5. Prayer is required to walk in freedom.Take a look around you. People are grappling with addictions and phobias of all kinds. Sadly, the bondage of believers often mirrors that of the world. These things can be broken through the power of prayer.
Psalm 34 lays out the freedom God affords through prayer. In this passage we are told the Lord will do the following things in response to the prayer of the believer:
- Deliver us from fear (v. 4)
- Save us from our trouble (v. 6)
- Guard and deliver us (v. 7)
- Bless those who trust in Him (v. 8)
- Supply all our needs (v. 9)
- Hear us when we pray (v. 15)
- Redeem us (v. 22)
But we are to receive these things through crying out to Him (vv. 6, 17), trusting Him (v. 8), fearing Him (vv. 7, 9), humbling ourselves (v. 18) and serving Him (v. 22)—in other words, through being in active relationship with God.
God promises great blessings to His people, but many of these blessings require our active participation. In this instance, our participation is a consistent prayer life. Prayer is a requirement of living an overcoming Christian life. If we hope to live free, we must be people of prayer.
6. Prayer is required to persevere. My definition of persistence is “the steadfast determination to complete a task without regard for the sacrifice it will require.” By its nature, the Christian life demands a boatload of persistence. Any achievement worthy of the effort it requires merits the investment of persistence.
I believe two things are required for a Christian to make the commitment necessary to persist in achieving the will of God: 1) becoming a person of prayer and 2) knowing whom they serve and whose vision they strive for.
It is a fact that praying people are persistent people. Prayerlessness, on the other hand, produces a lack of persistence. The reason? Persistence is born out of intimacy, and intimacy with God is not possible without a prayer life.
Following that, if we are sure it is God’s purpose we are serving and His goals we are striving to achieve, we become confident He will bring it to pass.
No matter what long shot God’s will appears to be in one’s life, if we are people of prayer and know we are going for His will, we patiently endure the days when there seems to be no movement in the circumstances. We know He will bring it to pass.
7. Prayer is required to have power with God. There are no shortcuts to God’s power supply. The path to God’s power source leads directly through His prayer room.
The bottom line is this: No prayer, no power. This probably answers the questions echoing through churches all across America: “Where are the miracles?” “What must we do to see His miracles?” “Where is His power?”
Why do you suppose God set up the distribution of miracles in such a way that they flow through those who pray? Well, think about it: Praying people are intimately connected to God to the point of having developed a heart like His. They see things as God sees them. They hear things as God hears them. And praying people are humble, not allowing pride to enter in when a miracle occurs.
The prayers of righteous people are a source of great power to the world. We should pray so we will be capable of allowing God to dispense miracles through us to a world that desperately needs them.
Will You Be Audacious?
God reacts to our bold, desperate, audacious prayers. It is my hope that your prayer life will be enhanced and your faith will begin to soar once again.
In his book Master Secrets of Prayer, Cameron Thompson writes, “There comes a time, in spite of our soft, modern ways, when we must be desperate in prayer, when we must wrestle, when we must be outspoken, shameless and importunate.” This statement sums up perfectly what I mean when I talk about audacious prayer. Prayer can take the impossible and turn it into new opportunities for the future.
Winston Churchill is quoted as saying, “The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe while holding on.”
We must become people who have hearts that will not be dissuaded from doing the will of God. We must develop bulldog tenacity in pursuing the purposes of God.
We must, my friends, become audacious.
Don Nordin is the pastor of CT Church in Houston and author of The Audacity of Prayer: When Ordinary People Receive Healing Answers from God, which releases next month. With a focus on training leaders, he travels extensively as a speaker in revivals, camp meetings and conferences.
Discover some of the amazing answered prayers that prompted Don Nordin’s upcoming book, The Audacity of Prayer at audacity.charismamag.com
Ron Allen 
Eddie Hyatt 
Michael L. Brown