The forms of prayer are simply the various expressions of our personal life toward God that agree with the various moods or attitudes we have or choose to have. Thus the many forms of prayer are quite endless, for there are as many forms of prayer as man has characteristics of personal life—as he has moods or attitudes. Here are ten forms of prayer, which I will describe briefly:
1. The prayer of adoration. We should adore God in all our praying, but generally, this is the way we should begin our prayers (and our day)—saying, “Hallowed be Thy name.”
2. The prayer of confession. This is the only form of prayer that should come out of our lips when we have sinned. For, it is the only form (or expression) that would be true and honest. Moreover, without confession fellowship with God would be impossible.
Prayer is so very basic, yet it is also so deep and boundless in it meaning. In my reading I have found nine different descriptions of prayer.
1. Prayer is asking and receiving. According to E.M. Bounds, “Prayer is the outstretched arms of the child for the Father’s help. Prayer is the child’s cry calling to the Father’s ear…Prayer is the seeking of God’s greatest good, which will not come if we do not pray.”
Matthew 7:7-8 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Again E. M. Bounds writes, “Prayer is asking, seeking and knocking at a door for something we have not, which we desire, and which God has promised to us…Prayer is the voice of need crying out to Him who is inexhaustible in resources. Prayer is helplessness reposing with childlike confidence on…
The following article is an excerpt from this book.
When we look at the Disciples Prayer (or The Lord’s Prayer), I believe we see three types of petitions that Jesus taught (Matthew 6:8-13).
1. Invocation
We get this idea from the first three requests: “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name; Your Kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
This first type of petition, according to Jennings, is the invocation of our prayer; it is the summoning of the Spirit of God that He would come to us and be God to us, to help us pray and do His will.5
Yes, it is asking Him to help us pray that His name be hallowed–let Your name be hallowed. And bring your kingdom to us; and bring your will to us.
As I see it, from my study of this topic, there are two very basic natures or meanings of prayer: (1) petition, and (2) soul to soul communication with God (which really includes all parts of prayer). In this post we will focus on petition.
According to the original Biblical words translated for us as “prayer,” every Hebrew and Greek word I studied (three Hebrew words and eight Greek words) indicate that prayer is petition—asking God for something. It is an expression of a wish or a desire; Christian prayer is an expression of a wish or desire to God. We see this particularly in the following Greek words: euchomai (to pray to God, to wish for), deomai (to desire, to want, to ask, and to beg), and deesis (a wanting, a needing, then an asking, entreaty, and supplication).
Here we see in these words that desire comes first…
There are so many different views on the meaning of prayer. One author, John R. Rice, says that prayer is nothing but petition. He insists that prayer is not meditation or communion or spiritual enjoyment or praise or confession or humiliation; “[it is simply] asking something definitely from God.”1
Many other authors (that Rice would say are liberal or modern) seem to say the opposite—that prayer is fellowship and communion and friendship with God, and not a demand for His gifts. For example, E. M. Bounds said, “Prayer is communion and intercourse with God. It is enjoyment of God.”2
Ronald Dunn seems to agree with Rice. He wrote, “Prayer is an act. While we should live in an attitude of prayer, prayer is more than an attitude.”3
Others I have read would disagree. They would say that since prayer is communion and fellowship with God that would…
This is our fifteenth study. Please click HERE for an intro to this study. Today we will listen to what Jesus said to His disciples about how to regard the Pharisees’ teaching.
Matthew 23:1-7
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. 5 “But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries, and lengthen the tassels of their garments. 6 “And they love the place of honor at banquets, and the chief seats in the synagogues, 7 and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called by men, Rabbi.
Observations
Jesus taught here that because the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat and have authority as a teacher, they must be obeyed. But Jesus also warned the people not to follow their example, because they were hypocrites. Then Jesus showed them how to spot a hypocrite: 1) they are not willing to do the work they demand of others; 2) any deed they do they do to be noticed by others; 3) they try to make themselves appear spiritual; 4) they love places of honor; and 5) they love respectful greetings and being called Rabbi.
Application
First, we must respect anyone in authority, like a teacher or professor. Second, we are not obligated to follow anyone’s example. Jesus is the one we should follow. Third, be careful to do all things for the glory of God, not to be noticed by others, to appear spiritual or to get the respect of others.
I have finished blogging through the book The Sermon on the Mount, by D. M. Lloyd-Jones. Now I am reading another of his books, The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors. Again, as is the habit of Lloyd-Jones, the book is actually taken directly from his sermons. This book is a compilation of messages from yearly conferences on the subject of the Puritans; they met in Westminster Chapel in London, from 1959 to 1978. And so, I intend to blog through the book as I am reading it. We will see how it goes. The first chapter is on the history of revival, and I intend to just put down in my words those portions that I have highlighted. Here goes.
He starts out by telling where revival has not broken out: the Roman Catholic Church, the Unitarian Church, and the Anglican Church. And he gives the reason; that they have confined the Holy Spirit.
But there was great revival in other places: Northern Ireland, Scotland, Germany. The moving of the Spirit came to America through Jonathan Edwards, to Whitefield and to the Wesleys and others.
Charles Finney was known for the way he created revival by his methods: his evangelistic campaigns, etc. It was interesting how he had sort of a formula to bring it about. Whereas others just waited for it and prayed.
With some groups there has seemed to be very little interest in revival: the Calvinistic brethren, Charles Hodge, the Plymouth Brethren, and others. They disliked it because of all the emotion and phenomenon related to it; they didn’t trust it.
Even the Puritans themselves didn’t seem to teach anything about revival.
The Plymouth Brethren thought it was wrong to pray for revival, because they said, the Holy Spirit had been given already at Pentecost. They said that nowhere in Scripture are we taught to pray for revival.
The church seems to be divided into two groups: those that are only interested in the emotional and unusual things accompanied by revival, and the group that distrust all unusual things. But they are both wrong.
The history of the development of the church is largely a history of revival.
An important point is this: salvation always starts by revival. Salvation is a work of the Spirit. And that work happens suddenly on the soul when the soul is suddenly revived.
Man cannot start a revival. It comes when God decides. And he cannot stop it either. God brings it, keeps it going and stops it when He chooses.
Conclusion
We are called above everything else to pray for revival. Let us pray for the outpouring of the Spirt of God, just as they did between the Ascension and Pentecost. Let us stir ourselves up to take hold of God.
When Jesus had finished these words [His sermon], the multitudes were amazed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was not long. If you add up all the verses in chapters 5, 6, and 7, you won’t come up with more than three or four pages. And if you were preaching it, it won’t take more than about twenty minutes.
Yet His sermon had a profound effect on all the people. They were “amazed at His teaching.” Why? I’m sure they were captivated by what He said, but more, by how He said it. Verses 29 tells us that He taught them “as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”
And I think they were equally amazed that He was yet a young man, an ordinary person, and just a carpenter and not having the schooling as the scribes had. Yet He spoke so well, as if he were learned—even more than the scribes.
Here are four reasons why Jesus spoke as one having authority:
Whereas the scribes always quoted from many teachers, Jesus used no quotes. He spoke for Himself. All His teachings were original to Himself.
He spoke with confidence and certainty.
He had His own sayings. He made up His own stories—parables. And He often spoke about Himself.
He was always referring to Himself: “I am come,” “I am come to fulfill,” “I and my Father are one.”
Another observation is that while so many say that the sermon on the Mount is just moral and ethical teachings; if you look closely, you will see that it is full of doctrine: doctrine about Himself, about the rebirth, about the new life in Christ, and about the incarnation and more.
This is the end of my blog posts on the Sermon on the Mount.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. 25 “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock. 26 “And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. 27 “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall.”
Here is a picture of two men, a wise man and a foolish man. The wise man had a true and good foundation. The foolish man had a foundation made of sand—it would not last.
In this illustration, the wise man is a Christian. His foundation is Christ. The foolish man is a non-Christian. His foundation is his own works and his own philosophy of life. But his foundation is not true and so it is unstable—as sand.
The rain and the floods and the wind represent the tests of our faith and what our life if built on. Notice that both the Christian and the non-Christian are tested.
The rain may represent things like illness, loss or disappointment. Floods may represent the world, or worldliness—“the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” And the wind may represent Satanic attacks, such as to hurl doubts and evil thoughts at us.
Now for the non-Christian, the main disaster for him will come at the judgment, when it is discovered that there is no foundation, that Christ is not his Lord. The Christian does have a lasting foundation, which is Jesus Christ. But the trials of life will nevertheless test his faith to see how he has built upon that foundation (look at 1Corinthisna 3:12-15). And our rewards at the end of our life will depend on it.
One of the most important things for a Christian to do is to see to it that he has a good devotional life, and also that it doesn’t become mechanical. We must remember in our quiet times with the Lord, to stop and meditate on what we read from the bible, and listen to what God is telling us. Then determine to obey Him and to be always asking for His help and guidance along the way. He is our anchor and firm foundation.
God is at work in heaven and on earth. He works in heaven through Christ who sits at His Father’s right hand, and He works on earth through the Holy Spirit in us.
God’s work in heaven. The work of Christ in heaven is His intercession, of which, according to L. Berkhof, the following elements are found: (1) the offering of Himself as the perfect sacrifice having been completed; (2) the appearing of Himself now before God as a representative of his people (Hebrews 9:24); (3) the perpetual presence of the completed sacrifice of Christ before God—being a constant reminder of His perfect atonement; (4) Christ’s appearing before God now as our Justifier—and He is constantly reminding God that we are justified in Him; (5) Christ’s appearing before God now as the sanctifier of our prayers and our services; (6) Christ’s loving care for His people, helping them in their difficulties, trials and temptations (Hebrews 4:15); and finally (7) it is prayer for all believers: for all our spiritual needs, for protection against dangers and against the enemy who constantly threatens and accuses us, that our faith will not cease, and that we will be victorious in the end.4
The prayers and intercession of Christ is absolutely necessary, both for our help on this earth and for our completed salvation; for though His atoning work on earth has been completed, He now and forever must remind God of that former work and be our Representative and our Justifier. This of course is no problem for Christ, because He is God—He is perfect and lives forever. As Hebrews 7:24-25 states, He abides forever, holding His priesthood permanently. Hence, also, he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
God’s work on earth. On the whole, God’s work is to get people to believe in Jesus so that they might live forever with Him; for as Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (Jn. 6:29).
Now if we were to briefly describe the work of God on earth, we would start with the work of His Son Jesus Christ. The work of Christ while on this earth was to die for our sins in order that He might bring us to God (1 Pet. 3:18). That work has already been accomplished. And so, having completed His work on earth, He returned to His Father in heaven. And there, He is working as our advocate to complete our salvation through His intercession.
But God sent another advocate to help us here on the earth—the Holy Spirit, who abides with us forever (Jn. 14:16). He is the one who continues God’s work on this earth—that of helping people to believe in Jesus (John 16:8-9), guiding them into all truth (Jn. 16:13), and dispensing grace to them whenever they need it. For He being the Spirit of Christ is full of grace and truth (Jn.1:14).
Now, one of the ways in which the Holy Spirit helps us is by interceding for us as we pray—since we do not know how to pray as we should. He tells us what to pray for and how to pray for those things. He shows us the will of God and how to pray according to His will (Rom. 8:27). He also makes us believe how necessary it is for us to pray for certain things, and then urges us on in prevailing prayer.
Here are three elements of God’s work, in terms of prayer, that we should be involved in:
1.Prayer for workers. Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest” (Matt. 9:37-38).
2. Prayer for Faith.When Jesus came into His own town, among His own people, the Bible says, “He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief” (Matt. 13:57-58). We must conclude by this that the reverse is also true—that where there is faith many works of God will be done.
In order for the works of God to be done in your town you must pray for faith. In fact I suggest that you saturate your town with believing prayer. Then, as God begins to work, you will see the power of God become unleashed causing many to believe.
3. Prayer for deliverance and victory.Satan will do everything he can to discourage us. Prayer is necessary for our deliverance and victory. When Peter was arrested and put in prison, while he was held there to be mistreated and killed, the church of God was fervently praying for his deliverance. And on that very night when prayers were made, an angel miraculously delivered him (Acts 12:6-17).
4 L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand rapids, Michigan: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1979), pp. 400-404.
Stephen Nielsen 