by Dave Thompson

Last month, we began a study of prayer. After laying down a few ground rules for prayer in general, we discussed two forms of prayer: the prayer of faith and the prayer of agreement.

This month, we will conclude by teaching seven other types of prayer: the prayer of dedication and consecration, the prayer of worship, the prayer of praise, united prayer, the prayer of commitment, praying in the Spirit, and the prayer of intercession.

Jesus was seeking the Father’s will, and He dedicated and consecrated Himself in prayer to do whatever the Father required. He was letting the Father know that He was committed to doing the Father’s plans rather than His own. This is an example of the prayer of dedication and consecration.

Use the prayer of dedication and consecration to seek the Lord’s will for your life. As you seek, you shall find. Do not merely heed what others tell you to do with your life. Many people mean well, but they are still just people—and as much as people like to think they know best, only God’s counsel is perfect. Go to the One who knows all, and there you will find the perfect path to travel your journey of life.

Praying for God’s will to be done should not be used in situations where His will is already stated in the Bible. For instance, if a disease is attacking your body, it is not necessary to pray, “God, heal me if it is Your will.” God’s Word is His will, and His Word already declares that He wants you healthy (Is. 53:4-5, Matt. 8:16-17, 1 Pet. 2:24, Ex. 15:26, etc.).

However, you can look in the Bible from cover to cover, and you will not be able to determine if it is God’s will for you to move to another country and become a missionary, marry a particular person, take a certain job, or become a pastor. It is in situations of life such as these that God’s will for you is not specifically written in His Word, and you need to pray that His will be done. Such situations are where the prayer of dedication and consecration comes into play.

To worship means to reverence, to be in awe of, to pay homage to, to bow down before, to prostrate oneself before another, to adore, and to honor (Strong’s). To worship speaks of relationship.

When we spend time worshipping the Lord, we need to take care that we do not do so only with our lips. True worship emanates from the spirit, or heart:

Isaiah prophesied that the people of God would give a lot of lip service in their worship unto God rather than worshipping from their hearts. Today, many Christians gather each Sunday morning and sing a number of songs, but they do so out of vain repetition. Their thoughts are not on the worship—instead, they dwell upon the football game that is beginning soon on television or what to cook for lunch. God said that when we worship Him without putting our hearts into it, our worship is in vain—in other words, it is meaningless unto Him. You might as well sleep in and skip church if you are not going to truly honor God with a heart full of adoration for Him in the service.

Notice that John said we are to worship in both spirit and truth. The word spirit here is pneuma from the Greek, otherwise referenced in the Bible as the spirit of man, the inward man, and the heart of man. It refers to the real you on the inside that will live eternally along with your soul, and it is from where true worship comes.

John 4 also states that we are to worship in truth, and John 8:32 says, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Therefore, since the truth makes us free, then to worship in truth requires that we worship in freedom! We ought to worship in such a way that we do not concern ourselves with what the person next to us thinks. We should express our worship to God with freedom regardless of what our spouses, parents, children, or anyone else thinks. What really matters is that our worship pleases God.

Much of the church today is too concerned with form and fashion rather than obedience to the move of the Holy Ghost. A few years ago I heard a world-renowned preacher say that he has been in hundreds of churches across the United States, but less than ten of them truly allow the Spirit of God to orchestrate their worship services. That is an indictment against the church today, and it goes right along with Isaiah’s prophecy that people would worship God their own way rather than the Holy Ghost’s way.

When we worship God, let us do so with hearts overflowing with reverence, humility, and awe. For all God has done for us, He is certainly worthy of our loving adoration.

I do not know about you, but if I were doing the work of the Lord, and the police locked me up while I was doing it, I am unsure if I would be in the mood to sing praises unto God. However, it is critical that we see beyond our circumstances and allow heartfelt praise to flow from our lips regardless of our situation, good or bad. Praise is what caused God to send the angels to break Paul and Silas out of prison. Praise is powerful, and it commands God’s attention.

Notice the cause and effect scenario we have here. In verse 24, we observe the believers uniting together in one accord. The effects were that the building shook with the power of God, the people were all filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke the Word of God boldly, and the apostles worked signs and wonders by the power of God. Would you agree that united prayer is powerful?

Let us take a look at another example of united prayer:

Once again, we see as a result of united prayer that believers were filled with the Holy Ghost. This was actually the first infilling of the Early Church, and as you continue reading the Book of Acts, you will see that the Lord wrought many signs and wonders by their hands once they were infilled.

Unity is so powerful, and that is exactly why the devil works so diligently to cause divisions among the body of Christ. He knows that when we are united, the power of God flows in mighty ways through us, and nothing is impossible to us. However, when we are divided, we lose a sense of vision and focus, and we get so caught up in strife that we battle amongst ourselves. He would rather have us focusing our energies on fighting one another than arraying our forces in unison against him. As long as we allow the devil to divide us, we will not operate at the necessary level of power required to kick his tail all over the place. We need to drop our differences and concentrate on the One who unites us—Jesus Christ.

The Message translation puts it this way:

The Message phrases verse 7 like this:

To summarize what all these verses are saying would be to say, “Don’t worry, be happy.” Instead of worrying, cast the whole of your cares onto God, and allow Him to be God in your life and work out the issues on your behalf. By faith, quit worrying, and stand trusting God for amazing results!

I realize that it is easier said than done, but we really need to learn to quit worrying over financial matters, job situations, and the “what have you’s.” I know I have repeatedly taught that it is sin to worry, but humor me by allowing me to teach it once again.

The prayer of commitment requires us to give God the objects of our worries and “let go and let God,” as the saying goes. The verse preceding the one instructing us to cast our cares upon the Lord tells us to humble ourselves (1 Pet. 5:6). To hold onto worry is to sin, because it is a form of pride. If you truly believe that God will take care of your situation, then you will not be worrying, will you? However, when you doubt that God will work it out, and you feel you can handle the task better by worrying about it in your own mind, you are elevating your problem-solving skills above God’s. Therefore, you step into the sin of pride when you refuse to cast all your care upon God and leave it alone.

Also, consider this: God was not issuing a divine suggestion when He said we are to cast all our care upon Him—rather, He was proclaiming a divine command. To disobey God’s command for you not to worry is sin.

In addition, notice that God said to cast all your care upon Him. Study it out in the Greek if you like, but all still means all. That dictates that if we cast most of our care upon Him but still retain some of the worry, we are in sin because we are failing to fully yield to God.

Many Christians say they want to obey God, so why not test yourself in this: commit yourself to yield to the command to fully trust God with your every situation. Be like Jesus who, when in a ship in the midst of a great squall on the sea, slept right through it until the worrying disciples came and awoke Him (Mark 4:36-40). Notice that He rebuked them for their lack of faith, and I believe we also need correction today for how faithless we can be in our situations. Do we believe God is God, or don’t we?

Praying in tongues is thought by many to have passed away, or they think it is a gift that God only gives to some of His “special” people. The fact is, however, that the gift of tongues is available to all who would desire it and put themselves in receiving mode.

We see the initial Holy Ghost infilling of believers in Acts 2, which we read earlier when studying united prayer. As a result of the infilling, the believers spoke in tongues.

There is a debate as to whether speaking in tongues is always a known, worldly language, or if it is a heavenly language unknown to us humans. Personally, I believe it can be either. In Acts 2, infilled believers supernaturally spoke in earthly languages that they had never been taught:

However, 1 Corinthians shows that we could also be speaking in an angelic language:

Regardless, this gift to speak in languages unbeknownst to us should not lie dormant. After being baptized in the Holy Ghost, many believers rarely or never speak in tongues again. This ought not to be.

Some use Paul’s correction to the church at Corinth as a reason not to pray in tongues regularly. Let us take a look at what Paul said:

The naysayers contend that Paul was belittling the importance of tongues when he wrote this. However, more understanding is necessary before drawing a conclusion.

The Corinthians were known to be a people of excess. Whatever they did, they did in the extreme.

The Corinthian church got hold of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and they received their prayer language. However, in keeping with their reputation, they took it to the utmost—they began utilizing a great deal of time in services to pray in tongues.

In everything there is a balance, and when Paul discouraged the extreme use of tongues, he was by no means attempting to minimize its importance—in fact, Paul himself said, “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all” (v. 18). Paul was simply attempting to bring balance to the use of tongues in the church. He was not stating that tongues ought not to be spoken at all in services—instead, he was instructing the Corinthians not to go to excess.

Paul’s reference to speaking in tongues more than any other Corinthian (v. 18) ought to be noted. Even though the believers at Corinth spoke in tongues to a great degree, Paul said that in his own personal prayer life, he spoke in tongues more than any of them. This illustrates the great necessity that we use our prayer language regularly and often.

Personally, I pray in tongues much more than I pray in my known language, English. The most noted results of praying in tongues that I have witnessed in my own life are impartations from the Lord of wisdom, peace, power, and boldness in preaching and witnessing to others of Jesus. It pays to pray in tongues.

The Word also tells us that when we pray in tongues, we pray perfectly:

Because we do not know by our natural minds how to pray for people and situations, as we should, utilizing the gift of praying in tongues allows the Holy Ghost to pray through us, so to speak. Our part is to open our mouths and give utterance to the wellspring of unintelligible words bubbling forth from our spirits, as the Holy Ghost guides our speech.

We already read one scripture regarding the prayer of intercession that went hand in hand with praying in the Spirit (Rom. 8:26-27). Praying in tongues is an effective way to intercede.

Let us also examine another verse regarding the prayer of intercession:

According to Webster’s Dictionary, to intercede means “to intervene on behalf of another” or “to intervene so as to attempt reconciliation.” Webster’s defines intercession as “a prayer or petition on another’s behalf.” To intercede, therefore, is to go to God in prayer for another person—whether it is for salvation, healing, etcetera.

Note also that in our instruction to intercede in behalf of all the saints, verse 18 also states that we should “Pray at all times…in the Spirit….” A very effective way of performing intercessory prayer is to pray in tongues.

We have learned that there are many different forms of prayer, and we have examined the use of each. An important thought to remember, though, is not to get caught up in certain formulas in your prayer. Use the guidelines the Word provides in how your prayer life is constructed, but the main thing to be sure to do is to simply pray!

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