How can we pray reliably according to the will of our God? He has given us so many clues in the scriptures that to do so is really not difficult. The big issues of His will for us are found in the purposes for which we were created and redeemed. To pray for them regarding ourselves, our families and friends, and other people will be praying at the center of His will. Since they are the revealed will of God for His children, we can pray for them with confidence and faith.

When we pray in the revealed will of our heavenly Father, He answers. As we do so, so many of the issues in our lives day to day begin to see resolution. This is because as we are increasingly aligned with our Father’s will and purposes for us, more of our lives come under His influence. A divine and eternal order to our living takes shape. Following are some of God’s will and purposes He has in mind for us.

Pray for the restoration of our union with the Father and the Son. This restored union, a oneness with Christ and through Him with God the Father is a major theme in John’s account of the final discourse of Jesus prior to His arrest (see John 14:6-24). The oneness humans had with the Triune God was lost in Adam’s rebellion. The work of God among humans since that time was leading up to the restoration of that union, and was accomplished by Christ in His death, resurrection, and the imparting of the Holy Spirit. This is no a theoretical connection, a kind of “membership card” arrangement that has little impact on us. This is the deepest, most intimate connection we can ever experience. The union we can have in Christ is life-changing. It turns our living right-side up from what it was, reorders every priority, and reorients all living and choosing every single day.

The request: that our God would restore the fullness of this union to us every day in a way that will upend our living and restore us into the holiness of Christ Himself.

Pray for the development of a daily, continual, conscious conversational communion with Christ Who indwells us by His Spirit. This is the abiding life of John 15, the back-and-forth, give-and-take conversation that is ongoing throughout the day, everyday. It takes over our thinking, filling us with the mind of Christ. The Spirit is continually speaking, revealing truth to us, exposing falseness and lies in us and around us, granting wisdom and speech, communicating love from the Father to us, and giving enlightenment, comfort, and healing words whenever they are needed. We in turn respond conversationally to Him, seeking clarification, understanding, and correction of our own thinking. We respond with gratitude, love, and commitment to obedience. This ongoing, two-way conversation is the basis of true praying. Not the recitation of our monologues of pleading, begging, and demanding what we want that characterizes so much of praying. True prayer begins with conversations with our God by way of the Holy Spirit Who indwells us.

The request: that our God will invade our thinking, open our hearts to hear Him, and move us to begin to converse with Him day by day. He will direct our petitions once the abiding conversational communion is active.

Pray to our God for His perfect holiness to be lived in and through you and everyone for whom you pray. Ezekiel 36, the great prophetic announcement of the coming New Covenant relationship between our God and His people, makes it clear that it is vitally important to our God that He shows forth His holiness through His people. How much of our daily living would be rightly balanced and organized, how much of His holiness would begin to be evident in us, if we were fully yielded to the life of Christ in us to the point where He is living His life in place of ours? Such living is the foundation of the New Covenant life, the expression of what it means to be Christian. This is what Paul refers to in Galatians 2:20 – “It is no longer I who live but Christ Who lives in me….” We in our flesh cannot hope to live even a tiny fragment of the holiness of our God, so said Paul in Romans 7:14-25. Our only avenue to the fulfillment of the New Covenant life in us is the life of Christ lived in place of our own by His indwelling Spirit, so said Paul in Romans 8:1-14.

The request: pray that our God would move to crucify your flesh and your self-living so that He might live His life and holiness in you, in place of your own life. Whatever He specifically identifies as block His life in you, be quick to repent of it and forsake it fully.

If you begin to seek these priorities from your God, not as habits of your flesh but truly trusting Him to live these in you, He will answer. He will show you the religiosity from which you must repent to move forward. He will speak and direct. He will empower and bring to pass growth in true discipleship that has eluded you for years, perhaps decades. These are our God’s most urgent priorities for us, and He will be pleased to work in the one who prays for these faithfully each day.

As a result, your life will begin to make more and more sense.

Image via author, Mutt Lake, Beartooth Range, Wyoming