Salvation Summaries

Prayer was written by O. Hallesby, PhD, Professor in the Independent Theological Seminary of Oslo, Norway and translated into English in 1931.

This book has 176 pages and 11 chapters.  The chapters are: What Prayer Is, Difficulties in Prayer, Prayer as Work, Wrestling in Prayer 1, Wrestling in Prayer II, The Misuse of Prayer, The Meaning of Prayer, Forms of Prayer, Problems of Prayer, The School of Prayer and The Spirit of Prayer.

Recommendation

Although the author makes a number of notable points on prayer and well describes the problems many people have when praying, I had concerns with his two main points and other parts of this book.  As a result, I would not recommend Prayer to someone who is wanting to learn how to pray more effectively.

Summary of book

Hallesby makes two main points.

The first is that prayer is nothing more than allowing Jesus, who is constantly knocking on your heart’s door, into your heart so that He can use his power to address all of your needs.  “To pray is to open our heart to Jesus” is repeated a number of times in this book. The author defines prayer in this way base upon his interpretation of Revelation 3:20, which says, Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

The second is that a person must listen to what he calls the “Spirit of Prayer” (the Holy Spirit) as He speaks to you in Word (Bible) and through your prayers about Christ and your needs.  As you do this, you will make progress in your prayer life and ability to intercede for others.  Specifically, the Spirit of Prayer can help:

• Point out sin that hinders your prayer life
• Lift you in your helplessness
• Show you how you misunderstand prayer
• Show you the true meaning and purpose of prayer
• Help you pray according to God’s will
• Help you lay aside your cares and leave everything in God’s hands.
• Make you intimate with God
• Make Jesus precious to you

The author bases this view on the belief that a person lacks the capacity and ability to pray with joy, gratitude and adoration, so in order to do so he must receive the Spirit of Prayer.

Problems with this book

• Potential misinterpretation of Revelation 3:20 – This verse is difficult to interpret and often done so in one of two ways.  On the surface, it appears to say that if a person hears Jesus knocking (possibly on the door of their heart) and his voice, and opens the door (or invites Him in), He will enter into that person’s heart and either save that person or have fellowship with Him.  However, Calvinists strongly disagree with this interpretation, as it goes against their belief in how a person is saved (because of total depravity, a person would not be able to open the door or even choose to do so, as God must first regenerate that person.  Thus, the act of opening the door, which does not relate to salvation, would simply be something done out of obedience).  I believe Revelation 3:20, which was directed at a specific church a long time ago but applicable to churches today, simply illustrates Jesus’ grace and way of salvation for those whom He loves and who come to Him.  In Revelation 3:18, Jesus’ grace is shown in His willingness to “sell” (for free) gold, white garments and salve to the unsaved Laodiceans, for this will make them spiritually rich, righteous and able to see the truth of God’s word (thus, ensure their salvation); however, for this to take place, the Laodiceans must come to Jesus and ask Him for it.  I do not believe this verse is about prayer, and as such would not use it as the basis for what prayer means or how one should pray.  The Bible contains more clear and direct verses on prayer I wish the author would have used to develop his concept of prayer.

• The Spirit of Prayer is likely a foreign concept to most people – I have read and studied the Bible over a number of years, and read a fair amount of Christian books too, but have never heard or learned anything about the concept of the Spirit of Prayer.  I wish the author would have used several Bible verses to better support this.

• Questionable examples of prayer – The author views the story of the two sons of Zebedee, their mother and Jesus as a prayer, as the mother petitions Jesus on behalf of her sons and receives a reply from Him. He also views the story of Mary, Jesus and the jugs of wine at a wedding as a prayer, for Mary petitions Jesus to bring wine, and Jesus replies to her.  I do not view either as a prayer.

• The book’s chapters are not well organized – Although the book contains a good balance between the number of chapters that are positive on prayer (what it is, how to do it, forms of prayer, etc.) with those that are negative (problems of prayers, misuse of prayer, wrestling with prayer), the chapters are unfortunately mixed together and thus interrupt the flow of the book.  I believe it would have been better to arrange the positive chapters into the first half of the book (What Prayer Is, Meaning of Prayer, School of Prayer, Spirit of Prayer, Forms of Prayer, Prayer as Work) and the negative chapters (Difficulties in Prayer, Wrestling with Prayer I, Wrestling with Prayer II, Misuse of Prayer, Problems of Prayers) in the second half, with a concluding chapter at the end.

• Problem with the Meaning of Prayer chapter – In this chapter, the author talks primarily about a person named Zeller who prays very well, and his secret to praying is to make his petitions line up with whatever may glorify God.  The author uses 1 John 5:14-15 to support praying like this, though these verses refer to God’s will rather than glorification.  Later in the chapter, the author shifts his attention to unanswered prayers, and gives the example of Paul praying three times for something (thorn in flesh removed), but God chose not to do this.  Overall, I found the chapter title to be an inaccurate description of what the author wrote about, and the brief part about unanswered prayer seemed out of place.

• The book leans more theoretical than practical, and was not as interesting as it could have been – Listening to the Spirit of Prayer speak to you and seeking to be in harmony with the Spirit of Prayer sound nice, but how does one do this?  Also, the author included a few examples of answers to prayer in his book, but these were answers God gave to other people rather than himself. I wish the author would have included more details regarding his own prayer life, such as what he has done wrong and why it was wrong, what he has learned over time that worked well, and examples of prayers that were answered versus those that were not.  I believe this would have made the book more interesting.

• Same deficiencies in other prayer books I’ve read thus far – These include no evaluation of Lord’s prayer, no discussion of different examples of prayers found in OT and NT, no discussion or evaluation of many prayers found in the Psalms, and no sample prayers a person can use.

Notable points made by the author

According to the author, prayer is:

• allowing Jesus to come into your heart and giving Him access to your needs
• something you do in response to Jesus knocking at your heart’s door
• telling God in what ways we feel helpless
• the organ by which you receive Christ into your heart
• an attitude of the heart and mind
• the means of intimate and joyous fellowship between God and man

There are two prerequisites to praying:

• being helpless, which makes you dependent upon God
• having faith, which means that you believe in God and have come to Christ

There are five forms of prayer:

• supplicatory
• thanksgiving
• praise
• conversation
• praying without words

When you pray, you should let God, the Great Physician, examine your soul to know where your trouble lies.

We do not pray well when our prayer is not in harmony with the Spirit of Prayer.  To be in harmony, you need to first become helpless, then hear what the Spirit of Prayer desires for you to pray.

Another problem that hinders our prayer life for ourselves and others is selfishness.  Because of this, we need the Spirit of Prayer to convict us of our sins before we attempt to pray.

We misuse prayer by trying to get God to serve us now; this is especially true in times of trouble.  This leads to disappointment when our prayers go unanswered.

Satan attacks your prayer life, presumably by getting you to delay saying your prayer until the day is over and it’s too late.  To correct this problem, you need to set up regular intervals each day to withdraw and pray.

Sample prayer from reading this book

Lord Jesus,

I am totally helpless without you, and full of sin.  My sins hinder my own prayer life and my ability to intercede for others. Please cleanse me from my sins so I can pray more effectively.

Dear Jesus, I open the door of my heart to invite you in. Please you use your power to meet my needs and the needs of others who are on my mind.  The primary need I would like to have met relates to certain relatives and friends of mine who are lost in their sins.  Jesus, they don’t have a relationship with you; they don’t know you.  I ask you to perform a work in their life to understand who you are, why you came and how to know you.  

I also ask the Spirit of Prayer to help me know you more and more, for I can’t pray well otherwise.  I also ask the Spirit of Prayer to continue to teach me how to pray in the right way, and to persevere in my prayer life. 

Jesus, I leave everything in your hands.  May your name, and God’s name, be glorified. 

In your name I pray, Amen.