In 2001 I attended a local church where Juanita Bynum was preaching. Even after 11 years, I still distinctly remember what her sermon was about because it was a catalyst for change in my life. Her sermon was titled "A New Heart". Somehow, someway during the sermon I began to look back over my life from the point I had acceptde Jesus Christ as my savior at eight years old to where I was then as a twenty-two year old woman. I felt struck by the notion that God had a purpose for me, and through those fourteen years I remained in Christian infancy with my purpose not only unfulfilled, but the fact was that I was not even aware that God had a purpose for my life. As I sat in that church service, I knew that God indeed had a purpose for me, and I had not been walking in it. I realized that I had wasted a lot of God's time, fourteen years to be exact, not doing what I was supposed to be doing.
When the alter call was made I was up and out of my seat without much prompting. That night I rededicated my life to Christ, and to being "about my Father's business". Once I left church my desire to start walking in God's purpose for my life did not wean. I knew that I had to get to know Him because, even though I had been a Christian for a long time, I did not have a relationship with God.
I had always attended church and read my Bible because I grew up in a Christian home and went to a Christian school, but not because I wanted to or even knew that I needed to have a relationship with God. When I was in college I did not attend church regularly, I never read my Bible and I seldom prayed. These were the three areas that I began to develop once I rededicated myself to God. Of the three, the area that I really started to work out was prayer. I began reading any and every book I could find on prayer. My goal was to have a disciplined prayer life and to live what Paul wrote, "pray without ceasing" (I Thessalonians 5:17). For me that meant not to always be praying 24/7, but, like the Word, to have prayer hidden in my heart. Having prayer hidden in my heart means to always have conversations with God.
From the time I spent with God and studying prayer, I learnt that prayer is not like what the religious leaders in Jesus' time did. They uttered vain repetitions. They said practiced words that had no meaning so people could hear and see them, thinking of them as "holy". That is not prayer. Prayer is talking to God. In the Garden of Eden Adam talked with with God in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8). Enoch walked with God (Genesis 5:24). The Bible says that God spoke with Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend (Exodus 33:11). David's "prayer" before going to battle at Ziglag was much like a conversation. "and David inquired of the Lord, 'Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?' 'Pursue them, ' He answered. 'You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue'." (I Samuel 30:8)
I often hear from people, "You pray so powerfully". What I have learnt is that what makes any prayer powerful is not saying a lot, but not saying anything at all and listening to what God has to say. Jesus Himself said in John 8:28 that He only speaks what the Father has taught Him. If you are praying and not listening to God's heart to speak what He says, your prayers are like the religious leaders. They are in vain. It does not matter what type of prayer you are praying, whether it is a prayer of praise and thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6), repentance (Acts 8:22), intercession (Colossians 1:9-14), supplication (Ephesians 6:18), faith (James 5:15), or agreement (Matthew 18:19), if you are not hearing and praying God's hearts, your prayer is just a bunch of noise.
There is a book called "Conversations with God". We all need to have constant conversations with God. Remember a conversation is a two-way exchange. We can not do all the talking in prayer and expect prayer to work. Some times we will not need to talk at all because God will do all the talking. The power in prayer is the ability to be able to listen to what God is saying and then be obedient enough to speak His words and do what He says to do.
Kendy
