Luke 11 : 1 :- And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

The disciples asked Jesus to Teach us to pray. They did not ask "teach us how to pray" they said "teach us TO pray". You don't have to be down on your knees with your hands folded in front of you on your chest with your eyes closed speaking out melodious, rhythmic, high lofty religious words so that everyone in hearing distance knows you are talking to God and He is surely about to answer you because you are doing it in this way.

Luke 18: 1 :- says that man should always pray, not always to sing, hymns or choruses, not always to preach, it says "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint" and the use of Men here does not mean that pray is just for men, and women and children can do as they want, it is meant as an all encompassing term.

1 Thessalonians 5 : 17 :- "Pray without ceasing."

Prayer is not a bunch of words, with lofty sounds, religious sounding words and phrases, you can be walking around and talking to God in you own words. You don't need any special powers or words to pray, you just need to be real, God understands your language. Your age is of no concern, the length of time you have been serving God is no benefit, the church you attend is of no consequence it is all about you and God. You do not have to pray at specific times, prayer is a conversation between you and God, and sometimes it is better if you shut your mouth and be silent, God will speak in a small low whisper and you need to be quiet to hear Him.

2 Chronicles 7 : 14 :- "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." getting down on your knees does not make you humble, being humble is a state of your heart.

Romans 8 : 26 :- Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Romans 8 : 27 :- And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

God says that praying can be groans. We have an intercessor, The Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit is our pray partner, in our groanings the Holy Spirit is praying in your place directly to God. When we have no idea what words to pray in our situation then that is where the Holy Spirit steps in and we pray in tongues, or for those who dont understand that, we pray in a language that is of the Holy Spirit. In effect the Holy Spirit is praying for you, through you. It has nothing to do with not wanting the devil to know or understand what you are praying for, although this is a common interpretation in a lot of churches. You have 2 different ways of praying, the first is in your own natural language and that is the same as you speaking out our normal tongue and you can only pray about things you know about. However we also have a 2nd way of praying and that is through the Holy Spirit, and that does not come from you it comes from your inner spirit, it is the perfect way to pray because you are praying the will of God. One example is many years ago I was in the army and I found out after the fact that my Nan had been woken in her bed over a couple of nights with an urgent need to pray, but was not sure what exactly, she prayed in tongues, the only thing she knew was it was me she was praying for. I remember telling her 3 or 4 years later that it was me who was in extreme danger facing down the barrel of more than one gun on those nights and that her prayer was what brought me through it. I had no idea that my nan had been praying for me those nights, but I knew something had saved me.

The best prayers I personally have ever heard have been on some of the recent battle fields as a soldier walks out to face an unknown enemy. Those prayers are real, usually they dont carry well spoken high and lofty words, I have heard and even used language in pray that you would never hear in a church. But let me say when the bullets start flying and the bombs are going off around you, you do not have time to think what was it my pastor said I was supposed to recite, those words are not going to help even if you do recall them, you scream and you usually scream out what most people would class as blasphemy, using the name of the Lord you God in vain, you scream out the name of Jesus save me and that is all you need, it is usually followed by your own battle cry which I am not going to write here but you can be assured that it is not nice language for your granny or mother to hear. God does not care what you say, God does not want fancy, religious words, that you recite time and time again, He wants you to be real. Dont try to impress God with your vocabulary, God wants reality, you are not talking to just someone, you are talking to the Great I AM.

Most christians who are going through trouble or in hostile territory will just throw up their hands and complain. God will sometimes put you in the place where you have to face your enemy, people who hate you, and God has put your their just so that you can learn to pray for your enemies. Psalm 23 says that God Prepares a feast table in the presence of your enemies, you can be blessed whilst you walk in your enemies camp. Sometimes God will connect you with someone who aggravates you, irritates you, rubs you up the wrong way simply to teach you to pray right. A lot of Christian prayers go something like this, "Our Father Lord, Jesus, fix me, bless me, give me this, do this, do that, I want, in the name of Jesus thank you amen.", That may be a little too long for some, but that can be the jist of most prayers, when all along all that God is trying to do is teach you to pray for your enemies, those who hate you and stand against you BECAUSE until you learn to pray for them you will not have peace yourself, So whatever it is you want for you, you have got to pray for them to have it. You want to be whole then you have to pray for them to be whole, you want healing you have to pray for their healing. You got to learn to ask God to forgive those who have done you wrong, and then watch what God does for you.

When you do actually pray correctly and in the will of God, there may be a delay in you getting your answer. Look at Daniel 10: 12-13
"12: Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.
13: But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia."
It is possible that your prayer has already been answered, but there has been a hindrance in getting the answer to you.

How many times have you heard someone praying, "Father, please save my husband" or save my son or daughter, do you wonder why that prayer never seems to get answered, could it be that God answered that prayer 2000 years ago on the cross. What you should be praying is "Father God please send someone with the right words who will be listened to across the path of my husband, son, daughter whoever it is". Ask and it will be given, but you have to ask correctly, and when you have asked then have the faith to see it happen in your spirit and give thanks for it before it has even happened. Now if you are a Holy Spirit filled believer, then this is what you should be praying for whoever it is, "Lord, awaken their spirit", if you have an item of theirs hold it as you pray, I would usually pray both these prayers, but "to save my " that is wrong praying, God has already done all he is going to do to save a person. Let me make that really clear for you, a five year old may well pray, "Dear God please can I have a Mercedes to drive" God is not going to answer that prayer because it is not possible for a five year old to legally drive a Mercedes, however if the five year old had prayed "Dear God, could you help me get a bike so that I can get to Sunday School, thank you" then this pray will be possible and God can answer it.

God will not answer your prayers until you pray them. Before you pray you should always repent, remove any sin from you before you pray. God will not hear your prayers if there is any sin in your life, any thoughts for yourself rather than what Gods wants for you. James 4:2 says "You have not because you ask not" you have to be right before God when you ask and remember when you have asked to say thank you afterwards.

Prayer is the greatest privilege, prayer is the greatest service but alas prayer is the greatest christian failure. Some of us dont want to pray, some dont have the ability, some of us fail through being distracted, some just simple have no idea how or what to pray for. God knows this, that is why we have been given the Holy Spirit. King James Bible : Jude 1: 20 "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost," the Holy Spirit works in the activation of you will to pray, The reason you do not want to pray is found in King James Bible : Romans 8: 7: Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. We are flesh beings and so we do not want to pray, that is why we have the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not Flesh or carnally minded, the Holy Spirit wants to pray, it is not so that the Devil does not understand what you are saying it is simply to pray those words that you do not know how to pray. Re-read Roman 8: verse 26 again above, our infirmities is the same as our weaknesses, admit our weakness and the Holy Spirit will take over and pray the prayers that you should be praying.

In King James Bible 2 Corinthians 9: 8 we read "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" and then in Philippians 1:6 " Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ". God does not start a work and then stop halfway through, He will keep doing that work until Jesus comes again. The ability for God to answer your prayers is not debatable, the verse in Corinthians says "God is able", it is not open to question but are you prepared for the prayer being answered? Will you acknowledge who has given you what you have prayed for, will you give God the glory.

You have to remember that when you made the decision to follow God and believe Jesus is your Saviour, then at that point in time you are a new creation, that means that God no longer recalls what you did before that point in time, you are in God's eyes a different person. God is not holding back from giving you what you pray for, He is not punishing you, your old life is over and gone, if God was to punish you for what you had done, then you would be in hell right now, God is not trying to punish you, you must be certain about that one point. See the verse from 2nd Corinthians above again, God is able to make sure you have everything you need and He will do it abundantly. Do not talk negatively about what you are asking for, what you ask for, you ask for in faith, you need to believe that you can receive it and give God the glory for it. You can be certain that Satan will keep on reminding you of your past, telling you that you are not worthy, he wants you to stay tied down and under conviction because youare not effective in that state. What you do if Satan comes along is to remind him of his future, read the book of Revelation, especially the last page, Satan is cast into Hell for eternity and WE WIN. Satan has no power or hold over anyone who has asked Jesus to be Lord of their life

Remember that God will not allow you to be put into a place of testing or danger from which you cannot overcome. God may use these times to teach you something, but He will always be holding you in His hands. As you read the Old Testament of the Bible notice how many of the great men and women of God started by walking through the desert, they had to go through the desert to reach the place God wanted them so that He the God of Heaven could use them. As you read in the New Testament, notice that Jesus sweat drops of blood when he prayed in the garden before He was arrested. I think I can safely say that you have not suffered to the point of sweating drops of blood.

As you pray there is one more important point to remember, your prayer is not over or finished until you have shut up and listened in silence. God will answer your prayer but He will do so in a still small voice. If you are not in a position to hear then get to a place of quiet later and ask, learn to listen for His voice. If you are asking for direction or about something you wish to do in your life, there is absolutely no problem in asking for a sign, read about Gideon in the book of Judges chapter 6, he asked for a sign and then asked again for the reverse.