Prayer is communication with God. It is a conversation that takes place in the spirit realm. There is a broad and beautiful spectrum of ways in which this takes place.
Tears are a language of prayer. Laughter is another.
Yearnings unspoken, unutterable groans of the heart are understood, as are bold declarations of faith in the face of adversity.
No language on earth is out of bounds, and even tongues of angels are spoken and heard.
Whatever dialect we speak, all must come from the heart. To be truly prayer they must proceed from the inner man.
This might be in your known natural tongue, or an inspired utterance moved by the Holy Ghost. The key, as I say, is the source.
Prayer is the language of the heart.
Way too many words are wasted, mere head-born, earth-bound repetitions vainly espoused by well-meaning sincere saints, but void of power!
Scripture teaches it is from the heart that the mouth speaks, bringing forth what it believes for. The heart, or the spirit of man, is the engine that drives our prayers and ensures they are of the same substance as the One we are seeking to reach.
God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him, and pray to (and with) Him, must do so in spirit and in truth.
Whether we are laying out carefully constructed requests based on the covenant, or emotionally and spontaneously pouring out our guts in His presence, the key factor is the place the prayers proceed from when they are expressed.
Mental gymnastics will not leap you over the pearly gates or sweep you into the throne room. Deep calls to deep, and spirit calls to spirit.
Heart-born utterances in the prayer closet are infused with a substance called faith. Faith gives reality to the request and carries it to the Father.
This is why in prayer we must always be aware of our heart, and not leave the prayer closet until a heart born prayer has been made. Sometimes this takes time.
One saint put it this way, we must pray until we pray.
If you have ever prayed through to the place where your spirit took the steering wheel you’ll know exactly what I mean.
Sometimes we are so keen to fill our quota, we leave the closet before we even utter our first real prayer of the day. We said some words and went about our day, wondering why God seems so distant.
Let awareness of the inner life rise, and the messy noise of the outer man subside. Take time to peel the layers back until you reach the throbbing life beating beyond the natural mind, and tap the tremendous potency of Christ in you, the hope of glory!
He is the living Word, and words spoken from and through and to Him bear the mark and nature of God Himself.
The same prayers can be said, the exact same words even, but the difference between one and the other is no clearer than night and day.
You will know when your heart engages in this lofty exercise called praying, because it will move you. You will feel the substance rise from your diaphragm – from deep within – and spill from your lips.
The Bible called it the bowels – the seat of the inner man. Today we might say guts. Real prayers are gutsy, raw, so much a part of who we are that our entire being is involved the offering of them.
I’m not talking about volume or emotionalism. I’m merely pointing out the nature of prayer. That is is spirit-led, and spirit born. Uttered from the inner man, whatever dialect it takes.
Such prayers rise like incense, carried on the wings of faith to accomplish their purpose.
A rule of thumb would be, if it doesn’t move you, it’s unlikely to move God.
Cold, half-hearted prayers are not really prayer at all. They may take the same title, but are really of an entirely different nature altogether.
Pray from the heart.
