Why Pray

Why Pray 

Collin Leong. March 14, 2016

Introduction

How many of you have heard the question: if God already knows everything and is control of everything, then why do we need to pray? He knows what we think, what we are going to do, and where we are going, even before we do. He knows what will happen in the future of every individual, family, nation, and the world, so what's the point of praying? Let's park this as Paradox #1 for a discussion later.

The even harder question is: do prayers really change anything? If prayers can change how the future unfolds, it means prayers can change God's mind. If God's mind can be changed, then how can God know the future to an absolute certainty, since He hasn't made up his mind yet, which is dependent on what people pray for? Let's call this Paradox #2.

There are no doubts at all that the Bible emphasize the need to pray, and in fact, to "pray unceasingly" (1 Thes. 5:17). And we hope that most Christians will just take the Bible at its word, obey it, and do it faithfully without questioning "why?" nor are bothered by these paradoxes at all. If you fall under this category, then you don't need to read further, unless a skeptic had challenged you with those questions or if  a Christian friend need to be motivated with some valid reasons on why he should pray.

Christians who neglect prayers probably do so either because they have never fully grasp the importance of prayer, never felt prayers were effective in their lives, or are just lazy. (This article is not meant to help those with the latter problem!) Merely quoting the familiar verses exhorting believers to pray are often ineffective in changing the prayer-resistant habit. So much so, some preachers may have resorted to "shock tactics" to wake people up to pray, such as one hypothesis I came to hear about recently.

Apparently, John Wesley, the father of Methodism, said, “It seems God is limited by our prayer life – that He can do nothing for humanity unless someone ask Him.”  One popular TV preacher and author of books about prayers in the 80's supported Wesley's hypothesis and said that God cannot interfere with the affairs of the world because Satan is the god of this world after Adam sinned.  God gave the dominion of the earth to Adam, but Adam passed the dominion to Satan. And that's why we must pray - to empower God to act. Else, He cannot or is not allowed to act in Satan's dominion.  

Well, it's not my place to debate with a godly man like John Wesley and with preachers who have written best seller books about prayers; they are probably right most of the time. However, I don't think we need to go out on the theological limb to say how helpless God would be without our prayers in order to get people to pray! It would be like a church leader telling his congregation that God cannot bring revival unless they each contribute 20% of their salaries into the Revival Fund. I personally do not believe God is limited in any way, even if I fail to explain to you the paradox of why the Bible still asks us to pray and to tithe.

If this rather controversial reason above doesn't do it for me, then what do I think are the reasons behind the biblical exhortation to constantly pray? Someone counted Jesus praying 25 different times in the Gospels, and the words "pray", "prayer" or "praying" occur over 50 times in the New Testament. Why is prayer so important? As I ponder and looked into the scriptures, four basic reasons came to me that I  think is sufficient to motivate myself to pray more. If after reading this, you still need more reasons, then by all means, look for bestsellers that will "shock" you into praying, because that's better than not praying at all.

What is Prayer?

Before I get into the reasons, let's also qualify what we mean by prayer. (I didn't want to refer to books or commentaries for the definition because I deliberately wanted to express it the way I understand it personally while being consistent with the scriptures.) To put things in simple context, all Christian actions revolve only in these three main circles: (a) Worship, (b) Word, and (c) Walk. Name something the Bible says a believer should do, and you can place it under one of these three big subjects. Studying the scriptures, preaching, evangelism and others fall under "Word"; Ministry, serving, fellowship and others included under "Walk";

Prayer, along with Praise and Sacrifice (fasting, tithing) are forms or constituencies of "Worship." No wonder prayers are often inter-mingled with outpouring of praise, songs, lifting of hands, and is an inseparable bed-fellows with fasting. While prayer is often executed with audible words, it does not have to always be so. And this is very important to remember whenever "prayer" is mentioned in this article.

The bible says "for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is..." (Rom 8:26,27). Thus in a broader sense "prayer" is the transmission of our hearts' desires and requests to God's throne, with the Holy Spirit as the channel. Our hearts' longing can be expressed not just verbally, but through thoughts and contemplation, emotional expression, praise or songs, and even inexpressible groaning deep in our soul. In other words, prayer is a posture of your soul (spirit and mind), more than words or actions. Paul instructed in Corinthians: "I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also" (1 Cor 14:15).

In fact, based on these scriptures, God doesn't just hear your words but interpret your longings (and sincerity) through the mind of the Spirit, who understands you more than you do yourself. As a posture, it's where the attitude of humility, reverence and boldness are perfectly inter-twined together to transmit and receive expressions to/from God.

Without such a posture, a man saying a bunch of words ending with "amen" is just going through the motion; He may as well be speaking to a rock because his heart is obviously somewhere else other than at the foot of God's throne.  And God has no respect for men who utter pious sounding words but his heart is insincere or has ulterior motives. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." (Ps 66:18).  If we have the wrong posture or motives, then it is no wonder why we feel our prayers are ineffective and meaningless, and it would be no surprise to find us abandoning prayer life.

Now with the broadened definition and understanding of genuine prayer, remember that every time the word "prayer" or "praying" are used going forward, I'm referring to this kind of prayer - the right posture of the heart and soul, accompanied by verbal and non-verbal expressions. Ritualistic or auto-prayers are NOT applicable in the following claims:

Reasons to Pray

1. Prayer delights God

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight. (Proverbs 15:8)

Which of you as a father or mother do not wish your children to constantly greet you and communicate with you, even if the subject is nothing new to you? As parents, we want our children to show their appreciation, tell us their problems, ask us for help. Similarly, God derives pleasure because He loves us and desires an intimate relationship with us. 

It doesn't matter to God that He already "knows" everything about us. That's not the point here. Rather, He wants us to know that He knows, and He wants us to know He cares. I can always tell when my children comes home from a school test and didn't do well. They will be quiet about it. I know it, but I still want them to feel uninhabited to approach me and tell me about it. I could approach them first, but that would be less pleasurable for me. 

This answers Paradox #1. God is delighted when we come to him with what he already knows. This is probably the ONLY reason where prayer "benefits" or blesses God. The rest of the reasons are for our benefits. But if we truly love God, then this reason alone - to delight Him - should be enough to motivate us to pray even when we don't feel like it.

2. Prayer strengthens our faith.

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." (Matt. 7:7-8)

Can God give something to us that we are looking for, even without us asking? Yes, he can! In fact, from my experiences, He does do that quiet a lot, proving how weak my prayer life is, and how faithful He is. However, what he prefers is that we ask anyway - not for his pleasure this time, but in order to build and strengthen our faith. 

When we see God answer our prayers, God becomes more real and closer to us. Even to "see" how God respond to us takes a special spiritual insight, and that comes with experience having prayers answered as well as prayers rejected.  I'm not sure if you feel the same way I do - it seems that God was quicker and more frequent in answering my prayers when I just became a Christian than He does now. I've heard this from a number of Christians. Why? I believe it's the way God builds up of our faith through prayers. A toddler needs lots of support, encouragement and to always have daddy or mummy in front of him to gain confidence. When he grows up, he realizes that being spoon-fed all the time is not going to be realistic nor good for his own maturity.  

Similarly, we learn of God's dependability and faithfulness through answered prayers. However, as we mature in our faith, we have a better patience and understanding why our petitions are sometimes unanswered or rejected, and that no longer shakes our faith. The learning wheels have to come off when we are stable, and that's a good thing. We must remember that is it not God's intention for us to base our faith on answered miracles but on His Word - the Bible. "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." (Roman 10:17)  Having said that, a Christian's spiritual maturity and faith will never out-grow the need to pray and to experience answered prayers; in fact, the mark of faith and maturity is when we share the delight with God in our private prayer communion.

On the contrary, a Christian that stops praying because "God never answers my prayers" are probably stunted in his growth at some point as he either can't see or can't understand how God answered his prayers, or his prayers were not genuine (wrong heart posture) or with wrong motives.  "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:3)

3. Prayer deepens our understanding of God's will. 

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:6-7)

When we don't pray, God still make things happen according to His will. The loss is ours because we won't be involved in it, and we don't learn how God think and act. To a prayer-less Christian, things just happen randomly. If things go their way, they are fine. If things go against their way, oh, the fuss they can kick up. Isn't this why when things are great, we don't pray but when something goes wrong, and when we can't fix it, we rush to God and demand that He make things right (for us)? And we have no idea why these things happen, we just know we don't like it. We get anxious.

We hear a lot of Christians saying, "I prayed to God about a decision, and He gave me peace about it. That's why I know it's the right decision!"  Hold on! That's not what the passage from Philippians above is saying.  It's not that kind of peace. Peace in your heart does not ALWAYS mean right; Having no peace does not ALWAYS mean wrong. The Bible tells us our hearts are by nature wicked, deceptive and easily deceived. The Word is the map, the Spirit is the compass. You don't go off the map just because you feel peaceful (or less painful) about it. So before you make any decisions that is life-changing to you or to others, ensure you consult the Word and other mature Christians, no matter how you "feel" about it. So many have fallen into this trap with dire consequences.

What the verse meant to say is that in whatever circumstances, God will give you peace and understanding why it's happening when we go to Him in prayer, and hence our anxiety will be removed.  In fact, instead of relying our faith only on answered prayers, we also learn to see that God has our best interest even when He denies our request, or when He answers it differently than what we expected.

After David committed a grave sin, his son became very ill. David knew God was punishing him. David went on hunger-strike and prayed for God to spare his boy. God denied him. After the boy died, David got up, showered, ate and went about his normal business. All the palace staff were shocked - "Your Highness, we don't understand - why did you go on hunger strike when your child was alive, but when he died, you ate?"  David essentially answered, "if it's God's will that he dies, I cannot bring him back to life. He cannot return to me, but I will go to him." (2 Samuel 12)

David, in his commune with God, knew why this had to be, and he received the peace and wisdom that others cannot understand. In the repentant Psalms 51 which he wrote right after this incident, David said: "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. (Psalms 51:4)

God communes with us in two ways - through the Word, and through the Spirit. ("But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. John 4:23) The Word was given so that pre-believers can know about God and what God expects, even without having the Holy Spirit in their hearts. Many people believed in Christ just merely by reading the scriptures. However, when a believer is given the Holy Spirit, a second way to understand God and to know Him is through prayer in the Spirit. "With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit..." (Eph 6:18a).

This is what makes a Christian's heart sensitive to God's personal leading instead of merely to continue having head knowledge only. Our communion with God through prayer helps us understand His will supernaturally, and when we understand it and pray in-line or in-sync to it, then His answer to our prayers will always be "yes", because He is essentially carrying out His own will - but with our participation and acceptance. But when we pray for our own will - conscious or unconsciously - then we will receive a "no" answer (like David did), but God will help us to understand why and give us peace. God will not contradict Himself, nor does he have a fickle mind.  This partially answers Paradox #2. But to fully understand how prayers DO actually change things without violating God's pre-knowledge of the future, we need to understand it from the spiritual dimension. This brings us to Reason #4.

4. Prayer engages us in spiritual warfare

"With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints" (Eph 6:18)

You see, we must realize that when we become a Christian, we are not just recruited (chosen and called) to be passive citizens of the Kingdom. We are in fact soldiers of Christ, as Paul said in 2Tim 2:3. But we are not fighting a physical warfare, but a spiritual one.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Eph 6:12)

The exhortation to pray in Eph. 6:18  was right after the passage about putting on the full armor God (v13 to 17). Have you ever wondered why prayer itself wasn't part of the armor? Perhaps as an extra switch blade for close combat, or sniper rifle to kill the enemy from a safe distance? I think its because of this: the armor gets you ready for battle, BUT you are not in the battle until you pray in the Spirit! Prayer thrust us into where the battle is supposed to be fought - not the physical here against your spouse, kids, mother-in-law, skeptic friends, enemies, the society or the politicians!

"Soldier of Christ" is not just an analogy but literal in the spiritual realm, for Revelation gives a vision of a future Spirit-War: "The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean." (Rev 19:14). We are called to join the fight now, but while in the flesh (instead of the spiritual bodies depicted in Revelation), we can only do it through prayer in the Spirit. Do it in our own strength, we will lose. Why?

When an eagle attacks a snake, the eagle doesn't wrestle with it on the ground. That is the snake's domain. The eagle brings the battle to the air, where the snake has no power. Then it lets go the snake to the mercy of gravity. When we fight each other, argue with unbelievers, and try to change the order of things on earth, we have no advantages and that's exactly what Satan wants us to be distracted with. Instead, we are to bring the fight into the spiritual realm and soar with the strength of God. Note that Paul said to pray not just for ourselves but for all the saints, and also specifically for him (a church leader) so that he is to speak boldly in spite of persecution.

II Cor. 10:3-14 says: "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds"  Look around you. Do you see any weapons that have "divine power" to destroy strongholds of evil? You can't find it. It only exist in the spiritual realm, where our prayers bring us into, and where our weapons (the armor in Ephesians 6) are endowed with divine power.

We often forget that there's a war going on where Satan and his followers are establishing "strongholds" wherever they can. Paul said to the Thessalonians that he prays "night and day most earnestly" so that he may "see their face" (1 Thes. 3:10). Why? Because Satan had been preventing him from travelling to them, probably through some circumstances (1Thes. 2:18). In 2 Cor 12:7-9, Paul said he prayed for God to remove a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan that torments him. In this case God did not/hasn't remove it, but He gave Paul the strength to bear it. 

Then in Mark 9, there was an account of a demon possession of a boy but the disciples were not able to drive it out. After Jesus drove it out with a single command, the disciples asked him why they couldn't do it. Jesus answered "This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer." (Matthew 17 added "prayer and fasting.")

Lastly, we recall Jesus told his disciples "Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Matt. 26:41).  Temptations are lures to sin. When we make compromises towards it, Satan has a foothold. When we enter fully into it and are trapped, Satan has a stronghold for that part of our lives. Just like that demon possession, it's difficult to escape from a stronghold - only prayers  can destroy strongholds or prevent it from being built.

If you browse through Paul's exhortation to believers to pray, you'll find that the overwhelming majority are prayers for believers to be protected in their faith and to grow in maturity so that their spiritual works are not hindered. (Very little are about asking God to solve our own worldly problems - think about this the next time you pray!)  Paul believed that prayers can hold back evil influences that can disrupt the believer's worship, word and walk.

"Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8

"...if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes. (2 Cor 2:10-11)

Satan is actively attacking and building strongholds in the lives of believers that they may not even be aware of! Do you want to protect or release your self, your family, and your church from strongholds and bondages? Nothing will do that except through prayers! No books, no counselling, no rational arguments nor therapeutic activities are going to work. Only prayers will!

HOW the spiritual realm affects our world.

I've ended listing the reasons behind the importance of prayers that I wanted to highlight. This section is additional material which occurred to me during the study of prayers. I've explained why, but I also wanted to know how.  How does prayer, which we said is likened to a portal that transport us into the spiritual realm, enables us to affect physical things on earth? You can skip this section if you are not interested in the "how", but if you do read on, beware that we are going to discuss some abstract theories about multi-dimensional universe.

First off, we know that events in the heavenly places affect events on earth, directly or indirectly. Satan asked God to test Job and Job suffered physical losses and pain. Satan was allowed to put a tormenting thorn on Paul. Satan can stop Paul from travelling through unfavorable circumstances. Satan was allowed to tempt Jesus, and an angel was sent to aid Him in Gethsemane.

We also said that evil forces are setting up strongholds to fortify their base of attacks. The angels are fighting against the demons. Michael argued with Satan about something with regards to Moses' body - probably to disallow Satan from revealing to humans where the Lord had buried Moses. In future, Michael will have to literally fight Satan in order to save the nation of Israel.

Basing on our limited perception and vocabulary, there appears to be a literal representation of a "losing" and "winning" in the heavens - and it seemed that it could go either way, otherwise there won't need to be a fight or a war, nor is there a need for Paul and Peter to keep warning believers about Satan's schemes. Jesus made it clear there are two separate realms when He taught us to pray: "Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth." (Luke 11:2, KJV).  The results of what happens in Spiritual realm do affect the course of the history on earth when and where relevant.  However, our minds cannot comprehend the paradox completely because our very brains are operating within the boundaries of a fixed dimensional universe. We need to project our thinking into the extra-dimensional realm of the spiritual to get an abstract idea of how all this is possible.

Think of it this way. A chair is a 3 dimensional (3-D) object. It's shape (height, length and depth) does not change and cannot be changed if the chair is confined to a 3-D universe only. The only way for us to alter the properties of the chair is to operate with an additional dimension - the 4th dimension, which is called Time. Now, with space AND time, we can easily modify the 3-D structure of the chair. We can paint the chair, remove a leg, or move it to another location - all these actions requires Time, the extra dimension. In other words, for you to control an universe with n-dimensions, you need to operate within n+x dimension, where x >= 1. 

Now, think of the spiritual realm as having additional dimension(s) outside of the 4-D space-time universe that we exist in. So in the same principle as the example given, once we operate at the 5th, 6th or more dimensions, suddenly any thing in the 4-D universe (space and time) can be altered at will. It's nothing at all for God to make the sun to reverse (time reversal),  to turn water into wine (matter re-arrangement), to multiply bread (matter replication), or to make the blind see and raise the dead (cell re-generation).

As creatures confined to only 4 dimensions, it is not possible for us to replicate nor fathom such incredible phenomena, so we came up with a convenient term to handle it. The term we use is "miracle." A supernatural miracle is nothing more than an interference of our 4-D universe by actions or events from extra-dimensional Spiritual realm. In fact, in Superstring Theory, scientists were able to comprehend and describe up to 10 potential dimensions in the universe, leading to the possibility of parallel worlds, multi-verse, and time travel (or alternate history/future). Scientists also concede there could be more than 10 dimensions, but they admit that "Beyond this, nothing can be imagined by us lowly mortals" (ref: http://www.universetoday.com/48619/a-universe-of-10-dimensions)

Let's take a biblical example. In Exodus 17, the Israelites were fighting against the Amalekites. When Moses raised the staff of God high, the Israelites prevailed. Then when his hands get heavy and the staff was lowered, the Israelites began to lose. This was obviously first and foremost a spiritual warfare, which has a direct influence on the physical one. Angels and demons were fighting for respective sides. Where the prayer (the posture) is lifted up, the angels win, and the Israelites also wins. When the prayer cease, the angels lose and so did Israel. Therefore, in our 4-D perspective, yes, prayers actually changes things in real-time - but only because prayers affects the Spiritual realm which in turn create "miracles" on earth.

So in that sense, yes, when we pray within the spiritual realm, God answers it within His will and miracles begin to happen in our world and in our lives, mostly without us realizing it. I believe miracles happen every day around us because SOMEONE prayed and affected SOMETHING is the spiritual realm.

Get this: prayer is the ONLY thing humans living in 4-D world can do to affect what happens in the heavenlies. Spiritual battles that are being lost can be turned around and won. When we don't pray, spiritual battles can be lost. And these have real consequences here on earth, such as the everyday provisions and protections for the saints, destroying strongholds, and to clear the way for someone's salvation.

Now, of course not Every problem we have are due spiritual warfare - a lot of our mess are due to our own stupidity,  greed, pride and lack of common sense! Even then, we can pray for wisdom and blessings for ourselves and our loved ones. Every good gift comes from above. However, when there is a spiritual battle over a stronghold, and we don't get into our prayer positions, then we will not prevail.

Finally, remember that regardless of battles lost or lack of prayers, ultimately God will still win the war, as foretold in Revelation.  Jesus' death and resurrection had already secured the victory for us. 

Conclusion

I'm sure there are many more good reasons to pray as there are books on prayers. Other than trying to keep this article short and concise, I find the four I listed good enough. Delighting God, exercising our faith, and deepening our understanding of his will work collectively to help us grow and love Him more. Without prayer, our growth will be retarded. For our physical body to grow, we need to eat, we need to digest, and we need to exercise. If the Word is our spiritual food,  then prayer/worship is the spiritual digestion, and service is the spiritual exercise.

Lastly, remember the warfare is still on! We need to pray that Satan's schemes against Christians as well as pre-believers are foiled. They build strongholds, we tear them down with prayers. The power of prayer is not in the prayer itself, but by the fact that it brings our battle to the correct strategic location - the spiritual realm where our Lord rules.

Of course, you can decide to stay out of all the battles going on in the spiritual realm, and go MIA - that is your decision, and you only have the King to answer to when the war is over. Is that "shocking" enough?