You Must Be Prepared for the Business of Prayer

How to Prepare to Speak to The Commander-in-Chief of the Universe

The End Is Just The Start of It All – Part 4

Prayer has a business side. There was no way I could leave this out. While there are people who don’t take prayer quite this seriously, the truth is, prayer has a business side. For those who don’t, their results show it. I like to think of it this way; if you were going to meet with the President of the United States, on an issue, wouldn’t you be prepared? Sure you would. You prepare when you have to speak with the executives of the company. How much more respect should we have when meeting with the CEO/Founder of the Universe? There is a business piece to it that we must prepare for when we pray. In this installment, we’ll help you prepare for the business of prayer.

What you believe affects the answers to your prayers.
There is a story, a true story, about a roman officer who’s servant fell deathly ill, paralyzed, and in excruciating pain. This officer decided to do something more than rely on the medics of his day. He decided to pray. The difficulty with praying in his day was that Jesus, the one to whom we pray was here on earth. This officer had to find Jesus in order to speak with Him. The officer, however, had so much respect for Jesus’ authority and confidence in Jesus that even the Messiah took note of it. Here are His words, “I’ve not seen faith like this in all the land.”¹ Can you imagine this conversation? The officer made his “prayer” request and was certain that Jesus could do something about the problem.

There’s a secret revealed here about prayer. The officer who was skilled, trained, and understood how authority and military command works, was confident in the person to whom He made his request. Let’s say it this way. This officer didn’t take his request to someone who couldn’t get results. He didn’t take the request to a person who didn’t have authority to command sickness to flee. This soldier went to The General of healing, The One who could give one order without leaving His seat and the order gets carried out. Question: when you make your requests do you believe like this soldier that The One to whom you’re making the request has the authority to give one command to answer your thirty-thousand-foot prayer? The key here is that if you don’t believe that He can, then you’re not ready to make the request. If you don’t understand how His authority works, your rank isn’t high enough to make the request. Ask yourself, why should The Admiral of Heaven listen to me in the first place?

Your results change when it becomes business.
Because your prayer is bigger than you think, you might not treat it as if something great is at stake. You might be saying why me? You might be saying, God’s not going to listen to me? You might be saying I’m not worthy, saved enough, don’t go to church enough. So why would He even care to listen and respond? This is what I call discrediting oneself and His authority.

Back to the roman officer, this officer understood that Jesus was in charge, a commander. Jesus had business to attend to. Jesus has an army to command and a kingdom of responsibility. He was in the middle of conducting His business. The officer understood this, but do you?
If you understood that prayer has a business side, getting a meeting with The Command-in-chief of Heaven is serious business, then you too would have the results that the roman officer received.

You can become a pray-er, a person who prays.
Allow me to shift gears for a moment. I’ve been asked the question, could I pray for an hour? For those who know me, you know the answer is “yes.” While I know this is impossible for most, normal, average, ordinary people, this isn’t a good question.  Rather, a better question is this, how is that possible?  Another good question is why can’t you? 

I made the statement “I can pray for hours, no joke. ” I’ve made it my occupation; I’m a pray-er, a person who prays. Just like I’m a manager, a person who manages, a leader, a person who leads, a writer, a person who writes, or a father, a person who fathers. In a moment, I will explain how to. The hesitation with most who can’t imagine praying for more than 5-10 minutes is that they have no idea what prayer really is. The roman officer knew that Jesus’ time was valuable, so he was deliberate, quick, and to the point. When have you been deliberate, prepared when you speak with the highest ranking official of the universe?

You must be prepared for the business of prayer.
It’s not my goal to pray for an hour. It’s my goal to have updates, requests, and questions to present to God. Let me say it another way. Years ago, the ministry I attended believed in praying for an hour, getting the time in and not being one minute short of an hour. The hour or time was important, not the content or the purpose of praying. I’ve since learned that prayer is you and Jesus having a meeting regarding the business of running the most important business you have, your life. He’s given you a life that you’re accountable to and for. Only you will have to answer for you and what you do with the life you have. Why not bring it to Him now so that you won’t be caught off guard when you have to give an account for what you’ve done with it, later?

Let’s step back to Nehemiah who inspired the details of “The Thirty-Thousand-Foot Prayer”. Nehemiah began the business of prayer when he was presented with a problem by his brother, Hanani.² This led him on a journey to put in the work of, not only rebuilding the walls of his hometown, but building a nation. Here’s the interesting part of how this works, the answer to his thirty-thousand-prayer was made manifest and the business of his prayer was still incomplete. He ended up giving the very one, who brought the problem to him in the first place, responsibility for governing their hometown. His brother, Hanani was given this responsibility, the business of the prayer.³

What would you think your response would be once your Thirty-Thousand-Foot Prayer was completed? Answer: it’s no longer a problem; it’s done and over with.  Not the case, the business is just beginning. As one who governs a nation, how many more prayer requests do you think needed to be offered or prayed? The same responsibility of governing a nation, like Hanani, is present in governing your life. Let’s talk about how that looks in prayer.

How it’s done.
When you realize that prayer has a business side, here are a few steps you can take:

1. Make a plan.
   Don’t go to God, the CEO of the Universe without a plan. Don’t insult God by not being serious with the business. You might not always get to what you have on your plan, but you want to be prepared. Prayer is an opportunity for you to present everything that’s happening in your life to God and get His input. Since this is the case you need a written plan.
2. Include categories and organize it.
   Do know that having a plan for your life takes work. You have to write it down and organize it. For me I’ve created categories that everything that makes up a life can fit into. We call it our family plan’s departments. In having categories, we don’t have to worry about missing pieces nor forgetting about an area of our life.
3. Make it a working plan.
   Use the written plan to add details as you use your plan. This plan will need to be a living or working document. You see, when you talk to God, He’ll give you back more than what you intended. His answers are big and even detailed. When He speaks you probably want to capture the notes, the thoughts, ideas, and impressions.
4. Treat your plan like any business treats its plans.
   Now that you have a written plan and notes from God on the different parts, each day you’re working (living) to accomplish and/or experience life with these plans. These happenings are what you need for your next meeting, business of prayer, with God. We make this a daily habit and every day we’re adding to and updating our plans. It’s your life and your life is the business God’s given you. Don’t go one day without His input.

I know what you might be thinking. Is all of this necessary? Answer: yes. Otherwise, you get the normal result of unanswered prayers and a life with no direction that every other normal, ordinary, average person gets. Is this necessary? Yes. I know your life is more important than any business you work for and if you show up prepared for your boss on a job, then you should certainly be prepared for the King of the Universe.

Question: is all this necessary to pray? What do you think?

Thanks for joining us this week at NoLongerCommon.com. I’d really appreciate it if you shared this on your social networks and with your friends.

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Reference #1: Matthew 8:5-13 NLT‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed December 2, 2020, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/MAT.8.5-13.NLT
Reference #2: ‭‭Nehemiah 1:2 NLT‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed December 2, 2020, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/NEH.1.2.NLT
Reference #3: ‭‭Nehemiah 7:2 NLT‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed December 2, 2020, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/NEH.7.2.NLT

All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.