What happens when you pray?

Dr. Tony Evans gives a powerful illustration of prayer. He talks about all the things in your house that will only work because of electricity. Electricity is an invisible power that gives you visible privileges. It turns the lights on, turns the TV on, turns the toaster on, and turns the oven on. All that stuff is working in your house because you’ve got one invisible power shooting through there called electricity.

But none of those things work even though they have access to electricity until you flip on a switch. It is not enough just to plug something in; you have to flip the switch. You’ve got to make a connection and flip the switch before the stuff that’s there works. Every believer in Jesus Christ has stuff that works. But that stuff won’t work without flipping the switch of prayer. 

Talk less and pray more.

In his book, Why Revival Tarries, Leonard Ravenhill said, “A sinning man will stop praying, and a praying man will stop sinning.” Here are two more powerful thoughts from Ravenhill.

“No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shop window to display one’s talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off.”

“The two prerequisites to successful Christian living are vision and passion, both of which are born in and maintained by prayer. The ministry of preaching is open to few; the ministry of prayer—the highest ministry of all human offices—is open to all.” 

Talk less and pray more.

Now, this is not meant to say that we should not talk at all, just that we should talk less and pray more. He who kneels before God will stand in any situation. There is a big difference between information and inspiration. Talking leads to being informed. Prayer, real prayer, leads to being inspired. Leonard Ravenhill suggested that “Prayer is to the believer what capital is to the businessman.”

E. M. BOUNDS — “Our praying, however, needs to be pressed and pursued with an energy that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied, and a courage which never fails.”

We should talk less and pray more because prayer cleans you up when you are dirty. Now you may be reading this, and you think you are squeaky clean. YOU ARE NOT. “There is none righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:10). “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (1 John 1:8). “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16). You don’t have to be Catholic to confess. Confession is a part of everyday Christian life and a part of prayer! I remember growing up in the Baptist church and thinking that confession was just for Catholics. The Bible does not command us to confess to a priest, but we are to confess.

We should talk less and pray more because prayer provides power when there is weakness. God is the ultimate source of comfort. Paul describes Him as the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction” (2 Cor. 1:3–4). Peter wrote about, “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7). From the stomach of a great fish, the disobedient prophet, Jonah prayed, “While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple” (Jonah 2:7).

We should talk less and pray more because prayer gives life when things are dying. Jesus did not die on the cross for people to go to church for one hour a week. We need to get saved from that kind of thinking. Unfortunately, the younger generations may never have seen the powerful move of the Holy Spirit. I want my kids to pray. I want to leave a legacy of the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to know where you are going, just who you are going with. The way God works, you have to stay slightly disorganized at all times. Some hard problems are only solved by hard prayer. When people pray, things happen. Don’t give up. Do you hear me? Don’t give up. God does not leave you high and dry when you pray.

Talk less and pray more.

Would you like a simple way to pray? Think of the acronym BLESS to remember five healthy ways to pray. I have attached a guide to encourage you to and pray five blessings for five people for five minutes a day for five days a week for five weeks.

Talk less and pray more.