1. That We would hear God come to us. We get this idea from the first three requests of the Lord’s prayer: “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name; Your Kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” According to Theodore W. Jennings Jr.,
In effect [these prayers say to us]: It is not enough that you be holy in yourself—be holy to us as well [let your name be hallowed on earth]; it is not enough that you reign far off, far above, far ahead—rule here and now [let your kingdom come down to us]; it is not enough that your goal is perfect in itself—complete it here [let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven]. In short, it says: It is not enough that you are God—be God for us, with us here and now.4
We get this idea also from Revelation 3:20, where we see the image of Jesus knocking at our heart’s door wanting to come into us, to sup with us and us with Him. Here it is important to see that all prayer does not begin with ourselves. He starts it. Therefore, when we say that this type of petition is an invocation, that we are summoning God to come to us, we must remember that He has already summoned us to come to Him. Our summoning Him is just a response to His summoning us.
O Hallesby comments on Revelation 3:20: “… [It] affords a new glimpse into the nature of prayer, showing us that God has designed prayer as a means of intimate and joyous fellowship between God and man.”7
I agree. The nature of prayer is a means of obtaining fellowship with Him. And though we are separating out this type of petition as suggesting that it should come first, as to invoke God at the beginning of our prayer time to come to us and help us pray, this type of prayer is really also at the heart and core of all prayer. Yes, it is the nature of all prayer to desire that God would be present with us—to commune with us and be God to us.
Therefore, the nature of prayer is the desire of the soul for God; it is a crying out to God for fellowship and help. We see this most vividly in the prayer of David when he prayed, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Ps. 42:1-2a). Again, in Psalms 63:1 David prays, “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is not water.”
The second type of petition is…
2. That He would give us the things we need. Though this type of petition also includes the summoning of God to come to us (since that is the nature of all petitions), it is different in that it is more specific as to our needs.
In this type, as in the Disciples Prayer, all the things we need can be grouped into three categories: (1) for our daily bread—for all the physical things we need for survival: food, clothing, shelter, etc.; (2) for forgiveness—that which we need for our spiritual life in order to maintain peace with God; and (3) for guidance and—that God would take care of us and protect us from all forms of evil.
The third type of petition is…
3. Intercession. At first glance you may not see this type of petition in the Lord’s Prayer. Perhaps to you it appears that all the requests are personal. And you are right; they are all personal. But if you look closer you will discover that they are all intercessory prayers as well, because the prayer does not address the Father as “my father” but as “our Father. Thus, if we pray the way Jesus wants us to pray, all prayer (all true prayer) is intercession.
Here is what E. M. Bounds says about intercession:
‘Intercession’ is an enlargement in prayer, a going out in broadness and fullness from self to others. Primarily, it does not center in praying for others, but refers to the freeness, boldness and childlike confidence of the praying. It is the fullness of confiding influence in the soul’s approach to God, unlimited and unhesitating in its access and its demands. This influence and confident trust is to be used for others.9
Well, this is what I think: I think that there are levels of prayer. And the more we trust God the more unselfish our prayers will become, and thus, the more they are true, and hence intercessory. Therefore, the truer the prayer the more we can say that they are intercessory prayers—prayer that cries out as “our Father” instead of “my Father”. Now, are prayers not effective at all or of no value if they are selfish (or less intercessory)? I don’t believe anyone but God can judge the value of prayer. I only say this: the more unselfish (intercessory) prayer is the more it is effective, because it is more Godly; but only God can judge how effective.
4 Theodore W. Jennings, Jr., Life as Worship, Prayer and Praise in Jesus Name (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1982), p. 23.
7 O. Hallesby, Prayer (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1931), p. 12.
9 E. M. Bounds, The Reality of Prayer, p. 10.
Source: The Basics of Prayer, P. 11-14.
