IMPORTANCE OF GOD:S WORD AND PRAYER Zac Poonen

Importance of God's Word and Prayer

Zac Poonen

God's Word

A child needs milk to start with, but he needs solid food
later on. The Bible contains both milk and solid food. The
milk is called "the elementary teaching about the Christ"
(Heb. 6:1); and the solid food is called "the word of
righteousness" (Heb. 5:13). How soon we move on to solid
food, depends on how quickly we obey any light that God
gives us. Our spiritual growth is dependent on faith and
obedience. God has given us promises in His Word so that we
can trust Him. He has also given us commands to obey. If we
meditate on God's Word regularly and trust and obey Him we
will find that we are deeply rooted in God, like an
evergreen tree that never withers. God will then be able to
bless us in such a way that we prosper in everything we do
(Psa. 1:2,3). We can't understand God's Word by intellectual
study alone. We need the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said that spiritual truths were hidden from the clever
and the intelligent and revealed to babes (Mt. 11:25). What
do babes have, that clever, intelligent people don't have? A
pure heart! God looks at the heart and not at the head. He
gives revelation to those who are humble and who tremble at His Word (Isa. 66:2). Jesus said that only those who were
willing to do the will of God would understand God's Word
(Jn.7:17).

God's Word is also the weapon that we use in our warfare
against Satan. It is called "the sword of the Spirit" in
Ephesians 6:17. Jesus Himself used this weapon with great
effect, during the last three temptations in the wilderness.
Each time, he countered Satan's temptations with "It is
written...." (Matt. 4:4,7,10). That's how He overcame; and
that's how we can overcome too. Satan is the Accuser. We
must distinguish between his accusations and the conviction
of the Holy Spirit. Satan always seeks to harass us and make
us feel condemned by his accusations. The Holy Spirit's
conviction, on the other hand, is always gentle and full of
hope. We can overcome the Accuser only by "the blood of the
Lamb and the word of our testimony" (Rev. 12:11). His
accusations concerning our past sins can be overcome only as
we give him our testimony that the blood of Christ has
cleansed us and justified us thoroughly. We have to use the
same weapon that Jesus used : "It is written..." Confessing
God's Word to Satan is the way to overcome not only Satan's
accusations, but also discouragement and anxiety and a host
of other temptations with which Satan assails our mind.
That's why it is important to know God's Word well, so that
the Holy Spirit can bring to our mind the right Scripture at
the time of our need. It is good therefore to have a time
every day when we meditate on God's Word asking Him to speak
to us. As we hide God's Word in our heart, it will keep us
from sinning against Him (Psa. 119:11).

Prayer

Communication with God is a two-way matter. We hear God
speaking to us through His Word first. And then we speak to
Him. But prayer is not just making requests to God. A
primary part of prayer should be having fellowship with God,
like a bride with her bridegroom. There are no rules on how
a bride should speak to her bridegroom. But as a discipline,
it's good for our prayers to consist of: (i) praise to our
Father for Who He is; (ii) confession of sin and failure;
(iii) petitions concerning the kingdom of God; (iv)
petitions concerning our own needs; (v) intercession for the
needs of others; (vi) thanksgiving for what God has done;
and (vii) thanksgiving for what God will do. Jesus told us
to "pray at all times" (Lk. 18:1). A good habit to develop
is to learn to speak to God about the little things of daily
life - and thus to be in a spirit of prayer throughout the
day. Thus, speaking to God will become a joy for us and not
a ritual. We'll also find that God speaks to us in our
hearts in surprising ways. But these are just the
kindergarten-lessons in the school of prayer. We can
progress further if we are faithful. In any case, prayer
should never be allowed to degenerate into a dry, empty
ritual. Prayer is like breathing. When our breathing becomes
difficult for us, then we know that something is wrong!
Prayer was never meant by God to be dry or boring. But as we
progress, we will find that prayer becomes hard work. If we
are faithful with the little burdens God lays on our heart
to pray about, we'll find that God gives us more and more of
His burdens. Thus we can become co-workers with God, in His
work of blessing others. Jesus prayed `with loud crying and
tears' (Heb. 5:7). Once when He prayed in Gethsemane, His
sweat became like great drops of blood (Lk. 22:44). His
praying was so intense. Once He spent a whole night in
prayer (Lk. 6:12). He had a habit of slipping off frequently
into the wilderness to pray (Lk. 5:16). As someone has said
"Like tourists look for sights to see, whenever they come to
a new place, Jesus always looked for a quiet place to pray
wherever He went." Jesus' example shows us how important
prayer is. If He needed to pray so much, how much more you and I need to. Fight the battle against laziness then, and determine to be a man/woman of prayer at any cost.

Zac Poonen,
16 DaCosta Square, Bangalore - 560084. India.
: zac@poonen.org

http://www.poonen.org/zac
http://www.cfcindia.com
For more information, write to: Christian Fellowship Centre
at the following email address: cfc@cfcindia.com