Prayer Stations

Prayers of Consecration:

Thanks for coming today to this service of worship and prayer.  We’ve been talking about prayer – and especially the power of corporate prayer – the whole church praying together in a unified way – for 10 weeks now.

So we thought it might be a great opportunity to put some feet on all our learning about prayer and use our gathering time intentionally for that.

Our team has put together different prayer opportunities for you to experience and experiment with and I think if you approach each station with an expectant and open heart you will receive a blessing.

Before we start I want to lead us in some prayers of consecration:

Consecration is just a fancy word for: setting apart. Or fully devote for a particular purpose.

Sometimes in my house of hungry teenagers I might have to “consecrate” a particular treat - DO NOT EAT THIS - it’s for a special occasion.

We are designed, as humans, to belong to God. We are created in His image - to bear his image. Our design was to show what God looks like and to use our physical bodies to enact God’s work in a physical world.

The story of Adam & Eve in the garden reminds us that there is a temptation for each of us to desire to rule ourselves apart from God. We call that sin - and it comes up in our lives in all kinds of ways...from the very evil to the seemingly benign compromises we make with comfort or culture.

For those of us who follow Jesus - our ownership is not up for debate:

Galatians 2:20 ESV

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The consequences of sin - death - have been paid by Christ. In a figurative way we died because he bore our sin in his body on the Christ. And so now, as we live in the resurrection life - we live through Him.

But as I’m sure you’ve all experienced there is a battle to prevent us from living into the fullness of all Christ has done for us and because the enemy has no real authority over us because we are in Christ the only thing he can do is try to distract us, or lie to us about what God has done for us. Minimizing it, or presenting other ways to “save our selves”. These messages come through demonic our thoughts, through false teachings and worldview, through the temptation of our flesh.

The world. The Flesh. The Devil (Ephesians 2:2-3)

For this reason, it is valuable to daily take time to remind ourselves of what is true for us because of what Christ has done.

Daily consecration prayers include both:

Statements of what is true about God and our relationship to Him.

Recommitments to live for Him in this moment and day (including repentance).

I’ve made some copies of a really thorough daily consecration prayer for those who would like to look into that.

It is super long and wordy but I use it regularly and it really makes a difference in my Spirit when I do.

What I like about it is how carefully he moves through the various ways Christ has come to have transformation power in our lives:

Father/Creator

Redeemer - buy us back from sin

Cross, Blood & Sacrifice of Christ - breaks the power of sin through substitution invites us into covenant

Resurrection Life -

Jesus has Authority over all powers and dominions

Holy Spirit’s infilling guidance

and he also identifies every aspect of our being and offers it back to God.

“my spirit, mind, thoughts, imagination, gifting; my will, warrior, motive, and aim; my understanding, discernment, and perception; over my sexuality, sensitivity, heart, soul, body.”

Naming all these parts of us and offering them back to God in a tangible way helps to remind us that all that we are and all we do in the world comes from Him.

There are lots of ways we can pray consecration prayers. We can consecrate ourselves, our space (home, office etc.), our time, our talents and gifts. At the heart of it is just the desire to say: “Once again - today - all of me is yours God.”

So - as we start our time of prayer today I’m going to invite you to join me in a consecration prayer to prepare us to pray together.

Do you know the children’s song: “Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes?”

Well, this is kind of the Biblical version of that.

Armor of God:

Belt of Truth -

Breastplate of Righteousness

Shoes of the readiness of the Gospel of peace

Shield of faith

Helmet of salvation

Sword of the Spirit - Word of God