Effective Prayer

Story- George Mueller helped 10,000 orphans. fed, provided and invested in their spiritual formation. He recorded 50,000 answers to prayer. He said that he never prayed a prayer that wasn’t answered. He wanted the world to see what prayer alone would do.

George Mueller- Knowing the Will of God. Didn’t get in a hurry. He took time. 1. release your own Will. 9/10 of people don’t move out of the way. 2. Do not trust in feelings. 3. the Spirit and the Word must be combined. If the Holy spirit guides us, he’ll do it according to the Word.

What is prayer?

Dialogue with God- Listen and Talk as a son and daughter.

1 John 4:15–20 “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us.

Believe.

Love God has for you.

Story of what people tell me regarding God. Never- God saying yes, not right now and no. James 4:2–3 You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

Knowing how to talk to God, when to ask, when to be quiet.

Family- Dad and Mom. One teenager who needs money for something, but they come to Dad when He’s just home from work and has no context for the need- just asks for money. What is Dad going to say? Imagine a Mom who has just woken up, is getting her coffee and a child pops into the kitchen whining and demanding pancakes and bacon and then screaming that they never get fed when Mom tells them to wait. The same child goes to pet a puppy they just got and the puppy nips and the child blames the parent for getting a puppy.

Imagine the same family who has learned the “family laws” and the teenager waits until a good time to ask Dad for money. Dad is rested and its a weekend without pressing stress. The amount is a large sum to pay for some new clothes. They give the amount they need and maybe even throw in, “I have saved $100, but I just don’t have enough to cover the rest. Your my Dad, I need $200.” The child that wants breakfast comes to Mom and gives her a hug and says, “Thanks for always feeding me Mom.” Mom then asks, “Anything in particular you want to eat this morning?” When the puppy jumps or nips, the child says, “Sit!” and utilizes the training techniques she’s learned.

1 Timothy 2:1–3 -8 “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

Ephesians 6:18 “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,”

Ways to pray

Confession, Meditation, Praying in the Spirit- tongues. Effec- Never cease praying- we are a prayer.

Types of Prayer

Prayer of Committal

Salvation- Saying you believe, saying you commit to a course of action.

Jesus/ submitted His will for God’s Will.

Supplications

Asking

Like when Jesus asked God to make us One.

Paul would pray for the churches- that the eyes of their understanding be opened.

Prayer of Faith

It’s an element in prayer. James 1:5–6-8 “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a adouble-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Unbelief is the belief that your need is greater than God’s supply.

Faith is the belief that God’s supply is greater than your need.

FF Bosworth-“Don't doubt your faith; doubt your doubts, for they are unreliable.”

Prayer is an establishment of an answer.

How to know you are not in faith- you are tossed around, confused and insecure. The enemy tempts you to doubt. Such as “Your’e not doing something right, you have some sin that is keeping God for healing you, you left something out.”

Settle it in your heart.

Prayer of Asking and Receiving

Mark 11:22–25 “And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God. “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.”

Finished Work

Prayer of Agreement/ Bind and Loose

Matthew 18:18–20 “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind (permit) on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed (forbid) in heaven. “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

Church discipline.

We are gatekeepers- we allow certain things.

Jesus- on earth as it is in heaven.

Angels

Prayer of agreement is 2 people coming into agreement with something to bind or loose. - Spouses.

“ask” means to demand. Where 2 demand or enforce a law, consider it done. Go from “do” to “done”.

You have the Holy Spirit- so there is 2

Pray in a way that you reinforce what you settled. Many times, you need to evict the enemy. The enemy doesn’t just go away- he hangs around to see if you really mean it. Th problem is, we quit or think God said no.

We settle healing- then 2 days later the problem is still there, we are tempted to dig for sin we say “it’s not done.”

Intersession

Ezekiel 22:29 -30“The people of the land have practiced oppression and committed robbery, and they have wronged the poor and needy and have oppressed the sojourner without justice.I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall (make up a hedge) and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.

“Hedge of protection” its the man that is the hedge.

Saying “I set up a hedge” is as effective as saying “devil, I rebuke you.” Saying “rebuke” is not rebuking. He rebuked by telling the thing WHAT to do. Don’t say “I set up a hedge.” be the hedge.

Saying “ I set up a hedge.” is like telling God what you want Him to do, but God is long for someone one who will do what He’s told them to do. - like when you tell a child to wash dishes and then somehow you end up doing it.

Involves a conflict that must be confronted in the Spirit.

Meeting/ Face to Face- Abraham

The devil accuses. You silence the accuser with the Word of truth. Angles are messengers- they deliver God’s yes. What you say and do.

Ephesians- Armor of God.

Go to God with the Promise. You need to know what you’ve been promised. (If we have a need, $18,000)

Angels

When we line up with the will of God, it activates the forces of heaven.

Hebrews 1:7 “And of the angels He says, “Who makes His angels winds, And His ministers a flame of fire.”

Hebrews 1:14 “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” -

ministers a word to describe high level servers in opulent homes, execute the commands of others

Same word used when Jesus needs were met with angels after He was tempted. diakonia: deacon. They were there to meet whatever need Jesus had.

They are there to give us service. They are engaged when we speak God’s Word. Psalm 29:7 “The voice of the Lord hews out flames of fire.”

When we declare the Word in faith, Angels work on our behalf. (We can increase our sensitivity when we learn to live in the Spirit instead of carnality).

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels” 1 Co 13:1.

When we speak in tongues, the angels understand it. Angles are inactive unless we activate it.

Doing the Word- angles back you up.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Jesus and Lazarus- John 11:41-42 “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

Jesus prayed out loud so that people would know that God had done it.

This is the most powerful and how I mostly pray. Meditative prayer.

Give gratitude to God for people and situations- give thanks in advance for what is missing.

Agreement with God- not trying to get God to do something. It is agreeing with His will to bring it to pass. ex. If we are begging for revival- we are saying we want revival more than Him.

End result is to have peace.

Worshiping and Praising, Thank God for who He is, who He has been to you and thank Him ahead of time.

Praying in the Spirit/ Tongues

John G. Lake said speaking in tongues was the making of his ministry.

He would pray in tongues and then interpret it- his sermons.

How to Get every prayer answered:

1 John 5:14 -15 “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.”

We have the answer when God hears us.

John Wesley “ It appears God can do nothing on the earth unless he gets a man to pray.”

Prayer always always knows the answer before you even ask. God has provided all we need. We need to know how to access what we’ve been given.

You go before the throne-room confident that God hears you. You bring your requests already knowing the outcome. Faith is walking with God. It is not walking by what we feel- but by what God said.

Matthew 6:5–15 ““When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. “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.’

Matthew 6:33 ““But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Prayer should never be desperation or begging.

God to give what he already has. God has already given us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Our needs have been said yes to. If the answer is yes, then a prayer of request should look like Thanksgiving not asking.

Begging God should never be a part of our prayers- “I have never seen a righteous person forsaken or his children begging for bread.” We simply ask. We are the righteous.