Luke 11:1 (KJV)
And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

The Lord Jesus lived a life of prayer that greatly impacted his disciples. I don’t think it was the motions of prayer that affected them as much as the very visible and tangible results He got in ministry, that they could easily attribute to His time of fellowship in prayer. Our text reads that one of His disciples came to Him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray”. They knew that if they could pray as He did, they would get the results that He got. Jesus never objected to the disciple’s request, implying, therefore, that prayer can be taught. We can learn how to pray and what to say in prayer. Just mouthing words, waving hands and putting up a pious face doesn’t mean you know how to pray. The Bible teaches us how to pray and we can pray “Lord, teach us to pray” for the next century, until we go to the Word of God and study about Prayer, we will not know how to pray. We can learn to pray by precept and by example. That is, by studying the Word of God and by actually getting into the practice of praying. It is when we know what God’s Word says on Prayer and we actually get down into the business of praying, that we can get the blessings God has for us as we pray. In this series, we will discuss how we should pray, what we should pray, the different kinds of prayer, how the Holy Spirit helps us in prayer among other interesting topics.

HOW TO PRAY

Prayer is communing with God. It is fellowshipping with the Father, talking to Him and listening to Him. Prayer is joining forces with God to carry out His will on the earth. Without us praying, God is limited in what He can do on earth. Yes, we can limit God and one of the ways, we can limit Him is by our prayer lives. Psalm 115:16 says, “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men”. For God to move on the earth, He will need a man to work with and through. So if there is no man to work with Him in prayer, His plans can be circumvented or hindered. How then do we pray?

John 16:23
And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.

Jesus taught us that the New Testament way of praying is this: We pray to the Father in the Name of Jesus. This is the way to pray. We are to ask the Father in His Name. Jesus assures us that whatsoever we ask in this way, the Father will give to us. He made reference to “that day”. What Day was that? The Day of the New Covenant. You see, when Jesus was physically on earth, His disciples never asked anything in His Name. They didn’t use the Name of Jesus in their prayers. If they needed anything, they simply asked Him and He supplied that need. But a Day was coming, in which He will not be physically present but His Name will be able to do what His physical presence could do. That was the Day He rose from the dead, ascended into Heaven with His Blood to obtain eternal redemption for us and become our High Priest before God and the Mediator of a better covenant, established upon better promises (Hebrews 9:11-12; Hebrews 8:6). Glory to God. That is the Day we are living in. This is the Day the Lord has made. The Day of the New Covenant. The Day of Dominion. The Day of Salvation. The Day of Rejoicing. Praise God. When He was raised from the dead, God gave Him a Name above all Names, that at the Name of Jesus, every knee should bow of beings in the heavens, beings on earth and beings under the earth (Philippians 2:9-11). He inherited that Name when He was raised from the dead (Heb. 1:4) . He took possession of all authority in the heavens and on the earth (Matthew 28:18), and that authority is in the Name of Jesus (Mark 16:17-18). As He ascended into heaven, He left the use of the Name to the Church, to the believer. He gave us the right to the use of His Name (Mark 16:17-18) . The Name of Jesus belongs to the newest entrant into God’s family as it is the possession of the oldest saint there is. The Name of Jesus gives us access to the Father. It is the Father’s delight! The Father loves to hear that Name – the Name of Jesus. “In that day…whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give it to you”. We are in that Day. Glory to God! So we are to pray to the Father in the Name of Jesus. That is the way Jesus said we are to do it. We are not to pray to some personalities and ask them to talk to Jesus on our behalf. We are not to pray through Christ our Lord. Christ is not a medium that we pray through. Nowhere in the epistles do we see the Early Church praying through any person. If you want results, do it the way Jesus taught us, not the way you have been praying it or the way your church traditions put it. You are to pray to the Father in the Name of Jesus. We are not to pray even to Jesus. We may worship Jesus and talk things over with Him, but when it comes to asking and receiving, we pray to the Father. And we pray in the Name of Jesus. Let’s see if the Early Church, the Apostles, prayed that way.

In Acts 4:24-30, we see the disciples at prayer. How did they pray? They addressed their prayer to God, and they ended their prayer by saying, “And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus”.

In Ephesians 1:16-23, Paul prayed for the Church at Ephesus. He addressed his prayer to the Father. In his prayer in Ephesians 3:14, he bowed his “knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. He addressed his prayer to the Father.

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy (Philippians 1:3-4)

We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you (Colossians 1: 3)

We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; (1 Thess. 1:2)

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thess. 5:23)

These are just some of the many examples of prayer we have of the Early Church and the Apostles. They prayed to the Father. If we want to get results in prayer, then, we must do it the way Jesus taught us to pray: We pray to the Father in the Name of Jesus!