POWER OF EFFECTIVE PRAYER

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My Name: ASK, and ye shall RECEIVE, that your joy may be full – John 16:24

There is power behind ASKING and RECEIVING through effective Prayer. God’s children are blessed with the power to decree a thing and have it established (Job 22:28). “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 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” (Matt.18:18-19). The Lord Jesus assures us: “ASK, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matt.7:7-8).

The power to ask and receive is a function of God’s immutable promises, the Name of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord says, “If you ASK ANYTHING IN MY NAME, I will do it” (Jh.14:14), and “…Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My NAME He will give you” (Jh.16:23). The power to ask is immensely available to believers. Moreover the power to ask effectively is given by the Holy Spirit: “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom.8:26).

Before the disciples of Jesus were filled with the Holy Spirit, they found it difficult to effectively pray for the deliverance of a demon-possessed boy (Matt. 17: 14-20). On a number of instances, they fell asleep instead of praying. As soon as the Holy Spirit came upon these same disciples, they were not only able to pray effectively, they began to issue decrees and witness phenomenal results. Act 4:31 confirms that: “when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.”

The power to ask is incomplete without the dimension of receiving. Both belong to God and He gives them to His children. The power to receive is essentially a function of three things: faith in the Lord and in His Word; a mind filled with godly motives and one that is void of offences. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb.11:1). James 4:3 reveals: “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” The power to ask and receive is within your reach. Persist to walk by faith in the power-realm of productive praying!