Sometimes I feel a burden on my heart about a particular person or situation and pray a passionate quick prayer; then I feel a relief and am able to go about my daily business knowing that things will work out.

The above kind of prayers take a lot of energy, but you don’t have to use a great deal of concentration or discipline to pray for only a few minutes at the time.

The marinating-type of praying calls for a much more disciplined prayer life. You might feel God leading you to pray for a critical family or church situation that might take some time to be resolved.
I prayed for a situation in my church for several years before I started to actually see the victory. I know God was working on the situation all the time, but I certainly could not see it. Over and over again I would watch Satan win huge battles with little effort at all. I felt as if he was rubbing his victories in my face and saying, “Your prayers will never make a difference in this situation, so you might as well quit praying.”

I know I would have given up if I had not had a direct word from God telling me that I was not to leave the church, but to pray and fast for the situation there. When you get a “word” like that, it is up to you to then decide if your desires to leave are so great that you want to voluntarily live in rebellion against God.

In the end, I decided that being in rebellion against God would be the worst decision I could ever make under any circumstances. I figured I might end up “in the belly of a big fish” like Jonah did until I came to my senses and started to walk in obedience.

No matter what type of prayer the situation calls for, if you spend time with God just fellowshipping with Him and getting to know His Character, you will know how He wants you to pray.

I came to realize that it is an awesome thing when God can look at your life and know that He can trust you to be consistent in prayer for something huge that might take awhile.

Real and powerful prayer does take a lot of effort and energy, but you can feel yourself moving closer to God each day. How awesome it is to be able to walk in His Power to pray for and minister to others each day that might desperately need a touch from Him.

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1. What Kind of Prayer Describes You?
2. Prayer – The Thing That Draws God Near To A Church
3. The Vital Importance of Prayer!

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When a man becomes cold, indifferent, and careless, one of the first things that will suffer will be his devotion. When a sick man is in a decline his lungs suffer and his voice; and so when a Christian is in a spiritual decline the breath of prayer is affected, and the cry of supplication becomes weak. Prayer is the true gauge of spiritual power. To restrain prayer is dangerous, and of deadly tendency. You may depend upon it that, take it for all in all, what you are upon your knees you are really before your God. What the Pharisee and the Publican were in prayer was the true criterion of their spiritual state.

You may maintain a decent repute among men, but it is a small matter to be judged of man’s judgment, for men see only the surface, while the Lord’s eyes pry into the recesses of the soul. If he sees that you are prayerless he makes small account of your attendance at religious meetings, or your loud professions of conversion. If you are a man of earnest prayer, and especially if the spirit of prayer be in you, so that in addition to certain seasons of supplication your heart habitually talks with God, things are right with you; but if this be not the case, and your prayers be “hindered,” there is something in your spiritual system which needs to be ejected, or somewhat lacking which ought at once to be supplied. “Keep thine heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life;” and living prayers are among those issues.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled “Hindrances To Prayer,” delivered September 13, 1871.

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If the spirit of prayer be not with the people, the minister may preach like an angel, but he cannot expect success. If there be not the spirit of prayer in a church there may be wealth, there may be talent, there may be a measure of effort, there may be an extensive machinery, but the Lord is not there.

It is as sure evidence of the presence of God that men pray as the rising of the thermometer is an evidence of the increase of the temperature. As the Nilometer measures the rising of the water in the Nile, and so foretells the amount of harvest in Egypt; so is the prayer-meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we may judge of the amount of divine working among a people.

If God be near a church it must pray; and if he be not there, one of the first tokens of his absence will be slothfulness in prayer.

from thedailyspurgeon.com

The Holy Spirit has convicted me about the amount of time I have spent praying for my church, and really praying for a miracle to happen in our midst as we worship together.

I think many times we have gotten to the point that we don’t really expect God to show up any more and do something where only He could get the glory.

It takes time, dedication and concentration to get before God and get in the right frame of mind and heart to pray fervently for the needs of others. God desires to use each one of us to do His Work here on earth, but we must align our desires and hearts with His.

The church as a whole has become powerless against Satan and his methods because we do not take the time to make prayer a priority. It is easy to say short prayers here and there, but hard to really get down to the business of the kind of praying that changes lives and hearts for good.

I challenge you to ask the Holy Spirit to help you make prayer a priority in your everyday life.

I found an awesome prayer that I know can make a huge difference in your life if you will ask God for these three things each day.

Ask God to do whatever is necessary in your life so that you can be a part of His supernatural Kingdom work. He wants to use you in a mighty way to make a difference in whatever way He chooses.

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-Martin Luther-

I used to listen to an older man in our church pray and felt very intimidated. He seemed to know just the right words and could express them very eloquently. It seemed to me that He could touch the throne of God with each prayer. My plain prayers felt very inadequate compared to his. All I knew to do was tell God what my problem or praise was in the plainest of words. At this phase of my Christian walk I felt that God would hear me much better if I knew just the right words and could express them more eloquently.

After awhile I found that this man prayed very well, but his life did not match his prayers at all. He was caught doing some things in secret that were totally against the will of God, and eventually he fell  away from God and left our church.

I then started to read about the Pharisees and how they prayed their pious prayers. They felt that since they diligently kept all the Jewish laws that God was pleased with them. They felt superior to the common people of the day because of their strict obedience to the law; yet Jesus rebuked them for their prideful attitudes and the fact that they did things with a wrong heart even though they might have been good things.

Through Bible study, I started to realize that prayer is just talking to God the way you would talk to another person. He is not interested in your fancy words, but in the condition of your heart when you talk to Him. He wants you to be a pure and clean vessel with whom He can talk to and use for His glory.

God already knows your heart before you pray, so fancy words and dialogue are not important at all to Him.

What an awesome God we have that we can talk to Him in such a personal way and even better that He desires a personal relationship with each of us.

In the presence of earthly royalty, there are certain rules of etiquette and speech that one must abide by; if not, you will offend the royalty and probably be thrown out of their presence. It amazes me that we will go to such lengths for an earthly person, but we generally aren’t as concerned about the attitude with which we talk to our Heavenly Father.

If the condition of your heart is right, then your words will flow from it in a way that is pleasing to God.

The next time you start to pray, just have an intimate conversation with the God who created the universe; but be blown away by the fact that He loves you so much that He wants to have a very personal relationship with you.

You really can trust Him with every aspect of your life because He always has your best interest at heart.

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When asked how he determined the will of God on any matter, Muller listed the following steps he believed were necessary:

1.     “I get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to any particular matter.”

2.     “I do not leave the result to feelings or simple impressions.  That can make one open to great delusions.”

3.     “I seek God’s will through, or in connection with, his Word.  If you look to the Spirit without the Word, you open yourself to delusion.”

4.     “I consider providential [God-controlled] circumstances.”

5.     “I ask God in prayer to reveal his will to me.”

6.     “I make sure I have a clear conscience before God and man.”

7.     “Every time I listened to men instead of God, I made serious mistakes.”

8.     “I act only when I am at peace, after much prayer, waiting on God with faith.”

When you give yourself to prayer, your faith rises.  And when you feed on God’s Word, your confidence in his power to lead and help you increases.  The more you read His Word, the more you will understand His Character.

George Muller got to the point that he knew he could trust God to provide his every need as long as he was in the center of God’s will. There is absolutely no safer place to be than right in the center of where God would have you to be.

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Our God desires marinating-type praying.

-Peter Lord-

More and more God has been dealing with me about my prayer life. I know that sometimes I just feel a burden on my heart about a particular person or situation and pray a passionate quick prayer; then I feel a relief and am able to go about my daily business knowing that things will work out.

But more and more God has been laying on my heart situations that need in-depth prayer and showing me that it will take many prayers to give the victory.

I want my life to be such that God can use me in either situation.

I challenge you to examine your prayer life and see into which of the above categories you fit most. Let God do a work in your life regarding prayer and He will put give you more and more discipline to pray for victory in harder areas.

Learn to make prayer a vital part of your everyday life!

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3. The Power of Prayer

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23 Elements of the Lord’s Prayer

1. Relationship: Our Father

2. Recognition: which art in heaven

3. Adoration: hallowed be thy name

4. Anticipation: Thy kingdom come

5. Consecration: Thy will be done

6. Universality: in earth

7. Conformity: as it is in heaven

8. Supplication: Give us

9. Definiteness: this day

10. Necessity: our daily bread

11. Penitence: And forgive us

12. Obligation: our debts

13. Forgiveness: as we forgive

14. Love and mercy: our debtors

15. Guidance: And lead us

16. Protection: not into temptation

17. Salvation: but deliver us

18. Righteousness: from evil

19. Faith: For thine is the kingdom

20. Humility: and the power

21. Reverence: and the glory

22. Timelessness: for ever

23. Affirmation: Amen

NOTE:

The first 3 petitions of the prayer make 7 points concerning God

The last 4 petitions make 16 points concerning man

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living – practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

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1. The Power of Prayer

______________________________________________________
To My Child,

Good morning, this is GOD.

Today I will be handling all of your problems. Please remember that I do not need your help. If you encounter a situation you cannot handle, do not attempt to resolve it. Kindly put it in the SFGTD (Something For God To Do) box. It will be addressed in MY TIME, not yours.

Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it nor remove it. Holding on or removal will delay the resolution of your problem. If it is a situation you think you are capable of handling, please consult me in prayer to be sure that it is the proper resolution. Because I do not sleep, nor do I slumber, there is no need for you to lose any sleep. Please rest my child.

If you need to contact me, I am only a prayer away. My prayer line is open 24 hours of your day. I love you and will always be with you wherever you may go. As with all good things, pass my message on.

Love, GOD

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living – Practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

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Mr. Nelson recently told a true story about the pastor of his
church. He had a kitten that climbed up a tree in his backyard and
then was afraid to come down.

The pastor coaxed, offered warm milk, etc. The kitty would not come
down. The tree was not sturdy enough to climb, so the pastor decided
that if he tied a rope to his car and pulled it until the tree bent
down, he could then reach up and get the kitten.

That’s what he did, all the while checking his progress in the car. He
then figured if he went just a little bit further, the tree would be
bent sufficiently for him to reach the kitten. But as he moved the
car a little further forward, the rope broke.

The tree went ‘boing!’ and the kitten instantly sailed through the
air – out of sight. The pastor felt terrible. He walked all over the
neighborhood asking people if they’d seen a little kitten. No. Nobody
had seen a stray kitten.

So he prayed, ‘Lord, I just commit this kitten to your keeping,’ and
went on about his business.

A few days later he was at the grocery store, and met one of his
church members. He happened to look into her shopping cart and was
amazed to see cat food. This woman was a cat hater and everyone knew
it, so he asked her, ‘Why are you buying cat food when you hate cats
so much?’

She replied, ‘You won’t believe this,’ and then told him how her
little girl had been begging her for a cat, but she kept refusing.

Then a few days before, the child had begged again, so the Mom
finally told her little girl, ‘Well, if God gives you a cat, I’ll let
you keep it.’ She told the pastor, ‘I watched my child go out in the
yard, get on her knees, and ask God for a cat.

And really, Pastor, you won’t believe this, but I saw it with my own
eyes. A kitten suddenly came flying out of the blue sky, with its
paws outspread, and landed right in front of her.’

Lesson learned: Never underestimate the Power of GOD and HIS unique
sense of humor.

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living – Practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

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“While serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the Jungle to a nearby city for supplies.

This was a journey of two days and required camping overnight at the halfway point. On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies, and then begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital.

Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been seriously injured. I treated him for his injuries and at the same time talked to him about the Lord. I then traveled two days, camping overnight, and arrived home without incident.

Two weeks later I repeated my journey. Upon arriving in the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me that he had known I carried money and medicines.

He said, ‘Some friends and I followed you into the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight.

We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to move into your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards.’

At this, I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone in that jungle campsite. The young man pressed the point, however, and said, ‘No sir, I was not the only person to see the guards. My five friends also saw them, and we all counted them.

It was because of those guards that we were afraid and left you alone.’”

What an awesome God of protection we have!

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living - Practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

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