Prayer literally means 'talking to God, thanking God, or making our supplications known to God.' Bible is almost overflowing with some of the epic epitomes of prayers and demands the same from believers. Many a times we as believers try overlooking this demand because we understand this only in terms of demand. But interestingly enough Bible doesn't only demand prayer from us but also tells us that prayer is the only tool to communicate and establish an intimate relationship with God. Some of the most powerful statements about prayer are;
"No prayer no power, less prayer less power, more prayer more power""Prayer is the back bone of Christian Life"
These statements, though not Biblical, rightly portray Biblical understanding of PRAYER.
Prayer is the key to:
• Shut the doors of heaven
• Spread open the doors of heaven
• Success
• Strength
Prayer is the breath and the heart beat of a believer. Why we use language? Language is the medium of communication. There are different types of languages other than the verbal languages; such as Sign language, symbolic language and written language etc. We, as human beings, use language to communicate with other human beings.
Similarly, prayer is a medium to communicate with God. There is no language barrier for prayer. In India, we have the first language second language but deeper expressions of emotions can be conveyed only through our mother tongue or with the language we are more familiar with.
Here we are going to see some of the languages that will help us in our prayer to communicate more easily and frequently with God.
1. THE LANGUAGE OF A CHILD
Now some may not even consider what a child utters even as a language. But if one has a child would not negate the fact about his/her child being a communicator. Though not sophisticated but child also communicates.
Few Characteristics of the Language of a Child:
A. “A broken language”
This kind of prayer is characterized by its brokenness. Parents always show interest when they see their children communicate with them in fragmentations of the words. The child begin to develop combining expressions into words and most of the time this will be a combination of word, one or two words and a few more. But all of these are acceptable to a loving father, he wants to know what child intents to say by his/her expression which is the mixture of both emotion and broken fragmented words.
Richard Sibbes says: “God can pick sense out of a confused prayer.”
Matthew 7:7 is a language of a child.
B. It carries “A proper attitude/ a childlike nature”
It is not childishness in prayer. But it is talking about the attitude of a child. A sincere language comes out of a sincere attitude. We can’t deceive God by our outward appearance and that is called hypocrisy. That type of prayer is pharisaic. Jesus always stood against such prayers. The pharisaic prayers were often made in the public to be seen by men. These prayers were always associated with self exaltation. The candidate made his credentials, his relationship and his transaction both to the heavenly father and to the other human beings clear to the audience. They chose public places such as market, street corners and synagogues as the best places for the demonstration of their complex prayers. Their extravagant giving to treasure to the trash was unambiguously explained without leaving anything that included;
• Giving alms to the poor
• Giving tithe for the little mint,
• Giving time in fasting twice a week to, to-do-it daily basis business.
They classified their social status in their prayers by saying, “Lord I am not like this tax collector the sinner.” They bragged their loyalty toward the Mosaic Law in their extended prayers.
1.1 Humility
Humility is the quality of not thinking that you are better than others, or the quality of being humble. The humility that comes before exaltation is Godly and what comes after self exaltation is humiliation and not humility.
Matthew 18:1-8 is one of the best examples of both humility and self exaltation. God hates the haughty and the pride.
Prov.17:19 says “Pride goes before destruction.”
Prov.25:6,7 says: “Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence, and do not claim a place among great men; it is better for him to say to you ‘come up here,’ than for him to humiliate you before a nobleman.”
There are promises and privileges to the humble in the scripture
• Pro.16:19 “It is better to be with the lowly spirit.”
• Prov.22:4 “With humility riches, honor, and life” (cf. Heb.13:5).
• Prov.29:23 “Honor to the humble.”
• Is.57:15 “God receives the humble.” Why there is no revival in the church? Because there is not attitude of humility within the body of Christ (2Chr.7:14).
• Mtt.18:4 Kingdom of heaven is promised (5:8).
• Mtt.5:5 they will inherit the earth.
• Ps.138:6 God has a respect unto the lowly.
• Is.66:2 God perceives the poor.
• Lk.14:11 Humble will be exalted (cf. 1Pet.5:6).
• 1Pet.5:5 God gives grace to the humble (cf. Jam.4:6).
1.2 Accessibility to the Father
As a son asks to his father, so we can ask our father who is heaven. We have the accessibility to our God the father as a legal son. When the son knows what to ask the father knows what to give.
Matthew 7:7 Jesus asks a question;
Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? Or if he asks for an egg, gives him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give you good gifts to those who ask him?
The language of the child.
2. THE LANGUAGE OF FAITH
A number of times we understand what is heard or seen as something that should only be credited with the title of language. But in the Bible faith is also understood as a language.
Why we must know the language of faith? Because We are:
• Purified by faith Acts. 15:9
• Sanctified by faith Acts.26:18
• Justified by faith (Rom.3:28)
• Our faith counted for righteousness (Rom.4:5,9)
• We stand by faith (Rom.11:20)
• We walk by faith (2Cor.5:7)
• We live by faith (Gal.2:20)
• We are united in faith (Eph.4:13)
• We fight by faith (Eph.6:16)
• We build ourselves by faith (Jude.20)
• We are healed by faith
Faith is the substance the things hoped for and the assurance of the things that are not seen (Heb.11:1). Faith looks beyond our natural capacity.
It comprehends God’s greatness at a far distance where things seem impossible. It gives us confidence in the invisible God whose providence exceeds beyond what we think or imagine. Faith is the anchor of Christian life without which life’s perils can easily destroy us.There are no greater things than that which happens in and through the faith. Faith of many people was considered great by our Lord Jesus.
We can never have faith unless we hear the word of God, because faith comes by hearing and hearing comes from the Word of God (Rom.10:17). So faith works through God’s word.
Illustration:
The Syro-phoenician woman’s faith is the “little crumbs faith” awarded her a great reward from our Master (Mk.7:24-30).
“First let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs. But she replied yes lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
Woman with a flow of blood for twelve years’ faith did speak anything audibly but it was acting upon her faith, so her faith was “touching the fringe of the garment faith.” For she thought “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Jesus said to her, “daughter your faith has made you well go in peace, and be freed from your suffering.”
Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb.11:6). We need to increase our faith (Lk.17:5).
Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb.11:6). We need to increase our faith (Lk.17:5).
The language of the child; The language of the Faith.
3. THE LANGUAGE OF SECRECY
“Silence is so freaking loud” ― Sarah Dessen,
This language is one of the most wonderful languages in prayer because others come to know about this prayer only after the result is issued by God.
Why we need this language?
• There are certain requests that we cannot share with others.
• Jesus directed us to do it in this way
• He showed to us through his life example
Jesus gave a very powerful secret to this secret prayer. When you go to your secret chamber your God will come there and you can communicate your God because he keeps the secrets and he is in the secret. Jesus spent time with the father in prayer. We went up the mountain by himself and prayed. When he took the disciples with him for prayer, he kept the distance that is almost a stone’s throw distance, where he could communicate with his father secretly.
There is another secret in prayer that is a secret. And this is the order of this secret prayer Mtt.7:7; Mtt.6:6; Mtt.5:5 but many times we change this order Mtt.5:5; Mtt.6:6; Mtt.7:7.
• Mtt.5:5 Inherit the earth
• Mtt.6:6 Go in the closet and shut the door and pray • Mtt.7:7 Ask, Seek and Knock.
Let us reverse this for a proper understanding.
• Mtt.7:7 Ask, Seek and Knock – what to pray?
• Mtt.6:6 Go in the closet and shut the door and pray How to pray?
• Mtt.5:5 Inherit the earth – the result of prayer.
Illustration:
The priest Eli observed the mouth of Hanna, she was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, “how long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine.” Eli could only see the some expression of deeper prayer. This is one of the missionary challenging prayers recorded in the Bible.
When you pray, go in to the inner chamber and shut the door and pray to your father which in secret, and he will reward you. The language of the child; The language of the Faith, The language of the Secrecy.
4. THE LANGUAGE OF SPIRIT
Eph.6:18 “And pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Pray with the help of the spirit. Holy Spirit helps us when we pray.
Rom.8:26 says, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”
The Greek word Sunantilambanatai signifies assistance as is afforded by any two persons to each other, who mutually bear the same load or carry it between them. We do not know exactly whether Paul means words that are unspoken or words that cannot be expressed in human language is not clear.
What does the spirit do when we pray?
It subdues our humanly expressions whether words or emotions. When we pray and when the spirit controls our prayer, language of our prayer changes.
We may not exactly know what the Spirit expresses through us. It uses certain expressions that only God knows. Groan means a long low cry expressing pain or misery. KJV marginal note says it is the Spirit’s interpretation of believer’s innermost feelings, which cannot be put in to words. God knows the very thought of the Spirit.
Rom.8:27 say: “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”The unutterable groan is big with meaning, and God understands it, because it contains the language of his own Spirit. Some desires are too mighty to be expressed; there is no language expressive enough to give them proper form and distinct vocal sound: such desires show that they came from God. So they express what God is disposed to do and what he has purposed to do. God comes in your context and intercedes for you because you do not know exactly what you ought to do when you pray.
The language of the child; The language of the Faith, The language of the Secrecy, The language of the Spirit. This summation of the languages of prayer are not merely meant to be an add to cerebral faculty alone but this intents to call our hearts for prayer.
Let's Pray !!!
Source: A Message preached at CITS by Pastor Jose Varghese
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