3 Spirit-Powered Prayer Strategies That Bring Results

3. Petitions

The posture and preface to Paul’s prayer leads us into the intensity of three petitions he brings that we can summarize in three words: grip, grasp and grow.

Grip. Over the years, my daily prayer list has grown to over 250 people. I laid Paul’s prayer over my list and realized how spot-on his prayer is—because so many people on my list, including myself, need our grip strengthened with power through the Spirit.

Grasp. Paul not only prays for us to get a strong grip, he prays that we will also get a great grasp. Years before Paul wrote this Ephesian letter from a prison in Rome, he had planted and pastored the church in Ephesus for 2 1/2 years. During that time he sent letters west to the Corinthian church, which was beset with all types of problems and pride. He told them in 1 Corinthians 13 what was missing in their community life: They were not rooted and grounded in love.

This is always a sobering word to the Pentecostal and charismatic church because, in our desire for the restoration and presence of the charismata, we may be tempted to build on the gifts rather than the Giver, on the sensational above the ethical or moral, on success and numbers rather than love. When we are rooted and grounded in love, then we can grasp the breadth, duration and extremity of His love.

Grow. Paul knew that being filled with the Spirit was not just a one-time “I’ve got it” experience. When you read the last 2 1/2 chapters of Ephesians, you can see that these Spirit-baptized believers were still being pushed to grow. No matter what our age, our years of Christian service or our maturity in ministry, we will always need to keep on growing, because even if we are filled now, we are not yet filled with all the fullness of God.

But that is not all. Paul ends with, “[He] is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Eph. 3:20).

Great praying leads to great power—”He is able,” Paul says.

And great power leads to great praise: “To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (v. 21).

The grip. The grasp. The grow. They all lead to immeasurably more. God is infinite and capable of giving more, and we are expansible and capable of receiving more.

Do you want to display the glory of the Father? Become a person who prays powerful prayers.

George O. Wood is an American Pentecostal minister and general superintendent of the General Council of the Assemblies of God in the United States of America (AG). He has been chairman of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world, since 2008. He previously served as general secretary of the AG from 1993 to 2007. Wood has a number of books to his credit, including Road Trip Leadership, Living in the Spirit, A Psalm in Your Heart, Living Fully and The Successful Life. If you’re ever in Springfield and stop by his office, he might give you a copy—after his office tour, of course. You can learn more about him at georgeowood.com.