Receiving the word: The word is alive when it speaks to you

Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
Wait upon the word of God for your specific purpose or situation.

Let the Holy Spirit convict your spirit of the word that is specific to your Prayer needs and then you would not go wrong in your prayer life.
Prayer becomes effective when there is a conviction of the Spirit.

Knowledge of the word is the potential promises of God but when the potential becomes actual is totally the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
That is when it becomes applicable to your situation. The logos becomes Rhema word.

Note: When the word does not speak to you, it does not apply to you, it must jump out of the page and then you catch it. You live it out by faith and believe.
The Holy Spirit does all the leading and you need to be submissive to receive freely the length, width depth and breadth of the word of God.

Applying your knowledge of the logos word read into a situation is a scatter gun approach.
God is always specific and authoritative and every instruction will come with it's application.

(John 16:8; Ephesians 2:18; Acts 2:4: John 16: 13-15, 23-24: James 3: 17; Romans 8:15; Ephesians 6: 18; Galatians 4:26; Jude 1: 20,21; 1 John 2:27; Romans 8: 26-27; John 14:16)