Prayer That Works

Everyone has a different preference when it comes to
prayer and how he or she feels is the best way to connect with God. The
important thing is that you don’t want your prayer life to become
mundane and never grow or change. You want it to be fresh, exciting and
even explosive in the Spirit. We all want our prayers to be effective,
and anyone who is full of the Spirit has the anointing to pray powerful prayers that produce miracles.

We can pray in such a way that our
prayers just flow. We don’t have to force them. They can even become
prophetic—the heart of the Holy Spirit pouring out of our words and
expressions.

Several years ago, we were praying at a
prayer meeting in our church, asking the Lord to use the ministry more
effectively to touch lives in our city. The Lord directed us to pray in
such a way that our prayers would have “bull’s-eye” accuracy.

We knew the Holy Spirit wanted to develop specific
prayers that were going to be like instruments of warfare targeted
toward building certain key parts of the church’s vision. After that
time of prayer, we were amazed at the number of breakthroughs we
experienced in our ministry.

As believers, we sometimes pray
randomly, repeating things—not really thinking about what we are
saying. To pray effectively, we must pray calculated prayers, with
biblical, Spirit-led accuracy. 

These kinds of prayers are like swords
in the Spirit (see Is. 49:2-3). They shoot out, and something just
“clicks” when you pray them. You know you hit the target and don’t walk
away wondering if you received the answer.

James 5:16 tells us it is “effectual” prayer that avails much. The Amplified Bible says that is prayer that “makes tremendous power available.” 

Effectual prayer is accurate, targeted prayer that is done with action. In the Greek, it is the word energeo, which means to be “efficient, full of energy, and to display working activity.”

In other words, when you hear someone pray with effectual
prayer, you don’t have to wonder whether it’s working because there is
energy behind it. You can sense and feel power on it.

One way to ensure you are praying
prayers that work is to pray according to the Bible. Rather than just
praying whatever you think, find out what God’s will is for the
situation and bring your prayers in line with it. God has a certain way
of thinking when it comes to things in our lives, and we need to align
with that. 

Case in point: When you need prayer for
physical healing, you may feel terrible in your body and want to cry to
the Lord about how bad things are for you. However, a more effectual
way to pray is to find the Lord’s promises about healing from Scripture
and pray in agreement with God.

This doesn’t mean you cannot cry out to
the Lord in your time of adversity. What you need in order to stay
accurate in prayer, however, is then to refocus on trusting in God and
His promises.

When you make a habit of praying this way, you will learn
to pray from the river of your spirit. You plug into the Holy Spirit’s
way, the source of power in you, because you are agreeing with the
Lord’s opinion. 

Instead of trying to swim upstream, you are flowing with
the current. Remember that when the power of the Holy Spirit flows out
of you like a river, it contains miracles, blessings and answers to
prayer. Accurate prayer will help you flow in all those things.

Suddenly, instead of praying random,
disconnected prayers, you are grabbing hold of the blessing that God
has already placed in the river of your spirit. A new energy and
confidence will come to your prayer life, and you will have conclusive
results because you are targeting what you need with what God has
already promised.

Brenda Kunneman is
co-founder, with her husband, Hank, of One Voice Ministries and
co-pastor with him of Lord of Hosts Church in Omaha, Nebraska. She
ministers worldwide in conferences and churches and is the author of
several books, including The Supernatural You (Charisma House).