Question 178. What is prayer?

 

Question 178. What is prayer?

Answer. Prayer is the offering up of our desires to God in the name of Christ, with the help of the Holy Spirit, confessing our sins and gratefully acknowledging His mercy.

In Greek, prayer is euche and prosuke. Euche means the act of asking God for one's desires. It is a prayer for asking for one's needs, confessing one's sins, expressing one's feelings, etc. However, prosuke means meeting and talking with Christ who is present in one's soul. So it is maintaining an intimate relationship with God and seeking God's will.

Today, the prayers of believers have been transformed into a faith of ups and downs, and the essence of prayer has been distorted. Prayer is a conversation with God in the heart in order to spread the gospel. All prayers must be connected to the gospel.

There is a word about Prosche's prayer, which says to pray in a secret room. Matthew 6:6-8 "But you, when you pray, go into your room (tameiion) and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is unseen. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Therefore do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

The inner chamber is tameion in Greek, and it means the inner sanctuary. When a new temple is built in the hearts of the saints, Christ enters there (parousian). So the saints, who are priests, meet Christ. In the New Testament, the disciples expressed this in various ways.

In 1 Thessalonians 2:19, it says, "For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Is it not you who are in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming?" The word "he is coming" in English is "he is coming," which makes us think of Jesus' second coming. However, the Greek Bible is "parousia (παρουσίᾳ)", which is a combination of the words "para" (beside) and "lyusia" (to be). It refers to the presence of Jesus Christ to the saints. Parousia has the same meaning as Emmanuel. It means that God is with us.

James 5:7 "Therefore be patient, brothers, until the coming (parousian παρουσίαν) of the Lord. Look at how the farmer waits for the land to yield its precious crop, how patient he is for it until it receives the early and late rains." Parousian is a compound word of para (beside) and lucian (to exist, to be), and it refers to the coming of ho logos into the hearts of the saints. The coming of ho logos is explained using the analogy of the early and late rains.

2 Peter 1:15 "For we did not follow cleverly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming (parousian) of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty." Parousian (παρουσίαν) does not mean the coming of Jesus, but his presence. In other words, it refers to the presence of Christ in the saints. "His majesty" refers to the spectacle of the transfiguration when Peter, John, and James witnessed the body of Jesus Christ shining like light while talking with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration.

This amazing spectacle that Peter witnessed is what is called the parousian present in the saints. Peter not only heard the presence of God, but also the voice of God. Peter is trying to connect the presence of Christ in the saints with hearing the voice of God.

In 2 Peter 1:19, it says, "We also have a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." Sure word of prophecy means that when Christ dwells in the saints and they obey His word, they can hear His voice.

Just as Elijah heard the detailed voice of the Lord, so too should the saints be. Like a light shining in the darkness, like a morning star shining in the dawn after the night, when the saints' hearts are like that, in the midst of earnest prayer, the voice of God is heard like this. "The morning star (the voice of God) rising in the heart" means that the voice of the Lord rises in the heart by being moved. Peter warned us to be careful. He told us to discern whether it is the voice of the devil or the voice of God. He told us to approach the meaning of the voice of God rising in our hearts based on the Bible with the heart of the Holy Spirit.

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