You’ve prayed the same prayers to no avail. You become discouraged praying and often wonder if God hears your prayers. But are we following the biblical way of praying? Are our pastors and leaders instructing us to pray Jesus’ way?
There are many different ways to pray. We know for a fact that prayer works! What about the times we pray continually and don’t see any progress? Could there be, not a better way, but a more effective way? I don’t want to say praying one way is better than the other. I do believe God hears all prayers. However, when we look at the way Jesus prayed, should we be following His example.
I’ve been to several different churches and tried many different denominations in my young-adult years. Except for one church, I never heard a message preached on praying audibly or the power of our words. As I minister around the world and pray out loud, and decree and declare, people look at me as if it is foreign. They are unfamiliar and uncomfortable with it. They haven’t been taught to do it.
When we look at how our Father God created, He spoke to things. Jesus, when healing and delivering spoke aloud to the spiritual atmosphere, demons and health conditions. He prayed out loud. He modeled how to pray. David in Samuel cried out and called out, which is with an audible voice. As we search Scriptures further when they prayed to God, we find action-audible words such as “say, “said, “cried,” “called” and “spoke.”
In the Bible, prayer was audible. However, we haven’t been taught to pray audibly, and if we have, we are intimidated because our prayer might not sound as good as another person’s; therefore, we hold back.
What if the missing element to your prayers being answered is that you aren’t, “Speaking to your mountain (Matt. 11:23) ” “Calling things not as though they are (Rom. 4:17)” or knowing that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:21). What if your prayers started getting answered by you speaking to your situation and praying audibly as Jesus did? Would it hurt to at least try something different?—not better, as I said before, but could there be a more effective way to pray if we followed Jesus’ example? In my book, Speak Out, I give biblical grounds for praying audibly. I am not saying we can never pray silently or connect spirit to Spirit with the Lord in prayer. I am saying there is much scriptural proof that Jesus, His disciples and many people in the Bible prayed audibly, so why shouldn’t we try it? {eoa}
Kathy DeGraw is a prophetic spiritual warfare strategist releasing the love and power of God to ignite and activate people, release prophetic destinies and deliver people from the bondage of the enemy. She is the founder of Kathy DeGraw Ministries and Be Love Outreach. She is the author of several books, including Speak Out, Discerning and Destroying the Works of Satan, Identity Invasion, Who is Speaking? and Warfare Declarations. You can connect with Kathy on Facebook, facebook.com/kathydegraw or visit degrawministries.org.
Ron Allen 
Eddie Hyatt 
Michael L. Brown