Praying From Heaven
The disciples came from a Jewish background where they were taught how to pray, but they noticed something different about Jesus' prayer life. So they approached Him and asked, "Lord, teach us how to pray." That’s a powerful request. It’s good to ask God, "Teach me how to pray." Many of us are still praying the same prayers we learned as children. We’ve grown, but our prayers haven’t matured.
September 1, 2024
How many of you feel weak? Well, today I want to talk to you about prayer, and what I’m going to share has the potential to radically change your life. Everyone prays, but how you pray truly matters.
The disciples came from a Jewish background where they were taught how to pray, but they noticed something different about Jesus’ prayer life. So they approached Him and asked, “Lord, teach us how to pray.” That’s a powerful request. It’s good to ask God, “Teach me how to pray.” Many of us are still praying the same prayers we learned as children. We’ve grown, but our prayers haven’t matured. For example, when I was five, I was taught to pray, “Bless mama, bless daddy.” But if our prayers don’t mature as we grow, we won’t see the true impact of prayer. You might be surprised to know that many of us don’t really know how to pray. Admitting that you don’t know how to pray is a great place to start. Acknowledging that you have room to learn is key because you can’t teach someone who thinks they already know everything. So, if you feel like you don’t know how to pray, you’re in a good place.
As a believer, your life is different from the Old Testament saints. They sacrificed, worshiped, and prayed, but you have a better position. If you don’t understand where you’ve been positioned in Christ, your prayers might resemble those of the Old Testament saints. But that would be unfair to Jesus, who accomplished so much for you.
My message today is titled “Praying from Heaven.” Not praying to heaven, but praying from heaven. The Old Testament saints prayed to heaven, but you are seated in heaven with Christ. Your prayers should come from that position. There’s a significant difference between praying from heaven and praying to heaven.
Remember, you are not an earthly being trying to have a spiritual experience; you are a spiritual being having an earthly experience. Your life isn’t about moving from earth to heaven, but rather living from heaven to earth. The shift we need in our mindset is this: I’m not praying from earth to heaven, but from heaven to earth, so that earth may be transformed. Elijah prayed from earth to heaven for rain to come, but you are seated in heaven, and your prayers should reflect that position.
Romans 8:34 – Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Now, here’s my question: What does that kind of intercession look like when someone already in heaven is praying on your behalf? There’s a difference in confidence and boldness. It’s not a prayer of begging or desperation; it’s a prayer of assurance, strength, and boldness.
The problem is that many of us only know one type of prayer—the prayer of supplication, where we ask for our needs to be met. But that’s not the only kind of prayer. When Jesus was on earth, He wasn’t praying from earth to heaven. He was praying from heaven to earth.
That’s why, when talking to Nicodemus, He says,
John 3:13 – “No one has ascended into heaven except the Son of Man who also exists in heaven.”
What Jesus is saying is, “I have come from heaven, and while I am speaking to you on earth, my position remains in heaven.” See, what you have right now is that your bodies are on earth, but your spirit, the real you, is in heaven, seated with Christ. You are not going to heaven; your spirit is already in heaven right now. Good news—you don’t have to wait to die to get to heaven. Your spirit is already there! You don’t have to die to get to heaven; Jesus died so that you would get to heaven.
Ephesians 2:4 – “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us…”
Ephesians 2:5 – even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved.
So we were all dead, and God made us alive. When Jesus was raised up from the dead, you and I were also raised up with Jesus. Do you know that when Jesus died, He did not die for you; He died as you? And because Jesus died as you, when He was raised up, He wasn’t just raised up for you; He was raised up as you. Amen! How is this possible? I’ll tell you how.
When Adam sinned in the garden, we were all sinning in Adam with him because we all came from the loins of Adam. That’s why when Adam was sinning, we were all inside of Adam, sinning with him. In the same way, when Christ was dying, we were all in Christ, dying with Him. Your heritage, your genealogy, has changed from Adam to Christ. So now, where your genealogy was once in Adam—meaning that when Adam sinned, you also sinned—your genealogy has now shifted to Christ. When Christ died, you died with Him. When He was risen, you were raised with Him. Now, because He is seated, you are seated with Him. That’s why Ephesians 1 constantly talks about being “in Christ, in Christ, in Christ.” You are in Christ.You are saved in Christ. You’re saved from Adam and now saved into Christ. Let’s look at the verse:
Ephesians 2:6 – “And raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
You don’t have to wait for the second coming of Jesus to take you back so you can start ruling and reigning with Him. You can rule and reign with Jesus right now because you are seated with Him right now. Say with me: “I am seated with Jesus right now.”
The one who is seated in heaven doesn’t pray from earth to heaven; they pray from heaven to earth. The way God makes a decree is how you should make a decree. Sometimes, our faith declarations still carry doubt because we don’t realize that we are seated in heaven. One of the challenges we face is understanding that we are talking about a different dimension. That’s why our words often lack the vocabulary to fully explain this dimension. So, just because you read something in the Bible, you need to engage a bit of your intellect, because we don’t have enough vocabulary to explain it all. This physical world is made up of three dimensions. For example, space is three-dimensional, with length, breadth, and height. Now, imagine someone who lives in only two dimensions. If you, a three-dimensional being, moved into a two-dimensional space, how would you appear? You’d look like a stick figure. Think about how children draw stick figures on paper—they can’t depict the third dimension, so everything is simplified into sticks. That’s how you would appear if you moved from the third dimension to the second. Now, for someone living in two dimensions, it’s nearly impossible to understand something explained by a person from the third dimension. They don’t have the capacity or the vocabulary to comprehend it.
Heaven isn’t “up there” in the way we often imagine. Let me give you a simple example. Imagine a ball—something round. This ball represents the earth. Now, someone standing at the North Pole might say heaven is “up.” Meanwhile, someone at the South Pole would also say heaven is “up.” But where is heaven, really? When the Bible says heaven is “up,” it doesn’t mean geographically up. It means “up” in the sense of a superior dimension. Because if someone at the North Pole and someone at the South Pole both start flying “up,” they’re not going to meet anywhere specific—they’ll just end up in space. If the earth were flat, this idea of “up” would make sense—heaven above, hell below. But we know the earth isn’t flat.
Jesus wasn’t giving us a science lesson when He talked about heaven being “up.” He was using language that people of that time could understand. Jesus wouldn’t speak to you in a language you don’t know, like Chinese if you don’t understand it. He communicates in ways that make sense to us. So when Jesus says heaven is “up,” He means it’s a superior dimension. Heaven is a dimension that is superior to earth.
When God created man, He placed him in the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden is a symbol of heaven intersecting with earth. It’s not just about us going to heaven, nor is it about us staying on earth—it’s about heaven meeting earth. If God’s plan was only for us to go to heaven, why would He create earth? The gospel isn’t just about someday reaching pearly gates and golden streets. If that were all there is, why would God create earth? Earth wasn’t God’s Plan B; earth is God’s Plan A. Earth plays a huge role in God’s divine purpose. So don’t just wait to die.
Do you know your final destination? When you die, your spirit goes to heaven. But what happens after that? Do you just dance around with angels and sing in worship? That’s not your final destination.
Let me show you a final destination.
Revelation 21: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.'”
What is this picture saying? It shows that God has a city coming down from heaven, just as Eden was a glimpse of heaven on earth. The end destination is to live on the earth with God. If I’m flying to the US with a transit point in Dubai, but Dubai isn’t my destination—the US is—then heaven is a transit place, not the final destination. Your final destination is not heaven; it’s back on earth. Heaven is a transit point. Do you realize that God wants to come to earth, but you might be focused on going to heaven? It’s important to shift your mindset. You are already seated in heaven, even while you are on earth. You need to live your life from heaven to earth.
You’re not an earthly person having a spiritual experience; you are a spiritual person having an earthly experience. If you are seated with Christ, how should your prayers look? Think of it this way: if you were the boss of a company with people under you, you would know that just because you say something doesn’t mean it gets done immediately. You have to ensure it gets done, which often means repeating instructions. Similarly, if you are seated in heaven and see things that need to change on earth, you need to keep speaking, declaring, believing, and praying until things get done. Imagine a boss who is crying because his employees aren’t following instructions—it wouldn’t make sense. We would view such a boss as incompetent. We wouldn’t just complain; we’d say, “Fire those people, get someone else, and get the work done.” Being in a superior position means you don’t whine and cry—you get the work done.
I need to tell you this again and again: God is not withholding your blessing. If your career isn’t growing, it’s not because God is withholding it. If your business isn’t thriving, it’s not God who has stopped the blessing. It’s because you haven’t fully taken your place. You are seated in heaven, but your prayers are often from earth to heaven, as if you’re waiting for things to change one day. You’re waiting on God, but God is also waiting on you.
The best thing God has done is raise you up, seat you with Him, and give you the same power and authority that Jesus has. There is nothing more that God needs to do—He has done it all. Now, the question is, what will you do with what God has given you? If your prayers sound like God is withholding your blessing, it’s because you don’t understand who the real boss is. When something goes wrong in the church, I have to take responsibility—from the water not coming to the washroom to other issues. I might not be the one doing everything, but I must take responsibility and get things done. Complaining and what you call “prayer” are often just forms of begging and complaining because you don’t realize that you are already seated with Christ in heaven. So pray from heaven.
Imagine if Jesus were in your place—would He be behaving the way you are? Would He be hopeless? What kind of prayer would He pray? It would be a prayer of faith, boldness, confidence, and assurance. Why? Because He is seated in heaven. You are also seated in heaven. So what should your prayer look like? It should be a prayer of boldness, confidence, and assurance. Pray from heaven with confidence, knowing that the moment you release your words, things will be done. Why? Because you are created in the same likeness of God and have the same power and authority that Jesus has. Amen.
Change your mindset. When I say heaven is not up, but rather a superior reality, I mean that heaven is a dimension that exists right here, right now. You can pull things from heaven right now. Whenever heaven is connected to earth, whatever is lacking on earth can be supplied from heaven. You are the portal that connects heaven to earth. Your body is the dimension that can connect heaven to earth right now.
For example, if you walk into a chaotic room with no peace, you can pull peace from heaven into that atmosphere just by being there. When you enter an environment filled with anxiety, you can bring down the peace of God. But how do you pull things from heaven onto the earth? By speaking. When you speak, you release your faith.
Think of it this way: if I’m in the US with a bank account holding a hundred million dollars, but I’m living in India, I need a currency exchange to convert those US dollars into Indian rupees. US dollars won’t work in India without conversion. Similarly, heavenly things need to be converted into earthly realities to make a difference here. The currency exchange that converts heavenly things into earthly realities is what we call faith. Faith is released when you speak. When you enter a room filled with anxiety and declare, “I declare the peace of God,” the atmosphere must change. Amen!
If your bank balance is speaking hopelessness to you, you must speak hope into it. When you speak, you release faith into the atmosphere, pulling your reality from heaven into your earthly experience. Every believer is seated in heaven and blessed with every spiritual blessing. However, our earthly experiences vary—some struggle with anxiety, finances, or relationships—even though our heavenly account is the same. To improve your earthly experience, you need to pull from the heavenly reality and release it into your earthly situation. Just release words of faith. By speaking words of faith, you are releasing a heavenly reality into your earthly experience. See how your atmosphere will change when you release your words of faith.
When you wake up in the morning and feel anxious, most people speak according to their emotions. If you wake up and say, “Oh man, I’m feeling so anxious,” you’re giving more weight to those emotions. Your anxiety, which might have started at 10%, can escalate to 80%, 90%, or even 100% just by the words you speak. Instead, learn to speak faith. You might be feeling anxiety, but remind yourself, “In heaven, there is no anxiety; there is peace.” By praying from heaven and releasing that heavenly reality, you bring peace into your earthly situation. If you’re struggling with sickness, remember that in heaven, there is no sickness. Speak from your heavenly place: “I am healthy. I am victorious. By His stripes, I am completely healed.” When you release words of faith, you’re bringing the reality of heaven into your circumstances.
For example, if you feel distant from the Lord, remember that heaven’s reality is that you are seated with Christ. Even if you feel distant due to busyness or distractions, you can instantly reconnect with the Lord. It doesn’t take hours—it takes a moment to snap back into intimacy with God.
We often give too much weight to our feelings, allowing our emotions to dictate our lives. But as a believer, you can dictate your emotions through your words. Just as a king rules by releasing words, you, seated with Christ on the throne, should not beg but release your words in confidence and faith.
Say with me: My victory is in my mouth. My victory is in my mouth. My healing is in my mouth. My deliverance is in my mouth. So stop speaking things that are contrary to your heavenly reality. If you keep talking more about your earthly reality, it will cloud your judgment and prevent you from seeing your heavenly reality.
Imagine this: if heaven is here and earth is here, your spirit is in heaven, while your body is on earth. Your mind, however, is where you choose to focus it. Just as you can imagine yourself in Times Square by closing your eyes, you can direct your mind to align with your heavenly position. If your spirit is in heaven and your body is on earth, it’s crucial to tame your mind to maintain your consciousness of heaven. If you keep speaking about what you see on earth, your mind will be consumed by earthly concerns. It’s vital to declare what you see in the heavenly realms.
Colossians 3:2 -“Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
It doesn’t say to set your spirit because your spirit is already in heaven. Setting your mind on things above involves training your awareness to focus on the heavenly realm. That’s why we pray—to shift our awareness from earthly to heavenly. When we close our eyes in prayer, we disconnect from the physical realm and connect to the spiritual realm. However, if you pray from an earthly perspective, your prayers might seem defeated. But when you close your eyes and become aware of your heavenly reality—where you are seated with God and blessed abundantly—you begin to see things differently.
Here’s a sample prayer: “Take a moment to disconnect from everything happening on earth. Become aware of your heavenly reality. I am connected with God. I am seated with Him. Every blessing is mine. God’s peace is for me.”
Now, with this heavenly awareness, look at your earthly problems. Whether you are facing sickness, financial trouble, or difficulties with your boss, from your heavenly perspective, declare what you pull from heaven:
- If you see sickness, say, “I have the health of Jesus. By His stripes, I am healed.”
- If you see chaos, say, “I have peace.”
- If you see challenges with authority, say, “I have the favor of God.”
Whatever you need can be pulled from the heavenly dimension into your earthly experience. So even as you start praying, the key to effective prayer is to become aware of your heavenly reality, where nothing is missing and nothing is broken. Do you know that you don’t need to do one more thing for God to look at you with delight? That is your heavenly reality. Build your awareness on that heavenly truth. Once you embrace this heavenly reality, you are seeing through the lenses of heaven. Now look at your problems and start speaking faith.
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