The teacher stood in the middle of a circle of chairs. There were 20 or so of us there to learn more about the gifts of the Spirit. She said she was going to “activate us in words of knowledge.” (I had no idea what that meant.) “I’m going to ask Holy Spirit to help us feel a physical pain in our bodies that someone in this group deals with on a daily basis.” As soon as she stopped praying, I felt pain in my right eye. It was a sharp pain, like a headache, right behind my eye. I dismissed it as coincidence. After a moment or two, the leader said, “okay, did anyone feel anything?” One person raised their hand and said they felt a pain behind their right eye. My jaw hit the floor. I raised my hand and said, “I felt the same thing!” Two other people felt the same thing in the group. Then, she asked, “is there anyone here that suffers from pain in their right eye?” A guy raised his hand—a guy that I knew, yet never knew about his eye condition. She invited him and those of us who felt this sympathetic pain to stand in the middle. We laid hands on him and prayed for healing. His pain level went down immediately.

The teacher then told us she had taped a letter onto the bottom of one of the chairs. She told us not to look, then prayed that Holy Spirit would tell the person sitting in that specific chair, not through words or ideas, but through feeling heat in their body. Everyone waited, staring awkwardly at each other around the circle. Within a minute, a person I know really well began bouncing his knees up and down nervously, like he had a ton of energy to burn. He then shouted out, “I think it’s me!” The teacher smiled and said, “look under your chair.” He did. And he pulled off the paper letter that had been taped on the bottom of his chair. Everyone else looked under their seats for good measure. Nothing. My friend then testified that he felt heat all over his body and knew it had to be his. 

I’ve also experienced writing in the Spirit. On a few occasions, in prayer meetings, I will write something in my journal—an idea or a thought that hits me spontaneously. Within moments of writing out a sentence, someone else in the room will speak out the exact same words I had written. I’m not talking trite or common phrases, such as, “God loves us.” I’m not even talking about lyrics of the song or Bible verses. It will be a thought that no one in the room would have a way of logically jumping to or guessing. In these cases, I cannot help but shout out, “I just wrote that!” Then, I’ll pass my notebook around and let everyone see the evidence of the miracle. 

I’ve been in another prayer meeting were we were praying for one of the leaders in our community. I saw him standing before the throne of God with a glass sea before him. There were other specifics of the “picture” that I saw, but before I had a chance to speak it out, the person standing next to me said, “I see you standing before a sea of glass, and the Lord is seated before you, and…” It was exactly the picture that I saw. 

I’ve personally witnessed and verified these stories and while you may dismiss them, I cannot deny that I have experienced the supernatural power of prayer. I don’t know how to explain all of these things, except that I would like to propose a new conceptual model for prayer—a model that I believe more accurately reflects the metaphysical nature of prayer than the old model many of us may have grown up with. The old model is: We have a request, a need, a want, and we submit our request to Heaven’s technical support helpdesk (probably Zendesk) for either an approval or rejection of our request. The mode of this request-transfer isn’t wrong or obsolete. Jesus used it himself. But he also challenged it and taught a higher way of prayer—he invited us into a place of intimacy and authority that transcends the helpdesk kind of prayer. How do we pray like that?

It starts with a love affair.

Sometimes, we get tripped up on the mechanics of how things work and we skip over the good part. I want to emphasize that authority and effectiveness in prayer flow out of a heart that has cultivated a love affair with God. “The effective prayer of a righteous person accomplishes much.” The Bible equates righteousness with “being in a covenant relationship with God,” as in a marriage. There are intimacies, ecstasies, and inside jokes that can only be developed in private…in the secret place. This kind of prayer is a pleasure in and of itself. Getting things done becomes the farthest thing from your mind as you simply enter in to a space of blissful communion with your Maker. Yet, when we carry that heart aflame with love for God into the world, the world doesn’t stand a chance. It must change, it must bend to reflect the beauty we’ve cultivated on the inside. The “long arc of history” that eventually “bends toward justice” doesn’t have to be as long when we put our full weight into this thing.

The earth groans and longs for each of us to be revealed in the earth. For each of us to know and walk in our identity as royalty, as representatives of Heaven’s will, Heaven’s way of thinking, and Heaven’s way of administering justice. We are brokers of a different kingdom. We carry authority to bless or curse. We have access to tools and gifts that allow us to operate in a realm that others cannot see. 

In that realm, there is a flow. You can call that flow energy, healing, justice, breakthrough, provision, ideas, goodness, family, love, peace, etc. Whatever you call it, it is a river—the source—that feeds all life, all growth, all goodness and flourishing on the earth. And we are the conduits of that flow. We have a part in directing the flow of Heaven’s resources to the needs of the world around us. So, prayer isn’t merely a “request” we send up to Heaven’s helpdesk. It is more like “pointing a hose” in the direction of a something that needs resource. Intimacy prayer is a way to tap into the Heaven’s rivers; Authoritative prayer is releasing those resources into reality. 

Here’s what I’m sure of: If we don’t show up, things will not happen. He has chosen us to be His representatives on planet earth. So, why not just do things? Why do we need to pray? The answer is simple: We don’t. You don’t have to pray. You can just do things. You can just move from one demand of life to the next twitching your limbs and your mouths to the impulses of each moment as it comes to you. And you can do that every day until you die. But where’s the fun in that? Where’s the beauty, and the deep meaning, and the music, and the angst, and the passion in living a life like that? When prayer is about your heart coming alive again with spiritual passion and being an authorized respresentative of Heaven’s resources on Earth, the question isn’t, Why pray? It’s, Who wouldn’t want to pray?