Does Prayer Do Any Good?
Prayer is important, it makes a difference, it does things
that nothing else can. However, if after spending several
hours in your place of prayer you expect the world to be
completely transformed as soon as you say amen, you may be
disappointed. Does prayer do any good? Does spending time in
prayer accomplish anything? The answer is yes, it does as much
good as prayer can do. When you pray effectual, fervent
prayers they make a difference.
Prayer does what prayer
can do, whether it's your prayers or my prayers. As long as we
pray scripturally, in Jesus' name, our prayers do a lot of
good. Paul's prayers for the church must have made a
difference or surely he wouldn't have spent so much time
praying and talking about prayer. Jesus prayed for the
disciples, they must have benefitted from those prayers or
Jesus wouldn't have wasted His time. Prayer makes a
difference!
Prayer does however, have boundaries. It
can't do everything and it's not supposed to do everything,
but it does accomplish things that nothing else can. It is
easy to become frustrated and disappointed when trying to get
prayer to do things that it cannot do by itself. People who
think that prayer can do everything, all the time, no matter
what, have unrealistic expectations. When these expectations
are not met they can become discouraged and some have given up
on prayer altogether. Just remember, prayer does as much good
as prayer can do. James said that your prayers and my prayers
avail much!
The subject of prayer is almost as big as
God Himself and I don't pretend to know all there is to know
about it, I'm just a beginner. So this teaching is only
designed to help you in your prayer life, to point out that
even prayer has boundaries and maybe save you some time or the
frustration of trying to get prayer to do something that it
cannot do.
For example, you cannot pray for anything
under the sun. Some things are just not scriptural, some
things are illegal or immoral. However, you can pray "about"
anything and you can pray "always," so in that sense prayer
has no boundaries. There is also no limit to how much you can
worship and praise God. We need to be aware that there are
some things that only prayer can do and there are some things
that prayer alone cannot do, especially when it comes to
praying for other people.
Let's look at some things that prayer
CANNOT do:
1. It can't override another person's will.
God respects man's free will and prayer cannot be used to
control the actions of another person any more than God exerts
His power to control people. There is a difference between
control and influence. Our prayers certainly allow God to
influence people or move on them and open their eyes, but
ultimately man has the right to choose his own destiny.
2. Prayer cannot force someone to be saved.
3. Prayer cannot change every situation instantly or fix every
problem regardless of what it is.
Prayer is not a magic wand that we wave to change things. Some
situations are caused because natural or spiritual laws have
been violated. Prayer does not always supercede natural laws,
especially when it's within a person's ability to obey them.
If someone refuses to drink liquids for days and days they
will eventually die. All the prayer in the world will not save
them. If someone jumps out of an airplane with no parachute
they will die, with or without prayer, unless the plane is on
the ground. Prayer does not allow people to do whatever they
feel like doing and get away with it. There are laws that
everyone has to obey or they will suffer the consequences.
4. Prayer does not change God's will or make Him more willing
to do something that is not His will.
He changes not. Prayer is partnership with God. It is
releasing God to do His will in the earth. 1John 5:14-15 “…If
we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we
know He hears us whatever we ask, we know that we have the
petitions He that we have asked of Him.”
5. It's a waste of time to pray for things you already have.
You already have righteousness if you're a Christian. You
don't have to pray for it. You have victory, healing,
authority… Asking God to do something He's already done is
frustrating.
6. You don't need to ask God to do something about the enemy.
Satan is already defeated and you have authority over him.
Nowhere in the new testament do we see believers praying that
God would do something about the Devil. He has given authority
to the church. We don't have to pray for it we just need to
exercise it. The bible says believers are to resist the devil,
cast out devils, give no place to the devil…It never says pray
about the enemy, that would be a waste of time.
7. Faithless prayers do not work.
James 1:7 says this about the man who prays, “Let not that man
(who prays in unbelief) suppose that he shall receive anything
from the Lord.”
8. Prayer does not override disobedience.
Sometimes people are praying for a financial miracle and the
reason they are in trouble is because they are not doing what
they're supposed to do. If you're in the wrong place or doing
something other than what God has told you to do, that can
create problems in many areas, finances included. What is
needed in this situation is obedience, not just money or
prayers for more money.
The truth is, God has already
provided everything we need through redemption. If everyone on
earth always acted on the Word of God instantly when they
heard it, there would be very little need to pray for other
people. We could just preach the Word and as soon as anyone
heard it they would receive what God had provided. However,
it's a little more complex than that. People don't always
instantly act on the Word and they suffer through life without
enjoying the blessings of God. What else can we do? Do we just
wait until they wise up and realize we were right? No, we can
pray. As I have studied the prayers in the new testament, it
seems that they were used primarily to influence people to get
them into position to receive what God had already provided or
to do what God was calling them to do.
Now let's look
at some things prayer for others
CAN do:
1. Prayers for others can release God's Spirit to open the
eyes of their understanding, so when they hear the Word it
becomes a revelation to their spirit.
Eph 4:18 says of the unsaved, “having their understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the
ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their
heart.” Preaching the Word alone may not impact these people
because of their blindness, but prayer can be offered and God
can then open their eyes in a way that He might not have been
able to before prayer was made.
Paul prayed this way
for Christians in Eph 1:17-18, “that God…may give to you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may
know…” This prayer must have made a difference or Paul
wouldn't have taken the time to pray. If it made difference
for them it will still make a difference for us today. It
seems redundant to ask God to save people after all He has
done to provide salvation for the world, but we can ask God to
help people see the truth when they hear it. Getting people to
see what God has already done for them is probably the
greatest need in the world today.
2. Prayer can make wisdom available so people can walk in the
will of God and be fruitful.
Paul prayed for the Colossians in Col 1:9-10 “that you may be
filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and
spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord,
fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work…”
3. Prayer can enable people to do “all” the will of God.
“Epaphras who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets
you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you
may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” (Col
4:12) It must be possible to only do a part of God's will.
Prayer must allow God to do more to help people who are
serving Him than He could otherwise. We should pray for those
among us who have assignments from God that they complete
their mission for the kingdom. Some may not succeed without
the prayers of the saints.
4. Prayer can cause the ministry gifts to be more effective.
If they are more effective with prayer then they can be less
effective without it. Paul asked for prayer in Col 4:3-4:
“Praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the
word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in
chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.”
5. Prayer can deliver people from ungodly situations.
“Pray for us...that we may be delivered from unreasonable and
wicked men…” (2Thess 3:1-2)
6. Prayer can influence the leaders and rulers of nations and
affect the way they govern.
Read 1 Tim 2:1.
7. Prayer can make us more sensitive to the needs of others
and help us see the world through God's eyes.
Does prayer do any good? The bible says, “The effective,
fervent prayers of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16)
We can become partners with God through prayer and release Him
to influence people and nations. The world is a better place
when you pray!
This message is included in my new series “Get
Your Vision Back”. This series contains the truths that
God revealed to me during my time off and since. These
teachings are not just messages, they are revelations that
have blessed me immeasurably. These truths have helped me to
come back stronger than ever and caused me to be better
equipped to face the challenges of life and ministry, I
believe they will help you like they have me.
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