I'm sure many people could come up with lots of 'rules of prayer' but I'm going to share the four that my own mentor taught me to use.
* Pray with faith
* Pray with a pure heart
* Pray with power
* Pray with persistence.
Read James 1: 5-7 - it speaks of praying with faith. A most necessary ingredient when we are praying. Remember Mark 11:23 " faith could tell a mountain to move"...or Mark 11:24 that says ' Whatever you ask when you pray, believe you will receive them." That's faith!
Don't pray in doubt. Faith is believing in what we have not yet seen. Heb.11: 1. Remember the key is knowing the will of God ( IJn.5:14) How can we know His will? Read it in the scripture - II Tim.3:15- 16
An interesting example of praying in doubt, came to me from a wonderful friend of mine in Victoria. One day as we were talking on the phone about our children, I told her that my kids were driving back from a holiday and asked her to remember them in her prayers - that God would be with them while they drove. She rebuked me for praying in fear and doubt. When I asked her what she meant, she told me that God had been speaking to her about the way she often prayed as if there were 'vacuums' - like God wasn't someplace, until we asked him to be there. She then said, " Pam, God is with your kids! What you want to pray, is that their awareness of Him will increase, and His effect and protection of them would increase, while they travel. Don't pray as if He's not there! As for where He is, to increase, with them!" That talked changed my life! I never pray any longer, like there are 'gaps'. I acknowledge where God is in the situation I'm praying for, and I always ask for that part of Him that is there, that influence, to increase! It's made an amazing difference in not only my prayers, but the faith level of how I pray! Doesn't the Word say, that He is always with us? So, why was I praying like He wasn't there for my children? Now I always ask God to show me where He is working in someone;'s life and ask for that influence to increase.
Another example of this, was when He asked me to give a word to a couple of young men in a local restaurant. I could tell by looking at them that they were very probably part of the gang problem our city is suffering with. When I argued with the Lord about going to them and asked Him 'why' - He told me that someone in their family line was praying for them and I needed to be a part of those prayers, by delivering the word i had for them. Once I realised that someone had been praying for them, my faith soared and I asked God to increase their awareness of Him and their hunger for Him. I asked God to expand, increase and enlarge the deposit of God that was in each of them. And yes...I did go and give them my 'word'. Interesting to note, that a few days later there were on the front page of our local paper AND on the provincial paper - these boys were major crime figures! At the same time, I found out a few weeks later that one of them has a sister who is born again, and who has been praying for them! So....I just added my prayers to hers ( who knows who else) ...and also prayed in faith over the seeds of God that were lying dormant in them!
Since that time, I ran into another woman who told me she remember one or two of those boys from a Sunday School class, and yes, they did know Christ then! So...it's just another reminder to not limit God when we pray and to not pray 'as if' there is a lack...but pray as if God is working and ask Him to increase His effect on those we are praying for.
