Prayer #2

By Oscar M. Baker

[Excerpts from T.F.T. tape, 1-17-84, continued. Please review points 1-3 under “Eight Points In True Prayer”, in last issue. This article will cover points 4-8.]

4. True prayer is offered to God in Christ’s name. There are a lot of people who deny Christ and His deity, yet claim to be godly people. They have no access to God because it has to be through Christ that we make any contact with God. Well why? Remember John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word…” and that word Logos means to declare something. John 1:18 says that Christ has declared the Father, and that’s the only way we can get to know the Father is through seeing the Son. So, without the Son, there is no contact with the Father. Christ came to manifest the Father so we might know Who He is, and what He is, and what He is like. But Christ is also a Mediator between us and God. We pray to the Father, yes, but in Christ’s name. That is the correct order!

5. True prayer is protective. Many a man has experienced that. To many it seemed like a miracle happened, and they were protected, like an umbrella --protected from the evils about us.

6. True prayer makes doctrine real and experiential, that is, we experience it. If you’re going to know what the Mystery is, you’re going to have to read it with prayer. People find when they are praying along with reading about the Mystery, it becomes real – a citizenship in the heavenly places. I don’t believe people can believe these things without prayer.

7. True prayer will conform to the will of God – will not ask for anything outside of the will of God. It’s one thing to talk about it, and another to know it (the will of God, Ephesians 5:17). If I find something that is doctrinal, in God’s will, I desire that, and I pray for it; by learning about it, reading about it, and thinking it over, I get to the place that I am conformed to the will of God and I’m ready to receive the answer. Be satisfied with God’s will! In the broad sense if you want to know the will of God, read the last three chapters of Ephesians, but you must know the doctrine first. There are 21 points in each section of Ephesians – very well balanced, and in the middle the prayer of Ephesians 3:14-21.

8. Remember true prayer is a communication with God. It changes people, and that is probably the main purpose of prayer. It gets them in condition, ready to receive the good things of God. In other words it is a conditioning factor.