A number of years ago I heard someone teach about prayer and the title of his message was "Prayer is an answer to prayer". It is, after all, simple and concrete. In the book Step to Answered Prayers by Kenneth E. Hagin, which I have read and been inspired by, Brother Hagin gives us a practical and Biblical recipe for how to pray to receive answers to prayer. It can be easy to pray — and just to pray for the sake of prayer — without accomplishing anything in prayer. It was Jesus Himself who told us to "ask and you shall receive" (Matthew 7.7a). Jesus taught us that we should be specific in our prayers and that we should pray to receive. Someone once said that "If you aim for nothing, you will hit it". It is the same with our prayers. If our prayers are concrete and targeted, we will receive concrete answers to prayer from God. In the first two chapters of the book, Brother Hagin gives us a Biblical recipe of 7 steps for how to pray to achieve results.
Step 1: Decide what you want from God. (James 1:6-8)
Step 2: Read Scriptures that promise the answer you need. (Joshua 1:8)
Step 3: Ask God for the things you want. (Matthew 7:7)
Step 4: Believe that you receive. (Mark 11:23-24)
Step 5: Refuse to doubt. (James 4:7)
Step 6: Meditate on the promises. (Proverbs 4:20-22)
Step 7: Give God the praise. (Philippians 4:6)
I’ve been following all the steps just as mentioned in the book. It’s been of great help to me to have the steps down on a sheet of paper and use them as I write out what I’m specifically praying for. I want to encourage you to write down your prayers as well. After all, you don't always remember exactly what you asked for last week or last month. You may not always get the answer to your prayers the day after you pray, but God always hears our prayers. John 16:23-24 tells us, “At that time you won’t need to ask Me for anything. I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and He will grant your request because you use My Name. You haven’t done this before. Ask, using My Name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy.” (NLT). This tells us that we pray directly to God the Father in the Name of Jesus. We do not pray to Jesus in the Name of God. According to the Scriptures, that would not be correct. When we pray, we also have great help from the Holy Spirit in our prayer life. Romans 8:26 tells us "And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words” (NLT). When we are in the Holy Spirit, it is our inner man that expresses our innermost being to God. There is still much good and exciting that can be said about prayer. But above all, the most important thing is that we spend time with God in prayer. He will teach us and teach us what we need, 1 John 2:27. So my final encouragement and exhortation to you is to spend time daily in prayer to God and also read the book Steps to Answered Prayers by Kenneth E. Hagin.
Amen!
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Source: 'Steps to Answered Prayer' by Kenneth E. Hagin. Excerpt permission granted by Faith Library Publications. Copyright 1998 RHEMA Bible Church AKA Kenneth Hagin Ministries, Inc. All rights reserved. Please visit www.faithlibrary.org for additional materials.
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