PRAYER: Hindrances To Prayer
1 Peter 3:7 (ESV) Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
Effective Prayer
spoken words
Reconnect heaven/earth
Realign heaven/earth
Hindered Prayer - Obstacles and impedances - from the military practice of making slits in the street to hold up a pursuing enemy
The hindrances are not necessarily created by God. They can be the byproduct of a life/actions out of alignment with the word of God and it creates a misfire.
Inconsistent - one of the biggest obstacles to effective prayer is inconsistency which leads to shame. For many, avoiding prayer altogether is the alternative.
Mark 1:35 (ESV) And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
Luke 11:1–2 (ESV) Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.
I have found that a less formalized prayer time during seasons when that is impossible and an ongoing conversation throughout the day keeps me tapped in.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 (ESV) pray without ceasing,
Lack of Faith - many pray not expecting to hear His Voice, sense His Presence or see His Hand in action. This repeated activity replaces faith in God with something else = IDOLATRY.
Do you really pray with expectation?
Your prayer time experiences callouses
It becomes an obligation
You become Immune
Zero Expectation
IDOLATRY
Your circumstances are more powerful than God
Your enemy is more powerful than God
God does for others but not for you
Revelation 2:4-5 ESV “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”
James 1:6-8 ESV “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
Lack of Works
Almost every effective prayer requires action on the part of the person praying, beginning with the prayer itself, followed by the actions necessary to see the prayer answered.
At minimum, faith demonstrated in the way you pray.
Willingness to be the conduit
Willingness to humble yourself
Willingness to change
James 2:14, 17, 22, 26 ( ESV) “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”
Wrong Motives - it is possible to desire a good outcome for very wrong motives, which will hinder the answer from coming.
James 4:2-3 (ESV) “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
Poor Treatment of Others - even though they are two different conversations, our treatment of others impacts our ability to connect with God in prayer
Matthew 25:40 (ESV) And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
1 Peter 3:7 (ESV) Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.