The Art Of Religion Book

“How To Make Your Prayers More Powerful and Effective”

By Dennis Mitchell……6/7/26

The word “Prayer” can be simply defined as “Communication between man and God.” The Bible is filled with Scriptures that encourage us to humble ourselves and pray. Accomplishing that is unfortunately a very difficult process for some people, even Christians.  

I have heard it said that Fear of the Unknown, is one of the most common types of fear that everyone has to deal with. Fear of Failure usually tag-teams with the Fear of the Unknown. It takes courage to overcome fear. Courage can be defined as what it takes to move forward to accomplish your mission, despite your fear.

Learning to trust that God will keep all of His Biblical promises, like hearing and answering our prayers that align with His Word, requires courage. It takes time, especially when first trying to establish a personal relationship with God, to learn how to trust Him. God’s ultimate goal is for his children to learn how to trust Him with their very human existence.   

The courage that we need to begin a new experience (mission) will soon turn into experience. The positive experience gained through successful missions, eventually turns into confidence, or trust, which are different terms that describe “Faith.” Biblical Faith is the result of a process that starts with the courage to believe and ends with the confidence to trust.

Faith is the key that opens a door into a whole new supernatural realm, that supersedes the parameters of this earthly realm that we now live in. Obtaining and maintaining a successful prayer life depends on us learning how to breach the boundaries of this earthly realm and reach out into the supernatural realm where God resides.  

There is an old charismatic teaching about “Three Heavens,” that may have been based on Paul’s personal experience that he shared in 2 Corinthians 12. Paul refers to a spiritual adventure that God took him on, where he entered into a place that he called the “Third Heaven.”

Paul was not sure if that experience was the result of a dream, vision, or out of body experience. What Paul did know, was that he was supernaturally translated into a new spiritual dimension that brought him into the Holy presence of God. In that supernatural realm, God personally revealed deep heavenly revelations to Paul. Some of them were such, that he was instructed to never speak about them. What an incredible way that was to start a new ministry endeavor!

The gist of the old teaching that I mentioned, speaks about three separate heavenly realms. The “First Heaven” is the earthly realm, where we humans now live and the “Third Heaven” is the sacred “Heavenly Realm” where God lives.

The “Second Heaven,” is described as a demonic realm, where a thick layer of evil darkness encapsulates the earth’s outer atmosphere. A realm filled with demons who try to hinder, distort, and stop, if possible, the prayers of man from being received and answered by God.  

The Biblical example of that happening is in the Book of Daniel. In chapter 9, we read about Daniel praying about a very serious request, when he needed God’s Word to intervene. God heard Daniel’s prayer and immediately dispatched His Archangel Gabriel, to personally take His reply directly to Daniel.

In Daniel 10, we read that although Gabriel immediately departed, he was abruptly detained from accomplishing his mission. Gabriel met and ended up becoming engaged in a battle with a very powerful demonic entity called the “Prince of Persia.” Many people teach that entity was Satan himself.

It was an intense battle that lasted for 21 days, before Gabriel could finally prevail and break away to deliver God’s message to Daniel. During that 21-day delay, Daniel had the maturity to continually fast and pray until his prayer request was finally answered.

The in-between spiritual realm where that angelic battle between Gabriel and the demonic Prince of Persia transpired, is believed to be the “Second Heaven.” Remembering that Biblical account should trigger us to be very diligent with our prayers. It seems interesting that the old Empire of Persia is now called Iran.

The resurrection of Jesus, along with the arrival of the Holy Spirit, has greatly enhanced our ability to pray and have our prayers answered. The first three Biblical requirements for True Believing, modern day Christians, are “Salvation, Water Baptism, and Baptism in the Holy Spirit.” If you have not received those yet, then speak to your Pastor about it. If he does not understand or believe in their importance, then you might seek the advice of someone who does.  

Maximizing our spiritual assets is central to maintaining a consistently effective prayer life. Crucially important intercessory prayer requests, like those we read about in the Book of Daniel, often need to be accompanied by the added personal sacrifice of fasting.

Fasting weakens the power of our flesh and strengthens the power of our Spirit Man. Jesus regularly made time to go off alone, so that He could fast and pray. He taught His disciples the importance of doing the same.   

Although prayer is considered to be basic communication between man and God, good prayers require more than just quoting memorized words, even Scripture.  Good prayer requests that really capture the attention of our Heavenly Father, must be birthed and delivered in a proper spiritual attitude.

I believe the consensus of Biblical teaching admonishes us to enter into God’s Holy presence with a humble and contrite heart, coupled with childlike faith.

I have heard a few people through the years who treated God wrongly as if He was a “Heavenly Prayer Dispensary,” who they expected to cater to their every whim. Those types of people are usually the first to get upset when any of their self-centered prayer requests fail to get answered in a timely fashion.

Their definition of “timely” is according to the personal timeclock they just set, to satisfy their own demands for instant gratification. The Book of James gives us a great teaching outline that everyone should read and study, concerning the right and wrong ways to pray. That teaching also explains why some prayers never get answered.

The chorus of one of my favorite worship songs is based on King David’s Psalm 116. The words go, “I love you Lord, because you hear my prayers and answer them. Because you bend down and listen, I will pray for as long as I live.”

King David surely had his share of human imperfections to deal with, which I refer to in my book as the “weakness of our humanity.” Despite God once referring to David as a “bloody man,” God also called him the “apple of His eye.” The awesomeness of God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness being able to bridge those two extremes, has always amazed and encouraged me.

God was able to look past David’s outward sins after he repented, and peer directly into David’s heart to focus on the love and goodness that lived inside. David is credited with writing a good portion of the Book of Psalms (songs of worship, prayer and devotion). Most of David’s songs were first prayers, that he harmonized and then put to music.  

The example of how much God loved David, despite his imperfections, has helped me many times when I was trying to approach God in prayer. Especially when I was dealing with a guilty conscience. Even moreso, during times that I had repented and asked God to forgive me, but I still could not forgive myself.

My phrase, “the weakness of our humanity,” attempts to describe in a few words what Paul spoke about in Romans 7, and again in Galatians 5. Paul tried to teach us in his own wordy fashion, about the “war” going on inside of man, between our spirit and flesh.

Our new, born again (regenerated) spirit man, now wants to serve God and always do what is right in His sight. Our (self-willed and lustful) “flesh,” however, (sometimes called our “old man” by Paul) refuses to die and constantly seeks after the lustful rewards of self-gratification.  

Perhaps at times, we all become what could be called “wounded casualties” of that internal spiritual war that rages inside of us. As hard as we may continually try to do what is right, our spirit man is not always able to subdue the strong, hungry desires of our flesh. The result is that we occasionally do what we know is wrong, despite the fact that our spirit man (heart) is loudly crying out “NO!”

The Bible says that only Jesus was ever considered to be humanly perfect. He alone was able to resist the evil temptation to sin. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed so hard against the temptation to sin, that He actually began to sweat great drops of blood while doing so.   

Having to live with the weakness of our humanity, is the reason why entering into a “salvation based covenant” with our God is so important. God allows us to maintain fellowship with Him, despite our human imperfections, through the use of His amazing free gifts like grace, mercy, and forgiveness.

In 2 Corinthians Chapter 12, Paul said that after his glory filled visitation with God in the Third Heaven, he had received what he called a “thorn in his flesh.” God had apparently approved that a demonic “messenger from Satan,” should be sent to buffet Paul. Paul seemed to imply that happened to keep him humble, and not allow him to be overcome with the sin of pride.

Perhaps that was God’s way of preventing Paul from experiencing the danger of being able to reach a state of human perfection on his own accord. A state which only Jesus Himself was able to reach and maintain righteously. That “thorn” seemed to remain quite a hindrance for Paul at times.   

Every person seems to have some sort of thorn in the flesh to deal with, an ongoing weakness that keeps us humbled and in need of God’s grace and forgiveness. That thorn might be a lack of true faith, pride, a memory from the past that continually haunts us, or a weakness to some particular sin that we cannot seem to shake loose from and turn over to God.

I believe fear is a major factor that hinders the prayer life of many people. The fear of knowing that we have greatly displeased God in some fashion, can fill our conscience with doubt and worry. Those are the times that we must exercise faith, and believe that “yes,” God is able and willing to forgive us when we ask. We must believe that the Divine, supernatural love and forgiveness of God, supersedes all of our human weaknesses.                                                                                

Proverbs 3:5 tells us, “Trust in the Lord with your whole heart and lean not onto

your own understanding.” Leaning onto your own understanding negates your ability to trust and obey the Word of God. This creates the temptation to invent your own “good works,” based on your own personal goals and accomplishments.  

There is a place for good works, (Ephesians 2:10) but if they are not first ordained by God they have no substantial value. Satan would love people to believe that good works are a means to Salvation, but that is a lie.

In Matthew 7, we read where Jesus rebuked several church type people because they thought their good works would get them into Heaven. Jesus said, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of iniquity!” The term iniquity refers to “moral distortion, perversity,” and other forms of “lawlessness.”

Instead of following the teachings and instructions of God, they leaned onto their own understanding. They tried to cheat their way into Heaven by creating their own set of modified (corrupted and rebellious) rules and regulations, which kept them from entering into Heaven.   

They tried to defend their good works by claiming their collection of unauthorized prayers and other religious, “churchianity” antics, brought miraculous results. Unfortunately, Jesus rebuked them anyway, knowing they had usurped His power and authority to accomplish their own good works.     

The Bible is very adamant about the need to humble ourselves and approach God just the way that we are. He is the only one who can wash us clean of our sinfulness, and make us righteous in His sight, through the shed blood of His Son Jesus Christ.

Jesus died to bring us the free Gift of Redemption, which is based on us entering into a “Covenantal Marriage Relationship” with our Lord and Savior. That Covenant, which is based on the written Word of God, happens through earnest (faith-filled) trust and prayer.

Trying to enter into heaven through our own good works, amounts to creating our own “Common Law” marriage vows. This creates a casual (lax/lawless) relationship that does not adhere to the holy standards of God’s Marriage Covenant.

Satan would love for people to believe that good works alone, based on the teachings of false religions, and what Jesus called, “The Traditions of Man,” will get us into Heaven. Unfortunately, that lie leaves people standing outside the Pearly Gates crying.   

One would think that as a person’s knowledge about prayer grows, their prayers should automatically become more powerful and productive. The Bible warns us however, that “knowledge alone,” has the tendency to puff up a person’s pride. Knowledge needs to be blended with experience, wisdom, and humility.    

When Jesus ministered, He always made the time, when possible, to sit down and visit with groups of children. There is an unadulterated pureness in children who have not been corrupted by the world, that makes spending time with them inspiring, fun and refreshing.

The raw honesty that children display, especially after they have learned to trust you, is humbling and makes you love them even more. Acquiring that same type of childlike trust and pure heartedness toward God, is why I believe, God was able to call Abraham His “friend.” It was also why Jesus was finally able to call His Disciples “friends,” also.   

Becoming the “Friend of God,” is a goal that every True Believer should be working toward. I believe that becoming God’s friend, will put you in a better position to receive God’s answers to your prayers.