[1]Matthew 6:9-13
Lord's Prayer
[2]Revelation 22:20
Come, Lord Jesus
[3]Revelation 20:1-3
[4]1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Pray without ceasing
[5]Romans 8:26-27
Groanings of the Spirit |
Last week we discussed the first step in Revival, which
is to clean up and get rid of the sin in your life.
The second step is to pray up, or, in other words, to
pray as much as possible in your life. We will
look into how to pray up today.
First, you should know that just because you have
cleaned up your life, you may be convicted of additional
actions or thoughts that God finds sinful as you begin
to seriously pray. Many fine Christians are having
their testimony and life ruined be participating in
things that they believe are harmless, when in reality
those things are the Devil's tools to blind and bind you
so as to keep you from a full life in Christ, including
both ruining your testimony and hindering you receiving
from God that which He desires you to have. Such things
include yoga, Tai Chi, some martial arts that are based
on Buddhist teachings, etc. When God
convicts you of these things while praying, do not pass
it off as fear, then tell yourself that there is nothing
wrong with these things. Satan uses these things
to open doors into your life. As God convicts you,
get these things out of your life!
To begin any study on prayer we should start with what
Jesus taught us, typically called "The Lord's Prayer".[1]
"Pray then in this way:
'Our Father who is in Heaven,
Hallowed be Your Name.
Your Kingdom come,
Your Will be done,
On earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our
debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from
evil.
For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory
forever.
Amen."
First, you must understand that this is not a "formula"
for getting on God's good side. Too many false
teachers and prophets are out there treating God's
written Word as formulas for getting what they want.
They teach that you can get rich by giving to them and
claiming God's promise that He will give back to you
one-hundred-fold. This does not work! God's
Word is not a formula for riches or health or any other
thing that is promised by Him. If you give with a
good heart, not expecting a return, but looking for a
reward in Heaven, then He will reward you on this earth
and in Heaven. If you do what God commands simply
to get earthly rewards, then you are seeking the things
of the flesh in the same way as you would by simply
going after money! God's promises only apply when
you do what He commands from a pure and humble heart!
What Jesus is doing is teaching us the "form" for our
prayers. He does not say "pray this prayer", but
instead says "pray in the way (manner)", indicating that
this a form on which we base our prayers. Before
we go any further, I need to point out to you that
simply reciting the Lord's Prayer is not the same as
praying in the same way as the Lord's Prayer.
While the Lord's Prayer is a powerful prayer when coming
from the heart of a believer, simply saying it by rote
does no good. It is the heart that God is
concerned with, not just the words that come from the
mouth.
So what does the Lord's Prayer teach us? Well, it
is the first lesson in learning to pray effectively!
First, we call upon our Father, acknowledging Him as
Father being in Heaven. Next we give glory to His
Name by calling it hallowed.[a] Then we
tell Him we want His Kingdom to come to earth, which is
similar to praying "come Lord Jesus".[2] After this
we ask that His Will be accomplished here on earth in
the same perfect manner that i is in Heaven. In
other words, we ask Him to be the absolute ruler of earth
like He is the absolute ruler in Heaven. This
means that Jesus has returned, and Satan is chained.[3]
After we have given Glory and Honor to Him, and asked
that His Will be done, we then ask for our needs to be
met, followed by asking for forgiveness of sins and
promising that we have forgiven others the same way He
forgives us. The we ask to be delivered from
temptation and evil. In closing we acknowledge His
everlasting Kingdom, Power, and Glory.
This type of prayer is what we are to do when we are
behind closed doors and are kneeling before our God,
glorifying Him and presenting our petitions to Him.
But are there other types of prayer? In fact,
there are, and two are very important to the Christian
who wishes to be revived and to live a Christ centered,
Spirt filled life.
The next type of prayer that is very important to us is
constant communion. Paul speaks of constantly
praying and giving thanks in everything.[4] This is
constant communion and communication with God. How
does one accomplish this? Quite simply it is
training yourself to talk to God about everything that
is going on in your life at the moment. Talk to
him in your mind like you are talking to a friend.
Comment on the things around you, ask Him to bless
people you see having a hard time, immediately ask
forgiveness for every little sin both mental or
physical, and ask His help with all the things you face.
Along with this, thank Him for each and every little
thing that goes your way.
By staying in constant communion with God, you leave
little of no openings for the Devil to show up and mess
up your life. This does not mean that you will not
be tempted, for you surely will, but when you are in the
mode of constant communication with God you immediately
recognize the temptation, ask for strength from Him, and
then talk with Him about it, while using His Word to
fight off the Devil and his ilk. In this way you
avoid many sins. Constant prayer is "walking with
God" and will bring you into the fullness of your
Christian life.
When you walk in this constant communion you will find
that God lightly convicts you of sin and you immediately
repent. Tired of God having to strongly chastise
you? Get into constant communion with Him!
Praying once a day is like a roller coaster going up and
down; you get really down, and they you go pray.
Wouldn't it be much better to stay in communication with
God so that your sins are immediately forgiven and you
are in His presence all the time? Then when you go
to your closet to pray you will have few things that you
need forgiveness for, and instead can focus on honoring
Him, asking for your needs to be met, and seeking help
for others that need it.
It is virally important that when you read His Word and
meditate on it that you pray for understanding.
This is a part of this constant communion; in that you
read His Word and ask that He show you what it means and
how to apply it to your life. When you read the
Word without seeking understanding from God, Satan will
show up as that angel of light and try to misinterpret
the Bible to you, twisting its meanings.
There are many aspects to prayer, such as praying over
others, that are part of the life of the revived
Christian. From the viewpoint of being revived
there is one more very important type of prayer and that
is the groaning of the Spirit.[5] This is a much
overlooked part of the prayer life of the Christian
seeking revival and also of the revived Christian.
Paul makes it very plain that we do not always know how
to, or what to, pray for. This is because of our
weakness. Our flesh is weak and sinful, our minds
are weak but are being renewed, and even our spirt is
weakened as it is attached to the flesh and the mind.
We will worship and pray perfectly when we stand before
our Lord and Savior, but while in this flesh it will be
imperfect, and we need the Holy Spirit to help us.
So, have you evey had the Holy Spirit intercede for you
with groanings? I know I have! There have
been times that I was so ashamed and horrified of my
sinful behavior that I cried and begged God to forgive
me, and it turned into sobbing and groaning. I
know what I wanted but could not put it into words and
so the Holy Spirit prayed for me, knowing what I needed
better than I did, and could ask perfectly for that.
The last time I prayed like this was a few months back
as my mom was so far gone with dementia that she could
no longer recognize us, nor could she eat or drink much.
I knew it was time for her to go on to Heaven, but to
pray for her death was so hard. I ended up crying
and groaning in prayer as the Holy Spirit gave the
perfect prayer, unutterable by a human tongue, to God in
asking for Him to take care of my Mom. God took
her home in His good time, not too long after this.
I was comforted that before her dementia was this bad I
was able to do a communion service with her, letting her
take the sacrament one last time, even though she could
not go to Church anymore.
This type of prayer is the most effective prayer there
is as it is perfectly said according to the Will of God
by the His Holy Spirit. What prayer could be
better than one designed by God and tailored to the
specific need that you have at the moment? Stop
and think how gracious is our Lord that He sends His
Spirit to help and comfort us, and when we don't know
what to ask God for His Spirit will step in and pray for
us, so that we receive His perfect will! That is
an amazing thing about God that many people never
realize. If you don't know how to pray for
something, He will do it for you, so that He may honor
your prayer!
Just like getting sin out of your life, so prayer is
vital to your wellbeing as a Christian. Do you
want to understand God's Word? Pray. Do you
need help in your life? Pray. Do you have
sins that need to be forgiven? Pray. Do you
want to help others? Pray. There is no
aspect of the Christian life that is not affected by
prayer. Do you want to avoid temptaiton?
Pray!
Praying according to the forms that Jesus gave us is
vital, as He instructed us on what to pray for.
Not just for forgiveness, but also to honor and glorify
God. This form of prayer is words for Jesus mouth,
Him being the Living Word, meaning that the Lord's
Prayer is the Word of God with all the associated power.
However, we should not just quote it, but we should use
it as a blueprint for our prayers.
Pray without ceasing. Pray always. Stay in
communion with God all the time about everything in your
life.
Let the Holy Spirit pray through you when you don't know
what to pray for so that your prayers are good before
the Lord.
The revived Christian must have a strong and effective
prayer life. As we go forward on the what and how
of the revived Christian it is necessary that you have a
strong prayer life or you will find that attempting the
Lord's work will be a complete failure. You cannot
fight in a war where you do not give information to ,
and receive information from, the Commander. So it
is with the Christian that would seek to do the Lord's
Work. You must have constantly open communication
lines, perform those communications in the way the
Commander wants, and use an interpreter for those
communicatons as needed!
As you go through the next week, keep these thoughts in
mind. Attempt to stay in constant communication
with God, address Him as He desires, and let His Spirit
lead you and assist you.
It is my hope that this second part will help you move
closer to God and spark the start of a revival that will
set first, your heart, then the world on fire for Him!
Father in Heaven, all-powerful creator, you
know my needs and can fulfil them. I come before
you to ask that you forgive all my sins, those I
remember and those that I do not. Father, teach me to
pray so that I may be an effective warrior against Satan
and his demons. Father I ask that your Holy Spirit
guide me in prayer and assist me as needed to pray as
You would have me do. Father, I ask that your Holy
Spirit remind me constantly to pray always so that I
maintain communion with you at all times. Father I
ask that you bring your Kingdom to earth soon, as we all
suffer under the curse and look forward to the coming of
Your Only Begotten Son to reign over all the earth.
Father I ask that you Holy Spirit convict each person
that reads this message and that Your Word will touch
their hearts and bring about a true revival in them that
will spread into the world, driving out the darkness
with Your Holy Light. Amen.
Next week we will move into the third "night" of
Revival with the next step in bringing His Glory to our
lives with "Gear Up!".
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[a]Hallowed means made holy or consecrated.
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