What is prayer? Prayer can be a lot of things. It can be a means of making request to God. It can be a means of expressing what is in our heart to God, etc. However the most basic thing about prayer is it is a communion with God. Through prayer a relationship with God is built. Therefore, the more we pray the more we should know God.
There are three things that we need to experience in our communion with God :
1. Connection with God.
2. Communication with God.
3. Cooperation with God.
1. Connection with God.
Connecting with God is the first thing that must happen if we want our prayer to be a communion with God. How do we know if we have established a connection with God? We could sense or feel His presence. What kind of presence of God that we can feel when we are connected with Him? The presence of God as Man because God has become a Man in the person of the Lord Jesus. How can we feel this presence of the Lord Jesus? By believing He is right before us (Psa 16:8).
2. Communication with God.
After we feel the presence of God before us, then we should begin to communicate with Him. Communication is two ways, therefore, we should not only speak, but listen as well. We speak to God, and God listens. God speaks to us, and we listen (Job 13:22). The easiest way to listen to God is to read the Bible, which is the Word of God, audibly. As we do that, we shall hear the words that we read and God will use those words to speak to us. How do we know that God has spoken? We feel our heart is touched by the words we read.
3. Cooperation with God.
Our communication with God must lead to cooperation with God. Why? Because every word that God has spoken must be responded before it can bear fruit in our lives. How do we respond to the words which God has spoken? By agreeing and believing those words. However, to agree and to believe, we must surrender our thoughts and our wills to God and submit to His thoughts and His wills. How do we know that we have cooperated with God? We experience God working in us both to will and to do according to His good pleasure (Phi 2:13).