Let Our Words Be Few
Too often, people say too much when praying, contradicting the LORD, Who tells us we are not heard for our much speaking. “But you, when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, don’t babble on and on like the pagans, who think God will hear them better if they talk a lot. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:6-8 Complete Jewish Bible). Wordy, heady, and worldly are they, not heeding His command. They unleash an encyclopedia of words when praying to separate their curds and whey. God help us! For, the wicked one of perdition is not overcome by a multitude of words shouted in prayer but by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Amen!
Effective prayer is needful in these times. As it is written, “Therefore, openly acknowledge your sins to one another, and pray for each other, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Eliyahu was only a human being like us; yet he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and no rain fell on the Land for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the Land produced its crops.” (James 5:16-18 CJB).
What, then, is effective prayer? Prayer that God hears and answers is effective. Amen. Elijah knew this prayer well. Effective prayer moves mountains, binds up the broken-hearted, frees the oppressed, and causes the works of evil to cease. Effective prayer will unleash the rain of fire in the last day. “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching God. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’ “In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers. Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? (Isaiah 58:1-6 NKJV).
“He who has ears hear, let him hear!? (Matthew 11:15 NKJV).