THE PRINCIPLES OF PRAYER
The Weekly Update – May 26th, 2025
Lately, the Lord has been leading me to read several books on prayer. I feel he wants me to experience the power of intercession.
In reading Andrew Murray’s classic “With Christ at the school of prayer”, I learned that through prayer we can ask for anything: “ whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24) We often belittle Jesus’ “everything” by saying: “If it is God’s will” or “If it is good for us.”
In the book “The Essential Guide to Prayer”, author Dutch Sheets reminds us that when we pray, we should seek first intimacy with God before praying for our needs and those of others. I love this excerpt: “God wants us to believe in the power of Jesus and call on Him to build walls of protection around individuals.”
In 2 days, I read “The Fourth Dimension” by Yonggi Cho, who invites us to be precise in our intercession. Too often, our requests are vague. The well-known Korean pastor reminds us that the Bible contains 8,000 precise promises. It’s not enough to say ‘Lord, bless me!’. We need to address our requests to God in a specific way. Jesus would set himself apart to pray (usually at night) and then during the day, down on the battlefield he would give orders: to the wind, to evil spirits… Too often, we tend to pray on the battlefield after having prayed too little in the secrecy of our bedroom.
Yukki Paton