Commit to Change the Situation through Prayer (Part 5 of 14)

Commit to Change the Situation through Prayer (Part 5 of 14)

 

Don’t Stop Before You Even Begin! Get in There and Pray!

Commit to Change the Situation through Prayer

“Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand
to harass some from the church. Then he killed James the brother of John
with the sword. 
And because he saw that it pleased the Jews,
 he proceeded further to seize Peter also…
Peter was therefore kept in prison,
but constant prayer was offered
to God for him by the church.”

 Acts 12:1-3, 5

We know that prayer is our most powerful weapon. We preach it. We teach it. We speak it. We sing it. We write it. Nonetheless, often it’s either the last thing done, the thing done with little duration, or the thing done not at all. What’s going on? Are we lazy? Negligent? Unbelieving?

Certainly, I know there are moments like these and people like this. This book’s intent, however, isn’t to beat up on people; so I’ll let God handle any reprimands. Rather, I want to help those who know, or possibly only have an inkling, that prayer can help their situation, yet find themselves not praying. These people aren’t lazy, negligent, or unbelieving. There’s something else going on here.

Busyness, Tiredness, and Past Prayer Failures
Can Steal Prayer Time

There have been times when I planned to pray and later got so busy doing stuff that by the time I finished, I was exhausted. I’d either press through and get on my knees and promptly fall asleep, or I’d try to outsmart my tiredness by prayer walking in my room. Often that only transformed me from a lying mummy to a walking zombie! Not a lot accomplished.

I haven’t yet figured out how to be absolutely dead tired and pray with any real energy or duration. B…u…u…t I have discovered something useful. If I really want to pray, I have to deliberately take steps now to either not be dead tired later, or change my prayer time from later to now.

What Can You Stop, Start, or Modify to Save Time?

Write or type a list of your daily activities. Which are fixed and which are not? For instance, are you married? Do you have children? What about other obligations that aren’t going anywhere? Now do the same with activities where you have more discretion. How often do you do these things? For how long? Is there anything you can stop, start, or modify that will give you more time to pray? Can you cut sixty minutes a day? Thirty? Ten?

Do you know how much more powerful you would be in prayer if you offered ten more minutes a day of intelligent prayer to your heavenly Father who is just itching to show you His mighty power? Did you know that ten minutes a day comes out to sixty hours a year? The last thing Satan wants is for you to spend sixty hours in the presence of God your Father!

Maybe this short list will give you some practical ideas of how to find time to pray. Ask yourself can you stop, start, or modify any of these activities: cooking, cleaning, talking on the phone, surfing the web, reading, watching television, shopping, eating, sleeping, visiting, working, vacationing, lawn work, hobbies, etc. Believe God for ideas. If you want to pray, He’ll help you find time.

Most People Are Too Busy to Pray…Until a Crisis Makes Time for Them. Don’t Let This Be You!

Or perhaps your best course of action is to simply pray now rather than later. Can you pray as you drive to and from work? Driving to work is better than driving from work because now is always better than later. Can you go to the restroom and pray? I’ve had many, many, many awesome prayer sessions in the restroom. If you did this two or three times a day, you’d have significant breakthroughs in prayer. Can you get up earlier so you can pray? Next time you’re running an errand, can you pull over somewhere safe and cry out to God in prayer? You get the picture. Be aggressive and use your imagination. You won’t regret it!

Don’t Let Yesterday’s Prayer Failure
Stop You From Today’s Prayer Success

 If we define prayer failure as praying for something specific and spectacularly not getting it, then there’s nothing like a prayer failure to discourage you from praying like that again. It’s at this point that we cut back on praying. Or we may do the downward adjustment thing and only pray in safe, general terms. Nothing too specific. Nothing that will by its failure to come or refusal to go can embarrass us or damage our faith any more than it’s already damaged.

But in what field or industry do we find successful people who haven’t had to deal with setbacks, disappointments, and failures? As part of your quest toward regular answered prayers, and even spectacular prayer answers, you must learn to get off the mat and stand on your feet again. Okay, so you prayed for something and things didn’t turn out the way you hoped they would. Join the club. We’ve all been there. This changes nothing about the power, influence, and creativity of God to answer your next prayer.

The story in our opening Scriptures tell of a church crisis that was conquered through prayer. The apostle James was unjustly put in prison for his faith in Christ. I have to believe the church prayed for him. We’re talking eleven other apostles and thousands of converts in an on fire church. It would be a real stretch to assume they didn’t pray. And if they didn’t, James probably did. Wouldn’t you? Nonetheless, James was executed! This is big time prayer failure.

Next, King Herod put Peter in prison for the same purpose. “But constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.” God sent His angel and delivered Peter. That’s way beyond awesome. But here’s what’s also awesome. The church had just experienced a spectacular prayer failure. They had every reason in the world to throw in the prayer towel and say, “We prayed for James and his head is rolling down the street like a bowling ball. This stuff doesn’t work. I’m going back to praying for empty parking spaces at the mall.”

Instead, they refused to focus on their shock, grief, and unanswered questions. They focused instead on the unchanging character of God, and on His power, influence, and creativity to answer prayers. Son or daughter of God, you may have suffered devastating prayer failures, but God is still on the throne and Satan is still defeated. You don’t need to have every question answered before you get back in the win column.

What you do need is what the early church had. They trusted in God’s faithfulness and radically rearranged their schedules to offer prayer sufficient to meet the newest crisis. Let yesterday’s failure drive you to even greater levels of prayer!

Lessons Learned

Lesson One. I can ask God to help me examine my daily activities for areas I can start, stop, or modify things that will give me more time to pray. Even ten more minutes a day is sixty hours a year in the presence of God!

Lesson Two. Yesterday’s spectacular prayer failure doesn’t mean there aren’t many spectacular prayer answers in my future!

Practical Exercise

Pray, “Lord, what can I start, stop, or modify that will give me more time to pray.” Now with your eyes closed, wait before the Lord for a little while. Write down the thoughts that come.

If you found this post helpful, please use the buttons below to share it with others. Also, try one of my other articles on prayer by clicking here

If you want to grow in spiritual warfare and supernatural ministry, read about Eric’s School of Spiritual Warfare and Supernatural Ministry at ericmhillauthor.com. The school’s main forum is Facebook.com/groups/ericmhillauthor.

Copyright 2017 by Eric M Hill. You may contact me at ericmhillauthor@yahoo.com, Facebook.com/ericmhillauthor, or Twitter.com/ericmhillatl.

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Prayer: Knowing God’s Will When You Pray About a Mountain (Part 4 of 14)

Prayer: Knowing God’s Will When You Pray About a Mountain (Part 4 of 14)

 

You Don’t Need to Know Everything About the Mountain to Move It Through Prayer!

Knowing God’s Will
When You Pray About a Mountain

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him,
that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask,
we know that we have the petitions
that we have asked of Him.”

 1 John 5:14, 15

I heard the sigh of frustration. That’s one of the problems, isn’t it? Often we don’t know the will of God; so how can we pray in confidence, especially if the answer is delayed? Good news! God didn’t give you the promises above to tease or frustrate you. He wants your prayers answered.

How to Pray According to the Will of God

 Let’s begin with what’s not mysterious. There are innumerable Scriptures which tell us what to do and not do. For instance, 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “In everything [in, not for] give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

You don’t have to search for Scriptures like these; they’re everywhere. So are the others which don’t have “this is the will of God” in them, but nonetheless are as clear and directive as those that do. So it is entirely possible that the answer you’re searching for in prayer has already been revealed in the Bible. You may be able to cut down your prayer time considerably (at least for the object you’re presently praying) by aggressively searching the Scriptures. I suggest starting by carefully reading through Proverbs.

However, you won’t find a Scripture that says, “Marry Blake. He’ll make a great husband and father, and you’ll never regret your decision.” Sure, you will find a ton of Scriptures about relationships and marriage and commitment and so forth, but none of them will mention Blake. This is where things start feeling like a dangerous coin toss. Thank God, there’s a better way!

Is Your Prayer Paralyzed Because You Don’t Know What God Wants?

 Christians are often paralyzed in place, afraid to go left or right, for fear of missing God. Now waiting on God before big decisions is good, but when taken to an extreme, it works against our prayers. I’ve talked to Christians who purported to be so spiritual that literally everything about them was “Spirit led.” Sounds awesome; actually awful.

This one real example represents what I’m speaking of. A woman told me she was so led of the Spirit that she didn’t even dress herself until she was sure of the exact clothing God wanted her to wear. To me this is cringe worthy because my understanding of the Scriptures leads me to believe God gets glory from our growth in Him, and from the decisions that arise from that growth.

Super Spiritual Lady Waiting Hours for God to Tell Her What Clothes to Wear

God gets no glory from a daughter of God sitting in the closet waiting for Him to tell her what clothes to wear. This example may appear silly and a waste of space in a book this size; it’s not. It’s directly related to praying in the will of God.

Imagine the prayer life of a person who thinks like this. If she can complicate something as simple as what clothes to wear, prayer must be an exceeding complicated task for her. I know she’s an extreme case. And in all honesty, I’ve only dealt with a few people who go this far. Yet many Christians who would never ride the bus as far as this lady does, are in fact on her bus. And in my over thirty-five years of serving Christ, I’ve talked to bunches of Christians like this.

To illustrate, I read an article about mental illness. It discussed the different levels of mental illness. For the sake of simplicity, let’s say on a scale of one to ten, ten qualifies as the level where a person’s life is functionally disrupted and perhaps noticeable to others. The article went on to say that tens of millions of people are at levels that don’t reach the severity of ten, but are at high enough levels that they possess extremes in their emotions, judgment, and perspective. Functionally normal, but compromised.

Similarly, many otherwise outstanding Christians who don’t wait for God to tell them what clothes to wear each day do possess a milder version of this paralysis. They go about their lives routinely making hundreds of decisions, some of them quite important, based upon common sense, academic or specialized knowledge, Scriptural encouragement or prohibitions, growth in Christ and experience with God, among other things.

Nonetheless, often when it comes to seeking God for specific things in prayer that aren’t clearly spelled out in Scripture, they wipe the board clean and promptly forget everything they’ve been doing to this point.

They default to “I don’t know how to pray in this situation because I don’t know what God wants here.” And since they don’t know exactly what God wants, they can’t pray with the confidence spoken of our Scriptures, 1 John 5:14, 15.

I understand. Trust me. There are some situations that are so complicated and time critical and potentially far reaching in their effects that we don’t want to flip a spiritual coin and hope for the best. So I’m not blasting you for hesitating to thump the coin into the air. What I want you to see is you don’t have to call heads or tails. God has a better way. And it’s one hundred percent His will—always!

What Did Paul Do When He Didn’t Know Exactly What God Wanted?

I don’t believe we need to know exactly what God wants for us to do exactly what He wants. The apostle Paul wrote two-thirds of the New Testament and was, according to the Holy Spirit, the greatest of the apostles. He certainly knew what we call the great commission: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).

Yet we see him going about his missionary journeys in Acts 16:6-10 making what we might call mistakes or presumptuous decisions in his attempt to obey God. He tried to go into Asia (not our geographical Asia) and “they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel in Asia.” So they went to a place called Mysia and “tried to go into Bithynia, but the Holy Spirit did not permit them.”

Lord, I don’t know exactly what to do. But I know You don’t want me to just sit and do nothing. Please cover me with Your grace as I go forward.

What were the others thinking? “Wow, I’m trusting this guy with my life, and he has no idea what he’s doing. Why, he’s just flipping a coin!” Just when the board was about to call a secret meeting to discuss Paul’s inability to hear from God, Paul had a vision directing them to go to Macedonia.

How does this relate to you praying in confidence when you don’t know the exact will of God? Look at Paul. If we conclude that him knowing the exact will of God meant knowing which direction and destination to go, then he clearly didn’t know. Yet in the end, he arrived exactly where God wanted him. What happened for him can and will happen for you.

Paul didn’t know the exact details of what God wanted. So he started with the clear will of God: Go, preach the gospel in all the world. He took this general command and chose a way he could practically implement it. Yes, I’m sure he prayed first, but we know from the record that Paul’s prayers didn’t exempt him from having to forge ahead without customized directions.

He spent time, money, emotions, and work doing by principle what had not yet been revealed to him by revelation. Or in other words, sometimes you don’t get the big unmistakable, “Whoa, that was awesome!” confirmation that you were in God’s will until after you have tried to go into Asia and Bithynia.

Your Asia and Bithynia may be taking a timid step toward what you think may be God’s will. What if you’re wrong? So, what if you are wrong? Was Paul wrong for taking a step toward Bithynia and later Asia?

Did God reprimand him for using his initiative in the absence of customized instructions? No. He blessed him as long as he followed His general will. And when Paul’s initiative, which was in submission to God, brought him to a place God didn’t want him, God spoke clearly.

God is a fantastic communicator. If you get to a place where you are about to make a so-called wrong decision, whether it stems from your humanity or sinfulness, He’ll talk to you, too.

God Doesn’t Expect You to Know Everything When You Pray

 Here is something that has helped me and others hugely in our prayers. Paul was wrong only in the sense that he was human, and humans don’t know everything. Please hear and never forget this: God doesn’t expect you to know everything—even as you pray.

I like to tell people that failure is built into the system, and it doesn’t bother God one bit. I get this concept from the entire Bible, but specifically from 1 Corinthians 13:9, 12. Here it says we see through a glass, darkly, and we have only partial knowledge and partial effectiveness in spiritual gifts. Call it what you will, but this sounds like the perfect recipe for a bunch of mistakes and a bunch of unanswered questions.

Don’t worry about this context of imperfection we’re in. It’s just the way it is. It’ll be this way until the Lord returns. Drop to your knees. Submit yourself to God in humility. Tell Him you don’t have all the facts you’d like to have, but you’re going to use what you do have to make your petition.

You know that God is holy, righteous, just, loving, kind, and forgiving. You know that for some reason He has this crazy, irrational love for you. You know that the Scripture says, “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry,” (Psalm 34:15). You know that He has told you to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

God has set this thing up so that His glory and power is manifested through imperfect and often bumbling misfits who dare to trust Him to do the impossible. Soon you’ll be able to say with the psalmist, “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:4).

Come on, son or daughter of God. You can do it!

Lessons Learned

 Lesson One. The answer to my prayer may already be revealed in the Bible.

Lesson Two. Prayer paralysis is often caused by forgetting to use some of the principles we successfully use every day as we make decisions.

Lesson Three. If I don’t know the exact will of God, I can confidently follow the general will of God and what I know about Him until He chooses to reveal more details. My confidence in prayer is not in knowing exact details, but in knowing God.

Lesson Four. God doesn’t hold my humanity against me as I pray. I can boldly go to the throne of grace to get help even when I don’t know as much as I’d like to know about the situation or the exact details in God’s heart.

Practical Exercise

Pray out loud: “Lord, I don’t know as much as I’d like to know about this situation, but I now know You don’t expect me to know everything. Though I offer You my prayers with imperfect knowledge, I have faith that You hear me. As I pray, I’m watching and listening for any further light from You. Until I receive more, I will pray in faith with what I have.”

 

If you found this post helpful, please use the buttons below to share it with others. Also, try one of my other articles on prayer by clicking here

If you want to grow in spiritual warfare and supernatural ministry, read about Eric’s School of Spiritual Warfare and Supernatural Ministry at ericmhillauthor.com. The school’s main forum is Facebook.com/groups/ericmhillauthor.

Copyright 2017 by Eric M Hill. You may contact me at ericmhillauthor@yahoo.com, Facebook.com/ericmhillauthor, or Twitter.com/ericmhillatl.

Click on image below to get more information about my books!

5 Things That May Be Killing Your Prayers

5 Things That May Be Killing Your Prayers

Are You Killing Your Prayers with These Five Things? 

5 Things That May Be Killing Your Prayers

“Why can’t I get my prayers answered?”

You may be asking yourself that painful and puzzling question. Well, let’s take a look at five known prayer assassins and see if any of them are killing your prayers.

Prayer Killer Number One: Sin

There are thousands of promises in the Bible. It’s easy to grab one and believe God to fulfill it for us without considering that every promise of God is given within the context of our assumed obedience. Or in other words, the promises of God are for those who obey God.

This may come as a shock to many people. Especially since today’s popular presentation of God is depicted in such a way that it leaves us believing that we can do nothing to offend God. And then even if there is such a thing as offending God, we’re told His great love for us compels Him to overlook our behavior and give us what we desire.

This may attract large crowds and increase our popularity (with people, not with God), but it’s one hundred percent wrong! The biblical record of God from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation, is that God is inherently, uncompromisingly holy, righteous, and pure, and that He demands obedience.

Yes, our holiness, righteousness, and purity comes from the accomplishments of Christ in His sinless life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection. However, we must be careful that we don’t convince ourselves, or allow false teachers to convince us, that Jesus lived right so we don’t have to. Or that because of Jesus obedience is now an option.

Let’s conclude this section with just a few Scriptures that prove my point.

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.

Isaiah 59:1-2

“But that’s the Old Testament,” you say. “I’m under grace.”

Ooo…kaaay, so the first thirty-nine books of the Bible don’t apply to you? I disagree, but I’ll use a Scripture that we both hopefully agree applies to you.

And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

1 John 3:22

This is a crystal clear New Testament declaration that obedience to God is required of anyone who approaches God with a request.

Living in sin can kill your prayers.

God Had Mercy On You, But You’re Not Going to Have Mercy on Others? Really? Good Luck with Those Prayers!

Prayer Killer Number Two: Unmerciful

Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7).

The obvious opposite of this statement is that those who are not merciful shall not receive mercy. Of course, many of our prayers require mercy to be answered. But if our behavior has cut off our mercy, then we have killed our prayer.

This is a difficult concept for some Christians to accept. Especially those who are victims of the false grace message. Nonetheless, it is true.

Jesus told a parable about a slave who owed his master a huge debt. This slave asked his master for mercy, and the master graciously forgave him the debt. Yet this same slave was owed a much smaller amount of money by another slave. Instead of having mercy and forgiving the debt, as his master had done for him, he had the slave thrown into prison.

Look at the sobering progression of this story in Matthew 18:31-34:

So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him,

‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’

And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.

 “Wow,” you say, “glad I’m under grace, and my heavenly Father would never do that to me!

Oh, really? Let’s look at the last verse:

So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.

 Being unmerciful can kill your prayers.

Prayer Killer Number Three: Unforgiveness

Unforgiveness and lack of mercy are similar, but not the same. For one can be unmerciful to someone without being unforgiving toward them. There simply may not have been an offense to not forgive.

For instance, Jesus told a story about a man who had been beaten, robbed, and left for dead on the side of the road. A couple of groups of religious people passed by, saw the man, and did nothing to help (Luke 10:25-37).

They were unmerciful, but not necessarily unforgiving. They didn’t know the guy. (And didn’t want to know him!)

Unforgiveness, however, has the element of offense, either real or imagined. The offended person refuses to forgive. What does Jesus specifically say about such a person’s chances of getting their prayers answered?

And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.

Mark 10:25-26

Living in unforgiveness will kill your prayers.

 Prayer Killer Number Four: Strife

The strife that kills prayer is the kind that either originates or ends in sin. It is more than disagreement. It is more than heated disagreement. It’s disagreement without the character of Christ. It’s disagreement without humility and love and self-control.

Strife Kills Prayers. Don’t Let It Kill Yours!

James talks about the futility of offering prayers in an atmosphere of strife:

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members [body]? You lust and do not have. You murder [God calls hatred murder] and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

James 4:1-3

 A few verses later, He tells these striving Christians that “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (v. 6). Now if God is the one resisting you, who is left to answer your prayers?

Strife kills prayers.

Prayer Killer Number Five: Impatience

Impatience is a great killer of prayers. Perhaps that’s’ why there is so much teaching in the Bible about being patient in prayer, and so many graphic examples of people in the Bible receiving spectacular answers to prayer—once they paid the price of waiting.

The writer of Hebrews captured this critical thought with only two verses:

Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance [patience], so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

Hebrews 10:35-36

Abraham was called the friend of God because he believed God (James 2:23). Read the narrative of Abraham’s life (Genesis 12-22) and you’ll see that this refers to more than him being declared righteous because he believed God one day.

It includes that. But it refers primarily to him patiently waiting on God for at least twenty-five years to keep His promise to give him a son when his body couldn’t produce a child.

It also included his willingness to give that son back to God twelve years later, and if necessary, to believe God to physically raise that child from the dead if that’s what it took for Him to keep His promise to give him a son. That’s thirty-seven years of believing God for a promise. No wonder he’s called the father of our faith!

Unfortunately, most Christians pray and don’t have the stamina to wait on God for the prayer to be answered.

Impatience kills prayers.

Now the Good News!

Let’s not end this thinking of the many ways we can mess up in prayer. Instead let’s end it thinking not of our many weaknesses, but of God’s great desire to give us more than we can imagine, and of His infinite ability to perfect us and get us to the place where our prayers are unhindered:

You Are Not Alone in Your Journey Toward Answered Prayer. God Will Help You!

Do not fear little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Luke 12:32

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.

Jude 24-25

Lord, I ask You to help everyone who has read this article to humbly consider any area of their lives that need correcting. I include myself in this prayer, Lord. Help us to repent of any known sin. If there are areas of darkness in our lives that we don’t know of yet, open our eyes to the truth. And once our eyes are open, help us to immediately turn from darkness to light.

Lord, if we are unmerciful or unforgiving, we repent this very moment. For You have so graciously shown us Your great mercy in offering us forgiveness. And if we are in strife with anyone, we offer that situation up to You. We will not press for our rights in an ungodly way.

Finally, help us to have patience as we wait for our prayers to be answered. In faith we believe that “the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry” (Psalm 3414-15).

Be encouraged! The Holy Spirit is your Helper! It’s going to be alright!

***

If you found this post helpful, please use the buttons below to share it with others. Also, try one of my other articles on prayer by clicking here

If you want to grow in spiritual warfare and supernatural ministry, read about Eric’s School of Spiritual Warfare and Supernatural Ministry at ericmhillauthor.com. The school’s main forum is Facebook.com/groups/ericmhillauthor.

Copyright 2017 by Eric M Hill. You may contact me at ericmhillauthor@yahoo.com, Facebook.com/ericmhillauthor, or Twitter.com/ericmhillatl.

Click on image below to get more information about my books!