I'd like to thank everyone for being here. A few weeks ago at the end of another study, a certain user (I can't remember whose name it was) said it would be a good idea if we examined the concept of prayer a little bit, so here we are :)

This isn't so much about the methods of praying, but about what it means, what it is for, and what it does, according to the Scriptural teachings. As with most other topics, prayer is best examined by going back to the beginning, the Creation.

Does anyone know what the word "Universe" means? Breaking it down we first get "Uni" (as in unicycle, unicorn) - a prefix meaning "one, single, alone. The rest of the word is "verse," from Latin's versus, meaning "to turn, to become." It's from this same word, however, that we get the word verse in its common usage - that is, a line of poetry, a single sentence. The universe, then, is one unified whole - with the connotations of being a "single sentence."

This sounds familiar, doesn't it? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:1-3)

Notice that all things were created by the Word. Now the "Word made flesh" is Christ, but we see even in the beginning the method by which the Godhead created: "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." (Gen 1:3) That was day 1.

"And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." (Gen 1:6) Day 2.

Days 3-6 were similar. You should see the pattern... God said, God said, God said. Creation was by the Word. Now look at what happened when all the "words" were finished: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made." (Gem 2:1,2) When He was finished speaking, He saw that all was good, and that nothing else could be done... and then He "rested."

Now let's keep that in mind for a little while, because I will come back to the principle here later - although I am sure a lot of you get it by now :) And that's really the whole point of this study, but let's go ahead and flesh in the details a bit. I call this study the ABCs of prayer, and there is a reason for that. Let's start with step 1 - the "A."

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Phil 4:6,7) Ah, now that is a wonderful statement! It both begins and ends with the concept of rest - contentment, peace. That is again a reiteration of the rest spoken of above, but the first "third" of the ABC is safely tucked away between them; "With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." The A in ABC is ASK.

Paul says that when we pray, we should be: "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." (Eph 6:18)

Twice more we see that word "supplication." According to Strong's, it means, among other things, "a seeking, asking, entreating, entreaty to God or to man." On behalf of ourselves, and the others in your spiritual family, we should be asking for things. Some say, "We shouldn't ask for specific things, God will do all He is going to do anyway, and nothing we say will make a difference." Maybe some of US have also had similar thoughts from time to time - "Are my prayers being heard? Am I really making a difference?"

Well, the Bible says this: "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." (John 14:13)

Christ expands on this a couple chapters later. Who do we ask? "And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you." (John 16:23)

We ask the Father, "in Jesus' name," as a Christian's prayer generally concludes. We not only ask this adding His name to the end there, but to do something "In Jesus' name" implies a lot more than the surface indicates. Let's look at a couple verses that hopefully won't be too new a way at looking at these things.

In His own hometown, this was said of the Messiah:"And He could there do no mighty work, save that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And He marvelled because of their unbelief. And He went round about the villages, teaching." (Mark 6:5-6)

Hmm... that's interesting, right? The Messiah, God incarnate, "could do no mighty work" there? It explains why, though... because of their unbelief. Of course there is nothing God cannot do, but His mission on earth was this - to teach us the importance of OUR faith, our responsibility in the matter. According to the restrictions He placed upon Himself during the course of His earthly life, He could not do much where there was no faith.

"But [He] made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." (Phil 2:7) Do you see the purpose of the restrictions here? He wanted US to reach upwards back to God, to repent and turn away from our unbelief and lives of sin. That is our choice, we can accept or reject the Gospel and Its applications in our lives.

Another passage makes this even clearer: "And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched His garment." (Mark 5:25-27)

We all know this story... why did she do this? What was her reasoning? "For she said, 'If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.'" (Mark 5:28) And so it was done. "And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague." (Mark 5:29) But now... here is where it gets interesting :)

"And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that virtue had gone out of Him, turned Him about in the press, and said, 'Who touched my clothes?' And His disciples said unto him, 'Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?' And He looked round about to see her that had done this thing." (Mark 5:30-32)

Christ looked around to see who had done it. Now, seeing above that Christ "emptied Himself" of a lot of what He was in Heaven, and certainly giving up His omnipotence (For the Father knows the day and the hour but not the Son, and so on...) it seems reasonable here to take this passage just as it reads - He looked around to see who it was.

In other words - Did Christ's actual will have anything to do with the healing? I can make that plainer, because that can be taken the wrong way - certainly He wants everyone to be healed, but did He turn specifically to this individual and say, "Be healed?" His own words to the woman explain what happened: "And He said unto her, 'Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.'" (Mark 5:34)

Yes, Christ wants all men to be whole and happy. But did He say, "My desire has made you well?" Or did He say, "My clothes have made you well?" No, He said YOUR FAITH has made you well.

"Then touched He their eyes, saying, 'According to your faith be it unto you.'" (Mat 9:29)

To answer the doubts above - yes, your prayers make a difference. Yes, every word you say, especially to the Father and Creator of all things, is important. But... you have to believe... it is YOUR faith, TO the Father and in the name of the Son. This is why the Holy Spirit was given to us, and lives in us: to give us that connection, that authority, and that is what it means to pray "In the name of Jesus." Of course, the disclaimer here is that even this true faith comes originally from God. It is a gift to the true children of Heaven, for when we are born again... "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him." (Col 3:17)

Now after all that, does anyone have any idea what the "B" in ABC is yet? :)

BELIEVE. Whatsoever we ASK, we are then to BELIEVE that we are heard, and that it will be done.

"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months." (James 5:16,17) See how Elijah prayed - earnestly, truly believing in the connection he had with his God, with our God. "And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." (James 5:18) Hmm... not a fluke :)

Elijah understood the power of Creation, you see. Remember the beginning? God said all these things, spoke them into existence, and then He rested in His own authority. Now, we don't have that authority of ourselves, no... we pray in the name of Christ... but when we have prayed, will we not rest then in HIS authority also?

"Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." (Heb 4:11) The word is sometimes translated "disobedience," as in the NKJV, but it all comes from the same word "apeitheia," and means the same thing. We must believe what we pray, or we can't "rest" in the words that were spoken, and the prayer (though hopefully not the individual) may very well "fall," at least into a bad example.

"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Heb 4:16) Here we add "boldness" to our faith, assurance of Him in whom we believe. In fact, Peter writes about the ladder to Godliness: "And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience Godliness." (2 Pet 1:5-6) The first building-block there is faith :) Perhaps "boldness" can be considered a virtue in this setting.

Now, that second part should be simple enough, but... after you ASK and BELIEVE, what is left for you to do? What is "C?"

CLAIM. Let's look at some examples of that.

There was a certain body of water named Bethesda in Jerusalem. It was said that an angel would touch the water ever so often, and the first person into the pool after that was healed of whatever diseases he or she had. "And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, He saith unto him, 'Wilt thou be made whole?' The impotent man answered him, 'Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.'" (John 5:5-7)

Ah, now this man knew what he wanted, he wanted to be well, and surely he had asked to be cured. He also certainly believed, or why else would he be waiting by the pool for the angel's touch? There was, however, something left to do: "Jesus saith unto him, 'Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.' And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the Sabbath." (John 5:8-9)

When Christ told him to do it, he got up and did it. Now, there are two important things here... well, more than two, but we'll look at two of them :) Firstly, John sees fit to record that this took place on a Sabbath - that "day of rest" concept comes up again. After the Word is spoken (or speaks, as in this case), there is nothing else to do... all that's left is to enter into that rest. Now, not to take this out of context here, because John goes on to describe a confrontation with the Pharisees because of what day it was, and that was probably the primary reason for recording the day of the week. At the same time, the spiritual significance of the event shouldn't be forgotten either. As it was in the beginning, so it will be in the end, and at every point until then.

Now, here is the second significant thing about that passage. We can ask for what we want, and we can believe it will come to pass (to some extent), but without this third, vital step, we lack something.

When Jerusalem was being invaded by Babylon, the king of Judah at the time sent this message to the prophet Jeremiah: "Enquire, I pray thee, of the LORD for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be that the LORD will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us." (Jer 21:2)

Nice. That message has the first two things... the king Zedekiah asked for what he wanted, and he believed the prophet would give him an answer from the Lord. No problems so far. However, the reply was not what the king wanted!

"Then said Jeremiah unto them, 'Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah: Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city. And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.'" (Jer 21:3-5)

Now, what the king wanted was safety and salvation. This was granted him. He was told exactly what to do to be saved. "He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey." (Jer 21:9)

The king got exactly the answer he wanted, but you see... it wasn't in the WAY he expected. The lame man at Bethesda may have expected Christ to take him to the waters. It is a true saying, God works in mysterious ways... His ways are not our ways. Because of this, even when we pray, and we do not think we see an immediate answer, and we do not think He heard us, we can rest assured that nothing a man speaks goes into the empty air.

An earnest, sincere prayer in the name of Christ opens up that Creation energy, and releases the power of the Word. "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." (Isa 55:11)

In the case of the invalid, we have someone who, even though he didn't get the answer he expected, he acted on the voice of the Answerer, he claimed the promise, and soon he was walking. The king, when confronted with an answer he did not expect, decided instead to disregard the claims. He put Jeremiah in jail, choosing to believe the smooth lies of the false prophets, and so many more lost their lives in that siege than needed to.

Both of these men, the king and the invalid... both of them ASKED, both of them BELIEVED, but only one of them had the true belief - the live faith that leads naturally to good works, as James puts it. Only one of them CLAIMED the promise, and rested in that promise given from the foundations of the world.

We should know which of these examples we are to follow, and it may be a good thing that we ask for wisdom concerning this. When we pray, we might pray also that we recognize His answer to us.

"And He said, 'Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD.' And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, 'What doest thou here, Elijah?'" (1 Kings 19:11-13)

Elijah recognized His voice. He isn't always in the whirlwind, He isn't always in the fire... God's answer is often a "still, small voice," and He doesn't always say the words we think He will. Sometimes He will ask us, "What are you doing here? Take up your bed and walk."

The key to effective prayer is to be willing to be led by God. Waiting on the Lord is good, and a necessary part of our relationship with Him, but we have to be always ready to recognize His voice, and to respond to it. When we are practiced at that, prayer becomes as simple as A.B.C. - and then there remains only rest :)

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Mat 11:28)

David.