Hebrews 4:14-16 NKJV—Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. [15] For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. [16] Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
This is the great invitation to a life of prayer and a life in the Spirit. We are invited to seek the face of God and approach the very throne of His majesty with confidence. He will open up heaven for us and allow us to enter a place reserved for kings and priests.
As His children, we have this privilege.
He desires to walk with us in prayer, and as we pour out our hearts before His throne, the Spirit and presence of the Lord enter our lives powerfully, and things begin to shift.
If you need a change in your life, the key is prayer: seeking the face of God, boldly coming before His throne, and faithfully pursuing His presence as a lifestyle. It is more than just a prayer life; it is an all-consuming “life of prayer” that makes the difference in us.
As we surrender everything to the Lord and pursue Him in this way, bondages break, chains fall away, freedom comes, His presence fills us, life flourishes, glory shines, and strength and wisdom enrich our lives, enabling us to discern the things of God for our lives.
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Prayer is the communication lifeline of heaven.
As believers, we must understand that nothing truly works until we commit ourselves to wholeheartedly seeking the Lord.
I would also say that as we grow in our understanding of the Word of God and mature in our faith, our life of prayer also undergoes a maturing process.
Jesus mentions many times that we can ask the Father for anything in His name, and certainly, this is true. Our needs are met through our prayers. However, there is a relational aspect to prayer that moves beyond “things” and into presence with God.
What the Lord desires, I believe, more than anything else, is fellowship and communion with His children.
He simply wants to be with you and for you to desire to be with Him. The greatest feeling a dad can have is when his children just want to be with him, not necessarily needing or asking for anything. This is a type of prayer that we must grow into and mature in. It does not happen overnight, but as we press into the kingdom and toward the King, a hunger to simply know Him must be birthed.
Some people shy away from this type of prayer because it is not instant. It takes time. Sometimes it will take much more time than you realize. You will have to sacrifice to make it happen. But the Lord is reaching out in this hour for those who will sacrifice to make time with Him possible.
Others distance themselves from this sort of prayer because they don’t know what to pray or how to pray effectively.
Scripture gives us clear insight about this: Be filled with the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit’s baptism is the key to unlocking a life of prayer that shakes heaven and earth. His guidance in our prayers and His voice make all the difference. It isn’t that a person cannot pray in an earthly language and move forward with the Lord, because we can.
I remember as a young believer who was only fourteen years old, spending many days in my room for hours at a time seeking the face of the Lord. I would pace the floor, kneel at the foot of my bed, worship, and read the Word for three, four, or even five hours at a time. During this time I was not yet baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of praying in a heavenly language. Nevertheless, as I look back, I can see where the Holy Spirit directed every word and every cry from my heart. My relationship with Jesus moved forward in that season by leaps and bounds. School kids would come to me with prayer needs, and I vividly remember the feeling of knowing deep down how to pray and seek the Lord. Prayer was my life. It still is.
However, as we pray in the Spirit through our heavenly prayer language, something unlocks inside of us, and there is a connection to heaven that does not occur in any other manner.
Romans 8:26 TPT—And in a similar way, the Holy Spirit takes hold of us in our human frailty to empower us in our weakness. For example, at times we don’t even know how to pray, or know the best things to ask for. But the Holy Spirit rises up within us to super-intercede on our behalf, pleading to God with emotional sighs too deep for words.
Friend, no matter how you look at it, prayer is the work of the Spirit.
It is the way things operate and function in the Kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit, whether you are baptized with the evidence of speaking in a heavenly language or not, is the originator of all desire to pray and is the One who helps us pray. He can and will fill your mind with words and thoughts to help you connect to the Father. But this takes time and cannot be rushed because it is a relationship.
The greater your desire and hunger for the Lord, the more quickly your life of prayer will grow and the deeper you will dive into the things of the Spirit.
Leonard Ravenhill, noted preacher and revivalist, once said, “No man is greater than his prayer life.”
Please hear me: the defining marker of God’s hand upon your life is not the miracles you perform, the acts of service you do, or the number of scriptures you can quote—God’s mark on you is found in the strength of your prayer life.
As people of the Kingdom, we must pursue a life of prayer above every other pursuit. Being with Jesus is the prize. When you pray, the Spirit of the Lord works in your life, shaping you and developing in you the character and quality of Jesus.
Without realizing it, as you seek the face of God, things begin to change in your life. You are recreated, renewed, reformed, replenished, and reborn. Something happens in our lives when we sacrifice time and make the effort to go before the Lord in humility and seek His face for long periods.
There is something about a sacrifice of praise and faithfulness that pleases the Lord.
The following scriptures give witness to the importance of our faithfulness to praise and pray.
Psalm 50:23 AMP—He who offers a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving honors Me; And to him who orders his way rightly [who follows the way that I show him], I shall show the salvation of God.”
Psalm 116:17 TPT—Now I’ll worship you passionately and bring to you my sacrifice of praise, drenched with thanksgiving!
Jeremiah 33:11 NKJV—the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: “Praise the LORD of hosts, For the LORD is good, For His mercy endures forever”- and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,’ says the LORD.
Hosea 14:2 TLB—Bring your petition. Come to the Lord and say, “O Lord, take away our sins; be gracious to us and receive us, and we will offer you the sacrifice of praise.
Hebrews 13:15 NKJV—Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
Certainly, what I’m not saying is that the more you pray and the harder you work, that your work produces all the results. Jesus did the work of salvation for us. However, His work for us ought to produce a hunger and thirst in us to know Him.
The way you come to know the Lord is through His Word and through time spent in prayer.
It is this spending of ourselves—this giving away of our most valuable possession, our time—that moves us closer to the heart of God. I do not claim to know exactly how it all works, but what I do understand is that prayer is the relationship between God and man.
Prayer is not the relationship builder.
It is not the great activity of heaven.
It is not the work we do that pleases the Lord.
No, prayer itself is the connection between God and man.
To have a relationship with the Lord means I must sacrifice my time and invest effort to seek Him out.
It’s not that the Lord hides from us, but He desires us to seek Him. Seeking Him takes time. In any relationship, you must invest time to know and care about the other person. Relationships are a two-way street. God does countless things for us and answers many requests, but I must also care about the Lord enough to seek Him, know Him, and love Him.
Prayer is work.
It is never easy to sacrifice large amounts of time. But for our lives to come under the Lordship of Christ in greater measure, there is but one thing we can do—pray.
Prayer works into us what is well-pleasing to Jesus.
Prayer brings us closer to the heart of the Lord.
Prayer is the place where the Holy Spirit speaks to us.
Prayer is where we receive courage, boldness, and strength.
Prayer is the place where we experience the presence of God and the infilling of His Spirit.
Without significant sacrifice to spend time in prayer, we will never really move forward, and our enemy will take advantage of this by telling us how good we are apart from prayer.
Satan’s device is to lull the church to sleep and make us feel okay with ourselves. As long as we are just as “good” as someone else, or possibly even consider ourselves a little “better” than the rest, we think we must be okay. Friend, do not fall for the devil’s lie!
There is no one who is good enough on their own. You and I cannot produce enough good things from our lives to make the Lord happy with us. We cannot grow fruit on our own. And Scripture declares that our righteousness apart from the Lord is like a filthy rag. Pride seeks to tell you that you are good enough. Humility, on the other hand, reminds us that apart from Jesus, we can do nothing.
The world is filled with self-help books preaching the message that says, “I’m OK. You’re OK.” Friend, we are not okay without the life of Christ filling us and renewing us. This happens at salvation, but it continues on a daily basis as we sacrifice time to spend with Him in prayer.
How can we think we can be believers and love the Lord, but never invest time to talk with Him beyond our list of requests and demands?
Jesus is looking for a bride. He is forming and shaping a bride fit for marriage. He wants someone who will love Him, care for Him, and obey Him—looking to Him for everything. This doesn’t happen by pushing our needs upon Him, though He cares for us and our needs and promises to meet them. Our needs are met in the deepest ways as we simply pour ourselves out to seek His face. Often, without us even realizing it, the Lord will answer our greatest needs as we sacrifice greater time to just seek Him, commune with Him, and fellowship with Him.
The pursuit of my life is to discover how much prayer it will take to know the Lord in breakthrough—constant breakthrough, constant revival. For me, revival means an ongoing, ever-building fire that burns deep in my soul and spirit, producing a hunger and thirst for the One who created me. Revival is an unquenchable reservoir that pulls us to pray.
He is calling prayer warriors to arise.
In this hour, I feel the Lord is calling prayer warriors to arise. We are to shake off our slumber and sleepiness and begin to intercede once again. He is looking for men and women who will give all they have to sacrifice their time and strength before the throne of God. Prayer warriors make a difference in time and eternity.
Often, we do not see their worth in this life because they never seem to produce anything tangible. However, in the Spirit, these men and women are giants. Their names are known in heaven. Prayer warriors move mountains, restrain devils, and cast out demons.
Prayer warriors pray the plans and purposes of the Lord into existence. They are extensions of His hands and feet. The prayers of the saints open doors, close doors, and release the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. They carry the burden of the Spirit before the throne of heaven, and heaven responds.
God is calling His church, His praying ones, to arise and defend our families, cities, nations, and homes. He is calling us to pave and prepare the way of the Lord in this last hour. Your prayers and intercessions before the Lord do not go unnoticed. He sees it all.
When you enter the secret place and shut the door, heaven rises to its feet. The Lord waits to see what a man will do in this time of prayer. He pours out on the longing soul greater measures of His presence than we can imagine.
Listen to a word the Lord spoke to my heart about the “praying ones”:
“For I am about to release My presence upon My seeking ones.
Those who long to know Me will find joy and strength in My presence. My anointing and power will be their experience. For I will renew and restore. The years thought wasted and gone, I, the Lord, will restore. As My word declares, I will restore.
For your time in seeking Me is not in vain. This seeking is the effort of your heart, and I respond to every effort made in faith to reach My heart.
As the desire for My heart grows, so will My release in and upon your life. I look for seeking ones who will become burning ones. They will burn with new fire, new vigor, fresh anointing, and the overflow of My presence.
So let your hearts become hungry and thirsty, says the Lord. This is the hour of refreshing. Press into Me, seek Me, find Me. My joy will transform your life.
Yes, I am raising up My anointed ones—prayer warriors who will seek Me and turn the desires of My heart into their prayers. The petitions they ask of Me will be granted. Heaven will move upon earth. This is the outpouring hour as My remnant seeks Me. I am moving and will continue.
My heart cries out to those unwilling or outside the fire, “Seek Me, seek Me! You will find Me, and I will restore you and use you. Be faithful, and My power upon you will be great.”
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