Isaiah 40:3–5 KJV
Prayer goes before any work of God and prepares the way. It is, as Isaiah said, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord.
Our prayers license the Holy Spirit to go ahead of us and get our paths ready to walk on. They fill in the pitfalls the Devil has dug for us and bring down the mountainous obstacles he has piled in our way. When prayer has done its work, the plan of God unfolds with such majesty and power that the glory of the Lord is revealed and everybody sees it.
One person who understood that very well was the apostle Paul. He not only prayed for effectual doors of ministry himself, he encouraged other believers to pray for them too. “Be praying for us,” he wrote to the Colossians, “that God would open to us a door for the word” (Colossians 4:3).
The prayers offered up by Paul and the believers who prayed for him are what opened for him such an “effectual” door in Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:9). The Greek word translated effectual can also be translated working.1 It’s one of the four big energy words of the Bible. It has to do with the active operation of divine power that brings results.
Do you know what’s interesting about Paul’s effectual door in Ephesus?
It took him a while to get it.
According to the book of Acts, when Paul first wanted to go there and preach, he couldn’t. God stopped him. Paul’s ministry team was actually “…forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the Word in Asia” (Acts 16:6).
Can you imagine that? Can you fathom God telling a preacher not to take the Gospel to people who have never heard it?
It’s hard to believe He’d do such a thing. Yet He did because the way hadn’t yet been prepared for Paul to minister to those people. Ephesus wasn’t ready for him.
That ought to be a lesson to us. If we keep trying to do something we believe is God’s will and He doesn’t seem to be helping us, we should check with the Holy Spirit to see what’s wrong. He may be trying to tell us that the field of endeavor we’re trying to enter isn’t ready yet. He might be leading us to stop pushing our way into it and do more praying instead.
He might be telling us to wait for an effectual door!
1Excerpted from Blue Letter Bible. “Dictionary and Word Search for ‘effectual’ in the KJV”. Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2010. 8 Apr 2010. (http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/translationResults.cfm?Criteria=effectual&t=KJV)
Scripture Reading: Acts 16:6–34
Source: Devotions for the Praying Heart by Lynne Hammond.
Excerpt permission granted by Lynne Hammond Ministries
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!”