Chapter One

Effects Of Sin On Our Prayer Life

Our Prayer Life

   Man is tripartite; spirit, soul and body (First Thessalonians 5:23). God designed our human spirit to contain Him and to commune with Him. We contact and commune with God in our human spirit. The Life Giving Spirit has mingled with our human spirit through regeneration. The Life Giving Spirit is also known as the Holy Spirit. One of the works of the Holy Spirit is to connect our human spirit to God in prayer. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman that “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24 ESV). The mingling of the Holy Spirit with our human spirit supplies us with the life of prayer. Hence, all believers have the life of prayer.                                       

   Our prayer life needs to grow; as far as it is life, it needs growth. The basic requirements for the growth of our prayer life are: purity, righteousness, and holiness. Therefore, when we are living a pure, righteous, and holy life; our prayer life also grows. If we maintain high  standards of spiritual living, our prayer life will grow faster. When it grows, then we  will be capable to pray persistently. We will not only pray for a limited time but our lives will be filled with prayer. We will pray when walking, in vehicles and during discussions; even when we are sleeping, our spirits will still be praying. At this point we will be filled with the joy of prayer.

What Sin Is

   Our prayer life is very sensitive to sin. Sin kills the effectiveness of our prayer life and makes it lie dormant. What then is sin? Sin is lawlessness. In other words, sin is anything that God abhors and when one does such thing will lose the presence of God consciously or subconsciously. Of course, sin stops us from enjoying the glory of the Lord’s presence. Let us continue and consider two effects of sin on our prayer life in two sections.