Nine Types of Prayer

_{(All scripture is from the King James version of the Holy Bible)}

Prayer is not a complicated thing to do. Nor is it a complicated thing to understand. The simple definition or prayer is, "conversation with God." There is no need for elaborateness, just a simple exchange of information from your heart to God.

The Bible speaks of nine different types of prayer. Each one different from the other and, as is demonstrated within the pages of the Bible, each one is used in specific situations and for because of specific circumstances.

General and non-specific prayeris functional, and is open-ended. Specific prayer seems to be what Jesus asks us to do. Jesus said:

"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you", _{(John 15:16) .} And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give [it] you._{(John 16:23)}

The word "whatsoever ", is inclusive, it has no limitations; but I can't pray, Father I ask you for whatsoever, in Jesus' name, amen." In this case "whatsoever" acts as a pronoun. I need to put a "something" in the place of "whatsoever". I need to be specific.

Another confirmng scripture is this: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume [it] upon your lusts." _{(James 4:3).} This speaks of motive, but it also indicates that there is a way to ask, and it gives a reason why we don't receive.

When we pray, we want to be effective. We don't want to hit and miss, or cross our fingers and hope we are heard. And we certainly want to stop giving lame excuses for praying powerless prayers.

Prayer is vital to the existance and the success of the believer. It is so important that we need to understand as much as we can about it.

The Bible tells us quite clearly that there are nine types of prayer.

1. The Prayer of Faith: Matthew 21:22; Mark 11:23-24
2. The Prayer of Consecration: Luke 22:42
3. The Prayer of Commitment: 1Peter 5:7
4. The Prayer of Worship: Acts 13:1-4; Luke 24:52-53
5. The Prayer of Agreement: Matthew 18:18-20
6. The Prayer in the Spirit: 1 Corinthians 14:14-15
7. The Prayer of Binding and Loosing: Matthew 18:18-19
8. The Prayer of Supplication or Petition: Ephesians 6:18, Philippians 4:6
   
9. The Prayer of Intercession: Ezekiel 22:30-31

Each type of prayer has a specific "rule" or set of principles that governs it. Effective prayer is a result of following these principles.

The Believer is in spiritual warfare. And, in any warfare you have to have an arsenal of weapons. God has given the Believer the necessary weapons to effectively fight in this spiritual warfare. Prayer is one of the primary weapons in the Believer's arsenal. As with any weapon, knowledge of how it works and how best to use it should be thoroughly understood by the user.