Prayer Works!

Don't miss out on the amazing benefits of communion with God!

From a sermon by Bob Downey

Prayer—communication with the God of Heaven—is a privilege that is available to every person. For a Christian, prayer is not only an available privilege, but it is a vital necessity.

Why do we pray? We pray because God answers prayer! He has the
ability to meet the needs of mankind, and He is willing to do so.

In the sixteenth chapter of Acts, we read of a jailer who had a spiritual need, and of how God met that need. Paul and Silas, two missionaries for God, had been beaten and thrown into prison. Bands and chains were around them, and their backs were sore and bleeding from the lash. However, the two men did not feel sorry for themselves. As Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God, He sent an earthquake. The prison doors opened and the bands of the prisoners were loosed.

The jailer woke up, saw that the prison doors were open, and thought the prisoners were gone. He was ready to take his life when Paul and Silas called out to him, urging him not to harm himself. It says he came running in to them, fell before them, and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Do you see how the Lord orchestrated that? Yes, Paul and Silas were in the dungeon, but they were there to see a soul transformed. They told the jailer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). The jailer and all his family were saved that night! God had seen that jailer's need, and wonderfully met it because two missionaries prayed.

God will go to amazing lengths to supply our needs also. Do you think you have a problem that is too great for God? The situation may be so complex that we cannot imagine a solution, but God has one.

God is able to meet physical needs as well as spiritual ones. In the Book of Mark, we read of a woman who was afflicted in her body. She had been to many physicians, but her condition remained the same. Nothing worked. Then she heard about Jesus. In her heart, she felt that if she could just touch Him, she would be healed. She made her way through the crowd to Jesus, where she reached out and touched just the hem of His garment. Mark 5:34 records Jesus' response: “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole.” Jesus had met her need!

Does God always answer prayer? God knows what we really need in every situation. He may not always answer prayer in the way we think He should, but He answers in the right way. We do not know about tomorrow, but God does, and He answers prayer with our eternal welfare in view. God will give us strength to go through whatever we need to go through.

Paul the Apostle tells about having a thorn in the flesh—a physical problem. Three different times he brought his need to God in prayer. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, we find that God gave Paul an answer: “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” The Lord chose not to undertake for Paul but He promised to supply the grace that Paul would need to endure.

God wants us to trust Him for the solution to our need. We may look around and assess our options. We may try our own solution for our problem, but the Lord knows the right one. He knows exactly what we need, and that is what He gives, if we look to Him in prayer.

When do we pray? We read in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing.” That means we are to pray all the time. We do not need to be down on our knees to pray, but we keep our hearts in the spirit of prayer. The Lord wants us to have our thoughts and our minds on Him, to enjoy a continual communion with Him.

Once we have come to the Lord and given our lives to Him, how can we make it without prayer? I think of a man named Ollie Talley who lives in Medford , Oregon . After Ollie was saved, he began seeing how the Lord worked in his life, and he did not hesitate to give God the glory. Today, many years later, he often says, “God did it again!” He can see God in every situation in life. He is praying without ceasing! As we stay in an ongoing spirit of prayer, it is natural to give God the credit for His hand in our lives.

It is good to have a chosen time and place for regular prayer. Jesus set the example when He was here on this earth. He went from place to place on foot; He ministered to the crowds that gathered around Him and became tired. Yet, He stopped and prayed on a regular basis. He took time away from the multitudes and got alone with His Heavenly Father. If Jesus took time to pray, then we should do likewise.

A pastor once told his congregation that the distance between victory and defeat is about eighteen inches, or whatever the distance is for a person to drop to his knees in prayer. Prayer is the answer! We want to pray in the good times and in the hard times. We want to pray all the time!

How do we pray? We pray by following the pattern God provided. It is interesting to note that Jesus never taught His disciples how to preach; He taught them how to pray. In Matthew 6, we read the pattern He gave them, which we call the Lord's Prayer: “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” What a beautiful example for us to follow! We come to the Lord with honor and praise in our hearts. We come in a spirit of submission. Then, if we have needs, we lay those out before the Lord. And He hears us!

What challenges do we face when we determine to pray? The enemy of our souls will try to discourage prayer. When we seek the Lord and have a wonderful prayer meeting, the devil often attacks. We must remember that thoughts of discouragement and disappointment are from the devil. The prayers that we pray are effective, no matter how Satan attempts to convince us otherwise.

Sometimes we come before the Lord burdened down with cares, and all we can do is just cry out with tears. God understands tears. He cares! Through prayer we receive comfort, peace, and the assurance of God's presence in our lives.

What is the relationship between prayer and consecration? At times, God draws consecrations from our hearts when we are earnestly seeking Him for an answer to our petitions. In 1 Samuel we read about Hannah, a godly woman who had a need in her life. She wanted a son, but she was unable to have children. She prayed to the Lord, and in her heart was a real consecration. She promised God that if He would give her a son, she would give him back to the Lord. God answered her prayer and blessed Hannah and her husband with a son, Samuel. Then what? It is one thing to consecrate something precious to the Lord, but it is another thing to deliver on that promise. Hannah could have found excuses, but she did not. She took Samuel to the temple for the Lord's service.

We read of the confrontation between God's prophet, Elijah, and the prophets of Baal. In response to Elijah's challenge to see whether God or Baal would answer by fire, the Baal-worshippers prayed all day. Baal did not answer their prayers because he could not answer. Then Elijah repaired the broken-down altar. He took the most precious commodity available at that time—water—and poured it upon the sacrifice. Finally, he prayed to the true God. He believed God would answer, and He did!

We need to follow Elijah's example when we pray. We need to take the most precious thing we have and give it to the Lord. We will not be sorry if we do that. The Lord will be there.

I remember the prayers I prayed at my first Midwest camp meeting. God drew some consecrations out of my heart, and those consecrations changed my life. I have no regrets that I told the Lord that summer that I would do what He wanted me to do. The consecration did not come easy; it took time in prayer. I walked away from a business, and my wife gave up a job where she was just eight years short of retirement. Her co-workers thought she was crazy when she said we were leaving to follow God's leading into full-time ministry and a pastorate in the Midwest , but we have never been sorry.

Does prayer work in the time of crisis? Yes, it certainly does! Last December, my wife was having a physical problem. She went in for a check up and the doctor recommended that she see another doctor right away. It was almost quitting time, but the other doctor said, “I will keep my staff here; have her come right over.” That doctor told her it could be cancer.

The next morning we got a phone call. They wanted my wife to go see a cancer specialist. Before that doctor even checked her, he said, “You have cancer.” He said they could do immediate surgery but he was not sure surgery would take care of the problem. They ran some more tests. We were in shock, but we prayed.

All the next day we were waiting to get those test results back from the doctor. Every time the phone rang our hearts pounded. What would the news be? The people of God in our church called a prayer meeting that evening at the church. We went to the prayer meeting, and the saints gathered around my wife and prayed. God met us that night! The two of us went home totally different from the way we were when we arrived. We still did not know the outcome. We did not know what the doctor would tell us when the call came, but the Lord lifted the load when we prayed. Whatever happened, we knew that God was in control.

When the call did come, the message from the doctor was that my wife did not have cancer. The Lord already knew that. We did not know that, and the indicators suggested otherwise, but we put our trust in God and He brought peace in the storm. God can do that! It pays to live in close communion with God, so that you can get a prayer through when a crisis comes.

What is your need today? God answers prayer! Look to Him, yield yourself to Him, and wait to see what He will do with your situation. He will not fail!

Bob Downey is Director of North America work for the Apostolic Faith organization, and a minister in the headquarters church in Portland, Oregon.