The Power of Prayer

By Odon Bulamba (summary only - 19th May, 2005)

We already have enough knowledge to build a powerful prayer. To build a powerful prayer we must first understand what is prayer, what are we praying and who we are addressing our prayers to and what are our expectations.

We have two ways for God to answer, yes or no. When we are praying let your will be done, we have to accept whatever God will answer. We also have to understand what God’s time is. Sometimes we don’t know God’s answer and it makes us Christians disappointed. For God to give good signs to encourage us, we need to tell God that we need answers, ‘I give my life to you, I want to hear your voice’.

Read a verse and then tell God, ‘Tell me God what I can tell others about this verse.’ Without this we can’t explain the Word of God. Tell God, ‘I want to hear you speaking because prayer is a dialogue between you and me.’ We have to understand how God responds, sometimes it is with signs, sometimes by His Word, sometimes His voice, sometimes He can send someone to you or sometimes He won’t respond right away. We can tell God, ‘God I need to hear from you, if I pray without answers, I’m just wasting my time. To get encouraged I need assurance from you that my prayer has been heard by you.’

We must pray in faith and in truth which means we must be guided by the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit because Himself is powerful and without Him we won’t know which words to use. We have to ask ourselves is the Holy Spirit really acting in our lives or not? There is no formula to praying, just to be lead by the Holy Spirit. Because He is powerful, you will also be powerful but when you pray with the flesh, your prayer will be weak.

God asked Israel to walk around Jericho seven times which is equivalent to walking around Hamilton every day for seven days. After God looking at their perseverance and determination He decided to give them an answer, ‘Just blow the trumpet and you’ll see the power of prayer’. That powerful prayer was escorted by determination.

If someone asks you to pray and you are not ready in your heart don’t pray because if that person is possessed, those evil spirits will come on you and control you.

Prayer is powerful and it is the biggest thing that God has given to the church for all situations; communicating with God, casting our evil spirits etc.


SUMMARY
1. First understand what is prayer, who you are praying to, what you are praying
2. Then understand what God’s time is
3. Tell God you need to hear from Him
4. Pray in faith and truth, guided by the Holy Spirit
5. Pray with determination and perseverance
6. Accept God’s answer

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