What is Prayer?

Prayer

1. a. a personal communication or petition addressed to a deity, esp in the form of supplication, adoration, praise, contrition, or thanksgiving
b. any other form of spiritual communion with a deity
2. a similar personal communication that does not involve adoration, addressed to beings venerated as being closely associated with a deity, such as angels or saints
3. the practice of praying: prayer is our solution to human problems
4. ( often plural ) a form of devotion, either public or private, spent mainly or wholly praying: morning prayers
5. ( capital when part of a recognized name ) a form of words used in praying: the Lord's Prayer
6. an object or benefit prayed for
7. an earnest request, petition, or entreaty
8. law a request contained in a petition to a court for the relief sought by the petitioner
9. slang a chance or hope: she doesn't have a prayer of getting married

Statistics Since Prayer was Removed From Schools

A. Young People
1. For 15 years before 1963 pregnancies in girls ages 15 through 19 years had been no more than 15 per thousand After 1963 pregnancies increased 187% in the next 15 years.
2. For younger girls, ages 10 to 14 years, pregnancies since 1963 are up 553%.
3. Before 1963 sexually transmitted diseases among students were 400 per 100,000. Since 1963, they were up 226% in the next 12 years.

B. The Family
1. Before 1963 divorce rates had been declining for 15 years. After 1963 divorces increased 300% each year for the next 15 years.
2. Since 1963 unmarried people living together is up 353%
3. Since 1963 single parent families are up 140%.
4. Since 1963 single parent families with children are up 160%.

C. Education
1. The educational standard of measure has been the SAT scores. SAT scores had been steady for many years before 1963. From 1963 they rapidly declined for 18 consecutive years, even though the same test has been used since 1941.
2. In 1974-75 the rate of decline of the SAT scores decreased, even though they continued to decline. That was when there was an explosion of private religious schools. There were only 1000 Christian schools in 1965. Between 1974 to 1984 they increased to 32,000.
a. That could have an impact if the private schools had higher SAT scores. In checking with the SAT Board it was found that indeed the SAT scores for private schools were nearly 100 points higher than public schools.
b. In fact the scores were at the point where the public schools had been before their decline started in 1963 when prayer and Bible reading/ instruction was removed from the schools.
c. The scores in the public schools were still declining.

3. Of the nation's top academic scholars, three times as many come from private religious schools, which operate on one-third the funds as do the public schools.
D. The Nation
1. Since 1963 violent crime has increased 544%.
3. Illegal drugs have become an enormous & uncontrollable problem.
2. The nation has been deprived of an estimated 30 million citizens through legal abortions just since 1973.

Statistics From Answer.com .

Pray More

Pray More Prayer Is the direct connection we have with God. We need to learn to be more in prayerful communication.

This is a topic that I could write a whole book on, in fact I did write a whole book on it! But for the simple study of today's insight, I would just like to go thru a basic necessity for prayer. Thru the lesson studies you will find many more lessons on prayer

For today i would like you thru the basic functions of prayer. The Foundational State of Prayer!!
There are three things we need to do to become good Christians, we need to talk to God we need to to let God talk to us and we need to Talk to others about what Christ has done in our lives. We talk to God thru prayer and that is the focal point of this study, because when we talk to God thru our prayer, the rest falls into place.

Prayer is certainly the most powerful tool we have. I know there are a lot of Christians that actually think that God knows every single little thing that is ever going to happen. And I will be going into this topic in deep studies in the Figures of Speech sections. But for today's example, I just want to point out that when you think that God knows every single thing that is ever going to happen, you just limited God's abilities. God can do whatever He wants to do whenever He wants to do it, and He doesn't need to know a thousand years ahead of time if He wants it to rain today!. And when you are putting a limit on God, who is unlimited in His power, you just put a limit on your own abilities in everything you do.

The bottom line here is that God answers prayers. He is called to your petitions and He really does hear every prayer when we come to Him. And If God wants to grant a miracle right now without ever knowing ahead of time about it, He can. Our prayers have power! Our prayers have far more power that we could ever imagine. And the reason that we don't think so is because for thousands of years Satan has been turning our thinking patterns upside down, deceiving us and we don't even know it. When we know that God can do absolutely anything any time, we can ask it of Him. knowing that His answering to our prayers are not limited to a predetermined set of events. This understanding has now allowed us to step beyond most humans understanding!

This is the statement that I make here:

God does not know the limits of your abilities anymore

because you now know the unlimited abilities of His.

WOW! that really says a lot about how important it is to be in prayer. That is our direct connection with God. you will find many detailed studies on prayer and I would have to say that prayer has probably been written about more than any other topic in the Bible. It really is that important.

There are a couple types of prayer that we will be going into in other topic lessons. They include Conditional Prayers, and Unconditional Prayers. Unconditional Prayers fall into four major categories: Seeking, Repentance, Thanks and Praise, Intercessory. Then there are the Conditional Prayers of Guidance, Requests, Debating, Dialogue. while these different types of prayers have both different functionality and content to them. They all have the same foundational structure, and that is; coming before the Lord. That's where all prayer must start and that's where all prayers end. Coming Before The Lord.

God will give us understanding, wisdom, discernment, what ever our requests are, provided that we are praying for His will in our lives. this is one of the most important elements to a successful relationship with Christ Jesus, and that is seeking His will asking for His desires in our lives. With our prayers being in line with what God wants in our lives, He can really direct us and show us the real desires of His heart in our lives.

We will be showing you particular ways to pray, get more results out of prayer, leading in prayer and so many more depths of knowledge, but for today, I just want you to understand that we just need to PRAY. Come before the Lord in prayer, it doesn't matter what you say, what you ask for or anything else. you first need to get in the habit of consistently coming to God in prayer.

You don't have to do anything but BE THERE. And you really don't have to say anything if you don't want to. So many people talk so much that God can't get a word in edge-wise. we actually need to spend more time in silence before the Lord. Listening for His issues in our lives to arise with His solutions for our situations.

I start every day in prayer. 15 minutes a day in prayer on my knees. 15 minutes a day, every single day. That is less than 1% of your day and when you start spending just 1% of your day in prayer, Christ will change your life. And it doesn't happen in a day or a week, it happens after many months and years of that consistent prayer time when you really start to see and understand how God is really moving you. God wants consistent communication in our relationships with Him. He doesn't want us only coming to Him occasionally when we want something from Him. He wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives on a continual basis.

Be Consistent - And Be Committed! Surrendering daily in prayer may sound like a chore, that's what the devil wants you to thing. In a very short season of regular prayer, you will love the time you spend with Him and it will be a part of your life that you can't go without.

Scriptures on Prayer are everywhere - Here are Just a Few

1 John 5:14 (In His Will)

14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

1 John 1:9 (Jesus Promises Forgiveness)

9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Matthew 21:22 (Prayer Has Power)

22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

John 14:13 (In Jesus Name)

13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Matthew 6:6-13 (Jesus Teaches How To Pray)

6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
8 "Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. 9 In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
13 And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

John 17:1-26 (Jesus Prays)

Jesus Prays for Himself: 1 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Jesus Prays for His Disciples6 "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. 8 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
9 "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
Jesus Prays for All Believers20 "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
24 "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. 26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."

It is such a simple concept to understand, We want to be like Jesus? JESUS PRAYS! He shows us thru His own example how important prayer is. And if it was that important and valuable to Him, how much more important is it for us who are living in these sinful bodies?

1 Timothy 2:1-3 (Pray For All People)

1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,