How to Pray Effectively and Get Results: 12 Keys to a Powerful Prayer Life
“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” — James 5:16 (KJV)
Every believer prays, but not every believer sees results. As a matter of facts, believers would be seeing much more results in their prayers if they knew how to pray for results. Some Christians pray for years and feel as though their prayers hit the ceiling and fall back down. Others pray and see doors open, chains break, sicknesses leave and situations change. What makes the difference?
The Bible shows that prayer is not a religious ritual or a last resort. It is the most powerful weapon God has placed in the hands of His children. The late Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel put it this way in his classic book Effective Prayer Life: “Prayer is the most important activity a born-again Christian can engage in.”
In this article, drawing from Scripture, from Effective Prayer Life, and from other trusted teaching, we’ll look at what prayer is and the 12 keys to praying effectively and getting results.
📥 Free Download: Effective Prayer Life by Chuck Smith is available as a free download in our Downloads section. Download Effective Prayer Life (PDF) here
What Is Prayer?
At its simplest, prayer is communication with God. It is the child talking with the Father, and the Father talking back. In Effective Prayer Life, Chuck Smith describes three basic forms of prayer:
Worship. This is the natural response of a heart that becomes aware of God’s greatness, nearness and love. It is adoration, praise and thanksgiving.
Petition. This is bringing your personal needs before God. Some people think it’s selfish to pray for yourself, but Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us day by day our daily bread” (Luke 11:3, KJV). God wants you to bring your needs to Him.
Intercession. This is praying for others: your family, friends, church, leaders, nation and the lost. Paul described his co-worker Epaphras as “always labouring fervently for you in prayers” (Colossians 4:12, KJV). Intercession is work. It is spiritual warfare.
Effective prayer includes all three.
Key 1: Come as a Child to Your Father, Through Jesus
Jesus began His model prayer with two powerful words: “Our Father” (Matthew 6:9, KJV). Effective prayer starts with relationship.
You have no right to an audience with God on your own merit. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6, KJV). Through Jesus, we are adopted into God’s family: “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15, KJV).
That’s why we pray in the Name of Jesus. Jesus said, “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:23–24, KJV).
Chuck Smith offers a memorable illustration. If he knocked on heaven’s door and said, “Father, it’s Chuck,” God might ask what right he had to come in. But when he says, “Father, I come in the Name of Jesus,” the door swings open. The Name of Jesus is your access. How to pray effectively and get results starts with coming through Jesus.
Key 2: Have the Right Concept of God
One of the biggest reasons prayers fail is that we pray to a small God. We get so overwhelmed by the size of the problem that we forget the size of the One we’re talking to. God is not small, He is not incapacitated. God does not become nervous at the size or urgency of a problem. So quite praying to God as if He is not the maker of Heaven and earth.
Chuck Smith writes: “Difficulty must always be measured by the capacity of the agent called upon to do the work.” When you pray, you are speaking to the Creator of heaven and earth. When the early church faced threats, they began their prayer this way: “Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is” (Acts 4:24, KJV).
Jeremiah prayed the same way: “Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee” (Jeremiah 32:17, KJV).
King Asa, facing a massive Ethiopian army, prayed: “LORD, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude” (2 Chronicles 14:11, KJV). Jonathan said to his armour-bearer, “There is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few” (1 Samuel 14:6, KJV), and two men routed an army.
As Smith puts it, the greater your concept of God, the smaller your problem seems. Before you describe the mountain to God, describe God to the mountain.
Key 3: Pray With Faith
“Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” — Mark 11:22–24 (KJV)
Faith is the currency of answered prayer. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6, KJV). READ Harnessing the Power of Faith to Transform Your Life
Faith comes from hearing God’s Word (Romans 10:17). So fill your heart with His promises before and during prayer. When you pray, believe you have received, and thank Him before you see the answer.
Key 4: Pray According to God’s Will and His Word
“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” — 1 John 5:14–15 (KJV)
How do you know God’s will? Through Prayer should be a dialogue, not a monologue. Tell God your needs, then turn to His Word and let Him speak to you. When you find His promise, come back and say, “Lord, here it is in Your Word. I claim it in the Name of Jesus.”
Jesus said, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7, KJV).
Great men of prayer in the Bible reminded God of His Word. When Jacob feared his brother Esau, he prayed, “O God of my father Abraham... the LORD which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee” (Genesis 32:9, KJV). Nehemiah prayed, “Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses” (Nehemiah 1:8, KJV). Praying the Word is praying God’s will.
Smith also reminds us that “Prayer doesn’t change the purpose of God, but prayer can change the action of God.” Your prayers open the door for God to do what He has always wanted to do in your life.
Key 5: Always Ask God for Divine Direction
Effective prayer is not just asking God for things. It is asking God for direction. As I explained in the article The Power of Divine Direction and How to Obtain It, God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), so seeking His guidance is always the wisest choice.
“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” — Proverbs 14:12 (KJV)
“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” — Proverbs 3:5–6 (KJV)
God guides us on which way to go, when to move, what to do and how to solve problems. When famine came, God told Isaac to stay in Gerar instead of going down to Egypt. “Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him” (Genesis 26:12, KJV). At Marah, when the water was bitter, Moses “cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet”
(Exodus 15:25, KJV). At Jericho, God gave Joshua a specific strategy that brought down the walls (Joshua 6:1–5).
As that article says, one instruction from God can change a pauper to a billionaire. So, in every prayer, ask:
“Lord, what do You want me to do?”
“Which way should I go?”
“What is the wisdom I need for this situation?”
God has promised to answer: “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3, KJV). “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5, KJV). “The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way” (Psalm 25:9, KJV).
Remember also that “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14, KJV). Divine direction belongs to God’s children. So to receive God's direction, you need to surrender your life to Jesus Christ and become born again. If you have never surrendered your life to Jesus or you did at some point but you have fallen away, the solution is simply. Pray the Salvation Prayer out loud and mean it from your heart. Jesus will accept you right away, and write your name in the book of life, and make you a brand new person.
Key 6: Pray in the Spirit
One of the most powerful keys to effective prayer is praying in the Spirit, including praying in tongues. There are times when we don’t know what to pray, but the Holy Spirit does:
“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” — Romans 8:26–27 (KJV)
When you pray in the Spirit, you pray according to the will of God, every time.
Spirit-to-Spirit Communication
In his article “Speaking in Tongues” for The Gospel Faith Messenger, Ross Monk describes tongues as spirit-to-spirit communication with God, a “direct line to heaven” that goes past the limits of our natural understanding. Scripture confirms this: “For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries” (1 Corinthians 14:2, KJV).
Monk also highlights that praying in tongues builds up the believer. Paul writes, “He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself” (1 Corinthians 14:4, KJV). Monk likens this to charging up a battery. Jude says the same: “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost” (Jude 1:20, KJV). His article also points to praying in tongues as a powerful tool for intercession and spiritual warfare, praying for needs we don’t know about in the natural, and breaking spiritual barriers.
Paul himself valued this greatly: “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all” (1 Corinthians 14:18, KJV).
Praying in Tongues for Divine Guidance
In his article “Leadership and Prayer 01: Praying with Information”, Benjamin Conway describes how Oral Roberts devoted much of his prayer time to praying in tongues. Roberts called it “the single most formidable force for obtaining divine guidance.” Conway explains that the more a believer prays in tongues, the more they come to understand what God is doing and what He wants.
Conway also points to Roberts’s practice of praying in tongues and then asking God for the interpretation, so that he understood what he had been praying. This follows Scripture: “Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret” (1 Corinthians 14:13, KJV), and, “I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also” (1 Corinthians 14:15, KJV). This connects directly with Key 5. Praying in the Spirit is one of the main ways God gives divine direction.
How to Begin
Receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4, KJV). If you haven’t yet received, ask: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13, KJV).
Pray in the Spirit regularly and at length. When facing a challenge or needing direction, set aside extended times of an hour or more to pray in tongues.
Pray with understanding too. Ask God to show you what you have been praying, and write down what He reveals.
Pray at all times. “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance” (Ephesians 6:18, KJV).
Key 7: Pray With Thanksgiving and Praise
Effective prayer is never only a list of requests. It is full of thanksgiving and praise.
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” — Philippians 4:6 (KJV)
“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.” — Colossians 4:2 (KJV)
“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” — Psalm 100:4 (KJV)
Chuck Smith notes that the Psalms are “as well-balanced with thanksgiving as with requests.” He also observes that it’s a shame to keep laying heavy problems on God without thanking Him for all He has already done.
Paul and Silas: Praise at Midnight
The story of Paul and Silas is one of the clearest pictures of the power of praise in prayer. In Philippi, they were attacked by a mob, stripped, beaten and thrown into prison:
“And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.” — Acts 16:23–24 (KJV)
They had every reason to complain. Their backs were bleeding, their feet were locked in stocks, and it was the middle of the night in the deepest part of the prison. But look at what they did:
“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.” — Acts 16:25–26 (KJV)
Their prayer and praise:
Shook the foundations of the prison.
Opened every door.
Loosed every chain, not just their own but every prisoner’s.
Brought salvation to the jailer, who cried, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” and then “believing in God with all his house” (Acts 16:30, 34, KJV).
Your midnight praise can shake the foundations of your situation, open closed doors and bring freedom to you and to others.
Thank God in Advance
As we shared in How Thanksgiving Produces Miracles and Breakthroughs, Jesus Himself thanked the Father before the miracle showed up. At the tomb of Lazarus, before Lazarus came out, Jesus prayed, “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me” (John 11:41, KJV). He gave thanks over seven loaves and a few fishes, and four thousand men, besides women and children, were fed, with seven baskets left over (Matthew 15:36–38). Of the ten lepers who were cleansed, only the one who returned to give thanks heard Jesus say, “Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole” (Luke 17:19, KJV). Thanksgiving brings wholeness to a miracle.
So thank God in advance for what He is yet to do. Keep a gratitude journal. Don’t look to man; look to God. And keep thanking Him until everything manifests.
Key 8: Be Specific
Chuck Smith writes that vague prayers such as “God, save the world” won’t even dent the enemy. Satan “yields only what and when he must,” so your prayers need to be specific.
Jabez prayed specifically: “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested” (1 Chronicles 4:10, KJV). When blind Bartimaeus cried out, Jesus asked him, “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” Bartimaeus answered, “Lord, that I might receive my sight” (Mark 10:51, KJV), and he received it immediately.
Name the person. Name the need. Name the promise you are standing on.
Key 9: Persist Until the Answer Comes
“And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” — Luke 18:1 (KJV)
Jesus taught persistence through the parable of the widow who kept coming to the unjust judge until he gave her justice (Luke 18:2–8), and through the parable of the man who kept knocking at midnight until his friend gave him bread (Luke 11:5–10). Elijah prayed seven times before the cloud appeared (1 Kings 18:43–44). Jesus prayed the same prayer three times in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39–44).
Chuck Smith retells the story of a gold miner who gave up and sold his mine for a few hundred dollars, only for the buyer to discover the vein of gold just three feet beyond where he had stopped digging. Smith asks: “I wonder how many times we, too, stop three feet short of victory.”
How long should you persist? Smith answers simply: until you get an answer. And once you begin to see victory, keep praying to hold the ground you’ve gained.
Key 10: Remove Every Hindrance
Some prayers are hindered, not because God won’t answer, but because something is blocking the connection. Scripture names several hindrances:
Unconfessed sin. “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1–2, KJV). “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18, KJV). Smith compares sin to cutting a telephone cord: you can talk all you want, but the message isn’t getting through. The solution is confession: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, KJV).
Unforgiveness. “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25, KJV).
Wrong motives. “Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:2–3, KJV).
Prayerlessness itself. Sometimes the problem is simply that we haven’t asked. Smith observes that when people pour out their troubles to him, he asks, “Have you prayed?” Often the answer is, “Well, no.” That’s where you start.
Key 11: Pray, Then Act
Prayer is never an excuse for laziness. Nehemiah is a powerful example. When his enemies plotted to attack Jerusalem, he wrote: “Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night” (Nehemiah 4:9, KJV). He prayed, and he posted guards. The builders worked with a trowel in one hand and a weapon in the other (Nehemiah 4:17), and the wall was finished in 52 days (Nehemiah 6:15).
Chuck Smith gives a practical example: if you need a job, don’t just sit at home and wait for the phone to ring. Pray, then go out and submit applications everywhere you can, trusting God to open the right door. As he writes, “Prayer will lead you into activity more often than it will lead you into inactivity.”
Key 12: Trust God’s Timing and His Answers
Sometimes God answers immediately. When Abraham’s servant prayed for a wife for Isaac, “it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out” (Genesis 24:15, KJV). God promises, “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24, KJV).
At other times, God delays the answer for a greater purpose. Hannah prayed for a son for years. Chuck Smith points out that her prayer was answered when she came into alignment with God’s purpose and vowed to give the child back to the Lord (1 Samuel 1:11). God gave her Samuel, one of the greatest prophets in Israel’s history. Sometimes God delays because He wants to give you more than you asked for.
And sometimes God says no, because He has a higher purpose. Paul asked three times for his thorn to be removed, and God answered, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9, KJV). Even Jesus prayed, “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42, KJV).
Trust Him. His timing is perfect, and His answers are always for your good.
Practical Tips for How to Pray Effectively and Get Results and Tips for Consistent Prayer Life
Chuck Smith offers simple, practical advice for overcoming prayerlessness:
Make time. “You’ll never find time to pray. You must make time.” Rise early if you need to. Jesus rose “a great while before day” to pray (Mark 1:35, KJV).
Find a quiet place. “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret” (Matthew 6:6, KJV).
Pray aloud. Smith found that speaking his prayers kept his mind from wandering.
Walk while you pray. If you tend to fall asleep, pray while walking around a room or outdoors.
Keep a notepad nearby. Write down distracting thoughts so you can deal with them later and stay focused.
Talk to God honestly. You don’t need a special “prayer voice.” Speak to Him as your closest friend, and then listen.
Pray about everything. “In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6, KJV). Nothing is too small for your Father.
A Prayer to Begin
Father, in the Name of Jesus, I thank You for the privilege of prayer. Forgive me for every time I have neglected it. Teach me to pray. Help me to see You as You truly are, the Creator of heaven and earth, for whom nothing is too hard. Fill me afresh with Your Holy Spirit and help me pray in the Spirit and with understanding. Direct my steps and show me the way I should go. Remove every hindrance from my life, and give me grace to persist in prayer until I see Your answers. I thank You in advance for the doors You will open and the chains You will break. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
📥 Go deeper: Download your free copy of Effective Prayer Life by Chuck Smith. Download it here
A Call to Surrender
Effective prayer begins with a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Only those who belong to Him can come boldly to the Father in the Name of Jesus. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12, KJV).
If you have never surrendered your life to Jesus, your first prayer can be the most important prayer you will ever pray. Pray the Salvation Prayer here and become a true child of God, with full access to the Father through Jesus.
If you prayed that prayer for the first time, we would love to hear from you. Email us at newlife@lovefaithandmiracles.com
Sources and Further Reading
Chuck Smith, Effective Prayer Life (free download)
Benjamin Conway, “Leadership and Prayer 01: Praying with Information”
Ross Monk, “Speaking in Tongues,” The Gospel Faith Messenger
Edikan Uko, “How Thanksgiving Produces Miracles and Breakthroughs”
Edikan Uko, “The Power of Divine Direction and How to Obtain It”
About the Author
Edikan Uko is the Editor of LoveFaithandMiracles.com, where she oversees a growing library of Bible-based articles, devotionals and resources that help people come to know Jesus and grow in Him. She is also a regular contributor to Rooted Daily: A Daily Devotional, which offers believers daily nourishment from God’s Word.
A Bible teacher and devoted servant of God, Edikan writes on faith, prayer, spiritual growth and practical Christian living. Her teaching is grounded in Scripture and applied to everyday life, helping believers move beyond head knowledge into a deeper, more intimate walk with Jesus.
Edikan is passionate about reaching the lost with the Gospel and helping people become committed disciples of Jesus Christ. She preaches, teaches and evangelises in person in her city, across her nation and around the world.
She also uses digital tools and platforms to carry the message of Christ to people wherever they are. Whether face to face or online, her desire is that people everywhere will encounter God’s love, surrender their lives to Jesus, and be equipped to follow Him faithfully. Her heart echoes the Great Commission: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20, KJV).
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