The Right Kind of Prayer Prayed the Right Way

Every person ever born has built into them a desire to come to God.

Because we are all His “offspring” (Acts 17:29) and all human spirits originally proceeded from Him, people in general have a desire to reconnect to where they came from—to pray.

Born-again believers, especially, sense the call to pray. But they don’t always respond to that call. Some push it down because prayer intimidates them. It seems too big. They think, I don’t know how to pray. I don’t know what to say to God.

Other believers may attempt to pray, but then they get discouraged. They back away from prayer because their prayers don’t seem to produce any results. James 5:16 tells us what the problem is in such cases. It says, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

Notice it’s not just any prayer that avails much or gets results. It’s the right kind of prayer, prayed the right way, that gets the job done.

Is there really a right and wrong way to pray? you might wonder.

Yes. James 4:3 says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss” (New King James Version). But that doesn’t have to scare us, because we have the Bible. When our prayers aren’t getting results, we can find out from the Word of God and by the illumination of the Spirit where we’ve gone awry.

God is for us! He’s never going to say, “You prayed that wrong. Forget you!” No, He’ll keep working with us. If we keep seeking His wisdom in the Word and paying attention to the promptings of His Spirit, He’ll teach us whatever we need to know.

The Word will tell us, for instance, how to be bold in prayer. It will tell us how to be reverent and humble. It will teach us about the different kinds of prayer—such as the prayer of agreement, the prayer of petition, the prayer of praise and worship, and the prayer of faith—not because we have to stop and analyze what type of prayer is needed in every situation, but so we can easily follow the Holy Spirit in using them.

As we learn about prayer from the Word, all the aspects of it start to come together. They become for us the sword of the Spirit, and great power is delivered. I like how James 5 describes this in the Amplified Bible, Classic Edition. It says:

The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]. Elijah was a human being with a nature such as we have [with feelings, affections, and a constitution like ours]; and he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and no rain fell on the earth for three years and six months. And [then] he prayed again and the heavens supplied rain and the land produced its crops [as usual] (verses 16-18).

Those verses point to Elijah as our example. So, let’s think about him for a moment. What kind of power was delivered through his life? Well, let’s see…

Elijah prayed, and it didn’t rain for three years. During those three years, the ravens fed him by the brook Cherith. When the brook dried up and the ravens stopped coming, a widow fed him from a jar of meal that never ran out. When the widow’s son died, Elijah raised him from the dead.

After that, Elijah called down fire from heaven and killed 450 prophets of Baal. Then he prayed for the rains to return, and when it began to rain, even in the mud he outran the king’s chariots.

The greatest thing of all, however, was that Elijah learned to recognize the still, small voice of the Lord—a voice that was small, not because it lacked power but because it was quiet and subtle. The Lord didn’t speak quietly to Elijah because He wanted to make Himself hard to hear. He did it to train Elijah to be sensitive to Him. He wanted Elijah to learn to respond to even His slightest whisper.

Psalm 32:9 says, “Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you” (New King James Version). Have you ever heard of a horse that is trained to neck-rein? A neck-reined horse is a horse that’s so responsive to a rider’s direction that you don’t have to pull on the bit in his mouth to turn him. You just lay the rein on the side of his neck in the direction you want him to go, or lean a little this way or that way, and the horse will respond.

That’s how we want to be with the Holy Spirit. We want to be sensitive and responsive to His slightest touch. One way we cultivate such sensitivity is by learning from the Word how to distinguish between the Holy Spirit’s leadings and the impulses of our flesh. The more we’re able to do that, the more we’ll be able to pray like Elijah.

Learning from the written Word how to be led inwardly by the Spirit doesn’t readily “compute” to the reasoning mind. Our Father, who longs for us to partner with Him through prayer, has a beautiful way of opening our understanding so that we can not only grow to maturity in our prayer lives but thoroughly enjoy the journey.

The spiritual laws that define prayer can be taught, but the nature of prayer and the ways of the Spirit are most often “caught.” Kenneth E. Hagin referenced this quite often when teaching prayer. So do I.

Now since as Jesus said, His words are spirit and life, we know we can gain understanding of anything related to prayer directly from the Word of God. But gladly, God has added to that the joy of learning by praying together. The fastest way to grow in prayer is by having an experienced, Word-grounded, Spirit-led mentor. This is where prayer is best “caught.”

Clearly, my grandmother was the first and foremost mentor in my life for prayer and innumerable other aspects of life. Although I heard her teach prayer in her Bible class, it was not a frequent topic. I learned by “watching” in prayer with her, but I didn’t have much working knowledge of Scripture. For a Copeland, that’s a serious deficiency.

About the time I turned thirty, I received clear direction from the Lord to begin teaching prayer. I respectfully told Him, “No, thank You.” Since I had little Bible instruction, I actually had the thought, I don’t think the Bible says that much about how to pray. Can you believe it?! My argument continued: Lord, I don’t have much chapter and verse from the Bible on how to pray. And I’m a Copeland! Without chapter and verse, I could lose my birthright!

But thank God for His patience and His system of mentors in the Kingdom. He had a true treasure waiting for me: Sister Lynne Hammond. Listening to a message of hers on prayer, my eyes were opened. I could “see” the ways of the Spirit revealed in the Word, then watch them unfold as she prayed. Her way of tying the Word with following the leading of the Spirit was evidence of her love for the Father and her closeness with the Master. For me, this was prayer-life changing.

Quickly, I gained confidence enough to step out and teach from the Word, with chapter and verse, what I knew by the Spirit. For my weekly “Prayer School” I would often listen to Lynne, then go teach what I learned, followed by demonstration of the Spirit as we prayed. Prayer School grew rapidly as well as many, many Word-founded, Spirit-led prayer groups.

Through Sister Hammond’s ministry, I came to realize that all spiritual truths can and must be applied to all elements of the Kingdom. The same spiritual laws that govern faith, love, the fruit and the gifts of the Spirit are fundamental in prayer. That makes sense since prayer is working with God, doing Kingdom business.

I have been privileged to benefit as a student and as a friend of Sister Lynne for many years now. She is one of the many mentors, only some of whom are mentioned in this book. Their value to my walk with God is incalculable. Because of them, I’ve been taught and caught many encounters with Him.

“But Pastor Terri, I don’t know anyone! How can I ‘catch’ prayer like that?”

I’m glad I heard Brother Hagin say that we can connect with the anointing on someone by listening with an open heart to their messages or simply reading their books (like this one!). Paul said in Ephesians 3:2-4, “Assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace (His unmerited favor) that was entrusted to me [to dispense to you] for your benefit…as I already briefly wrote you. When you read this you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ” (Amplified Bible, Classic Edition).

Of course, you can pick up on a person’s unscriptural, carnal motives and behaviors as well. Jesus said, “Be careful what you are hearing” (Mark 4:24, Amplified Bible, Classic Edition). That’s why your own study of Scripture and fellowship with the Father by the Spirit is essential. He will never give you a serpent or a scorpion when you are hungry for the Bread of Life (Luke 11:11).

Describing Elijah’s prayer life, Sister Lynne said that “Elijah, through prayer, projected God onto a situation to stop things and to start things. One aspect of prayer is to release God out of your own spirit’s deposit. The power residing in us is released through prayer. To not pray locks up this power.”

How much of God’s power do you, as a believer, have inside your spirit?

According to Ephesians 1:19-21 you have within you:

…the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power…as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His [own] right hand in the heavenly [places], far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named [above every title that can be conferred], not only in this age and in this world, but also in the age and the world which are to come (Amplified Bible, Classic Edition).

Now that’s power! It’s God’s own power. It’s Him.

It’s up to you, though, to connect with that power and release it through prayer. If you don’t pray, the power remains locked up. If you do pray, but you don’t pray the right prayer the right way, the power can’t do what it’s designed to do.