In his second epistle to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul said some interesting things about prayer. He begins the book by reminding the Corinthian believers that they share in his sufferings. Then he fills them in a little on the ways he has suffered in his latest missionary journey:

“We do not want you to be uniformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-11, emphasis added)

This was not a missionary writing his supporters, saying how blessed he was knowing that people back home were praying. No, Paul knew that prayer literally had an affect in the kingdom; that prayer brought results; that prayer did something in the heavenlies that moved the hand of God and beat back the kingdom of darkness’s attempt to thwart his ministry. He recognized that they were literally joining his journey through their prayers. Without them, Paul would not have made it!

The Essential Aspect

Prayer is the most vital aspect of a believer’s walk with God. Bible reading and memorization is extremely important for our spiritual health and growth. But there are many believers around the world who do not have a Bible, and while significantly hampered, they can still grow. Fellowshipping with other believers in community is certainly necessary for our spiritual life. But there are believers who cannot participate in meaningful fellowship, and they still grow. Listening to preaching and teaching can stimulate us to go deeper in our faith. But again, many believers do not have the wealth of teachers we in the West have, but they still mature in their faith. Without prayer, however, real growth does not occur much.

Out of every 100 believers in a given church there are believers who are growing deeper in their faith and those who are not. In most churches the ratio of growing believers to non-growing ones is probably 1 out of 5 or worse. The difference? Those who are growing probably have a prayer life, or at least are working to develop one. Or another possibility: they have someone who is significantly praying for their spiritual growth.

And that’s what Paul knew. He realized the importance of praying key spiritual growth principles into people’s lives. Paul had lots of people he was concerned about, people all across Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and throughout Greece and Rome. Despite the great physical and material needs these folks must have had, Paul doesn’t seem to focus on those things in his prayers for them. Instead, Paul focused on spiritual health and growth in these believers. Things like that they would grow in wisdom and understanding, revelation, and love dominated his prayers for them.

Paul also did something that is to me very intriguing. He did something I call “pray the process.” That is, he seemed to pray more for the process of growth in people’s lives than the end results. In most of Paul’s prayers recorded in the epistles, we see two little words near the middle: “so that.” Paul prayed something so that something else would happen. For example, look at these two prayers

I pray “that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11, emphasis added).

“I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ” (Philemon 6, emphasis added).

He had some results in mind (be more discerning, live pure and blameless lives, understand who we are in Christ), but he focused more on praying the path toward those things (love, active in sharing what God was doing in your life). He prayed the process, not the results.

I am sure in some of Paul’s non-recorded prayers, he prayed for specific things; but in the ones God chose to record, he prays for spiritual development. What should that say to us? Not that we should never pray for specific results, but maybe that a significant part of our prayer agenda—for ourselves and those we love—should focus on spiritual growth.

What’s in it for us?

We need to learn to pray the themes Paul prayed—both for ourselves and others. That’s what praying the process is all about—learning to focus a lot of prayers on spiritual things rather than earthly concerns. Learning to pray more for spiritual growth and health in the lives of people, then be concerned that their lives are normal and problem free. Focusing less on the “little answerables” and more on the “kingdom getting glory results.”

Jonathan Graf is the president of the Church Prayer Leaders Network. This article is adapted from his yet to be published book, Pray the Process: Letting the Prayers of Paul Shape Our Intercession.