The Potency of Prayer

are praying in vain. Prayer is not a tool used to circumvent the sovereign will of God, but to
perpetuate it. We are called in Romans 12:2 not only to know the will of God, but to move away
from the thinking and ways of the world. One of the effective weapons of Satan has been his
ability to infiltrate the Christian faith with worldly philosophies. I call this a comingling of the
Word and the World and it is totally in direct opposition to God’s will.
This carries us into the next phase of our study, “Looking at ourselves”. When our prayer life is
unproductive, it calls for introspection, a looking within, and a veracious assessment of where
we are and what we are doing. We must search ourselves to find where we have fallen short.
In your personal prayer life, are you praying specific and direct prayers, or are your prayers
traditional, rehearsed or repetitive, with no true passion? Are your prayers unaccompanied by
faith and anticipation; or just left in the air to linger? Have you taken the time to align yourself
with the perfect will of God or are you still living by your own rules and standards? Are you living
on your own terms, yet arrogantly expecting God to honor your request? It is a shame to see the
audacity we display when we place our petitions and supplications at the altar after having
shaken our fist in the face of God declaring: “This is my life.”
You may reply by proclaiming that you’ve done no such thing; however, each time you choose
to move opposite to His will, any time you choose through your own volition to sin, any time you
choose your way in neglect of God’s way you have said to God, “I will live my life as I please.”
As a creature of free volition, this course of action is of course, your prerogative; however, you
must be prepared for the consequences, one of which is a stagnant and ineffective prayer life.
We must first align ourselves with the will of God before we approach His throne. When we
examine ourselves, are we in line with God’s Word? Can we say with certainty that we are in
unison with today’s scriptural text?
Lastly, let us look above! Let us first look to God and repent, for God has given us a powerful
and mighty weapon in prayer and we have allowed it lie dormant and rust away from nonuse.
How can we consider ourselves to be soldiers of the cross, when God has given us this
matchless and unparalleled power, yet that power lies still, dormant, and untapped?
How Satan must emote with joy knowing that so many of us have failed to utilize this most
awesome weapon at our disposal. In reviewing history it is said that the Roman Emperor
Constantine saw that on the coins of other emperors before him that their image was struck in
an erect posture of triumph. Instead of following suit, he ordered that his image be struck
kneeling in prayer, for he said, “This is the way that I have triumphed.” Constantine had an
erudite understanding that there is no victory without prayer.
We too, must come to this reality. We cannot prosper without prayer; there is no victory aside of
prayer.