Pray the Word of God

As we know, Jesus is the Word, and the most effective way to pray is to pray the Word. Pray the things that are written in the Bible, for instance. 

Jos 1:8:  “This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.” 

In the following scripture, we know that everything was created by the spoken Word of God. 

Hebrews 11:3: “ By faith we understand that the worlds were framed (fashioned, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose) by the Word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible.” 

Also, read Col 1:16.

When we pray the Word, faith comes because faith comes by the Word of God. A very effective prayer that we should pray daily is Ephesians 1:17. 

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.

God gave this spirit of wisdom to Solomon. In the New Testament, this Spirit of wisdom belongs to all of us who are filled with God’s Spirit. The understanding of who God is; increases as we search for God so we can please Him because we must live by faith.

Eph 1:18:  “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.”

I believe that our inheritance is that Christ is in us. The idea is that we will do what Jesus did on earth.

Eph 1:19:  “And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power.” 

I summarise this prayer this way—That we may have the spirit of wisdom and the knowledge of the power that we possess in Christ. But what is this power?

The books of Ephesians and Colossians are very much the same books.

Col 1:11 “Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.” 

What is this power that Paul keeps talking about? Is it a lightning bolt power with which we can destroy the devil? or walk on water with? No, according to Paul this power is the ability to live in longsuffering, patience, and joyfulness. It is the power to exercise self-control. It is the same power that Jesus displayed when he said “Not my will but thy will be done” The power that Jesus displayed was the giving of himself unto death in complete obedience to God.

I hope that we all will do introspection so that we can understand if we are dying to ourselves or if are we trying to magnify ourselves. Do we pray for our enemies as Jesus prayed for the people who crucified him? You must admit that the crucifixion was the greatest display of God’s power ever recorded anywhere. Jesus self-controlled completely and brought glory to God to show us what true power is.

In the last letter, we spoke of possessing the wisdom and, knowledge and, understanding of the power we possess in Christ Jesus. (In Eph. 1:17) For years I prayed this prayer of Paul and had no idea what this power was that Paul thinks all believers should have. The conclusion was that Colossians 1:11 teaches that this power is the power to have patience, longsuffering and, joyfulness. Basically, to bear the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22). The word ‘power’ is dominion. This takes us back to the Garden of Eden where God gave them dominion over everything on the earth.

We can only rule and reign with Christ when we walk in the same power He walked in.

Jesus walked in the power of Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness and self-control.

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