If we want prayer that gets results, we have to understand the necessity of the Word of God in prayer. Have you ever considered that it’s only through the Bible and revelation of the Scripture by the Spirit that we get to know God? We come to know His character (e.g., that He is good and faithful to His Word) and His will (e.g., that He wants us healed and whole). Scripture holds within it the power of God, and that power is released into situations as we pray and speak His Word in faith and in the spirit.
1 John 5:14-15 says, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (NKJV). This is the guarantee that we will have that which we are praying for.
Consciously or not, we sometimes think that other factors impact whether our prayers are effective. Maybe it’s how serious the need we face is, how desperate we feel, the number of people being affected, or how many people are praying about it. Many of us know the importance of the Word of God, but when we are in the middle of a situation where we experience physical or emotional pain or where someone close to us is affected, we can start to look at the circumstances more than the Word.
Consider Peter in Matthew 14. By acting on just one word from Jesus, “Come”, Peter defied natural law and walked on the water toward Him. But then, “when [Peter] saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink” (vs 30, NLT).
The Word of God carries the life of God into the situation as we pray, speak it out, and act on it. We have to believe that the Spirit of Truth will lead us in the Word of Truth in our prayer lives. Our part is to fill ourselves with the Scripture, so that the Holy Spirit can remind us of it (John 14:26).
Andrew Murray said the following on the relationship between prayer and the Word of God:
“We have more than once seen that God’s listening to our voice depends upon our listening to His voice. We must not only have a special promise to plead, when we make a special request, but our whole life must be under the supremacy of the Word: the Word must be dwelling in us”.
A minister tells the story of a meeting where he taught people from James 5:14-15 and encouraged them to trust God that they were healed whether they immediately saw it or not, or whether they felt it or not. That Scripture says, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (NKJV).
There was a man present, who had been prayed for at different meetings, who was born with deformed feet. The minister prayed and anointed him with oil and the man went home standing on this Scripture and confessing, “James 5:14-15 is mine, I have it”. As instructed, he kept speaking this over and over until he fell asleep. The next morning when he swung his legs off the bed, he looked down and saw two new normal feet!
Brother Hagin referred to a little red-headed lady that could pray heaven and earth together! It’s said that she had Scriptures hanging on her refrigerator and first thing every morning she laid hands on these Scriptures, saying and praying them out loud. The Scriptures changed throughout the years because as the Lord answered a prayer she would add new verses for the new prayers she was believing for.
Let us become convinced that God will respond to His Word as we speak it and pray it out. This will guarantee an effective and successful prayer life. Why? Because it is God’s Word and “He Who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His word” (Hebrews 10:23b, AMPC)
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