Heaven is filled with a room that will surprise all of us when we see it. The room has within it large boxes neatly packaged with a lovely ribbon on top with your name on it, “Never delivered to Earth because never requested from Earth.” Prayer is not a substitute for work, thinking, watching, suffering, or giving; prayer is a support for all other efforts. So says George Buttrick, quoted in Lloyd Cory, Quote Unquote. ¹ There are some steps we can take to insure heavens packages are delivered to earth. Effectiveness is the goal but how do we get there?

Give Yourself Continually to It

Acts 6:1–4 (KJV)
1 And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. 2 Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. 3 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. 4 But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.

• The apostles gave themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word.
• Notice the scripture did not say “prayer and the study of the Word?”
• It said “prayer and the ministry of the Word.”
• Why?
  • Because the study of the Word is already understood.
• You have to know the Word in order to have a successful prayer life.
• And so, the understanding of the Word must come on the front side of this “prayer and ministry of the Word” not the backside of it.
• You cannot improve an area if you don’t give yourself to it.

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Avoid Prayer Fallacies

Prayer is Equal to the Word Fallacy

• People view the prayer area as a separate devotional area.
• They think of prayer and the Word as equal.
  • I pray and I study the Word.
  • They place them on the same level.
• When, in fact, they are not equivalent. They can’t be.
• Faith makes prayer work.
• Prayer does not make faith work.
• The Word is what makes faith work.
• Prayer is dependent on the Word.

John 15:7 (KJV)
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.

• Since prayer is dependent, it cannot be equal to the Word.
• It’s not a matter of choice, that is, you do not choose between prayer and the Word because one is more important than the other.
• Prayer and the Word are connected pieces.
• Prayer brings you into living contact with the God you are studying from the Word.

The Praying First Fallacy

• Sometimes we can have all the pieces to a puzzle yet have them in the wrong order.
  • We have prayer.
  • We have the Word.
  • We have ministry of that Word.
• When we have a need, what order do these go in?
• If I need healing for instance, what area do I go to first? Should I pray first?
• Many times people get a report, a symptom, or a physical problem and the first place they go is to some group or some church that prays.
• This is an area that can cause major failure.
  • We can literally be too quick to pray.
• People sometimes pray because they have a need.
• They utter words to God based on that need.
• Praying just because you have a need is the wrong base for prayer.
• The right base is not the need but what God said about your need.
• When you uttered your need is not when God found out about it.
  • You are not informing Him at all.
  • He is very much ‘in the know’.
• What God wants to hear from you is “what do you believe about your need.”
• As a general rule, utter words to God based on what the Word says about the need.
• Get into the Word and get your heart full of the Word then come up out your heart and utter your petition to God.
• In this case, prayer is the last thing you do, not the first thing.

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Acts 6:4 (KJV)
4 But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.

• Being in the Word is understood as you read Acts 6:4.
• After we have the Word in us the next step is “to give ourselves continually.”
• I like how the King James says this because prayer is giving of yourself.
• It is an expression of the love walk.
• If you take time out of the busyness of life to pray for someone else, that’s walking in love.
• After you finish your study of the Word, the order is ALL prayer and ALL ministry.
• ALL PRAYER meaning you talk to God about men.
• ALL MINISTRY meaning you talk to men about God.

Benefits of Prayer: Knowing God

• Let’s look at the example of Abraham and Cornelius.
• What did the Lord say about Abraham in regards to prayer?
• The Lord said concerning him, “For I know him…”

Genesis 18:19 (KJV)
19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

• How did God know Abraham by His foreknowledge?
• Did He know him by His omniscience?
• No, the Lord knew him because he was a constant visitor to the Throne of God.
• Abraham’s intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah was an outgrowth of a praying lifestyle.
• This is how God could make this statement that He knew Him.
• Concerning Cornelius, the Word says that his prayers came up as a memorial before God. This is how God knew him. A man, who at this time was not even born again.

Acts 10:1–4 (ESV)
1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. 3 About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” 4 And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.

• God knew Cornelius.
• This ‘knowing’ was an intimate knowing based on constant visitation.  It came because of constant consistent action.
• Cornelius “prayed continually to God.”
• It is as we get into the Spirit that we are ‘known’ in this way by God.
• You first entered this realm when you were born again.
• Often times we want God to manifest Himself to us.
  • We are saying to God,  “Show up where we are.”
• Prayer is just the opposite, it is God saying to you, “Come over here where I am.”
• Where is God?
  • He is in the Spirit realm.
  • God is a spirit and they that worship Him worship Him in spirit.
• What does ‘in spirit’ mean?
  • It means, ‘over where God is at.’
• You should like getting into the Spirit because it is where you are “known”.
• Jesus said something interesting to a religious crowd.
• To the those who worked miracles in His name “I never knew you”.

Matthew 7:21–24 (ESV)
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’  (implying a religious crowd – they had the language) 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (note the Lord did not confirm their claim of the miraculous – they said they did, does not mean they actually did) 24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

• “I never knew you” means you never crossed the threshold to where I am at.
• God is saying, “These miracles you say you did in my name, you did not do them from the spirit realm because if you did, I would have known.”

1 Corinthians 8:3 (ESV)
3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.

Call to Action:

Love is expressed through the expenditure and commitment of time, time spent with him. DL Moody, the famous evangelist, was inspired by this quote.

The world has yet to see what God can do with a man that is fully committed to Him.

Moody said, I determined to be that man. Continual prayer can become a holy habit and when it does it will help make you a highly effective Christian. Start today. Start small. Add fifteen minutes at a time until you build yourself up in this holy discipline.

Question: What practical prayer life lessons have you learned that made you highly effective in your work for the Lord? Please leave a comment in the comments section below.