POWER Prayers | Day 2
- Ps. Gareth S.
- Jul 16
- 8 min read
Day 2 is here! So, let’s dive in. We’re looking at power prayers, going back to:
Simple. Powerful. Prayer.
Yesterday we looked at Matthew 6:5-8 and the instructions Jesus gave on how we should and shouldn’t pray, using the hypocrites as an example and saying that constant babbling and adding additional adjectives won’t achieve anything.
We looked at knowing our prayer (and owning it), how we should pray to God, not ourselves or those around us, and how we should pray simply—without trying to make prayer into something it’s not and without trying to make a religious activity out of something that is simply a conversation between us and our God.
Today, we’re going to continue reading from Matthew. So, if you’d like, you can turn there: Matthew 6:5-8. But, before we go there, I must offer a disclaimer and state that parts of tonight’s devotion are borrowed from a sermon by Andrew Wommack that also deals with prayer. If you’d like to listen to that sermon, it can be found here.
Let’s read Matthew 6 together, it says:
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Today, we’re going to hone in on verse 8. Let’s read it again. It says:
“Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
Many times, and I am 100% guilty of this, we think that God doesn’t know what we need. We think that, when we come to God with a request through prayer, it is a huge surprise to Him. Like He’s sitting up there, hears our prayer and goes, ‘Wow! That’s so crazy! I would never have thought that!’
This is one of the main points I want to harp on about:
1. We Cannot Surprise God
Do you know that before God even created the world, He knew what we would need ten years from now? I’m going to use the same illustration Andrew Wommack did.
When God created Adam and Eve, He knew that they would need something to eat, right? He didn’t create them, realise there was nothing for them to eat and suddenly create fruit trees and vegetables. No! He created the fruits, vegetables, and everything else for them to eat… THEN He created them to eat it.
Now that was thousands of years ago, fair enough. But, let me ask you this: in the beginning, God created all the fruits, etc., on the third day of creation. All of them, on that one day. The Bible doesn’t say He created some, then on Day 4 He had an idea for some more and so created those, and then on Day 5 a few more. It says, on the third day, He created them—all of them—knowing, at the time, that they would be food for Adam and Eve. Everyone still with me?
But God also said to them in Genesis 1:28, ‘be fruitful and increase in number.’ They did this, and generations after them did this, and many of us have done that, to the point where there are now over 8 billion of us on earth—a far cry from just 2.
Yet, when last did God create a new fruit from nothing? Has the influx of humanity and the increase of mankind come as a surprise to God, something He didn’t plan for or wasn’t aware of? No, He knew we’d reach 8 billion and He knows what number we’ll reach in the future… yet right in the beginning He planned and created according to it.
The reason I bring this up is, despite this, which is only one illustration of many that can be used, we think God doesn’t know, when He knows and sees the things happening in our lives that even we’re not aware of.
Once we understand that, once we grasp that God knows, that He sees everything, it has to change our prayer.
Jesus says don’t be like the pagans that keep on babbling because your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. So, I’m going to ask the same question that I asked last night: why do we overcomplicate our prayers?
Why do we pray a novel to God when all He is looking for is our faith in His ability to get us out of the situation He already knows that we’re in? Why do we wax lyrical when all God wants is faith as small as a mustard seed? Because we’ve moved away from the simplicity of a relationship with God and using prayer as a way to communicate with Him.
And this leads me to the next point this evening:
2. Faith Activates Power in Prayer
Prayer without faith in what we’re praying is empty. They are words that mean nothing and are best kept silent. We all know what the Bible says in Matthew 17:20 about our ability to move mountains if we have faith.
Yet, it is not only here in the Word where we find proof that faith activates power in our prayers. Let’s turn to James 5 and read from verse 13 – 16. It says:
“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
If we want to pray powerful prayers, we need to have faith and believe in God’s ability to make things happen.
That doesn’t mean saying to someone, ‘I believe.’ It doesn’t mean telling someone else to believe that they are receiving God’s healing, meanwhile you’re also trying to think of what medication to suggest they take.
It means living in true faith, not just believing that God is faithful and capable of doing something, but claiming that God is faithful and capable of doing it. It means thanking God for the fact that it’s done rather than begging Him to do it.
I can’t remember where I heard it, but I love this saying: we’re the children of the Most High and yet we live like we’re beggars. We beg and plead with God to do something, to remove obstacles from our path, to heal us, to provide for us, to rescue us… without realising it is all already done. Without realising that all we need to do is have faith and claim God’s promises, which say that we already have victory, and freedom, and healing.
If we can think it, God can do it!
Let’s turn to Ephesians 3:20. It says:
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,”
The Bible says that God can do immeasurably more than anything we can even imagine! But this is where I’m going to tie it up with a bow.
3. God's Power is Limited by Our Faith
Let’s look again at Ephesians 3:20. It says:
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,”
If we read that with its meaning fleshed out, it actually says:
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to [in proportion to or to the degree of] his power that is at work within us,”
What this verse is saying is that we, we are the bottleneck. God’s power will work according to the proportion of His power and His spirit that we ALLOW to work in our lives (within us).
What it boils down to is that God will work according to our faith in His ability to wield His immense power in our lives.
If we believe that He can protect us during our travels but not that He can heal us, we’ll be able to drive anywhere safely, yet rely solely on doctors and chemicals.
If we believe that He can heal us but not that He can provide for us, we’ll speak life over ourselves in authority and barely ever be ill, yet we’ll be constantly stressed about how we’re going to pay our bills at the end of the month.
You see a pattern here? We need to have faith and claim that God is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine. And as we’re doing that, we need to allow His power to work within us! Because if we don’t do that, we can’t expect miracles!
And, like with understanding that we cannot surprise God, once we realise that we are the limiting factor to how God will work in our lives, our prayers must be changed.
We need to move from timidly asking God, hoping against hope that He’ll say yes, to claiming the promises that He’s already given us. If He said He’ll provide, claim it. If He said He’ll heal, claim it. If He said He’ll protect, claim it.
Psalm 89:34 says:
‘I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered.’
If the Lord has spoken it and it is recorded in His word, He’s not going to change it! That means, we have access to it and can claim it!
Everyone still with me? Then let’s pray!
We’re going to start by praying James 5. The Word says: ‘The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.’
So, let’s pray:
Lord, thank you that despite our imperfections, by your grace and mercy we can be seen as righteous.
By the work of your Holy Spirit in us, we can be made righteous as you call us to be.
And because of this, because of the righteousness that your grace grants us, our prayers are (not can be) powerful and effective.
For the rest of the week, we’re going to be praying over the rest of the year for the things that we all commonly pray about: health, relationships, guidance, finance, etc. However, this time, we’re going to pray in power.
Tonight, because we’ve looked at it most as an illustration last night and tonight, let’s pray over our health and the health of those around us.
Isaiah 53:5 says:
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
James 5:14-15 says:
“Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.”
So, if this is what the Bible says, why are we begging for health and healing? Do you believe that the God that spoke the heavens into creation can heal a simple cold? Do you believe He can heal more than that? Then let’s pray that!
PRAYER POINTS:
For those that are currently sick in our families, friend groups etc.
For our health in the last part of the year:
Against sickness
Against diseases, injuries, or anything else
Against mental illness or anguish (depression etc.)
For faith in knowing that God is called Jehovah Rapha (The Lord Who Heals)
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