When people go to the hospital, the doctor checks them and prescribes drugs that will deal with the medical issue. Even in sports, a boxer would be given a prescribed diet or bodybuilding exercise that best suits him or her to become a Champion. I want to prescribe a type of prayer that will make you a champion for life. As there are different types of drugs to deal with various medical conditions so also there are different types of prayers. Some examples are the prayer of agreement, the prayer of intercession, the prayer of supplication, praying in the spirit and prayer of consecration. There is one that I want to prescribe to you as this one will make you pray for an extended period of time.
Continuity in prayer is emphasized in scriptures. We are to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). If God is saying we should pray without ceasing then we have his ear. He wants constant communion with us. Therefore we should continue to be instant in prayer (Romans 12:12). Prayer is not an event and should not be seen as an event. It is a relationship. It should be as constant and as important as eating, sleeping or drinking. Even the apostles had this mindset. When Peter was the next to be killed after James, the church did not just pray, but they prayed without ceasing (Acts 12:5).
When James died, they had forgotten that prayer was a continuous thing. This was something they knew about. Maybe in time, they were indifferent about it but once James died, they remembered when they said we will give ourselves continually to prayer (Acts 6:4). They remembered the importance of consistent and continuous prayer. If they did not remember, they would have been asking God why peter died. They would have been talking about how he was a great leader of the church, how he impacted many lives and things like that. We probably would not have had the book of Peter if he had not written it by then. But because they prayed without ceasing those questions of why never came up. When we pray more and complain less, we will ask why less. We will cry less when we cry more in prayer.
That slogan of pray until something happens (P.U.S.H) is what we are talking about. Pray until things begin to happen all around you. This is how we take over wherever we are. Any situation that is going the wrong way, prayer will direct it to favor you. Elijah prayed until the rain came in abundance after three years and six months of no rain. When he started praying there was no sign. Nothing seemed to show that the prayer was producing anything but when his servant checked the seventh time, he saw a cloud. As believers, our product is supernatural manifestations. One of the main ingredients is prayer. Our lives should be stories and stories of supernatural happenings. If that is not happening then develop a praying lifestyle right now.
So for us to pray consistently and continuously there is a prescribed way to pray which was given by the apostle Paul in who said: “I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with the understanding also…….” (1 Corinthians 14: 15). I want to emphasize the word “also.” If for example, I say I am going to see my Mom at home and I then say I am going to see my friend mike also. The word “also” has qualified seeing mike as secondary while seeing my mom as the primary reason for going out. So the prescribed prayer here is “I will pray with the spirit”; that is praying with tongues or praying with the Holy Ghost.
Another example can be seen in Romans 1:16 where Paul said: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Can you see the word “also” used here as well? You can see here that the Jews were God’s priority first before the Gentiles (which represents the world). Remember when Jesus came, his focus was on the Jews. We are to pray with our understanding but praying in the spirit should be more. At least 80-90% of your prayers should be with the Spirit. Paul was very aware of this am telling you and he even practiced it. He told the Corinthian church that he speaks with tongues more than them all (1 Corinthians 14:18). Kenneth E. Hagin when he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking with tongues, even when nobody knew at the time, various persons began to see a difference in him. They began to say “There is something different about you.” He had amazing results in his lifetime.
The way we pray in the Public is not exactly the say way we pray in private. Copying how people pray in the public at times may be impeding your prayer life. Public prayers ought to be short and spirited while private prayers ought to be long and lasting. You cannot pray long with ease without the Holy Spirit. The power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in us and the way we use that power is through the art of praying for an extended period of time (James 5:16). Developing a Praying habit of one hour every day with tongues will make any believer more effective in all he/she does. To learn the art of praying long is to pray with the Holy Ghost. One thing about praying with the Holy Ghost is that you can do it anytime and anywhere. You could be reading a book or cooking and be praying with the Holy Ghost. Take advantage of this gift. Too many Christians are running up and down depending on others to build them up. Through praying like this, we edify ourselves, we build ourselves up allowing the holy spirit to take full control; thereby causing us to make spirit led decisions; leading to miraculous outcomes.