The 5 Types of Prayer: How to Pray Every Kind of Prayer in the Spirit

As pray-ers, it is imperative to know that there are different kinds of prayer when we pray.

Paul instructed us in Ephesians to pray with all kinds of prayer, especially for these last days.

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints (Ephesians 6:18 NASB1995).

The words all prayer mean that different types of prayer should be prayed as the Holy Spirit directs us for the situation. The following are three other Bible translations that enhance this truth:

• God’s Word translation says, “Pray in the Spirit in every situation. Use every kind of prayer and request there is. For the same reason be alert. Use every kind of effort and make every kind of request for all of God’s people.”

• The English Standard Version says, “Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.”

• The Amplified Version says, “With all prayer and petition pray [with specific requests] at all times [on every occasion and in every season] in the Spirit, and with this in view, stay alert with all perseverance and petition [interceding in prayer] for all God’s people.”

There are many types of prayer, and each prayer has specific rules that are set in place. It is similar to sports as there are different rules that apply to each sport. When I played basket- ball, there were rules I had to go by in order to be effective in the game. I couldn’t start playing basketball according to the rules of baseball or I would have been disqualified. I would not be effective or have any positive results in the game. Yes, all prayer is prayer, but there are different fundamental forms of prayer, and I will mention a few in this chapter.

The Prayer of Agreement

I love this form of prayer, the prayer of agreement.

Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst (Matthew 18:19-20 NASB1995).

The prayer of agreement became real to me when I was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, working for Oral Roberts Ministries. I worked on their prayer line ministry by answering calls to pray for people all around the world. We would get calls from people who were in various areas of their Christian walk, so the key to agreeing with them was to discover where their faith was and agree according to the Word of God.

I had training in the prayer call ministry for a couple of weeks before I was on my own answering prayer calls. The prayer of agreement was the form of prayer that was emphasized when we prayed with people on the prayer lines.

The key was finding a place of faith that was scriptural when praying on the phone lines. One night on the prayer lines, a lady asked me to pray that the calories that she ate would dissolve and not make her gain weight. I couldn’t pray and agree with her about that specifically because it wasn’t based on scripture. But the Holy Spirit helped me find a connection to her prayers that combined our faith in the prayer of agreement concerning her physical body.

There were many instances when praying with people and agreeing according to scripture that miracles would happen. Many people would call asking for prayer agreement for healing in their bodies. In those situations, we would come in agreement with Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV), “…and by His stripes we are healed.” There were many instances of healings that happened because someone agreed with what God says about healing.

When you come in agreement with someone, always know that when it is based on scripture, it is according to the will of God. The Word of God is the will of God. Consider the following scripture:

This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him (1 John 5:14-15 NASB1995).

Corporate Prayer

Corporate prayer is when a group of people are gathered together in one location to pray. My grandmother has a corporate prayer meeting called Autumn Assembly of Prayer every year in Branson, Missouri, and people gather to pray from all around the world. Pray-ers gather together and bring their supply of the Spirit, and much is accomplished in the Spirit this way. These corporate prayer meetings bring an anointing together that specializes in the realm of prayer, and lives have been changed because of it—including mine. The atmosphere of corporate prayer meetings are charged with a special anointing that has an effect on the natural realm.

I heard this illustration from Kenneth E. Hagin about corporate prayer; he said it is much easier to move a piano with a group of people than trying to move it by yourself. How true this is concerning corporate prayer. This has happened in my own prayer life when I was trying to pray through a burden and another person would come alongside me to pray—it was much easier to pray through until that burden was lifted and peace came.

I remember when I was a little girl and the spirit of travail would come upon me, and it felt too heavy to carry alone. Lynne Hammond and other seasoned pray-ers would come beside me and encourage me to pray in the Spirit until peace came, and the weight of that prayer would release.

In these last days before the return of Jesus, I believe that this kind of praying will become more dominant for these times. Persecutions will begin to increase and the church will need to come together to pray like never before. Church prayer meetings are not to be just for a certain group of people; everyone needs to come together and pray.

When Peter was arrested by Herod, he was put in prison with four squads of soldiers standing guard over him. Mean- while, fervent corporate prayer by the church was being made to God on Peter’s behalf.

So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God. On the very night when Herod was about to bring him for- ward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up saying, “Get up quickly.” And his chains fell off his hands (Acts 12:5-7 NASB1995).

Imagine Peter so sound asleep that the angel had to shake him to get him to wake up. He must have been in a deep sleep, even as a prisoner! The angel coming to Peter to release him out of the prison is a result of the corporate prayer being prayed on his behalf by the church. With this type of prayer, heaven’s angels are released on their assignments. When people of God come together to pray, angels show up. Let’s look at the rest of the story.

When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying (Acts 12:11-12 NASB1995).

The church gathered together to pray on behalf of Peter brought forth his deliverance from prison and from being killed. This miracle was the result of corporate prayer! As the church awakens to the power of corporate prayer, people are going encounter the power of God. When people touch this power, miracles are going to take place, dismembered limbs are going to grow back, blind eyes will be opened. The anointing from this type of prayer is going to help infiltrate the church with the glory of the Lord—addictions that have shackled a generation from the powers of darkness are going to break off instantaneously.

I believe that churches are going to be used like hospitals for these last days, and people of all different backgrounds are going to come to church to experience the power of God.

The Prayer of Faith

Truly I [Jesus] say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you (Mark 11:23-24 NASB1995).

The prayer of faith works on the behalf of the individual who stands on God’s Word concerning a situation. Faith is the assurance of what God says will come to pass (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is a pretty big deal to God because He dedicated a whole chapter referring to the men and women of God who walked in faith; many refer to it as the hall of fame to faith. They believed that what God had promised them would come to pass regardless of the circumstances that were around them.

This prayer is hindered by unforgiveness that is why Jesus says, “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions” (Mark 11:25 NASB1995).

Forgiveness is a key ingredient to having results with the prayer of faith. Faith, hope, and love are a team, and they play an important role to answered prayer. “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13 NASB1995). I personally believe that the greater you walk in the agape love of God, the greater your hope and faith will grow.

Another key ingredient to faith is speaking forth the word of the Lord that will cause the mountain or circumstances to move. I truly believe that when we raise our voices in faith and speak out His words, there is a sound barrier released that shifts the situations into alignment.

When I was in my sophomore year of high school, I had the opportunity to use the prayer of faith in my life in a supernatural way. I played basketball in high school. On the first day of practice for the season, I was running through a defensive drill and as I stood up, my teammate accidently ran into me and my right knee twisted as I fell to the ground. As I was falling I heard on the inside a popping sound.

The next day my knee was so swollen that my mom knew it was more than just a minor knee injury. Shortly afterward I went to the hospital for an MRI scan of my knee. The results revealed that my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) was completely torn. This is a crucial ligament that stabilizes the knee joint to be able to make sudden stops and changes in movement.

During this time of my knee injury, I had been listening to the faith series titled “ABC’s of Faith” on the way to school almost every morning in the car with my mom. I was listening to Kenneth E. Hagin share his story of when he was a fifteen-year-old boy who was bedfast with an incur- able blood disease. This thought came to me, If Brother Hagin could believe God, so can I believe God. He’s the same age as me when that happened to him, so I can pray the prayer of faith too. So I talked with my grandmother and my mom about what I believed God wanted me to do as an act of faith.

The high school I attended didn’t believe that God was a healer, and there was a desire in me for them to see a healing Jesus. Only a few months after the injury, I decided to agree with God’s Word and stand on Isaiah 53 and 1 Peter 2:24 that by His stripes I was healed. I went to the doctor to get permission to wear a special knee brace over my knee for the rest of the basketball season. I played in the games, and my knee was completely fine even without an ACL—this was a miracle! During one of the games, I dove after the basketball and my teammates gasped and my mom immediately stood up in the stands because of my severe knee injury. But I was all right and not hurt. I even became one of the high scorers on the team that season even without an ACL!

After basketball season was over for the year, I ended up getting surgery on my knee and stood on the prayer of faith for a supernaturally quick recovery for my knee, all glory to God.

Prayer of Commitment

Casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7 NASB1995).

The prayer of commitment or casting your cares is one that I pray almost daily. In this kind of prayer, we are required to come to God by faith believing that He is bigger than the situation we are so concerned about. Casting in the Greek language means to throw upon. When you release something, you no longer have it. So you could phrase the verse this way, “Throw your cares on the Lord.” It’s similar to when a fisherman casts his net into the water for the fish to come. If we want our answers to come, we are required to throw out, cast, our worries unto God. One of my favorite translations of this verse is from the Amplified Bible:

Casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all of your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully] (1 Peter 5:7 AMP).

That pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it? God doesn’t want us to have any cares or anxieties—His perfect will for our lives is to be worry-free! We have a part to play in this: we are required to believe that God is capable to do according to His Word and that He will release all of the cares and worries that have tried to entangle our lives. Every time that worries and cares come up, we are to think on whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, good repute, excellent and worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8). We serve the God of impossibilities—He is able to do what people cannot. “But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With people [as far as it depends on them] it is impossible, but with God all things are possible’” (Matthew 19:26 AMP).

Let’s consider the following passage to see how much our heavenly Father cares:

Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? (Matthew 6:26-27 NASB1995)

Because our heavenly Father cares about the birds, how much more value do we have as His beloved children. I want to share with you a word the Lord gave me about worry:

Many times what you are worried about never happens anyway. If you worry about a situation long enough, it will become a stronghold in your soul (mind, will, and emotions) to distract you from the answer. I’m not withholding answers from My children.

He reminded me of this scripture in Matthew 11:28-30 (NASB1995):

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light.

Peace will come when you learn to come to Me with your problems, worries, and cares. I’m not with holding anything from My children, financially, emotionally, or physically; that’s why I sent My Son to die so that My people could live in wholeness of mind. I gave you My mind. Come to Me with your petition [a petition is a request] and supplications. Every answer to every problem is found inside of Me. I AM the answer.

Prayer of Consecration

Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not My will, but Yours be done (Luke 22:42 NASB1995).

Jesus was praying the prayer of consecration before He went to the cross. Jesus passed the test of breaking His will by surrendering to the plan of God. Think of it, what if Jesus didn’t have this attitude and instead said, “Forget the cross, I can call on angels to help Me and not do My Father’s will.” We would all have perished because of it; but instead, Jesus chose to surrender His will to our heavenly Father God—and here we are.

When God created humankind, He gave us the most powerful and destructive weapon—our free will to choose. God didn’t make robots who would do everything He commanded. No, He desired for us to choose to turn our will toward Him. What is the will of God? It is His Word, what is written in the Bible. So everything that God has promised to us is according to the Word of God.

When God is speaking to people’s hearts about certain areas of their lives, that is when our free will comes into play. It’s like the “Will You?” game. God says, “Will you go speak to this person?” and we have free will to choose if we will do what He asks or not. I remember when God was speaking to me about going to Mozambique, and my will didn’t want to go there. Looking back now, my life would have be altered from the entire will of God if I had not obeyed Him.

When the Lord began speaking to my grandmother’s heart about going to Israel, her husband (my grandfather) was very sick and at the point of death. Regardless of the hard circumstances, my grandmother surrendered her will and went to Israel. My grandmother said that the Lord spoke to her during her flight and said, “Now I know you are My friend because you obeyed Me.” When my grandmother returned to the United States from the tour, she learned that her husband, Kent, had gone to heaven. My grandmother surrendered her will to do what God asked her.

God is searching for surrendered hearts fully submitted to His will in these last days, those who are fully concreated unto Him for His purposes. The Lord began speaking to me about the power of the human will:

I am searching the world to and fro to see who will follow Me. Obedience to Me is better than sacrifice. Many of My people have honored Me with their words but not with their actions when I am speaking to them about their lives. When your grandmother obeyed Me to go to Israel, she surrendered her will. This decision affected her life as well as others, including yours.

Will you go? Will you follow Me to the place of intimacy? Will you pray and spend time with Me?

Maybe God has been speaking to you about your calling. If you would go all-in and surrender your will to Him, your decision to say yes is going to make an impact on future generations.