Lesson 4-4 - How to Pray with Power

Objective: To learn how to claim by faith the great power available through prayer.

Read: Acts 9 & 10
Memorize: James 5:16

16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

Power for Answered Prayer
Conditions to Answered Prayer
Prevailing Prayer
Life Application

Jonathon Goforth was a man of powerful prayer. It is said of him that once he felt assured of God’s will in prayer, he would continue in the power of prayer until the thing was accomplished.

Andrew Murray, too, was a great prayer warrior. He wrote in The Praying Christian: “The Christian needs strength. This we all know. The Christian has no strength of his own. This is also true.”

Where may strength be obtained? Notice the answer: “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” (Ephesians 6:10)

Paul had spoken of this power in the earlier part of his epistle to the Ephesians (1:18-20). He had prayed to God to give them the Spirit that they might know the exceeding greatness of His power according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.

This is the literal truth: The greatness of His power, which raised Christ from the dead, works in every believer. In me and you, my reader. We hardly believe it, and still less do we experience it.

That is why Paul prays, and we must pray with Him, that God through His Spirit would teach us to believe in His almighty power. Pray with all your heart: “Father, grant me the Spirit of wisdom, that I may experience this power in my life.”

Pay for God’s Spirit to enlighten your eyes. Believe in the divine power working within you. Pray that the Holy Spirit may reveal it to you, and appropriate the promise that God will manifest His power in your heart, supplying all your needs.

Do you not begin to realize that time is needed – much time in fellowship with the Father and Son, if you would experience the power of God within you?

Power for Answered Prayer

1.) Read Acts 12:5-18.

5 But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him.

Peter’s Miraculous Escape from Prison

6 The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate. 7 Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists. 8 Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Now put on your coat and follow me,” the angel ordered.

9 So Peter left the cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He didn’t realize it was actually happening. 10 They passed the first and second guard posts and came to the iron gate leading to the city, and this opened for them all by itself. So they passed through and started walking down the street, and then the angel suddenly left him.

11 Peter finally came to his senses. “It’s really true!” he said. “The Lord has sent his angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jewish leaders had planned to do to me!”

12 When he realized this, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer. 13 He knocked at the door in the gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to open it. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the door, she ran back inside and told everyone, “Peter is standing at the door!”

15 ”You’re out of your mind!” they said. When she insisted, they decided, “It must be his angel.”

16 Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking. When they finally opened the door and saw him, they were amazed. 17 He motioned for them to quiet down and told them how the Lord had led him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers what happened,” he said. And then he went to another place.

18 At dawn there was a great commotion among the soldiers about what had happened to Peter.

How did Peter’s fellow Christians respond to his imprisonment? (Verse 5)

What was God’s answer to their prayer? (Verses 6-11)

What was their response to God’s answer? (Verses 13-16)

How does seeing God answer your prayers in a powerful way change your feelings about prayer?

2.) What do the following Bible references tell you about the qualities God demands in a person for powerful prayer?

Hebrews 11:1,6 11 1Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. 6 And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

Romans 12:1,2 1And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Mark 11:25 25 But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.

I John 3:22 22 And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.

Ephesians 5:18 18 Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,

Conditions to Answered Prayer

Why is it necessary to ask in accordance with the will of God?

I John 5:14-15 14 And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. 15 And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.

Write out John 15:7 in your own words and state what it teaches about conditions to answered prayer.

7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!

What is the value of several Christians praying for something as opposed to just one?

Matthew 18:19 19 ”I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you.

Prevailing Prayer

During his lifetime, George Mueller recorded more than 50,000 answers to prayer. He prayed for two men daily for more than 60 years. One of these men was converted shortly before Mueller’s death and the other about a year later. As in Mueller’s experience, we do not always see the answer to our prayers. We must leave the results to God.

One of the great needs of today is for men and women who will begin to pray for things and then pray repeatedly until they obtain what they seek from the Lord.

1.) How long do you think we should pray for someone or something?

Luke 18:1-8 One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. 2 ”There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. 3 A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ 4 The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, 5 but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”

6 Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. 7 Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”

Why do you think God honors prevailing prayer?
What part do our feelings play in prevailing prayer?

2.) What did the following men accomplish through prayer?
Moses (Exodus 15:22-25)

22 Then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea, and they moved out into the desert of Shur. They traveled in this desert for three days without finding any water. 23 When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”). 24 Then the people complained and turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?” they demanded. 25 So Moses cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. Moses threw it into the water, and this made the water good to drink. It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to him.

Samson (Judges 16:28-30)

28 Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me just one more time. With one blow let me pay back the Philistines for the loss of my two eyes.” 29 Then Samson put his hands on the two center pillars that held up the temple. Pushing against them with both hands, 30 he prayed, “Let me die with the Philistines.” And the temple crashed down on the Philistine rulers and all the people. So he killed more people when he died than he had during his entire lifetime.

Peter (Acts 9:36-41)

36 There was a believer in Joppa named Tabitha (which in Greek is Dorcas). She was always doing kind things for others and helping the poor. 37 About this time she became ill and died. Her body was washed for burial and laid in an upstairs room. 38 But the believers had heard that Peter was nearby at Lydda, so they sent two men to beg him, “Please come as soon as possible!”
39 So Peter returned with them; and as soon as he arrived, they took him to the upstairs room. The room was filled with widows who were weeping and showing him the coats and other clothes Dorcas had made for them. 40 But Peter asked them all to leave the room; then he knelt and prayed. Turning to the body he said, “Get up, Tabitha.” And she opened her eyes! When she saw Peter, she sat up! 41 He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then he called in the widows and all the believers, and he presented her to them alive.

Elijah (James 5:17-18)

17 Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! 18 Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.

3.) How do these examples help you gain greater confidence to pray? Give an example of what God has done for you or someone you know as the result of prevailing prayer.

Life Application

Examine your prayer life in light of the conditions for answered prayer. What conditions are lacking for you to have open communication with God? How much do you really believe and trust God when you pray?

Write down one prayer request for which you are having to exercise “prevailing prayer.”

List two Scripture verses that you can claim in relation to this prayer request.

GO BACK