Tag: Prayer

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Prayers of Thanksgiving; The Revelation of Joyful Intercession.

Glancing through the New Testament, you can miss the author’s different writing styles that are deeply embedded through each Chapter. Coming from someone who is passionate about writing and speaking for the glory of God, I know that your heart is displayed through the words that are written. The Holy Spirit revealed a part of the Apostle Paul’s heart through a common theme in almost every single letter that he wrote.

“We are grateful to God for your lives and we always pray for you.” 1 Thessalonians 1:2 (TPT)

“I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” Philippians 1:3-5 (CSB)

“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith is being reported in all the world.” Romans 1:8 (CSB)

“I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in him in every way, in all speech and all knowledge.” 1 Corinthians 1:4-5 CSB

Do you see the common occurrence that Paul’s writing reveals about his heart? Paul’s writing reveals while praying for others, giving thanks is essential. He not only is giving thanks for those people but is giving thanks to God for what he is doing in the hearts of man. Confession time: I have fallen into a pattern of intercession that has felt burdensome. I was deeply focused on what needed to change. Thankfully, Philippians gives us direction in the arena of prayer.

“Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Phillippians 4:6 (CSB)

Have you missed the mark like me and went into intercession without thanksgiving? The results of not thanking God for what he is currently doing zaps us of joy. We are focused on the problem, rather than the one who holds the solution. We are zoomed in on what needs to happen rather than the one who making all things happen. Prayer without thanksgiving blinds us to what God is doing in and through us and others. The definition of joy is to have an awareness of God’s grace and favor. Praying with joy is giving worthy recognition to God’s for his favor and grace at work! Do we purpose to be joyful intercessors?

I believe there is a time and place of mourning in prayer over the wickedness of this world and things that grieve the Holy Spirit. However, Holy Spirit has made it clear, there is a time and a place of joyful intercession too. Being a joyful intercessor can only be done through being purposeful in acknowledging God’s grace and favor at work in our lives.

I am so thankful for the Word of God and that Paul’s letter’s reveal his heart through his prayer life. Thanksgiving and joyful intercession not only better our prayer life but our relationships too. When we start coming into prayer with a thankful heart concerning the coworker that gives us trouble, a parent who does not understand, or a child who seems to be going wayward; It shifts our perspective. Our eyes and hearts are awakened to God’s love that is interwoven in the details of our lives, even in the situations that seems impossible.

More Scripture To Meditate On:

  • 2 Thessalonians 1:4
  • 2 Timothy 1:3
  • Colossians 4:2
  • 1 Timothy 2:1

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Bringing Heaven To Earth -Binding And Loosing (Video)

Bringing Heaven To Earth (Binding & Loosing)

🗝“But you,” he asked them, “who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus responded, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.”
Matthew 16:15‭-‬19 CSB
🗝Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices Will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
Isaiah 56:7 NKJV
🗝He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.” This stone that I have set up as a marker will be God’s house, and I will give to you a tenth of all that you give me.”
Genesis 28:17‭, ‬22 CSB

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Boldly Speaking-Laying It All Down Before The Lord

Since the miscarriage just over a week ago, I have been battling for what seems like my life. There is the heaviness of a broken heart rather than a peace. I have been sober for 3 years but have been tempted to take back up old ways of living. People mean to support you but tend to say the wrong thing which brings you to a deeper place of sadness. It is a dark place to be. I feel misunderstood and not heard. I feel heartbroken. This place is a place that I have not been in for a long time, these are circumstances that I never have dealt with, and truth be told I have no idea what I am doing.
What has came naturally is writing. It is so much easier for me to write rather than speak. The words just seem to flow when I sit down and begin to type. And once again I am reminded that there is never a moment that God does not use and this will not be wasted.

I was able to have some quiet time with God this morning and it was so refreshing to hear what he was speaking:

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.  Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.” -Hebrews 4:15-16 CSB

I am weak and I am okay with admitting this. Losing our child after years of praying and standing in faith is by far the hardest thing I have had to deal with in my walk with God. It is an emptiness that I have never felt before. When you are used to overflow, just getting by seems treacherous. The devil has really tried to keep me wrapped in shame. He has tried to make me think that I did something or did not do something to cause our baby to be taken away. He has shamed me for asking God the hard questions, questioning his sovereignty. The devil has taken these moments of weakness as an opportunity to prowl and pounce. He has even tempted me with old habits, pills, drinking, and smoking. He has sent people to sow discouragement and shame and even unwanted attention. The devil is here to steal my hope, the purpose in this, and my worship to God. He is here to kill any good that can come out of this and he most certainly is out to destroy me.

God has brought me so far over the years. It wasn’t me who laid down the bottles and picked up the bible. It was Holy Spirit leading me to repentance and into his love to be saved. But right now, I am surviving day by day and I have come to terms with my weakness.

Why?

I am taken back to Hebrews 4:15-16 once again. Jesus is not only interceding for me but sympathizes with me. Jesus is feeling what I am feeling. Therefore I will not be ashamed of what I am going through. He knows and he meets me in my weakness with his perfect strength. Jesus reminds me once again that I am not forgotten, I am loved, and there is purpose in this.

In verse 15, we are given direction to come to Jesus with boldness. So what is boldness? In Greek boldness is the word, parrésia. Which means leaving a witness that something deserves to be remembered, to be taken seriously. Coming to God knowing that he see’s what I am speaking is important, brings a deeper level of intimacy and vulnerability. Not only does he feel exactly what I am going through, he see’s it as important. Somewhere in the midst of heartbreak I seemed to lose this point. I felt that even through I was pouring out my heart before the Lord, what he heard was empty. Which is really just a lie from the enemy. The truth is, God is just and has heard and felt everything that I have.

I am not sure where you are at today friend. Maybe you are dealing with heartbreak just like me, maybe you just feel unheard, or maybe you stumbled across this page in hopes of helping someone else. No matter what, know that Jesus sympathizes with you. He has walked where you have and is currently walking with you, despite how you may feel. He is Emmanuel, God with You. Hebrews 4:15-16 is our invitation to pour out our hearts before the Lord and for us to receive grace and mercy. When we are real with God about all we have been dealing with, boldly proclaiming the stance of our hearts, he does not listen passively. We serve a God who is actively working everything out for our good and who is on our side. What is going on inside of our hearts it important to God. We are his children after all. He will give us help, assistance that meets our urgent situation in the perfect time. But we first must come boldly before the throne.

Questions To Reflect On:

  • What is holding you back from coming boldly before God?
  • How are some ways God has been an ever-present help in your time of trouble?
  • What are some promises/words God has spoken to you that is helping you get through this time? (Share them in the comments)

More Scripture To Meditate On:

  • Psalm 46:1
  • 1 Peter 2:22-23
  • Psalms 34:17
  • 2 Corinthians 12:9
  • Psalms 55:22
  • John 16:33
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Asking With The Right Intentions-A Look At Our Heart

In the two weeks that we have been in the year 2020, the Lord had made the prominent point for me to share with you and apply this one simple phrase to my life, dare to ask. It seems that there are many places that try to feed us lies that God does not like to give and we should not ask the Almighty God for anything, after all he is not a genie in the bottle. I do not think that we should look at God as a genie in a bottle. However, we should have an expectation (faith) that God is going to answer. When we ask, seek, and knock God will gives us what he desires out of the abundance of his love and goodness. Of course, this will also be in his timing. There are several scriptures where God speaks about who he is as a giver. God GAVE us his son to die for our sins, what WON’T he give us? (See John 3:16).

So, why does it seem that what we ask sometimes goes unheard? With the help of the Holy Spirit I believe God will reveal this to us by looking at Solomon and by looking in our own hearts.

And Solomon replied, “You have shown great and faithful love to your servant, my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, righteousness, and integrity. You have continued this great and faithful love for him by giving him a son to sit on his throne, as it is today.

 “Lord my God, you have now made your servant king in my father David’s place. Yet I am just a youth with no experience in leadership. servant is among your people you have chosen, a people too many to be numbered or counted. So give your servant a receptive heart to judge your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?”

 Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had requested this. So God said to him, “Because you have requested this and did not ask for long lifeor riches for yourself, or the deathof your enemies, but you asked discernment for yourself to administer justice,I will therefore do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has never been anyone like you before and never will be again.In addition, I will give you what you did not ask for: both riches and honor, so that no king will be your equal during your entire life. If you walk in my ways and keep my statutes and commands just as your father David did, I will give you a long life.” 1 Kings 3:6-14 CSB

The first point that Holy Spirit pointed out to me this morning is that our choices effect generations after us. We see that David’s willingness to obey God, righteousness, and integrity led the way for Solomon to take the throne. God not only cares about the here and now but cares about generations to come. I believe that there are times that we ask God for things that do not line up with the plan he has for the redemption of humanity. We do not know the beginning to the end, only he does. It is important for us to trust that if God says no, that his intentions are good and filled with love because HE IS good and does everything out of the abundance of HIS love because HE IS LOVE!

As I traveled with the Holy Spirit through Solomon’s dream, he pointed out that Solomon was not inward focused in what he asked God. Not only this, but he admitted that he was young and inexperienced and asked God for help! Have you heard of the scripture ‘those who humble themselves shall be exalted’? We can see that Solomon cried out to God telling him he has no idea what he was doing and cried out for help. God met him in his weakness with not only what he asked, wisdom, but with exceedingly and abundantly more than what he asked for! When Solomon asked God, the intentions of his heart were to serve others and God’s purposes. He wanted to be a King that God saw as fit and not rely on sheer human experience.

When we boldly come before the throne are we asking God with the right intentions or are we trying to serve ourselves rather than what pleases God? Yes, I know that stung a little because it stung me too. I believe this is a key to our question of why God does not always answer in the way that we had hoped and why some of us are still in the waiting. We are asking with the wrong heart. We are asking out of selfish ambition rather than out of what pleases God.


There are things I believe we ask for that do not come to pass because we ask selfishly but God wants nothing more for us to ask him but with the right heart and it shall come to pass. I do not believe God gives reluctantly and I certainly do not believe that God will give us something that will harm our relationship with him or invade in the priceless plan he has for humanity.

I do not believe God wants us to be afraid to ask but be daring to ask. He wants us to come boldly before the throne. In doing this we should still remember WHO HE IS in comparison to WHO we are as his children. Daddy knows best and we need to trust that HE is good, and he loves us so much that what we want him to say yes to is sometimes flawed and he is protecting us by sometimes saying no or not yet.

Solomon came before God and boldly asked him for help to serve others in the way God saw fit. I believe that because Solomon asked God out of a place of humility, honor, and with the right heart God rewarded Solomon with more than he had ever asked or hoped for. I believe the same can be for us too.

God, we come before you today to thank you for who you are. A God of grace, mercy, and abundant love. We come before you today and ask for your forgiveness for the times we have asked you things out of our selfishness rather than the plans and purposes that you have for us and the world arounds us. We boldly come before the throne today thanking you for you grace that is sufficient in our weakness and your love that binds up our wounds. Holy Spirit we are asking you today to be our perfect help and help us have a heart of humility. We ask you to help us ask, seek, and knock with intentions that honor and please God. We thank you Abba that you are going to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever ask or think. In Jesus Name, Amen.

More Scripture To Chew On:

  • James 4:3
  • Philippians 2:3
  • Luke 11:5-13
  • Proverbs 11:2
  • Proverbs 18:12
  • Proverbs 22:4
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The Art Of Prayer-Kenneth E. Hagin ~Book Review~

The Art Of Prayer By:Kenneth E. Hagin

Book Information

  • Title: The Art Of Prayer-A Handbook On How To Pray
  • Author: Kenneth E. Hagin
  • Publisher: Faith Library Publications
  • Publication Date: August 1st 1992
  • Pages: 224
  • Price: $11.06 (Amazon Prime)
  • ISBN: 0892765186

Book Review

Wow, wow, wow. There are very few books outside the bible that can revolutionize your life. But, The Art of Prayer is one of them! I have never read one of Kenneth E. Hagin’s book until now. But I can assure you that I will be reading more. The Art of Prayer, A Handbook On How To Pray, is a novel inspired through the Holy Spirit and Sound Biblical Teaching on the different types of prayer and how build your prayer life. I LOVED the amount of scripture that was found throughout the pages of this book. There is nothing more important than sound biblical teaching when it comes to spiritual disciplines.

Hagin walks you through each individual type of prayer and how to apply this to your everyday walk. You could almost feel the anointing come off the pages as your read through. This read did take me a long time to read. However, the amount of time it took me to read is not due to dryness or poor penmanship. The things you will learn about prayer through this book is for those who are hungry for more and more of God. One of my favorite parts of the book is where he talks about intercessory prayer and how he was awoken in the middle of the night. He tells of several testimonies of how God has used him to pray for others which everyone can easily relate to.

Out of all of the books I have read about prayer, Kenneth E. Hagin’s The Art of Prayer is my absolute favorite. I do not think there is a single page that is not marked on with highlighter or notes. If you desire more intimacy with God, The Son, and Holy Spirit through your prayer life, if you do not know where to even begin in prayer, or are someone that is found in the middle, I highly recommend this book. I can read this time and time again.

5/5 for The Art of Prayer!

((This review was not sponsored))