Resembling God in Character
True children resemble their parents not only physically but also in character. To prove that you are a child of God, you must behave like God in character and have His nature. In times of prayer, God’s children can pray all manner of prayers, both judgmental and merciful. But if the rebellious repent, they will obtain mercy (Ephesians 6:10-18).
The Prayer That Matters
Without true repentance, all prayers to God will never matter except the prayer of repentance that leads to forsaking your sins. Even as a believer, your prayers can only count when you put on the whole armor of God before praying.
Putting on the whole armor of God means being equipped with all the weapons of warfare to stop any determined enemy that has vowed to terminate your life or divine program before its time. It means being able to stop Saul-like satanic agents before they get to our Damascus to kill us (Acts 9:1-11). Believers must not allow Saul-like satanic agents to threaten and fulfill their threats against them. We must gather together to pray against evil threats, even if it means getting them blinded to provoke their conversion (Acts 9:8; 4:29).
The Power of Praying All Manner of Prayers
Praying all manner of prayers presents two options to satanic determined agents. For Saul, his options were blindness or conversion, which led to his call to ministry, life, or death (Acts 9:6, 8). Believers must be strong in the Lord and put on the whole armor of God to match up with the wiles of the devil and his agents. If you don’t pray all manner of prayers, satanic agents may not receive the arrow of blindness or the option of repentance, deliverance, or a divine call. If you don’t pray all manner of prayers, Saul will fulfill his threats against the Damascus believers, and the apostles will not receive the power to continue their ministry (Acts 9:1-2; 4:29-31).
If you pray only a prayer of mercy, satanic agents will carry on with their mission unchallenged. Many of them, like Saul, will never be blinded unto repentance for a divine call. If you pray only judgmental prayers, Saul-like agents will all be blinded unto death without experiencing divine mercy. That’s why we need to allow the Holy Spirit to intercede for us when we don’t know what to pray as we should (Romans 8:26-27).
The Role of the Holy Spirit in Prayer
In times of confusion and weakness, when you don’t know what to pray, you must allow the Holy Spirit to help you. Only the Spirit of God can rightly pray in times of confusion and believers’ weakness. He knows every repentant Paul and the unrepentant Ananias and Sapphira because only He can search the hearts. Only the Holy Spirit knows what’s in the mind of the Spirit, and only He can rightly pray according to the will of God. No matter your length of experience in the Lord, you can never be as perfect and knowledgeable as God’s Spirit (Jeremiah 10:23; 1 Samuel 16:6-7).
Even if you think you are vast in knowledge, having traveled far and near, very spiritual and eloquent, and won many battles, remember, you are not the Holy Spirit. With your unenlightened mind and human limitations, you can make mistakes, but God’s Spirit cannot. Samuel, with all his prophetic gifts, almost anointed Eliab instead of David. Please read all (Isaiah 42:16, 19-20; Acts 10:9-20; 16:6-10; Isaiah 58:8; 2 Corinthians 3:5; Job 8:9; Proverbs 3:5-7).
God’s Response to Praying Amiss
Now, what is God’s decision for believers who sincerely pray amiss—wrongly and ignorantly? We need to know this because man in his best state equals vanity when compared with the Almighty (Psalm 39:5-6).
There was a time when Jeremiah was praying earnestly for God’s mercy for the unrepentant children of Israel. It was a wrong prayer, and God asked him to stop. Praying all manner of prayers or knowing what you are supposed to pray but deciding to pray wrongly is not acceptable to God. It’s wrong to pray for your enemies to die when you are supposed to pray for their repentance. However, God may not reject you if you pray wrongly when you are ignorant. Please read, don’t skip (Jeremiah 7:15-16). If you pray aright, God will hear you and answer you, but if you pray wrongly, He will not answer you. It’s better to pray aright, and when you don’t know what to pray, speak in tongues (Romans 8:26-27)