By Pastor John Lemmings

Journey Fellowship Baptist Church, Bremen

Johnlemmings316@gmail.com

A young pastor stood to preach not knowing that his son had made a paper airplane during Sunday School. The preacher started on his first point when the little boy swung the plan through the air with a loud, “vroom!”

People chuckled, but his dad was embarrassed, “Son, don’t do that again. The preacher returned to his message when the boy’s imagination took off again and away the boy goes, “vroom!” even louder. A second time his father corrects him. The father is flustered but continues to preach. The boy does it again, letting it go. It makes a perfect circle landing in Sister Hazel’s hair. Everyone laughed except the pastor and Sister Hazel.

The preacher snatched up the boy and headed outside. Everyone saw the little boy’s face peering over his dad’s shoulders screaming, “Pray! Pray! It’s going to be bad! It’s going to be bad! This little boy learned the urgency of prayer! We chuckle at this story but the truth is that we need an urgent powerful prayer life. E.V. Hill said, “If you get people praying, God will put in their heart what is on his heart. What is on his heart is a lost world. You can’t be a praying person and not be burdened about what burdens God.”

Does your prayer life have power? Are your prayers answered? Do you experience power in your communication with the Father or has it become stale, lackluster, and powerless? Then why not ask God to change that today? Your spouse, children, grandchildren and friends need you to pray powerfully. In the Bible we are introduced to a man named James. He was a man of prayer. In fact, people say his nickname was “Old Camel Knees” because of the calluses on his knees because he spent so much time on his knees in prayer. Let’s learn some things about powerful prayer from James.

First, we need to define what prayer is. E.M. Bounds defines prayer as, “Communion and fellowship with God. It’s a person having an enjoyment with God and access to God through prayer. Prayer always and everywhere is an immediate and confiding approach to, and a request of, God the Father.”

Dr. Johnny Hunt defines prayer as, “A humble begging, plea, or petition.” Prayer is your communication with God. As believers in Jesus Christ we have been given access to the throne to pray. Hebrews 4:16 states, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” The Bible states in Psalm 62:8, “Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.” We are given wonderful truths about communication with the Lord in this verse. We are to trust in Him at all times and pour out our heart before him. There is nothing too small to bring to him in prayer. He wants to hear our petitions. I love the word “Selah,” which means to pause and think about what has been said; to take a deep breath and praise him.”

Second, we are to pray with power. In James 5:16 the scripture tells us that, “…the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” Let’s open up this scripture and learn about powerful praying. God wants our prayers to have energy. The Greek word for “effectual fervent” is a word we get energy from. This means to put forth power, to be mighty. This is how John Knox prayed. Mary of Scots was more concerned over the prayers of John Knox than the armies of Philip. John Knox prayed, “Give me Scotland or I die.” Are you praying with energy? Not a loud or long prayer but a Spirit filled prayer.

Next, this prayer is to be prayed by a righteous person. This means that the person praying is positionally righteous through the faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. II Corinthians 5:21 states, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (Christ). Are you saved? Also, the person praying should be practically righteous. This means the one who is saved will do right acts. Simply day to day acts should be right living. You cannot have unconfessed sin in your life and expect to get your prayers answered. If we regard iniquity in our hearts the Lord will not hear us.

Last, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much. This means this prayer gets results. If you are like me you have a lot of prayers that are prayed to God. I have people I love in my life and when they approach me to pray for something or someone I want God to hear and answer according to His will. The Greek word for “avail” means to prevail greatly, strong, to be a force. Your prayers do not have to be weak and ineffective. We can pray powerful prayers. Begin to ask God today to help strengthen your prayer life. If you ever need prayer, please contact our church office at 770-537-2300.