How To Enter Into Deep Prayer
For Day 27 of our 31 days of supernatural encounters (series index here), we are talking about how to enter into deep prayer.
Read: Psalm 100
Know:
Do you remember a time in which you began to pray, and you suddenly felt the Presence of God soooo powerfully? When you poured your heart out to the Lord, just knowing that He was listening … and felt your burdens roll away as you prayed?
If so, can you also remember a time when you tried to pray, but you just couldn’t focus? When everything felt dry and ineffectual? When it felt like you were talking to yourself instead of talking to God, and you didn’t go out changed at all?
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The two kinds of prayer experiences are as different as night and day.
I’ve experienced both, but I can tell you that I MUCH prefer the first type of prayer! Don’t you? The first type of prayer is a supernatural encounter with God. The second is a dry, boring exercise.
So how can you enter into deep prayer every time?
How can you connect with God in that amazing, intimate way without ever having to experience dry, boring prayer again?
Here’s what I have learned about how to enter into deep prayer:
1. Every time you go to pray, ask Holy Spirit to pray through you and intercede for you.
Romans 8:26-27 says:
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
Nearly every time I begin to pray, I pray this promise FIRST. I ask Holy Spirit to pray through me and intercede for me. If I remember to pray this promise first, my prayer time is amazing. It’s powerful, fruitful, and brings me into intimate encounter with God.
But if I forget to pray this promise first, then–every time I forget–my prayer time is dry. I can’t focus, don’t know what to say, and don’t feel the Presence of God.
Moral of the story? If I’m in a time of dry prayer, then I remember why. I back up and ask Holy Spirit to intercede for me and pray through me. And as soon as I do, everything changes and I’m suddenly in deep prayer.
Huh. Must be all about Holy Spirit after all, huh? 🙂
2. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving.
After step #1, the next step is to begin your prayer by giving thanks. As Psalm 100:4 says:
“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”
The “gates” are the first thing you cross when you’re going in somewhere. And the Bible tells us that we enter His gates with thanksgiving.
It’s amazing how thanking God will help bring you into deep prayer.
Related: 10 Prayers That Draw Me Closer To God Than Any Other Prayers
In fact, giving thanks will bring you into intimate encounter with God anywhere, even if you aren’t specifically sitting down to pray! But when you do begin to pray on purpose, start out by giving thanks.
How? If you’re feeling thankful, then it’s easy. Start out by giving thanks for everything you’re feeling thankful for, and go from there!
And if you’re not feeling thankful, you can give thanks too.
When I’m not feeling very thankful–e.g. if I’m upset about something–then I know I need to give thanks anyway, and do so purposefully. So I start out just thanking God for everything around me.
If you heard me do this, you’d probably think I was silly or crazy. But it works! I say things like:
- “Thank You, Father, for the house I’m sitting in.”
- “Thank You for the carpet under my feet.”
- “Thank You for the clothes on my body.”
- “Thank You for the food in my kitchen.”
- “Thank You for these Bible study supplies sitting on the desk in front of me.”
- “Thank You for my husband.”
- “Thank You for my cat.”
I just start thanking God for any little thing I see around me; for anything I can think of. And you know what? If I start out with a bad attitude and don’t feel thankful, pretty soon giving thanks changes my attitude.
So either way–whether you feel thankful or not–enter into His gates with thanksgiving.
3. Enter His courts with praise.
After you’ve asked for Holy Spirit’s help to pray, and after you’ve entered into His gates with thanksgiving, it’s time to enter into His courts with praise.
The “courts” are the very place where God sits. When you’re in His courts, you’re in the inner place of His Presence. It’s a great place to be! So how do you get there? You progress from thanking God to praising Him!
Praise is different than thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving means thanking God for what He has done. But praise means to tell God who He is, and to worship Him for who He is.
Thanksgiving says, “Thank You for saving me, Father. Thank You for providing for me. Thank You for loving me.”
But praise says, “Father, You are holy! You are faithful! You are my Salvation! You are righteous and good and pure and true! You are awesome! Hallelujah! I love You, Lord!”
Praise gets you into the inner courts of the Lord.
So if you want to enter into deep prayer, with Holy Spirit’s help, start with thanksgiving and then move into praise. It works every time! And after you’re in His inner courts, pour out all your heart to Him. Holy Spirit will help you, and you’ll have a powerful time of prayer that is a supernatural encounter with the Living God.
Pray this:
“Heavenly Father, I come to you in Jesus’ name. Father God, thank You for Your Holy Spirit who lives inside me. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for interceding for me and through me. Please pray through me and for me right now.
Lord, I want to enter into deep prayer every time I commune with You. And Lord, I want to commune with You every moment of every day. I don’t want there ever to be a time when I feel separated from You.
So Father, please help me to always remember to ask Holy Spirit to help me pray and pray for me and through me. Help me to remember to thank You and bless Your name, and help me to praise You all day every day.
Lord, I want to be a person of prayer.
So please do a work in my heart and teach me to pray. Help me to enter into Your gates with thanksgiving and into Your courts with praise always, and help me never to go out. I don’t want to go in and out of Your Presence, Lord. I just want to stay with You and remain. Help me do that, Father, and thank You.
I love You, Father. Thank You for hearing these deepest cries of my heart. Thank You for helping me, and thank You for drawing me to Yourself. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
Listen:
Listen to Eddie James singing “Lord, make me a house of prayer!” and ask the Lord to make YOU a house of prayer too–and that the fire on your altar would never go out!
Does this word encourage your heart today? If so, please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you!
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This is fantastic, I thought that I was a terrible sinner when I had very dry prayers even though at the back of my mind I knew that I was cleansed in the precious blood of the Lamb. I missed one of those steps that’s why I felt so bad. Praise God He always has an answer to very problem. ❤
I TOO HAVE HAD DRY PRAYER. BECAUSE I WASN’T ASKING HOLY SPIRIT INTO MY PRAYERS. BUT NOW I WILL BE. THANKS
Wow. I don’t know how to go in deep prayer sometimes I need to play first music prayer to go to deep. Thanks Jamie You are a blessings for us Godbless you
Music definitely helps. You can find Thanksgiving songs to get into the Thanksgiving phase. Then praise songs to get into praise. By this time, the Holy Spirit must have taken over and you’d b pleasantly surprised. God wants every conversation with Him to be exciting.
Amen.
Thank you so much for this word and for your spiritual guidance.
God bless…
Laura
Read it over twice. With all my challenges I still find it so hard to pray. I am going to try this right now.
Thank you thank you!! I was feeling guilty when this dry moment occur, now I know to reconnect to a powerful deep prayer I need to call the Spirit of truth to pray through me, thank God and praise. God bless you.
Hello am Mercy Kaleha would love to thank you so much as I have found it to be very helpful and by the time I was reading already was feeling His presence thou was dry the whole day .BE BLESSED
Thank you so much for this beautiful article and wonderful words of encouragement on Prayer. The song also is beautiful and inspiring. May the LORD continue to BLESS and use you to be the BLESSING you are to the Body of CHRIST! Love and Prayers!!!
Thank You so much Jaime, I have been in a dry season for a while now and trying to shake back. I want to (pray to)be better than before. This article has helped me today. You are a blessing. God Bless You
Ah yes … Make me a house of prayer, Thank you for this awesome song to remind us and to show us that the fire on the alter should never go out. The Holy Spirit has amazing power and is always willing to help… kind of like you.. thank you for being the mentor and trail blazer for many of us.
Thank you very much Jamie for the word of encouragement and reminding us on how to pray. I’m inspired and God bless you always.
This is how you pray without ceasing. And it drives out the thieves so we can be a house of prayer.
This encouraged me because I thought my dry prayer life meant God wasn’t listening. I am putting this into practice tonight. Thank you for posting this and being in the Spirit.
Lord make me a house of prayer, beautiful words. I had never heard of asking the Holy Spirit to pray for me like this. I have asked the Holy Spirit to intercede for me but not every prayer. Thank you Sister for bringing awareness to this very important part of prayers.
In my moments where it at times felt fruitless to pray, I would guide myself to give prayers of thanksgiving, as I felt God had done enough and wasn’t ready to do more, I know now that was the enemy causing me too think that way.
I pray the fire on my alter never goes out.
Your Sister in Christ
Tamie.
Thank you, I will follow your guidance
Powerful prayer Jamie. Thank you very much! This prayer shifted something in my spirit realm and the heavenly realm. Increased Intercession, entering into his courts with thanksgiving and praise. I bless you coming in and going out In Jesus Name.
Thank you for your word and for all your spiritual guidance.
Thanks I have been doing as you have mentioned here, I have perfected my prayer.
Thank you dear. May the Holy Spirit continue to use you mightily to reach out in Jesus ‘ mighty name.
Thank you Ms. Jamie for opening my eyes about praying. There are lots of things I have learned from here. May God continuously Bless your site!
This is so what I need right now. My prayers have been dry, distracted and innefective lately. Thank you so much for this wonderful word.
Thanks a lot Sister. Enjoyed reading and learned something most important for the life on the earth and for eternity.
Thank you so much I am learning each and every day it has always been in my heart to learn how to pray correctly then God for leading me into your blog and may he bless you abundantly.
Bless you for bringing this topic up. I am very grateful because it will help me to be afresh in my prayers.
Thank you so much Jamie, I always struggle to pray, sometimes ended up not praying because my prayer is not deep and not coming inside of my heart, now I know that I always do dry prayer.
so rom now on I will invite the Holy Spirit first to intercede for me.
God Bless you Jamie
My gosh! Jamie every time I read your articles, it ALWAYS speaks to what I’m dealing with…and this is no different! Thank you for this post because it surely helps me now. I don’t feel guilty anymore. Surely will prayer along the lines you suggested and of course, using that prayer! Thank you so much!
Please pray for our friend she is a woman of God ,drawing many to Christ ,her world turned upside down an she needs to be back in the seat again where the Lord placed her, her miracle is there just needs pushing through.
Oh wow! I’m in awe of God. This is just so amazing, praying like this. I am so blessed, thank you so much Jamie for sharing this with us. I know my prayer life will never be the same and I am receiving answers to my prayers.
May God continue to use you, Jamie powerfully and reveal things of the spirit we don’t know of or understand in our relationship with God or as to how we ought to conduct ourselves and knowing God more – through revelatory knowledge. How true this word is “People perish because of lack of knowledge…” I pray we will desire to know God more, and how to approach Him and obtain the blessings He has in store for us as His children.
May God bless you, your family and ministry abundantly.
Thank You So Helpful
God Richly Bless You …
……..from South Africa
HI reading this made me speechless,it brought tears to my eyes because i just know how to pray the right way.Thank you very much.God Bless.
Thank you God and thank you Jamie for the word on deep prayer, it brought tears to my eyes because I want to know I am doing it right and not be dry prayers. God bless you and keep these words coming in Jesus name
Thank You for teaching me how to pray and pray for me to stay in prayer and my faith to be stronger
God Bless 🙏
The song is definitely my biggest take away! Such a prayer. My heart desire is to be a house of prayer. A walking manifestation of koinonia with th Father. Amen!
Thank you Jamie, for the HOLY Spirit reminded EACH ONE of US, Thank you Holy Spirit,and Fire For You goes before Us into the House of Prayer’s, 🌎⭐❤️🙏👑🔥
Confirmation , Confirmation Woman Of God , We Just Finished Our Youth Revival And Our Team Was ” Shake The Atmosphere ” It Talked About Prayer And How To Enter The Heavenly Atmosphere With Our Prayer Consistently. Prayer Is Our Blood Line And We Need It Every Minute , Second And Hour Of The Day , Lord Help Us To Pray. Thank You Once Again For The Reminder.🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏.