The Doorway of Prayer: A Practical Guide to Knowing God and His Will

By Stephen T Buys

Even as a gift from God, prayer can still seem unnatural, uncomfortable, and intimidating. But God's desire is that prayer not be intimidating, but be an intimate expression of relationship.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Finish Strong Creations
• Release date: Mar 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798987958728

Stephen T Buys

About the Author: Dr. Stephen Buys serves as the Lead Pastor of The Orchard Church in Waynesville, NC where he, his wife, and kids call the Blue Ridge Mountains their home. Stephen has served in various ministry roles, provided leadership in prayer ministries, and spoken at various gatherings and conferences on prayer for more than 15 years. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in organizational leadership and enjoys pastoring, speaking, consulting, and helping other churches fulfill their call as the Bride of Christ.

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THE DOORWAY OF PRAYER: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO KNOWING GOD AND HIS WILL

BY STEPHEN T. BUYS, PH.D.

Published by Finish Strong Creations

ISBN: 979-8-9879587-1-1

Copyright © 2023 by Stephen T. Buys

Cover design by Hannah Linder Creations LLC

Interior design by AtriTex Technologies

Available in print from your local bookstore, online, or from the publisher.

For more information on this book and the author visit: Amazon.com

All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes not to exceed 500 words, no part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form without written permission from the publisher. When reproducing text for an excerpt from this book, include the following credit line: THE DOORWAY OF PRAYER: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO KNOWING GOD AND HIS WILL published by Stephen T. Buys. Used by permission.

Commercial interests: No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by the United States of America copyright law.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.TM.

All Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

All Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Buys, Stephen.

The Doorway of Prayer: A practical guide to knowing God and His will / Stephen T. Buys 1st ed.

Printed in the United States of America

DEDICATION

To my father, Russell G. Buys.

For what you have done – Thank you for teaching me to pray.

To my sons, Silas T. Buys and Benaiah T. Buys.

For what you will do – I hope to teach you to pray.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: The Primer to Prayer

A Mysterious Wonder

The Answer of Prayer

The Maturity of Prayer

Study Guide

Chapter 2: The Priority of Prayer

Communing with God

Not a Last Resort

Prayer as a Healthy Moderator

Prayer in the Context of Reconciliation

Abiding in Christ

Study Guide

Chapter 3: The Prominence of Prayer

Anytime and Anywhere

Prayer Was Important to Jesus

Study Guide

Chapter 4: The Practice of Prayer

Speaking and Listening

Using God’s Word in Prayer

Two Simultaneous Purposes

Practicing Prayer

When Prayers Seem Unheard

Study Guide

Chapter 5: The Proof of Prayer

Personal, Not Productive

A Strong Relationship Needs Strong Communication

Distractions and Derailments

Seeing God at Work

Study Guide

Chapter 6: The Persistence of Prayer

Out of Our Mind

The Holy Spirit

Keep Praying

Teach Us to Pray

Growing Us Up

Study Guide

Chapter 7: The Pursuit of Praying Alone

Prayer and Faith

Throwing Up a Prayer

Why We Pray Alone

Exposure Leads to Transformation

Study Guide

Chapter 8: The Power of Praying with Others

Praying in Community

Pray in Agreement

Pray Boldly

Study Guide

Conclusion

Frequently Asked Questions

References

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

IACKNOWLEDGE JESUS FOR OPENING the doorway of prayer for me to be able to have a living relationship with my living Savior! I am thankful for those who have shown me what it means to pray, guided me how to pray, taught me about prayer, and modeled a life of prayer – namely my father and mother, Russell and Vickie Buys. I remember many mornings as a child catching my father kneeling by his bed, praying. I remember him sitting in his rocking chair in the living room, early, praying and reading the Scriptures. I remember thumbing through the worn pages of my mother’s Bible and hearing her pray the most sincere and passionate prayers during our family times of prayer. Furthermore, people like Dr. Kevin Cooper, Bill Buckley, Pastor James I. Walker, Dr. David Bruce, and others have been incredible spiritual mentors through my life especially in regard to prayer. I am thankful for their dedication to be people of prayer.

I am incredibly grateful to the team of individuals who helped as I compiled this work. The initial seed for this book on prayer was planted in 2018 and required quite a while to germinate.

To my father and mother, thank you for your help in the initial capturing of these thoughts.

To Anna, my wife and best friend, thank you for sharing your God-given giftedness, professional writing, and editing skills to help me cross the finish line. Your patience and perseverance are second to none. I am thankful to share this life with you as we pursue Jesus together.

To Phil, thank you for sharing your giftedness in writing and biblical knowledge to provide insights and direction where needed. Your graciousness and humility show you understand the doorway of prayer.

To Pastor Justin Kidd, thank you for you being an idea guy, editor, contributor, encourager, prayer supporter, and most of all – a brother and co-laborer in Christ.

To my family at The Orchard Church, thank you for being a church that consistently crosses the threshold of the doorway of prayer. Thank you for your inspiration and support. What a great privilege to lead in a church known for loving like Jesus and reflecting Him as His bride to the world around you!

THE PRIMER TO PRAYER

A Mysterious Wonder

OVER THE YEARS, I HAVE HAD THE privilege to work in government, academia, the legal world, and full-time ministry. During that time, as I’ve spoken with people of various demographics in many different realms about many religions, the topic of prayer never fails to present itself in everyday conversation. If an accident, tragedy, or disaster occurs, people from all faith backgrounds rush to declare thoughts and prayers are with you. When most people speak of prayer, it is more often associated with wishful thinking, aspiration, and desperation as opposed to a two-way conversation with a Holy God. Through my life experiences and personal relationship with Christ, I have sought to answer three questions: What is prayer? How do I pray? When do I pray? In my quest for answers, I see many others on this same journey. My hope and prayer as you read this book are that you are encouraged to pursue this incredible gift that God has given to us by which we can commune and engage with Him. I hope the answers lead you away from the compartmentalization of a prayer life as merely a practice we are instructed to regularly perform and into a life-giving, future-altering, hope-filling life of prayer, in which you realize that prayer is not intimidating – prayer is intimate.

Prayer is the doorway into knowing Jesus and learning the sound of His voice.

Who is to pray? God desires everyone to come into a relationship with Him (2 Peter 3:8), and prayer is the doorway into the relationship. Jesus provided the key for the doorway to be opened by dying once for all sins for all people (Romans 6:10; 1 Peter 3:18). A non-believer can pray anything, anytime, anywhere, but only God’s children can have confidence that God hears their prayers. What is the only prayer a non-believer should be concerned about praying? God’s will for a non-believer is salvation – to be born again. A prayer of confession of his or her own sin and of faith in the full sufficiency of Jesus as personal Savior is the prayer God is certain to hear.

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him (1 John 5:11-15).¹

This heartfelt prayer may be as simple as Lord, I believe! Save me!

For the Christ follower, prayer is to be the default practice of our lives. Prayer is also the primary opportunity to consciously converge the spiritual with the physical. The interaction in prayer that takes place between humans and the divine is not an experience that we can add as an ingredient to a recipe, or even a variable we insert into an equation, hoping to achieve a desired outcome. Despite the seeming complexity of how prayer works, we can find a simple explanation of prayer at its core: a person with a pure intentioned heart seeking to commune with a pure God. Before we can really address the how of prayer, we must begin by addressing who. When our motivation of prayer is to know the One to whom we pray, much of the complexity associated with method and approach becomes simplified in our minds and hearts. How and why a person approaches God are often determinants of whether prayer remains mysterious. We are to approach God in prayer primarily for who He is, and secondarily, submissive to what He desires. Even then, prayers that are answered, unanswered, heard, and unheard can often leave people perplexed, scratching their heads in wonder. Therefore, the seeming mystery of prayer should drive us to seek a deeper understanding of the practice and purpose of prayer.

Pray-er: a person with a