Rethinking Prayer: Questions That May Change Everything
PRAYER IS NOT A FORMULA - IT IS A RELATIONSHIP
Each of us is learning, growing, and discovering what it means to walk and talk with God.
And often, the things we have learned along the way can help someone else take their next step.
You are invited to share your experience. What has helped you learn to pray?
How have you heard God’s voice? What has God shown you through prayer?
Your story does not have to be perfect. It simply has to be real. Together, we can learn from one another…
CAUTION - THESE QUESTIONS MIGHT CHANGE YOU!
Many of us have been taught how to pray, but few of us have been taught how to live from what
Jesus has already finished.
The questions below are not meant to confuse you, they are meant to
invite you to pause, reflect, and listen. Take your time. Ask God to speak to you as you read.
1. What Did Jesus Mean When He Said, “It Is Finished”?
If Jesus said His work was finished… what is left for us to do? (John 19:30, John 17:4)
“After He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, He sat down at the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:12)
Why did He sit down? What does that say about striving in prayer?
2. Are We Meant to Continue What Jesus Began?
“Whoever believes in Me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things…” (John 14:12) If this is true, are we observers - or participants?
3. Where Is Jesus Now?
“After He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, He sat down at the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:12)
“Christ Jesus… is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34)
Jesus has completed the work He came to do. He has returned to the Father, where He now sits in a place of authority and continues to intercede for us. This raises an important question: If Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father... what does that mean for how we relate to Him today?
4. What did Jesus do to prepare his disciples for the fact he was leaving them?
“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever - the Spirit of truth…” (John 14:16-17)
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:26)
“It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you…” (John 16:7)
This is powerful: Jesus said it was actually better for us that He leave physically so the Holy Spirit could come. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:18)
How does He come? Through the Holy Spirit living within us.
5. So Where Does God Live Now?
We are often taught to invite Jesus to come and live in our hearts, but what does Scripture say?
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit…?” (1 Corinthians 6:19)
“You yourselves are God’s temple and God’s Spirit dwells in your midst.” (1 Corinthians 3;16)
“For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them…’” (2 Corinthians 6:16)
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
Through the New Covenant, God has made His home within us by His Spirit. If God lives within us, how does that change how we pray?
6. Why do we often hear the expression – we don’t just “go” to church since Jesus died, we have “become” the church?
We have often been taught that we go to a building to meet with God, but Scripture tells us something very different. Let me start by clarifying, it is important to gather together, but we are no longer going to a building, often referred to as “church”, for the same reason since Jesus died.
“Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together…” (Hebrews 10:25)
“However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands…” (Acts 7:48)
People used to go to the temple to find God, to be in the presence of God because He lived in the Holies of Holies. But the finished work of Christ caused a drastic change – a new covenant. This is a very direct shift: God is not confined to physical buildings. And Paul confirms the same truth: “The God who made the world… does not live in temples built by human hands.” (Acts 17:24)
This is the prophetic promise of God moving from external → internal - “I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts…” (Jeremiah 31:33)
This is the fulfillment of that promise through the finished work of Christ. “I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.” (Hebrews 8:10)
7. So why do we assemble and for what purpose?
Under the New Covenant, gathering is not meant to be passive. Each person has been given something by the Holy Spirit: a word, a scripture, an encouragement, a revelation
Everyone Brings Something
“How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.” (1 Corinthians 14:26)
We Are One Body with Many Parts
“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them… Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7)
We Build One Another Up
“From Him the whole body… grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Ephesians 4:15-16)
Encourage One Another
“Let us consider how we may spur one another on… encouraging one another…” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Share one another’s burdens
“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2)
We are not coming empty, hoping to receive, we are coming filled, ready to share. As each person brings what God has placed within them, the whole body is strengthened.
8. What Does It Mean to Speak to the Mountain?
Jesus did not tell us to talk about the mountain. He told us to speak to it.
“Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes… it will be done for them.” (Mark 11:23)
This raises an important question: Do our words carry more authority than we realize? Scripture tells us they do. “The tongue has the power of life and death…” (Proverbs 18:21)
Our words are not empty. They carry weight, direction, and influence.
Jesus also said: “Everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37)
And James reminds us: “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings… Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.” (James 3:9-10)
If this is true, then what are we releasing when we speak? “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:45)
Prayer is not just words. It reveals what we truly believe. “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” (2 Corinthians 4:13)
Faith is not silent. It speaks. We do not just pray with words, we release life or death through them.
9. What Authority Have We Been Given?
“I have given you authority… over all the power of the enemy…” (Luke 10:19)
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
There are times in prayer when we come to God and place situations into His hands, and that is right. We trust Him, we release control, and we rest in His care. But there are also times when God is calling us to step into the authority He has already given us.
Many of us have been taught to only ask “Lord, please do this… Lord, please fix that…” Yet Jesus did not only teach us to ask, He also gave us authority. There comes a point in our walk where we begin to understand that we are not just children receiving, we are sons and daughters learning to stand, speak, and act in partnership with Him.
It is like the Israelites in the wilderness, receiving manna each day. But when they entered the promised land, everything changed. They now had to take hold of what had already been given to them. Or like a child in the womb, fully dependent and then born into a new reality, learning to move, grow, and function in a different way.
In the same way, there are moments in prayer where we do not simply ask God to act, we speak, stand, and take authority in the name of Jesus. The question then becomes: Are we always praying from a place of need… or are we learning to pray from the authority He has already given?
10. What does it mean that our identity Is in Christ?
We often hear this… but what does it really mean?
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…” (2 Corinthians 5;17)
“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3)
“He has blessed us… with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3)
If this is true, are we praying as who we used to be- or as who we have become in Him?
11. Are We Praying for Victory… or from Victory?
So often we pray as though we are trying to win a battle, but what does Scripture say?
“Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:57)
“God… always leads us in triumph in Christ…” (2 Corinthians 2:14)
“God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms…” Ephesians 2:6
If we are already seated with Him in heavenly places, we are praying from that perspective toward victory rather than from a place of victory? These questions bring us back to one central truth: Prayer is not about striving to reach God. It is about learning to live from where He has already placed us.
IN CONCLUSION – A SHIFT IN HOW WE PRAY
As we begin to understand who we are in Christ and all that we have been given, prayer begins to change. These questions have the power to change everything. They bring us back to two foundational truths: Who we are in Christ and where we are positioned because of Him.
When we begin to understand our identity, we no longer come to God unsure or striving to be accepted. And when we understand our position, we realize we are not reaching up from a place of lack but living and praying from a place of nearness, victory, and authority.
Without this understanding, prayer can quietly become a place of striving to be heard, begging for God to move and doubting whether anything will change. But when these truths take root in our hearts, something shifts.
We begin to rest in what Jesus has already finished, speak with the authority He has given us, and trust that God is both willing and able. Prayer is no longer something we struggle to do, it becomes a place we live from.
- Rethinking Prayer - A New Way of Living
As we have walked through these questions, one thing becomes clear, prayer is not just something we do, it is something we are learning to live from. It may require us to pause, to let go of what we have always assumed and to become open to what God is revealing now. Not everything we have learned is wrong but perhaps there is more. God is mobilizing His end-time army and when we are in active warfare, the expectation of a soldier is very different.
- A Picture to Help Us See
Recently, a simple and joyful memory came to mind - a kitchen turned into “Sue’s Diner.” Children laughing, writing menus, taking orders, serving one another, cleaning up all while playing and learning together. No pressure. No striving. Just participation, purpose, and joy. And in that moment, a picture began to form: We are the Lord’s waiters and waitresses. We are serving at His table.
- What Jesus Has Already Done
Jesus has already done His part. He finished the work. He made the way. He returned to the Father. And now we are called … “Go into all the world and preach the good news…” (Mark 16:15) We are not sent to tell people what God might do, we are sent to share what He has already done. We are His messengers. We are His servants. We are His witnesses.
- We Follow His Example
Jesus did not come to be served. He came to serve. He washed the feet of His disciples. He laid down His life. He chose the will of the Father over His own. “Not my will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) This is the pattern He left for us.
- We Are Not Alone
We were never meant to do this in our own strength. Jesus gave us His Spirit - the Helper, the Comforter - to live within us and empower us. No matter our limitations - whether strong or weak - whether seen or unseen we all have something to offer. Each one of us carries something of Him.
- We Are His Body
“You are the body of Christ…” (1 Corinthians 12:27) We are His hands. We are His feet. This is why we gather - not to find God in a place - but to bring Him with us and share Him with one another wherever we go. We are not meant to function alone. We are made to come together. To serve. To encourage. To build one another up.
- A Life of Surrender and Love
This path is not about becoming more powerful. It is about becoming more surrendered. Yes, there may be moments of challenge. Yes, there may be seasons of growth. But even these are temporary… “After you have suffered a little while… He will restore you…” (1 Peter 5:10) And as we learn to live unselfishly - to love, to serve, to give - something beautiful happens: We discover that this is not loss – this the abundant life in Christ we were promised.
YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP
So, we return to the question: What if prayer is not what we thought it was? What if it is not about striving to reach God but learning to live from what He has already placed within us? What if we are not just asking but being invited to participate? You are invited to explore these questions further together inside the private Facebook group we call Detox with Jesus - A Praying Community.
A place to:
share what you are learning about prayer
ask honest questions that will challenge us
grow in understanding of the necessity for effective prayers
and discover how to walk in this new way of living
We are not just learning how to pray. We are learning how to live, serve, and love - together. Come join us. Not to perform. Not to have all the answers. But to learn how to: listen, pray with understanding and walk in the authority Jesus has already given.