Key Elements of Prayer
I will briefly review some guidelines that have helped me, and direct you to some other sites which I am finding very helpful and practical.
Years ago, I was taught to order my prayer after the “ACTS” method of prayer, which stands for :
- Adoration - Praising, worshipping God, for Who He is
- Confession - Asking God to cleanse us from sin
- Thanksgiving - Believing, acknowledging God’s grace
- Supplication - Our specific prayer requests
Adoration -The first, and, most important Element is always begin prayer, by getting our heart, soul, mind, and strength fully focused on our GREAT BIG GOD ; our problems will soon look NOT very big in comparison. This is the Adoration stage : it always comes first. This is essentially practicing Jesus’ command to “take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek 
for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.“ [Mat 6:31-33] The kingdom Jesus refers to here, is our heart’s surrender to Him as King, ie., acknowledging Jesus as our Lord, Savior, our Good Sheppard [John 10:11, Ps 23:1], our faithful High Priest who continuously intercedes for us in heaven [Hbr 4:14-16] [Rom 8:34], acknowledging His Father as our heavenly Father, “my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in Whom I will trust” [Ps 18:2], etc. In other words, acknowledge God for EVERYTHING He is to us, and focus our thoughts on Him alone. By temporarily pushing our specific requests out of mind, and first focusing on God Himself, and our relationship to Him, we offer the Lord time to comfort us by His Holy Spirit, to convince us that He hears us, and that He is able and willing, to deal with the requests we would bring before Him [Mat 6:8]. Beginning prayer with Praise and Adoration is a powerful way to get focused on God. A few minutes of quiet meditation in God’s Word beforehand, will help tremendously, at this initial stage of Adoration, and sometimes even short, exhorting sermon bits are helpful.
Confession - Next element is the Confession stage, where we purposely seek the Holy Spirit’s conviction of sin, that we might ask God for forgiveness, and trust Him to cleanse us by the blood of Christ [1Jhn 1:9] ; We do this so that our prayers will not be hindered by sin. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear [me].” [Ps 66:18] See also [Ps 139:23-24], [Mat 6:12], [2Chr 7:14], [Ps 51:17].
Thanksgiving - The next element is Thanksgiving, that is, acknowledging that all the blessings come from God alone, plus believing, and receiving these blessings. When I reach the Thanksgiving stage, I begin to “put on the full armor of God” [Eph 6:10-17], while thanking the Lord for all that He has already done for me in Christ [Eph 1:3].
Supplication - NOW we are ready to ask God for specific things. Now we are standing in the power of His might. [Eph 6:10] Now is the time for Supplication. Immediately after describing the Armor of God [Eph 6:10-17], Paul directs us to be “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints“ [Eph 6:18] This is where God’s armor ultimately triumphs, it is how we wrestle against spiritual wickedness in high places. This is the ultimate use of the armor. Standing “in the power of His might”, we must pray “in the Spirit“. We must pray within a state of full faith and awareness of God’s work in Christ for us, that His Spirit would lead us into extraordinary victory in prayer.
Now, the first thing to ask God for is that He would fill us to overflowing, with the Holy Spirit [Luke 11:13], [Acts 1:4-8], [John 7:37,38], [Eph 5:18], to help us absolutely focus our complete attention on Him. [2Cor 10:3-5] We are asking for a “Spirit led” state of prayer. We are now ready to “pray in the Spirit”. We are now fully in the presence of God.
Now begin to make your requests known to God. Just start expressing what’s on your heart to Him. You will notice that, once we are in God’s presence, in this manner, that He begins to grant us faith to ask Him, for greater things than we ordinarily would be inclined to ask. We have entered the presence of the One for Whom nothing is impossible, and suddenly, everything seems possible! He in fact, begins to guide our prayer, by His Holy Spirit. “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” [Rom 8:26]
