The Core of Prayer

Hello Family,

The basic core of prayer is a relationship with God.

A couple of weeks ago during a time of prayer, the Holy Spirit spoke a word to my heart that has changed my perspective on prayer. I have been called to pray, as we all are, but God has placed an assignment on my life within our church to train others to pray together corporately. This has been a positioning in God that has brought me great joy and, at the same time, stretches me greatly.

When the Holy Spirit spoke this word to my heart, it made me reevaluate the goal of my prayer life. The word below is the enlightenment that came forth:

“We too often forget that prayer, at its basic core, is all about the relationship - relationship over intercession and warfare - relationship with the Father. When we build a platform of relationship first and foremost, we set the groundwork for intercession and warfare to occur in our prayer lives. But, we must not neglect the relationship with a loving heavenly Father found in prayer.”

At the basic core of prayer, you see a gracious, merciful, heavenly Father waiting for us to spend time with Him. Sometimes in our prayer life we neglect to build the very purpose of prayer; a relationship. The foundation of prayer must be built upon a relationship with God before we can successfully move into other forms of prayer. Building that platform helps us in every other area of our life. If we do not watch it, our daily prayer will become a list of “agendas” that must be fulfilled. “Oh, we must pray over the government.” But we neglect the relationship side of prayer.

Let me ask you this: does it thrill your heart to spend time with your friends and family that you hold so dearly? It is the same with God. He desires a relationship with you. I know, as a mother of two children, my greatest blessing in life is spending time with my children. Every Mother’s Day, birthday, and Christmas my children will ask me what I want as a gift and my response is always the same - time with them. If I, as a mother, so desire to spend time with my children, how much more does God, Who operates in such a greater measure of love than I, desire to spend time with us - His children. 

Isaiah 30:18 (AMP) states,

“And, therefore, the Lord (earnestly) waits (expecting, looking, and longing) to be gracious to you: and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all THOSE who earnestly wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him (for His victory, His favor, His love, and His peace, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship.”

The Lord earnestly waits for us to spend time with Him in an unbroken companionship. The word wait, in the Hebrew definition, means to eagerly look for, hoping in and expecting. Binding together (twisting of ropes together) so much so that you are able to linger. According to the above scripture, the Lord, as well as us, takes the position of waiting. He waits on us as we wait on Him in the prayer room! Think about that! The Lord is eagerly looking for and hoping in and expecting to spend time with us! What? The creator of the universe wants to spend time with me! That can’t be so, but it is so! And not only that, He is eagerly hoping and expecting to spend time with us! This very fact makes me want to run to the prayer room and spend time with Him.

Not only that, look at all the benefits that come with spending time with God in prayer: mercy, loving-kindness, victory, favor, love, peace, joy and companionship with a wonderful Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We will be happy and fortunate in living life daily because we have chosen to spend time developing a relationship with God through the path of prayer.

-Pastor Candace