The Principles of Prayer XLII

 Unless one’s goal in life is to see how many hours they can spend on the couch without getting up, everything we endeavor to excel at requires discipline and focus. Dreaded as these words might be to a generation addicted to TikTok and doom scrolling, they are, nevertheless, necessary practices and prerequisites to building upon one’s prayer life with consistency.

There’s nothing so disheartening as giving it your all and seeing no progress. Although this may be the case if you’re attempting to master juggling, doing cartwheels, or high-wire shenanigans, if you are focused and disciplined when it comes to spending time in prayer, the progress will be evident from day to day. It may be incremental, but looking back a month, six months, or a year from where you started to where you are, the evidence of growth will be undeniable.

What started out as three minutes of discombobulated thoughts spoken in a whisper has now turned into thirty minutes, perhaps an hour of dialogue with God. What was once something you delayed and procrastinated over becomes the one thing you look forward to most upon waking, and that’s because the presence of God becomes more important with each encounter, and the need for Him becomes indispensable.

Those who relish performative prayer, and only do so when others are watching or within earshot, not only dismiss Christ’s instruction on the matter, but will never know the intimacy that being alone with Him produces. Prayer does not require an audience. Prayer is not meant to impress those who happen to hear it. Even within the context of corporate prayer, the purpose isn’t to shout over one another, but as one voice and one heart, worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Matthew 6:5-6, “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

There is a time for corporate prayer. We see this clearly in the book of Acts, wherein the followers of Jesus, along with the disciples, gathered together and prayed earnestly, whether for the promise of the Comforter or for boldness when they found themselves on the threshold of what would be the genesis of persecution for the early church.

Corporate prayer, however, is not a substitute for intimate, one-on-one communion with God, and it was never intended to be. Jesus said as much when instructing His disciples on how to pray, not allowing for the possibility that they wouldn’t have consistent prayer lives as individuals.

Prayer for the spiritual man is as necessary as food is for the physical man. No one ever came up to you and said, if you eat, make sure to get some fiber, protein, and fat as well as complex carbs with your meal. It’s always when you eat, because if you don’t eat, you die.

Jesus didn’t say, “If you pray, do it in this manner.” He said, “When you pray.” He left no doubt as to the importance and the indispensable necessity of prayer in the life of the believer. He did not allow for substitutions or replacements for prayer, or infer that if you didn’t want to pray, you could do something else instead.

Given that it was Christ Himself who gave the instructions on how to pray, the manner in which He prescribed it is the most effective, nourishing, and spiritually developmental way to do it. He would not insist that we pray in a certain manner if a better method existed, because when it comes to His own, He reveals His best. Optimal prayer is one that is done the way Jesus instructed us to do it—you and God and no one else.

The time we spend in the secret place with God, communing with Him and having fellowship with Him, will be evident in the effectiveness of our testimony and the authority we walk in when among others. You can’t be in the presence of God consistently without growing in Him. One translates to the other, and if you’ve wondered why there is so little power and authority in the church nowadays, you have your answer.

The less time one spends alone with God, the less power is evident in their ministry. The less time one communes with Him, the less authority they possess. Tragically, rather than return to the source of power and be filled with His presence, many choose to lean on props and gimmicks, smooth words and bombastic entertainment to take away from their evident impotence when it comes to rightly dividing the Word.

It’s not that they don’t know what works or the power that resides in prayer; it’s that they’re unwilling to make it a priority, thereby relying on parlor tricks to emotionally manipulate those in attendance. As the Pharisees of old were wont to do, whenever someone walking in the authority of God crosses their path, they feel threatened and react instinctively to protect what they deem as their fiefdoms.

By this point it’s no longer about Jesus or the Kingdom but about the individual protecting their slice of the pie, and ensuring that none are the wiser when it comes to the reality that there’s more to be had for the spiritual man than holding up one’s Bible every Sunday morning and repeating a mantra. True power, true authority, and the true gifting of the Holy Spirit terrify the lukewarm and mealy-mouthed, especially those in leadership, because once the reality of what God can do, what He promised He would do through those who walk humbly with Him, is evidenced, it exposes their ineffectiveness for all to see.

Rather than crusade against the enemy and the forces of darkness, far too many are preoccupied with keeping a lid on the truth that God is still the same as He ever was, able to do as He’s always done, and if there is anyone to blame for the flickering light that should be as a bonfire, it’s us.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Posted on 7 June 2025 | 12:07 pm