Prayer is a Relationship

Prayer is a two-way fellowship and communication with God. You speak to God and He speaks to you. It is not a one-way conversation. Your personal prayer life may primarily be one-way communication -- you talking to God. Prayer is more than that. Prayer includes listening as well. In fact, what God says in prayer is far more important that what you say. My Prayer Prayer is a relationship, not just a religious activity. Prayer is designed more to adjust you to God than to adjust God to you. God doesn't need your prayers, but He wants you to pray. You need to pray because of what God wants to do in and through your life during your praying. God speaks to His people by the Holy Spirit through prayer. When the Holy Spirit reveals a spiritual truth to you in prayer, He is present and working actively in your life. Genuine prayer does not lead to an encounter with God. It is an encounter with God. This is what happens as you seek God's will in prayer: 1. God takes the initiative by causing you to want to pray. 2. The Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, reveals to you the will of God. 3. In the Spirit, you pray in agreement with the will of God. 4. You adjust your life to the truth (to God). 5. You look and listen for confirmation or further direction from the Bible, circumstances, and the church (other believers). 6. You obey. 7. God works in you and through you to accomplish His purposes. 8. You experience Him just as the Spirit revealed as you prayed. I believe the Spirit of God often uses the Word of God when you pray. Reading the Bible I find that when I pray about something, Scripture often comes to my mind. I don't see it as a distraction. I believe He is trying to guide me through the Scripture. I have found that as I pray about a particular matter, the Spirit of God takes the Word of God and applies it to my heart and my mind to reveal the truth. "Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom. 8:26-27) Experiencing God By Henry T. Blackaby & Claude V. King images courtesy of All Posters