Understanding Prayer

Dr. Jon Korkidakis, Adjunct Professor at Heritage College & Seminary, says that though prayer is highly recognized as important to the Christian walk, it is also confusing for many people in today’s church and is seen as intimidating.

It was this common struggle to understand prayer that led Korkidakis to write his latest book, Touching God: Discovering Prayer that Moves the Heart of God. He explains that he wanted to write the book to help people gain a better understanding of the biblical purpose of prayer to see their own prayer life deepen.

“There is for many, a mystery to prayer,” says Korkidakis. “I hope the book helps to bring clarity and focus to God’s intention for prayer and how we can develop our prayer lives in accordance with the biblical model.”

In the book, Korkidakis goes to Scripture to highlight an essential part of prayer that he believes is missing from our contemporary understanding of the discipline. Throughout most of what is written about prayer in the Bible, he explains that there is a piece that—though sometimes is acknowledged—is often not as prominent in the prayer life of the church as it is throughout God’s Word.

Korkidakis sees at the heart of this missing piece is an understanding of prayer that sees the discipline as a process of aligning ourselves to the will and purposes of God. It is through this that he believes we grow a deeper awareness of God’s kingdom and his activity in the world where God is at work.

“When we move in that direction, it is a transformative experience, one that I believe brings pleasure to God as he sees his children grow deeper in their relationship with Him,” he says.

As he looks back, Korkidakis says that this understanding of prayer has helped deepen and transform the prayer lives of many in his church. After preaching much of the material in a sermon series at the church he pastors a few years ago, he was grateful to hear how it helped people orient their prayers differently and became a tool for deepening the church’s walk with Christ.

On a personal level, he says that this broader, biblical understanding of prayer has been transformational in his own prayer life and walk with God.

“There is a deeper sense of peace in my own life, as well as a deeper sense of awareness of what God is doing in my own heart and life,” says Korkidakis.

He desires that the readers of this book would have the same experience that he and his church have had—that it would elevate people’s prayer life, deeply nourish their souls, and help create a prayer movement that deepens people’s desire for God’s will to be manifest on earth.

To learn more about Touching God or to purchase the book, click here.