I love to pray.
If you know much about me at all, you know that. It thrills me when the presence of God floods the prayer meeting and we all have a wonderful time in the Lord. I’m almost always the first one to rejoice about it. I’m the first one to say, “Wow! We really prayed tonight, didn’t we? We had a glorious time!”
But as much as I love good prayer meetings, here’s a truth I believe we all need to understand: the glory isn’t just in our praying. The glory is in the results we get when we pray.
If we’re not getting results, if we’re not receiving answers to our prayers, we’re not praying the way God intended. We can have goose bumps galore. We can pray the most spiritual sounding prayers you ever heard. But that’s no indication we’re hitting the mark.
When we hit the mark, we see results.
“But, Lynne,” somebody might say, “Haven’t you seen results from your prayers?”
Certainly, I have. Over the years, we’ve seen some marvelous results and I’m grateful for them. But I’m not satisfied yet. I want to see more results in the coming days than I’ve ever seen before. I want to see more answers to my prayers.
What’s going to bring those answers?
Some people would tell us that simply praying more will do it. “Pray two hours a day instead of an hour,” they’d say. “Pray all night! That will move God and convince Him to give you the answers you need.”
That may sound right but actually it’s wrong.
Praying isn’t what moves God. It’s faith that moves God. If we want to see more results from our prayers, the key isn’t praying more—it’s praying with more faith. So this week, let’s focus on building our faith.
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 11:1 – 12
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!”