And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. (Ephesians 6:18)

We all know as followers of Jesus that we should be praying. Yet, many people struggle to have an active prayer life. Churches who recognize this often establish trainings and teachings to help people learn how to pray and how to build a prayer life.

1 Timothy 4:7 tells us to “train yourself to be godly.” But there are different kinds of praying that require different kinds of training. Not all praying is the same or has the same purpose so different trainings need to account for that. Below I outline at least four different kinds of prayer training that might be necessary in a church community.

1. Personal Prayer Training

Personal prayer training involves teaching people the importance of a personal prayer life in our relationship with Jesus. Spending regular, daily time communicating with God is a foundational essential in the Christian life. This kind of training often involves teaching people how to pray prayers of petition, how to get quiet before the Lord, how to hear the voice of the Lord, and how to engage in spiritual disciplines/practices. To use a military analogy, this is the equivalent of soldiers going into basic training. Every Christian needs this in their life.

2. Intercessory Prayer Training

If learning how to have a personal prayer life (listening and petitioning) is like basic training, then Intercessory Prayer Training is more like learning to drop bombs from an airplane or learning to launch artillery strikes with a howitzer. Intercession is often a calling and a gifting. It takes the same skills as a marathon runner – endurance, patience, consistency, and longevity. In charismatic circles, intercessory prayer is often associated with the concept of “travail.” This is when a burden to pray is placed on someone and they agonize in prayer over it (Romans 8:26-27). It is like being pregnant or in labor. They are in pain over the thing they pray for. And as they pray, they birth something new into the world. Intercessors are invaluable, and they are indispensable parts of the Body of Christ. Their prayers are often the foundation from which all other ministry flows.

3. Ministry Team Prayer Training (a.k.a. hands-on prayer or proximal prayer)

This kind of training prepares a person to pray for people in a ministry setting or on a Sunday morning. This most often includes laying hands on people and praying for some form of healing – physical, relational, emotional, or spiritual. In churches that invite people forward to receive prayer at the end of the service, the prayer team at the front needs this kind of training. This training is more specific in that it involves not only petitioning prayer, listening prayer and, at times, intercession, but it also involves command prayers. Prayer of Command requires the ministry team member to step into their Spirit-empowered and delegated authority of Christ.

Team members using prayer of command will often speak to the issue and command it to be resolved rather than just petitioning the Lord to fix the issue. This type of praying was modeled for us both by Jesus and the disciples (Mark 7:34-35; Luke 5:13; Mark 1:25; Acts 3:6; Acts 16:18). If personal prayer training is basic training and intercessory prayer training is like the Air Force or artillery, then ministry team prayer training prepares people to be on the front lines of combat operations. These aren’t the soldiers that man the supply lines, build the bases, or prepare the food in the mess hall. These are the frontlines soldiers who need to be ready to discharge their weapons and take ground for the Kingdom.

4. Inner Healing & Deliverance Prayer Training

This is the most difficult kind of praying and therefore requires the highest level of training and experience. Those who engage in this kind of training are like the Special Forces in the military. These are the Navy Seals and Delta Force. They must be able to operate in all forms of prayer, must be well acquainted with hearing the voice of the Lord and the promptings of the Spirit, and must carry a measure of power and authority as they pray. They must be well-equipped in the skills of deliverance prayer and well-grounded in their own identity in Christ. They must know scripture and the truth of who God says that we are. They must have both confidence and humility so that they neither fear the enemy nor are they enticed by him.

There may be other kinds of prayer training, but in my years of ministry experience and work as a pastor, these four are necessary trainings for the church to employ.

One final word of caution: these four trainings are not the same and should not be muddled together as if one kind of training can be substituted for another. Each of these kinds of prayer are unique and need a unique training to prepare people to engage in them. Assuming someone can be on a ministry team because they’ve had personal prayer training is a mistake. Assuming anyone who’s had ministry team training can do in-depth inner healing and deliverance ministry is a mistake. Churches should not attempt to find short-cuts here. People need to be properly equipped for their targeted “work of ministry, so that the body of Christ may be built up”(Ephesians 4:12).