TEEN TREE 
OF LIFE
THE DOCTRINE OF PRAYER
Part 1
March 25, 2018
BEFORE we begin, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, take a moment to name your sins to God the Father. This will allow you to be filled with the power of The Holy Spirit as you read this booklet (EPH 5:18 & 1JO 1:9). IF YOU HAVE never believed in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, yo u have that opportunity right now. Simply tell God the Father that you are believing on His Son Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. If you make that decision, you are now a believer and will always be a child of God! When you die, you will spend eternity with Him forever in heaven! (JOH 3:16 & ACT 16:31).
Let’s start our study of the Doctrine of Prayer with the definition of election. Election is the expression of God’s Sovereign Will in eternity past in which He elected every person who would believe in Jesus Christ to Eternal Life and tremendous blessing and privilege. By means of God’s Infinite Grace, every believer has been elected to Equal Privilege and Equal Opportunity. This means that every believer, whether a man or woman and no matter where he/she was born, can receive his or her escrow blessings and glorify God to the maximum. As part of equal privilege of election, the Church-Age believer is a Royal Priest. Because this is true, there has never more of an emphasis on the importance of prayer before. Prayer is a unique function of the Royal Priesthood. The most effective service is invisible service such as prayer! What this means is, no one sees you pray when you’re praying by yourself. You may pray in bed at night or in the shower or when you’re on the school bus and it’s not visible to anyone.
In past eras, there were specialized priesthoods in which certain people functioned as priests. A priest is a person representing the human race (believers) to God. But remember this: any system of specialized priesthood in the Church-Age is a false system. All believers in the Church-Age are the equal to what many think Catholic priests represent. You have the right to represent yourself before God the Father in the name of the Son and through The Power of The Holy Spirit.
As a Royal Priest, you are to pray to God the Father whenever you pray. Prayer, from the function of your Royal Priesthood, gives you access and privilege to present two categories of requests to God the Father. The first is petitions which are prayers for yourself. The second is intercessory prayers which are prayers for others. Therefore, prayer is communication with God for your personal needs and intercession for others.
The approach to prayer is part of God’s Pre-Designed Plan for His Royal Family. It has a precisely correct procedure. This procedure is very important to learn. First, all prayer is offered to God the Father, not to Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit. Any prayer offered to Christ is automatically cancelled, since it fails to follow God’s protocol for prayer. This is illustrated by the model prayer for the disciples in MAT 6:9: “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.”
Secondly, prayer is addressed in the name of The Son. This is taught in JOH 14:13‑14: “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” This is also taught in the following verse: Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (HEB 7:25) So, to repeat, we are taught to pray to God The Father in God The Son’s Name. JOH 16:23-24 puts it beautifully: In that day [when I have ascended to heaven] you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.
Thirdly, all prayer is made through the enabling Power (filling) of God the Holy Spirit. In other words, prayers will only work if you are filled with The Spirit when you make them. EPH 6:18 says it perfectly: With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit… That is something most Christians don’t know so sadly, God is not hearing them. Procedure in prayer is everything! If you don’t cite your sins to God in His Son’s Name BEFORE YOU PRAY, you are wasting your time!
God’s Omniscience plays a big part in prayer. Omniscience is all-knowledge. ISA 65:24 teaches us this: It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. Because of His Omniscience, God actually hears our prayers twice: once in eternity past, and then again at the time of the prayer. How cool is that?? Prayers and their answers are part of the Divine Decrees. The Divine Decrees are God’s Eternal, Holy, Wise, and Sovereign Purpose, as He simultaneously understands all things that ever were or will be. God determined this program of angelic and human history in eternity past. Therefore, your needs, intercessions, desires and God’s answers to your prayers are all part of the Decrees in the foreknowledge of God. God knew and answered all your prayers in eternity past.
All answered prayer is part of your Portfolio of Invisible Assets. The invisible assets are those Divine assets given by God The Father in eternity past for the execution of His Pre-Designed Plan. The invisible assets are composed of primary, secondary, and personal assets. The primary assets include equal privilege and equal opportunity. The secondary assets include volitional assets, which are achieved through good decisions and the assets of undeserved suffering. The personal assets include the proper function of every believer’s spiritual gift. Undeserved suffering is basically suffering which God allows in your life to test how much doctrine you know.
We need our invisible assets to make our calling and election an experiential reality: So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given [your Portfolio of Invisible Assets], complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books. So, friends, confirm God’s invitation to you, his choice [election] of you. Don’t put it off; do it now. Do this, and you’ll have your life on a firm footing, the streets paved and the way wide open into the eternal kingdom of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ. (2PE 1:5-11) (The Message Bible) In your portfolio of Invisible Assets, God provided everything necessary for you to use – in dying, for eternity, for growing in grace, and to execute and fulfill His Pre-Designed Plan.
Now, remember that there is a direct relationship between your prayer life and your Portfolio of Invisible Assets. Prayer is a part of your equal privilege of election and a part of your Royal Priesthood. To say that in an easier way – prayer is an important part of your Royal Priesthood. This is because as a Royal Priest we (have the opportunity to) pray directly to God with no middleman.
Prayer is also a part of our Christian production. Prayer is a ministry designed for every believer. Each Church-Age believer has the privilege and the right to enter into intercessory prayer for others, which is an actual ministry. This is why praying should become a very large part of your everyday life. Pray for people you meet. Pray for victims you hear about in the news. Pray for people you meet on the street. Pray for your family and your friends. Pray for those people that other people are praying for. Pray for the military. Pray for our protectors – the police, firemen, EMT’s. Pray for your Pastor-Teacher and those who run the church. Keep a list!
Prayer is one of the most powerful and effective functions in all of history. Prayer is most effective when used by invisible heroes who are believers who have attained spiritual maturity. The more you grow in grace, the greater your spiritual growth and the greater your effectiveness in your prayer life. Effectiveness is not measured in terms of your eloquence when praying in public, but on the basis of your spiritual growth when praying in private. The power of prayer increases as the believer advances in the Plan of God for the Church-Age.
{to be continued}