How To Develop A Powerful Prayer Life

It is possible for a believer to develop a powerful prayer life. In this article, find out how to develop a powerful prayer life & end prayerlessness

We ought to know we must pray and take conscious decisions to ensure our prayers come with the needed power for effectiveness.

What is the point praying when the prayers carry no power and causes no effect?

Prayer was never designed to be a weak, dry and unfruitful enterprise. It is expected to be the womb of possibilities.

The Bible in James 5:16 says that "...the earnest prayer of a righteous man has great power and wonderful results." (Living Bible).

This means at every point in time, our prayers ought to carry a dose of power. Hence power is an integral component which should be found in our prayers.

While it is important to see prayers as the believer's lifestyle and culture and develop a consistent prayer life, we should have this in mind – prayer ought to carry power.

Why Is This Important?

The language of the world today is power and everyone that will get a chance at surviving must speak it.

The church must speak power else the gates of hell will prevail and trample her underfoot.

The world systems are governed by powers stationed at high quarters and if the church of God will triumph, she will need to understand and speak power.

And one of the ways the church can begin to respond with power is when we begin to engage the Monarch of Zion in powerful prayers.

Prayers backed by much power is our foremost tool for survival and we need to excel in it.

This makes the question of how to develop a powerful prayer life an important one.

I trust that with this article, we would all see the need to develop a powerful prayer life and how to develop one.

After reading this, I urge you to practice them, so that we can begin to make much power available by the instrumentality of prayers.

Without further ado, let me show you seven (7) ways I believe would help anyone develop a powerful prayer life.

It is quite a long reading about 12 minutes approximately. So get a cup of your favourite drink and sip as you read.

1. Understanding What Prayer Is.

In this kingdom, knowledge alone is not power – understanding and knowledge births power.

An understanding of what prayer is which I am about to share will spur you into making much power available by prayer.

There quite a lot of definitions around on what prayer is and I do not intend to heap another on you but I may need to.

As touching developing a powerful prayer life, prayer is the awareness, the realization of our helplessness and inability and the volition to make an appeal to the One seated in the heavens for help.

For instance, I want to purchase a laptop which costs about $131 and all I have is $13. I would not be able to purchase it right?

Yes.

But then I have a friend who can give me and is willing to give me the $131. I then go to him, knowing he'd give it to me and most definitely he does.

This is what prayer is in this context. As humans we are unable to do accomplish anything by our power. So, we look to God for help.

On our own, we lack the sufficiency to withstand the turbulence of life and its challenges. But we go to God, in whom we can find peace, comfort and stamina.

In Luke 11:9 Jesus reveals a profound truth to us. He says: 

"... Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you." 

There is a rule even God can not break. That rule is "We must ask and God must answer."

This consciousness and understanding is important when we pray. You know you are praying to someone who is under obligation to answer you.

Furthermore, in John 14:16, Jesus still assures us saying:

"If ye ask anything in my name, I will do it." 

Anything my friend is anything. Oh how lucky we are? The All-Mighty God is ever ready to answer only if men will take up the volition to ask.

2. Understand Who God Is.

The second point on how to develop a powerful prayer life is to understand who God is.

I touched a bit of this in point number 1 but I still feel like adding more emphasis.

Aside God being obligated and willing to answer us, we need to know that He is able to answer.

There are three things here to digest.

• The first is God is OBLIGATED to answer.
• The second is God is WILLING to answer.
• The third is God is ABLE to answer.

No matter the nature of the request, we rest and bank in the assurance that our God is able to answer us when we pray.

In Ephesians 3:20, Apostle Paul said:

"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,"

The implication of this verse is that God is not just able to do what we ask. He can do more than what we ask – there's no limitation with our God.

It does not end there folks. He is able to do what we think. He is capable of doing more than what we can imagine.

Our minds are too small to articulate the scope of the things God is able to do.

He told the prophet Jeremiah, 

"Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me? – Jeremiah 32:27

Our God is not only willing to answer but capable of answering. There are no limitations with Him. He is called Omnipotent that is All-Powerful.

With this in mind, you do not pray like a disadvantaged fellow. You pray like someone who has a Father that is very much able to answer.

3. Pray In Accordance To The Will of God

This is one often neglected principle for praying effectively which is also essential for developing a powerful prayer life – praying the will of God.

As much as God is able to answer and willing to, He will not always answer. This is why.

Prayer in itself is not powerful except the will of God is captured in it.

For emphasis I would say that again: prayer is powerful only when the will of God is fully articulated in it.

One of the reasons why we pray and do not receive answers is because we pray what I like to call selfish prayers.

Selfish prayers are prayers that capture only our wants, needs and desires without any provision for God's.

Note this: God has needs and prayer is a tool given to us to meet and satisfy God's needs and purposes on the earth.

In Jesus' model of prayer recorded in the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 6, Jesus taught that after hallowing the name of God, the next thing we do is to give expression to the will of God.

He says "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done." (Matthew 6:10). It is God's desire to see His kingdom established on Earth and that His will and counsel are entrenched.

Prayer is our way of actualizing that. True and powerful prayer is about entrenching God's will and kingdom on the earth. So that as it is in heaven so it will be on Earth.

Until we begin to capture the needs of God in our prayers, we would not make any power available.

Power is derivative of praying the will of God. We command power to the degree of our usage of prayer to achieve God's purposes and intent.

James sheds more light on this discourse. He says:

"You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it on your lusts." – James 4:3

If all you pray about is satisfaction for your needs and wants you will never be able to develop a powerful prayer life.

God will not be able to entrust any thing meaningful into your hands. He won't give you His power when all you care about is your selfish desires.

Apostle John further perfects this in 1 John 5:14

"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us:"

Our ticket to answers from God is asking in accordance to His will. 

It is quite unfortunate that many believers care about what they can get from God only.

They are completely oblivious that prayer is supposed to be a tool for enforcing the kingdom of God.

It is this orientation that has made the Body of Christ today weak and beggarly brought under the subjugation and suppression of darkness.

We must redefine and adjust our opinions on prayer. It is high time we retracted back to the scriptures and carefully examine what prayer was originally intended for.

A powerful prayer life is only feasible when prayers capturing the will of God are offered to God.

4. Live A Holy Life 

In my article on How To Develop A Consistent Prayer Life, I mentioned that Holiness is a vital posture for prayers.

Aside being a requirement for entering heaven, Holiness is quintessential for developing a powerful prayer life.

Prayer and sin are like water and oil – impossible for them to mix. A sinner can not pray let alone develop a powerful prayer life.

Every believer who intends to have power over Satan and walk in the victory Christ has procured must resolve to live holy and pure.

God considers the prayers of sinners an abomination to Him. Prayer offered from the a life soaked in sin brings bad, offensive incense to God.

It is utterly impossible to have any dealings with God without Holiness. And power as a gift from God can only be apprehended in holines and purity. 

Only by prayers from a pure heart can we lift up incense to God and be able to trap His power to rule the earth.

5. Consistency is Key To Develop A Powerful Prayer Life

Consistency is unarguably the principle to harnessing the power of any given phenomenon. It doesn't matter what drives and operates it.

To become good at anything, you must do that thing on a consistent basis. Prayer like every other art can be mastered and it is possible only be consistent, persistent practice.

A believer who does part-time prayers will never come into the plains of power in prayer.

God will not be careless to entrust a prayerless Christian with something as precious as power. 

Remember my definition of prayer earlier on? Where I said, prayer is the realization of our helplessness and inability and the volition to appeal to someone for help.

Now let me show you how consistent prayers works in developing a powerful prayer life.

The prophet Elijah had just ended a contest with 450 prophets of Baal. Before hand, he had locked the heavens and for 3½ years there was no rain in Israel.

The contest being over, prophet Elijah slayed every single one of the prophets of Baal. He instructed King Ahab to get up and eat assuring him of a torrential downpour.

Elijah climbed up Mount Carmel and casting himself down, he put his head between his knees – he prayed.

After a while, he asked his servant to go check the skies for a sign. The servant returned bearing a negative response.

Elijah was not deterred as he continued seven times sending his servant who kept coming back with negative responses.

Typical of many of us, we would give up, stop praying and quote the usual "What will be, will be." Unfortunately, what will be, will not be, except you make it happen.

End that deceit of allowing life or the universe play out on its own. Command and enforce what you want to see by prayers.

At the seventh time, Elijah's servant returned with some cheering and comforting news saying "Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand." (1 Kings 18:43)

By consistency, Elijah was able to invoke a dimension of power in prayers. Dear reader, God is not deaf, He will answer, you may need to trouble Him some more.

When James tried to explain the power we make available by prayer in James 5:16, 17, there was no better example than Elijah.

God may delay in responding like Elijah's experience teaches us. But eventually, by consistent prayers, we can get Him to respond.

I explained this point in The Right Attitude To Prayer".

6. Pray With The Word 

Prayer and the word of God are two inseparable sides of a coin. You can not separate prayers from God's word and the word from prayers.

I love to use this analogy when I try to explain the relationship between prayer and the word.

A gun without bullet can not inflict much damage. A bullet also is just a piece of metal capable of almost nothing.

But when a bullet is loaded on to a gun, the collective impact can be ravaging. That is prayer and the word.

Prayer is the gun. The word is the bullet you load onto the gun. In self-isolation they can not yield maximum impact. But in their combined state, they are powerful tools.

Trying to choose one over the other or substituting one for the other is like saying I would only breathe in and not breathe out.

Whether you want it or not, you survive by breathing in and out. No one stays alive by breathing in without breathing out.

Prayer and the word is like breathing in and out. You can use one and be powerful. They must be combined.

The Apostles were men of great understanding in this matters. When they had to choose either to undertake the noble cause of serving tables and ministerial work.

They choose the more noble venture. They said "But we will give ourselves continually to prayers and the ministry of the word." – Acts 6:4

Stop trying to neglect Bible study because you feel prayer makes you more spiritual. They are important together.

You will find prayer boring unless you have God's word locked up in your inside. Don't you think the reason why you labour so much to pray is because you don't study?

Desist from substituting the word of God for prayers. To develop a powerful prayer life, dearly beloved, you must pray with the word.

7. Submit and Partner With The Holy Spirit

Last but not the least on how to develop a powerful prayer life is to submit and partner with God's Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit is our helper and an important aid for praying effectively. You may need to read "Who Do We Pray To: God the Father, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, Angels or Mary?"

Powerful prayers are sponsored by the Holy Spirit and anyone who wants to have a powerful prayer life must partner with the Spirit.

Power is actually resident in God's spirit and to have access to it, you must yield in total submission to the Spirit of God and His government.

It is very important to note that prayer is a spiritual function and its power and effectiveness comes from partnership with the Holy Spirit.

It will be foolish for anyone to think they can pray by themselves. Jesus said in John 6:63 "...the flesh profits nothing..." (Paraphrased).

Praying by the energy of the flesh is never profitable. This is why David prayed in Psalms 80:18 

"So will not we depart from thee, quicken us and we would call on your name."

No matter the level of zeal and enthusiasm you have for prayer, to pray effectively, we must be quickened by God's Spirit.

You may be strong and feel your energy can make you pray therefore you do not need quickening. You may need to rethink after reading what Romans 8:26 says: 

"Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."

Even though you think you have the strength to pray, you do not know how to pray. This weakness is why the Spirit supplies strength to help you pray.

To develop a powerful prayer life, you need to partner with the Holy Spirit to help you pray. Without Him, the energy source of prayer is gone.

Why not cry out today for the baptism of the Holy Spirit if you have not been filled before?

He says He will pour out His Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28 Paraphrased). Ask for the baptism of God's Spirit even today.

And if you have been baptized, why not allow Him help you pray by saying "Spirit of God, help me pray. I am insufficient in my self."

God is able to make all grace abound towards us. I see His church becoming stronger and being more empowered to withstand darkness.

We all can have powerful prayer lives. We can all make tremendous power available when we pray.

Developing a powerful prayer life is not a fairy tale. But a reality, a possibility in God. We must keep pressing and travailing in prayers till we touch His essence.

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