When you pray, enter into your closet, and pray to your Father which is in secret.— Matthew 6:6
Jesus did not say — “Dream about thy Father in secret,” but “pray to thy Father in secret.” Prayer is an effort of will. After we have entered our secret place and have shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray; we cannot get our minds into working order, and the first thing that conflicts is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is the overcoming of mental wool-gathering. We have to discipline our minds and concentrate on wilful prayer.
We must have a selected place for prayer and when we get there the plague of flies begins — This must be done, and that. “Shut thy door.” A secret silence means to shut the door deliberately on emotions and remember God. God is in secret, and He sees us from the secret place; He does not see us as other people see us, or as we see ourselves. When we live in the secret place it becomes impossible for us to doubt God, we become more sure of Him than of anything else. Your Father, Jesus says, is in secret and nowhere else. Enter the secret place, and right in the centre of the common round you find God there all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door wide back and let God in, you will work on a wrong level all day; but swing the door wide open and pray to your Father in secret, and every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God.
I would like to add that every time of prayer and intersession should begin with prayer in the Spirit! This prepares our inner man to be in position to hear that still, small voice of Holy Spirit, and to obey HIM! AMEN! 1 John 5:14-15 gives the perfect 'formula' for getting answers to what we pray for! HE Hears His Word!
14 And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him: [we are sure] that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His own plan), He listens to and hears us. 15 And if (since) we [positively] know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we also know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted us as our present possessions] the requests made of Him.
So, find out what God's Word says about your situation, then pray both in the Spirit and in your known language. The next step is to declare and proclaim the answer, just as the Word promised! HE is pleased and YOU are blessed (to BE a Blessing! Here is Hillsong United with "Say The Word":
Shalom in Him!
