Habbits Of Effective Christian Living Part 1
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A) Prayer:
Prayer is the foundation of everything accomplished for the kingdom of God.
Without prayer, we are reduced to our human strength, wisdom, and resources.
If Jesus had a prayer life to the Father how much more do we!
What happens when we pray and nothing seems to ever happen. We need to adjust our prayers or even our whole prayer life.
We find one of the answers to unanswered prayer in Mark 9
14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them.
15 And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him.
16 And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?”
17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute.
18 And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.”
19 And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.”
20 And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.
21 And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood.
22 And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
23 And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”
24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”
26 And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.”
27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
28 And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?”
29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
Jesus gave us a model of prayer to build our prayer lives. Matt 6
9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
We see 5 different kinds of prayer here:
The petitioners prayer: Verse 10
If we receive anything from God it must align with His will.
A) FIRST ask God if He’s in it. Then ask God if its for you. Then ask for timing, then ask how to proceed.
b) Luke 22:42
42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
2. The providers prayer: Verse 11
Lillian Trasher and her orphanage in Egypt taught the children how to pray for their daily bread and food would come for those hundreds of children supernaturally.
3. Pardoners prayer: Verse 12
Forgiveness of sin and forgiving others. Unforgiveness is sin in our hearts.
18 If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear;
Prayer can be ruled ineffective if we allow sin to remain in our hearts.
4. The protectors prayer: Verse 13
How many times have we could have avoided falling into sinful practices or acting out in the flesh if we would have prayed this prayer?
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,
That’s the provision that God has made for every believer, but we have to come and acknowledge our need of Him.
5. The praiser’s prayer: Verse Verse 9
The praise we owe Him for bringing us into His family. The prayer starts with and ends with complete focus on God and His authority. Verse 10 and 13
Praise includes thankfulness and appreciation. Show me a person who isn’t thankful and I’ll show you a person who is self-centered, bitter, and unhappy.
Show me a person who lives with gratitude, and I promise you that person has the Joy of the Lord and is living in victory.
We can talk about prayer, we can write about prayer, we can read about prayer. But unless we get down to the business of praying, nothing’s going to change.
B) Read God’s Word
We’ve been talking about the Holy Spirit the last couple of weeks but what’s His main job? It’s to drawn attention to Jesus and His words.
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
The Holy Spirit cannot bring to remembrance what we haven’t studied in the Word.
Without daily immersion in the Word, we become malnourished.
We are not only to study God’s word on our own but also with one another.
We are to meditate on the Word. Means to chew, to digest, and to spend time in the Word so that its deepest truths can be discerned.
Meditation isn’t reading through the Bible as fast as you can but it could mean taking a few scriptures to focus on throughout the day.
Its asking yourself what is God speaking to me today right now through the Bible? How does this apply to me today?
162 I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil.
Are we rejoicing today?
How can we be assured our faith, doctrine, and beliefs are Biblical? They must be tested by the Scripture.