How not to Pray 9 Do not act artificially or unseemly. Praise God for the Holy Bible. There is an interesting Name given to the Holy Bible in the Bible itself. It’s the “Word of Truth” (2 Cor 6:7). It not only teaches us what truth is, but it also exposes to us errors. We are not aware of our errors until and unless the Word of God opens up our eyes. Here is the 9th lesson on “How not to Pray”— Do not be artificial. Do not act unseemly in prayer. This is an area where most of us need a genuine correction. We should not think that more noise in prayer means more power. More often than we think, shouting may actually mean lack of substance. If there is yelling and screaming, words become void of content and substance. We are mistaken if we think that praying in the Spirit means shouting aloud. We are called to worship God not only “in Spirit” but also “in truth.” Without apology I want to make a statement that too much of shouting is more pagan than Christian. I want to quote prophet Elijah here. We are aware of what happened at Mount Carmel (1 Ki 18). This was a confrontation between the prophet of God and the prophets of Baal. Prophet Elijah threw an open challenge on the prophets of Baal. He said, “God who answers by fire, He is God.” The people started yelling and shouting and doing all sorts of things. Elijah started mocking at them. He said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating or he is busy, or he is on a journey or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened” (v27). In response, “They cried aloud, and cut themselves as was their custom with knives and lances” (v28). This is paganism. Do you remember what we considered previously about what Jesus said? Excessive shouting is pagan. The prophets of Baal were doing what “their custom” was. True there are times when our emotions are deeply stirred in prayer. Take the example of the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke 22:44, “Being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. And His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” This is commented by the author of Hebrews, Hebrews 5:7, “Jesus in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear.” Are you able to see there was nothing artificial here? You cannot artificially create a situation in which you would sweat blood, isn’t it? The sins of the whole world came upon the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He became sin for us (2 Cor 5:21). In that hour of agony and anguish, sorrounded by the power of darkness, Jesus cried so. We have seen “shedding” blood but never “sweating” blood. There was nothing artificial about it. Beloved, we should not mistake that quiet praying is powerless or Spiritless. There’s a classic example in 1 Samuel 1. We meet Hannah who was in great bitterness and anguish of soul. “She was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish” (v10). We read, “As she continued praying before the Lord that Eli watched her mouth. Now Hannah spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard” (vv 12,13). It’s possible, beloved, you can express your deep anguish of soul and vocalise your feelings to God in quietness. Hannah was pouring out her soul before God (v15). She said, “Out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I have spoken until now” (v16). Here was a woman who didn’t even pray aloud but just moved her lips and expressed her deep desire unto God. She brought forth into the world a mighty prophet who was known for praying, even after his retirement (1 Sam 12:23). Here is where we must experience the depth, meaning and genuineness of prayer. Emotions can be there, but emotion-alism will rob prayer of its depth and sweetness. 16 A fact we should always remember when we come to God in prayer is that God is not far away. I have watched people answering overseas telephone calls. The way they shout and raise their voice, it appears as if they want to be heard in California from Calcutta! See what Moses reminded the people: “What great nation is there that has God so near to it, so as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him?” (Dt 4:7). This was so under the Old Testament. The New Testament blessing is that God is “in the midst” of us and He is “inside” of us —not just near us! I want you to restore this forgotten truth in your exercise of prayer. In the area of collective praying in Churches and Fellowships, there are certain guidelines and principles laid down for us by Apostle Paul when he was writing his First Epistle to the Corinthian Church. These truths are timeless. 1 Cor 14:32, “The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” No one should say, “What can I do? The Spirit came upon me; I could not control myself !” That’s not what the Bible says. The Bible teaches that “we” are to control our spirits. Then, “God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints” (v33). “All” the Churches mean Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal, mainline and free Churches. Verse 40, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” This means you have freedom to do anything that exalts the Lord and edifies His people, but these should be done in order. I will give a simple example. Suppose there are twenty people gathered together for collective prayer for a time of intercession. When one person starts praying for a particular point, all others can follow him in a soft voice, agreeing with that person. But what generally happens is that all the rest start raising their voice and this poor fellow has to shout still louder. It sounds like a voice competi-tion! When one person prays, others must softly support him and not suppress his voice. Do not copy any preacher in prayer. God has blessed us with a daughter, and I know how she talks to me. If suddenly one day she starts talking to me like my neighbour’s daughter, I will not cherish that. My daughter should not imitate another person’s daughter. She has her own naturalness and originality. That’s what I as the daddy will like in her. Don’t copy a preacher but catch the spirit of prayer of that preacher if he or she is a prayerful person. God loves variety among His children. Do you know there are no two individuals who are exactly alike among the billions in the whole world? They say, even two complexions are not the same. That’s the beauty of variety. That is the creative beauty of God. Why do you want to become a xerox copy of somebody? Be yourself. Be natural. Don’t lose your originality. If you lose your originality, in course of time, you will rob yourself of your creativity also. Naturalness in prayer is real supernaturalness. Naturalness is genuineness. Be as you are and be real. That’s what God loves. If we maintain reverence in prayer, there will be no place for artificiality. That’s why I always stress to people not to forsake and forget that old habit of kneeling in prayer. Have you noticed that the posture of kneeling in prayer is slowly becoming extinct in Churches today? Kneeling is transcultural, not eastern or western. It’s Biblical culture. Even when the decree was signed by the King that no one should call on anybody else other than the King, the Bible says, “Daniel knelt down on his knees three times a day and prayed” (Dan 6:10). Apostle Paul in the New Testament says, “I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 3:14). When you read all these instructions, you may have a question: “Can we not ever raise our voices in prayer?” No. The Bible says, “There’s a time to keep silence, and a time to speak” (Eccl 3:7b). Psalm 46:10 exhorts us, “Be still and know that I am God.” The very next Psalm calls us to “shout to God with a voice of triumph” (Psa 47:1). Putting all these exhortations together, the lesson becomes clear that we must not act artificially or unseemly in prayer. By Mani Kumar
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 13:44:07 +0000
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