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The question has been asked: What is the purpose of prayer?

Prayer is communication between a human individual and the Eternal God.

Prayer to anything else is idolatry and breaks the first commandments.

Prayers to Mary, dead saints, and idols, are simply prayers to demons,

and should never be done.

Of course those doing these things are not aware that this is what they are doing.

The truth is that these things cannot help us.

When man was created he was designed by the Eternal, in His own image

and also to have a direct personal relationship with him, the Tree of Life.

Man choose not to have this relationship with his Creator.

He allowed Satan to deceive him into having a relationship with him instead.

The Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Satan and death.

This is reported in Genesis Chapters 1 & 2

Prayer is communicating with our Creator so that we can develop an intimate

relationship, but as mentioned above, Satan is preoccupied with getting

our praise and worship. He even tried to get Jesus to worship him in the temptation

in the wilderness. Satan specifically told Him:

Matthew 4: 8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain,

and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee,

if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

God is a spirit and requires that we worship Him in spirit and in truth.

John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

We were made with a spirit in us to enable this communication to take place.

When man sinned this spirit was as it were damaged and a perfect God could

not dwell in a damaged spirit. He had made a provision for this by putting a new

human spirit in us when we accept Him as our personal Saviour.

Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you:

and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,

and I will give you an heart of flesh.

27 And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes,

and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

In the above verse we see the human spirit mentioned small ‘s’,

and the Holy Spirit, capital ‘S’.

Man was made with two basic needs.

One was the need for a partner, and the other was for a relationship with His Creator God.

However we might try to wriggle and pretend that we do not need God, and even that there

is no God, the reality is we do need this hole in us to be filled by the Eternal.

Referring to the above verses, it is when the Holy Spirit dwells in our human spirit

that we can really have the close relationship which we desire.

All relationships are founded on communication.

If we reject God then our adversary is very happy to quickly step in to fill the vacuum.

It is because of this emptiness in what I call the God hole that nothing satisfies us.

Sex, Luxury homes and cars, foreign holidays, children, anything which you would

care to name will not fill this God hole.

Many marriages fail because we actually expect our mate to fill the God hole.

Of course this will never happen. We fail to realise that our partner, regardless of how

wonderful is still only a human being.

First we have to accept that we are created beings and that we were made by a Being who is

far superior to us, in fact in a different dimension, Spirit.

We are then faced with the astounding fact that our Creator made it possible for us

to contact him by speaking to Him, anywhere and anytime, not just when things are bad,

but more importantly when things are good.

We speak to Him to thank Him for all that He has done for us every single day.

If He does not give us every single breath, and uphold the whole creation by the Word

of His Power, in an instant we are all history.

We not only thank Him for what He has done in the physical realm, but we worship

and praise Him for who He is and what He has done for us in the spiritual realm.

Just like we appreciate thanks and praise when we have done well similarly the Eternal

is due praise and worship. This is what we do when we pray.

Many think of prayer as a gimme list.

It should be no such thing.

When we understand that the Eternal God in the person of Christ came into the world,

suffered and died in our place, therefore making our salvation possible instead of our damnation,

we have something to give thanks and praise for.

We all have sinned and we need our sins forgiven.

This is done by asking the Eternal God to forgive our sins, when we are sincere

He willingly does this. Of course our intention is to stop carrying out sin and not

sinning because it is easy to be forgiven.

Even the disciples were not sure what prayer was all about and they asked Christ

to teach them how to pray.

The end result was what today we call the Lord’s prayer, which is not really the Lord’s

prayer at all. This we find in the gospel of John, but this was a sample prayer so that

we would have an idea of what we should pray about.

There are of course many other things we can pray about, but the Lord’s prayer is a good

place to start.

Matthew 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye:

Our Father which art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

It is very important to note that we cannot be rebellious and keep on doing

our own thing, breaking clearly defined laws of God and at the same time

expect the Eternal to answer our prayers and to bless us.

It does not work that way.

Obedience is a requirement.

Prayers are from your heart to the heart of the Eternal,

not some beautifully scripted words in a prayer book.

It is the real you speaking to the real Eternal God, who knows your thoughts and

needs even before you ask, but requires that you ask any say.

The Eternal really wants to guide is in all situations, not just church meetings in some church.

This is a huge subject, but I hope that this gives some introduction to you.

Feel free to ask further questions if necessary.

I did not want to load the document with scriptures but everything which I state

is supported by the bible.

Much Grace

p.j.

The only way out of this dilemma is Jesus Christ.

He is the only way of escape.

Praise the Lord.

Come soon Lord Jesus.

Amen.

Messages By Peter James

(Bible Explanations, Messages of Life, Hope & Encouragement)