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There is so much said about prayer these days that it can be almost confusing. One person may say one thing and another may say something that seems very different.

In the light of everything that's been taught about prayer, how will you ever know when you get it right?

When it comes to prayer, you'll know you're getting it right by the results you get. When you receive what you ask for, you'll know you hit the mark. When you don't, you'll know that somehow, somewhere along the way you missed it.

I know that's true because Jesus is our standard. He knew how to pray perfectly and his prayers were 100 percent successful. He received everything He asked for from the Father.

What's more, He set that same standard for us. He said, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7). So when we want to learn to pray more effectively, we don't look what other people are saying and praying. We look to Jesus. We look to the Word.

Three Vital Elements
The Word about prayer I've been looking to lately is this one: "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16).

Notice that verse lists three elements that must be present for prayer to be truly powerful and successful. First, it must be effectual. According to the dictionary, to be effectual means, "to be adequate; to be capable of producing the intended result." In other words, the effectual prayer is the prayer that gets the job done.

Say, for example, you are praying to receive healing in your body, it wouldn't be effectual to pray the prayer of consecration, "Lord, your will be done. Either leave me sick or heal me, whichever you feel is best." That's not the right prayer to pray in that situation because God has already made it clear in His Word that healing is His will. The right prayer for that situation is the prayer of faith, which sounds more like this: "Lord, Your Word says that You are my healer. It says that Jesus bore my sicknesses on the cross and by His stripes I was healed. So I'm asking you to cause that healing to manifest in my body. I believe I receive it now, in Jesus Name."

On the other hand, if you're about to apply for a particular job and you are unsure if it's the one God has in mind for you, you won't want to pray the prayer of faith believing you receive that job. No, that prayer isn't capable of getting the job done in that situation. The effectual prayer at that time would be the prayer of consecration, "Your will be done, Lord."

The second element that must be present in successful prayer is fervency. To be fervent means to have strong desire for something. A fervent prayer isn't just a casual, little "Oh, bless him Lord" kind of prayer. It's a prayer that comes from the depths of a heart that is desperate to receive what it is asking for.

The third element necessary for successful prayer is a sense of righteousness. To enter into the presence of the Lord boldly and present your petition to Him in faith, you have to come not as a sinner but as a blood-washed child of Almighty God. You have to be conscious of your position in Christ and the right that position gives you to come boldly before the throne of God.

Each one of these elements are important, yet none of them by themselves will bring the full measure of success. They have to be working together if they're going to make "tremendous power available, dynamic in its working" (James 5:16).

You could pray the right prayer at the right time, but that prayer prayed from a cold heart won't hit the mark. You can pray the right prayer from a fervent heart but if your conscience is accusing you and you don't have any confidence before God, once again, that prayer will fall short.

When all three of these elements are in place, however, all hell can't stop that prayer from producing results. You will have what you asked. Absolutely. Every time.

Finding the Right Note
How can you get all those things all working for you in prayer? You have to get tuned up spiritually. You have to have your heart tuned to heaven. Too many times we try to pray without bothering to doing that. As a result, we sound like an orchestra playing along with all the instruments in a different key.

Have you ever heard an orchestra tuning up before a concert begins? They're hitting a variety of pitches and instead of harmonizing they're all clashing with one another. If you didn't know what they were doing you might think, "I paid good money for this and it is terrible!"

No doubt that's what some of our prayers sound like to the ears of God.

At times, we've tried to fix the situation by listening to someone else pray and trying to make our prayers like each other's. But that's not how things work. Orchestra players don't tune their instruments to each other. They tune their instrument to one standard note.

So it is with our prayer life. We don't practice tuning to each other, we tune ourselves to Jesus. We turn our hearts toward Him. When He is our standard note in prayer, everything comes out right.

Exactly how do we tune ourselves to Him? Look at John 15:7 again and you'll see. There Jesus said, "If ye abide in me, and me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." Notice Jesus instruction to us there was to abide. He didn't say to take a weekend off to fast and pray. He didn't say to go to a convention and hear the Word and then forget about it when you get home. No, He said abide.

To abide means to stay in a given place, to dwell continually, to endure or remain. To abide in Jesus is to make Him your dwelling place. When you wake up in the morning you're thinking about Him and His Words. All day long you're thinking about Him and fellowshipping with Him. At night, when you go to sleep you are communing with Him.

Making Adjustments
Some people hear that and think, Well then, I guess I'd better get myself straightened out before I start trying to pray. No, on the contrary, if you'll get busy praying, that praying will help you get yourself straightened out. As your prayer life tunes up, the rest of your life will be tuned up as well. Prayer doesn't just change things. Prayer changes us!

He is drawing you closer and closer to Himself, tuning your heart to His own so that through your prayers you are speaking out not your own desires but the desires of His heart. Actually, if you'll study the word, you'll become so intertwined with God that it will no longer be just you asking. It's Him asking.

When you begin to fellowship with God continually in the Word and in prayer, a lot of negative things in your life will just drop away. Sinful things will disappear first. As 1 John 3:6 says, "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him."

In other words, nobody that knowingly, habitually practices sin, has ever really been close to God. They couldn't because when you get close to God, He is constantly dealing with you! He's reminding you of what the Bible says and talking to you about getting your life in line with it. When you are abiding in Jesus and His Words are living in you, those Words will talk to you all the time about those kinds of situations. They'll keep your life tuned up.

Learning What Bugs and What Blesses
God won't limit Himself to dealing with you only about sinful things either. He'll go much farther than that.

First John 3:22 says, "Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight." Notice that verse lists two separate reasons for answered prayer there. He says that we obey God's commandments. In other words, we don't practice sin. And it also says we do those things that are pleasing to Him.

Did you know there are things that aren't specifically listed in the Bible as sin yet they are not pleasing to God? There are also things that aren't specifically listed as commands, yet God wants us to do them because they please Him.

The more you walk with God, the more He will talk to you about those things. The better you get to know Him, the more you'll know about what bothers Him and what delights Him. You will begin to change little things you do and say. You tune yourself to Him. His will and His good pleasure becomes the standard by which you live.

If you're abiding in Him, you're not just going to pray in times of personal crisis or need. You're not just going to pray as a last resort. You'll be praying all the time. What kinds of prayers will you be praying? The James 5:16 kind. Prayers that make much power available. Holy Ghost anointed, Spirit-led prayers that are effectual, fervent, and that spring from a righteous heart.

And when you're praying like that, you can have 100 percent success. Just like Jesus.

Copyright © Mac Hammond Ministries
All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Author Biography

Lynne Hammond
Web site: Lynne Hammond Ministries
 
A teacher and an author, Lynne publishes a newsletter called Prayer Notes, has written numerous books, and currently serves as the national prayer director for Daughters for Zion. Her passion for inspiring and leading others into the life of Spirit-led prayer continues to take her around the world to minister to believers whose heart cry, like hers, is “Lord, teach me to pray!”
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