in your bible). Jesus marveled at such a great confession of faith coming from an unsaved person, and spoke the word that healed the servant.
Another example is a non-Jewish woman who came to Jesus with a belief that obviously was not fully persuasive. Without spending time to worship Him so her faith can rise further, she immediately asked Jesus to heal her daughter; making a confession that did not reflect the great faith in her. Following Jewish traditions, Jesus ignored her, for He came to minister to only Jews, not Gentiles. But this woman was diligent in seeking the Lord, so she came and worshiped Him, which of course had the potential to deepen her believe in Jesus. However, she made a weak confession again(“Lord help me”), by asking Jesus for healing again before her believe was fully persuasive. As a result, Jesus rejected her request again; responding with words that most of us would regard as offensive. But instead of feeling offended, she turned around and did something marvelously faithful: She drew nearer and worshiped Him again, and finally, she made a confession reflecting the great depth of faith and persuasion that had built up in her heart. This time, Jesus marveled at such a great confession of faith, and spoke the word that healed her daughter.

3. Believe That You Are Receiving What You’re Asking For:
When Jesus thought His disciple how to apply their faith, He said to them: “whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” (Mark 11:23-24). What this means is that whatever you asked for while confessing your faith, you must believe that you’re receiving them or have received them while you are still praying. The truth is that God has granted your prayers in the spirit realm, and it shall surely manifest for you in the natural realm at the right time if you believe it (see “Waiting For God To Answer”). I pray that these three tips shall help you harness your faith and extract more power for your daily power-living. Remain blessed.

4. Keep Believing After Prayers
In this issue, we consider what to do after the prayer: How to align our thinking, talking and actions to insure that His answers will manifest to us.
When God fulfills His answers to our prayers right away just like in the vast majority of the miracles that Jesus performed, then we don’t have to worry about what to do after the prayer: We simply receive the miracle with joy and thanksgiving.
But when He does not do so, then there is a waiting period during which we must conduct ourselves in certain ways to ensure that God’s answers will manifest sooner rather than later. These ways of conduct are:
I. Remain Fully Persuaded That God Has Answered Our Prayers
That is, we must not allow the great faith and the resulting persuasion that we reached in prayers to wane. Doing so invites premature disappointment leading to doubts and fear, which eventually kill our faith and thereby delay the fulfillment of God’s answers to our prayers. God will never withdraw His yes answer, but faithlessness on our part can delay the fulfillment of that answer.
2. Align Yourself With God
That is, during the waiting period you must:

• Think like God
• Talk like God and
• Act like God.

Think, Talk And Act Like God:
Let me use the story of Abraham to help us grasp how God does His things. God called Abraham and promised that through a descendant of his, He will redeem all the nations of the world. For this reason, God one day said to Abraham: “I have made you a father of many nations.” (This being spoken) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did (Rom. 4:17-24).
But Abraham and his wife (Sarah), being more than 75 and 65 years old, respectively, were advanced in age; way past child-bearing age. In human frame of thinking, how were they going to fulfill such a promise; being too old to start a lineage that would lead to a descendant who would fulfill God’s promise? But because God promised it, it had to be true, and they will surely have a child. But the child, Issac, did not come right away: it took 25 years; a very long time for a couple that was already too old to have a child naturally.
So what was Abraham to do during these long years? He had to align Himself with the frame of God’s mind; thinking, talking and walking the way God does. In the Romans 4:17-24 scripture above, a universal statement about an attribute of God is made; God naturally”calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” In other words, God’s frame of mind is such that He calls things that do not exist in our world, as though they do. He said to Abraham “I have made you a father of many nations” even though it would take about 2000 years for the promise to be fulfilled.
In God’s world, Abraham was already a father of many nations in about 2000 BC, even though that did not start to happen in our world till about 33 AD. For when the scripture say; “…things that do not exist,” it means things that have not yet happened or manifested in our physical world. Nevertheless, these things exist in God’s world as soon as God speaks the answer to our prayers.
God is Spirit and lives in the realm of the Spirit. When He declares a thing or person to exist, that thing or person comes into being in His world; the Spirit realm. But in our physical world, the thing or person does not yet exist. Even so, we must by faith chose to disregard what our physical senses tell us; that it does not exist, and rather, believe and agree with God that it exists.
For we who are the new creation, redeemed and called children of God, and having the image and nature of God, have been endued with power to think, talk and act like God; thinking about, talking about and acting on those things that we pray for, as though they exist. For by this, we speak in total agreement with God, who has the power to fulfill our request in the physical world.
When we agree with God, He applies His power to fulfill His answers to our prayers, but when we disagree with God through unbelief, fear and doubt, we delay God from doing fulfilling His answers to our prayers.
Abraham Thought, Talked And Acted Like God.
By stitching together excerpts from verses 18-21 of Romans 4, we can say the following about Abraham’s thinking, talking and actions: He, “Contrary to hope, in hope (he) believed … what was spoken …… With great faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (at 100 years old), and the Sarah’s died womb (at 90 years old). He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith” so that he became fully persuaded that what God had promised He was also able to perform” (Rom. 4:18-24).
In other words, Abraham refused to believe the indication that he and Sarah were too old to have children for the upward fulfillment of God’s promise. Rather, he exercised great faith to believe God’s words; thinking, talking and acting like God until Sarah conceived and bore a son through whose descendant, Jesus Christ, that God later fulfilled his promise of making Abraham the Father of many nations. If we always emulate Abraham, none of our prayers will go unanswered.
3. Always Expect God’s Answer To Manifest
The third way that we should conduct ourselves is that we always should be expecting God to manifest His answers to our prayers. The expectation is the outward expression of our faith that God will surely manifest what He promised. Psalm 5:3 declares: “My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up. Here the psalmist is saying to God that he will pray to Him every morning, and afterwards shall expect His answers.
Remain blessed!