One of the areas of “study” that I have a personal interest in is that of spiritual laws. And when I say “study” in quotes, its because it isn’t exactly something you can easily find books about (which is why I plan to write one at some point). Nevertheless, I do find that as I go, I tend to discover certain keys and principles that explain the underlying functions and influences that alter the world we live in. At the end of the day, we all want our prayers answered. In this case, I want to share something about prayer, and how we can make use of what I refer to as “framing” to work as a vehicle for answered prayer.

Revelation 5 and 8 shed some light on how framing in prayer works, so we are going to look at the verses and then I will break down how we can put this principle into practical use.

“And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people (Revelation 5:8).”

“Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake (Revelation 8:3-5).”

To summarize, these verses show us that in the spirit there are golden bowls that collect our prayers. Each bowl has a defined size, which we know because it is possible to fill the bowls. If something can be filled, then it has a quantity associated with it—which means prayer can in some way be quantified, which is its own discussion for another time. However, what this means for us here is that we can release a certain amount of prayer that will fill up a bowl, and the result of filling the bowl is that the answer to our prayers gets sent from heaven back to the earth.

If bowls get filled in response to our prayers, and we are the ones who get to decide what we are praying, then *we create new bowls based on our prayers*. It’s kind of profound, actually, that we have the ability to make spiritual containers in response to the things we pray, both individually and corporately, and that again opens up an entire other line of understanding about how we co-create with God, but I digress. Knowing that we have the ability to create containers to obtain answered prayer, we can make use of this fact to intentionally make new containers. The benefit of intentionally making a new container is that we can intelligently design the parameters for when and how that bowl gets filled.

Certain types of prayers, especially those that are to obtain or develop something new, are of particular benefit for this sort of task. I will give an example that I encourage the ministries I have been involved in to make use of, but this has applications for business, home life, and more.

Pretend that someone is starting a ministry, and they want that ministry to be prepared to grow into everything God has intended. We can assume there will at least be a president/founder/leader, and depending on the organizational structure, other subsequent positions. If a ministry wants to make intentional use of this framing strategy, they will develop job descriptions for all of the potential ministry positions, even if they don’t have a need for it or even room for it yet. For example, let’s say that one eventually wants to have a Prayer Director to lead intercession and prayer strategies and various intercessory positions, a ministry school with a School Director and instructors, a Worship Director with worship leaders, a Chief Administrator, Financial Officer, and more, then one should begin by writing out a job description and qualifications for each of these positions. By doing so, it creates definition.

So much of answered prayer is relative to our intentions toward what we are praying about. If the leaders of a ministry set out a bunch of definitions for positions in advance, even before the need is fully there, this accomplishes a few things, both practical in the natural and functional in the spirit. In the natural, it helps the leadership get an idea of the type of person they are looking for to fill the position, which means that when that person shows up, they will be likely to notice (more about how this works with the Reticular Activating System works here). In the spirit, however, this definition influences the conditions for when and how the prayer bowl gets filled, and as a result how the position gets filled.

By “when and how”, what I mean is that by defining what a particular position should look like, and the characteristics needed of the person filling it, the prayer bowl that gets created will work to answer prayers toward filling that position using that definition. In other words, let’s say that we need a Prayer Director who has leadership qualities for leading prayer teams, administrative qualities for keeping prayer needs-lists updated and other related organization-relevant stuff done in an organized and timely manner, sensitive spiritual perception to be able to tune into the ministry’s needs, and also high levels of faith, power, and authority in the spirit to accomplish much in prayer. If one does not pre-define what they are looking for, then they will end up with someone in that position, but that person may or may not have all the skills needed for the job. On the other hand, by defining all of those as needs under the Prayer Director position in advance, when praying for God to send a Prayer Director, what one is then praying for is for God to provide someone that checks all of those boxes. When the prayer bowl gets filled, the end result is going to be a person coming alongside the ministry who can meet all of those needs.

While not every situation needs definition, there are some things that definitely do. If you are a business owner and want to grow your business, define the areas of growth in as much or little detail as you like, recognizing that the level of detail you give will influence how your prayers get answered. If you are looking for a new home, or a vehicle to buy, or anything else at all that involves “new” or “change”, then framing up your needs in advance will design a prayer bowl to more specifically fit the needs you have anticipated. As far as what it takes to fill a prayer bowl, and how we can use spiritual laws and principles to accelerate that process, we’ll have to take a look at that in another article.