Lift Your Voice in Prayer

Many people have defined prayer with different meanings and connotations. Let’s look at a simple definition of prayer and focus on it. The words associated with prayer – such as petitions, supplications, advocate, adversary, accuser, and judge – are all legal words employed in a judicial system. Nowadays, due to the fact that we associate the word prayer with church, religion, and asking God for things, we have not comprehended the legalities of prayer. We have diluted and oversimplified prayer.

This is what the word prayer or to pray means: it is a legal word requesting an intervention. This is a very important truth to grasp. God does things legally. He does not usurp authority, nor does He trespass boundaries:

And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26 KJV).

God created man with words of dominion and gave us dominion. When God said, “Let us make man in our image and likeness,” He clearly implicated Himself in the making of man, but then when He said, “Let them have dominion,” He distinctly gave man autonomy and sovereignty over the earth. See what the psalmist says:

The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men (Psalm 115:16 KJV).

Just as it is illegal to invade and impose upon a sovereign nation, God would not invade nor impose Himself upon man. This is why prayer is so important. Prayer is giving God legal permission to intervene in your life. This is why the original understanding of the legal framework of the word prayer is vitally important in order for us to secure victory.

Prayer is entreating or engaging God to step in the middle to stop an oncoming attack of the devil. When you pray, you are asking God to intervene by stepping in the middle to stop the forward movement of the enemy. Divine intervention can be God causing something to happen or God preventing something from happening. Without prayer, you are an open target for the devil. Without prayer you do not have a wall of defense around you.

Now you can understand why Nehemiah wept over the broken walls of Jerusalem. The broken walls signified there was no defense and that the enemies of Israel had free access to attack the children of Israel. However, a solid wall was a sign of a stronghold. This is why Jericho is referred to as a stronghold. You need to raise up a strong wall of prayer around your life to protect your coming in and going out. Without prayer there can be no intervention. Without prayer you are defenseless before the devil. As Nehemiah wept over the broken walls of Jerusalem, those who have no prayer walls will see tears of misery and pain.

The realization that prayer is making intervention should motivate you to pray in order for God to intervene in your affairs. The prayer that God cannot answer is the prayer that you do not pray. If you want God to intervene, then it is imperative that you lift your voice in prayer.

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Excerpted from The Prayer Life of Jesus, ©2018 by Glenn Arekion. Reprinted by permission of Faith House Publishing.