You must cry out to God in prayer

God promises us He would listen to us and meet us when we call upon Him and come and pray to Him and seek Him with all our heart (Jeremiah 29:12-13; Proverbs 8:17). In Jeremiah 33:3 He also promises us, “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” The reason God tells us to cry out to Him in prayer is because when we cry out to Him in prayer in loud voice, we will be able to pray with all our heart. In other words, when we cry out in prayer, we will be severed from worldly thoughts, fatigue, and drowsiness and our own thoughts will find no place in our mind.

Yet, many churches today believe and teach their congregations that being quiet inside the sanctuaries is “godly” and “holy.” When some brethren cry out to God in a loud voice, the rest of the congregation are quick to think they are improper and even condemn such people to be heretic. This, however, has been caused without knowing God’s Word and His will.

Early churches, which witnessed great manifestations of God’s power and revival, could please God in the fullness of the Holy Spirit as they lifted their voices to God with one accord (Acts 4:24). Even today, we can see how countless miraculous signs and wonders are displayed and how they experience great revival at churches that cry out to God in a loud voice and follow and live by God’s will.

“Crying out to God” refers to praying to God with an earnest prayer and in a raised voice. Through such prayer, brothers and sisters in Christ can become full of the Holy Spirit and, as the interfering forces of the enemy devil are driven away, they can receive answers to their prayer and spiritual gifts.

In the Bible are countless records of instances in which Jesus and many forefathers of faith cried out to God in a raised voice and received His answers.

Let us examine a few examples in the Old Testament.

In Exodus 15:22-25 is a scene in which the Israelites, after leaving Egypt much earlier, have just safely crossed the Red Sea on foot after Moses’ faith parted it. For Israelites’ faith was small, however, they grumbled against Moses when they could not find anything to drink as they crossed the Desert of Shur. When Moses “cried out” to God, the bitter water of Marah turned sweet.

In Numbers 12 is a scene in which Moses’ sister Miriam became leprous after she talked against him. When Moses cried out to God, saying, “O God, heal her, I pray!” God healed Miriam of her leprosy.

In 1 Samuel 7:9 we read, “Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it for a whole burnt offering to the LORD; and Samuel cried to the LORD for Israel and the LORD answered him.”

1 Kings 17 is a story of a Zarephath widow who showed Elijah the servant of God hospitality. When her son became ill and died, Elijah called to God and said, “O LORD my God, I pray You, let this child’s life return to him.” God heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and he revived (1 Kings 17:21-22). When God heard Elijah’s cry, we find that God answered the prophet’s prayer.

Jonah, who had been swallowed by and confined inside a great fish because of his disobedience to God, also received salvation as he cried out to God in prayer. In Jonah 2:2 we find that when he prayed, “I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice.” God heard his cry and saved him. No matter how a situation in which we find ourselves may be as dire and distressing as that of Jonah, God will give us the desires of our heart, answer us, and give us solutions to problems when we repent of our wrongdoings in His eyes and cry out to Him.

The New Testament is also filled with scenes in which people cried out to God.

In John 11:43-44, we find that Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth,” and the man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. It would have been no difference to the dead Lazarus whether Jesus called out in a loud voice or whispered to him. Yet, Jesus was calling out to God in a loud voice. Jesus brought Lazarus, whose body had been in the tomb for 4 days, back to life by His prayer according to God’s will and displayed God’s glory.

Some people may retort, basing their claims on Matthew 6:6-8, and ask, “Do we have to cry out to God when He already knows what we need before we even ask?” or “Why cry out when Jesus said to pray in secret in my room with the door closed?” Yet, nowhere in the Bible will you find passages referring to people’s praying in secret in the comfort of their rooms.

The true meaning of Matthew 6:6-8 is urging us to pray with all our heart. Enter your inner room and close the door behind you. If you were in a room that was private and quiet with the door closed, will you not be cut off from all outside contacts? Just as we will be cut off from all outside access in our own rooms with the door closed, Jesus in Matthew 6:6-8 is telling us to cut ourselves off all of our thoughts, worldly thoughts, worries, anxieties, and the like, and pray with all our heart.

Furthermore, Jesus told this story as a lesson for people to know that God does not listen to the prayer of the Pharisees and priests, who during Jesus’ time prayed in a loud voice to be commended and seen by others. We ought not to become proud of the quantity of our prayer. Instead, we must wrestle in our prayer with all our heart to Him who searches our hearts and minds, to the Almighty who knows all our needs and wants, and the One who is our “all in all.”

It is difficult to pray with all our heart through silent prayer. Try praying by meditation with your eyes closed at nighttime. You will soon discover yourself struggling against fatigue and worldly thoughts, instead of praying. When you grow weary from fending off sleep, you will fall asleep before you know it.

Instead of praying in the stillness of a quiet room, “He [Jesus] went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God”(Luke 6:12) and “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there”(Mark 1:35). In his roof chamber, Prophet Daniel had windows open toward Jerusalem, and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God (Daniel 6:10).

Peter went up on the roof to pray (Acts 10:9), and the apostle Paul went outside the gate to a riverside, where he was supposing that there would be a place of prayer and prayed at the place of prayer while he was staying in Philippi(Acts 16:13; 16). These people designated specific places to pray because they wanted to pray with all their heart.

You must pray in a way that your prayer can penetrate the forces of the enemy devil the ruler of the kingdom of the air and be delivered to the throne above. Only then will you be filled with the Holy Spirit, have your temptations be driven away, and receive answers to all your problems big and small.

Pastor Emeritus Dr. Jaerock Lee

Senior Pastor Dr. Soojin Lee of Manmin Central Church