Chapter 1: The identity problem
You do not have a prayer problem. You have an identity problem. That is not my opinion. It is the preacher's diagnosis in his book in his presence in the chapter called some enemies of prayer. I am convinced he writes that the most outstanding enemy is a lack of knowledge of what we are in Christ and of what he is in us. Sit with that for a moment.
Not laziness, not a crowded schedule, not even a weak body, a lack of knowledge of who you are and of who lives in you. Ephesians 1:18. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Let me show you why this matters. with a room full of ministers. A chairman once stood before a gathering of them and said, "Brothers, let us be honest before God and each other. It will do us good.
Everyone who spends half an hour a day in prayer, raise your hand." One hand went up, 15 minutes, fewer than half the room. And then 5 minutes, every hand went up. And afterwards, one man admitted that he was not even sure he managed 5 minutes on most days. Prayer, the chairman said, is the working power of the church. And half of us barely use it. These were not careless men. They loved God. They preached, they visited, they served, and they struggled to pray.
And I am certain that many of us have sat in that room. So before we go any further, they hear this. .
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Nothing in this teaching will add to the weight you already carry. If you are tired or sick or discouraged or you have not prayed properly in months, you are not being scolded. You are being shown a door. By the end of this teaching, you
Chapter 2: Relying on His strength
You will know why willpower has failed you every time. You will know who is actually supposed to be doing the praying. You will know what to do on the days your body is weak and your spirit feels flat. Isaiah 40:29. she giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might. He increases strength. And Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me. And you will have a simple way to begin tomorrow morning.
And I want to plant three pictures in your mind. The first is a garden at night where three tired men fell asleep.
And the Lord did something with their weakness that you will want to copy. Matthew 26:41. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Hold on to that verse. We are coming back to it.
The second is a woman who tried everything to get the joy of prayer back and what her pastor told her to do.
And the third is a weapon that the enemy works harder to steal than any other. The preacher says that until you know what belongs to you in Christ, you will never have a prayer life beyond the baby experience. That is not an insult. It is a doorway. It means there is a bigger life of prayer waiting. And the key to it is not effort.
John 14:20. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and ye in me and I in you. Ye shall knowledge is the key.
Luke 18:1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint, not to faint. Jesus knew that prayer is where people grow weary.
He did not say it to shame us. He said it because he understood.
And here is the first promise of this teaching. Colossians 1:27. To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Christ in you, not a method, not a schedule, not a stronger version of you, a person living in you who has never once been tired of praying.
Psalm 27:1. The Lord is the strength of my life. of whom shall I be afraid?
Hebrews 4:16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Grace to help not in some future year when you are more disciplined in time of need today.
Chapter 3: Prayer as the foundation
So here is the question that decides everything. When you try to pray, who exactly is doing the praying? Because if the answer is you alone in your own strength, then you have already lost.
And if you have been trying harder every year and getting nowhere, there is a very good reason. We will look at it together. Let us settle one thing before anything else. Prayer is not an optional extra for the believer who happens to have time. In His Presence. Preaching and personal work are honored ministries, he says. But prayer is the foundation of it all. The foundation. Take away the foundation and the whole house falls.
That is why the early church did what it did. Acts 6:4. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Continually.
And Ephesians 6:18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:17. Pray without ceasing. And look at what prayer unlocks.
Jeremiah 33:3. Call unto me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not.
John 16:24. Ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full.
And James 4:2, Ye have not because ye ask not. Think about that. How many things we are still waiting for are sitting behind a prayer we have not prayed. And something else that matters. Jesus taught prayer. He writes not as a slavish duty but as a glorious privilege. A privilege. Prayer is the Father's invitation to come close and to lay hold of what is already provided. That is why the enemy fights it harder than anything else. He can live with a sermon. He cannot live with a praying believer. So prayer is important, vitally important. And that is exactly why the struggle is so painful. We know we should and we cannot seem to. But now hear the good news. You do not have to struggle. Not because prayer does not matter, but because you were never meant to pray in your own strength.
Chapter 4: The power of Christ in you
A minister once wrote, "Hearing more about the discipline and the effort required for prayer only discourages me. I have tried again and again, and it always ends in disappointment, and I believe that is the honest cry of thousands."
Galatians 3:3. Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh.
Romans 7:18. For to will is present with me. But how to perform that which is good, I find not.
To will is present. To perform is not. That is the sound of someone using the wrong power. And here is the right one.
Colossians 1:29. where unto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worked in me mightily. Striving according to his working, not according to mine.
Apostle Paul's labor was real, but the energy was Christ's. Philippians 2:13. For it is God which work in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Hebrews 13:21. make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you, that which is well pleasing in his sight.
And 2 Corinthians 3:5, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. Our sufficiency is of God.
Ephesians 3:20. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. The power that worth in us, not the power that will come when you try harder. The power that is working in you right now.
And the preacher says it with a joy you can hear in new creation realities. He describes the believer who has seen this. You never think of your weakness.
For Jesus Christ has become your ability. The greater one is living in you. Jesus Christ has become your ability. And he explains why it was so hard before.
The old man with its weaknesses, its failings, its doubts, its fears, its sense of servitude to circumstances is gone. And the new spirit is now a master where the other was a slave. A slave struggles. A master simply uses what belongs to him. That is the difference between praying as the old man and praying as the new creation . So please hear it clearly. You are not being told to pray less. You are being told to stop praying alone. And that raises the question that changes everything. If the ability is already in you, where exactly is it?
Chapter 5: The hidden inner man
And how do you draw on it when your body is tired and your heart feels flat? The answer is in one small phrase that apostle Paul repeats again and again. The phrase is this, Christ in you.
Galatians 2:20, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
Apostle Paul is telling you who is living the Christian life. And it is not the old Paul. It is Christ in Paul.
2 Corinthians 13:5. Know ye not your own selves. How that Jesus Christ is in you.
Not near you, not above you, He is in you.
And John 14:23, if a man love me, he will keep my words, and my father will love him. and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. Make our abode, a home.
He pictures Jesus speaking this to the believer in new creation realities. The father and I, he says, will come and make our home with you. I am going to be your strength. I am going to lend to you my own ability. My own ability, not a smaller version, but his own.
And that ability is not on loan for emergencies.
It is living in you every morning, including the mornings you cannot feel it. Now, who is the real you?
That hidden man of the heart, my spirit, the real me is a new creation.
The hidden man of the heart rules the outer seen man of the senses. The hidden man rules the man you see. So when your body is tired or your schedule is crowded or your feelings are flat, those are not the ones in charge. The hidden man is in charge and the hidden man has Christ in him. 1 Peter 3:4. But let it be the hidden man of the heart.
Chapter 6: Branches on the vine
Ephesians 3:16-17. that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Strengthened with might in the inner man that is where prayer is powered not in the muscles, not in the mood, but in the inner man.
Ephesians 1:19. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe according to the working of his mighty power? And it reaches the body, too.
Romans 8:11. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Quicken your mortal bodies. The same spirit that raised Jesus lives in you.
We will come back to that when we talk about weakness.
Now, back to the vine. John 15:5. I am the vine. Ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, ye can do nothing.
Notice what a branch does to produce grapes. Nothing. It does not strain. It does not make resolutions. It stays connected and the life of the vine flows through. That is prayer. Not a performance you deliver to heaven, but the life of Christ flowing through you toward the Father.
1 John 4:4, "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. " Greater is He that is in you.
That includes in your prayer room. So prayer is important and you do not have to struggle because the one who is praying in you has never once been tired.
Chapter 7: Trusting amidst cold days
Here is something you can do right now. It takes 10 seconds. Say this out loud.
CHRIST IS IN ME. HIS ABILITY IS IN ME. I DO NOT PRAY ALONE.
Christ is in me. His ability is in me. I do not pray alone.
Say it again slowly.
Christ is in me. His ability is in me. I do not pray alone.
That is how you begin. Not by trying to feel something.
By agreeing with what is true.
But what about the cold dark day? The day when you say it and nothing seems to move.
There is a woman who asked her pastor that very question. And what he told her is the answer for every flat morning you will ever have. A woman who led a large and thriving Bible class came to her pastor in distress. Years before, she had known real blessing in her time alone with God. But that joy had slowly faded and nothing she tried would bring it back. God was blessing her work, but the joy had gone out of her life. The pastor asked what she had tried.
"Everything I can think of," she said, "and none of it has worked." Then he asked her a different question. "How did you come to know the Lord?" she answered at once. At first, I tried hard to become better. It got me nowhere. Eventually, I understood that I had to lay down my own efforts and simply trust Jesus to give me his life and peace. And he did.
Then do that again. He said, "When you go to pray, however cold and dark it feels, do not force yourself into the right frame of mind. Come before him, tell him honestly how you are. Tell him your only hope is in him. Trust him like a child and wait on him." She came back later and said, "It worked."
Colossians 2:6. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. You received him by trusting. You walk by trusting. And you pray by trusting.
Hebrews 4:10. For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.
And Isaiah 30:15, in quietness, and in confidence shall be your strength. Your strength is in quietness and confidence, not in straining.
And Psalm 46:10, be still and know that I am God. Be still and know, the knowing comes in the stillness.
Chapter 8: A three-step pattern
Now on the person who cannot seem to believe , understand this about the enemies of prayer.
Don't condemn yourself because you do not believe but learn to act on His word as you act on the word of anyone else.
Don't condemn yourself. And understand that believing is an action word. It means to act on the word.
If a doctor wrote you a prescription, you would take it to the druggist and act on it. You just buy the and take the medication. Do the same, with His Word.
So, how do you act on the word on a cold, dark morning, not by trying to feel something, by saying what God says. Here is a three-step pattern.
Step one, admit it. Tell Jesus Christ honestly how you are. Hebrews 4:15. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He is touched. He is not shocked by your tiredness.
Step two, declare it. Christ is in me. His ability is in me. The Father works in me both to will and to do. I do not pray alone.
Step three, begin. One sentence. Father, thank you Christ in me. Pray and then wait. Let him carry it.
Romans 8: verses 26 and 27. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, helpeth our infirmities, our weaknesses.
He does not only forgive them, he helps them. When you do not know what to say, he says it in you.
And Hebrews 7:25, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
He ever liveth to make intercession. The one who prays without ever getting tired is not far away. His life is in you. So you are not starting a prayer. You are joining one that is already going on.
Philippians 1:6. Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He began the good work of prayer in you. He will perform it.
He puts the loving voice of Jesus Christ in new creation realities.
Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I am going to lend to you my own ability. When weakness comes, remember that I am the strength of your life.
When weakness comes, remember, not if, when weakness is expected, and it is met with his strength, which brings us to the body. Because that is where weakness hits hardest, the tired body, the aching body, the body that cannot sit up for an hour.
Chapter 9: Addressing bodily weakness
And there is a garden at night where three men fell asleep. And the Lord Jesus answered their weakness in a way that will change how you treat your own.
Matthew 26:38, "Then saith he unto them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry ye here and watch with me."
The garden. Jesus takes three men and asks them for one thing. Watch with me. And then he goes a little further and falls on his face and prays.
Verse 40. and he cometh unto the disciples and find them asleep. Three men, their Lord is in agony, and their eyes would not stay open.
Now watch what Jesus does with their weakness. This is the part I want you to copy. First, he understands.
Verse 41, watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He does not shame them.
And Luke 22:45 tells us why, he found them sleeping for sorrow. Sleeping for sorrow. The Lord saw the reason behind the tiredness.
Second, he gives them rest.
Mark 14:41, "Sleep on now and take your rest."
Do you see that the Lord of glory told tired men to sleep? Weakness is not the enemy. Pride is. And weakness brought honestly to Jesus is met with kindness."
Psalm 127:2, for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
Third, he prays for them. Luke 22:32, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. Jesus said that to the one who was about to fail the most.
The Christ in you does not only help you pray, he prays for you.
And what did Jesus do in his own weakness? Luke 22: verses 43 and 44. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly.
He did not stop praying when he was weak. He prayed and strength came.
So here is the pattern.
Weakness is met with understanding, with rest, and with strength that comes through prayer.
Now let us bring it into your body.
Chapter 10: Strength in our infirmities
Some of you pray with a body that is tired or aching or limited and you have been told that you need to be stronger to pray properly.
Here the preacher gives his own confession for such a moment. He says, "If I were weak, I would insist upon this confession that God is now the strength of my life and I can do all things in Him who is enabling me with His own ability. God is the strength of my life. "
And Psalm 73:26, my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. My flesh faileth, but God is the strength of my heart. Both are true in the same verse. The body may fail, the heart does not because the heart has Christ in it.
And you must understand something in new creation realities that I want you to keep. The Father never made a weak Christian. He has no pleasure in our weakness. He wants you strong and the strength is in the Christ who lives in you.
2 Corinthians 12: verses 9 and 10. My grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities. For when I am weak, then am I strong.
When I am weak, then am I strong. Not because weakness is good, but because weakness is where his strength is most visible.
And here is something beautiful. Prayer keeps us in close contact with our Father and that it illumines the word and illumines the mind and freshens and heals the body. Prayer freshens the body. So the very act you thought you were too weak to do is the thing Father uses to refresh you.
Romans 8:37. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
And 2 Corinthians 2:14. Now, thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ always,
No matter what the body says today, the one who leans on the Christ within will overcome, not once, always.
So on a tired day, you may pray lying down.
Chapter 11: Guarding the farmhouse
Psalm 63:6 When I remember thee upon my bed, you may pray in one sentence. You may pray as you walk and you may close your eyes and simply say, "Christ, in me you pray."
That brings us to the last battle because the enemy knows exactly what prayer is worth. And there is one weapon he works harder than any other to take from you, and he has a very particular way of doing it.
At the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington looked across the field and recognized one building as the key to the entire fight. A farmhouse. He poured his best troops into holding it because he knew if that farmhouse fell, the battle would be lost. And if it held, the victory was his.
In your life, there is a farmhouse.
It is the place of secret prayer.
The enemy knows it. He can live with your busy schedule. He can live with your sermons and your service and your good intentions. What he cannot live with is a believer who prays.
Picture two men locked in a fight. One of them carries a weapon that guarantees him victory and the other at once changes his whole aim. Forget the original quarrel. Get that weapon away from him. Everything now depends on who holds that one weapon.
That is the picture of the believer and the enemy. And the weapon is prayer. So how does the enemy try to steal it?
He has three methods and Christ in you has an answer for everyone.
1. The first method by the enemy is delay. I will pray later, tomorrow, when I have more time, when I feel better. Psalm 5:3. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning. Oh Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up. The answer to delay is to begin small and begin now.
One sentence. Father, thank you, Christ in me. Pray. You do not need an hour.
You need a beginning and the One in you will carry it.
2. The second method by the enemy is distraction. A mind that will not settle. A list of tasks that arrives the moment you close your eyes. Isaiah 26:3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace. Whose mind is stayed on thee because he trustth in thee. The answer to distraction is not gritted teeth. It is turning again and again to the One in you. You wonder, you come back. You wander, you come back. And each return is a small act of faith.
Colossians 3:2. Set your affection on things above.
Chapter 12: Faith over discouragement
3. The third method by the enemy is the most dangerous, discouragement. You prayed and nothing seemed to move. You have failed so many times that you wonder if it is worth it.
And the enemy whispers, "Give up."
Here is where it is so helpful. The two confessions, that you hold fast to your confession in the face of every assault of the enemy, every assault. And that our faith or unbelief is determined by our confession.
So what you say in the face of discouragement decides whether you go up or down. And here is a sentence for it . Prayer is the voice of faith to our Father. The voice of faith, not the voice of feeling. So when discouragement speaks, you let your voice of faith speak louder. Christ is in me. His ability is in me. I do not pray alone. I will not give up.
Hebrews 10:23. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised.
And Galatians 6:9. And let us not be weary and well doing. For in due season we shall reap if we faint not.
Remember Gethsemane, the harder the enemy pressed, the more earnestly Jesus prayed. Luke 22:44. And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly. The attack on him became the reason he prayed more.
And now the best news of all. Zechariah 4:6. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Not by might, not by power, not by your strength, but by His Spirit.
2 Chronicles 20:15. Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude. For the battle is not yours, but God's. The battle is not yours. So you are not holding the farmhouse alone. The Christ in you holds it.
Ephesians 6:10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Be strong in the Lord, not in yourself. You have the weapon. You know who carries it with you.
And now you know the three ways the enemy tries to steal it and what to say to each one. Which leaves one thing. How do you start tomorrow morning?
Chapter 13: A new way to begin
A simple pattern, a 7-day weigh-in, a prayer to seal it all, and then a declaration you will be able to say for the rest of your life.
So, let us answer the question I asked you at the beginning.
When you pray, who is doing the praying? Not you alone, not you in your own strength, He is Christ in you.
Galatians 2:20. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
And that changes everything. Prayer is vital because as the preacher says, it is the foundation of it all. And you do not have to struggle because the ability of Christ is in you.
Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ which strengthenth me.
And Colossians 1:29, striving according to His working which worked in me mightily.
To say it so simply, Jesus Christ has become your ability. The greater one is living in you.
Ephesians 3:16. To be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man . Not in the muscles. In the inner man.
Romans 8:26. Likewise, the Spirit also helped our infirmities.
And Hebrews 7:25, He ever liveth to make intercession. The one who prays for you lives in you. No matter what your body says today.
Isaiah 40:31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.
And 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness."
Remember Luke 18:1, "Men ought always to pray and not to faint."
Now you know how not to faint. You lean and hear what Jesus says about the load itself. Matthew 11:28-30. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. My burden is light.
If your prayer life feels like a heavy load, you are carrying what he never asked you to carry alone.
Here is your pattern for tomorrow morning. Admit it. Tell him honestly how you are.
Declare it. Christ is in me. His ability is in me. I do not pray alone. And begin it one sentence and let him carry it.
And here is a 7-day way in.
Day one, say the declaration aloud.
Day two, pray for 5 minutes leaning on him.
Day three, pray one short prayer at midday. Psalm 55:17. Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and he shall hear my voice.
Day four, pray on a tired day, even lying down.
Day five, answer discouragement with this sentence. Christ is my strength.
Day six, pray for someone else.
Day seven, thank God for everything you noticed.
And tonight, before you sleep, do one small thing.
Close your eyes and say, "Christ in me. I rest in you and tomorrow we begin together. Remember the room of ministers at the beginning. Every hand went up for 5 minutes. Now imagine a room where every believer leans on the Christ within and prayer rises not by effort but by life.
Say it with me : Christ is my strength. Christ in me prays. I will not struggle alone. I lean on the Christ in me and I will overcome.
Let us pray :
Father, thank you for the Christ in me. Thank you that prayer is not a burden I carry but a life I share. Thank you that your strength is made perfect in my weakness. Today I lean on you. Pray in me and through me. In the name of Jesus Christ . Amen.
You never had a prayer problem. You had Christ in you had not yet leaned on. Now you know. Lean on Christ.
