Certainly our Heavenly Father will never give us anything harmful, even if we ask for it urgently and repeatedly, because He has promised to give His children only good gifts in accordance with His will.
Prayer, as salvation, seems simple, but the answer to both comes as we humbly and diligently study daily to show ourselves approved unto God. We must submit ourselves continually to His will.
Prayer means knowledge. Since God gives gifts only if they are in accordance with His will, we have to take the time and effort to discover His will by studying and meditating upon His Word, thus schooling our minds.
Prayer means faith. It is one thing to know God’s will; it is another to humble ourselves before Him and express our confidence through prayer that He is able to cause His will to be done.
Finally, prayer means desire. We may know God’s will and believe He can accomplish it, yet still not desire it. Prayer is the chief means by which God has ordained for us to express our deepest desires. This is the reason the ask/seek/knock commands are in the present imperative and on an ascending scale, which challenges our perseverance and obedience to God. So, before we ask, we must know what to ask for and whether it is in accordance with the will of God. We must believe that God can grant the request, and we must genuinely want to receive it.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit Himself intercedes for us. For whom does the Spirit pray? For the saints, of course! If you are a saint, you know by experience what it is to be exercised like this. If you do not, it may be because you have grieved the Spirit of God. You may be living in such a manner that the Holy Comforter will not make His presence known to you. Neither will He give you the Spirit of Prayer. Nothing is more calculated to destroy the Spirit of Prayer than using habitual prayer forms in approaching God. These rituals entirely darken and confuse the mind regarding the meaning of prayer.
Most prayer forms not only negate the leading of the Spirit, but they also destroy and break the power of prayer. It does not matter if the form is good, because prayer does not consist of words alone. It does not matter what the words are if the Spirit of God is not leading your heart. True prayer comes from the heart. God looks at the attitude of the heart of the person offering the prayer. Jesus warned about using vain repetitions in prayer in Matt. 6:7. If the desire, feeling, and thoughts are not kindled, directed, and led by the Holy Spirit, it is not prayer. Prayer must also be in agreement with the teaching of the Word of God. (John 14:13-14). Our motive must be right in order for God to hear us. If our motive is selfish, then God will not hear us. We must be sanctified in order for God to hear and answer our prayer. Forgive others before going to pray; otherwise, God will not forgive you. (Matt. 6:14-15).
Truth is for the purpose of influencing men;
prayer is for the purpose of touching God!
Touching God is not changing God’s mind by prayer; nor does it mean that His nature or character is changed. Prayer produces such a change in us that God is completely consistent with His nature when He answers our prayers. When a sinner repents, his state of feeling makes it proper for God to forgive him. God has always been ready to forgive men on that condition. So, when the sinner changes his feelings and repents, it requires no change of feeling in God to pardon him. It is the sinner’s repentance that makes God’s forgiveness appropriate. God then acts in answer to that repentance. We must have both truth and prayer for repentance to bring revival!
Prayer alone can be offered forever and it will accomplish nothing because it is a violation of the Word. There has to be prayer, yes, but it must be accompanied by action. The Word of God must be preached correctly for it to change people. The preacher has to study the Word and interpret it in the right way. Then it will be the truth of God with the power of the Holy Spirit through prayer and not the word of man, which is void of the Spirit because of his sins.
To pray effectively, you must pray in submission to the will of God. We have the privilege to believe God for everything that is in harmony with His Word and character; however, we do not have the authority to command God to do anything. David prayed for his child, but as God’s will was apparent and the child died, he bowed like a saint. David seemed not only to consent, but actually to take satisfaction in it. (Sam. 12:15-23). This is true submission, and this was the reason David was a man after God’s heart. When he sinned, he repented and wanted to follow the will of God.
To pray effectively, you must pray a lot. The apostle James died with knees that were callused. Time in prayer was the secret of the first ministers. They spent countless hours in the presence of God, in the Word, and in prayer and meditation. They knew the will of God through the Word and how to pray. James said that “we receive not because we ask not according to His will”.
The name of Jesus is not to be used as a magic word to force God. We are not little gods, as some falsely teach. We cannot violate Scripture to get our will. We must use the name of Jesus, realizing that it is through His death and resurrection that we have access to God’s throne. We do not use prayer as a tool to change God’s character or His will, but we pray according to His Word in submission to His sovereignty.
Praying in faith is simply praying in obedience to the truths of the Word. We cannot twist the truth and pray expecting God to honor our man-invented faith. Faith is simply living one’s life in accordance to His Word. It is not our twisted version of truth.
Be careful not to grieve the Spirit of God. Confess and forsake your sins. Do not always be confessing and never forsaking, but confess and forsake. Jesus said to leave your gift at the altar, go and make it right with your fellow man. Make restitution where you have wronged somebody. You must restore relationships that have been broken by sin if you want your relationship restored with God. You cannot expect to get the Spirit of Prayer first and repentance later. The Spirit of God will not be forced to dwell with the proud and unyielding Christian who justifies himself and his evil practices, violates and twists the Word of God and uses God’s name to get his own way. This is rebellion and witchcraft.
Aim to perfectly obey the law of God as revealed in Jesus Christ, the Word. Have no fellowship with sin. Conform to the Word and do not violate it through disobedience or twisting, consciously or ignorantly, simply because you are too selfish to study it. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48). If you sin, may it grieve you deeply in your heart and move you to repentance. The man who does not repent has a desire to live in sin.
The promises are according to the correct interpretation of God’s Word. He is not our slave or servant to command. God is sovereign, and we must pray according to the truth and allow His timing of events to transpire according to His Word. We pray without ceasing. This means we are concerned over the condition of sin within our society and are constantly praying in our spirit, as well as obeying the Word through preaching truth. The Word must be preached to the sinner, not just praying for him. We can bind the spirit of corruption in our society all we want, and even in ignorance say we have victory. However, we must proclaim that, “it is done!” Without the Word, as preached by Jonah in Ninevah, and without truth commanded by God and accompanied by prayer commanded by God, corruption will rise higher until judgment falls. Even with the Word preached and prayer uttered, that alone does not mean corruption will stop. People have a free will and must themselves repent!
The Spirit of Prayer
We must be in a Spirit of Prayer. Prayer is a state of the heart. The Spirit of Prayer is a state of continual desire and anxiety for the salvation of sinners. A Christian who has this Spirit of Prayer feels concern for souls. They are always on his mind. He thinks of them by day and dreams of them by night. This is praying without ceasing. Paul felt this: “My dear children, for who I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you...” (Gal. 4:19).
This is a labor of the soul. It is that deep agony we feel when we hold onto God for the salvation of those around us and their growth in the Lord. It is that longing we feel when we witness others living in sin or walking in a twisted faith inspired out of their vanity from reading books full of false teaching. A true believer with a Spirit of Prayer groans in his spirit and is in agony when watching sinful behavior. In John 11:25-40, Jesus groans in His spirit many times as He watches and discerns the spiritual misperception in Mary, Martha and the Jews at Lazarus’ tomb.
A revival can be expected when Christians are willing to pray with a Spirit of Prayer. The minister must be willing to offend the impenitent by plain and faithful preaching. This will also offend many church members who are not be willing to repent. The minister must take a stand on preaching the truth no matter what the consequences of criticism from the people or from cold, ignorant or wicked fellow clergymen.
For us to possess a Spirit of Prayer, we must not resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit. When a preacher says something that addresses attitudes or actions, many hearts immediately rise up against it. They began by calling the minister a great man of God, yet now they call him “insensitive” and “abusive”. Some people enjoy the truth preached clearly until it touches them, and then they cry “foul”. Now they want to go to a kinder pastor. In reality they want to go somewhere where their sins are not pointed out to them or the pastor is too afraid to preach the truth. Is this your case?
In order to have the Spirit of Prayer and to be full of the Spirit, one must sincerely confess and forsake his sins. A half-hearted confession dragged out of a person may be accepted by the other party, but not by God. God sees the heart of the proud person who still loves himself more than others. The prideful person cannot be led by the Spirit into spiritual depths. He cannot genuinely hear that “still small voice”, although he will say he can because he believes a Christian theoretically can. He cannot possess a Spirit of Prayer. The only real time he hypocritically prays is in front of people. He is not praying continually for the souls of society. He is not praying without ceasing. You can usually tell by looking at his belly.
Some people say we need the message but not the messenger. This is just another deceptive smokescreen of pride. The reality of the matter is that they do not truly desire truth. The messenger is just reiterating the Bible which has already been rejected. Some people justify their own sinfulness with their elaborate man-invented doctrines of faith and sinful behavior. Jesus, John the Baptist, Paul, Peter, Elijah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, etc., were all rejected as messengers. The truth is that it was the message that was rejected. Jesus used strong words only because the truth was continually rejected.
Jesus came as a Jew. We cannot use our prejudices and sinfulness to reject the truth because of the messenger. When we receive truth, we love the Messenger of truth.
A Pastoral Exhortation
In the 1990’s the Lord told me to “just speak the truth and My people will back you”. He told me to build an army of 200,000 people and send them articles twice per month. This was to warn, prepare and develop them to be effective for Jesus Christ where they lived. He said that these 200,000 people would support with their prayers and financial support the vision and burden that the Lord had given me for the nations, as well as the nation and church in America. Please pray with me that each person who receives these twice-monthly articles will truly be part of this army of believers helping us invade and conquer nations with the warnings of Jesus Christ. Currently, only 3% of the people on our mailing list qualify for the Tape of the Month by giving a minimum of $25 a month. $25 a month is only a pittance. If a person made $2,500 a month, their tithe would be $250. So you can see that a donation of $25 a month is a very small offering. Yet, when combined with everyone else on the mailing list, it would become a tremendous tool to accomplish what God has asked us to do. He has asked us to awaken the church out of their apathy and prepare them for the battle.
There are now 9,000 people on the mailing list, and 97% give less than $25 a month. The greater shame is that the majority of this 97% give nothing at all! Instead of a mighty end-time army, they turn us into a hospital, bleeding us dry. On July 1, 2002, the cost of bulk mail went up $.09 per article. This alone is an additional monthly expense of $1,620 for the ministry. Please help us to be what God called us to be...an army of believers with a burden and a passion for the condition of America, and that the church would truly help us warn the nations and prepare the Bride of Jesus Christ. Please pray for me and also that each person who receives these articles will give at least $25 each month to enable us to reach the nations.
Thank you, Blessings and shalom,
Jonathan Hansen
~INTERCESSION~
A Priority To The Success of The Ministry!
At World Ministries International we are building a team of 2,000 intercessors who are committed to being prayer warriors in respect to the message our Lord has called Rev. Hansen to deliver to the Bride of Christ and the nations being led by a beast government. Rev. Hansen must be covered with the prayers of the saints to combat the attacks of the enemy that are always there to try to stop him from being faithful in the countries to which he travels. If you feel you have been called by the Lord to be a “watchman” ...a person of committed prayer support...please call our office at 360-629-5248. An Intercessor Application Form will be sent to you as a means of establishing harmony in this prayer ministry.
Overall leadership is given by our Department Head of Intercession, Melinda Roberts, who is available to talk with you on Fridays from 11:00 AM until 3:00 PM PST.
© 2002 World Ministries International