Being Taught How To Pray

One of the most important things I consider to be extremely vital in the child of God's life, is to have an active and daily ongoing prayer life with God.  There is no way that we are going to make it, if we do not have an opened and sincere prayer life with our Lord, and our God.  

I am also convinced that we must be taught just how and what we should pray and communicate to God.  If we truly proclaim Christ as our Saviour, he will teach us how to pray, and the Holy Ghost here on earth with us, will back up what Jesus will teach us.  

If we want God to hear our prayers, and answer them, we must submit ourselves to be taught how to pray, properly and according to God's will and his word.  I pray that this episode message helps in this understanding of prayer.

Transcript

Pastor Rickey D. Dixon 0:00

Praise God, praise God. Welcome, welcome, Terry Watts. Greetings and blessings from the Lord our God. We thank God this morning for you joining us for our Holy City, Spirit of Truth Ministries, and also our bearing witness to the Truth Podcast this morning of June the 7th, 2026. We thank God for you for taking out of your schedule to join us to hear the word of God tomorrow. And we do have the word of God for you this morning. So let us begin by getting into the word of God this morning. Because I want to deal with a particular subject and area that we must learn how to do. And that area is learning how to pray. We got to learn how to pray. Praying, and we're gonna learn some things this morning. We just gotta we ain't gonna pray and give God anything. Let me just start off and ask a question as we go into our podcast this morning. Have you ever had to deal with or face something in your life which had you so stressed, so overwhelmed, and worrisome. This whatsoever it was had your nerves completely shot. You felt that the only way for you to deal with it was to take it before the Lord. You prayed, what was your prayer? You said what was your say, you cried a mighty river of tears, and snotted your snot and everything. And yet it seemed like your prayers went unanswered or unheard. You you're not you're not even a lot of times when we pray, we're not, we have not been totally sure that God even heard us when we prayed. We cannot, we, we cannot be honest and tell the truth that we know for sure God heard us. And a lot of the prayers that we've done, we we say, what happened? Well, what happened? Many of us have wondered uh to ourselves. You know, I know that I was talking to the Lord. I I believe that he heard me. I know that I've been uh waiting and waiting. I meant every word that I was praying, it did come from my heart. Now we say a whole lot of things when we wonder whether not God has heard our prayer. Well, people of God, hallelujah, and all of those that were hear me this morning, we as religious church folks have been told to pray and take our troubles and problems to the Lord. Now they were right in telling us to pray, and they then instruct us correctly to do so. But in the area of how we should pray and what we should pray went totally untaught to us by them. Areas in our spiritual lives of which we have not been taught how to pray will have us living and doing certain things in error before God and out of spiritual order according to the word of God. We're gonna deal with this this morning. See, now I I have never, I have never proclaimed to know everything that the word of God teaches, and I never will. I know that no matter how much anyone may come to know about the word of God, there is yet much more that all of us can come to know and learn the longer we walk with God. But what I know him to have revealed unto me, I know that he has given it to me in spiritual knowledge and understanding, that I may know in order that I may teach it unto his people for his glory. And this is what I will do until the day or the night that he sends for me. If we do not, listen to me, I'm finished, I'm I'm sharing something with you this morning. If we do not have a prayer life with God, we do not have a relationship with God. If you don't ever talk to God and pray God, you ain't got no relationship with him. Come on now. Even in our human relationship, if you went involved with somebody, y'all don't ever talk, that ain't no relationship. Same goes for God. If we don't have a prayer life of communicating spiritual communication with God, you don't have a relationship with him. I don't care how much you may convince yourself or tell yourself that you do, if you don't talk to God on a regular basis in relationship with him, you do not have a prayer life, and your relationship is not what you think it is with him. See, this morning, I want to bring to all of our awareness a level of understanding and knowledge of how we should pray and what we should pray when submitting our prayers unto God. Hear me when I told you. How to pray and what to pray is very important if we so desire that our prayers go up before Him and be heard by Him, Him who answers prayers. You we know that God answers prayer, we need to make sure and be so enough shown that He hears us, and there is a way for us to do that. We must eradicate it out of our minds in thinking that we can just utter and say anything in prayer, thinking that all the things we have said are acceptable and heard by God. We need to stop thinking that. We think because God is God, He's gonna hear everything we say. No, you got to talk to God according to His will and the way He says to come unto Him. The truth of knowing just how many of our prayers never really went beyond the ceiling of our homes would probably shock many of us because they ain't never left the room. Because God ain't received them, nor did He hear a lot of our prayers over the years. There is a way that we can know without a doubt that God will both hear and answer our prayers unto Him with confidence when we pray according to His will. This morning's message being taught how to pray. It came to pass one time when Jesus was praying in a certain place, the Bible said. This Luke talking in the book of Luke. He said, It came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, or when Jesus stopped praying, he was at praying, and the disciples were amazed how he was praying. That one of the disciples said unto him, when he got through praying, even he was so moved by the way Jesus prayed, he said, Lord, teach us to pray. Come on now, come on now. This is where we at this morning. Lord, teach us, teach us to pray. As John, he said, this disciple he said, Teach us, Lord, how to pray. Just like John the Baptist taught his disciples. See, prayer, when prayer to God got to be taught. Or else, if we if it we if it's not taught to us, we're gonna just say it and do it like we think we're supposed to do it. And most of the time, if not 100% of the time, we're gonna do it the wrong way. Because this is a spiritual area, and all things spiritual must be taught unto us because we're not born with the knowledge of how to conduct ourselves spiritually because we're born in the flesh, but Jesus can teach us, his word can teach us, the Holy Ghost can teach us. Here's something that I know. Listen to me that there is no one else who can teach us how to pray accurately or more correctly than Jesus. His way of teaching us today is through his word and by his spirit. He is the only one of whom God has heard all of his prayers each and every time. That's Jesus, the only one I know that God has heard his prayers. We can't say that. Come on now. We can't say that. If you do say that, you're deceiving yourself because we ain't always know how to pray right. We have to learn how to pray right. But but in my studying and in my meditation, I know that according to the word of God, I'm gonna show you to you, I'm gonna show it to you in a minute. That every time Jesus has prayed, God has heard him each and every time. I read it to you. See, I know this because I remember when Jesus had them roll away the stone which covered Lazarus' tomb. The words which Jesus prayed unto God, he says this in John, that 11th chapter. Remember, y'all know this overhead, Mary Martha ran out to him, and he said, Well, show me where you laid him, and he goes up to Lazarus' tomb, and he had to roll away the stone. And here's what John writes He said, And Jesus lift up his eye and said, He finna pray. He said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. But listen to what he said next. He said, Now I knew that thou hearest me always. Listen to that. Always. That means every time. Jesus already knows you're going. He didn't have to say that. I thank you. He said, Lord, he didn't have to say, Lord, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. He said, Because I know that thou hearest me always. I know you hear me every time. But listen to what Jesus said. He teaching him because he knows people is listening. He said, But because of the people which stand by, I said it. That's why I said, Lord, I thank you because you hear me, because I wanted them to hear me say that to you. Because I'm letting you know, I know you hear me every time. I pray. Always. But because of the people say I said it. Why I said it? He said, because that they may believe that thou hast sent me. That's why I said I know you hear me every time. God always hear the Son, because it's the Son that died and obeyed him and died on the cross for the people. But a lot of things Jesus does to teach us. And just like he knew that the Father hears him always, Jesus can show us and get us to a place where we will also know that God can hear us always, or every time we pray. If we are indeed determined to be taught how to pray unto the Lord God, there is no one better for us to learn from or to be taught by than Jesus. God always heareth him. And you and I, in our prayer life, are definitely going to want God to always hear us in our prayers unto him, especially in times of troubles. Come on and teach us, Jesus. Come on, teach us. We ready? The disciples have already asked Jesus to teach them to pray. And in the book of Matthew, Jesus teaches them just how to do just that. In the book of Matthew, Jesus says this, okay? Since you ask me to teach you how to pray, I'm gonna teach you how to pray, is what he's saying. He says this first thing he says, and when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrite. That's the first thing you got to get out here. Stop being hypocritical. You got to be real in your prayers. We all got to be real before God. When you come before God, you got to be real because he knew everything anyway. They don't need to come to God fake and phony. He said, When thou prayeth, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. For they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets. Listen to that. Why are they doing that, Jesus? That they may be seen of men. Most people, you probably many people put on front and show just so other people can hear and see them. I don't know why we so adamant, especially in this generation of social media and everything else, and these other platforms, we want to be seen and we want to be heard by people. But we don't want our lives to be seen in a certain light before God. Jesus said that they may be seen of men. He said, Verily, I say unto you, that word verily means truly. I say unto you, they have their reward. In other words, what they seek it, they already got. And see, this is a big what Jesus is also showing you. So this is a big reason why a lot of your prayers have been answered, because you already got what you wanted from people. You already got what you want from men. So why do you think God's gonna come behind you and answer your prayers when you was trying to get your answers of what you wanted? You already got that from people because of the way you prayed in the first place. First thing, we must stop being like, let me say it like this. We gotta stop being like we've been being. Stop praying like you've been praying hypocritically, ain't real. Jesus says, Thou shalt not be like them. He said, Don't be like them. See, you want me to teach you how to pray? The first thing you gotta do is stop being like people. Stop coming before God like people. Come before God honestly. Come before God real and not hypocritical. Jesus said, Thou shalt not be like them. Don't pray like that. Because you ain't got no answer. That means don't pray like them. Stop wanting for others to think that you know how to pray so marvelously. Stop wanting to be seen and from wanting to be heard. Want people to think highly of you, to thank you all that. You better get out of that spirit. Get out of that spirit. Stop expecting God. Let me hit let me help you on this. Stop expecting God to answer a prayer that you prayed to him hypocritically, like others, when you have already gotten the reward of your prayers from people. Come on now. God come behind you and also give you heels, too? No, you wanted what you wanted from people. God, and I mean this, God is not a social media platform, and he will never allow you to use him as such. God does not answer prayers which we pray unto mankind. You pray to people, look for your blessing to come from people then, and not God. If we insist on praying like this, we in our foolishness are insisting on not being heard by God. That's why you lie, you pray, wonder why your prayers ain't being answered. Could this be one of the areas why was hindering and cause them not to be answered? Why should God reward your prayers when you have already received your answer and your reward from the people of whom you were trying to impress? Jesus don't be like them. He also says this. He said, But thou, now if you want to do it right, he said in verse 6, you want to do this right? He said, But thou, when thou prayest, if you want to pray right, he said, listen at this now, enter into thy closet. Come on now. Now, y'all don't understand Jesus don't mean I mean, now some of us got them nice houses. I know y'all got some of them nice houses, and you got them big walk-in closet. Now, if you got something that big, and if that's your spot, fine. But he's not literally just saying you got to be in a closet. What he's simply saying is your whatever your secret place is, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Whatever your private area is, wherever that may be on the back porch somewhere, in the garage, wherever, whatever you can be, well, ain't nobody else around or can be interrupted when you talking to God, wherever your closet is, he said, go there. Well, you ain't got to be trying to impress nobody because ain't nobody around, because you and you ain't nobody there but you and God. He said, But when but thou when thou pray, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, I mean close out from everybody. I don't like to be disturbed when I'm praying. That's why I don't want to room my spot yet. When I'm spending time with the Lord, he said, shut the door, and then close yourself from take a little time to just isolate yourself from people because what you're about to do now, it ain't got nothing to do with people. This you're finna step into a spiritual realm where you in prayer to God alone, without nobody trying to see you, and you ain't got to impress nobody, you ain't got to be hypocritical. It's just you and God in your secret place, shut off and closed off. Praise that, pray to the Father, which is in secret. It's between you and God in secret. And I'm gonna tell you what God's gonna do. He said, pray to the Father, which is in secret. He shall reward thee openly. See, that's the kind of reward I want. See, that's kind of prayer, that's kind of asked to the prayers I want. When God do the reward in you openly, and when you're gonna be able to say, and everybody around you're gonna say, the Lord don't bless that person. Let God do it openly. That that praise that we want from people, it don't last. That hypocritical prayer we try to impress other folks and want folks to think that we really got this relationship with God and don't, that ain't worth nothing. But what you get from God, when you spend quality time in earnest, in sincerity and in truth with God, in your secret place, your closet, when you close off from everybody, when you pray to the Father in secret, he shall reward thee openly because you did it the way it was supposed to be done. I've said this many times, and I'll say it many more times before it's over with that God prefers that we be alone with him in his presence doing our prayers to him. This time should be just you and God. Many of us as yet have not become comfortable being alone with God because we don't have no relation with him. Being alone with God is yet an uncomfortable place for many who have needed to have others around. See, when you so used to have other folks in your business and all around, you can't have talking to God like you need to. But so many of us have come accustomed to having an entourage and be around in the group and the and others always around us. We we we're afraid of many people are afraid of being alone because it's something that they have not adjusted to, and they a lot of them don't want to adjust to. Well, I'm gonna tell you, when you're when you're talking about being alone with God, you're not alone, he's gonna be with you. Always, always, but we gotta stop thinking that somebody else got to be included in this. No, there are things in your life that you need to be by yourself with. And one of those things is when it comes to your prayer life with God, you need to be alone with him. Who else is gonna understand you like he does? Nobody. Jesus also says this in verse 7. He said, but when you pray, another thing you do when you pray, he said, use not vain repetition as the heathens do. For they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Don't be like no heathen. And stop thinking because you say something a hundred times in your prayer that that's gonna cause God to hear you any greater. He said, He, when you pray, use he said, Oh, you ain't got to use all that vain repetition, keep saying stuff over and over and over. I've heard people pray so many times and they say Father God 50 times in their prayer. Little slangs like that. You don't have to keep saying it over and over. Father God is the Father God, in other words, Father God. Don't get me wrong, yeah, he's the Father God. But he and you ain't gotta say talk to him like that. He heard you the first time you said, but when we do that because we don't know what else to say, and we don't have because we don't have the vocabulary and the communication that we know how to need to talk to God, which comes from knowing the word. See, if we know more of the word, we'll know what to what we should be praying. And we wouldn't have to do all that vain repetitions of saying things constantly over and over before God, hollering at God, God God, follow God, all that kind of stuff. But when you know the word, hallelujah, and when you speak the word to God, you will have no need to do that. He said, He said, Jesus said, he said why they do it because they think that they that God don't hear them because of their much speaking, because they don't say a whole lot of something. See, when we have not been taught how to pray according to the word of God, we tend to think that saying a whole lot of nothing and using a bunch of empty words of vain repetitions somehow will cause us to feel like we have prayed the prayer that will move every mountain when we haven't moved nothing. That's what heathens do. And it's time for us to stop praying like heathens and start praying like the children of God ought to pray. I said the word of God say heathen, I'll say heathen because the word of God say heathen. And the heathen ain't no nothing but somebody that does not acknowledge God in what they say and what. They do because they don't know God. You can't acknowledge who you who you don't know. Jesus says this in verse 8. He said, Be not ye therefore like under. He's saying it again. Be not you like, don't be like them. Because if you pray like that, that's that's causing you to go away from getting your prayers answered, then then pulling you closer to getting your prayers answered. That's totally doing the opposite of what you want. It's right. I wonder why you wonder why your prayers ain't been answered? Because we've been doing the total the steps that are totally wrong to having our prayers answered. He said, Be not therefore like unto them. For your father knoweth what things you have need of. You ain't got to keep saying stuff over and over and over and over and over. A hundred times in one prayer. Don't get me wrong. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with you including that in your prayers every day. But you don't have to say them a hundred times in one prayer, the same thing. For your father knows what you have need of before you ask him. Let Jesus say that. Prayer should never be as though we are telling God something that he doesn't already know. Yes, he wants you to come to him and mention it. But you don't have to mention it to him 40 times in one prayer. He knows all things. We are just, see, we are to just to humble ourselves and acknowledge him through our prayers because we know that he answers prayers and that we know that he is able. Yes, he is able. The disciples wanted Jesus to teach them how to pray. He said, Okay, I'm teaching. Now, after he done told them how to pray and what not to pray, he finna tell you now exactly what and how we should be praying as far as a structure of prayer. He finna give you a format of prayer. When he said verse 9, he said, after this manner, he's finna give them a template, if you would, a manner of how to pray. He said, After this manner, therefore pray. Now, this is what he's gonna teach them. Now, see now that Jesus has taught them, he finna show them. Jesus goes on after this and gives them the structure, what prayer should consist of. The first thing being we are to acknowledge God first and foremost for who he is. Before you start any kind of prayer, go to begging and stuff. We first thing in every prayer is to acknowledge who God is. Come on now. Come on now. He said, Hallelujah. Now he says it like this. This is the structure of the prayer. He said, Our Father, which is which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. He's the step is the first step is to acknowledge God. That's what he's saying. You can say our Father, you can say, you can say Almighty God, whatever phrase you use, let that phrase be to first acknowledge who God is. You can say the Holy One. Hallelujah. See, Jeremiah just prayed, he said, The Lord is his name. As long as you acknowledge him, Lord God Almighty. Acknowledge who you're praying to. Then the next part of this prayer, I won't be able to go through the whole thing, but I'm giving you the structure. Is to first after you acknowledge who God is, and you ain't got to rush to take your time and tell God how He is, how wonderful He is, how amazing He is. Then the next part of the structure of the prayer, He said, Acknowledge, you got to acknowledge your dependence on Him. Know that you let Him know Lord, I depend on you. It's when Jesus uses the word He said, Give us this day our daily bread. Because I know, Lord, if I don't, if you don't provide it, I ain't gonna eat. If you don't make a way, Lord, I'm dependent on you. You provide the shelter over my head. You don't put clothes and shoes on my children, body. You put food in the house. Acknowledge your dependence on him. It's also a part of destructive practice. Ask his forgiveness after you acknowledge him that he's God and express to him your dependence on him. Also include asking for forgiveness. Ask his forgiveness of the sinful things we have done or may have done before him. And mean it in true repentance. Jesus puts it like this, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. As we forgive, in other words, he said, Lord, forgive us as we forgive others. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. That's this part of a prayer is so more important than people realize because it's stimulating and predicated on what you do and don't do when it comes to forgiveness. Meaning, if you don't forgive others, I don't care what they done did to you. Now I mean this. I know it's gonna be hard sometimes to forgive some people, but it all is predicated on God's forgiveness of you, is predicated on how on your forgiveness of others. If you don't forgive, I don't care how you go to God in prayer, you will not be forgiven until you first forgive. Because that's part of the prayer. Forgive us as we. I mean, if we forgive others, Lord, God is open to forgive you. But also, the word of God, you read the word of God, also tell you, continue to read this this chapter in Matthew, is tell you, if you don't forgive, it says, Neither will your father in heaven forgive you. And y'all ain't none of us live it so good that we don't need no forgiveness. You may need forgiveness down the road, and it's gonna be blocked because you still got some unforgiveness in your heart towards somebody that did something to you. You got to let it go. And like I said, I know it's hard. I've been there, but you gotta find a way. You gotta ask Jesus to help you. Yes, God, Lord, help me to get this off my heart. Lord, help me to stop feeling this way about this person because this is blocking my forgiveness. And forgiveness, stored up in the heart, it will turn to something else, which I'm gonna preach on later on. It's gonna turn to that root of bitterness. You cannot let that fester in your heart because the enemy will turn it into something else that's gonna be harder to get rid of if you don't get rid of the forgiveness now. Later on, when it turns to something else, bitterness, it's gonna be much more hard to get rid of. So go ahead and forgive. Go ahead and forgive so that God can forgive you. He said, pray that he will keep us from temptation, that we will, that he will deliver us from evil and from sinning and doing wrong. That's another part we need to put in our prayer that God will keep us, keep us from doing wrong, keep us from thinking wrong. Don't let us be led in no temptation that we don't need to be tempted by. But Lord, we trust in you to deliver us from the evil that's come to try to plague our lives, our families, our homes, our jobs, and everything else. This is the structure of the prayer. Also, he says, acknowledge that it is God's kingdom, his power, and his glory which shall last forever. You got to know that this him who you praying to and being taught how to pray to, his kingdom gonna last. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. His kingdom gonna last forever. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. This is the structure of the prayer that Jesus gave when his disciples asked them to teach them to pray. And all this should be an understanding that we, without Jesus teaching us through the word, don't know how to pray as we ought to know. We might as well tell the truth. We don't know how to pray 100% as accurate as we ought to know. We got to be taught it. He is not so much as telling us to pray this prayer verbatim. This is just a structure, a platform. But according to this manner, he said, after this manner, after this likeness, after this structure, pray like this. And and and that's so our prayers will be answered. He said, because there may come a time when we just can't find the words. Hear me on this or him. This is another part of praying. There may be times you don't know what words to use, don't know what to say, how to say, what you want to say. And to say just what you're really feeling in our hearts before God, we we want to say it, but we want it to come out right. See, when this happens, be still. Just be still. And just don't say nothing. Don't say nothing stupid, don't say nothing out the way. Sometimes in my prayer, and I don't have, I don't know exactly how to say what I'm saying, I just be still. I just be still and listen. Just see, I'm gonna hear the prayer, the voice of the Lord. Because sometimes, there's a level of prayer, y'all, in God, where words, the English words, let me say like that. English words, they don't even exist in the English dictionary. But in your heart, you've invented, but you don't know the word to express it. Okay. When this happens, like I said, just be still. Just be still. Because sometimes in prayer, see, prayer is communication. And what is communication? Communication is somebody talking while the other listen, but then again, is let it flip, and you shut up and let the other person say something. Sometimes in prayer, there may just be moments of quiet, allowing the Holy Ghost to take it from there. Sometimes when you get to that point, I don't know what else to say. Just be just be still. Don't end your prayer, just be still and see if the Holy Ghost won't talk to you. This is where the Holy Ghost comes in on our behalf, speaking unto God for us. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. In a holy language, He knows God understands. The Holy Ghost knows the language. See, let me give you an FYI. You may feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost doing this quietly within you, or you may experience him speaking it through you in other tongues. And that's an area right there. A lot of folks ain't familiar with. But I hope to get to the message on that soon. Speaking in tongues. Paul had to explain this to the church in Rome. But he says, likewise, the spirit also helpeth our infirmity. The Holy Ghost is there to help us. The spirit also helpeth our infirmity. You know what he told us? For we know not what we should pray for as we ought. This is what Paul tells the church in Rome in the book of Romans. We don't know how to pray every time we pray. We don't know how to exactly say it the way we ought to say it. But that's why the Holy Ghost, he said, the Holy Ghost there will help you if you let him help you. He said, But the Spirit itself makes intercession for us, means he will talk for us to God during those times, during those moments, with groanings which cannot be uttered. He said, and he that searches the hearts knoweth what is in the mind of the spirit. Because he makes intercession for the saints. There it is, the saints are the people of God. He the Holy Ghost is gonna make intercession for you. In other words, he'll talk to God for you. For the saints according to the will of God. Like I said, sometimes we just need to be quiet and see what the Holy Ghost will say. Let the Holy Ghost talk to God for you. See, in our attempts to understand that we must be taught how to pray and what to pray, let us accept in humility that we just simply of ourselves don't know how to pray except we be taught by the Lord and the interceding of the Holy Ghost. This means that whatsoever we have been doing up until this point may not have been effective in producing prayers which are answered. We have not been taught how to pray according to the word of God. Paul tells the church in Rome that we know not what we should pray as we ought. This is the first understanding about us praying. The next thing he tells the church is that it is the spirit itself making intercessions for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. There's a language that can be spoken unto God. We don't know it, but the Holy Ghost in you does. That's why it's so important we got to have Jesus in our life, but we also got to have the Holy Ghost, which is the Spirit of God in our life, to make that connection. Let us focus for a moment on these two key points of understanding what Paul is talking about here in the book of Romans. We know not what we should pray as we ought, because praying to the Lord is not just talking and saying something verbally using empty words. That's why we don't know how to do this. We cannot continue in our attempts to just say words unto God or to talk to him in an unholy and a worldly language, vernacular. We can't do that. In continuing to pray to God in this way will only prove that we know not what we should pray for as we ought to. God must be talked to and prayed to in accordance with who He is and not what our ideology thinks he is. If we think of God with a worldly understanding, odds are we will pray to him in like fashion. None of our prayers will be answered if we do this. Let me tell you this. Let me tell you something else. Tell you something else about God. God is a spirit, and not only must we worship him in spirit and in truth, we must also pray to him in spirit and in truth. This is the area of where a lot of our prayers, dilemmas can be found. We have no spiritual connection to the Lord our God. If there is no spiritual connection, there can be no true prayer connection. If we have no spiritual connection to the Lord our God, how can we pray to Him and use spiritual words in prayer? And we don't have that connection. Our good intent does not make our prayers work for us. It is our praying according to his will that works every time. If we want our prayers to be heard and to be answered, we must come into the knowledge of a spiritual, prayerful understanding. How do we do this? Paul points the church towards an awareness of the Spirit, which is the Holy Ghost. He, the Holy Ghost, is who we should come to know. The Holy Ghost has a spiritual connection with God, and he also knows the holy language by which to talk to God. Our connection to God must include a connection to the Holy Ghost. Our connecting ourselves to the Holy Ghost will provide us with the access of praying righteously unto God. And even those things which we cannot put into words, the Spirit will intercede and utter for us in prayer what we cannot put into words ourselves unto God. If we desire to be taught how to pray, we must understand this completely. Prayer is not mere talking with God, it is spiritual and heavenly communication with God in accordance with his word and his will. And in order that we may pray this with his will, we must know more of his word. To know his word is to know him. This is why it requires the Holy Ghost in our prayer life, because he is our teacher sent here for us. In the absence of the presence of Jesus being here, there is a language which the Holy Ghost knows that God understands and hears. And this language the Holy Ghost can teach us that we may pray our prayers correctly. This language comes from heaven, which is why we don't know it yet, but we will. This is how we will pray once we come to know God's word and his will, and the Holy Ghost has taught us the language. This is another level of prayer, because there are many levels, which comes as a result of our faithfulness and our commitment to a godly prayer life. Paul also tells the church in Ephesus, he says, praying always. See, when you get to this level here, you're gonna be able to pray always. Praying always, he says, with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. So when you get the Holy Ghost in you and you got Christ in your life, you'll be all you'll always be able to pray prayer and supplication, you'll be able to do all that in the Spirit of God, in the Holy Ghost, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. You'll be able to pray for all the people of God everywhere. Do y'all know prayer can go everywhere? Because it's spiritual. We could be praying for those folks in Africa, we could be praying for those countries that's in war, Ukraine and Russia, Israel, Gaza, we could be praying for Iraq, America, even though they acting crazy. It's the prayers of the people of God, the saints, that intercede for this craziness in the world. It's the prayers of the saints that go up before God, where God can have mercy on these people in their crazy ways. But if God's people don't know how to pray for the saints of God that were in the world, because we don't have the connection. Paul also tells the church in Corinth, he said, What is it then? What is it then? When I'm in God, he said, I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with an understanding also. See, what he said, Paul had got to learn, he said, I can pray both ways. I can pray and understand when folks understand me. I pray in the spirit while I'm talking to God, and nobody knows what I'm saying. He also said, I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Let me see this. Let me let me just reveal something to you before I let you go. Let me reveal something to you. Through having the Spirit of God in our lives, hear me on this. There are also levels of prayers, many levels of prayers, just like there's many levels of a lot of things in our lives, many stages of development, many stages of spiritual development, just like there are many stages of physical development. There is also, listen to me, and you might not know this because you probably it's probably new. There is also a singing of prayer. You know, you can there's a song that God, the Holy Ghost put in your heart, and it could be a song prayer, a singing of prayers to God. There's also that's a singing that our spirit can also sing before God. I can show y'all in the Bible, many places I've been reading the Bible. If you have time, if y'all like to study like I do, when Hannah, the woman in the Bible named Hannah, El Cana's wife, she couldn't have no children, and she was the mother of Samuel. When God answered her prayers, she sung a prayer to God. John the Baptist daddy, when John the Baptist was born, Zachariah sung a prayer to God. Mary, when the angel got gave, got you telling my husband's gonna have the Son of God, she sung a prayer to God. Y'all got to read your Bible and understand what's going on. You there is a song that the Holy Ghost can put in your heart, that your prayer will come out as a song to God. That's a whole nother level. Our spirits can sing before God as well, just like our mouth can talk before God as well. That's why remember Paul said, He said, I can sing, he said, I can pray with understanding, and I can pray with the spirit also. I can pray, I can also sing in the spirit, and I can also sing and understand it too. Listen to that. See, but all this must be taught and giving us understanding that we can have this in God. And a lot of our prayer, we can get our start getting our prayers answered. But the but the most important thing you get out of having a prayer life with God is you can have a deeper relationship. Though you ain't asking for nothing. You just thank God for the relationship that has done your God and the Holy Ghost got you to this level of relationship, just being in God without asking for nothing. Did y'all hear what I said? Praying with understanding. There's also a singing of prayer that our spirit can also sing before God as well. But all this must be the way we are taught by Him. And I leave you at this that John said in the book of 1 John. He said, because John also, the one that was out there and put on the Isle of Patmos, and wrote the book of Revelation, and God showed him a whole bunch of things. Jesus showed him a whole bunch of things. But this is one thing he wrote, and I this has been one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible. He said, and this is the confidence. This is how you can have confidence that you're gonna know your prayers is answered. When you get yourself in line with God's plan, with his format. With his formula and the structure of our prayer, he said, This is the confidence you have confidence from now on. And once you got confidence in God with your prayer, nothing else can ever shake it ever again. He said, This is the confidence that we have in him. That if we ask anything, okay, asking, praying, anything according to his will, this is the key. We've got to start praying according to his will, not our will, not what we want, how we want it. We got to start praying. The prayer is to pray according to God's will, not your will and not your way. If we ask anything according to his will, what's gonna happen, John? He says, He heareth us. God will hear you every time. Remember what Jesus just got to saying that? He said, I know, Father, I know you hear me always. See, we can have the same thing if we get ourselves right with God. God will hear us every time, and we will have the confidence of knowing that he hears us. When we are praying and asking anything according to his will. What's his will? His word. If you get in the word, you'll find out what you can pray and how to pray. And God is not going to ever ignore his word because he and his word are one. Let me read to you again. I'm finna let you go. This is the confidence. This is first John, the fifth chapter of first John. This is the confidence that we have in him. That if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. Verse 15. And if we know that he heareth, yeah, I know. I know you hear. If we know that he heareth, whatsoever we ask for or pray, we know that we have the petition. What's your petition? What you asked him for. We know that we have the petition that we desired of him. That means you know you're gonna get it. Just sit back and wait for it and believe. And keep the confidence, knowing that God heard you. Because when you have been taught how to pray, you know now how to start each and every one of your prayers from here on out. And you can have the confidence that he heard you because you know you prayed according to his word. And how I know I prayed according to his word, because I know what the book said. And I prayed according to what that book said, and everything in the book is his will, and I know he's gonna hear his will, because he's gonna hear his word. And if I know he heard me, all I gotta do is know I'm gonna get what I prayed for. I got the answer to my prayers when I prayed. I'm just waiting on the manifestation and I'm just waiting on it to be revealed until me. Because I got it when I prayed according to his will. The petition that I have desired of him because I asked for something that's in line with his word. I didn't ask for something that's pie in the sky. I didn't ask God to go beat somebody up or to make somebody's life miserable. That's the devil. And we got to stop using God like that. Pray according to his word and live a saved life. And our prayers will be heard, and our prayers will be answered. If we let his word, if we let Jesus, if we let the Holy Ghost teach us how to pray. God bless you. God bless you.