The Right Kind of Prayer
Learning to Pray the Right Prayer
At the Right Time for the Right Situation

Praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit (Eph. 6:18)

There are many kinds of prayer in Scripture. There are prayers of dedication or consecration. There are intercessory prayers on behalf of others. There are prayers of petition and prayers of faith. There are other kinds of prayer as well. To see answers to our prayers, we must know the kind of prayer that is appropriate for each situation in life. For example, if we are trying to pray the prayer of faith when the prayer of dedication/consecration is called for, our prayer will not be successful. In this 3-part essay, I am going to look at 3 different kinds of prayer that will be appropriate at various times in our lives. They are the Prayer of Dedication or Consecration, the Prayer of Desperation and the Prayer of Faith or Determination.

The Prayer of Dedication or Consecration

The prayer of dedication or consecration is a prayer of total surrender to God. It was often used in the Old Testament to signify the complete giving over of something to God. To consecrate something to God is to give it wholly to Him. There is a personal prayer of dedication or consecration in which we give ourselves completely to God. In the Old Testament, the altar was a place of consecration. It was also the place where the fire of God would fall. God would honor the act of consecration with a display of His power.

The most marvelous miracle of healing, of which I am personally aware, came not from a prayer of faith, but from a prayer of consecration. My older brother was miraculously healed after being given up to die by 3 doctors when my Dad prayed a prayer of dedication/consecration.

My Brother Miraculously Healed Through a Prayer of Consecration

I was 3 weeks old at the time and my family lived on a farm in west Texas where my Dad worked, plowing large sections of land. One hot summer day as he sat on his tractor plowing the miles of dry sod, he suddenly noticed a tractor going in circles in the yard of the house where we lived. He had earlier parked a tractor in the yard but there was no one there who could operate it. Turning his tractor toward home, he arrived to find my mother sitting on the porch holding my 7-year-old brother, Pete, and sobbing. My dad said that when he looked at Pete (his nickname), he looked flat as a pancake. He was still alive, but as he would breathe blood and water would bubble out of his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. He and my 4-year-old brother had been playing like they were farming and had somehow started the tractor. It ran directly over Pete pulling the heavy plows/discs across him as well.

They rushed Pete to the nearest hospital where three doctors examined him. They all gave the same fatal prognosis, “He won’t live more than 10 minutes.” They explained that, even without x-rays, they knew he had a broken rib that had punctured a lung. That was the reason for the blood and water coming out of all his passages. It was obvious that there was other damage as well which the x-rays would reveal.

The doctors then wheeled my brother away and my parents were left alone. As he pondered what he had just heard, the one thing foremost in my Dad’s mind was that for five years he had been ignoring the call of God to full-time ministry. He had not told anyone of this call because it seemed impossible to him. Having only a 4th grade education and with a family to care for, becoming a pastor or minister seemed as impossible as going to the moon. Nonetheless, he stepped into a nearby restroom and prayed a prayer of surrender or consecration. He raised his right hand and said, “Lord, I’m ready.” It was just three words. But at that very moment the fire fell. Suddenly the gift of faith dropped into his heart and he knew that Pete was going to be OK. He didn’t know how he knew, but he knew.

The Doctor Said, “A Higher Power Has Been Here Tonight”

They had to wait another hour before anyone brought news of Pete’s condition. After about one hour, one of the doctors came to the waiting room and said, “Mr. Hyatt, there has been a higher power here tonight.” He went on to explain that all the bleeding had suddenly stopped. They had completed x-rays and Pete did not have a broken bone anywhere in his body. A nurse in this hospital, who was assigned to Pete’s room, attended the same church as my parents. She later told them that she had never experienced the presence and power of God as she did in Pete’s room that day.

Think about it! My Dad did not call the intercessory prayer group or the healing evangelist. He did not rebuke the devil or try to pray the prayer of faith. In fact, no prayer for healing was prayed. He prayed a prayer of dedication/consecration and the fire of God fell. Only three words, “Lord, I’m ready!” And the miracle was done.

My Dad did go into full-time ministry and served God as a pastor for almost 40 years. My brother Pete (his real name is Royce) is well and healthy today, serving the Lord in music and singing and teaching auto mechanics at a high school in Honey Grove, TX. That one prayer of consecration not only brought healing to my brother, it changed the entire destiny of my father and his family, and who knows how many other individuals and families.

If we want to see incredible answers to prayer: If we want to see the fire of God fall and true revival break forth in the land: We need to reconsider the prayer of dedication/consecration and its place in the life of the church and in America today. We must rebuild the altars of consecration. As the old hymn says:

I surrender all; I surrender all
All to thee my blessed Savior
I surrender all!

. . . to be continued