You heard me right. Prayer is NOT powerful. The One we pray to, is!
That’s why prayer seems to be so powerful, but it is really not the power that gets things done, it is the catalyst that gets the One who is powerful and can do all things to start doing those things you ask for.
Yeshua says that when we pray in His name His Father in heaven will hear us, and what we ask for (and faithfully expect) we shall receive.
NOTE: Yeshua said to pray in His name- not to pray to Him directly. Anything that comes between us and the one true God, the Y-H-V-H, the Holy One of Israel, the Father, El Elyon, the….well, you know who I mean….a–n–y–t–h–i–n–g that comes between us and Him is an idol. Yeshua never made Himself out to be an idol, and He always gave all glory to the Father, so there is no way He would ever even suggest we pray to Him instead of to His Father. If you pray to Yeshua, stop it! Pray to God and do so invoking the name of Yeshua. He is our prayer intercessor, not our prayer interceptor!
I always like to say to people when I can demonstrate the goodness and blessings that God has granted to me that prayer is a powerful thing, but that is not accurate. I say it that way because for people who don’t know the Lord, or how He works in our lives, it is easier for them to understand. As Shaul (Paul) once said, he would be whatever he needed to be and say whatever he needed to say to anyone in order to get the Good News about the Kingdom of God out there to people. You can see in his writings that he wrote to the (previously pagan) people using their understanding, instead of telling them the truth about God, Yeshua and eternity in strictly Jewish terms.
If you try to minister to a Jewish person and you talk about the New Covenant alone, and you try to fill them up with “Christianese”, you will never be successful. If you talk to them in terms they understand, and are familiar with, and are comfortable with, then you have a really good chance of making some headway. But…this is getting off topic.
Prayer is the means to an end, and it must be presented to the One who can make those ends happen. Saints are people that have received their “sainthood” not from God, but from people. They are not the ones to pray to, and Yeshua, Himself, told us that what we ask of the Father in the name of the Son will be granted. So, DUH?!? Why pray to anyone other than God? And why even think anyone else can intercede better than Yeshua?
As I like to ask, “Why pray retail when you can pray wholesale?”
Prayer is powerful because of the One who hears the prayers, so make your prayers to the One who can give you what you request. Pray to God and ask in Yeshua’s name. You can even remind God that Yeshua told us His Father would give us what we ask for when we ask in Yeshua’s name. That’s right- God is big enough you can give Him a respectful reminder about Yeshua’s promise without worrying about fire and brimstone raining down on your head.
Make your prayers worthy of being presented to God, make them often, make them sincere, make them for the good of others and when asking for yourself ask only what you need for today. Yeshua gave us the template for prayer in the Gospels (Matthew 6:9-13) so follow that whenever you pray and for whatever you ask.
God is the creator of, and power behind, all things. Yeshua is our intercessor, our representative to the Holy One, and when we send our prayers to God it is Yeshua who carries them to His throne and lays them at His feet. And the most important part is that because we pray in Yeshua’s name, when Yeshua presents our prayers to God it is with His endorsement.
That’s how prayer works. Praying to a saint is not right. How can I say that with such assurance? Because Yeshua tells us that’s how it works! The Son of God said to pray to “Our Father, who are in heaven”, and that whatever we ask for in His (Yeshua’s) name we will receive. It’s that simple, so why does “religion” have to screw it up so much?
Well, that’s mankind for you- give us a chance to screw something up and we won’t disappoint you; we will screw it up! Every time.
Make your prayers effective by praying the most effective way- to the absolute power in the universe, to the power behind all creation, to the One and only God. The Holy One of Israel, El Elyon, Adonai, our Abba B’Shamayim (Father in Heaven) and make those prayers directly to God using Yeshua’s name so that He can carry your prayers to God with His request to answer them.
Prayer is not powerful, and misdirected prayer is a waste of breath. But when you pray directly to God and ask Yeshua to present your prayers for you (by invoking His name), then they become the most powerful thing in the universe.
