Prayer is a powerful and exercise that sometimes comes with a lot of questions. Why keep praying when we don’t see results? Does God have all power? For Him to release that power, do we need to pray? Have you ever contemplated questions like this as it pertains to prayer? If we understand a few things about prayer that breaks through, we’ll become a person of deep, heart-felt prayer.

 

  • Invested Power

The Word of God tells us that the Lord has deposited His power in us, and this point cannot be overstated. If you are in Christ Jesus, He has invested His power in you. Consider what Luke tells us:

And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
-Luke 24:49

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
-Acts 1:8

The first three chapters of Ephesians are written to the church reminding them that they have become saints. In the last three chapters of Ephesians, Paul exhorts them to now live Godly lives. Right in the middle of these sections there are two verses that are structured by the Holy Spirit in a very strategic way.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
-Ephesians 3:20–21

It’s amazing how the Holy Spirit structured this verse. He uses descriptive words that adequately shows who the Father is and the inheritance that He has given to us. If the Lord is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or imagine, then why don’t we see more of it? The answer to that lies with the key word “according”. This word in the Greek means to measure out or distribute. It is a picture of a debit card attached to an account of immeasurable value, and the cards true value is only seen when it’s activated and the funds are distributed.

 

  • Release the power of God through prayer

There is no limit to what God can do in and through us, but we limit the work of God in and through us based on the degree we yield to the Spirit. How much of God’s power are you measuring out to your family? Business? City? How much of God’s power are you distributing to the situation that you need God to work in right now? Is it possible that God has done His part and now we’re responsible to distribute this power? God’s unlimited power is limited to our prayers. God has all power, but His unlimited power is limited by lack of prayer. Am I going to distribute His power? Am I going to measure it out to my situation?

Elijah prayed 7 times for something God already said He was going to do. Why? Because he was releasing what God wanted to do in His life. E.M. Bounds says, “Prayer carries the promise to its gracious fulfillment. It takes persistent and persevering prayer to give to the promise its largest and most gracious results.” Daniel prayed 21 days to see the fulfillment of his prayers (Daniel 10:2-3, 12-13). The first day Daniel prayed, an angel of the Lord left heaven with the answer, but there was spiritual warfare hindering the answer from reaching earth. Daniel continued to pray and bring this answer to earth and did not stop after 20 days. Has what you are praying for already been answered but we need to pray it from heaven to earth?

 

  • Fill the Bowls

Revelation 5:8 and 8:1-5 tells us that the prayers of the saints are like incense that fills the bowls of heaven, and God adds His fire (power) to our prayers. Priests stood twice daily before the inner veil of the temple and burned incense so that the smoke would carry into the Holy of Holies and be swept into the nostrils of God. This symbolized the people’s prayers rising to Him. When the bowls get full with our prayers, there is an angel whose job it is to add fire to them and send the answer back to earth.

How full are your bowls for your family, future, church, city, business? Continue to pray until you see the full power of God released in your life and others around you. Don’t grow weary in doing good, but press through declaring the victory of Jesus. His power lives inside you and is released through your prayers.