Foundations Class – Session 6: Prayer in the Life of a Believer

Prayer isn't a religious obligation — it's an invitation. An invitation to the throne of grace, into relationship with your Father, and into the very heart and mission of God.

In this session, Pastor Mark Medley builds on the previous lesson about the Word of God by showing how Scripture and prayer are deeply linked. He starts with a powerful idea: to pray is to change. Real prayer reorders our loves and priorities, and it's impossible to genuinely encounter God without being transformed by it. Through a story about visiting an African village chief — where access required an invitation, a gift, and an intermediary — Pastor Mark illustrates what makes Christian prayer so remarkable. God has already opened the door. Jesus is our intermediary. And we're told to come boldly.

The session walks through several dimensions of prayer: the prayer of consecration and submission, the prayer of faith, the prayer of agreement with other believers, praying in the Spirit for personal edification, the prayer of supplication in spiritual warfare, and the prayer that replaces anxiety with peace. Along the way, Pastor Mark addresses the honest questions — why don't we pray more, why prayers sometimes seem unanswered, and how prayer is something we learn over time rather than master overnight.

The session closes with a live demonstration of praying the Scriptures, turning Paul's prayer from Ephesians into a prayer over everyone listening — showing just how simple and powerful it is to let God's Word give us the words to speak back to Him.

This is part of the Foundations class at Trinity Community Church, taught by Pastor Kelly Kinder and Pastor Mark Medley.

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Transcript

Welcome And Why Prayer Matters

Mark Medley 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to session six of the Foundation's class. I'm Pastor Mark Medley at Trinity Community Church, and we're covering prayer in the life of a believer today. And it's important that this comes after what Kelly taught in session five about the Bible, the importance of the Bible getting inside of you, because these two things are really kind of linked together. There's a little definition of prayer there in your booklet. It says prayer is simply a lifestyle of conversing with God. And I think that's a really good definition. Another definition would be what Tim Keller writes in his book on prayer. Prayer is a continuing conversation that God has started through his word and his grace, which eventually becomes a full encounter with him. The goal of prayer is real personal connection with God. Just an expanded definition there. But it's interesting that it says that God has started this conversation. God has already spoken. He's spoken to us through his word. He's drawn us by his spirit. He's regenerated us. And by his grace, he invites us into this relationship. And so I want to talk about what's in your book, but first of all, I want to kind of talk a little bit about what prayer is. And the first thing I want to say is that to pray is to change. In 2 Corinthians 3 18, Paul says that we with unveiled face behold the glory of God, and we're transformed. As we behold him, we're transformed into his image from glory to glory. Little by little, becoming more and more like him. As we see him, we become like him. This is pretty uh important principle, actually, as the more things that we see, the whatever we're looking at, we become like. And this is the same with God. So uh this this comes, uh the scripture there says this comes from the Lord, from the Spirit, this transformation. So to pray is to change. To see the Lord, to speak with the Lord, to encounter Him is to change. It's uh it's not possible to participate in real prayer without real change happening inside of us. So uh that deep change comes from reordering our lives, reordering our priorities. Okay, and that and or as Tim Keller says, deep change only comes through reordering our loves, our our passion, what we long for, what our devotion is toward. That when we reorder that, change happens in our lives. And this comes through prayer. So um I would like to think of prayer as an invitation. It's an invitation to the throne of God, the throne of grace, as it's called in scripture. We are invited, we are to come boldly to the throne of grace. I was in Africa, excuse me, a few years back, and uh we uh were going to this village to try to find some uh to try to get it's get some information, build connections, and get some information about the culture there. And uh I went into the to the uh to the village of my friend Bright, and we asked for the chief there of the village. They said the chief is not available, and so we said, Well, we're just trying to, um, writing a book and we're trying to get some information about your history and your culture here. And then the young man said, Well, I'll I'll go see if the chief is back. And so uh 20 minutes later, uh he came back and said, The chief will see you, but you have to you have to bring him a present. This is the way it is in Africa. You have to go get something to bring. You don't come into the presence of the chief without bringing something. Okay, you kind of prepare yourself, and then there's a protocol when you walk in, you you look down, you don't look directly at the chief, and you don't speak directly to him, you speak through, you speak through somebody to him. Very interesting. My whole point here is there's a protocol, and you have to be invited. You can't just go in to see the chief. You have to, he has to open the doors to you to you, you know, and so this is what's important about prayer is that God has already opened the doors. God is accessible, God has invited us into his throne of grace. This king has said, Come into my throne of grace, so that you can receive help in those times of need. So prayer is an invitation into this throne of grace. Um, as I needed an intermediary there, I couldn't speak directly to the to the the chief. I needed someone to speak through, and he would speak through someone to me. At least he did that for a little while, and then things changed. But uh we have an intermediary. This throne of grace we approach because of the blood of Jesus, the book of Hebrews tells us. So we come boldly to the throne of grace to get help when we need it through our intermediary, the who is Jesus. So in that's why we pray in Jesus' name. We pray to to the Father in Jesus' name. Uh also, this is an invitation into relationship because if you if you think about what prayer is, um, it's really about relationship. It's not really about duty, it's about devotion. And it's not about law, it's about love. It's not about the performance and uh and how you do it and how often you do it. It's really about love. When the disciples came to Jesus and they saw that he prayed often, and they heard him pray, and they also knew another form of prayer from the Pharisees. So they came to him, and I imagine they would they were in this place of Lord, we've seen you pray, we've seen them pray, we like yours better. Lord, teach us to pray. Obviously, this is important to you. So, so Rabbi, teach us to pray. So Jesus was glad to do that, and Jesus said, When you pray, say, and maybe you know the first words of the Lord's Prayer, our Father. Our Father. Father is the first word of prayer because relationship is the priority of prayer. Relationship is what prayer is about. Before you ask, before you even worship, before you ask for your needs, for your daily bread, before you ask for protection from the evil one, before you ask for forgiveness of your sins, all of those things are part of prayer. But the first thing is father, relationship with him. So prayer is about relationship. He invites us to his throne of grace, he invites us into this relationship to know him as a father who wants to provide and protect for his children, protect his children. And then I think we can see prayer as an invitation into the heart of God and the mission of God. So the heart of God, that that relationship, knowing him first. Jesus said, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, then you will ask whatever you will. It'll be done for you. That's those are heavy words. That those are words that help build your and challenge your faith at the same time. But he said, This relationship has to happen. Abide in me. You can't bear fruit unless the you abide. The branch can't bear fruit unless it abides in the vine. It's only possible when you're connected to him. There's a vital relationship with him. And what happens in prayer is we're we're our vital relationship with Jesus, the the branch, us to the vine, Jesus, um continues to develop. And as it does, our mind becomes like his mind, our burdens become his burdens. Uh, what burdens his heart, burdens our heart, is what I mean. And so when we come in prayer to him, our prayer, our heart has already been sort of preconditioned or pre-informed by this relationship. I know what he's like, I know what he wants. My prayers become less like my will be done, more like his will be done, more like what he would want to pray. So the things that break his heart are the things that break my heart. The things that joy his heart joy my heart. So you see, this prayer is a relationship. First, he and God invites us into his heart, and then also into his mission, that your kingdom would come and your will would be done. And your kingdom uh uh is your kingdom expand, your rule would expand. And I want to see what you want happen and your desires and your authority and kingdom happen, come right now, right here on earth as it is in heaven. So prayer, the invitation to the throne of grace, the invitation to relationship, and an invitation into the heart of God and into the mission of God. But also, I like to say that uh prayer is expected. When Jesus spoke to uh his Sermon on the Mount and he spoke of prayer there, he said, When you pray, don't pray like the Pharisees who do it out in the open and they're all waiting for people to come and see them. But but rather uh do it secretly in your closet. But but you notice he said he didn't say if you pray or I I suggest you pray. If you find yourself praying, no, he's a when you pray, it's an expectation. Because uh, for example, my wife and I, um it's an expectation that we communicate. Uh, it's not a burden, it's not a duty. It's like, oh, I gotta go talk to her again. It's because I I mean I really love it. I love to do it. I want to know her uh more deeply and more intimately. And you know, so so it's something I long to do, but it's an expectation of the relationship. This is part of it, and it's an expectation when you pray, Jesus said. So as expected, Paul said, uh pray continually, pray without ceasing. So why don't we pray? Sometimes, well, uh maybe the most convicting thing to talk about is a prayer life because we know we need to be doing it, and we all often have a sneaking suspicion that we're not doing enough of it. So why don't we pray? Uh maybe because we don't value it, we don't believe it's gonna do anything, but it doesn't change, but we don't plan for it sometimes. It's just simply a matter of time management. We just need to put prayer time in our day. There's a lot of different things, but it's expected, it's expected of us. And then prayer is learned. This is the good news. Though they had been with Jesus so long, they said, Lord, teach us to pray. This is something that we learn as we go on in our walk with Jesus. Mostly it's learned by doing it. It's like on-the-job training mostly. We learn by doing it with others as well. So, one of the first things we learn is our spiritual emptiness, and this is what drives us to prayer. Then we learn how to hear his voice more carefully or more accurately. We discern his voice, we read his word, we see what his interests are and what he desires, and we pray toward those things. One of the greatest things to do is to take the last lesson and this lesson and merge them together and pray the scriptures over people. Just pray. Hey, we Lord, your scripture says this. I pray this for that person. Just go write down the psalm or write down a passage of scripture and pray for them. And maybe we'll do that before we finish here. Maybe I'll pull the Bible out and we'll do that. Another thing we need to know is that prayer is answered. This is why we pray to see results, right? This is why we pray. Jesus said he gave promises about answered prayer. There are there are stipulations in the Bible. Why do we not get answered prayer? Sometimes we have asked wrongly according to our the lust of our own flesh, as James said it. Sometimes it's timing. God knows everything. We know little. We pray for something, and maybe it's not quite time yet. Maybe other things need to line up in order for that prayer request to be answered. And so God knows the right time to answer. It's not only about what he does, it's also about when he does it. That's part of the wisdom of God. Uh, sometimes he wants us to press in and persevere. Sometimes we don't get it the first time we ask. But there's a longing and a hunger that comes from ask, from, from that is a part of prayer. And this is the parable that Jesus told about the man or the or the uh the woman uh with the judge, the unjust judge, and she was asking him to hear her case and to judge righteously or to judge her case, and he wouldn't do it, and she kept talking and she kept bugging him and she kept nagging until he did it. I'm like, I'm gonna, I don't even want to do this, but I'm gonna do this because she's gonna drive me crazy by keeping on asking. Okay, and so Jesus wasn't saying this is the way God is, he was saying this is the way man is. How much more is God gonna hear you when you cry out to him? So that's important. And then sometimes we don't get the answer we're expecting because God is wanting to answer it in a different way than we are expecting. So sometimes the answer to the prayer is yes now, sometimes it's yes later, sometimes it's not in that way, but I will show you. And sometimes the answer is no, because all of those answers come from the heart of a loving father, though. It's really important to understand that it all it all comes from the the heart of kindness. So there's a there's a dance with prayer. There's a we are partnering together with the Holy Spirit to know the heart of the Father. And we are hearing his voice and we're praying, and he's moving, and we're moving along with him, and we're we're he's following, he's he's leading, and we're following. And that's that's part of what prayer is about. So um let's look at your your booklet, session six, prayer in the life of the of a believer. I do want to spend some time talking about these scriptures here. Matthew chapter 26, verse 36 through 39. Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane and said to the disciples, Sit here while I go and pray over there. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then he said to them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with me. Then he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed, Oh, my father, it is possible that this cup passed from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. So we see Jesus in extreme sorrow and and ang and agony here. And we see, as we have talked earlier, um lesson three, I think it was, we see that this cup he was talking about was the cup of the wrath of God that he was going to be drinking undeservedly. He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us that we might know his righteousness. And so in this time of difficulty, he was consecrating himself, submitting himself. This is part of what prayer is. Consecration means I'm set apart to you. It means it's not so much about what I want, but I believe that what you want is greater. I believe that what you want is based out of your love for me. And so I'm going to submit. Submit means to come underneath. To come underneath. There's two words in the Greek for submit, and one of them is hopakuo, one is hopataso. Hupakuo means hupo means under. Coming up under the authority of something, the authority of someone. Out of law, out of because I have to. This is this is uh in the military. When I'm the private and you're the sergeant, and I have to salute you, and I have to do what you say, and I may hate you. I may I may uh spit in your direction when you walk away, but I have to do it. I'm coming up and under under your authority, out of duty. But the idea of hopatasso is to come up underneath someone's authority out of devotion, because of love, because I long to. This is what the scripture says when it says, wives, submit to your husbands, hopatasso, because I love you, because there's a relationship, there's a dynamic here that is important. It's not just my duty, it is my love, my devotion, my devotion to you. And I submit. This is what we're talking about when we say consecration and submission out of devotion to God. We lay aside what we want. And we say, Not my will, but your will be done. This is part of prayer, an important part of prayer. Humbling ourselves under God because he is God and we are not, and he knows best, and we don't. Then there's the prayer of faith, 1 John 5, 14. Now, this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us, and we know that he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, we whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. So this is not like the prayer of consecration. This is a prayer we pray when we know what God's will is, when we're sure of it, when we're sure he wants to move in the lives of our loved ones and he wants to bring them to salvation. We when we're sure uh that he wants to bring righteousness and his glory to a situation, and we have a feeling in our heart, a stirring and an uh an assurance in our heart by the Holy Spirit, this is what God's will is, and we're pushing into that thing. So you pray a prayer of faith because I know this is what God wants. I'm praying this thing with boldness and assurance and expectation that He is going to bring the answer. So it's not something you think God spoke to you or someone erroneous, some erroneous desire that's not in line with the scriptures. Of course, all of the things that are his will will be in line and be informed by the scriptures. Of course, the word of God is his will, right? And so we're praying according to that. That's why praying the scriptures are very powerful. Because you're praying directly from what the Word of God, what the will of God is. Then there's the prayer of agreement, Matthew 18, 19. Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. And the word agree there means to harmonize, it means to come together, you know, like we are singing together the same song, the same words, in the same rhythm with a different note, but we're harmonizing. So a metaphor we would understand is one of the a number of musical instruments set in the same key, playing the same tune. This scripture refers to perfect agreement of hearts, desires, wishes, and voices of two or more persons praying to God. That is so powerful when you pray together with people. So this is important. This Implies that personal prayer is not the only kind of prayer. Me by myself in a room with God is not the only kind of prayer. There's another kind of prayer that I need to be involved with. I need to pray with other people, pulling together and agreeing on these things. Then there's the prayer of personal edification, Jude. Beloved, but you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. So they were, so the believers here are told to edify or build up each other. Edify means to encourage, to strengthen, to build up something. And they're saying in this scripture is saying you can do this yourself by praying in the Spirit, by praying in leadership, in the leadership of the Spirit. And as the Spirit leads, you are praying. And sometimes it also is Romans 8, where we don't know how to pray as we ought, but the Holy Spirit helps us with groanings that are too deep for words. We don't even know what to pray, but our heart is groaning. That's part of it. Also in 1 Corinthians 14, it Paul speaks about praying with understanding or in the language you know and praying in the Spirit with your spirit language, a language of the Holy Spirit, praying in tongues, so that you are praying perfect prayers unto God and building up yourself. So praying in the spirit is such a powerful thing. Praying in tongues, and I know some of you probably have uh prayed for that uh gift of tongues, a prayer language, and you haven't, and some of you maybe don't. And it's okay. Your prayers are powerful no matter what language you're praying them in. But there's something about allowing the Holy Spirit to pray through you in a prayer language that is uh something you don't understand. So you are you're uh praying, the Holy Spirit is praying the perfect will of God. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14, perfect will of God for you, through you. God is He is praying perfect prayers through you and encouraging your giving thanks well. It also says there. So praying in our own language is prompted by the Holy Spirit, praying with groanings that can be cannot be uttered in Romans 8, praying in an unknown tongue in 1 Corinthians 14. And then there's a prayer of supplication. And uh Romans 6, verse 18, Paul says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. It also says all kinds of prayer, one version. And if you read that in the Greek, it's it's speaking of different types of prayer, but a prayer of supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for the saints. What is supplication? It's pressing in and asking for what you need. The context here is spiritual warfare. We're battling not with flesh and blood, but we're battling in the spirit. And so, according to historians, it was customary for Greek armies to offer prayers for success to their gods before they went to war. In this scripture, Paul's telling believers how to succeed in battle. Pray. Always be in a spirit of prayer in every season, in every situation. Receive that invitation. Send your RSVP. I hear you inviting me into the throne room, into relationship with you, into your heart and into your mission. Lord, I hear these things. I hear you. Let's be ready to engage in prayer at all times. And then there's a prayer in Philippians 4 where it says that prayer brings peace. And Paul writes this from prison, by the way, he's writing this be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Paul is saying, Don't give any place to anxiety. He's saying give place to prayer. Replace the fear with faith, with trust, and believing God. And from that comes this peace, knowing that God cares, that God is able, that he's strong, and he wants to intervene on your uh behalf. So I'm gonna close out this session today, actually praying from the scriptures. Okay, I want to pray a prayer for you from Ephesians. It's a prayer that Paul is actually praying for the believers there at Ephesians, but I want to do this because I'd like to show you what I mean by praying the scriptures. And I'm reading the scripture here, but I'm taking the scripture and I'm just turning it into a prayer for uh for you as you're listening here. So, Father, I thank you. I come before you on behalf of my brothers and sisters who may be watching this video, and I bow my knees to you, Father, because you are the Lord of heaven and earth, and because you invite us into this relationship, you're the king of all, and you invite us into your throne room, Lord, and that we can ask boldly for what we need. And so, you, who every family in heaven and earth is named, after every family whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, and according to your riches and according to your glory, Lord, I want to pray that you would grant my friends strength, that you would fill them up, that you would fortify them and edify them and strengthen them in their inner man, God, that you would give them power, your power of your Holy Spirit, your presence there, God, in their lives, power to hear your voice, power to pray in your direction, power to speak your words to other people, power for witness, power to live their lives free from sin, Lord, through your spirit and their inner being, Lord, and inside them, they would know this power working. So that Jesus, you would dwell in their hearts through faith, and that they would be rooted and grounded in love. Lord, the bedrock of their life would be you and who and your heart for them. Lord, that their roots would go down deep into the soil of your love and they would get their nourishment, everything they need to live and bear fruit from the love of Christ that's within them. Let them be rooted and grounded in your love, Lord. Let them be strengthened to understand with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth and to know the love of Christ that is beyond knowledge. Lord, I pray that you would stretch them in their spirits, that you would expand their hearts to be able to understand and know this love which is beyond understanding. But Lord, take them deeper into a place. Let them be rooted in this love and then take them deeper in their understanding of it. God, let them see the fullness of your love for them, Lord, that they would be filled with all the fullness of God. And I say now to him who's able to do far more abundantly than everything that we can ask or think, according to your power that works inside of them, to you be glory in the church and in Jesus Christ throughout every generation, in their lives, in their families, in their sons and daughters, in their fathers and mothers, throughout every generation, forever and forever, Lord. Thank you for your kingdom that has no end. Bless them in the name of Jesus. Amen. So it's really pretty simple to pray the scriptures. The scriptures not only speak to us, they give us words to speak back to God. And so this is this is God's invitation. Come into my heart, come into my mission, be a part of who I am and what I want to happen on this earth. That's what prayer is about. God bless.