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Prayer unleashes God's
power so that he is able to work in our behalf. Prayer opens the
channels of God's blessing. Prayer is how God accomplishes the
things that he wants to see happen in our lives, and in the lives
of others. Prayer opens new doors of opportunity for God to move
in. Now, some
folks will say that there is a certain way to pray and others will
tell you that they have dialogue with The Master. I myself do it
both ways, I have what I call "formal" prayer time with
God, and then I have relationship prayers with God. The formal
prayers are the ones I have read in the Bible like the Our
Father.. but, just like any other kind of relationship you have
with anyone else, repeating the same words time and time again get
stale. I decided to talk to God the way I talk to a regular
friend, only better. I open my heart to Him during our
conversations, I speak to Him the way I do a friend...He IS a
friend, our BEST friend and the ONLY friend that will never let
you down. Prayer
unleashes God's power so that he is able to work in our behalf.
Prayer opens the channels of God's blessing. Prayer is how God
accomplishes the things that he wants to see happen in our lives.
Prayer opens new doors of opportunity for God to move. Since he
respects our freedom of choice and free will, prayer enables him
to step into our lives. God has limited his powers in our lives to
the importance that we place on prayer. Prayer gives God the
permission to do what he has been longing to do all the time. Even
when we do not see anything significant occurring, God is still at
work solving the problem. When there are apparently no answers,
God is still is waiting for the proper time to give us the
solution. He never fails us, ever. Here
are some ways you can go about talking to The Lord:
1--Bring
the problem to God's attention immediately. But
always keep the problem God centered and not problem
centered.
2--Supplication. The
definition of supplication is---a very honest and clear confession
that tells God that you need his help.
3--Then focus on God
and not on the problem. Keep in mind that our prayers are always
to be God centered.
4--Thanksgiving. You
are thankful because you know the following about our great and
mighty and glorious God.
- That you can come to the Father
with your problems anytime
- That he is concerned about you
- That he loves you
- That he said that he would help
you
- That he will see you through
this problem
- That he has the power to solve
this problem
- That you trust him 100%
God is just waiting for you to talk
to him, waiting just for those few brief moments when you
acknowledge him, think about him, and show him some love and
respect. Yes, your God is just waiting for you to talk to him and
he desperately wants to talk to you, not in words, but
through your mind and your heart. God is going to bypass
the vocal cords and the ear and instead your heart will feel that
gentle tugging, that urging, that pulling. Your heart and mind
will know exactly what God is trying to tell you.
**The
above information was found on a web site owned by Bob Wells
PRINCIPLES
IN PRAYER
1. Depend on the Holy Spirit.
In prayer, you should look to the
Holy Spirit to help you to pray effectively. He can give you the
right words with which you can pray effectively. Its very good to
ask the Holy Spirit to help you to pray. Talk to the Holy Spirit
as a person, and ask Him to help you to come to the Father in
Jesus' name.
Rather than rushing in to God's
presence and saying many things, it is good many times to quieten
your mind and wait in God's presence so you can feel God's heart
and pray the things that the Holy Spirit shows you to pray for. We
should realise that learning to listen to God is an important part
of prayer.
We are told to "pray always
with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit" (Ephesians
6:18). It is the Spirit who is to lead us in the kind of prayer we
offer to God. He gives us the power to pray.
Spend at least part of your time
seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). The
more filled you are with the Spirit, the more effective will be
your whole life with God.
2. Realise who you are in
Christ, and on what basis God will hear you.
We must pray to the Father in
Jesus' name, not our own name (John 16:24,26; Colossians 3:17)
This means that we are basing our approach to God on Jesus'
righteousness and goodness, not on our own. We receive His
righteousness when we repent, confess our sins and believe that we
receive His righteousness. We should know then that "we are
the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21) and we
can come directly to have an audience with God because of the
sacrifice of Jesus in our place. We come as children of God
(Galatians 3:26; John 1:12), as members of the royal family of God
(Revelation 1:6), and NOT AS BEGGARS or STRANGERS. Therefore when
we pray we should expect that God will grant results in response
to our prayer. (1 Peter 3:12)
3. It is good to begin your
prayer with thanksgiving and praise. "Enter into His
gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be
thankful to Him, and bless His name." (Psalm 100:4). Thank
God for answers to prayer, for your salvation. Tell Him how great
He is. It is good to use the Word of God to praise God. This is
not a form of flattery in order to get God to give you things, but
it is only fitting to thank Him and praise Him. Thanking God will
increase your faith. Praising God will also increase your faith,
since you will begin to fix your eyes on God, His goodness and
faithfulness and greatness and power, and not on your problem.
4. Worship God. Many
effective prayer-warriors recognise the importance of spending
much time in worship, even up to 80% of prayer time. This deepens
our fellowship with God, increases our faith and pleases the Holy
Spirit. We are then more likely to really hear His voice and thus
pray effectively.
5. Pray the Word.
God's will is to keep His promises
to us. In prayer the Word of God should be in our hearts and in
our mouths (Romans 10:8). In our prayers we should use the Word of
God and remind God of His promises to us. This builds our faith
and it also pleases God because it is an expression of our
confidence in His Word and His integrity.
For example, you can pray
"Father, in your Word you say that those who seek you will
not lack any good thing. I thank you that you will not lack
........... . I ask you for this in Jesus' name. Thank you for it.
Amen. " (Psalm 34:10).
6. Ask God for definite things
that you want (Psalm 37:4)
You should pray in such a way that
you will know afterwards what you prayed for and you will
recognise when the answer to your prayer is manifested. Don't pray
like this, "Lord, give me what you think is best. If you want
this, then so be it. If not, what pleases you. Your will be
done." These prayers may sound spiritual but they really
express uncertainty and doubt and cannot be answered by God in a
concrete way. How would you know if such a prayer was answered?
Imagine the answer and speak the
answer to your prayer based on the Word. This builds faith. Don't
keep speaking the problem. Constant speaking the problem magnifies
fear and doubt. It makes the problem look big. Fill your mind with
the solution from God's Word, not the problem.
7. Allow God to lead you to pray
for others in the church and their needs, national and local
situations, the government, the advance of the Kingdom of God, and
the growth of the church. God is looking for people who will stand
in the gap with Him in intercession for situations that are beyond
their own personal interests. Make God's interests your interests.
8. Thank God for the results of
prayer, both before and after you see the results.
(Philippians 4:6,7). Pray with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving
expresses your confidence that God has heard and answered your
prayer even before you see the result.
STEPS
FOLLOWING PRAYER
Usually Satan will try to suggest
to you that your prayers were not heard. He will encourage you to
look to the problems again and get your eyes off God. He will try
to get you to talk as if you are not sure if your prayer is
answered. If he succeeds in getting you to express doubt it is
likely that your mouth confession will cancel the effect of your
prayer. Therefore guard your mind and heart, resist the temptation
to talk negatively about the situations with others, especially
with those with whom you are praying.
Take firm control of your thought
life. Think on positive things (Philippians 4:6-9). By praising
God and confessing the relevant truths of the Word, cast down
every thought that is contrary to your prayer. These thoughts many
times are nothing but the suggestions of the devil, who is working
to negate our faith.
Keep speaking the what the Word
says on the issue at stake. "Let us hold fast the
confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is
faithful." (Hebrews 10:23; 2 Corinthians 4:13).
With your imagination, see your
prayers as answered. Abraham was encouraged by God to imagine
his descendants as the stars he saw in the sky, before there were
any descendants. So God will often give us a picture for us to
hold onto and encourage our faith. Speak nothing contrary to this
vision.
Act in line with your
faith and your confession(James
2:17). Prepare for the answer to be manifested. Examples of this
can be found in Mark 6:39-40, where Jesus organises the people,
preparing them to receive the blessing of the multiplied loaves
and fishes. Also in John 11:39, Jesus told them to take away the
stone from the tomb of dead Lazarus, a preparation for the answer
to the prayer for his being raised from the dead.
TYPES OF PRAYER
As mentioned before, there are
different forms of prayer. The Holy Spirit wants to lead us into a
balance of all these kinds of prayer.
Worship: [Heb. shachah {shaw-khaw'}
= bow down, prostrate oneself]. The true worshipper God seeks
worships in spirit and in truth. (John 4:23). God wants truth in
the inner parts (Psalm 51:6). In true worship, there is a total
bowing down of the heart to God. In worship we express love and
admiration to God which is a response to the revelation of who God
is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. Worship is voluntary
submission to the love, the will and the law of God. Any hypocrisy
disqualifies us for true worship. In worship we hear the voice of
God.
Confession: 1. In confession
of sin, we tell God with our mouth our sin. We should specifically
tell God what we did, or acknowledge what we failed to do that we
should have done. This is necessary to restore communion with God
and is a preparation for further fellowship. 2. In confession of
the Word, we tell God with our mouths what He has said in His
Word. We express faith and confidence in God and God's Word
verbally, and it releases the blessing of God to us. Very rarely
do we rise above the level of our verbal confession before God.
Thanksgiving: This is
thanking God for what He has done for us. We can thank Him both
for blessings seen and those as yet unseen. It is a key to faith
and it is natural and right that we give thanks always to the One
from whom all good things come. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
Praise: This is declaring
good things about God, both about his character (who he is) and
also His actions. To say "God is good" is to praise God.
There are many styles of praise. Some are noisy and exuberant,
others are calm. Praise is well-expressed through music, singing,
words, shouting, clapping, dancing, shouting and giving to God.
Petition: This is asking God
for the things we desire. Jesus said, "Ask and you shall
receive." (Matthew 7:7). We are commanded to ask.
Intercession: The ministry
of intercession involves all the other types of prayer. However,
the emphasis of the prayer ministry in intercession is the needs
of others, and the advancement of God's interests in the world. It
is not focussed on praying for things for oneself, but for others.
Waiting: (Habakkuk 2:1).
This is a form of prayer in which the soul is silent and waits for
God to move it or speak something by His Spirit. God promises to
renew the strength of those who wait on Him (Isaiah 40:31; Psalm
27:14). We are to wait patiently on God. Through this we express
to God in a practical way - not my will but Yours be done. If we
are always talking in prayer we will not be able to hear what God
is saying.
Warfare: (Psalm 149:6-9).
This is prayer directed against the powers of darkness. Our
praises to God are also a weapon directed against the powers of
darkness (demons, fallen angels who are at work in the affairs of
the world and the church). We pronounce against them the written
judgment by reading the Scriptures of judgment against them (Psalm
149:9), we command them to be bound or to leave their positions of
influence or authority in the name of Jesus. (Matthew 16:19; Mark
16:17). In "praying for the sick" we should pray prayers
of command ordering the bodies of people to be healed in Jesus'
name. This is a form of spiritual
warfare since it is part of destroying the works of the devil.
(1 John 3:8; Acts 10:38).
Praying in Tongues: (1
Corinthians 14: 2,15; Jude 20) This is a method of prayer
available to those baptised
in the Holy Spirit through which they can pray the will of God
through words given by the Spirit. Since the mind (the
understanding) is not directly involved the mind has a chance to
rest and wait on God and receive revelation while this praying in
tongues is taking place.
PRAYING THE
WORD
Since God's Word commands us to
give constant attention to the Word and to meditate on it night
and day, (Proverbs 4:20-22; Joshua 1:8), it is clear that our
praying should not be something separate from the Word, but
rather, that God's Word should direct our praying. For example,
Daniel found the promise of the time of deliverance for God's
people and prayed according to that. (Daniel 9:2). His prayer
acknowledged openly the truth of God's Word (Daniel 9:10-15). Many
other examples could be given. Elijah's prayer for the heavens to
be shut was based on the promise of God to do this if the people
turned away to idols.
Praying the Word in a strict sense
includes quoting it and using it in our prayers. God responds to
his own Word. It will not return to Him void (Isaiah 55:11). We
can take general promises from the Bible and using the words of
Scripture pray as if we expect God will fulfill them for us
personally. This is a powerful form of prayer.
DEDICATION
TO PRAYER
God says, "Continue earnestly
in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving."
(Colossians 4:2). "Men ought always to pray and not lose
heart." (Luke 18:1). "Pray without ceasing" (1
Thessalonians 5:17). "Watch therefore and pray always"
(Luke 21:36).
Prayer is where our dedication to
God is tested. This is where our destiny is really determined.
This is a command with constant application. Either we maintain
communion with God or we don't. Either we depend on God and wait
on Him or we don't. Either we allow ourselves to be led by Him or
we don't.
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