Core Truths About Prayer To Teach New Converts
Sylvia Gunter

We learn to pray by praying. Prayer is more caught than taught. We just get on our knees and do it. We learn repentance and worship the same way, by repenting and worshiping.

The heart of God longs for us to know Him and respond to Him. He pursues a loving relationship with us that is real and personal. If we could learn one thing, it should be who God is and who we are because of who he is. That is basically all we need to know. God will do the rest.

God is always at work around us, and we must always be alert to see where he is working. We are constantly listening and watching and praying, and then we join Him as He leads. This is the way to be always about our Father’s business, as we do what we see our Father doing and say what we hear our Father saying at every moment.

We pray and praise the names of God. For every need, there is a specific name of God that expresses a title or attribute that meets the need. We must know by name the One to whom we come with our petitions and intercessions.

Praying the Scriptures is our life. We make our Bibles our prayer books. Praying the heart of God begins with living in the Word of God. We plead the promises, like Job 42:10 and Gen. 50:20, and praise the praises, like Psalm 100. A modern language translation is helpful in praying fresh, accurate prayers in everyday words.

God wants to pour out his reviving Presence to our desperate repentance. As we are praying for God to give us holy revival fire, it will always include repentance on our faces before Him. It means zero tolerance of sin that blocks the smile of his pleasure.

Intimacy with Jesus is everything. It is not a nice add-on to a good religious life. We must want the nearness of Jesus more than our next breath. Who we are in intimate connection with Jesus is central to our identity and determines how we stand in faith, hope, strength, and so much more.

Prayer is a lifestyle when intimate friendship with Jesus is everything. Prayer is a way of life, cultivating his presence. By the grace of God and in the fear of the Lord, we will live God-conscious in everything we do. We will pray God-referenced prayers.

Prayer is more than asking. Prayer is also listening, which is usually more important than talking. Prayer is a two-way relationship of communion with Jesus. It is intimacy with Him.

The above article, ‘Core Truths about Prayer To Teach New Converts’ was written by Sylvia Gunter. The article was excerpted from www.wnp.org.

The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.

This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, ‘Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.’