Basic Training: 8 Things You Need to Know about Prayer - by Michelle Lesley

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Mixed in with an occasional good explanation is some really bad teaching. More troubling is that the author doesn't quote a single Scripture. Not one. The author purports to instruct us on the critical issue of prayer without providing a single Bible verse.

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When I was a little girl, I remember one of my Sunday School teachers saying, “Prayer is just talking to God.” With all the complex, confusing, convoluted, and even conflicting resources out there today on prayer, that sounds rather simplistic to our adult ears, but it’s still the best definition of prayer I’ve ever heard. Prayer is, indeed, simply talking to God. (This is the "best" definition she's heard? That's truly sad, for the subject of prayer is worthy of study and increased understanding.)

And, along with studying God’s word and being a faithful member of a local church, it’s one of the three legs of the stool we call sanctification, or growth in Christ. (The author leaves out the Holy Spirit:

Ro. 15:15-16 I have written to you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

2Th. 2:13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

1Pe. 1:2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit...

Yet prayer is the leg that tends to be most neglected in our churches, our families, and our personal walk with the Lord. (Sadly, we agree.)

Why is that? Why don’t we want to sit down and just talk – no frills, no weird machinations, just talk – to the most interesting, powerful, loving, and kind Being in the universe? If you received an invitation to sit down and chat with the President, your favorite celebrity, or a long lost loved one, you’d jump at the chance, right? I would, too. (The author will later assert that prayer is a one way activity, that God does not speak back to us. Given this assumption, why would we jump at the chance to chat with an important person and have nothing else happen but us talk to him? We would think that the point of being with someone like that would be to hear what he has to say.)

So what is it about our broken brains and hardened hearts that causes us to say, “Nah, not today,” to a simple monologue (Dialogue...)

with our King? Those broken brains have learned some unbiblical things about prayer, and those hardened hearts have some ungodly attitudes toward prayer.

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4. “Fervency” in prayer is qualitative, not quantitative
Sometimes we get it into our heads that being “fervent” in prayer means we have to constantly voice that prayer over and over in order to get God to give in and do what we want Him to do. But God’s provision isn’t dependent on our prayers. (The author misleads us.

Ja. 4:3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

It is clear that James is teaching that praying with the right motive is important, so God's provision is indeed dependent on our prayers.

In addition, Jesus teaches persistent prayer: Lk. 18:3-7 

And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, `Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, "Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!" 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?"

This does not mean vain repetition. But God does ask us to persist in prayer.)

  

He truly does know what we need before we ask. In other words, you could stop praying right this minute for that thing you desperately want, and never pray about it again, and God is not going to forget that that’s what you want, or move it to a lower priority level on His prayer-answering list, or punish you by denying your request simply because you stopped praying about it. (Again the author misleads us.

Lk. 18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

It appears to us that the reason the author doesn't quote the Bible is because it contradicts her teaching. There is no Bible verse anywhere that tells us we can stop praying because He knows our need.)

There are things God blesses us with that we’ve never spent a moment praying for. There are things we stop praying for that God finally gives us years later. And there are things we pray constantly for that God says “no” about. (None this is relevant to the issue of prayer.)

God is going to do what is best for you and what brings Him the most glory, and that doesn’t hinge on whether you pray about that specific thing every day or not. “Fervency” doesn’t mean repetition. It means an intense trust and dependence on God to do what is right in His eyes in response to your prayer. (Undocumented claim. Where is this precept found in the Bible?)

Sometimes it helps to examine a few good translations side by side:



5. Prayer isn’t a letter to Santa Claus
Back in the stone age of my childhood there used to be this thing called the Sears catalog. It was kind of like Amazon, but on paper. Every year, a few months before Christmas, they would publish their “Wish Book” edition that had all the toys in it. My sister and I would go through that catalog and circle all the things we wanted for Christmas and then hand it back to my parents, hoping that, this year, we’d get everything we asked for (and we asked for practically everything).

If this is how you approach prayer, you’re doing it wrong. God is not looking for you to provide Him with a list of stuff your greedy little heart desires (Oh, my. The author links to James 4:3, contradicting her earlier statement.)

so He can wrap it up in a bow and leave it under your tree. He’s not a wish-fulfillment center.

6. Weird stuff and unbiblical beliefs- knock it off
♦ Prayer is not a two-way conversation. (Yet another assertion not backed up with the Bible.)

We talk to God through prayer. He talks to us through His all-sufficient Word. (Her cited reference is to one of her own inadequate articles...)

Yes, while you’re praying, the Holy Spirit may remind you of Scripture that’s relevant to what you’re praying about, or bring to mind someone you should pray for, or you might think of a way you can help or bless someone, (The author contradicts herself again, now admitting we receive extra-biblical revelation.)

but prayer is not a dialogue. (The author repeats her undocumented assertion.)

You don’t say your piece and then sit there and wait for God to say something back. That’s often called listening prayer or contemplative prayer, and it’s unbiblical. (Why is it unbiblical to listen in quietness? Where does Scripture tell us this? Why, Ms. Lesley, do you claim this is unbiblical, yet never crack open your Bible to tell us why?

In fact, the Bible counsel is just the opposite:

Ps. 4:4 In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.

Ps. 37:7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him...

Ps. 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.

Hk. 2:20 But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent

before him.

Zep. 1:7 Be silent before the Sovereign LORD, for the day of the LORD is near.

Likewise soaking prayer, sozo prayer, etc. In fact, if you see the word “prayer” preceded by an adjective not found in Scripture, it’s most likely not biblical.

♦ Prayer doesn’t require any special accessories. You don’t need to draw a circle to stand in, build a “war room,” blow a shofar, stroke a prayer cloth, or lay your hands on a prayer list, picture, object, etc. Scripture doesn’t tell us to do any of these things, and many of them are patently unbiblical. (There's that claim again, "unbiblical." Where does the Bible talk about these things??)

♦ Prayer is not about you doing something, it’s about humbly beseeching God to do something. (Oh, so we should expect him to answer? What a muddled mess, masquerading as a Bible teaching.)

Nowhere in Scripture does God say that the purpose of prayer is for us to assert any power over anything through our words. (Ms. Lesley keeps talking about this thing called Scripture. It must a unicorn or something, it must not exist except in fable perhaps, because she never opens it up to tell us what is written.)

He does not give us the authority to “bind” Satan, demons, or anything else, (We discuss binding and loosing here, where we actually quote and discuss Scripture.)

or “decree” or “declare” anything as though we could make something happen by doing so. (Ms. Lesley continues to embarrass herself.

Ps. 22:22 I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you.

Ps. 89:2 I will declare that your love stands firm for ever, that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself.

Ps. 102:21 So the name of the LORD will be declared in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem...

These are false and unbiblical teachings of the heretical Word of Faith and New Apostolic Reformation movements.

7. Watch your language
♦ Having a “private prayer language” (speaking in “tongues”) as it is practiced today has zero basis in Scripture. (The provided link contains but two paragraphs of discussion about tongues, yet does not contain a single piece of scriptural documentation. We discuss tongues, which includes Scripture quotes, here.)

None. (Finally a link that provides actual biblical arguments. However, we have already answered this article.)

When the disciples point blank asked Jesus to teach them to pray, there wasn’t a single “honda shonda” in His instructions, (Now the author descends into absurdity. Pentecost had not happened yet, so why would Jesus teach about a tongues gift that would not [and in fact could not] come until the time of the outpouring of the Spirit?)

and nothing in Scripture says your prayers will be more meaningful to you or more likely to be heard by God if they’re in gibberish than if they’re in your native, real language.

♦ If you grew up fundie or old school, you might feel like you have to use “King James” lingo when you pray. You don’t. If you want to use “thee’s” and “thou’s” when you pray, you can, but you don’t have to. You can use the same vocabulary – respectful and pure speech, of course – you’d use when talking to a friend or loved one.

♦ If you’re tacking the phrase “in Jesus’ name” on to your decreeing and declaring and binding and rebuking as some sort of way to harness the power of God into making your words a reality, you’re taking God’s name in vain because you’re doing the same thing witches and pagans do when they use incantations and cast spells. “In Jesus’ name” isn’t the Christian version of “abracadabra.” To pray in Jesus’ name means to pray that what God wants – not what we want – will be done. (Jn. 14:13-14:

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

So is it ok to pray "in Jesus' name" or not? Does the author have any biblical explanation at all as to how to correctly pray in Jesus' name?

We have reached the end our our tolerance for this supposed Bible teaching which doesn't involve the Bible.)

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