We are in a spiritual battle. We need to develop a strong prayer life. As it’s been said, “Little prayer, little power; much prayer, much power.” I like to take prayer walks to “fetch power” from God for you, for myself, my family and others. If you don’t already have a daily prayer habit of walking, standing, sitting, kneeling, etc in battle, I want to encourage you to begin one. I don’t mean a little polite prayer, but a time for warfare prayer. I like to go to private places where I can even get loud with the Lord in prayer (Heb.5:7). We are wrestling against spiritual forces of wickedness that have hell-holds on men of spiritual lies and passivity. Cry out to God with me that these hell-holds would be broken, that God would give us multiplying MANLY men. Envision the majority of the men in our congregation that are only there Sunday morning as bound by the enemy. Then focus on a few by name. Fight the good fight of the faith. Wrestle in prayer- pry loose with determined prayers those hell-holds that men might stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. As I see the spiritual lack of desire and weakness in men, I pray that God will help us model the following and that God will give you the following kind of men- Power HOUSE men who have been lit by the flame of God's Spirit.
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Power HOUSE men are:
Hungry- I hunger for your word. I don’t have to be pushed to read it.
Obedient- I desire to do your will O my God, your law is within my heart.
Unstoppable- No matter how busy my day, I will read and share with my brothers.
Strong in the Lord- I am weak, but I find my strength and identity in Christ.
Encouraging- I know the enemy seeks to discourage others, so I will encourage them a lot.
Added thoughts on Prayer
When praying publicly, beware of praying long prayers. Give others a chance. Also beware of the vain repetition of certain words such as “Father God, Jesus just...” Would you use a friend’s name repeatedly in a few sentences as you talked to him?
Also, you don’t have to always end your prayers with, “In Jesus’ name, Amen.” Surprisingly, there are no prayers in the Bible that end that way. What that means is that we are approaching our Father in the name or merits of his Son. We believe Jesus would sign his name to our requests.
Praying doesn’t simply mean asking. At times your time of prayer might be dominated by singing or thanking him. Speaking of singing, cultivate a list of good God exalting songs to sing to him. Even if you only remember a bit of the song, that’s great fuel for the fire of worship. (Pet peeve of mine: songs that are misleading- "I wanna hear voices of angels singing" Ugh, I'd either be dead or crazy! "Wrap me in your arms..." That hasn't happened yet to me. What are we teaching believers to expect? We have become such a feelings generation. Where are the manly songs about standing fast in the battle? Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. :)
Incorporate more thanks in your life and praying. When you're about to ask for something, first see if you can include a related note of thanks. So instead of simply asking God to heal a sick person, you might pray, "Thank you Lord that you are the Great Physician. Thank you for so many days of health you have already given us. Help the sick and his family members to trust you in the midst of this." Also, instead of praying, "Lord, please go with us as we travel," we could pray, "Thank you Lord that you go with us as we travel. Help us to rest in you." By the way, why not pray that we would be good reflections than just for protection? Just a thought.
Seek to cultivate your prayer life for the rest of your life. Read articles about prayer and read the weekly prayer blog. (Please express thanks to your prayer partners from time to time.) Our lines of communication with our King is something that the enemy greatly attacks. Protect your prayer life. It's a big rock that is so easy to neglect. The word of God and prayer are such mighty weapons- they are the sword of the Spirit and the spear of the Spirit.
So as you know, to help us be faithful in prayer as God calls us to be, you are rewarded and honored for being daily in it on our GREAT scoreboard. The letter A stands for a crucial ingredient of prayer- ASK! (Ask, Seek, Knock- the three words Jesus stressed in Mt.7:7- "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.") As you blog each day, remember to give yourself credit for having had a vital time in prayer since you last commented on the blog. The letter A also stands for Attack, that you carried out your mission to Attack hell-holds with prayer. You didn't just pray a "Thank you for this day and for my food" generic prayer. You also prayed some warfare prayers. I'm not concerned about the length of your prayers, but the depth of your prayers and the focus on your prayers. Keep crying out for hell-holds of apathy to be broken and for God to give us Power HOUSE men to join in the war of wars.
Also, you don’t have to always end your prayers with, “In Jesus’ name, Amen.” Surprisingly, there are no prayers in the Bible that end that way. What that means is that we are approaching our Father in the name or merits of his Son. We believe Jesus would sign his name to our requests.
Praying doesn’t simply mean asking. At times your time of prayer might be dominated by singing or thanking him. Speaking of singing, cultivate a list of good God exalting songs to sing to him. Even if you only remember a bit of the song, that’s great fuel for the fire of worship. (Pet peeve of mine: songs that are misleading- "I wanna hear voices of angels singing" Ugh, I'd either be dead or crazy! "Wrap me in your arms..." That hasn't happened yet to me. What are we teaching believers to expect? We have become such a feelings generation. Where are the manly songs about standing fast in the battle? Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. :)
Incorporate more thanks in your life and praying. When you're about to ask for something, first see if you can include a related note of thanks. So instead of simply asking God to heal a sick person, you might pray, "Thank you Lord that you are the Great Physician. Thank you for so many days of health you have already given us. Help the sick and his family members to trust you in the midst of this." Also, instead of praying, "Lord, please go with us as we travel," we could pray, "Thank you Lord that you go with us as we travel. Help us to rest in you." By the way, why not pray that we would be good reflections than just for protection? Just a thought.
Seek to cultivate your prayer life for the rest of your life. Read articles about prayer and read the weekly prayer blog. (Please express thanks to your prayer partners from time to time.) Our lines of communication with our King is something that the enemy greatly attacks. Protect your prayer life. It's a big rock that is so easy to neglect. The word of God and prayer are such mighty weapons- they are the sword of the Spirit and the spear of the Spirit.
So as you know, to help us be faithful in prayer as God calls us to be, you are rewarded and honored for being daily in it on our GREAT scoreboard. The letter A stands for a crucial ingredient of prayer- ASK! (Ask, Seek, Knock- the three words Jesus stressed in Mt.7:7- "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.") As you blog each day, remember to give yourself credit for having had a vital time in prayer since you last commented on the blog. The letter A also stands for Attack, that you carried out your mission to Attack hell-holds with prayer. You didn't just pray a "Thank you for this day and for my food" generic prayer. You also prayed some warfare prayers. I'm not concerned about the length of your prayers, but the depth of your prayers and the focus on your prayers. Keep crying out for hell-holds of apathy to be broken and for God to give us Power HOUSE men to join in the war of wars.
G.a.- Write out the above Power HOUSE acronym (Hungry, Obedient, Unstoppable, Strong in the Lord, Encouraging) on your MP3 card. Memorize it and pray it often for yourself, our team and your future protégés. This is how to wrestle in prayer against the hell-holds of spiritual apathy, so that men may “stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” Col.4:12.
G.b.- Read Eph.6:10-20. Then write on your MP3 card this manly passage- “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but…against the spiritual forces of evil…” Eph.612 NIV. (I cut it short so that we could easily remember it. Feel free to work on the entire verse if you wish.)
G.c- How many individuals or groups did you share the riches on your MP3 card with since you posted yesterday?
R?
E?
A?
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