Secrets to Pray Effectively as We Approach the Last Days by DOUG STRINGER for Charisma News
Going Deeper Together
As I often meet with different groups of people to pray, I have noticed the different levels of effectiveness that seems to exist with certain people. There is something different when you pray with people with whom you have an established a relationship. You can let your guard down and pray more intimately with one another. There is a trust and intimacy already built between you, and you are able to go into what I call “gut-level” prayer. You’ve been through things together, and you know how to go hand-in-hand into intercession.
In college, I learned about the different levels of communication that exist between people. When you see someone on the street who is an acquaintance, you usually says something like, “How are you today? Aren’t we having nice weather?” This is what we call Level 5 communication. This is not the kind of communication we want to have between us when we gather to pray. We want to go to a deeper level of communicating with one another and with the Lord.
We can have great cordial relationships with people at Level 5, but to experience more effectual prayer, we need to go deeper together to places of trust and unity in the Spirit. I’ve noticed that large, corporate prayer events sometimes don’t have the same kind of effectiveness that you get when you pray with people you know, people who have gone through things with you, and people you know you can trust with the things of your heart.
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By no means do I want to imply that large corporate prayer meetings are a bad thing. It is great to get people together to pray all the time! God sees the unity and the heart in these gatherings, and He is pleased. But there is another level of substance and a depth of power that is released when you gather with people of like heart and like mind, going before the throne together, with one voice and one sound to cry out for breakthrough.
Breakthrough for Our Land
When Elijah prayed for rain, he was praying for breakthrough for the land. We live in a day and a season when we must step up to the challenge to be a people like Elijah. We must pray that our arrows hit the mark. Our land is in need of breakthrough.
Charisma News Note: This is part 2 of a two-part series. For part 1, click here.
