Pray about everything

The apostle Paul urges us to pray about everything.

In one of my favourite Bible passages, he says in Philippians 4:6:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but, in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

I was reminded of this by something our pastor said yesterday.

He said he was going through a time of discouragement when he decided to take his son's bike for a ride in the fields of his farm.  On the way, he lost a bike pedal.

He felt badly and prayed about it.  As he went back to search for it, he looked down and saw the pedal in the fields.

For him, it was a sign that God cared for him and was with him.  It was a shaft of light in a dark time.

Mark Batterson, author of a really fine book on prayer Draw the Circle, puts it better than I can: "Prayer is the difference between the best we can do and the best God can do."

Batterson gives an example of someone who prays constantly in everything he does.

His friend, Ross Hill, is the founder and chief executive officer of Bank2, a community-owned bank in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in the U.S.

Batterson says: "Ross defines business as mission.  And he's great at both."

The bank leaders anointed the doors of Bank2 with oil when it opened, praying for everyone who would walk in and out of them.  Board meetings begin with prayer; there is prayer when the bank recruits new employees; and Ross frequently prays for employees and customers in his office.

Bank2 took a big hit in the 2008 recession, but Ross says "we prayed through it".  The following year Bank2 was named the number 1 community bank in the U.S. by a leading American bank journal.  And in 2011 the bank was the number 7 mortgage operation in the country.

"Prayer is the difference between appointments and divine appointments," Batterson writes.  "Prayer is the difference between good ideas and God-ideas."

In the end, we must do as Paul did - take our anxieties to God and pray, looking for God's ways in the midst of our troubles.  His ways are always best.

Prayer and the presence of God

When the people of God pray together, God makes his presence felt.

There are a number of examples in the Bible - some of them quite spectacular.  For example, the glory of God filled the temple when Solomon dedicated the building in 1 Chronicles 7.  The temple was packed with worshipers as Solomon made promises to the Lord on behalf of the people and God responded.

And there are similar stories today.

Cheryl Sacks, author of The Prayer-saturated Church, writes:

"The greatest distinguishing characteristic of a house of prayer is the tangible presence of God.  As we draw near to him, he draws near to us.  We can sense and feel his presence."

I have read similar comments by Daniel Henderson when he was describing Arcade Church, the church he pastored in Sacramento, California years ago. 

In his book Fresh Encounters, he says visitors to his church often said to him: "The presence of God is in this place."  That, he says, meant more to him than any compliment about his sermons or the worship service or anything else in the church program.

Henderson, a key figure in the prayer movement in the United States, has written several books about the power and wonder of people praying together in worship and praise of God.

He and Sacks and a growing number of church leaders are calling on people in the Western world to return to praying together so that churches are truly "houses of prayer".  Jesus used that term to describe what the house of God should be - a house of prayer.

But group prayer is still low on the totem pole of priorities in modern church life.  And I would argue that lack of praying together yields bitter fruit - declining attendance, church infighting, broken marriages, acceptance of sin.

When we pray together, our faith grows and we join together in resisting the attacks of Satan on the body of believers.

Sacks suggests several ways praying together can help clear the way for God to make his presence felt in our churches.  Here are some:

• As we pray together, God will reveal areas of sin which need to be dealt with - and we must act on these revelations;
• Any major effort to evangelize should be covered in prayer.  Prayer is a weapon to clear the way for the Holy Spirit and a shield against Satan's attacks;
• It is often important to concentrate our prayer efforts on a single target.  We can seek God through prayer and fasting and then focus our prayers on what he is asking us to do as a church; and
• Church leaders should pray together to determine how Satan is trying to disrupt what we are doing for the kingdom of God.  Then, we can pray fervently together, renouncing any efforts by the evil one to foil God's work and praising God for Jesus' victory.

Taking these steps, we can come together as believers and draw close to the Lord.  And he will make his presence felt.

Finding God in pain

Like Elijah, I find that trouble, pain, and temptation sometimes drown out God in my mind and heart.

In a sense, I run away from God.

But God can't be driven away.  He is in me.

And, in the end, he speaks to me. 

For Elijah, we read in 1 Kings 19 that God spoke to the prophet in a still, small voice as he stood on Mount Sinai.  For me, it may be a prompting in my mind, or something in a book I'm reading, or a Bible passage, or a word from a friend.

The story of Elijah is instructive.  After defeating the prophets of Baal in a dramatic, supernatural encounter on Mount Carmel, Queen Jezebel threatens him with death.

Elijah, who has stood up to powerful opposition all his life, suddenly fears for his life and runs away.  Normally, the prophet goes to God first for help - but, this time, he runs.

Exhausted and deeply depressed, he arrives near Mount Sinai in the desert and asks God to take his life.

Now, ready to hear, he is instructed to go to the top of the mountain.  There God questions him in a quiet voice and gives him his marching orders.  Rather than taking Elijah's life, he shows his confidence in the prophet by giving him more work to do.

Sometimes, we are like Elijah and willfully ignore God in our crises.  Perhaps we feel our problems are too big for God to resolve.  Or, we don't want God to tell us to take a different course than we have planned for ourselves.

But God will be heard.  When he speaks, we need to listen.

We hear much better if we are in the habit of praying and communing with God like Elijah.  Many people have benefited from "practicing the presence of God" - easy conversational prayers with God as we go through our days.

As we pray regularly, we begin to connect the dots between something said yesterday and our concern today.  We hear God speak.

Praying because you care

Praying is most powerful when we pray from the heart.

Moses is a good example.  When God was upset with the Israelites, Moses pleaded with the Lord for his people - and for God's own reputation.

I am fascinated with Moses as a man of prayer - and I've written about him before.

But I'd like to concentrate now on his passion for God and for his own people.

The exodus of the Israelites from Egypt is filled with stories of Moses as intercessor.  As E.M. Bounds pointed out in his book Prayer and Praying Men, even Pharaoh recognized Moses as a great praying man - he begged him to ask God to stop the plagues on the Egyptians.

To my mind, the most impressive of Moses' prayers is in the Book of Exodus when the children of Israel rebelled against God by creating their own golden calf as an idol to worship.

In Exodus 32:10, God says he will destroy the Israelites and start over again with Moses alone - creating a new nation from Moses. 

A lesser man might have said: "Okay, God.  Who am I to disagree?  After all, they're a very pigheaded and troublesome people."

But Moses reacted by appealing to the Lord on the grounds of God's reputation in the sight of the Egyptians.  He was concerned that the Egyptians would accuse God of evil intent.

Moses did not take God lightly.  Through a long, intimate relationship with the Lord, he had come to know him well. God even said that he was the one man he trusted among the Israelites.

So Moses pleaded with God because he wanted to uphold him - to glorify him - before everyone.  He was committed to God - heart and soul.

But his heart also went out to his people.  He reminded God of the promises he had made about making Israel a great nation.  He asked God not to destroy the people.

Some died because of their rebellion, but the nation as a whole survived. 

Moses went further and called on God to accompany them to the promised land.  He could not bear the thought of being abandoned by God.

He said: "How will anyone know that you look favourably on me - on me and on your people - if you don't go with us?  For your presence among us sets your people and me apart from all other peoples on earth."

That is a man who cares.  He could not imagine being without God's presence.

As I read this story in the Bible, I realize how shallow is my praying.  Part of that is lacking the zeal that Moses had.  And that flows from taking the easy way in life.

Moses came to his love of God through spending time with him and getting to know him better every day.  And God planted within him his deep love for his own people.

It strikes me that, as I seek God more, he will stir within me a greater love for others.  After all, God is love and is the source of our own love.

The big picture

When I pray, do I have my eyes on the big picture?  Or, do I narrow in to the problem of the moment?

It's a question I ask myself as I ponder the words of a speaker at a conference I attended last weekend and of a book I was reading yesterday.

Both the speaker and the writer were talking about worshiping and praising God.

I loved the picture that Steve Wilkins gave at a "Deeper Life" conference at Circle Square Ranch in Arden, Ontario, near Ottawa.

Wilkins, a leader at All Nations Church in Ottawa, was talking about the whole universe joining in praising God.

He pointed to Ephesians 5:17-21 where the apostle Paul speaks of being filled with the Spirit.  Paul calls on us to "sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ".

When we do that, we are effectively joining all of creation in praising the Lord.

Indeed, his point is biblical. In Psalm 148, the writer calls on the sun and moon and angels to join in a paean of praise to God.  In Luke 19, Jesus tells the religious leaders that if his followers did not praise him as he entered Jerusalem, "the very stones would cry out".

In Revelation 5, we see the great picture of tens of thousands of angels singing their praises to God.

In effect, Wilkins says, "your worship makes you align with everything that's going on in the universe".

There are times, he admits, when we don't feel like praising God.  But, like David, we need to say: "Praise the Lord, O my soul."  The Lord is always worthy of praise.

When you praise, says Wilkins, things change.  God's greatness and his attributes grow in your mind and heart and the daily issues diminish.  You begin to tune in to where God is leading you.

When we are praising God, we are giving him glory.

This, says Charles Spurgeon in The Power of Praising God, should be our ultimate aim in everything we do.

"This should be the single desire of the Christian.  I take it that he should not have twenty wishes but one.  He may desire that his family be well brought up, but only so that God may be glorified forever."

Spurgeon adds: "May this [God's glory] be the foundation of every enterprise into which you enter and your sustaining motive whenever your zeal would grow chilly."

I needed to hear that.

Orphans and the glory of God

George Muller had one great passion in life - God's glory.

Close behind was his love of orphans.

He believed God loved the orphans more than he did.  And he believed that God would be glorified when the Lord did the impossible - provide for thousands of orphans without any public appeal for money.

Prayer was the key to Muller's life.  He sought God's will through prayer - patiently.  He did not act on the great issues of his life until he was sure of God's will for him.

When Muller became a believer as a young man in 1825, he was fully committed to whatever God wanted him to do.

Through prayer and meditating on God's word, he was guided to a ministry to orphans in Britain.  In the 1800s, many orphans wound up in poor houses where they were abused.

In his book George Muller of Bristol and His Witness to a Prayer-Hearing God, A. T. Pierson gives an example of Muller's approach to prayer - the construction of five new buildings for orphans between 1845 and 1870.

In 1845, Muller prayed and believed the Lord was leading him to build new housing for the orphans.  People around the four rented buildings were complaining about the noise of the children and there was a rapidly growing demand to house more orphans.  The need was great.

But there were major obstacles, money being one of the major issues.  Muller himself had no money - all he earned went into the orphanages and his other Christian work.

After weighing the pros and cons, he was convinced God wanted him to go ahead with construction of a new building.  So he prayed with the confidence that the money would come and all obstacles removed.

He took this approach to prayer for the orphanages:

• He brought the need to God - in detail - and prayed until he was certain the new buildings were what God wanted;
• He wanted all the glory to go to God so he did nothing to publicize the orphanage project;
• He believed his job was to "wait on God in faith and patience";
• He meditated on scripture and believed God was speaking to him through what he read; and
• He constantly praised God for what he was doing - even when things were going badly.

Over the months to come, money came in - some of it in small amounts, some in large.  Along with it, an architect offered his services for free to design the first building.  And he got the first piece of land for a bargain.

The new building was filled with the 300 children from the rented quarters, so Muller prayed for more land and more buildings. Another house for 400 more orphans opened in 1857.  Another two buildings were put up by 1870, caring for more than 2,000 orphans altogether.

Muller's secret was to seek God's will and his glory in what he did.

Praying that God loves

God loves prayers that are fueled by love - love for God and love for others.

I was reminded of this in reading a blog post by Phil Miglioratti on Pray!Network last night.  Pray!Network is a great web site for those interested in prayer, particularly group prayer.

"Ensure that love is the motivating factor in every spoken or silent prayer,"  Miglioratti says.

For example, we could preface a prayer with words such as "Grant us the Father’s heart of love as we pray . . ." or "Break our hearts over the people and problems that break your heart, Lord. . . ."

This is an invitation to the Holy Spirit to fill us with God's love.  As the apostle John says in 1 John 4:7, true, selfless love comes from God.

I am easily caught up in praying for things or ideas or concrete plans.  But what about people?  What about God?

Jim Cymbala, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York, tells of a time when he was exhausted after a service and was sitting on the edge of the church platform when a dirty homeless man came up to him.  The man smelled and Cymbala just wanted him to go, so he offered him money for his needs.

But the man said he didn't want the money - he wanted Jesus.  Cymbala was struck to the heart and asked God for his love.  And he embraced the man in tears and found God's love overcame the dirt and the smell.

Jesus told us that the two greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbours.  Shouldn't that animate our prayers for others as well as our relationship with the Lord?

"Love and prayer are inextricably linked - even in difficult situations," says Miglioratti. "Especially in difficult situations."

He reminds us of Jesus' words in Matthew 5:44: "I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

Miglioratti has a few suggestions for our prayers:

• We should pray - and encourage others to pray - that our praises to God will be saturated with love for our Lord;
• We should pray that we will grow in love for other believers and, particularly, for those who are hard to love; and
• We should pray with love for the lost and the needy.

In effect, this is a call to consciously seek the heart of God for our prayers.  We know that God loves us and loves all people.  He went so far as to send Jesus to die for us.

Miglioratti suggests that the church in the West is cold - and one reason is that we don't pray with the love of God.

The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13 that the greatest gift of all is love - greater than any other spiritual gift.

He finishes his thought in 1 Corinthians 14:1 where he says "Let love be your highest goal!"

Let it be my goal in my prayers.

 

God at the controls

I would rather give the controls of an aircraft to an experienced pilot than take over myself.

And yet I am often guilty of telling God in prayer how he should run my life.

I find it hard to yield my efforts at ministry to the one who gave it to me in the first place.

Why?  Probably because I don't trust God enough.  And I'm not tuned to what he is saying.

But Jesus is our example.

In John 14:10, Jesus says: "The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me."


Jesus lived in dependence on the Father.  He did what the Father wanted him to do.


Clearly, he struggled mightily when his crucifixion was imminent.  He prayed to the Father that he be spared the horror of taking on all the sins of the world and the righteous Father turning away from his as the sin bearer.

Yet in Matthew 26:39, Christ yielded and said to the Father: "I want your will to be done, not mine."

The model prayer to God that Christ taught also includes the line: "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Often it is hard to determine what God's will is.

In his book The Prayer Life, the great South African writer Andrew Murray suggests the approach we should take.

He says: "Our first work . . . ought to be to come into God's presence not with our ignorant prayers, not with many words and thoughts, but in the confidence that the divine work of the Holy Spirit is being carried on within us."

He is referring to the apostle Paul's words in Romans 8:26 where he says that the Holy Spirit helps us when we don't know what to pray for.  He adds that the Holy Spirit "prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words".

What Paul is saying is that we don't have to rely on our own wisdom.  We know that the Holy Spirit is praying for us even when we don't know what to say.  And the Holy Spirit "pleads for us believers in harmony with God's will".

So, my job is to stop getting in God's way.  I am to come before God, listen to the Spirit's promptings, and act on what he is telling me to do.

For big things, the great prayer warrior George Muller waited for direction from God.  He would read the scriptures, praying about them and obeying God's promptings for action.  He would be attentive to the things that the Spirit brought to his mind.

Sometimes, that means obeying promptings that don't make sense - like Abram leaving Ur on God's command.  Abram didn't know where God wanted him to go, but he started travelling, taking his family with him.

Abram's obedience led to the formation of the nation of Israel, God's chosen people.

 Imagine if Abram refused to obey God's promptings.  Suppose he wanted to control his life apart from God.  Yielding control to God helped him become a vital part of God's story.

It's something for me to think about. Giving control to God makes all the difference in the world.

Gazing at God

When you feel dissatisfied, it's time to gaze at God.

There is nothing so quieting and reassuring than to simply contemplate God in peace.

It is so good that David says in Psalm 27:4:

"One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple."

There are always things to trouble us, to prey on our minds.  But, entering the presence of the Lord and enjoying him alone is like the touch of a cool breeze on a warm summer's day.  It refreshes.

David was always at war as King of Israel.  He had bad relations with some of his children.  He had a lot to worry about.

I have nothing really heavy on my mind right now.  But I have felt something gnawing at me for the last few days - something I can't quite put my finger on.

So, this afternoon, I turned to this lovely passage in Psalm 27 and thought about "gazing upon the beauty of the Lord".

This is a great picture.  In my mind, I see David kneeling before God and just gazing at him in wonder and joy.  I am certain he is doing that now in heaven.

Like David, we don't need to wait until heaven in order to gaze upon him.  We may not see God as clearly as we will when we are with him in eternity.  But we can be aware of him with us - and enjoy him.

Richard Foster, author of Sanctuary of the Soul, recommends that we "put away all obstacles of the heart, all scheming of the mind, all vacillations of the will".  As St. John of the Cross said, it is like a house going still.  We quiet ourselves.

Now, we are ready to relax in his presence, attentive to him.

Sometimes, that is all that happens.  As Foster says: "In silence, we behold the Lord.  Words are not needed for there to be communion.  Most of all, we rest in God's 'wondrous, terrible, gentle, loving, all-embracing silence'."

Often, I have pictured God with me and I am resting in silence with him.  He is just with me and no words are needed.  He extends his peace to me.

At other times, we may want to hear him as he speaks to us.

Mark Virkler, who wrote How to Hear God's Voice, imagines walking with Jesus on a beach and just delighting in his companionship.  He opens his mind to what Jesus is saying.

As Foster says, listening to God means being aware of how God speaks and what he has said in the Bible.  God does not contradict what is said in scripture.  But he does speak to us personally through the promptings of the Spirit in our minds and hearts.

The key to listening is wanting to hear what God has to say.  He may simply be saying: "I love you."  What he has to say is always good, even if he is urging us to change for his sake.

So, after gazing at God, I am no longer dissatisfied.  I am renewed.

Singing in my heart

I was feeling a bit glum and grumpy yesterday when I read these words in the apostle Paul's letter to the Ephesians:

"Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord."

This verse is part of a wonderful section in Ephesians 5:19-20 which is all about thanksgiving and joy - a foretaste of heaven.

Me? Sing?  I'm a monotone.  Family members can't help but smile when I sing - and I sing robustly.

But, in my heart I can sing like an opera singer.  One of my favourite pieces of music is the "Hallelujah Chorus" in Handel's choral masterpiece "The Messiah".  Sometimes, I feel the music swelling up within and I imagine the hallelujahs pouring out of me in song.

There is a great picture of heavenly worship in Revelation 5:11-13 where the apostle John sees in his vision "ten thousand times ten thousand" angels surrounding God in heaven and singing praises to Jesus.  As they sing, all the creatures in creation join in.

Imagine that.  What a chorus!

There is something about song that ushers us into the presence of God.  I noticed that again last Sunday evening when we were praying in our church for the people we wanted to enter the kingdom of God.  Worship songs prepared us to seek God for our loved ones.

As I say, Paul's words that I read are part of a section about praising God.

We are to come before him in prayer, offering songs of joy and worship in our hearts.

Then, we are to give thanks to God for everything.  Always - not sometimes.

Of course, many will say that we can't give thanks for bad things that happen to us or our loved ones. 

Paul certainly believed we could because in 2 Corinthians 12, he says that he asked God to remove a "thorn" in his flesh but God refused, telling him that "his (God's) grace is made perfect in weakness".  Paul said he would boast in his weakness so that "Christ's power may rest on me".

Paul knew that God had a plan for his good and was working it out in his life, no matter what happened.

But even if we find ourselves unable to go as far as Paul, we can certainly praise God in tough circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).  We need simply remind ourselves about God's character, his love and mercy to us, and the good things he has given us.

Paul is telling me that I must make a habit of singing in my heart to God and thanking him.  I must do it always - particularly when I feel glum and grumpy.

There is no better antidote to glumness and grumpiness.

Worship and healing

Recently, a visitor with severe heart problems came to our church prayer room to offer thanks to God.

To outsiders, it didn't make sense.  Her family was deeply concerned about the health issues she had - and yet she wanted to praise God.

What triggered her decision was a sermon by our pastor about thankfulness in the midst of trial and turmoil.

It reminds me of the importance of praise and thankfulness to God - no matter what.  We are commanded in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to be thankful in all circumstances.

Our visitor left the prayer room unchanged physically, but I believe she was emotionally helped.

Sometimes, God even brings physical healing and deliverance from evil spirits  as we worship him.  This is not the reason for praise and thankfulness, but a special blessing of the Lord.

Morris Cerullo, a well-known evangelist, says:

"We enter God’s presence (where there is healing) through worship and praise. Healing can come through worship and praise, even without a healing prayer, because God inhabits the praises of His people. When we praise, He is present to heal."

Terry Law, author of The Power of Praise and Worship, says that in the last decades of the 20th century, he traveled with his worship band all over the world and saw miracles of deliverance and healing as people worshiped God.

Missionary leader Wesley L. Duewel, author of Mighty Prevailing Prayer, tells of a time in India when he was asked to help those who were praying and fasting for the deliverance of a demon-possessed girl who was unconscious but thrashing on the ground. 

He felt helpless, but he felt impelled to bend down and speak words of praise to Jesus in her ear.  She responded by struggling to repeat the words, forcing them through her locked mouth.  As soon as she did, she was delivered.

Again, healing - emotional, physical or spiritual - is not the purpose of praising God.  He deserves our praise and worship even in the worst circumstances.

But, scriptural passages and believers' experiences through the ages suggest that, as we praise and worship God, we are changed and occasionally our circumstances change.  Our faith grows and God works in us, through us and around us.

Duewel says that praising God:

• Focuses our minds and hearts on God and cleanses us of fears;
• Increases faith;
• Invokes God's presence and power; and
• Terrifies, restrains and thwarts Satan.

Excellent reasons for worshiping God.

 

Yet, when all is said and done, I need only look at Jesus, contemplate his love for me, and consider what he has done for me, to bow in worship.

He is worthy of all praise.

Praying for the world

Last week, our prayer group was led by the Holy Spirit to pray about Christians in Iraq and Syria.

You might wonder what good is prayer for situations where we have no personal knowledge.  Isn't it hard enough to get answers to prayer for concrete personal issues?

I believe we don't pray enough for God's kingdom work in other parts of the world.  Our vision is too short.

Our prayers for Iraq and Syria last week sprang from our hearts as moved by the Spirit.  When we pray as the Spirit prompts, we can expect God to act.

A prayer leader in another church told me several years ago how members of his prayer group were seeking God one evening when the word "Tonga" came to someone's mind.  Another person felt there was a coup attempt and the king was threatened with assassination.

The group prayed about Tonga without knowing where Tonga was.  They found out later that a coup attempt on the Pacific island had been thwarted at the time they were praying.

In his book Spirit Rising, pastor and author Jim Cymbala says he was reading his newspaper one day when he came across an article about a mob attacking a Christian family in Gojra, Pakistan, killing seven of them just because of their faith. The mob went on to burn and loot Christian homes and stores in the area.

Cymbala was deeply moved by what he read and, as he prayed, he wept.  The Spirit was at work in Cymbala's heart.

At the church's huge Tuesday evening prayer meeting, Cymbala spoke about the Christians' plight in that Pakistani village and led the congregation in prayer.  The amazing thing was that a woman was present from Pakistan whose Pakistani pastor husband was bringing aid to the Christians in that village that very evening.

It was her first time visiting Cymbala's church in Brooklyn, N.Y.  Her visit led the church to give thousands of dollars in aid to the suffering Christians in that village which was delivered through the woman's husband.

Months later, the Christian pastor in Gojra telephoned Cymbala's church to say that a mob was gathered around the Christians who had retreated to the roof of a house and he asked for prayer.  Cymbala and his church prayed that evening.

The Pakistani Christian pastor telephoned back later to say that a heavy downpour of rain saved the Christians.  The mob scattered as the rain pelted down.

Prayer rescued Israel many times in its history, going back as far as God hearing the cries of the Israelite slaves in Egypt and delivering them from their tormentors.

We should pray boldly when the Holy Spirit stirs our hearts for our nation or people a world away.

Dynamic prayer

We’re human – we want our wishes fulfilled.

But should that be the main focus when we pray together?

No, says Dennis Fuqua, author of United and Ignited.

From long experience leading group prayer, he finds that prayer that centres on Jesus is far more dynamic than going through our list of personal prayer requests.  

And with good reason – we are turning our eyes from our own worries and concerns to the great God of the Universe.  As we draw closer to God, our faith and trust in him grows.

Fuqua doesn’t reject personal requests.  But he places worship of God first.

He often uses scripture as a jumping-off point for times of uplifting group prayer.  He quotes great Christian leaders over the centuries who say that all scripture should lead us to Christ.

One technique he has used is to list the titles of Jesus or God.

I have found that effective, too – referring to the names of God in the Old Testament, such as, God our redeemer, God our peace, God almighty.  These names are used by the Holy Spirit to prompt and direct our prayers.

For example, the title “Jehovah-Jireh” – God our provider – can lead to prayers of thanks about God’s provision in our own circumstances.

On one occasion, Fuqua used a song “All of you is more than enough for me” to encourage people in the prayer meeting to complete the phrase “Jesus, you are my . . .” People began saying “Jesus, you are my light”, “Jesus, you are my rock”, “Jesus, you are my conqueror.”

Then, he urged them to make this even more personal.  And people began saying things such as “Jesus, because you are my justification, I don’t have to justify myself.”

He notes that the Lord’s Prayer – the model prayer that Jesus himself gave to his disciples – begins with requests that God’s name be holy, that his kingdom come, and that his will be done.

“Jesus made it very clear that before we pray about our needs, we should first consider his desires,” Fuqua says.

In effect, “we should be aware that his kingdom has priority over our needs”.

Once we begin thinking and praying this way, we will realize that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves – spreading the kingdom of God on earth.

That’s exciting!

The power of the few

In prayer, it’s not how many pray, but how dedicated they are.

I need this reminder often.

As a prayer leader at our church, I dream of the church auditorium being filled with fervent pray-ers.  There are many churches in Asia, Africa and South America where this is true – and even a few in North America.

It’s wonderful when this happens.  And God honours such church gatherings. The gospel spreads powerfully in churches and nations when large numbers gather to seek God in prayer.

But there is power in the few, as well.

After all, Jesus said in Matthew 18: “I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.  For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

The key is praying in Jesus’ name – praying as Jesus would pray.

We get an inside look at how Jesus would pray by reading the scriptures.  There we see what mattered to Jesus.

He said that he did what the Father asked him to do.  He was here to bring glory to God through acts of love and power and in the supreme sacrifice on the cross.

So, when we want what God wants, we can be sure our prayers will be answered.

In his book Draw the Circle, Mark Batterson tells the story of Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf who formed a prayer group in the 1700s that launched the modern missionary movement.

He and a small group of men from several countries pledged to use all their wealth, gifts, and influence to reach the world for Christ.

Zinzendorf and a group of 24 men and 24 women began praying around the clock in 1727 and the Holy Spirit came upon them as he did on the disciples on Pentecost.

The Moravian prayer meeting – Zinzendorf was a Moravian – continued for 100 years.

“And those prayers reverberated all around the world in one of the greatest missionary movements the church has ever known,” Batterson writes.

“At critical junctures in history, God raises up a remnant to reestablish his reign and rule,” Batterson adds. “It’s rarely a majority.  In fact, it’s almost always a small minority.  But all it takes is a faithful few to begin a reformation.”

Inspiring words – true words, proven many times in the history of revivals

Prayer and peace

We all need peace – parents with crying infants, white collar workers rushing to meet deadlines, teenagers attacked by friends and enemies – all of us.

The apostle Paul says Jesus is the answer.  And thankful prayer is the way we find him.

One of my favourite Bible passages is Philippians 4:4-7.

There, Paul begins by calling on us to “rejoice in the Lord always”. 

I may be overwhelmed by family problems or work problems, but I can rejoice in being a child of God.  He chose me, unworthy though I am.  He tells me he will never let me go.  He assures me that everything will work out for my good in his eternal plan.  He loves me.

Then, Paul gets to the heart of the matter.  I am not to be anxious about anything, but “in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving”, I am to present my requests to God.

Is Paul asking for the impossible?  Is it possible to stop being anxious by praying to God?

I look to the life of Jesus for my answer.

Jesus faced his greatest test in the Garden of Gethsemane.  There he sweat drops of blood as he asked the Father to spare him from the cross.  He knew he was going to bear the sins of everyone on the cross – and, worst of all, the righteous Father was going to turn away from him as the sin-blackened sacrifice.

But, Jesus then spoke these amazing words: “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

From then on, he had inner peace.  His resolve to go to the cross was firm and unshakeable.

I will not have peace if I insist that I get exactly what I want.  Clearly, none of us gets everything that we want.  For good reason.  If we did, we would be spoiled children – self-centred.

But Jesus wants me to be more like him, loving God and loving others.

Jesus found inner peace by doing what the Father asked him to do.  He knew that the Father’s plans were for good.  He found joy in carrying out the Father’s will.

Paul finishes the passage about prayer and rejoicing in Jesus with these words: “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

I will find the peace I crave by giving everything into God’s hands and trusting him to do what is best for me

Fighting for the kingdom

Our church is planning a significant outreach to the community this year.

I'm betting that Satan will fight our efforts.  We must fight back in prayer.

"We are in a battle of cosmic proportions," says James Banks, "and eternal souls hang in the balance."

Banks, author of The Lost Art of Praying Together, says that the best way of advancing God's kingdom is to pray together.

"United prayer is the most effective weapon God has given us, because through it, we call down his power and blessing."

Like many others, he points to Jesus' powerful statement in Matthew18:19: "If two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven."

And he notes the apostle Paul's words in Ephesians 6 where he says that our struggle is against the "spiritual forces of evil" and prayer is our key weapon.

We are told that if we ask according to God's will, the Lord will respond.  So, it is vital that we seek what God wants - and we seek it together as a praying people.

Our church is reaching out to the community so that people will enter the kingdom of God.  We know that is what God wants.

Banks quotes Billy Graham's statement: "There are three things necessary for a successful crusade.  The first is prayer, the second is prayer, and the third is prayer."

Prayer has been a central part of every Graham crusade.  The results testify to the importance of prayer.

So, prayer will underlie our efforts to serve and to speak to our neighbours, friends and family in the name of Christ.

Jesus prayed before speaking to the great crowds.  What an impact he had!

May the Lord work through our prayers as we make our own efforts to advance his kingdom in our community.

Reflecting God's glory

Moses met God and came away with his face shining so brightly that the people of Israel could not look at him.

Moses was changed when he had intimate communion with God and so can we.

Daniel Henderson talks about Moses' experience in his book Transforming Prayer and adds: "As Christians we have free . . . access to the transforming presence of God."

He points to the great statement by the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:18: "But we all . . . beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed."

"Paul's point is this," says Henderson, "we can enjoy the life-changing gaze of prayer as we commune with our incredible Savior."

He goes on to say: "We are captivated by Christ, changed by Christ, and conformed to Christ."

In effect, the more we contemplate Christ through the scriptures, the more we become enamoured of him.  And we desire to become like him.

In Henderson's eyes, "there is nothing so attractive and captivating in this sin-darkened world as a Christian who experiences and exhibits the glory of Jesus through the power of face-to-face intimacy".

That's why Henderson urges people to focus their eyes on God in prayer, putting aside their prayer lists to simply adore the Lord in worship.

Out of this worship springs confession, praise and heartfelt prayer.  Prayer requests flow naturally from worshiping the Lord.  The Holy Spirit prompts our prayers.

Henderson has used this approach - basking in the presence of God - for many years and many pastors and laypeople have come away from his conferences with renewed faith and energy.

As the song says, "our God is an awesome God".  We can't help but be inspired when we look at him.

Enforcing Christ's victory

I like Dutch Sheets' way of looking at intercessory prayer - enforcing Christ's victory on the cross.

Sheets says in his book Intercessory Prayer that when we pray for others, we are asking God to implement Christ's victory over Satan in the particular case we are praying about.

Sheets makes this point in an interesting way: "Our calling and function is not to replace God, but to release him."

"We don't deliver anyone, we don't reconcile anyone to God, we don't defeat the enemy.  The work is already done."

Our job as intercessors is to "ask for the release and application of these things".
Jesus empowered us to be his representatives or ambassadors.  It isn't our ability that is at issue, Sheets says, but Christ's - and Christ has already been victorious against the power of sin and death.

"Our challenge is not so much to liberate as to believe in the Liberator; to heal as to believe in the Healer."

 When we intercede for someone, we meet with God and ask him to meet with someone else in all his power.  We have been given "the ministry of reconciliation" between God and man - releasing the power of the resurrection into the lives of people.

Among the examples he gives, Sheets tells of a trip to Guatemala where he visited an elderly woman who had fallen and broken her ankle months before.  The ankle had not healed and she was in great pain.

He began to pray but only managed to get out the word "Father" when he froze, was unable to speak, and began weeping.  The power of the Holy Spirit entered the room, her foot began bouncing up and down, and she met the Spirit.  She was healed.

Not only do we ask God to release his power, we are to enforce Christ's victory as we meet the powers of darkness, Sheets writes. He points to the apostle John's words in 1 John 3:8: "The Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil."

He mentioned that a friend of his faced a situation in Guatemala where a witch doctor had cursed a young woman because she refused to have sex with him.  She was paralyzed from the neck down and couldn't speak.  She had been in a wheelchair for six months when this friend of Sheets met her.

Sheets' friend whispered into her ear these words: "Satan, I break your hold over this young lady in the name of Jesus.  I command you to loose your hold over her and let her go."

Nothing happened immediately.  But a week later she was able to move her arms a little.  The recovery continued for a month until she was completely healed.

This is a good reminder for me that Christ has defeated Satan and that my job is to ask God to apply that victory in the lives of the people I am praying for.

Arguing your case with God

 Like Moses, we can argue our case before God in prayer.

But, like Moses, we must be sure of our grounds before we make our case.  If we make a convincing case, based on God's word, we can be confident he will say "Yes".


In Exodus 32, God was furious with the children of Israel after they created a golden calf to worship, implicitly rejecting the Lord who had brought them out of captivity in Egypt.

In verse 9, God threatens to destroy the people of Israel because of their actions.

In the following verses, Moses:

• Suggests God's reputation will be battered because people will say that he delivered the children of Israel from Egypt only to wipe them out at Mount Sinai (verse 12);
• Reminds God that he promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that their descendants would inherit the land of Canaan and be a great nation (verse 13); and
• Calls on God to change his mind and allow the children of Israel to live (verse 12).

Amazingly, God agrees.

Does this mean God's plan can be altered?  On the surface, it seems so.

My own interpretation, though, is that God wanted to get across to Moses how seriously he viewed this act of disobedience.  And he wanted to see how Moses would respond.  Moses grew enormously as an intercessor and champion of his people through this exchange.

How does this apply to me and you?

A.T. Pierson, author of George Muller of Bristol And His Witness to a Prayer-Hearing God, says that Muller noted this example of Moses and used this approach when he prayed for the thousands of orphans under his care.

He would search the scriptures for the promises God has made that could be linked to the needs of the orphans.  Then, he would assemble arguments - based on scripture - to present his case to the Lord.

Pierson says that Muller developed this method during a particularly bad time when the future of the orphanages was in doubt.  He noted that God said he was "the Father of the fatherless" and prayed in faith that God would provide for the orphans, supporting his plea with 11 arguments.

The need was met without a public appeal for money.  And Muller was to repeat this again and again throughout his life.

This tells me that I need to look through the scriptures with the help of the Holy Spirit for the promises of God that relate to the dreams God has given me.

Once I find them, I can pray with assurance that God will welcome my prayers and move in response.

Praying through pain

What do you do when you are so overcome with pain and sorrow that you can't pray?

Think about Jesus on the eve of his crucifixion.

He knew he was going to be betrayed.  He knew his friends were going to abandon him.  He knew he was going to die.

In his agony, he prayed prayers that reflected his agony.  But he prayed in faith.

John White, author and Christian psychiatrist, discusses Jesus' final prayers in an absorbing chapter in his book on prayer - Daring to Draw Near: People in Prayer.

White notes that Jesus called some of his disciples to join him in prayer because his soul was troubled "even unto death".  He wanted human companionship as we often do when we are suffering - sympathetic companionship.

We know that he prayed repeatedly to the Father, asking him to take the cup of suffering away from him.  Again, that's what we often do when we are in pain.

At that moment, he was in such distress that he sweat drops of blood.

But his next prayer was so powerful that it has been quoted throughout the ages: "Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done."

That seems beyond me - beyond most people.  But we can do it - we can pray those words.  I speak from knowledge - a good friend prayed those words when he learned he had cancer that would take his life.

The Father, whose heart must have been pierced by what Jesus was going through, responded lovingly to that momentous prayer struggle by sending an angel to strengthen him.

God is aware of our struggles, too, and offers us support and strength to carry on.

Then, think of the prayers Jesus spoke on the cross.

He thought of others, something that is very hard for us to do when we are preoccupied by heartache.

Yet his prayer "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" is a prayer we need to make for ourselves as much as for those who hurt us.  We will not be free of our pain if we refuse to forgive.

In that prayer, Jesus is asking the Father to withhold justice for the people who are killing him and mocking him.  Can we do that?  Perhaps not in our own strength.  But we can ask God to give us the strength and the power to forgive.

Then, one of the most heartbreaking cries ever uttered: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"

Did Jesus lose his faith with that shout?  No, for what he says later makes it clear his faith remained strong.

For me, it is a cry of pain, of bewilderment.  As White says, we often cry out "Why?" to God when we don't understand.  Jesus knew he was fulfilling his mission, but he also knew that the Father had to turn away from him when he took on the sins of the world.

Even knowing that some things must happen doesn't prevent us from asking: "Why?  Why can't there be an easier way?  Why does it have to happen this way?"

Jesus was human as well as God.  We, too, may cry "Why?" when we don't understand.  It is a release and it is far better than turning away from the Lord.

And, finally, Jesus made the ultimate statement of faith: "Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands."  He knew where he was going and he gave everything up to the Father.

Throughout, Jesus never lost his grasp on the Father.  Even in our grief and pain, we must hang on to God, too.

Think of Jesus.

Spotlight on God

There is dynamism in prayer when the spotlight is on God.

So says Dennis Fuqua, author of United and Ignited: Encountering God Through Dynamic Corporate Prayer.

"I have learned that when we focus on God and his priorities, He will lead us to the specific ways He wants us to be praying for one another and for the needs around us," writes Fuqua.

Fuqua quotes Phil Miglioratti who describes what the focus should be of a "prayer summit", a gathering of people specifically to immerse themselves in an intensive time of prayer to God:

"Our focus is Jesus Christ.  We come to the Prayer Summit to seek Him, see Him, meet Him, hear Him, and obey Him."

In effect, Miglioratti says, we must listen to God through what he is saying to us in scripture and in our hearts, but also through others who are praying with us.

In this style of praying, people may pray about themselves, or missions, or the church, but "that is not its starting point," says Fuqua.

"The priority is the exaltation of God and the glory of His Son."

Daniel Henderson makes the same point in his book Transforming Prayer: Everything Changes When You Seek God's Face.

Henderson says that we must first "seek God's face" - in effect, worship Him and deepen our relationship with Him.  This leads to intimacy with God and then we can "seek God's hand", his provision for our needs.

Fuqua and Henderson talk of a free-flowing prayer gathering where worshiping God leads naturally to confession, repentance, and requests.

Both say the Holy Spirit works with power in meetings like that.  Pastors who come to "prayer summits" burdened with worries and ready to quit the pastorate leave with their ministries renewed.  Anything can happen, including healings.

King Solomon's great prayer of praise to God at the dedication of the new temple in 2 Chronicles 6 ends with a demonstration of God's power through fire on the sacrifices presented to him and his glory filling the temple.

In Acts 4:23-31, the believers in the young church react to persecution of their leaders by exalting God and his sovereign plans.  They appeal to him to carry out his will by giving them boldness to preach the Good News.  Again, God reveals his power by shaking the place where they were praying.

In his book The Deeper Life: The 8 Vital Longings of Your Soul, Henderson says he begins his day by worshiping God, reminding himself of who God is and what he has done.

So, turning the spotlight on God is sure to shed light in the dark places in our lives - our problems and concerns.  We gain faith and insight into what he wants us to do.

Testimonies, faith and prayer

Mark Batterson says he has become "a connoisseur of prayer testimonies".

He means that he cherishes stories of answered prayer because "they have lit a fire under my faith unlike anything I've ever experienced".

I know he's right.  I am uplifted every time I hear a story of God answering a prayer in a seemingly impossible situation.

Recently, I read the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11.  The result was that many who saw this miracle believed in Jesus and told others about it.  And crowds poured out to see him.

Of course, answers to prayer are not always as miraculous as that.  But a striking answer to prayer does build faith.

As Batterson says in his book Draw the Circle, we often react to amazing answers to prayer by thinking: "If God did it for them, he just might do it for me."

Personal stories are important in our lives as believers.

The gospels are really a series of eyewitness accounts of what Jesus did and said.

The apostle Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2 that he (Paul) has taught him what he learned about Christ from "reliable witnesses" and he urges Timothy to pass on what he has learned to others.

"When God answers a prayer, no matter how big or how small, we need to share it," Batterson says.  ". . . Giving testimony is the way we give God all of the glory.  But we also need to share it because others need to hear it."

Batterson adds: "Our testimonies don't just remind us that the victory has already been won; they also remind the enemy that he has already been defeated."

He asks: "Is it any wonder that what gets celebrated gets replicated?"

When we hear stories of people becoming believers or being healed, we are encouraged.  And we see more people becoming believers and more healings.

"When we share our testimony, we are loaning our faith to others," he says. "When we listen to a testimony, we are borrowing faith from others."

I have become increasingly convinced that we need to record answers to prayer in our church for the encouragement and building up of members of the congregation.

Together as one

Why is the church booming in Africa, South America and Asia - and not in Europe and North America?

One important factor is people praying together.

John Franklin offers a flood of statistics to describe the astounding growth and spiritual power of the Christian church in the Third World in recent decades.

In his book And the Place was Shaken, Franklin says that the number of believers in Nepal jumped from 2,000 in 1990 to 500,000 in 2000.  In Korea, the number of Christians rose to 40 per cent of the population at the end of the twentieth century from only 2 per cent at the beginning of the century.

In Uganda, group prayer played a key role in a major revival in recent decades.  The number of believers skyrocketed and the deadly HIV/AIDS epidemic which had claimed one-third of the population was brought under control so that the infection rate was reduced to 5 per cent.

Churches throughout the developing world are packed with people praying together.  Indian evangelist and mission leader K.P. Yohanan once said that typically churches in India are filled on prayer night - but he noted that is not true in North America.

Franklin says he once felt that churches grew from concerted efforts at evangelism.  But he now believes that successful evangelism flows from power with God.  And power with God flows from a deep relationship with the Lord - prayer being a vital factor.

When you pray with others, the Spirit of prayer draws you together as one.

And, as Jesus pointed out in Matthew 18:19-20, God acts when people agree in prayer.

I often turn to Acts 4:23-31 for inspiration on praying together.  The young church in Jerusalem was faced with persecution and the believers responded by praying.

As they prayed together, they began by worshiping God and celebrating his power and authority.  Then, they asked for boldness in preaching the good news and for the power of God to work miracles of healing and other signs and wonders.

The result? God responded by shaking the house they were in and, in the following days and weeks, thousands more were added to their flock and many were healed.

If we want to see God's power at work, we need to pray together as one.

The wonder of blessing

"Bless those who persecute you," says the apostle Paul.  "Bless and do not curse."


Those words have stuck in my heart for a long time.

More and more I recognize that blessing others can only come from a heart given over to God.  When we bless others who have hurt us, we are stepping beyond human boundaries.

It is a sign of God's love, flowing from us to others.  These words of Paul above come in a passage in Romans 12 where he is speaking about how we are to love other people.

I have written several blog entries on blessing in the past couple of years - a number in recent months alone.  I have read and enjoyed books such as The Grace Outpouring by Roy Godwin and The Power of Blessing by Kerry Kirkwood.

I am preoccupied by the topic.  Now, I need to let God work through me to bless others on a daily basis.

I anticipate that blessing others regularly will change me.

The Bible draws a stark picture of blessing - and non-blessing.  As Paul points out, we must not curse others.  And cursing is much easier to do.

At first, cursing does not seem such a big deal.  It's only words.  But cursing suggests you have judged someone - and that judgement hangs between you and the person you have cursed.

I find that hard to accept.  If someone has let me down, am I not justified in condemning him?

No, says Paul, I am not justified.  Judgement belongs to God alone.

So, how can I bless someone who has let me down?

As I think about it, I must first begin by giving the incident to God and leave it in his hands, acknowledging my hurt.  Then, I must thank God for the person and his qualities and pray a blessing for his good.

As Kerry Kirkwood suggests in his book, I can pray that the person will become what God wants him to be.  I can pray spiritual, emotional, and physical blessings for him, too.

As I say, blessing others will surely change me.  And God may work through my blessings in other people's lives.

That is certainly the testimony of books I have read.

That would be a great blessing from God in my own life.