By Renee Ellison
Prayer's deepest secret is that it is never a solo act. We begin by staggering around offering initial fumbling words. God picks up the spark, immediately arrives to step into the abyss, and then unfurls what the rest of THAT prayer is. Little prayers or big. This is the duo dynamic . . . a mortal/immortal team, igniting continual fireworks in the universe throughout all history, together.
We're not talking about ANSWERS to prayer here; we're talking about the mystery of the actual ACT of praying. We may have vaguely realized it before, but often in only in a foggy sort of way that every time we pray we enter into supernatural activity borne of a divine unction in a split second.
In every case, all the time, we merely start to pray but God finishes the praying. The action of prayer is just like stepping onto a moving sidewalk at the airport. It is already traversing. If we get both feet planted there, we WILL arrive somewhere where we weren't when we began praying.
In all prayer, there's man's part and there is God's part. For our part, we merely provide the initial posture/condition for prayer and offer initial words. That's it. Then whoosh . . . we are ushered into the heart of God, the words of God, the supernatural power of God. The Holy Spirit prays the remainder of the prayer! Lock-on to this fact . . . we never finish our own prayers, alone. We are helped to "get there."
The posture/condition of prayer that we offer may take a multitude of forms over a lifetime. Sometimes our prayer posture is one of closed eyes, to enhance focus.
Sometimes our prayers are offered with wide open, stark, unblinking eyes as we navigate an ice patch of highway near a cliff as we pray AND drive.
Sometimes we humbly get down on our knees, or down flat on our face.
Sometimes we stomp up and down a country road with raised arms furtively, urgently praying gusts and blasts of promises from Scripture. .
Sometimes we offer empty stomachs as we fast, our body praying, too—even when there are no words for huge chunks of the day. And sometimes we just marshal racing thoughts with no destination into a vertical column of appeal, purposing now an absolute destination, tired of our own run-around.
But in every case, we offer SOMETHING of our body posture and our mental condition to begin each prayer. This sets off all the red lights on God's dashboard that a saint, somewhere in the world, is ready to enter the divine act of praying. They are in the "go" posture and condition. Time for Him to show up.
God begs us to get in the avenue of prayer, in the condition to pray. Like he said to the Apostle Paul: "Get thee to Rome for there you SHALL be my witness." Or to Moses: "Go to Pharaoh, get into his courts and down his hallway and upon his rug before his throne. I'll do the rest." And to the early believers: "Do not worry about what you shall say before kings and courts, just open your mouth."
Then come our faltering words. But suddenly they aren't so faltering. Something begins to pray through us and upon us and with us. The God who made man's mouth makes man's prayers. We can count on it. Never is it an idle act to BEGIN to pray. IT HOOKS UP DIVINE VOLTAGE.
By Renee Ellison
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P.S. I believe we LEARN TO PRAY BY PRAYING. You can read all the books on prayer and yet never really pray. I trust you are inspired by this article to just begin praying. We also teach our children to pray by praying. At your family worship time each day, make sure everyone in the family prays, right down to the youngest who is just learning to talk. If you pray “religious” prayers, they will pray religious prayers. If you pray passionate, heart-felt prayers, they will learn to pray passionately. I find that Prayer Boxes with cards of certain needs to pray for are a great blessing for children. It gives them something specific to pray for. Often, when they are learning, they don’t know what to pray for and this is a help to them.
~ Nancy