Paul offered prayers in almost all of the epistles that he wrote. Each of these prayers are very powerful. His prayers were for the entire church family.
Phil. 1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment.
Many times when praying for Christians we say, “God bless Sister So-and-so” and “God bless Brother So-and-so,” yet we don’t find where Paul ever prayed that way. That kind of praying really doesn’t do much good.
Paul was specific when he said, “…I pray, that your love may abound more and more.” Paul is praying for believers.
Colossians 1:9: For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
This is Paul’s prayer for the Church at Colosse. If you are filled with the knowledge of His will, then you’re going to know what all these blessings are with which the Father has blessed you.
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
That means He already has provided everything we need—all the blessings we will ever need. They are all wrapped up in Jesus.
To pray, “God bless So-and-so” would cause God to say, “I can’t answer that prayer. I’ve already done that.” Instead of Paul’s saying, “God bless them,” he said, “…[My] desire [is] that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” That would be a good way to pray for all Christians.
Paul wrote this prayer under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Since it’s Spirit-given, it would be a good prayer for you to pray for yourself.
You can say, “Lord, I’m going to pray this prayer for myself. It’s my desire and prayer that I might be filled with the knowledge of Your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.”
I think these prayers Paul prayed for these churches will give us insight on how to pray for other believers as well.
Second Thessalonians 1:11-12 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
God wants to fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power in us.
Who ever thought of praying for a whole church that the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ might be glorified in them? Are you praying that way? This is a clue for us. We need to be specific in our praying one for another.
Paul was very specific and very definite in his praying. Let’s look at more scriptures where Paul said something about prayer.
Second Corinthians 1:10-11 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.
Second Corinthians 1:11 isn’t his prayer for the Corinthians, but Paul is asking their help in prayer. Paul already spoken in the tenth verse concerning his difficulties.
He is talking here about the prayer of the church “helping together.” The church had prayed for him.
James 5:16 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
We are encouraged to pray one for another. When people are in trouble, or if their lives are in danger—like Paul’s was—we need to remember to pray.
Second Corinthians 9:14 And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you.
Here he is talking about other people in his company who also had prayed for the Corinthians. They prayed one for another; they were concerned one for another.
We are selfish many times in our praying. Really, we should put others first in our prayer life. Most of the time, all we do is pray for ourselves and our own little group or family—our own needs.
We are much like the farmer who said, “God bless me and my wife, my son John and his wife, us four and no more.” We wouldn’t say it that way, but if you analyze it, that’s about the extent of many of our prayers!
For an individual to grow spiritually, he’s going to have to reach out and help others. You can’t put yourself first. For a church to grow and develop, it’s going to have to do the same thing.
In Philippians, Paul makes mention of praying for the Church at Philippi,
Phil. 1:3″I thank my God upon every remembrance of you” .
Do you remember what happened at Philippi? Do you remember when Paul first went down there? In a night vision, a man stood up and said, “…Come over into Macedonia, and help us” (Acts 16:9). Paul had decided to go into Asia Minor, but said he was forbidden to go by the Spirit. So Paul and Silas went over into Macedonia, and thus the first time the Gospel was preached on the European continent was in Philippi.
Acts 16:13-14 And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.
Lydia was converted to Christianity and invited Paul and Silas to stay in her home. While in that city, Paul would often go into the synagogue and discuss the Scriptures.
On the street of Philippi, a little maiden with a spirit of divination, or fortune-telling, would follow along behind Paul and Silas and say, “…These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation” (Acts 16:17). She knew who they were because the evil spirit in her knew. (But who wants the devil testifying for him?)
Finally, one day Paul turned around on the street and cast the devil out of her—making it impossible for her to tell fortunes anymore. Her masters became angry and had Paul and Silas arrested. They were stripped, beaten, and thrown in jail. At midnight they prayed and sang praises to God, as we studied earlier.
This Church at Philippi was born in persecution, yet Paul says, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you” (Phil. 1:3). When you have the right perspective, you can thank God for every test.
Believers should be full of joy and love, like a sponge is full of water. Then when the devil puts pressure on you, all that oozes out is joy and love instead of griping and complaining!
Phil. 1:4-5 Making request with joy, For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.
When Paul and Silas were in jail in Philippi, they prayed and sang praises to God. Anyone can sing praises to God after he has been delivered; it doesn’t take faith to do that. But Paul and Silas sang praises to God at midnight while they were in the midst of trouble.
Paul says several things that give us a clue about how to pray for others and about our attitude in prayer.
Rom. 1:9-12 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
From verse 9 we see that Paul never forgot to pray for the Romans. When Paul prayed for them, he mentioned one of his requests was that “…I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.” He wanted to be a blessing to them; he wanted to impart spiritual things to them.
Then again, we have Paul’s prayers in Ephesians. These are the longest prayers Paul prayed; they are more detailed than the prayers in his other letters.
Ephesians 1:15-23
Prayer for Spiritual Wisdom
15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to behead over all things to the church,23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Paul prayed that the Ephesians might receive a revelation of the knowledge of God in their hearts; in other words, that the inner man might be enlightened.
One translation says, “The eyes of your heart, or your spirit….” (Eph. 1:18). Paul didn’t pray for their mental understanding, because we know it’s beyond human (mental) comprehension to grasp the meaning of what Paul said here under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We know the Word means what it says, but we need to get revelation of it in our hearts.
Kenneth Hagin says that he made giant strides in his spiritual life when he began to pray this Ephesian prayer for myself. At his last pastorate in Texas, he shut himself up in his church during the winter of 1947-48 for hours and even days, never coming out.
He left his Bible open to this chapter on the altar, and nearly every time he went in, he got on his knees and prayed this prayer for himself. He prayed both this and the prayer in Ephesians 3. He would pray these prayers about a dozen times a day.
The Lord spoke to Kenneth Hagin one day while he was at the altar praying. He said, “I am going to take you on to revelations and visions.” Immediately after that, revelations in line with the Word began to come. In fact, they came so fast he said to my wife, “What in the world have I been preaching the last fifteen years?” He learned so much and got so much new knowledge from the Bible, praying these prayers on his knees before God, it seemed as if he didn’t know anything before.
Paul was inspired by the Spirit of God to pray this prayer, and he was inspired by the Spirit of God to write it.
When the eyes of your understanding—your spirit—are enlightened, you can make more spiritual progress in a few days or weeks than you can in fifteen years of studying the Bible and preaching. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t study; but these are good prayers to pray for yourself.
Ephesians 3:14-20
Prayer for the Appreciation of the Mystery
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Paul knew, that if he prayed these Holy Spirit inspired prayers instead of focusing on the outward circumstances, that Bible results were surely guaranteed. The outward problems would naturally disappear if the needs of the inner man were met.
And God thought so highly of these prayers that He had them recorded in the Bible for us to pray over ourselves, our family members, our friends, and churches.
For Best Results: Pray these prayers aloud to God and repeatedly for many days by inserting the name of the person in the blanks. Prepare for astounding results! God is bound by His own Word to answer the prayers written in His Word! As you pray these prayers, often you will feel the Holy Spirit “jump in” with you. When this happens, you should feel free to pray additional thoughts that the Spirit gives you to pray for that person. You can even intermingle praying in tongues with these prayers. (As a matter of fact, these prayers are probably Paul’s interpretations of the prayers he prayed in tongues for these people.) Allow these prayers to be a launching pad of your intercession for others and even for yourself.
Want to know a secret? As you pray these prayers for yourself and other people, allowing your heart to pray fervently, and you will experience revelation and the Spirit makes His presence real.
Ps 5:3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct [my prayer] unto thee, and will look up.
Goode Christian: learning how to be a good Christian in today's world. 