When we abide in Jesus, His Words come alive in our hearts. He quickens specific Words to us by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes He puts a particular verse on the inside of us. As we fellowship with Him over those Words, somehow He cooks them up and expands them inside us until they become an outflow of prayer. They become the perfect spiritual weapon for the prayer battle we are facing. They become the exact tool we need to accomplish what God wants us to do.
People who don’t know much about prayer might say that we don’t need such specific Words. They say any scripture will do. But they’re mistaken. Spiritual tools are just like natural tools. We get much better results when we use the one specifically suited for the task at hand.
I remember a while ago when I went to a store that specializes in cooking utensils and I bought a gizmo that peels and slices tomatoes. Prior to that, I’d been using an ordinary knife to do that, and I was pretty good with it. But do you know what I discovered? I discovered that the knife couldn’t do what that wonderful tomato peeler could do. The tomato peeler was the perfect tool for the job!
In the same way, the Holy Spirit has the perfect tool for every prayer assignment. He has specific Words and revelations that will give us the victory. But sometimes we don’t abide in Him long enough to receive them. Instead, we try to use the Word that God quickened to us last year. We reach into our spiritual closet, grab the revelation He gave us for our previous prayer assignment, and start using it. But if we’re alert, we’ll notice there’s no life in it. Even though it’s still true, that Word isn’t abiding in us in a way that produces a living current of prayer.
When that happens, we need to follow Joshua’s example. We need to spend time deep in the ravine of God’s Word. We need to abide in Jesus, draw fresh life from Him, and let Him increase us on the inside.
If we will do that, God can use our prayers to save lives, win battles, and stop Satan’s armies. He can lift us to new heights so we can take ever greater territories and win ever more glorious victories through the power of prayer.
On the chilly March night in 1972 when Lynne Hammond took her first step into a life of Spirit-led prayer, she had no idea what was about to happen. All she knew was the hunger in her heart for God wouldn’t let her sleep. In the few short months she’d been born again, her desire to fellowship with Him had grown so strong she could hardly contain it. “Help me, God!” she cried. “I want to know you. I want to be able to talk to you. Please, teach me to pray!”
Suddenly, a heavenly presence flooded the room. Lynne sensed waves of spiritual fire sweeping over her and a beautiful language began to flow like a river from within her. Although she’d never heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, she knew instantly, without a doubt—this was God!
What began that night soon blossomed into a life of prayer that ultimately became a ministry of prayer when, in 1980, Lynne and her husband, Mac, founded Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Under Lynne’s leadership, the prayer ministry at Living Word has become an internationally recognized model for developing effective pray-ers in the local church.
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!”