ARCHITECTURE OF APOSTOLIC PRAYER
Correcting the Misconception of Spirituality in Prayer And Intercession
“Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9 to 10).
Prayer is essential in our spiritual life the way food, water, and air sustain the body. A body whose breathing stops begins to fail within minutes, and the believer whose prayer has gone silent weakens in the same way, because the spirit receives the life of God through prayer. Paul wrote that “our inner nature is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16), and prayer is a daily channel of that renewal.
A religious, utilitarian spirit often works to reduce prayer to material provision and emotional comfort, and James traces that reduction to asking with the wrong motive (James 4:3). God designed prayer for the whole person, spirit, soul, and body, and its foremost purpose is to nourish us with His divine life. Provision and comfort follow as the fruit of that divine life.
Many believers remain unaware of their spiritual needs, so they never draw on what prayer provides in that area. A hungry body announces itself, while a starving spirit often goes unnoticed, because its symptoms look like busyness, dryness, or distraction. Recognizing these needs teaches us to come to prayer as people who receive.
As we enter more deeply into prayer, we enter more fully into the realities of God’s ascended life, the life of the risen Christ seated at the Father’s right hand (Ephesians 1:20), and into the workings of His kingdom. Christ said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). An increase of that life is among prayer’s firstfruits. We grow and mature in the things of the Spirit, and beneath that growth something deeper takes place: we grow in the life of God Himself.
Most believers pray in some way, but not everyone prays effectively. Prayer becomes effective when it follows divine protocol, when it moves according to the will of God and not according to the pressure of our circumstances. Sincerity of heart alone does not accomplish that; when our own perspective drives our requests, we often miss the Father’s intention. When His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, Jesus began His answer with the words “Pray then in this way” (Matthew 6:9). The phrase tells us that a pattern exists, and that there is a more excellent way to pray than the way most of us learned.
That pattern is kingdom-centered. It begins with the Father, honors His name, invites His kingdom, and asks for His will to be done on earth as it is already done in heaven. The kingdom of God is the extension of the throne, the heart, the mind, and the will of God into human space. When the kingdom comes into our life, our family, or a situation we are facing, what we begin to see is heaven made visible. Effective prayer, then, is the act of establishing the will of God on earth as a reflection of heaven. Whatever we represent in the earth must begin to mirror what pleases God in heaven.
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