Your spiritual condition depends on your prayer life. If your prayers are deep, your spiritual life with God is deep. What does it mean to have a deep, spiritual walk with God? You put God first in everything you do.

When you pray, if you only pray for yourself, your prayer life is very shallow. If you only pray for yourself, your prayer life is useless. We must pray for others. When you pray for others, you grow spiritually.

When you truly pray, your flesh decreases. You die. If you pray in spirit and in truth, your flesh will die.

If you only pray about yourself and think about yourself when you pray, that is very selfish. The best gift you can give to someone is prayer for him or her. The best gift you can give your children is prayer for them.

We all have the potential to be selfish. Prayer changes our hearts and makes us more generous and thoughtful, more sensitive to people’s needs.

If you allow the Holy Spirit to pray through you, you will feel His compassion, His love, and His grief. Can you imagine how He is grieving for those who are suffering? Compared to most people in the world, we live a very comfortable life. We live under God’s wings. When you pray, you will feel compassion for those who are going through trials and difficult times, for those who are lost and suffering, for those who are lonely and separated from God. We must thank God for providing for our needs and intercede for those who need His help and guidance.

Give others the gift of your prayers.

A church that prays the prayers of intercession is very strong and mature and powerful.

Psalm 123:1-2
1 Unto You I lift up my eyes,
O You who dwell in the heavens.
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters,
As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes look to the Lord our God,
Until He has mercy on us.

When you pray, pray with passion. Don’t give God dry, emotionless prayers. Give God your strength and your energy, your love. How do you feel when your children tell you half-heartedly that they love you or appreciate you? Compare that to how you feel when your children tell you that they love with you joy and passion and energy. God wants to hear your heart, not just your lips.

What happens when we pray?
#1 God gives us wisdom and knowledge and understanding.

James 1:5-6
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

Pray to have wisdom. If you see someone who is arrogant and prideful, intercede for them to be humble. If you see someone who ministers in their own understanding, intercede for them to have anointing and discernment. If you see someone who is careless, intercede for them to have wisdom.

#2 Intercessory prayer has the power to make you stable and brave.

If you don’t pray, you will be emotional and overly sensitive. If you don’t pray, you will be very fearful. When you pray, you will be able to overcome depression and feelings of dissatisfaction. You will be able to over whining and complaining. You will be grateful and hopeful. You will have joy and hope in the Lord.

#3 Prayer has power to make us strong.

Physical strength is a good thing, but spiritual strength is so much more important. If you spend all of your time working on your physical strength and neglect your prayer life, you will be spiritually weak. If you are spiritually strong, you will fail when it counts the most.

In Joshua 1, God commanded Joshua to be strong over and over again. He was not talking about physical strength. He commanded Joshua to meditate on the Word of God and then take action. That is spiritual strength. Learn through the Word and put action to what you have learned.

Joshua had to be physically and spiritually strong to conquer the seven nations in the Promised Land. If you are not conquering the enemy, you must exercise your spiritual body. You must study the Word and take action with what you have learned.

We all have the potential to be fearful. Christians should not live in fear because fear is not from God. Fear comes into our lives when we stop praying and studying the Word. Joshua conquered the Promised Land by prayer. He conquered the Promised Land by studying the Word of God and taking action.

Ephesians 6:19
19 and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,

If we are strong in the Lord, we can preach and gospel, win souls, cast out demons in the name of Jesus, and put the devil under our feet. This will happen through prayer. Prayer strengthens us and helps us walk closer to Jesus.

#4 Prayer gives us the power to make our foundation strong, to build on the rock and not on the sand.

Prayer is for our own benefit. If you stop praying, you will feel empty and depressed. You will feel “shaky.” If a church stops praying, it will shake. Why is this country shaking economically, mentally, and spiritually? This nation has stopped praying.

Prayer makes you a great and powerful vessel of God.

Your prayers change lives.

Prayer changes you first. Prayer changes others. Prayer makes impossible things possible. Prayer is a gift from God. If you encourage your husband to pray, he will become a great leader. If you encourage your wife to pray, she will become a wonderful life. If you encourage your children to pray, they will be able to fight the influences of this world.

When you pray, you become a better person. Through prayer, God can restore your life, your health, your ministry, and your family.

Pray in times of trial. Pray when you are lonely. Pray when you’re angry or upset. Pray when you want to break something or punch someone. Prayer will help you overcome. Prayer will help your family become strong. People will help your marriage to be healed.

When you work towards something without prayer and without God, there is limit. You are limited by your own ability. When you work towards something and pray and obey God, there is no limit because God can work through you and He is not limited by anything.

How do you want to live your life? Limited by your own ability or with our unlimited God working through you?

Prayer doesn’t mean that you are changing God’s mind or talking Him into doing something your way. Prayer means that you are submitting your will to His will. Prayer means that you do things His way.

God bless you,
Pastor Sun East