5 Golden Nuggets For Maintaining A Healthy Prayer Life

Introduction

Thank you so much Lady Cynthia and Pastor Lora and the Power of Faith Ministries International Church for the invite. I appreciate each one of you for jumping on tonight to hear from someone many of you have never heard of before. So I applaud you for showing up tonight! I am so excited to be here to share with you the importance of maintaining a healthy prayer life. I want you to get your notepads, journals and pens and invest in yourself tonight. This will go by really fast and I want to make sure you take something away that you can keep going back to. Is that alright? I want you to know I didn’t just roll over one day and start praying. God begin working on me as a little girl and as I grew up I remember being called to pray. While in college we would host powerful prayer meetings in our dorm rooms when we didn’t even know what we were doing but God met us. See when you love God he shows up. So let’s get started, Just like our physical bodies need nurturing, and exercise to stay healthy our spiritual bodies need the same nurturing and exercise. Prayer builds spiritual muscle and without it we are weak to the attacks, the snares, and tricks of the enemy. God’s word tells us that we should “pray without ceasing” that means be constantly building our spiritual muscles. See the enemy is always on his job seeking whom he may devour but through prayer we strengthened the hedge around us and our families and we develop power to cause phenomenal things to happen. Prayer is the vehicle that will get you to your destination and the blessing that make rich and add no sorrow. I have to say, I absolutely love God and I’m crazy about entering into His gates with Thanksgiving and His courts with praise. I haven’t always been this way. There were times in my life where I found myself broken, desolate, disconnected, depleted and depressed. I know without a shadow of a doubt that Prayer shattered glass ceilings and caused walls of hindrance, frustration and stagnation to fall off of my life. It was in my moments of weakness that God’s strength was perfected through the power of prayer. It was when I was weak, He was made strong. See, a broken and a contrite spirit is His delight. Does He want us broken? No! Absolutely not, but He knows what He can do when you are at your lowest and weakest point. His plans for us are good and not eveil to give us hope and a future. So I want to to share a few tips or what I call “5 Golden Nuggets for Maintaining a Healthy Prayer Life” one that yields fruit and releases the blessings of God.

Prayer is a two way street its us communicating with our Father in heaven and our Father communicating back to us. Many people ask “How do you hear His voice?” my response “it’s that still small voice in your head nudging you to go left when you want to go right, it’s that voice telling you to let go of the hurt and forgive when you don’t think the person is worthy, is that voice tellin you to give more when you only want to give a little. It’s that voice telling you to let go of something when you want to hold onto to it. It’s that voice that wakes you up in the morning and says “talk to me, draw close to me” instead of logging onto FaceBook or IG first. See God is always talking, but our ears are not in tune with His voice. We choose to silence Him with the noisyness of our busyness…so what can we do?

The bible says:

Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

1st Golden Nugget- Make Time for Him First

Make time for Him first. When you show Him that He is first, He can trust you to make you first. His word says “seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Set aside time in His presence so that he can pour into you. His word says His mercies are new every morning. Come on say it out of your mouth “I want the new mercies”. I want to feast on the daily bread that God has ordained for me to have. Putting him in the right position and making him a priority allows him to reign supreme. So put Him first and allow Him to release precious downloads that will impact your entire day.

2nd Golden Nugget- Read His Word

Read His word. God’s word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our pathway. It is our roadmap. We cannot know where we are going without it. When you read His word, you find answers, you find strength, you find joy, you find peace, you increase your faith. And Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You must read His word to stretch your faith. We all have heard the scripture “without Faith it’s impossible to please God”. We must increase our daily intake of His word. Come on let’s say it “I want to please you Lord, increase my desire for your word”. Reading His word allows your path to be illuminated. There have been moments during prayer when His word will just begin to spill out and that only happens when you have put the word inside of you. That leads me to the next golden nugget.

3rd Golden Nugget- Apply His Word in Prayer

Apply His Word in Prayer. God didn’t just give us words on a paper to inspire us, but to call us to action. Prayer is an activator! It calls us to move into the things of God. Many people say “I don’t know what to say, or where to start?” and that’s okay. Open your bible to Psalm 23 “The Lord is my Sheppherd I shall not want He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me. You rod and your staff they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil my cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You see how those words just begin to stir your spirit. Because His word is Life!

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart Oh God and renew a right spirit within me. Many of these writings are prayers. As you pray His word, it will come to life and bring life. One thing God cannot and will not do is ignore His word. It changes you from the inside out. Have you heard the saying “you are what you eat?” Then let’s eat the word! and become walking, living, breathing word. When you apply the word, you allow the word to do the work. Come on let’s say that together “Let the word do the work” it will not return void but it will accomplish everything it’s sent out to do.

4th Golden Nugget-Posture Matters

Now, this is not just how you pray (sitting, standing, laying, kneeling, walking or driving in your car)…just a side note one of my favorite places to meet God is in my car, I am a mother of 4 young children and a wife of 15 years so when I get a moment to myself after school drop offs or errands I am literally excited to meet God. You want to create an environment for him to meet you. Remember He’s always speaking so what posture am I referring to? It’s the posture of your heart. How is your heart postured when you come into the presence of God? Are you full of pride? Are you fearful of what He may say? Do you believe He is a rewarder of them that seek him diligently? Do you believe he’s a miracle working God? Do you believe that the God of the bible lives and wants to do greater works through us now? When your heart is open and yielded to God not only is He able to pour into you but He’s able to pour through you, let me say that again “ Not only will he pour into you, He will pour through you” that’s how you are able to intercede for others, that’s how the blessings are able to flow in your home. That’s how He’s able to impact families, neighborhoods, communities, regions, and nations! That’s the heart posture that will change this world! So let’s be mindful of our heart’s posture when we come into His presence. And it’s okay if you feel as if you have made mistakes, all of us have. When you pray that prayer “create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right spirit within me” that gives you a clean slate. You are positioned to hear and receive from God.

and the 5th and Final Golden Nugget- The Holy Spirit is Necessary

Say it with me “The Holy spirit is necessary” In John 14:16 Jesus says “I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper, that He may be with you forever” John 14:26 says But the advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and remind you of what God said. One facet of the Holy Spirit is the gift of tongues. The word says “the spirit itself makes intercession with moanings and groanings that cannot be uttered. I remember being in those prayer meetings and I would hear the Mother’s of the church “MMMM....yes Lord yes” OOHHHH…my soul says yes Lord! Have you ever been in the presence of God and had a loss of words? That’s a good thing, your spirit is crying out for you, making intercession to the Father who understands it all. When you allow God to take full control there’s a refreshing, a strength, a power that is released. Speaking in an unknown tongue is nothing to be afraid of and it shouldn’t be a topic of division in the body of Christ. It was created to deepen our communication with God the Father. If you desire to speak “Ask and it shall be given” our God is the giver of many gifts but you have to be open and comfortable with letting go and loosing control. I remember when I was 14 years old, I was at an Apostolic revival and people were going up asking to be filled with the Holy Spirit, back then they called it tarry service. Well, I come from a penecoastal background so tongues were not unfamiliar to me, however I still had a great deal of fear. Well, I pushed pass my fear to go up to the alter with a friend and one of the mother’s of the church took my hand and begin praying with me, as I allowed myself to let go in that moment…resisting the urge to retreat…no matter how different my words began to sound. God’s Holy spirit and the gift of tongues fell fresh upon me. So if this is something you desire, you can ask for it and I encourage you to ask for, Let Jesus take your words and turn them into a heavenly language. Speaking in an uknown tonuge will only strengthen your time with the Father and enhance your prayer life. Don’t fear just yield. Again, this is just one gifting of the Holy spirit; the Holy Spirit is multi-faceted. Paul said in I Corinthians 14:5 “I wish that all of you could speak in tongues but I would rather that you prophesy.Prosphesy is another gift of the spirit. Jesus reminds us that “whatever we ask when we pray believing we will receive” He will give you the desires of your heart. God desires for us to seek Him through prayer, through intimate conversation so that He can reveal His will for our lives. We want His kingdom to come, His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer brings His kingdom to earth. We want heaven on earth. So as I wrap up tonight remember

1-Make time for Him first Psalm 63:1 says “early will I seek you” I believe that not only applies to the time of day but seek him before the problem gets started, before the root of bitterness sets in, before the marriage is failing, before your faith begins to waiver

2- Read His word “If any of you lacks wisdom let him ask of God who gives liberally and does not hold back’’ Study to show yourself approved. His word has answers

3-Apply His word in Prayer- His word is quick powerful and sharper than any two edge sword. Let the word do the cutting and the equipping!

4-Posture Matters- Make sure you are positioned for breakthrough. Proverbs 4:23 says “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” We need to protect our hearts at all cost. His word also reminds us that “blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God say it with me “I want to see you Lord”

5- The Holy Spirit is Necessary- The comforter is available and he will teach you all things and remind you of what God said. Ask God to fill you with His spirit and give you all of His gifts. We have not because we ask not! His spirit will allow you to become more Christ Like. and take your prayer life to another level.

CLOSING

It is my hope that something has been said that will create a deeper dive into the presence of God. A yearning for His presence and everything that He wants to release. I would love to seal this word with a prayer on tonight, Lady Cynthia or Pastor Lora should I go ahead?