1. Growth and Transformation — This is the highest priority of prayer in a believer’s life. You gain mastery by evolving to superior levels of yourself even in the place of prayer.

Luke 9:29 — “And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.” (KJV)

You can grow and you can be transformed in the place of prayer. You cannot gain mastery in the kingdom if you ignore prayer and if you do not understand the assignment of prayer to your life.

Jude: 1:20 — “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.” (KJV)

Prayer builds the believer. Prayer can turn a weak you into a strong you. Prayer can turn a very timid, carnal you into a spiritual fashion of yourself. Men ought always to pray and not to faint.

2. Making Requests and Obtaining Promises — Every time you want to make a request and you want to obtain promises, the platform for making this happen is prayer.

Philippians 4:6 — “ Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” (KJV)

3. Spiritual Legislation — Spiritual legislations are decrees — creating possibilities in the place of prayer.

Job 22:28 — “Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.”

Numbers 14:28 — “Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you.”


4. Warfare and Intercession

Ezekiel 22:29-31 — “The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. 30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. 31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God.”

Every time you pray you are doing one, or more, or all of these four things — Number 1 is engaging in that which makes for your spiritual development. Obtaining promises is like cashing a cheque in the realm of the spirit in the presence of prayer. Number 3 is making decrees and establishing realities in your life, and number 4 is engaging the ministry of warfare and intercession. At any time you go to pray these are the things that capture the life of the believer.

Unfortunately, many believers do not pray — not for transformation, not to make requests and obtain petitions, not even to make decrees over their lives. Maybe they do a bit of it at church but that is it. And largely, most believers do not engage in the ministry of intercession and warfare. No wonder the lives of many believers remain defeated in spite of the fact that they are zealous and love God with all their hearts. But they continue to find out that nothing in their lives captures the grace, the wisdom, the power of God.

Make up your mind that to rise to the point of mastery ‘I must engage the ministry of prayer as a LIFESTYLE!’

Prayer must become a lifestyle. Not a strategy for disaster management.

For most people, something has to provoke them to pray. A negative report and you quickly come to pray. Satan knows that, so when he wants to attack you he will not make the thing look so bad because it will call for an emergency and you will go and pray. So he will cause things to happen gradually and gradually until your prayer life grows cold and he will attack you in one day.

We must submit ourselves to the ministry of prayer. We must obtain grace from God. A believer who is willing to pray with understanding will see great results. If you want to strive for mastery, you must understand prayer.

Many believers feel it is the stretch and the energy invested that equals results — it is not so. Most believers do not pray with the scriptures. Most believers do not pray according to knowledge. There is a thing as praying amiss.

Do you know how much of a blessing you would be if people know that your prayer really works? God wants the average believer to get to the point where you don’t just pray, but you understand the jurisdiction and the assignment of prayer.

The Bible recommends an approach to prayer. The most effective dimension of prayer — second only to praying in the spirit — is praying in the promises of God.

Isaiah 41:21 — “Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.” (KJV)

God cannot be committed to the believer outside of the provisions and the allowance of scriptures. The word of God defines the boundaries of God’s commitments to the believer. Based on Isaiah 41:21, we should approach prayer as a legal system in the realm of the spirit. Don’t just say ‘God bless me’ —based on what? Don’t just say God change my life’ — based on what? Isaiah 41:21 means bring my word to me in prayer — the spiritual basis that causes me to move on that wise.

So the devil is plaguing your family and plaguing your life and you say ‘God I am tired of this situation’. I assure you — you reported the situation but you didn’t pray.

It is when you connect what is wrong and what you want to what God has said, that is when it is prayer.

Even Jesus prayed scriptures. When Satan came to Jesus He said ‘it is written…”. ‘It is written’ is what gives strength to your prayer. It is not what you are saying that gives strength to your prayer. It is saying what is written. It is not prayer when you say what is wrong.

The Word of God Contains Three (3) Things:

Promises (of God)

Principles (of the Kingdom)

Prophesies

Every time you open your Bible you are interacting with these three things.

If you are a leader of a prayer group and you tell people to ‘pray, pray, pray’ — if you have not brought scriptures you have wasted your time!

If you know how to ‘bring forth your strong reason’ using scriptures, you can go to bed and commit God and destroy anything that is not of God in prayer.

When Praying …

“Father, I bring before you your words. Your words say that… (tell Him what the Bible says pertaining to the matter you are bringing before Him)”.

When you are making decrees, it is being registered in the realm of the spirit. Demons are hearing you and there should be a basis for your confidence. That basis should be ‘it is written’.

But it is not just what is written that blesses you. But what is written that is found

Jeremiah 15:16 — “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.”

The first assignment when you want to engage in prayer is to find and bring the scriptures pertaining to what you want to talk about. This becomes the basis of your defense and petition. If you can find just two or three scriptures, that is enough. Then you go to your place of prayer. While you are praying you will find that things begin to shift and change.

If you do not find mastery in the area of prayer many will become tired and say this thing does not work.

The prayer that works is the prayer that is connected to scripture. The prayer that works is the prayer that is derived of the spirit. Outside of the word and the spirit, prayer DOES NOT work! It just becomes a motion of dissipating energy.

Prayer is based on what God has said. Prayer is based on what you want that is connected to what God has said. Your first assignment is to find out what He has said based on what you want.

1 John 5:14 — “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.”

So it tells us that there is a possibility that we will not be heard if it is not according to His will.