We have already defined prayer as a two-way deep and intimate relationship with God, where there is effective two-way communication -- e.g., you talk to Him and He talks to you. We also took a look at a few aspects of intercession, which included petitioning for others in our role as a high priest, standing in the gap on behalf of another, and coming into agreement with God's will for a person, group or event.
With all that in mind, how do we pray effectively? How do we build that intimacy with God in our personal prayer? And what about corporate prayer? How do we pray effectively together?
I would like to begin to explore those questions by presenting two different prayer models to you. One is a model for personal prayer and the other is a model for corporate prayer, or praying together with others. We will spend the next two lessons looking at the personal prayer model and then spend the following lesson on corporate prayer.
Please understand that there are many excellent models for prayer. I am only sharing one personal prayer model and one corporate prayer model with you. This is not to say that they are better than the other models or should be used to the exclusion of all other models. My intent is to give you a model that works well, so that you can begin to experiment with it if you don't already have a different model that you prefer to use.
A PERSONAL PRAYER/INTERCESSION MODEL
This model is built on the concept that prayer is a two way relationship with God. It understands that we can (and often do) come to God with prayer agendas, but there will be times where God decides to supercede our prayer agenda with His own agenda. These concepts are built into this prayer model. It is meant to be flexible. It is a tool you build and launch from, not a rigid set of rules to hold you back or to grind you into a routine.
There are six basic steps to this model. They do not necessarily have to be done in the order presented here.
Step 1 - Praise And Worship
The purpose is to remind yourself of what God has done for you and then to thank Him for it. Think about Who you are praying to. Think about the good things He has done for you and be grateful. Remember past answers to prayers and thank Him for what He's done. Let your mind dwell on times where He has been good to you, where He has come through for you, where He has brought His glory into seemingly impossible situations.
There are lots of wonderful praise and worship prayers in the Bible. You might want to rephrase and personalize some of them as a worship for God. For instance, I have personalized one of Paul's prayers from 1 Cor. 1:4-9. "Thank You Lord for the grace that You gave me by Christ Jesus. I have been enriched in everything by Him, in all utterance and all knowledge, even as His testimony was confirmed in me. I don't lack or come short in any gift because you have given me all I need. And I eagerly await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm me to the end, that I may be blameless in the day when I stand before my Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, you are faithful. And I have been brought into fellowship with you because of what Jesus Christ did for me. Thank You for all You have done for me!"
If that particular prayer doesn't work for you, then you might want to select some worship passages from scripture that do work for you. You don't have to read them each time you pray, but it is helpful read worship passages from God's word from time to time.
During this portion of prayer time, you may find worship music helpful. You might want to strum a guitar, put on worship tape or read sections of Scripture to remind yourself of God's goodness, His faithfulness and His wonderful promises to us. Some people may want to dance before the Lord as a part of their worship, and that is fine. Worship can be loud praise and celebration, even with shouting and clapping. It can also be very quiet, such as deep intimacy songs. Or it can even be things like taking popular songs and making up Christian words to sing to them, sort of like Whoopi Goldberg did in the movie "Sister Act."
You don't have to use music to worship effectively. At times I like to get very quiet and still before the Lord and sort of mentally review various experiences I have had with Him and various things He has done for me.
There is not a right way or a wrong way to worship. What works best for one person may not work for another. So, if you use music during the worship portion of your prayer, please try to select music that works for you, music that helps you enter into God's presence, to become mindful of Him.
There is a sample worship prayer:
"I pray to My Lord Jesus Christ, who died for my sins on Calvary and rose from the dead, defeating Satan and death. Thank you for loving me and forgiving me and thank You for giving eternal life to me. I also pray to God my Father Who loves me and I thank You for adopting me as Your own child. I also pray to the Holy Spirit Who empowered the early Church at Pentecost and now lives inside of me. Thank you for leading and guiding and teaching me every day."
Step 2 - Invite God to lead your prayer time
It is actually very Scriptural to do that. Ps 31:3 tells us, "For You are my rock an my fortress; therefore, for Your name's sake, lead me and guide me." Ps 25:12 days, "Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses." And Ps 37:23, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way."
God delights to lead and guide us in prayer. He wants to be deeply involved with us in the process. So invite the Holy Spirit to be present in your prayer time. Ask Him to lead and guide you as you pray. Give God permission to supercede your agenda and change the "syllabus" if He wants to. Ask Him to guard your mind during prayer; that He keep out things He does not want you praying about (or put a check in your spirit) and that He also brings up everything He wants to cover.
In short, invite God's leading and God's presence in your prayer time. Along with that, take authority over enemy interference during the prayer time. (If you are feeling particularly laden with guilt/condemnation, you may want to do step 3 before you do this authority prayer. Otherwise, it is good to do this prayer before you examine your heart with God. It does not have to be drawn out or fancy, and the precise words are not important. But you want to take authority over the enemy and forbid him to interfere in the prayer time. Here is a sample prayer:
In Jesus' name, through His power and authority, I forbid any enemy spirits to be involved in this prayer time. I take authority over this room and I command any spirits that do not willingly bow their knee to the Lord Jesus Christ to leave, right now. I forbid confusion or fear or condemnation to any other spirit to become involved in this prayer time.Lord Jesus, I turn this prayer time over to you and I ask you to please lead it. Do not allow anything to happen here that is not lead of Your Spirit. Holy Spirit, please lead and guide me. Make me sensitive to Your will.. able to hear Your voice. Please alert me if I inadvertently wander into any area You do not want me to cover and please remind me of all that You do want to do here today.
I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
We are exploring a 6 step model for personal intercession. We looked at the first two steps in great detail in our last lesson. Let me review them briefly for you here, as a reminder.
Step 1 was to have a time of praise and worship, were we remind ourselves of Who God is and of what He has already done for us. Then we feel and express gratitude and worship to Him for this. Many people find it helpful to use some form of music during worship. Some like to dance before God as an expression of worship. Some like to read worship passages from the Bible. Some like to meditate quietly before the Lord as they worship Him. There is no right or wrong way to worship God, providing your heart and mind are dwelling on Him and seeing some aspect of Who He is and responding to Him.
Step 2 was to invite God to lead your prayer time, and to take authority of the enemy to keep him from interfering with it.
Now let's move on to the remaining four steps.
Step 3 - Assure You Are Right With God
Invite the Lord to show you anything in your life that displeases Him. Ask God to show you anything in your life that separates you from Him. Then immediately deal with anything He brings up by confessing and repenting and asking for forgiveness. Allow God to wash you in the blood of Jesus and make you holy. Repentance is useless if we don't receive the forgiveness that Jesus has already purchased for us on Calvary.
It is a very good idea to examine your heart with God. James 4:8-10 says, "8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up."
The area that comes up the most often for most people is the area of forgiving those who wrong us. It is very important to forgive; in fact, it is crucial. Unforgiveness is the area that most often hinders our prayers. God considers unforgiveness a sin, and it must be dealt with before you can pray effectively. If you find it too hard to forgive someone, discuss it with God and ask Him to help you.
Look what Jesus said about forgiveness in Mark 11:25. He tied our ability to approach God in prayer to forgiving those who we have ought against. He said, "And if you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone." That is a pretty clear-cut command, isn't it?
In fact, Jesus made an even stronger statement about forgiveness in Matt 6:14-15, "14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
Suffice it to say that you cannot harbor unforgiveness and bitterness in your heart and enter into effective prayer. God is not going to listen to your prayers unless you have released bitterness and unforgiveness. The good news is that He will help you to truly forgive if you ask Him to. He will empower you to do it.
Step 4 - Invite God To Change Your Nature To Be More Like Him
This is my favorite step.
We want a relationship with God where we do not grieve the Holy Spirit. But there is a fundamental problem that gets in the way of that goal. We have a sinful nature that makes it very easy for us to grieve Him. Our fallen natures makes us want things that He doesn't want. It makes us like things that He doesn't like and think in ways that are contrary to His nature. We want our desires to line up with God's, so that we will naturally please Him. But how do we make this transition from the wrong desires to the right ones? How do we transition from wrong thinking patters to right ones?
One way to move in that direction is to ask God to change your nature and make your more like Christ. Invite Him to change your desires to line up with what He wants to do in your life.
I prayed that type of prayer every day for a few years. I did not realize it while I was in process, but God began transforming me daily as I prayed. The changes were a little here and a little there. The things I enjoyed doing changed over time, and the things I disliked changed as well. Then one day He used a friend to call the change to my attention. My friend said to me, "You're not any fun any more. All you ever want to do is God-stuff." That incident caused me to back up and see how much He had transformed me, and I was amazed.
I would like to give you a sample prayer along these lines, because when you regularly and persistently ask God to transform you, He does. The exact words of the prayer are not important. What matters is the heart and attitude behind the prayer. Here is the prayer I prayed:
Lord, please transform me and make me like You. If I could change myself and present myself to You perfect, I would -- but I can't. So I am asking You to please change me.Please change the very desires of my heart to line up with the desires of Your heart. Make me want the things You want. Let the things that are important to You become important to me. Let me love what You love and hate what You hate. Make me to distain the things You distain.
Please change my personal ambitions and even the motives of my heart to line up with Your motives and with Your plans and purpose and call on my life. I want to be like You. I want to desire what You desire and I want to want what You want. Change me Lord, transform me. Teach me to look at things from Your perspective, to see things Your way. Give me ears to hear Your voice and a heart to obey You.
Amen.
There are a lot of Scriptural references for this type of prayer. Let me share a couple of them with you. Ps 40:8 says, "I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart." Ps 51:10-12 says, "10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit."
Ezek 36:26-27 shows us God's desire to answer that type of prayer. He says, "26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My judgments and do them."
Step 5 - Prayer Time Topics
Having done all that preparation, give God control of the prayer time and trust Him to lead you, as per John 16:13-15. "13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you."
Here are some of the things He might want to do in prayer time:
- Intimacy (no petition or requests)
- Deal with areas of your life that He wants control of
- Heal past hurts or help you to forgive someone
- Review your day with you
- Have you intercede for someone else
- Share your delights with Him
- Have you tell Him about weakness or fears and turn them over to Him
- Make plans with Him: little ones (planning your day) or Big life-impacting ones
We need go give God free reign to visit and change any area of our lives, as per 2 Thes. 3:5, " Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ."
Pray your agenda if God did not supercede it. Most of the time He will allow you to prayer your prayer agenda, He does not always supercede it. While praying, if you notice that the dimension of His life and power is not there ... or if you notice that the divine intensity or unction is missing, stop and ask God to examine what you are doing with you. Invite Him to redirect you if you've wandered outside of what He is doing. Tell Him you desire to be led of His spirit as you prayer. Then go back to prayer, trusting He will direct you.
Step 6 - Ending Your Prayer Time
Remember that "Amen" is not "The End." Thank God for what He's done. Ask Him to keep you close to Him during the day. Invite Him to call on you anytime during the day for whatever He wants. Drop into prayer frequently throughout the day, even if only briefly. Remember you're building a relationship with Him. So spend time with Him and abide in Him throughout the day.
John 14:23, "Jesus answered and said to him, 'if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."
Ps 37:3-6, "3 Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. 6 He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday."
So abide in the Lord throughout the day, and delight yourself in Him.
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