ByHave you ever thought of why you must pray as a child of God? Prayer is an essential spiritual discipline in Christ, and it has a lot of benefits. First, it helps you connect deeper with God, and second, gives heaven access to change things on earth.
There is too much chaos in this world that affects our lives. There are bad situations in your life that you wish never happened. It could be a chronic sickness, financial constraints or a lack of resources to work effectively. Sometimes, God doesn’t remove these circumstances immediately, because He wants you to learn as you go through them and pray to grant heaven access to solve them. Because it is written,
“… whatever you bind on earth will be bound on earth, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Make no mistake. Prayer is important. But do it to connect with God. The more you seek God in prayer, the more He meets your needs without you asking for many.
However, as powerful as prayer is, there are ways proven in scripture that can make it more efficacious. In this article, I share some tips in the Word of God that can help you make your prayer effective.
1. Righteousness
“… The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
James 5:16 (NIV)
Righteousness is one requirement needed to make your prayer effective. And because God knows its importance, He makes anyone who accepts Jesus His righteousness by faith (see 2 Corinthians 5:21).
Righteousness gives you a right standing before the Lord. So if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you’re made righteous (see Romans 10:10). And that means, God will always see you as He sees the unspotted Jesus whenever you come before Him in prayer. Why? Because as Jesus is, so are you in this world (1 John 4:17).
Friend, you don’t need to come before God always down and condemned. See yourself as God sees Jesus and you can make bold prayers. It’ll be effective because you’re qualified to stand before God since you’re righteous, and God will use them to cause changes in our world.
2. Clean mentality for your requests
“All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the LORD.” – Proverbs 16:2 (NIV)
Did you know that God weighs each person’s motive for praying, especially prayers about needs? In James 4:3-4, Apostle James rebuked some believers who fought one another because their needs weren’t met. And when these people prayed to God about those needs, they still didn’t receive them because they asked God with the wrong motives.
God is God. No human can deceive Him. Another person may hardly know your motive for helping him, but God sees everything, even the things in your heart.
Sometimes, it’s difficult to pre-meditate on your motives for asking God something. However, I would urge you to define the motive for whatever request you place before God. Once He sees that what you’re asking is for His glorification in your life and not to satisfy any form of selfishness, He’ll grant your request according to His own timing. Trust God while you wait for Him to act.
Once God sees that what you’re asking is for His glorification in your life and not to satisfy any form of selfishness, He’ll grant your request according to His own timing.
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3. The Faith to make requests and receive answers
Faith is paramount for accessing anything by grace in God’s kingdom. You’re saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8), and that is not of yourself. Therefore, for God to answer your prayers, you need faith to ask God and receive from Him. James 1:6-8 NIV (boldface mine) says,
[6] “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. [7] That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. [8] Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”
Although Apostle James was speaking about believers asking God for wisdom, I believe the faith to ask God and to receive from Him cuts across all forms of prayer requests. Because from verse 7, “That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord”, it’s clear that faith is needed to access the answers to all your prayer requests made to God.
Some preachers emphasise having faith to ask God only. But there’s nowhere in the Bible that shows us the specific time God will grant our prayer requests. So faith is also needed to wait upon the Lord for answers. Some people receive instant answers to their prayers; some also travail for a while. But in that waiting season, that’s where faith and patience work together.
If God has promised you something through a vision, you need faith to keep believing in His promises. Why? Because He doesn’t grant prayer topics according to our timetable but His timetable. Have faith in God.
There’s nowhere in the Bible that shows us the specific time God will grant our prayer requests. So faith is also needed to wait upon the Lord for answers.
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4. Vision
The late Dr Myles Munroe of blessed memory once said, “Vision attracts resources.” When you go to a bank for a loan to start a business, they don’t give it to you because you look good but because they believe in your company’s vision, which defines what you’re going to use the money to do.
In the same way, God checks whether what you’re asking Him will be used to fulfil your divine assignment or not before giving it to you. That is where He draws the clear line between selfishness and selflessness.
Selfish wants make you me-centred; selflessness makes you other-people-centred. And since selfishness is not a product of love, God won’t grant that prayer request because love is selfless (1 Corinthians 13:5).
Selfish wants make you me-centred; selflessness makes you other-people-centred.
Let’s look at the case study of Nehemiah. When he prayed to God to grant him mercy before King Artaxerxes, God answered him because he needed to move out of the king’s palace with resources to build the fallen wall of Jerusalem.
He was the cupbearer of the king. And in those days, kings’ cupbearers weren’t allowed to spend many days on travel schedules. Why? Because they must taste the food the king will eat every day before the king eats, and the kings ate every day (unless they were fasting).
So Nehemiah needed real favour. God did it for the fulfilment of his divine mandate. If He did it for Nehemiah, He’d do it for you when you pray visionary prayers.
5. Corporate Agreement
Did you know that another way to supercharge the effectiveness of your prayer is by praying in corporate agreement with at least one person about something? Jesus said in Matthew 18:19-20 NKJV (boldface mine) that,
[19] “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. [20] For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
From these two verses, just two people must agree to pray to God about anything, and He will do for them (not one of them). But note something.
Jesus didn’t say one person should agree and the other should hope. No! Both must be in agreement. That means there should be no room for doubt from either person for this to work. Once doubt sets in, that heavenly protocol is broken.
Jesus is in the midst of where two or three are gathered together (not just gathered) in His name. You must be present-minded to pray corporately with others. Be of one accord, and don’t let your mind waver.
6. Specificity in your prayer request
Another common reason why people aren’t able to know whether their prayer requests have been answered by God or not is the unspecificity of their expectations. When you’re not specific in what you’re asking and just praying in tongues, you’ll love the fellowship you’ll get with the Holy Spirit but miss determining whether you got or didn’t get what you asked for. In Mark 11:24 NKJV (boldface mine), Jesus said,
“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”
Aside from having faith as you pray, name the things you’re asking God. You don’t need to write it on paper or a book; you only have to keep them in mind as you pray about each, one by one.
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