I have not written a blog post in many months, but praise be to God, that silent period is now over. Hallelujah! Today I renew my writing commitment by sharing my current thoughts on a message I heard from another intercessor. Many years ago, my friend Dr. Alison Nicholson shared a short message at Christian Life Fellowship on ‘unprayed prayers’. If I remember it correctly, her term ‘unprayed prayers’ was calling for an awareness of issues, persons, needs, even desires, that should have been referred to God in prayer but never were.
To process that idea, let us consider a few scenarios. The Holy Spirit may have brought a person, issue or need to your or my attention, or may even have stirred within us a particular desire. We may have responded by discussing the matter with someone, studying it, writing about it to alert many, or even by trying to address the need or fulfill the desire ourselves. Some of these actions could be wonderful responses if done at the right time and under the right circumstances.
However, we may have neglected to do the very first thing we should have done – prayed about it (asking the Lord to reveal His will on the matter, and to bring us His intervention, direction, guidance, provision or whatever we believe is needed).
Unprayed prayers can never yield as much benefit as direct communication with God can. No matter how prompt, noble, ‘good’, generous, creative or ingenious is the response that we substitute for first taking it to the Lord in prayer, the outcome will fall short of God’s best. For example, our pre-prayer responses may be ill-timed, emotion-led rather than Spirit-led, fear-directed rather than faith-directed, man-honouring rather than God-honouring, or limited by past experience rather than propelled by prophetic insight. God wants us to bring our concerns to Him in prayer – not just to mull them over, worry about them, take them to others in conversation or otherwise act on them.
While writing this, I was reminded of Isaiah 65:24 which could be taken out of context to contradict what I am saying. Quote (CJB): “Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.” Brothers and sisters, that will be the situation in the Messianic Age (Millennium) as made clear by the context of verses 17-25. We are not there yet. We are still in the time for which Elohim’s instruction is as follows (quoting the CJB with my added capitalization of pronouns and nouns for divinity).
(Jeremiah 33:3) Adonai speaking, even to the prophet: “Call out to Me and I will answer you – I will tell you great things, hidden things of which you are unaware.” (Psalm 50:15) Adonai speaking, even through the king: “Call on Me when you are in trouble. I will deliver you and you will honour Me.” Yeshua speaking to His disciples: (Matthew 7:7) “Keep asking and it will be given to you.” (John 16:24) “Till now, you haven’t asked for anything in My Name. Keep asking and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.” The Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) speaking through the apostles: (Philippians 4:6) “Don’t worry about anything; on the contrary, make your requests known to God by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving.” (Ephesians 6:17) “Pray at all times, with all kinds of prayers and requests, in the Spirit, vigilantly and persistently, for all God’s people.” (James 5:13a) “Is someone among you in trouble? He should pray.” (1 Timothy 2:1) “First of all, then, I counsel that petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all human beings…”
Doesn’t that last scripture say it all? Praying for all human beings means praying for our planet, continents, nations, people groups, cities, communities, families, those not set in families, the saved and the unsaved, leaders and followers, kings and rulers (as Paul in 1 Timothy 2 goes on to specify). It also leads to praying about everything that affects human beings – religious affairs, political affairs, government and public officials, moral affairs, wars and their victims, criminals being captured and justice being done, weather and seismic conditions, medical research, God curbing the inhumane activities of ‘Big Pharma’and biotechnology giants, as well as the anti-God activities of humanists and satanists, etc. The list of issues to be prayed about goes on, not even counting the personal prayer requests that are raised daily. It is no wonder that in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 we are instructed to “pray without ceasing”.
Prayer is something I could talk about for a v-e-r-y long time, but I’m going to stop here for today. My God bless these words to your heart, and may God bless you!
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