The Seven Essentials of a Productive Prayer Life
Prayer • Sermon • Submitted • 1:00:42
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There are seven essential elements that should be included in every prayer offered to God: (1) confession, (2) Filling of the Spirit, (3) faith, (4) worship, (5) thanksgiving, (6) intercession, and (7) petition.
Once becoming a child of God and establishing access to the Father in prayer, it is vital that a believer consistently practice the seven essential elements to a prayer.
In other words, we must always be consciously aware of the seven elements to a prayer and must practice them as part of our prayers if we ever hope to experience a productive prayer life.
Confession of sin is the first essential element to a healthy and productive prayer; since, without it, the believer cannot have fellowship with God, which results in not having one’s prayer received by God, let alone receiving an answer to one’s prayer.
Fellowship with the Lord demands that the believer confess any known sin to the Father when necessary in order to be restored to fellowship.
Maintaining that fellowship is accomplished by obedience to the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Holy Spirit through the communication of the Word of God.
Psalm 66:18 If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear. (NASB95)
1 John 1:9 If any of us does confess our sins, then, He [God the Father] is faithful and just with the result that He forgives us our sins and He purifies us from each and every wrongdoing. (My translation)
After confessing our sins to the Father, we are automatically restored to fellowship with Him.
Fellowship is maintained by obeying the Word of God, which constitutes the second essential element—being filled or influenced by means of the Spirit.
Our prayers are empty requests if not inspired or influenced by the Spirit.
Therefore, after confessing our sins, we are to obey the Word of God and in particular, we are commanded to bring our thoughts into obedience to Christ, which constitutes obeying the commands to be filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18) and to let the Word of Christ richly dwell in our souls (Col 3:16).
Both will result in us experiencing fellowship with God.
The commands are synonymous, since each bears the same results: fellowship with the Father.
Ephesians 5:18 And do not permit yourselves to get into the habit of being drunk with wine because that is non-sensical behavior, but rather permit yourselves on a habitual basis to be filled by means of the Spirit. (Author’s translation)
Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (NASB95)
The commands, “be filled by means of the Spirit” and “let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you,” are synonymous because the Holy Spirit speaks to the believer through the communication of the Word of God regarding the Father’s character and nature, will, provision for doing His will, and consequences for not doing His will (Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 29).
The third essential element, therefore, is demonstrating faith that God will hear and answer our prayers (James 1:5-7).
Matthew 21:22 And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive. (NASB95)
Answered prayer requires faith and is thus an expression of confidence in God’s ability to meet one’s need (Matt. 8:10; Luke 7:9; Matt. 9:22; Mark 5:34; Luke 8:48; Matt. 9:29; 17:20; Luke 17:5; Mark 9:29; Matt. 21:22; Mark 11:24; 1 John 3:21-22; James 1:5-8; 5:15).
As we have noted, the worship and reverence of God is the fourth essential part to an effective, productive, and joyful prayer (Phi 4:6).
Prayer is a means by which the believer can worship, adore, and revere God.
To worship is to adore God, as the Holy Spirit reveals Him in the Scriptures and through the person of Christ.
It is the act of paying honor and reverence to God, and it derives from love. Where there is little love, there is little worship.
Worship is the loving ascription of praise to God for whom and what He is. It is the bowing of the soul and spirit in deep humility and admiration before Him (Psalm 2:11-12).
The believer is to worship the Father spiritually by means of truth, i.e. the Word of God (John 4:23-24).
The church ’s destiny is to worship the Lord, as revealed in Revelation 4-5.
The Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples that the second part of a prayer is the worship, reverence, honor, and respect for the Father.
Luke 11:1 It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” 2 And He said to them, “When you pray [proseuchomai], say ‘Father, hallowed [hagiazo: to revere, honor and respect] be Your name [onoma: the person and character of God]. Your kingdom come.’” (NASB95)
“Hallowed” is the verb hagiazo and literally means, “may your person be revered, honored, and respected.”
To hallow God’s name means to worship His person.
Not only is thanksgiving is a characteristic of a productive prayer life but it is also an essential element of a prayer (John 6:11; Rom. 1:8; 6:17; 7:25; 1 Cor. 1:4; 11:24; 15:57; 2 Co 2:14; 4:15; 8:16; 9:11; Eph. 1:15-16; 5:4; 5:20; Phlp. 1:3; Col. 2:7; 3:15; 1 Thess. 1:2; 2:13; 2 Thess. 1:3; 2:13; Phlm. 4).
Colossians 4:2 Each of you must continue to make it your habit of being dedicated to persevering in prayer while at the same time continuing to exist in a state of being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. (My translation)
Ephesians 6:18 By means of every kind of specific detailed reverential prayer requests, all of you make it your habit to pray at each and every opportunity while in fellowship with the Spirit. Now, for this very purpose, all of you make it your habit to stay alert (in prayer) with every kind of persistent specific detailed requests with regards to each and every one of the saints. (My translation)
The sixth essential element to a prayer is intercession, which means to pray for both the temporal and spiritual needs of believers and unbelievers, friends and enemies (Luke 23:34; Eph 1:16-23; 3:14-19; 6:18; 1 Ti 2:1-4).
Intercessory prayer refers to praying for both the temporal and spiritual needs of believers and unbelievers, friends and enemies (Luke 23:34; Eph 1:16-23; 3:14-19; 6:18; 1 Ti 2:1-4).
It is an expression of the love of God in our lives and, therefore, directly relates to what the Scriptures teach on love.
Intercessory prayer is a function of the church-age believer’s royal priesthood, which allows the believer to represent himself in prayer before the Father.
God calls every church-age believer to intercede on behalf of all men, especially one’s fellow believers, since every church-age believer is a royal priest.
The seventh and final essential part to a productive prayer is petition.
A petition is a prayer request for your own particular spiritual and temporal needs (Rom. 1:10; 2 Cor. 12:8; 1 Thess. 3:10; Heb. 4:16).
God encourages us to pray for our own needs because it teaches us to depend upon Him and His wonderful provisions.
Psalm 55:22 Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. (NASB95)
Psalm 142:2 I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare my trouble before Him. (NASB95)
1 Peter 5:6-7 encourages us to claim God’s promises and trust in them to combat any fear or worry in our lives.
1 Peter 5:6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. (NASB95)