WE NEED TO PRAY.

Prayer, in many ways, seems like a mystery, yet it is so beautifully simple. Like many, I learned to pray from my parents. Our prayers were often habitual—before meals, travel, bedtime, or during family devotionals. These moments of thanksgiving and supplication together were simple yet deeply impactful. As I grew older, these habitual prayers faded, and my prayer life turned inward. I began to see prayer as simply talking and listening to the Lord from the heart, honestly and openly but primarily alone. In recent years, I have come to understand the power of prayer—not only as an open, intimate relational conversation with the Lord, which is essential, but as a joyful partnership with Him in prayer for the things on His heart for me, my loved ones, my community, my nation, and the world.

A response to Revelation

Prayer - as seen in the bible and how I am experiencing it -  has different forms: It can look like listening and talking, thanksgiving, intercession, alone, or corporate. Yet at its core, prayer is always a response to revelation. In prayer, we are not the conversation starters, but God. As God speaks/reveals (in the many shapes and forms he does) we respond in prayer, whether this is in adoration, thanksgiving, agreement, or supplication. In it all, the purpose of prayer is relationship, partnership, and nearness. 

“For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7)

prayer is always a response to revelation

Prayer is our means of engaging in this relationship with God. It is a conversation through which we grow in knowing each other and then can partner with one another. Throughout the Old and New Testament, people talked and listened to God and witnessed transformation—whether in their personal lives, their nation, or even the world. An example of this is Daniel’s life where his eyes were opened to a certain scripture. Daniel’s story illustrates this beautifully: as he read scripture, he began talking to the Lord about it, receiving more revelation that led him to intercede for his nation. His prayers moved the Lord to mercy, shifting kings and physical and spiritual atmospheres, and preserving the faithful and righteous ones.

We were made for prayer

From the beginning, God created humanity to be in a relationship with Him, which includes conversation (Genesis 3). Even after the fall, when man was separated from the immediate presence of God, people continued to call on the Lord in prayer and worship (Genesis 4:26). This also connects with our calling as kings and priests in God’s kingdom. As priests, we are called to tend (Genesis 2:15), which means to serve, minister, and worship the Lord and intercede on behalf of the world. As kings, we are called to guard and steward His kingdom (Genesis 1:26-28). Living out these roles, in our new identity, is closely tied to prayer: conversing with the Lord, bringing thanksgiving and adoration, speaking his word to people as it comes to us in prayer, agreeing with his will, and standing in the gap for others. We were made not only for a relationship with God but he desired that there would be partnership.

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15 ESV)

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26 ESV)

Friendship and Partnership in Prayer

Throughout history, people have lived out this calling, as seen in the lives of Abraham, Daniel, Esther, and ultimately, Jesus. All of these show us that there is a place for individual prayer, one-on-one, where the primary relationship grows, and there is a place for corporate prayer, where we have a family conversation. 

“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6 ESV)

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matthew 18:20 ESV)

Prayer is where intimacy with God grows, especially in personal time with Him. Jesus frequently withdrew to pray alone (Luke 5:16). If even Jesus, who is one with the Father, prioritized this, how much more do we need it? From this place of intimacy and friendship, where not only we talk but also take the time to listen, we can know God’s heart and the focus of our prayers may shift from ourselves to His will. Out of this place, intercession, prayers aligned with the heart and will of God may arise.

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7 ESV)

The Lord has decided that he does not want to do things alone, but he wants humanity to work with him together as he unfolds the story, not because he needs us, but because he wants to. For this reason, the church prays and lifts her voice in supplication and agreement with the Lord. And because of Jesus, our Great High Priest, who justifies us before the Father, we have the assurance that we can draw near and come before the throne of mercy and grace and simply ask (Hebrews 4:14-16). Jesus, the apostles, and believers in the Book of Acts teach us that we need to pray, we need to pray together, and that as we pray, things start to shift.

Our simple words move the heart of God (Song of Solomon 2:14) and bring heaven to earth. With prayer that is filled with faith, we are pulling on heaven. So James said: “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:13-16 ESV)

Praying the Bible

There is a great need for us to pray, to respond in prayer to revelation, and to agree with the heart of God. And this simplicity of prayer is its beauty. We do not need to have great words or long prayers, Jesus actually taught us to not do so (Matthew 6:5-14), but we can use the very words he has given us, such as the Lord’s prayer, the Psalms and other recorded prayers or in our own words, even where we do not have revelation yet speak verses in agreement back to God, for the scripture itself is a revelation of God. As we do so we know for sure that our prayers are heard and they are being answered and that our hearts are being changed by the power of God’s Word.

“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” (1 John 5:14–15 ESV)

“that he might sanctify her (the church), having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,” (Ephesians 5:26 ESV)

Prayer, therefore, alone in secret, with others together such as the people in Acts have displayed over and over again (Acts 1:14, 2:42, 4:24-31, 6:4, 9, 10:10, 13:2-3, 14:23, 16:13, 16:16-34, 20:36, 21:5, 28:36) changes our hearts, changes the hearts around us and changes the world. Prayer is engaging in the relationship with God and partnering with his will and plans for the small, seemingly insignificant and big things in life and the earth. As our new identity in Christ as kings and priests, we must be a praying people, with the word of God written on our hearts and overflowing from our mouths.

Let us pray.

we need to pray. we need to pray together. And as we pray, things will start to shift.