What is real prayer all about? The following story illustrates what real prayer isn’t. Morris Davis was put in jail for “praying.” It all began when Davis was picked up and charged with arson. After his arrest, he was taken to a room at the police station for a lie detector test. Thinking he was alone, he prayed that old familiar prayer, “Lord, let me get away with it just this once.” But a policeman overheard his prayer and submitted it as evidence against him. The lower court ruled that this was a private conversation and therefore could not be submitted as evidence. The Canadian government, however, appealed this ruling and the Court of Appeals decided that it was admissible evidence because prayer is not a private conversation, since God is not a person.¹ It’s nice to know what prayer isn’t but we also can and should know what it is.

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What Real Prayer Is: Visiting the Throne of God

• We sometimes do not understand what real effectual prayer is all about.
• Real prayer is visiting the Throne of God.

Hebrews 4:16 (ESV) — 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

• Why wouldn’t you visit the Throne of God?
• That’s where the Father God is sitting.

Daniel 7:9 (ESV) — 9 “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire.

• The Ancient of Days sits on His Throne.
• If you want something from Him, that’s where you have to go.
• You can visit Him a number of ways.
• One way is via being, what the Bible calls, ‘in the spirit’.
• That’s what real prayer is, it’s prayer ‘in the spirit.’
• That’s because if God is anything, He is a spirit.

John 4:24 (ESV) — 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

What Real Prayer Is: Living ‘in the Spirit’

• What does being ‘in the Spirit’ mean?

Ephesians 6:18 (ESV) — 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,

• Praying ‘in the spirit’ means among other things, that you’ve stepped over into a place.
• That’s what ‘in the spirit’ is.
• It’s a place you step over into.

Revelation 1:10 (ESV) — 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet

• That’s what happened to John on the Island of Patmos.
• One minute he was sitting on some volcanic rock and the next minute he was seeing Jesus.
• He stepped over into that place called ‘in the spirit’
• It is a wonderful place.
• Jesus is in that place.
• That’s why you can’t see Him physically with your eyes.
• And, also why it takes faith to talk to Him.
• The Throne of God is in that place.
• The Throne of God is Power Central.

What Real Prayer is: Visiting the Greatest Dignitary

• The throne of God is like visiting a ‘great dignitary’ except for one thing; this ’great dignitary’ happens to be the greatest, the most powerful, the most important person in the universe.
• His Name is I Am.

Exodus 3:13–14 (ESV) — 13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”

• When visiting any great dignitary, wouldn’t you be keenly aware of the importance of that person by all that surrounds him?
• In the case of our President, for example, what surrounds him?
• Does the Oval Office have a broken down desk?
• What about his secret service detail?
• Doesn’t the fact that the President has one speak to the sense of all of his importance?
• What about his schedule?
• Are you able to just burst in on him in any old fashion?
• Doesn’t this speak to his prominence?
• What about the Most High God?
• The Throne is a busy place.
• There are many other believers there at the same time conducting Kingdom business while you are there.
• The Lord is able to address each person who waits on Him.
• That’s what real prayer is about.

What Real Prayer is: Waiting on God

• The scriptures encourage us to wait on the Lord.

Psalm 27:14 (ESV) — 14 Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!

Psalm 38:15 (ESV) — 15 But for you, O LORD, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.

• But this image of ‘waiting on God’ is not a ‘serial’ waiting.
• The Throne of God is not a checkout line at a supermarket or a children lines waiting to tell Santa what they want for Christmas.
• That’s not what real prayer is all about.
• God is omniscient and all knowing.
• Think about the spokes of a bicycle wheel for a moment.
• Picture the Lord sitting in the center of those spokes.
• Now, imagine you as an individual on the end of one of those spokes.
• The next believer is on the spoke to one and one and on and on.
• God is in the center and as he turns His head, he can look down each individual spoke and see you.
• Blow this illustration up to millions of people who visit the Throne at any given time of the day.
• God is in the center of it all.
• So, when you are ‘waiting on God’, you are not waiting in line so God can talk to you.
• Waiting on Him for direction is the life of dependence.
• That’s what real prayer is about.

What Real Prayer is: Depending on God

• This is the “I can of my own self do nothing” kind of life.
• Jesus lived this life.

John 5:19, 30 (ESV) — 19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise… 30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

• This is depending on God is the life of realizing that despite everything that I think that I know, I don’t enough.
• I do not have all knowledge about my circumstances and surely I don’t know nearly enough about God and His ways.
• Really our knowledge is small, fragmentary, and incomplete.
• So, instead of telling God what I think He should do about my situation, I wait on Him for his input.

Isaiah 64:4 (ESV) — 4 From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.

• I listen to what He wants to do and how He wants to do it.
• That’s what real prayer is about.

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