PRINCIPLES OF POSTURE IN PRAYER 1: Praying without Violating God's Principles

People pour out their hearts in prayer and cry out to know God more and experience more of Him in their lives because they love Him and want His promised blessings. Yet, I have seen some postures and have heard prayers that violate principles of God’s Kingdom that unfortunately, go unanswered. So here I want to share some of the principles I have learned in this new series.

Praise – the first one is how we approach the throne of mercy and grace. We do it by thanking God with joyful and grateful hearts in praise and this way we are acknowledging who He is in our lives: the only God there is, and what He does for us to keep us, deliver us from the enemy, provide for us, protect us, sustain and take good care of us and lead us in the path that will help us fulfill our destinies in Him. In essence, we give Him thanks for what He has done in us, for us, and through us from the foundations of the world that we get to enforce with our thanksgiving. Psalms 100 says,

¹ Raise your voices;
    make a beautiful noise to the Eternal, all the earth.
² Serve the Eternal gladly;
    enter into His presence singing songs of joy!

³ Know this: the Eternal One Himself is the True God.
    He is the One who made us;
    we have not made ourselves;
    we are His people, like sheep grazing in His fields.

⁴ Go through His gates, giving thanks;
    walk through His courts, giving praise.
    Offer Him your gratitude and praise His holy name.

⁵ Because the Eternal is good,
    His loyal love and mercy will never end,
    and His truth will last throughout all generations. The Voice

Boldness – Jesus helped us be reconciled to our Father with the shedding of His blood on the Cross for us. So now we can approach Him with boldness, knowing that we will not be rejected or be put to shame. Adam had lost this privilege with his fall that got him expelled from the Garden of Eden, but we can now receive the mercy needed for the new day and the grace to accomplish what we are called to do, become and fulfill in our lives. Hebrews 4:16 explains,

“Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God’s unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].” NKJV

Humbleness – There are things we will not be able to see about ourselves, our promises, and of who God is until we humble ourselves with repentance for us and sometimes for our ancestors who sinned against the Lord and against His Kingdom and opened the way for the consequences of those sins to visit us in our generations. This happened because through our proud actions and attitudes and theirs, we rejected and came against God and His ways for our lives or became stumbling blocks of obstruction to others because of our blindness and pride.

James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives significant].” AMPC

We see an example of this in Daniel 9:4-6 who prayed a prayer of repentance for his generation and the generations of his forefathers who had sinned against the Lord and provoked their exile and captivity by ungodly kings. It says,

⁴ “And I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, Who keeps covenant, mercy, and loving-kindness with those who love Him and keep His commandments,

⁵ We have sinned and dealt perversely and done wickedly and have rebelled, turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances.

⁶ Neither have we listened to and heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.” AMPC

The response Daniel received after humbling himself before the Lord with repentance for the sins committed, was an angelic visitation that brought for him wisdom and understanding and instruction of what needed to be done to see the manifestation of the answer to his prayer.

¹⁹ “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, give heed and act! Do not delay, for Your own sake, O my God, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.

²⁰ While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God—

²¹ Yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the former vision, being caused to fly swiftly, came near to me and touched me about the time of the evening sacrifice.

²² He instructed me and made me understand; he talked with me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give you skill and wisdom and understanding.

²³ At the beginning of your prayers, the word [giving an answer] went forth, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved. Therefore consider the matter and understand the vision.” AMPC

Brokenness – some answers only come when we literally cry out to God with brokenness and tears, and even with a contrite heart. The Holy Spirit will lead us to this posture. This also happens when we are giving birth to the answers to our prayers.

1 Samuel 1 talks about Hanna’s barrenness that caused her distress because the longing of her heart to get pregnant and have a child was not yet fulfilled. But was answered soon after. Verses 10-11 state,

¹⁰ “And [Hannah] was in distress of soul, praying to the Lord and weeping bitterly.

¹¹ She vowed, saying, O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your handmaid and [earnestly] remember, and not forget Your handmaid but will give me a son, I will give him to the Lord all his life; no razor shall touch his head.” AMPC

But King David found himself bowed down before God with a contrite heart because Nathan the prophet had exposed to him his wickedness of getting Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife pregnant and then killing him to hide his sin. He had a heart after God’s own heart, but this one thing that he had done against one of the members of his army was not ignored by God, who demanded that he give an answer and face the consequences of his actions. Thankfully David was more concerned about losing his relationship with God and have a clean heart before Him than about losing his kingdom and Psalm 51 expresses his brokenness before the Lord for what he had done. Verses 10-11 say,

¹⁰ “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me.

¹¹ Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.” AMPC

Praying during the right watch– There are eight prayer watches that people use to pray. Genesis 1:5 says, ^“And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” AMPC

Using this principle, in the Jewish calendar, the day starts at 6:00 p.m. and ends at 6:00 p.m. the following day. Each watch lasts three hours.

So the first watch is from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.

The second is from 9:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight

The third one is from 12:00 midnight to 3:00 a.m.

The fourth watch from 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.

The fifth watch from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.,

The sixth watch from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.

The seventh watch from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m.

And the eighth watch from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Some popular watches in the Bible are the fourth and the eighth watches. But God will instruct us as we mature, which watch He wants us to come and meet with Him to have intimacy with Him with prayer, or the reading of the word, or with praise or other ways He wants to encounter us. Examples of this are found in Judges 7:19 first with Gideon. The blowing of the trumpets represents their praises and shouts with declarations for the victory they knew they already had, and the smashing of the pitchers represents their prayers.

¹⁹ “So Gideon and the 100 men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when the guards had just been changed, and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.” AMPC

Elijah also came before the Lord to pray a powerful prayer during the time of the evening sacrifice (the eighth watch) that provoked God to answer with fire which turned the hearts of the prophets of Baal back to God. 1 Kings 18:36-39 says,

³⁶ “At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and that I have done all these things at Your word.

³⁷ Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You, the Lord, are God, and have turned their hearts back [to You].

³⁸ Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust, and also licked up the water that was in the trench.

³⁹ When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!” AMPC

Even Jesus took advantage of the evening hours to pray because during those times there is more clarity to hear the Father’s instructions for the day. We can see in these verses that Jesus knew who to pick as His disciples during the morning because He spent the dark hours seeking the Father for instructions for His ministry and how He was to deal with the new day. Luke 6:12-13 tells us,

¹² “Now in those days it occurred that He went up into a mountain to pray, and spent the whole night in prayer to God.

¹³ And when it was day, He summoned His disciples and selected from them twelve, whom He named apostles (special messengers):”AMPC

More on the next post. To God alone be all the glory. ▀

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