On September 4th, I listed seven prayer secrets. This week, I’m breaking these down and talking in more detail about each one of them.

1. Let your gaze be on God, your glance on your request.

2. Let prayer be your first choice, not your last.

3. Let your prayer be filled with praise and thankfulness.

4. Pray more from conviction than from crisis.

5. Pray specifically, not in general.

6. Pray in the Spirit and by the Spirit as he guides you.

Ephesians 6:18 “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

A lot of people have various views of what it means to “pray in the Spirit.” This is directly connected to what we have been talking about in the PAPA prayer. When we approach God as the first thing, we are in the position for the Spirit to guide our prayers.

In Romans 8, Paul give us a better idea of how the Holy Spirit coordinates with us in our prayers.

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26–27)

The only thing our Lord’s disciples asked Him to teach them was how to pray. Each believer encounters that same difficulty in knowing how to pray and for what to pray. Consequently, God has given His Holy Spirit to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Even when we do not know what to say to God, the Holy Spirit interprets our innermost feelings and intercedes in our behalf.

So, to pray in the Spirit is to pray In the power and sphere of the Spirit as we are inspired and led by Him.

7. God does not respond to our prayers; He responds to our FAITH!

Jesus had a lot to say about the many prayers of the hypocrites.

Matthew 6:5–7 (ESV)
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward…” 7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.”

Genuine prayer is words which express our faith and trust in God. We must be careful not to find ourselves “saying prayers” without the sincere understanding of what we are saying. The greatest abuse of this probably takes place at meal times. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard this prayer, “Bless this food for the nourishment of our bodies and bless the hands that prepared it.”

When prayers become automatic they sometimes fall into meaninglessness, so much so that we may even confuse the prayers we say at various occasions. I’ll never forget one time, when four men were standing in front of the podium getting ready to pass the offering plate. I called on one of them to pray and he thanked God for the food, and never even realized what he had said.

It would be a good idea before we pray to pause and acknowledge who it is we are praying to. For only when we truly believe that God is hearing us do we have assurances that our expressions of faith are being receive. As John explains, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” (1 John 5:14–15)

Regarding prayer and faith, let me conclude with this: never move forward without the peace of God regarding a situation. Whenever God is silent on a specific prayer request, this means we should hold our position and do nothing until we receive further word from Him as to whether or not we should move in the direction that we are looking to move.