Some time ago, a man from our church was talking to me about his prayer life. "Sister Hammond," he said, "I'm concerned about myself. My prayers are very cold and shallow. They're so superficial, I'm actually embarrassed when I lift them to the Lord!"

I knew exactly what he meant. I've felt the same way myself - many, many times.

If you've prayed at all, you probably have too.

There have been times in years past, for example, when I prayed with someone who had a deep, burning desire for people to be saved. That person would be weeping and praying with great intensity and passion. But I'd be sitting there, seemingly as cold as could be, praying, "Yeah, Lord. Bless the world. Just bless 'em Lord."

Someone might say, "Well, that person just prays more intensely because they're more emotional. Their personality is more passionate."

But that's not true. That person prays more intensely because they have a more fervent desire for their prayer to be answered. They so yearn for people to be saved that their prayer comes forth with the very power and passion of God Himself.

If you'll look in the Bible, you'll find such fervent prayer has a special name. It is called supplication. And if we are to reach our destiny as believers...if we are to see the power of God come as a flood and sweep millions into the kingdom of God before Jesus comes, we must learn more about this kind of prayer. As Ephesians 6:18 says, we must be "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit."

Exactly what is supplication?

If you read all the Greek lexicons, concordances and definitions of the word, you'll find that at its very heart, it means an earnest entreaty. It is a request - but not a casual one. On the contrary, a supplication is a request that is so heartfelt, so fervent and intense that the one making the request cannot be satisfied until it is granted.

In Psalm 27, David is making this kind of request when he says: "One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek, inquire for, and [insistently] require: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life, to behold and gaze upon the beauty [the sweet attractiveness and the delightful loveliness] of the Lord and to meditate, consider, and inquire in His temple.... Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; have mercy and be gracious to me and answer me! You have said, Seek My face.... My heart says to You, Your face (Your presence), Lord, will I seek, inquire for, and require" (v. 4, 7-8, AMP).

You can see that David is not just praying a casual prayer here. He is crying out to the Lord. He is desperate for His presence in his life.

How Desperate Are You?
Read 1 Samuel 1 and you'll see that same kind of desperation in Hannah when she asked God to take away her barrenness and give her a child. Verse 10 says:

...She was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.... And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord that [the priest] Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord (vv. 10-15).

The fact is, it had always been God's will for Hannah to have a child. He'd made a promise that none would be barren in the nation of Israel (Ex. 23:26). Yet she was not able to lay hold of God's will for her until she became desperate. She was not able to have a baby until she could no longer bear her childless condition.

It was only when that white-hot fervency arose within her and she poured out her heart before the Lord that her answer came. When she prayed the prayer of supplication, the Lord gave her the child she asked for and five more besides!

Of course, many things don't require such earnest supplication. Often all we must do is mention something in faith to the Lord and we know it is granted us.

But there are other things that will only come to us when we're as desperately earnest as Hannah was. The full outpouring of God's Spirit in our churches and our lives is one of those things.

Speaking of the last-days outpouring of the Spirit, Zechariah 10:1 says, "Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain...." Although our translations don't reflect it, the word ask used there indicates a fervent request, a heartfelt supplication. We need to be fervent when we pray for the rain of revival to fall on this earth. For it is only in response to such fervency such rain is given.

We need a fervent desire for souls to be won to the kingdom of God. We need to be desperate for miracles and healings, for the signs and wonders God promised would be seen in this last day. We need to have such passion in our hearts to reach our destiny as believers that we cry out to God and refuse to be satisfied with anything less than His perfect will!

You may not have that kind of passion right now. You may be like the man I referred to earlier who was embarrassed because his prayers were so cold and shallow. If so, don't be discouraged. There is hope and help in the Holy Ghost for you!

Cultivate Your Desire
You see, fervency can be cultivated. You can stir it up on the inside of you.

Maybe today you only have a slight desire to see the Holy Spirit poured out on your church. Maybe you only have a small hunger for revival to hit your congregation. But if you'll cultivate that desire, it will increase.

Supplication is like gardening. You start with just a tiny seed. It doesn't seem like much. But if you'll plant it, water it and care for it, it will grow.

As I said before, initially the thought or desire He gives us may seem small and weak, but if we will return it to Him in prayer, that desire will prosper and accomplish God's purpose in us. It will grow stronger and stronger until it becomes a requirement, an absolute necessity in your life. And that's when you bring forth the kind of fervent supplication necessary to get the job done!

Unfortunately, many believers never reach that point because they don't know what to do with that first, small desire. They don't know it's from God so they don't pray about it.

Instead, they think about it. Or they talk to other people about it. Or they may even shrug it off and do nothing with it at all! As a result, many of God's desires and plans have been thwarted and many blessings have been missed.

God Is Waiting for Us to Ask
Someone might say, "Well, I just don't understand that! God has plenty of power to carry out His desires so why does He wait on us to do something? Why doesn't He just do what He wants?"

Because He doesn't do anything on this earth without involving men. From the beginning, God set a system in place in which man asks and God answers - and He never overrides that system.

One of the most interesting examples of that truth is the story in Mark chapter 10 about blind Bartimaeus. He was sitting along the roadside when Jesus was passing by.

And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, saying, Jesus, Son of David, have pity and mercy on me [now!]...And Jesus stopped and said, Call him. And they called the blind man, telling him, Take courage! Get up! He is calling you. And throwing off his outer garment, he leaped up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, What do you want Me to do for you? (vv. 47-51).

If you'll think for a moment about the question Jesus asked Bartimaeus, you'll have to admit it sounds rather silly. After all, everybody there knew Bartimaeus was blind. You could tell that simply by looking at his eyes. What's more, the cloak he threw off was the yellow cloak worn only by the blind in that day.

Why then would Jesus ask, "What do you want me to do for you?" Couldn't He see plainly what Bartimaeus needed?

Certainly He could...but God doesn't do things just because they are needed. He does them because we ask.

So many things are desperately needed today. There are people who need to fulfill the call of God on their lives. There are dry, barren churches that need the rain of the Holy Spirit to fall on them in abundance. There are multitudes of lost souls, each one so dear and precious to God, that are hurdling toward hell with no one to stop them.

God longs to meet all of these needs. He yearns to lift His people into the places of ministry to which they've been called. He longs to pour out His Spirit like a flood upon this thirsty ground. His burning desire is to send the Gospel, to work signs and wonders and miracles, so people can be saved by the millions. He yearns to gather those lost souls to His heart and make them part of His eternal family.

But He is waiting for us to ask. He is waiting for us to supplicate, to pray fervent prayers. To pray prayers white-hot and laden with intense desire. He is waiting for us to pray prayers He can answer.

We can pray those kinds of prayers. If we will look to Him, the Holy Spirit who is living inside us will help us supplicate. He is called the "spirit of grace and supplication" (Zech. 12:10) and He is always ready to assist us.

So ask Him for help. Then be faithful to respond to the slightest nudge He gives. Cultivate even the small desires He drops in your heart. Let them grow inside you until, like Hannah, you pour out your soul in supplication to the Lord. If you will do it, you too will give birth to something wonderful. You too will bring forth God's eternal plans.