EFFECTIVE PRAYER

​Solution-oriented prayer involves not only speaking to God, but also listening carefully to his response. God speaks to us through his Word, and through the people he appoints. In times of turmoil and under emergency conditions, God speaks directly in the same voice that he spoke to Moses and to his prophets. In times of emergency, it is absolutely critical that we hear God's voice and his precise instructions. He cannot convey those emergency instructions through vessels that are clogged with sin and immorality. Sin renders us equivalent to a clogged drain through which water cannot flow. God speaks through us most effectively when we are fully cleansed vessels, spiritually and physically. A cleansed vessel is a perfect conduit for the voice of God and anyone who seeks to be a conduit for God must desire perfection.

If you are confident that whenever you pray you always listen for God's immediate response, and if you know that you desire to be a perfect conduit for the voice of God, then you are probably safe in disregarding any who claim to be relaying instructions from God. On the contrary, if none of the above is true, you owe it to yourself to investigate very carefully any such instructions so that you can make an informed decision as to whether or not you should comply. Otherwise, when God's instructions are that you should "flee to the mountains" you will be going downstream in a rowboat.