Your Key to Effective Prayer: Standing on the Power of His Covenant
The biggest discovery for me related to prayer and communing with the Lord was covenant.
I think covenant and what it really means is one of the most overlooked themes of the New Testament. When we understand covenant, our faith and confidence to pray increases exponentially. First, we should know that God does nothing without covenant. Everything He has done and will do is because of covenant. There is a big difference between a contract and a covenant, at least in biblical terms. A contract is an agreement between two parties of equal ability to perform the promise or agreement. A promissory note would be like a mortgage on a house. With any agreement between people, things can happen and the contract may be broken.
As much as we put faith in a solidly worded contract, it’s only as good as the two parties making the contract.
A covenant is different because God does not depend on us keeping our end of the agreement, and yet He continues to be faithful in His word to us. Our praying would be shaky if we knew that at any time God could break or rescind His promise to us. The first covenant made was a marriage covenant between Adam and his wife, Eve. The Hebrew word for covenant is beriyth, which means to cut. In this case, Adam’s side was opened and a woman was formed from his bone, thus the well-known quote from Genesis 2:23 (NKJV), “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Jesus made covenant with us when His side was pierced, thus the cut ratified our covenant as a type of bride taken from His side.
Adam showed us that man could not keep covenant, rather, he was a covenant breaker. Today over 50 percent of marriages end in divorce, breaking covenant. When a covenant is broken, the strength that the two parties had together is broken and divided and the potential lost. The devil knows if he can divide us through a covenant-breaking spirit, we are weakened and ineffective against the gates of hell. God’s solution was Jesus. His covenant could not depend upon mankind to fulfill.
We see the dynamic of this played out in Genesis 15 from where the premise of the currency of Heaven is found. In verse 5, God invites Abram to step outside his tent and look up and count the stars (more information is found in my book, The Power of Imagination). God wanted Abram to see for himself what his legacy and generations would look like, which was more than he could count. In verse 6, Abram believed God accounted it to him for righteousness. In verse 8, Abram asks the legitimate question, “How will I know that I will inherit it?” In verses 10-12, God gives him the assurance that what was promised would not be reversed or broken. He instructed Abram to prepare a sacrifice and the animals he was to use. He was to cut them in half placing each half opposite the other. When Abram had finished preparing the sacrifice and the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon him.
And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram… (Genesis 15:17-18 NKJV).
When the two elements passed between the sacrifices, it was the Father and Son making covenant on behalf of Abram. Man showed he could not keep covenant, so God put Abram to sleep like He did Adam to cut covenant, only this time it would be a covenant that could not be broken. I suggest to you, that Abram’s Covenant is really a Covenant between the Father and the Son of God. The reason this is important is because Jesus the Son represents those who broke covenant and He has restored us to the Father’s House.
When our prayers are answered, it is more about the Covenant of Jesus with His Father than our flawless living. Just as in Exodus 12 when the blood of a lamb was placed upon the doorposts, the angel of death passed over that house, the blood represented a covenant between God and His Son—His Son Jesus who became the Lamb slain, whose blood cries out in our defense.
There is another type of covenant used in the New Testament which is called the diatheke. This is like a couple purchasing a home of great value, and they have to borrow or make a loan or mortgage to buy this home. If the buyers are a credit risk and not able to secure the loan based on their credit history, they could invite a cosigner to sign with them. In this case the biblical term is the diatheke or cosigner. The diatheke is responsible for all the liability should the borrowers, enjoying the benefits of the home, not be able to pay the loan.
We can see how this fits perfectly as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He took upon Himself all our sins and gave us eternal life abundantly without us having to pay the penalty of sin, which is death, eternal separation from God in eternal torment. Jeremiah 31:33 describes the covenant that God has brought to us through His Son. Jeremiah prophesies that the Covenant He will make will be written upon the heart and minds of the people, and we would be His people and He would become our God. Having a covenant heart not only is the guarantee of our relationship with God sealed by the Holy Spirit, but it helps us to pray in faith believing our Diatheke is listening and agreeing with our heart’s cry.
Standing on His Word, Backed by His Covenant
When I first moved to Tyler to plant a church in 1980, I had a promise given to me the day I was driving a truck with all our earthly possessions to Tyler. Though I felt it was the Lord leading me to this new city, it still felt somewhat strange. I had never done anything to this level. Diane and I had two children at the time, and the thought of uprooting them and taking them 500 miles away from their grandparents was unsettling.
I was two hours away from our new destination and I couldn’t stand it anymore—the gut wrenching I was feeling. I pulled the truck over to the side of the road when I was outside Dallas, Texas, and lay my head on the steering wheel, because I was close to turning around and going back to what was familiar. I had no family and not really any support system in Tyler. I softly said to the Lord what was in my heart and why I was feeling grief, as if I had lost a close family member. I really wasn’t expecting to get a response from the Lord since I was basically just venting my feelings.
A couple of minutes later I heard deep inside my heart the Lord speaking to me. I know it was the Lord because it was different from what I was feeling, and He wasn’t confirming my pity party. He said to me so sweetly that if would go and do what He was instructing me to do in Tyler, He would take care of my family and I would not lack for anything. Specifically He said, “I will be the Lord God who heals you and anyone in your family.” I felt strength inside of my being again and was renewed to continue.
To think what I would have missed had I given in to my feelings and not heard the voice of the Lord makes me shudder. We had only been in Tyler a few months when Kristen, our youngest at the time, just one year old, was suffering with an ear infection. Her mortal cries of pain were more than I could bear. I wished I could take her pain upon myself to give her relief.
We took her to see a pediatrician and he confirmed not only the infection, but it was acute, and antibiotics were not going to cure it. It was suggested she have surgery in the morning to have tubes inserted into both ears to drain the fluid that built up due to the infection. We set the surgery for early morning. At home, we went into her nursery and stood beside her bed and cried out to the Lord. The Holy Spirit reminded me of the promise the Lord made to me on the side of the road just a few months ago. I recited verbatim what I heard in my spirit that day. I quoted Numbers 23:19 (NKJV), “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” I made a bold statement at the end of the prayer saying, “God, You told me if came to Tyler and obeyed You, You would heal my family. If I heard You wrong then, I should pack up and move back to my hometown.”
The next morning, we arrived at the hospital and I handed Kristen to the surgical nurse with my heart breaking for my baby. The nurse said it would take a couple of hours for the procedure to do both ears. While we waited, I was thinking in my mind where I could go to rent a truck to pack our stuff and leave. For me, this was as much a test to know if I really heard God or not. I didn’t want to be somewhere I was not absolutely sure I was supposed to be there with God’s favor.
It was just a few minutes later when the same surgical nurse came over and asked if this was the same baby they had seen yesterday. I answered, “Yes, she is the only little girl I have.” She turned around and went back into the surgical area. I was now really bothered as to what is going on and what had they done to her. Less than ten minutes later they brough Kristen out and handed her to me and said, “The pediatrician examined her once more before doing any surgery and looking closely in both ears, he could not find any problem or abnormality.”
I learned that day that God’s word and covenant were not dependent on my strength—I had a Diatheke who kept the covenant promise of healing my family. Psalm 107:20 (NKJV) says, “He sent His word and healed them.” The word that was given to me was the currency that I needed to see the miracle for my daughter. Prayer is not just asking for stuff, it is communicating with the Father, who really wants us to know Him and trust Him.
I encourage you to keep a prayer journal with dates and detailed descriptions of your communication with the Lord. It doesn’t have to be only what you are asking for, but consider it similar to a thread of text messages, even writing what you feel the Lord saying to you, because the voice of the Holy Spirit is inside you. The Holy Spirit will share what He hears from your heavenly Father.
From time to time go back and read the dialogue between you and the Holy Spirit. This will help you to grow in hearing the voice of the Lord and to revisit things you are believing for. By reminding yourself of those things you have asked for and bringing them up in prayer again is like watering the seed sown.
Another good reason to go over past communications is to see if there are any conditions to what the Holy Spirit is saying, any area you may be lacking submission or obedience. Obedience changes things in your favor.
