Edited by Joseph Frankovic

We often talk about prayer in church but seldom do anything about it in practice. Therefore, I want to discuss the importance of prayer for every believer.

In Hebrew, prayer is tefilah. When a person says, "I pray" in Hebrew, he says, "ani mitpalel." There are other words that mean prayer in Hebrew but tefilah is the most comon. In Hebrew, when we say that we are having a worship service, we say, "anaknuh mitpalelim," or in English, "We are having prayer." This means a time during which we gather and pray together as a congregation.

Prayer is an activity which everyone, no matter what his or her background, can understand. It is an activity in which everyone can participate. It is a powerful form of communication between God and the individual and also communicates a sense of oneness between individuals who share a common faith in God.

Several Years ago we had a special service with a number of people present who were not believers in Jesus as Messiah, but were Jewish friends from many parts of the city. Because there were both Jews and Christians in the audience, I pondered long about what I should say from the pulpit. I came to the conclusion that the word "prayer" would be a good choice. The reaction from the crowd was very interesting. I could feel a tremendous, sincere response from all that were present---from the Jewish guests as well as from the Christians. Both groups believed in the importance of prayer; but he had experienced God in prayer. Prayer is a powerful common denominator of the two faiths.

Prayer means something a little different to a member of the Jewish faith than to a Christian. One of the major functions of a synagogue today, although this was not exactly the case in Jesus' day, is as a house of prayer. Prayer is central to the worship service of a synagogue. The prayers are written out in liturgical form, and the people pray them again and again. This has become the main feature of worship in the synagogue. When the sacrifices ceased because of the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70 by the Romans, some of the rabbis, who were mainly of pharisaic background, managed to preserve the Jewish faith by uniting the people around a new role of prayer in the community. They taught that although the temple had been destroyed and sacrifices could no longer be offered. Scripture says that the sacrifices of praise are what God desires. Therefore, to compensate for the loss of the temple, they increased the number of prayers. Occasionally my Jewish friends jest with me and say, "We have too many prayers!" What is significant, however, is that these rabbis picked up on the importance of prayer. They recognized that God looks for prayer, for the open heart, for the person who calls out to him.

One morning, I spoke with a young lady in our Hebrew Bible Class. I asked her if she were a believer like I was, because she had been reading the New Testament. She said, "No, I do not believe that Jesus is Messiah." She was, however, terribly interested in many other things in the Bible including some things in the New Testament. In particular, prayer had affected her. She had attended nearly every kind of Christian worship service in Jerusalem. She was attracted by the various ways which people pray in different churches. My point is that prayer somehow unites our thinking. It is something which Jews and Christians hold in common.

The first point I would like make about prayer is directed primarily to anyone who has not yet had the privilege of meeting God. In my opinion, prayer is that first step which a person takes to know something about the living. It is that initial experience a person has which grows into a relationship with God. The Bible says that God is a living God. He is an active God who communicates with people. If you have never sensed the presence of God or felt something special from him, simply open up your heart, breathe deeply, and begin to speak to God. It is just that simple.

One of the most wonderful things that I have discovered is that so many people from different cultures and different backgrounds have had similar experiences. They can say, "I prayed when I was a child." I sometimes wonder, "How did that person ever pray, if he or she did not have anybody at home telling him or her to pray?" There are many people like this who wee not raised in any kind of religious home, yet as children or young adults thy instinctively know to pray. When people pray instinctively and spontaneously, it is really a testimony to the reality of God.

Perhaps you prayed when you were a child, three-years-old, five-years-old, ten-years-old or whatever. I want to suggest that when you prayed, you already were saying, "I believe." You were making some sort of affirmation about God. You were accepting something deep that is embedded in Scripture, in the very first book of the Bible, in the very first verse: Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamaym ve et haarats! "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth!"

"If an individual can get past that verse," said a famous evangelist many years ago, "he can get past everything else which concerns God." If someone can just get past "In the beginning God," he has gotten something. A person must start wherever he is and prayer is usually that starting point.

My second point relates to something that has amazed me again and again. It is the fact hat God hears the prayers of all kinds of people. Sometime ago a prominent Christian leader made a slip of the tongue, and said that God does not hear the prayers of a Jew. His comment was widely publicized, and this man found that trying to explain exactly what he meant was a little difficult. He probably intended to say that, if a person does not pray in the name of Jesus, that person does not get through to God. But, the truth of the matter is that our God is a God who, if you do not know his name, still hears and answers prayers. In particular, it seems he answers the prayers of children.

One person whom we see from time to time around here in Jerusalem is Abu Musa. He is a believer of Muslim background who lives in Bethany. Abu Musa is an interesting fellow whose culture is a bit different from yours or mine. He has a different worldview and a different set of cultural values. Abu Musa is, however, a tremendous person, and God answers his prayers. He became a believer in Jesus a number of years ago, sometime about 1952.

I like talking with Abu Musa because he has had many unusual and interesting experiences. One time when we were talking, he said, "You know, once as a boy, maybe ten or eleven-years-old, I was riding a donkey along the street. It was a winter day, very cold, and I had no shoes. My feet were becoming colder and colder. I got so cold and desperate that finally I began to cry and say, 'Oh, God, give me some shoes!' Suddenly, I looked down to the ground, and there was a five pound note." Abu Musa was so surprised because he had just uttered, "God, give me some shoes!" What did he do? He jumped off his donkey, grabbed that five-pound note, ran to the shoe store, and got himself a warm pair of shoes. That is a fine example of the way in which God meets people in the area of their need. He listens for people crying out, "God help me!" This is the wonderful joy and confidence that we have that he hears our prayers. He is waiting for us to call upon him.

Some time ago we were at our Sunday evening prayer meeting. I enjoy our meetings very much because we have the opportunity to pray for all sorts of people and all kinds of circumstances. Moreover, week after week we see miracles; we see God touching people---it is a wonderful time!

One night we were sitting together and spontaneously began to sing a couple of choruses. About twenty-five of us were present and we did not know what God was about to do since God does something different each week. It seems he rarely does anything twice the same way. Suddenly, a lady burst in through the door and come into the front room of the Baptist House. I could see that she was excited about something. We stopped singing because she was bursting with emotion and had to speak. So I said, "Sister, is there something you would like to tell us?" She said, "Oh, yes, there is. I saw Jesus---and I am Jewish! I had been struggling with depression. I went into the bathroom and in our bathroom we have to basins. I was standing between them and was crying. I was very upset and did not know what to do with myself. I felt so terrible that I did not want to live any longer. Suddenly, I saw right between these two lavatory basins an impression of a man's face. It began to come forward and to come into focus. There was this face with a beard. I could not tell who it was at first, because I was so astonished. But as the face got clearer and clearer, and rose in front of me, I finally could see that on the top of the head there were some thorns. I said, 'Oh, it is you! It is you!' "

This is a marvelous example of Jesus appearing to a person in the manner he or she conceives him, usually according to pictures that person has seen of him. I know of many stories illustrating this phenomenon in which Jesus has appeared differently to different people. I do not think that in life Jesus looked exactly like this woman described him, but that is beside the point. He reveals himself to us in the way with which we are familiar.

Well, this lady had spoken with our Lord, and that was the reason for her excitement. Today it is two years later, and she still cannot talk about anything, except how she saw Jesus! The Lord is with us in our midst. He wants somehow to make himself know to us. He may do this through a verse of Scripture or he may do it through something that we hear or see. The Lord can communicate to us in any number of different ways, in any number of different places. God wants to meet us, to communicate with us, and that is what prayer is about. Prayer is ultimately about conversing with our Lord.

Think about the two disciples as they went on their way to Emmaus. Do you recall the way in which our Lord conversed with these disciples? That is the perfect model of prayer. Our Lord was there---He is also here. But often when praying, we are making so much noise that we cannot hear Jesus. If we are able to quiet down and listen, we will discover that he wants to tell us something. Very often it is something to correct us. Sometimes he just wants to tell us that he loves us. We can meet the Lord Jesus Christ like those two disciples did on the way to Emmaus. A person does not need a lot of theology. A person does not even have to know the Bible. He or she does not have to know very much of anything. Jesus is there, and he want s to meet all of us, whoever we may be. That is what prayer is all about---walking with Jesus and having a conversation with him. That is glorious! That is beautiful! That is joyous!

This brings us to my third point. Prayer is related to being filled with the Holy Spirit. If you have come to the Lord, and have followed him through the waters of baptism but have not yet found the Holy Spirit in your heart, in you body, working as he desires, then there isd more for you.

We must never forget that being filled with the Spirit means to keep being filled every day. When the great evangelist Dwight L. Moody experienced being filled with the love of the Spirit, he talked about it as a baptism of the Holy Spirit. Sadly, however, at some of the institutions that are named after Moody today, the people have trouble speaking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, Dwight L. Moody believed it. He once said when someone asked him why he was always talking about being filled by the Holy Spirit, "I am like a leaky tank. Day by day, the Holy Spirit leaks out of me, and I have to get filled with the Spirit all over again." I want to make it very clear that this is exactly what Scripture says, "Be ye filled with the Holy Spirit." In the Greek, the tense of the verb is imperfect. The imperfect tense means, "Keep being filled with the Holy Spirit." A person can be filled today and tomorrow be three-quarters empty and in need of getting filled up again. That is what the Bible tells us to do. Prayer is getting filled with the Spirit. The response of the heart, the response of the body when it gets the Holy Spirit inside, literally filling the body, is to pray.

There is a member of my family who had an experience with the Lord long before I did. When she got filled with the Spirit, she put her hand up in the air and could not get them down. She tried, but they would not come down. She could not bring her arms down until the service was over, and some other people were in need of her prayer. The Spirit of God operates in our bodies. Each of us has a body, a voice, and a tongue for the Holy Spirit to use. Prayer is our response to the Holy Spirit digging into us, stirring us up, in order to make us special people.

Being baptized with the Holy Spirit does not have to be a big, emotional thing. Sometimes it is and sometimes it is not. Regardless of the way in which a person is baptized in the Spirit, it is a tremendous blessing. Thus, prayer is allowing ourselves to be filled with the Spirit. It is God's blessed Holy Spirit answering back to God through us. This is the mystery of the Trinity. So9me people say, "Why Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Why are there three persons in the Godhead?" One answer is that there is constant fellowship within God himself. He can get along without you and me, believe it or not. He has inner fellowship that is constant: Father, Son, Holy Spirit---an echo within himself.

My fourth point about prayer has to do with priorities. Prayer is concerned with setting priorities. Let me give an illustration of what I mean. In Luke 10:38-42 there is the story of Mary and Martha. Martha, worried about the affairs of the household, complained to Jesus about Mary, her sister. What did Jesus say? "Martha, you are worried about everything---but only one this is necessary. Mary has chosen that which is good." It may not be clear at first how to understand Jesus' answer. Most of the difficulty arises from the fact that this little story about Mary and Martha is wedged between two other passages with which it has no connection. Before it is the parable of the Good Samaritan and after, the Lord's Prayer. If, however, we read this story in the light of Matthew 6:25-33, Jesus' answer makes good sense. "Do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat or what you shall drink; nor for you body, as to what you shall put on . . . Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap . . . Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil no do they spin ...Do not be anxious then, saying 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'With what shall we clothe ourselves?' . . . Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you" (NASB). Jesus is saying, "Make the first priority in you life God's kingdom, that which God is dong in this earth, that which he wants to accomplish. His righteousness means salvation, or his redemption. The Hebrew word tsedeka, or dikaiosuvae when it is translated to Greek, has the basic meaning of redemption in the Old Testament. Moreover, in this passage the kingdom of God is being equated with his righteousness or redemption. It is a synonymous parallelism. Seeking God's kingdom is the same as seeking his redemptive plan. Jesus is telling us to get our priorities straight. Put God's redemptive plan first, then we can eat and drink, then we can put on whatever we need to wear. But, the very first thing to do, is to get where God is working. We need to be involved wherever God is redeeming people. That is where the kingdom of God is. It may not be your job to be a preacher. It may not be your job to pray for thousands of people to be healed. It may not be your job to be an international evangelist or missionary. But, you do have a job in the kingdom. There is some specific job for you to do in God's redemptive plan. Put that job that you have in the kingdom first! The kingdom comes first! His plan for redeeming people is a priority!

Seeking first the kingdom of God has little to do with "getting saved." That is what a lot of people thing but it does not mean that. Rather, it means getting priorities straight. It means that participating in God's redemptive activities is the major emphasis of my life. Wherever God is in action is where the kingdom of God is. The kingdom of God is where Jesus is doing the Father's redemptive work. If we could only get that straight in our heads! That is the meaning prayer.

Why do I say this? Well, over in the Lord's Prayer Jesus says the same thing. "Our Father Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done." That is the heart of the first part of the Lord's Prayer. Notice the last part of the prayer. For what does it tell us to pray? "Give us our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from the devil." These three things are very important: 1) food, 2) forgiveness, and 3) deliverance. Jesus includes these three items at the end of a short but extremely important prayer. But what we so very often do, and what I find myself tempted to do constantly, is to sit down at the breakfast table and begin to think of all my children, and how I will pray for them---three boys and three girls, all of them married. A lot of my attention is directed toward my grandchildren. It is hard to pray for other things when one has grandchildren. It is hard for me to start a prayer in the morning without thinking first of those grandchildren! On these types of personal concerns is where the focal point of our prayer tends to be. It is so easy to pray in such a self-centered manner. I continually have to say, "Lord, what can I do to get my heart straightened out so that I will pray for you redemptive work, that you will advance you kingdom?"

This brings me to my last points. What is prayer for a mature Christian? Pay close attention to what Jesus says here. He does not say, "Pray first for food, or pray first for deliverance, or pray first for forgiveness." On the contrary, these things are at the bottom of the prayer. This ties in with what he says to Martha: "Martha, you are concerned about everything. But only one thing is necessary." He is saying to Martha, "Put first the kingdom! Put first the business of increasing the number of believers! Put first the big job of getting people to the Lord Jesus Christ!" This is what is really important. This is high priority. The most important thing is not what will happen tomorrow. That is not high priority. The big thing is getting the message of the kingdom of God out to the entire world, getting people involved in what God wants to do.

What is God doing? My children used to say, "What's happening over there? I want to check out what's happening." Wherever it is "happening" is the place where God is penetrating into the natural realm, where he is starting to rule. That is called the kingdom by Jesus. When a believer prays for a person to be delivered of a demon, and that demon goes, that is the kingdom of God. As Jesus says over and over, "The kingdom of God has come upon you." That means that God has taken charge. God has started to rule. Jesus also speaks about the kingdom as his redemptive movement, the thousands, even millions of people who are to come to acknowledge him, all the people who will follow him. These people constitute his kingdom. Being a part of the kingdom is what is really important. We must put first the kingdom, what God is trying to do through people who have made Jesus their king.

There are two important words to which I want to call attention. One is "cooperation." The Lord's Prayer does not begin, "Lord, make your kingdom big" or anything like that. It begins like other ancient Jewish prayers. It starts out, "Hallowed be your name." That simply means, "Let your name be made holy." It is a way of saying that God is involved. It is also a way of saying, "Lord, you want you name hallowed---I do, too." "Thy kingdom come" is a way of saying, ""May your kingdom expand. May more and more people come under your dominion." It does not mean something in the future, as so many people have thought and continue to think.

Thousands of Christian have erred at this place, because they did not understand what malkut shamaym means, what the kingdom of Heaven means, what it meant to Jewish people in the first century. The kingdom of Heaven is a rabbbinic synonym for the kingdom of God. If we do not start with how the rabbis understood the kingdom of Heaven, we will never understand what Jesus meant by it. For Jesus, the kingdom is wherever God is doing his thing, and that obviously refers to wherever Jesus' followers are, too. Therefore, the kingdom of Heaven in one sense refers to his movement, to everybody who is in it. If a person is following the Lord Jesus Christ, he is in his kingdom. We must realize that Jesus speaks of the kingdom in two ways. First, it is a supernatural manifestation of God's redemptive power. When a person is miraculously healed or delivered from a demon, the kingdom of God is at hand. Second, Jesus speaks of the kingdom in connection to his followers. They constitute his kingdom. This twofold usage of the term makes good sense. The kingdom is wherever Jesus the King is. Jesus is in the business of healing and delivering people. That is the kingdom. Jesus is also leading those who are following him. This, too, is the kingdom.

We must however, note carefully that toward the end of his life, Jesus began to speak of the Edah, or in Greek, Ecclesia. This is the church. At the end of his earthly ministry Jesus was preparing the disciples for the changers that would accompany his departure. As part of his preparation, Jesus began to refer to his followers as the Edah. Edah conveys the idea of a witnessing body. The church is a body of witnesses, testifying about Jesus.

But, at this point in the prayer, where Jesus says, "Thy kingdom come," he means, "God, may your vision for the world get bigger and bigger, may more and more people enter into your kingdom." Then Jesus turns it around and says it another way, "Thy will be done." That is the same thing turned around. It is like two sides of the same coin. "Thy kingdom come" equals "Thy will be done." This is another synonymous parallelism, a feature which is characteristic of Hebrew poetry. The Bible is full fo all sorts of parallelisms. The same thing is said in two different ways.

When I talk about cooperating with God, this, too, is a form of prayer. To say, "Yavo malkutkha" or in English, "Thy kingdom come" means, "God, you are doing this great redemptive work. You want to see your kingdom established through Jesus. You want to see more and more people do your will. I am in favor of that! I am standing in agreement with you! I am cooperating with you." It is an awesome realization that we as believers are cooperating with God in spreading his redemptive movement---the kingdom of God. Who am I or who are you to cooperate with God? That is part of the great Gospel message which we have. God is so concerned with you and me that he wants us to be involved with him in his tremendous worl. He wants us to be a part of what he is doing. He wants us to cooperate, to get involved. To pray means to get where God is and to say, "I cooperate with you, God."

The second important word to which I want to call attention is "encouragement." This may sound heretical at first, but believe me, it is true according to Scripture. When we pray the first part of the Lord's Prayer, we are encouraging God. My job and your job is to encourage God to get on with his plan of redemption. Can you believe it? It is not an easy thing to grasp at first.

I sometimes use the following illustration, because it has a lot of meaning for me. I am from the state of Oklahoma. A comparatively large percentage of the people of that state get together for enormous football games at the University of Oklahoma in my home town of Norman. When someone goes to one of these games, if he has any school spirit at all, he wears something red since the university colors are red and white. The stands are full of red shirts, red jackets, red ties, red hats, red caps, red skirts, and so on. When Big Red, the University of Oklahoma football team comes onto the field to play, the stands begin reverberating with "Go Big Red! Go Big Red! Go Big Red!

This is exactly what the first part of the Lord's Prayer is all about. But we are not limited to sitting in the stands yelling, "Go, God, go! We are also doing something about it---we are actively cooperating with God as he carries out his plan of redemption for humankind in order to bring them into meaningful relationship with himself.