One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
Luke 11:1
Often when we read this verse of Scripture, we recognize the disciples are asking Jesus to teach them how to pray. We read the specific words that Jesus gives them to speak, and we see a following illustration about asking the Lord for good things and him responding with good gifts.
I believe there is more to this question than just the “how” of praying. In fact, when you read the verse again, the word “how” is not even written. I believe it could very well help us answer the question of “when” should we pray. “Lord, teach us to pray” — to pray in the good and pray in the bad. Pray in our need and pray in our plenty. Pray to rejoice in the Lord. Pray without ceasing, with thanksgiving and all kinds of prayers.
In a recent trip to Kenya with my family and a group of short-term missionaries from Central Bible Church, we had the blessing of experiencing a Kesha. This prayer service was held at Syokimau Community Church and facilitated by a faithful Kenyan ministry leader, Bramuel Musya, who presented to us the biblical concept above.
A Kesha is a prayer service put on by many Christian churches in Kenya that typically happens from 7 p.m. on Fridays to 5 a.m. on Saturday mornings. Yes, all night long. They have a Kesha once per month for all churches, and they are attended by the majority of each church. Why would they do that, you ask? Because they hold high the practice of prayer, core to the life of a Christian.
In the rest of this article, I will present observations made at the Kesha and how they relate to the biblical prayer life.
Posture
The Kenyan believers maintained a submissive posture of prayer. Many people bowed down in their audible prayers to Jesus. Some stood with their hands raised high and eyes on the heavens. Some paced the floor, praying out loud.
What should be our posture of prayer? In Genesis 17, in both verse 3 and 17, Abraham falls on his face in prayer to the Lord, God. In Exodus 9, Moses prays with his arms outstretched in submission to the Lord. King Solomon knelt down in prayer to his King in 1Kings 8. And we see Jesus himself lifting his eyes in his prayers to the Father (John 11:41).
What your posture looks like is up to you, but the heart with which you pray should be in total submission and reverence to the Lord as you seek more of him in your prayers.
Praise
If you have spent any time in an African worship service then you are aware that their praise and worship is much more expressive than a typical western evangelical church. At the Kesha, their worship was sweet music to the Lord, sung loudly from brothers and sisters who express great love for Jesus. Often the leader would stop in the middle of his comments about the prayers and begin singing a song to the Lord.
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High (Psalm 92:1). I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises (Psalm 22:22). The Bible calls us to sing praises to our Lord among the assembly of the church, with thanksgiving and joy in our hearts.
In our prayers, we should be praising the Lord with our words, verbally expressing the excellencies of Jesus Christ our King.
Patience
The Kenyan believers schedule nothing that would interfere with their prayer service to the Lord. This indicates the high priority they place on prayer, but even more significant is the great value they place on their relationship with Jesus Christ. The clock that determines their start time is important, but the length of their time in prayer and praise is noticeably of no concern to them. The Lord will let them know when it is time to finish with their prayers. We were only supposed to be at the prayer service until 12:00 am, but by the time we finished the last prayer it was well past 1:00 am. It was quite convicting for our team.
The Bible calls us to center our prayers on the Lord, as a humble act of submission to him.
Often, we can get tied up with a clock, limiting our prayers to a human structure, then possibly removing our Lord from the central focus of our prayer life. Paul tells us to continue steadfastly in our prayers (Col 4:2). He also tells us to pray without ceasing (1Thess 5:17). Are we driven by the minutes, or by the Spirit?
Power
It was obvious within the service that the Kenyan leaders were submitting to the Holy Spirit’s guidance of their time. Those who spoke shared passages of Scripture, seemingly random, yet illuminated by the Spirit and perfect for our time together. The power of the Spirit worked through the Scriptures, the worship, and the prayers to unify the believers from opposite sides of the earth with one accord, claiming “Holy is the Lord,” strengthening one another in God’s call to make disciples of all nations. The Lord left no doubt of his power as we all stood together for these nearly five hours, not exhausted from standing and praying, but energized in such a way that we knew that was right where God wanted us to turn our efforts together. Even the children stood with us, only by his power, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. Often, we do not know what to pray for, but the Spirit intercedes for us according to God’s will (Ro 8:26). Paul also writes we should pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people (Eph 6:18).
Where in your prayer life do you find the power of God at work? Have you taken yourself to the point of utter dependence upon the Spirit of God to sustain you while you worship him with your prayers? It is a blessing to pray alongside others, each person finding the strength of the Lord to sustain them as they cry out to him.
Provision
What is it that you pray for? It was convicting for our team to stand alongside faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, living in a nation with very little resource, and observe that in their poverty, they never asked for material blessings. You would think they would pray for more money, or increased food resources, or even better health. However, our brothers and sisters in Kenya prayed for five hours about the blessing of their salvation. They confessed their sin and asked for strength to turn in repentance from the world. They prayed that the Lord would help with their work in the harvest of their communities, to share the Gospel with the lost. They all prayed for God to bring revival and salvation to the nation of Kenya. They prayed that they would have the heart of Jesus Christ and reach out across cultural boundaries, to share the love of Christ with the Muslim, Hindu, and those who believe a false gospel.
The Bible tells us to pray for all kinds of things in our life and the Lord makes it known that he cares about every detail of our lives. However, as the Kenyans displayed for us, he cares more about the heart of his people then he does their material prosperity. Simply evaluating the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus directs our hearts and minds to pray for his kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, for God’s will to be done, to give us the daily strength in Jesus that we need, for forgiveness of our sins, and for protection from temptation and deliverance from evil (Matt 6:9-13). The Lord desires us to keep him and his kingdom first in our sights. If we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then he will provide all we need to be satisfied in him (Matt 6:33).
What do we pray for? What is our heart's desire when we come to the Lord in prayer? Should it not be to come clean in confession, seek strength to turn in repentance from our flesh, pursue God’s purpose in our life to make disciples of all nations, see his kingdom that is coming, and honor King Jesus above all else? Let us keep that in mind when we pray. The Bible tells us so.
The Lord is constantly shaping us into the people, the disciples that he wants us to be. He uses all types of methods and experiences in ways he sees fit to cultivate righteousness within us. As we seek holiness, pursuing that which only he has in perfect measure, it is necessary to draw closer and closer to the Lord in our prayer life.
In our efforts to be biblical in the way that we pray, our posture, our praise, and our patience are to be in humble submission to the God. In our personal and collective prayers we submit to the Lord’s power by his Spirit and seek biblical provision that centers our hearts on a deeper relationship with God and the hope of a glorified future in his kingdom.
I thank God for our experience with the Kenyan believers who helped us shape our hearts to pray in a way that honors the Lord, expecting much of him, as we see the Day of the Lord approaching. I am so thankful we get to experience all God has planned for us together no matter where we stand on this earth.