What if your times of prayer could become so much more than reciting words or listing random requests? What if your prayers could transport you into a holy place to experience God’s presence in a very real and tangible way? What if you began having personal, life-changing encounters with the Creator of the universe every time you prayed? And what if you had the confidence to know, to truly know— that God hears your prayers and delights in answering them? How would this change your prayer life?
All of this is not only possible, but readily available and expected every time we pray. The problem for most, however, is that we either devalue what prayer truly is or do not fully understand who we are praying to. And if we did, how the floodgates of heaven would open and pour on us an experience with God that would rock our world and change us forever.
Let’s explore prayer a little deeper.
Simply put, prayer is talking with God. Or, as the theologians would say, “Prayer is personal communication with God.”¹ Ok, got that. But what does “communication with God” really mean? In essence, “communication” is the exchange of information between two entities or individuals, both the giving and receiving of the same. And “with God” means He, the Sovereign Creator of All, the One that transcends all human thought, the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, and Immutable One, is on the other end of our two-way conversation.
Let that sink in for a moment.
When we pray, and as often as we pray, we are in the process of not only talking with God but having Him also talk with us. Prayer, just like all communication between two individuals, is not saying what you want to say and then hanging up the phone. It was never intended to be a monologue. No, prayer is a two-way conversation, both giving and receiving, between you (ultimately dust and ashes) and God (revealed in resplendent glory), whereby information (praise, requests, supplication, petitions— and His answers, instructions, commands, and encouragement ) are mutually shared. And the highest glory you can ever experience is to have the only Person worthy of praise actually speak to you personally, in direct conversation. It is a life-altering and faith-building encounter that will change everything about you in an instant.
And this is available to each of us whenever we pray. But we have to pray, and we have to understand exactly who we are in conversation with in order to have confidence when we pray.
Let me explain.
In the Old Testament, God was often presented as unapproachable. He only met with His people once a year, nestled between the outstretched wings of the Cherubim above the Bema seat of the Ark of the Covenant, hidden behind a thick veil. Or when He revealed Himself to the masses, it was usually with fire and smoke and lightning, like on Mt. Sinai, which only reinforced His unapproachableness (Ex. 19). And when Moses asked to see His glory and His face, God said, “No.” His actual words were, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live” (Ex. 33:20). And regarding seeing His glory, God also said, “No.” But He did allow Moses to look at His receding glory as He passed by (Ex. 33:23). Something like, “Not My face, Moses, but you can see My back as I walk away.”
So much for an intimate relationship with our Creator.
But in the New Testament (and hints in the Old), Jesus reveals another aspect of God’s nature and His relationship with us. He is not a despot— a frightening, powerful King ready to abuse and punish His lowly servants for any slight infraction. No, God is our Father, with all the implications that word conveys...
