Are you ready for your prayer life to improve? Would you like to learn how to pray more accurately and receive God's answers more quickly? If so, this message is for you. When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, our Lord confronted the myths and misconceptions concerning prayer in His day. In fact, He spent quite some time countering false ideas and discussing what prayer is not before He told them the proper way to pray. The religious system had become so hypocritical and phony that the Lord had to undo what they commonly thought prayer was before He could effectively teach them what it is. The contents of this message are neither The Only Way To Pray nor is it true that You Would not Get Any Results if You Do not Pray This Way, but rather it is A Better Way To Pray. I will be sharing some things that will probably offend you; but rest assured that if I step on your toes, the Lord will heal them! Everything I am teaching against, I have done. God still loves me and I love Him. We have a good relationship despite the fact I am doing these things. However, I believe I am, and will be much more effective in seeing manifestations of my answered prayers than ever before in my life. I do not pray the way I used to. I have matured quite a bit as a result of not being bound by tradition! All across the body of Christ today, believers hold certain assumptions and exhibit totally wrong attitudes in prayer. Then they wonder why they are not receiving their desired results. God wants this corrected! I am very aware that I will be countering a lot of common thinking about prayer. I may well offend some of the traditions you have held dear. But let me ask you this: If the way you are praying is not getting good results, why then would you resist change in this area? I am not the perfect example. I have my share of major problems in my life. I am not living the abundant life. I have not arrived, but I have left. The words you hear me say are not my own. They belong to my mentor who sent me, Andrew Wommack. And he is getting supernatural results to his prayers. He has even seen his own son raised up after being dead for five hours. Unless you are receiving better results than he is, you ought to at least consider the things I am saying. The Word says, "He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me;". Jesus sent Andrew Wommack. Andrew Wommack sent me. Therefore, Jesus sent me. For many years now, Andrew has meditated through every scripture in the Bible that uses any form of the word pray. I believe that you will really be blessed by, what the Lord has revealed to me through his servent Andrew Wommack, and through the Word Of God. Even though it may be different from anything you have ever been taught before, I am confident you will find it: A Better Way To Pray! *************************************** Hypocrites Love To Pray Prayer is the most abused part of the Christian life today. Misguided understandings about prayer mess more people up spiritually than anything else out there! Jesus taught that there is right and wrong praying: Turn with me to; Matthew 6:5 ,/,/,/ And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. ,/,/,/ Most believers do not associate hypocrites with prayer. They think, If you are praying, what could be wrong? Plenty, because hypocrites love to pray! Just because you start with the words "Our Father…" and conclude with "…in the name of Jesus, amen" does not mean it is prayer. A tremendous amount of what is being called "prayer" today offends God and opens the door for the devil. There are right and wrong ways to pray! God's Messenger Boy? Some time ago, I heard a wrong teaching that Satan was "God's messenger boy." It said that the devil can only do what the Lord allows, and therefore, God uses him to work good in our lives. That is totally wrong, but I did not know it at the time. This teaching was given to a young lady and she bought into it completely. This teaching was accompanied, with an example of a boy who was too shy to witness to his classmates. He prayed and asked God to give him an incurable disease, so he could show his faith in Christ by the way he responded to death. The next day he came down with leukemia. Four people were born again at his funeral. Although this young man's faith brought some glory to God, this is not correct praying. Another young lady prayed the same prayer and was diagnosed with leukemia the next morning. Four people were born again at her funeral. However, God was not the one answering these two prayers by "blessing" them with leukemia. Satan took advantage of wrong praying and killed two young people before their time. To avoid being persuaded by the doctrine that a person can not die before his time, let us turn to: (Ecclesiastes 7:17). ,/,/,/ Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time? Wrong praying gets wrong results! Nevertheless, the devil ment it for evil, but God used it for good. Praying Wrong Again I say, Jesus had to reveal what prayer was not, before He taught what it is. (Matthew 6:5-13.) The Lord Himself had to counter the religious concepts, concerning prayer in His day first, or the people would never have been able to grasp what He was about to say. It is just as bad today, if not worse! Like the Pharisees whom Jesus confronted, prayer has become a religious calisthetic. People use it to soothe their consciences, feeling like they have done something to manipulate, and motivate God to move on their behalf; wrong motives! The heart attitude behind your prayer, interests God much more than the actual words you say. Just because you spend an hour, or more, in what you call "prayer" does not mean you are accomplishing anything. If your attitude is wrong, you are praying wrong! And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. That little ego-stroking pat on the back is all they get because man's admiration is the only reward for such "praying." They would not receive anything from God! Are you aware that you can exercise powerful spiritual gifts, and make tremendous personal sacrifices but still not impress God? That is right! If you do not have the proper motive, it does not matter what you do. Praying in tongues, prophesying, having all faith, giving your possessions to the poor, or even laying down your life will all profit you nothing if done without God's kind of love. Let us turn to: 1 Corinthians 13 :1-3 ,/,/,/ 1. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. ,/,/,/ In the kingdom, heart attitude makes all the difference! If you are not seeing the desired results from your prayer life, check your motives. Are your prayers truly motivated by love? I understand this is hard to admit because you always want to be positive and believe the best. However, if you allowed yourself to take a critical and objective look at your own prayer life, would the honest evaluation be, that it profits you nothing or very little? Have you prayed for years and not seen the manifestation? Perhaps your body is not healed, or your finances still are not really improving; either way, it is just not working. Friend, it is not God who has not been answering; it is your prayers that have been wrong! God Already Moved Most Christians see prayer as an opportunity to "move God." They believe He can do anything, but that He has not done it yet. In this mentality, prayer is how to make God do something. If this is what you believe, your prayer life rests on an extremely faulty foundation. God has already done everything He is ever going to do! He moved once and for all, in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through the atonement, God has already forgiven and healed every person who will ever be forgiven or healed. He does not even have to lift His little finger now to cause a healing or salvation! As far as God is concerned, the sins of the entire world have already been forgiven. The Lamb's perfect sacrifice dealt decisively with the past, present, and future sins of every believer, and non-believer alike. This does not mean that all are just "automatically" saved, or healed. All individuals must receive for themselves, by faith what Jesus Christ has already provided, in order to actually benefit from it. A gift given is not fully yours until it is received! As Christians, we are to instruct people to believe and receive what God has already done for them through the atonement. That is why the popular evangelistic method of "asking Jesus to come into your heart" is biblically inaccurate. Technically speaking, you do not have to "ask" God to "save" you. This implies that the Lord has not done anything yet, until after you make your request. Then, depending on how He feels about you, He will either respond positively or negatively. This is completely incorrect because Jesus did everything for all of us two thousand years ago! Acts 16:29-31 ,/,/,/ 29. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30. And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31. And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. ,/,/,/ The point here is that they said to Paul and Silas, Sirs, what must I do to be saved. The response was, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe what! Believe that He fully dealt with sin at Calvary. Payment has already been made. Now it is just a matter of believing and receiving! Let us now compare the simplicity of salvation to the simplicity of other spiritual blessings. After a meeting, a lady said that she had asked the Lord into her heart a hundred times, but still did not have any assurance of salvation. She was told, "Tonight we will pray and you will get assurance!" After praying with her to receive salvation, She was asked, "Are you saved?" She responded, "Well, I do not know." She was asked, "What do you mean you do not know?" Pointing to the open Bible, It was shared with her, "The Word says right here in Romans 10:9, 'That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.' Did you confess with your mouth?" she was asked. "Yes." "Do you believe God raised Jesus from the dead?" "Yes." "Are you saved?" "I do not know." She was asked to"look at verse 13. 'For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.' Are you a whosoever?" "Well, I guess I am." "Did you call on the name of the Lord?" "Yes." "Are you saved?" "I do not know." She simply could not believe that she was saved! In a situation like that, what would you think if I said to you, "I am not sure why God has not saved her. Would you please join with me in prayer, fasting, and agreement for her salvation? We should not let go of God until He saves her!" You would probably disagree with me, answering, "No, Herman, that is not the way it works. God has already done it. If she has not received, then her receiver is the problem, not God's giver!" What if someone in a wheelchair came forward for healing during a service? If I prayed and did not see him rise out of the wheelchair immediately, I could ask the audience, "How many of you will stand in faith together with me? Let us fast and pray in agreement, not letting go of God until He heals this person." I bet I could persuade 90 percent of the people to go along with that! Yet God's Word clearly proclaims, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him" (Collosians 2:6). In the same way you appropriate and walk in forgiveness of sin, you receive healing, deliverance, prosperity, and everything else! If begging God to save the lady in the first scenario is inappropriate, then doing so for healing or anything else in the Christian life is absolutely wrong too! Christ already made full provision for the abundant life through His atonement. It is now not up to Him to do, but you to receive what He is done! Heal the Sick! Sometimes Christians approach God, praying, "I know You can heal me, but You have not done it yet. Therefore, I want to learn how to make You heal me." This is rank unbelief! They do not believe that He is already done it and they think they can make Him do it. Wrong! Such unbelief explains why more people are not experiencing healing. We should confidently instruct people not to "pray" for the sick, but to heal them themselves. Jesus commanded us in Matthew 10:8; Let us turn there: ,/,/,/ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. ,/,/,/ There is a huge difference between healing the sick and just praying for them! John G. Lake understood this difference. As a world-renowned missionary preacher, Lake had a powerful healing ministry based in Spokane, Washington. Instead of doing all the work himself, he trained associates called "healing practitioners." Whenever people requested prayer, Lake sent his practitioners out with little bottles of oil and told them, "Do not come back until they are healed!" These believers did not just go pray for sick people; they healed them! The longest it took for a practitioner to come back was three-and-a-half weeks. It might have taken a while, but they saw that person healed! Lake stated that not a single associate ever returned without seeing an individual healed. They stayed and diligently worked with them until the healing manifested. Although this might sound foreign to you, these are just normal results when you understand and believe that God has already done His part. Jesus Christ completed everything necessary to save and heal every person. You believed and received salvation. Healing comes the exact same way! It should not be any harder to receive your healing since He provided it at the same time as forgiveness for your sin. Neither does it take any more faith to raise someone from the dead than to see them born again! It is Jackhammer Time! The greatest manifestation of God's power came when you were born again! By nature, you were a child of the devil. He had legal rights and claims to you. As a citizen of the kingdom of darkness, the enemy legitimately dominated your life. At the time of your salvation, you had not been fasting, praying, studying the Word, attending church, paying tithes, or living a holy life. Yet without any such effort, you received the greatest miracle of all! It happened because you believed it was already done. How could you doubt that God would do what He had already done? The gospel is good news (what He has done), not "good prophecy" (what He is going to do)! "News", in a newspaper has taken place in the past. The good "news" of the gospel is that God has already forgiven you. Why would you choose to go to hell with your sins forgiven? Why not take advantage of the Lord's generous provision? You just need to understand that He has already done His part! The question is not, "Will God save you?" but "Will you accept His salvation?" The gift has been given, but will you receive it? It is the same with everything else in the Christian life! God has already healed, prospered, and delivered you. Yet most people beg and plead, attempting to manipulate and control God through prayer. Their underlying attitude is "How do I make God do something He is unwilling to do?" That is totally wrong! Prayer is not trying to twist God's arm to make Him do something. Prayer is receiving by faith what He has already done! Should the Lord tarry, believers one hundred years from now will look back on most of the concepts being peddled today as "intercession" and think, How ignorant and barbaric can you get? Nobody in their right mind should believe the majority of current teaching being passed off as "intercession" in the body of Christ. It is one of the biggest areas of deception and bondage in the church today! Before Jesus taught what prayer is, He revealed what it is not. Let us take a jackhammer to our faulty foundations and throw them out; they are only hindering us!