Niels Prip – Blog

How Shall We Pray?

I have been hearing a certain teaching on prayer for many years now, and recently, I heard it again. It basically goes like this, a preacher or teacher will make a point of telling you that he prays in tongues for several hours a day. He will then tell you that this is what we all need to do, and that it is a more powerful and better way to pray. Also he will tell us how great it is because then the devil doesn’t know what we are praying, like there is some advantage to that.

Where does this teaching come from? Well, I am sure that it comes from their experience and the charismatic doctrine that they have embraced and have been taught.
If you are in a charismatic church, you will tend to believe this teaching as well. You will have been taught that everyone should pray in tongues, with no exception, and that it is better.

But what do the scriptures say about prayer? Well, in James 5:16 it says this, “…The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”. Interesting to note that there is no mention of “tongues”. If I were to paraphrase in it my own words, I would say that if a man is righteous, and he prays fervently, he has power with God. It really doesn’t matter if he prays in a tongue or whether the devils know what he is praying or not. I can find no where in scripture to refute that fact. Why do we want to add some new formula? God makes it clear in the scriptures as to what is important, being righteous and praying fervently.

Historically, there have been many men of God who have done mighty things and not embraced charismatic teachings. People used to say this about A. W. Tozer, “…just think of how great his works would be if he was filled with the Spirit”. I have heard with my own ears that comment made about Billy Graham. What nonsense! This teaching gives us the sense that we are better than these men. Clearly that is an error we can not afford.

We are to embrace sound teaching, supported by the scriptures. We are to be Bereans, as in Acts 17:11 “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true”. We are to examine the scriptures to see if the things we are being taught is true. This is the call to the men of the church. The Bereans even examined the things they were being told by Paul, should we be less diligent?

The truth is this “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”, in any language. Scripture supports this, and this alone.

Also see-

Proverbs 8:17

Hebrews 11:6

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   It is possible to be in a service and join in the praise and celebration, but not truly be a worshipper of God. It is not possible to be a worshipper of God and not praise Him.

    When we say worship, it is usually interpreted it to mean that part of the service where we have the worship team playing and we join in and sing. That in reality is probably better described as praise and celebration. And it is wonderful that during those times,  we sometimes do experience the presence of the Lord. Some songs are really suited to quiet our souls before Him and to help us turn our eyes toward Him. Then He fulfills His promise to us, “Whenever two or more of you are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of you”. His presence in our meeting is based on His promise. Music is a great tool to help us turn our hearts heavenward, and too express worship.

     The unsaved can come into that meeting and sense His presence as well. Just like in Corinthians, when we are told by Paul, “But if we all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all”. It is a wonderful thing to have His presence in our midst, and the unsaved are not excluded from sensing Him when we are moving by His Spirit.

   That one that is unsaved can join in and sing, yet he is not yet a true worshipper of God. He can be in a meeting where the Spirit is moving, and be convinced by it. Convinced that Jesus is real, convinced that he is a sinner and convinced that he needs Him.

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   There is a very short description in Job 1, revealing Job’s position as a father and as a covering for his household.

Job 1:⁴His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. ⁵When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, “Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

   Interestingly, even as my own children have become adults, the burden still rests on me to some degree, to guard over them, as with Job, ” just in case they have sinned against the Lord”. I confess that at times, I have thought that once they were grown up, they would be on their own, that I did not have to worry about them anymore. Then I was reminded of how, long ago, the Lord had shown me this verse, and that this was once my prayer for them.

  Those of you who may stumble across this humble post, take on the prayer of Job for your family and children. When they are young, we are ever striving to raise them up in the ways of the Lord. When they leave the nest, continue to pray like Job.

np

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