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Colossians 4:4
4 That [hina] I may make [phaneroo] it [autos] manifest, [phaneroo] as [hos] I [me] ought [dei] to speak. [laleo] KJV-Interlinear
4 in order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. NASB
Prayer is a mandatory result of a successful spiritual life. Prayer helps you formulate spiritual thoughts from within your soul, thus helping in your understanding and growth and application of Gods will, to your life and to the world in general.
Prayer is your feedback to God resulting from your learning by means of hearing His instruction, and the repeated circulation of truth through your soul.
Without prayer, the spiritual life is lacking and Gods response is not there. With prayer, your spiritual growth is accelerated and Gods response is abundant.
Zech. 7:13
13 "And it came about that just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen," says the Lord of hosts; NASB
God hears your prayers, only when they comply with His standards. All prayers must be offered from within the fellowship sphere, with but one exception, and that is the prayer for salvation, which is the unbelievers initial faith in Christ. Ones initial faith in Christ is a prayer of sorts, supported by the Holy Spirit, in order to consummate salvation for the unbeliever.
All other prayer comes from believers only and from believers in fellowship only, and are offered to the Father, in the name of Christ.
Prayer demonstrates positive volition of the believer, and advancement in their spiritual life. These prayers God hears and acts upon.
Prayers from unbelievers (except their salvation expression of faith), and prayers from believers out of fellowship, go unheard (rejected), as they do not comply with Gods prayer policy.
As goes the spiritual lives of people of the world, so goes the prosperity or lack thereof, of the world.
As goes your personal spiritual life, so goes your blessings and prosperity or lack thereof.
Likewise, prayers should be offered for instructors, such that they can gain needed help from God, in presenting viable and useful spiritual instruction.
All spiritual information comes from God, and through instruction or instructors of some type. One cannot sit on one’s own porch and simply pray for instant understanding. That will not occur in this life.
Life is not made up of genies and wishful thinking. You’ll note that God placed you into this world to grow up and to work and to become some sort of contribution to society. Therefore, off to school or off to work we go.
We listen, we learn, we become responsible, we experience life’s good things and life’s trials and sorrows. And, we look to God to put it all together for us. That piecing together of life’s puzzle comes through doctrine. But doctrine comes to you courtesy of God, because you ask either through direct prayer, or because you ask through your desire to learn and through your wanting to know.
God can look down through the tunnel of time and know your thoughts and intents better than you. But, He will never force anything on you. You have to want to learn, and then God will never withhold any truth from you. It then is left up to you to sort out your personal beliefs from Gods truth. Doctrine helps in that effort
Doctrine helps you do that, but only if you stick with your studies. The world will try as it may, to get you to doubt, and disagree with doctrine. The world will try as it may to keep doctrine from you, even to the point of removing it altogether.
Only negative volition toward God and truth, will result in the removal of access to Gods word from you. And when that happens, the sorrows and pains of life become unbearable.
Therefore, pray for your daily bread, as the Lords prayer states. But pray also for those who teach, such that their teaching will continue uninterrupted, so that their teaching will be objective and correct, so that their teaching will result in your own spiritual growth and success.
Without doctrine, without instructors, without prayers from people all over the world, our individual lives would be empty and useless.
