While we probably universally agree that our nation is in dire need of revival, we often struggle with exactly how we should pray.     It seems historically the revivals recorded in the past few hundred years have been consistently preceded by periods of prevailing prayer.  

Jesus taught that we can ask anything in His name …….   And He will grant our requests.

John 14:13-14 (AMP)
¹³ And I will do [I Myself will grant] whatever you ask in My Name [as presenting all that I AM], so that the Father may be glorified and extolled in (through) the Son.
¹⁴ [Yes] I will grant [I Myself will do for you] whatever you shall ask in My Name [as presenting all that I AM].

John 16:23-24 (AMP)
²³ And when that time comes, you will ask nothing of Me [you will need to ask Me no questions]. I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, that My Father will grant you whatever you ask in My Name [as presenting all that I AM].
²⁴ Up to this time you have not asked a [single] thing in My Name [as presenting all that I AM]; but now ask and keep on asking and you will receive, so that your joy (gladness, delight) may be full and complete.

The primary condition for the positive answers to our petitions seems to be that we ask in His name.

God is constantly looking at our hearts.    His accurate view of our hearts is always much more significant in His eyes than the words of our mouths or even our actions.   Jesus when ask by His disciples to teach them how to pray, actually addressed their/our hearts. 

 Jesus instructed us to first address God as our Father.    This implies intimacy and dependency.   Then Jesus instructed us to hallow His Name.    The authentic hallowing of the Name of our Father requires a humble brokenness and submission of ourselves while we are lifting up His name to keep it holy.

Then Jesus instructed that once our hearts are likewise prepared we should then heartily hold first our heart concerns for those things that are of upmost in importance to our Father, namely the coming of His Kingdom, and the complete obedience to His will in our lives and in our world.    It seems clear that Jesus was instructing us to get and keep our hearts right as we pray.

While revival may seem to be particularly beneficial to counteract many of the horrendous abhorrent sinful patterns of our land, the reversal of these can easily be seen in our hearts as being beneficial to ourselves, our churches or our families.     A heart attitude that is blatantly or silently seeking self advantage or ease in not a suitable heart for achieving prevailing “in Jesus Name” prayer for revival.  

We must ask the Spirit of God to give us the eyes of heaven and the heart of our Father in order to accurately and effectively pray for His will to be done and His kingdom to come on earth, to our churches and to our communities.    We must ask not what revival will do for our nation, but rather what will revival do for His Name and His kingdom.   We must become considerably more concern about the building of His kingdom than the building of our churches or our reputations or even our nation.

We can pray for God to give us pure hearts.   We should pray for God to give us pure hearts that are pure from His perspective.  There may just be an equation in the hidden laws of heaven that is described as the more a heart is pure the more power and life will flow from its prayers.   Could this be related to what Jesus had in His mind when He instructed us to ask anything in His Name?