By Tim Rowe

My teaching notes for Bible fellowship tonight on the earth-shattering power of prayer.

One night, John Paton, and his wife-a missionary couple in the New Hebrides Islands-were awakened by chants outside their mission station. Looking out, they saw that scores of hostile islanders had surrounded the station with torches, intent on burning the place down and killing the missionary couple. The Patons go down on their knees and prayed throughout the night, asking God to deliver them. The tense, dark hours passed, yet the islanders kept their distance. Finally around daybreak, the Patons looked out the window-and the hostile tribesmen were gone. John Patton was baffled. There seemed to be nothing preventing the islanders from attacking, yet no attack came. Paton didn’t find out why the islanders left so mysteriously until a year later, when the chief of the tribe was won to Christ. Remembering the night long siege of a year before, John Paton asked the newly converted chief why the tribesmen had departed instead of burning the mission station to the ground. “We were afraid of the men who were with you,” the chief replied. “What men?” asked Paton. “There were a hundred tall men around the mission house that night,” said the chief. “Their clothing shone with light, and they had swords in their hands. We knew they would never let us harm you, so we went back to our village.” Spiritual Warfare by Ray Steadman.

O how we have underestimated the power of prayer!!

God has provided us a defense and power that will enable us to stand against the schemes and flaming arrows of our enemy-the Prayer of faith.

Eric Ludy-Prayer is not some bb gun that God has given us to try to shoo away raccoons in the night. Prayer is nuclear power, world renovating in its epic strength. When used according to the pattern of Scripture, prayer alters history, alters the natural world, and alters the human soul. The Sword of the Spirit is too heavy for a mere man to carry, but prayer enables us to lift it, swing it, and transform the world around us with it. Prayer is the catalyst behind everything Godly taking place in the earth.

O God Open our eyes spiritually to see the awesome, magnificent power of prayer as the eyes of Elisha’s servant were opened.

II KINGS 6:8-18: Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. 9And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down. 10 And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice. 11 Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel? 12 And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.13 And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. 14 Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. 15 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? 16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. 17 And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. 18 And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

What would happen if prayer was the number one most important thing you do every day and it would take priority over everything else? What would happen if we spent the same energy on praying as we do on our marriage, our family, our job, our finances, our recreation, our entertainment and our ministry? I will tell you what would happen: a spiritual revolution of world shattering proportions in our lives and so many people in the world which has rarely been seen in the archives of history. Are you ready to make a difference by becoming a lionhearted prayer warrior for God?

Our idea of prayer is like spiritual sounding chitter-chatter. God’s idea of prayer was something wholly different, something majestic, epic and grand like picking up a massive sword and swinging it with all the fire and ferocity of a desperately crazed warrior. God’s version of prayer takes territory. It heads off into enemy territory to fight. Samson picked up a jawbone of an ass and single-handedly slew a thousand Philistines and we are suppose to pick up the jawbone of prayer and wreak untold spiritual havoc upon the devil’s kingdom.

Eric Ludy: Spiritual sounding chitter-chatter tends to be self-centric in its banter, begging for comforts to be protected, deadlines to be met, surgeon’s hands to be guided, tests to be passed and food to be blessed. And whereas there is nothing wrong with praying about our personal needs, prayer-real life historic prayer is otherworldly and built upon the notion of the forgotten self. It is aggressive, growling, attacking, commanding, preserving, passionate, and feverishly unrelenting-its battlefield firing, as if every utterance is chipping away at enemy strongholds and every petition is moving God’s indomitable purposes forward in the natural realm.

A. W. Tozer portrayed a praying Christian as a constant threat to the stability of Satan’s government writing that…

The Christian is a holy rebel loose in the world with access to the throne of God. Since prayer is detrimental to the evil one’s purposes, Satan and his minions do their utmost to interfere when we pray especially opposing us when we try to take time for prayer because the enemy knows better than most Christian’s the power of persistent prayer! In any posture, in any attire, at any time, in any place, and under any circumstance prayer is appropriate. Prayer is to be a total way of life, an open and constant communion with God.

Bona fide, heaven-inspired prayer-the kind that moves mountains and calms storms-is not something the modern church is use to. Prayer in our modern day has been diminished, and as a direct result, the power of the church of Jesus Christ has seemingly vanished. We are not a triumphant lot anymore, but rather a weak, sin-stained, defeated one. We lost our strength, our confidence, our absolute assurance that God is with us in battle. So many amongst our ranks are literally scared to fight because they honestly don’t know if they are going to win if they do.

Lion-hearted prayer warriors are rare these days. Men and women with wild and holy abandon are so few nowadays as to be confused with being non-existent. Could it be you are the stuff of prayer legends and God is saying to you right now, “Its time my son or daughter. Rise up and live this life like you mean it!!” Will you be a part of a legendary generation of prayer heroes? Do you want a greater cause, a greater purpose, a greater destiny to fill your life? Then become a lionhearted prayer warrior for God.

EM Bounds- Our praying needs to be pressed and pursued with an energy that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied and a courage that never fails.

Colossians 4:2 (NASB)-Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;

One’s devotion to prayer affects everything in one’s life. Think of a husband devoted to his wife or vice versa. The idea is that one dedicates himself or herself to the other. Devotion implies a strong attachment, allegiance, ardour or affection for some one or some thing, in this case prayer and the act of praying. To devote one’s self involves allocation of ones’ time and resources. There is a giving of one’s self. One who is devoted is ardent, caring, committed, concerned, constant, dedicated, loyal, staunch, steadfast and true. One who is devoted is not disloyal, inconstant, indifferent or uncommitted. These are some of the ideas involved in the picture of one who is devoted to prayer. How does your prayer life compare with these descriptions? Would you say you are devoted to prayer? If not, then to what are you devoting your life…to things temporal or things eternal? What needs to change, so that you might joyfully fulfill the command to continually devote yourself to the high and holy privilege of prayer to the Almighty?

Devote (proskartereo from prós = in compound Greek words prós implies motion, direction = toward, to + karteréo = be strong, steadfast, firm, endure, hold out, bear the burden) means to be earnest towards, to persevere. It describes a steadfast single-minded fidelity to a certain course of action. It means to persist obstinately in a task, to keep on with devotion, to continue to do something with intense effort, to be steadfastly attentive unto, to give unremitting care to a thing, to continue all the time in a place, to persevere and not to faint, to be constantly diligent, to attend assiduously all the exercises, to adhere closely to, to attend continually or wait on continually, to tarry or remain somewhere.

Devote in the present verse is a command (imperative mood) in the present tense, calling for continual devotion to prayer. Devoted means that we must take steps to ensure that prayer with thanksgiving is a central part of our spiritual life, even as are eating and sleeping. Seek times of quiet communion with God.

Acts 6.4 “we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word”

Piper writes that prayer is…

A Wartime Walkie-Talkie, Not a Domestic Intercom. Prayer is the walkie-talkie on the battlefield of the world. It calls on God for courage (Ephesians 6:19). It calls in for troop deployment and target location (Acts 13:1–3). It calls in for protection and air cover (Matthew 6:13; Luke 21:36). It calls in for firepower to blast open a way for the Word (Colossians 4:3). It calls in for the miracle of healing for the wounded soldiers (James 5:16). It calls in for supplies for the forces (Matthew 6:11; Philippians 4:6). And it calls in for needed reinforcements (Matthew 9:38). This is the place of prayer—on the battlefield of the world. It is a wartime walkie-talkie for spiritual warfare, not a domestic intercom to increase the comforts of the saints. And one of the reasons it malfunctions in the hands of so many Christian soldiers is that they have gone AWOL.

We are engaged in spiritual warfare with the kingdom of darkness and must conduct warfare in the spiritual realm, in the realm of God, in the realm of prayer. The devil and his forces are fiercely dedicated to keeping human beings in the dark on prayer and too keep them from praying according to the Word of God in all circumstances. He wants us to be too busy to prayer or to doubt the true power and effectiveness of prayer. Prayer is our nuclear weapon against the devil’s kingdom, purposes and schemes and the devil does everything in his power to keep us from praying. He knows a man of prayer can absolutely bring tremendous damage and disruption to his devilish purposes upon the earth. He has declared war on prayer.

Ray Steadman-Satan loves it when people of think of prayer as a pitiful, pathetic, pointless gesture-and he hates it when people discover that prayer is direct access to the limited power of the one who formed the planets and hurled the stars through space. What an exhilarating thought: When we pray, God listens! When we make our requests, God acts! Prayer is an essential link to God’s active involvement in the world today.

I Thessalonians 5:17 (NASB)-Pray without ceasing.

Phillips-Never stop praying.

Wiersbe writes that praying without ceasing…

certainly doesn’t mean that we should constantly be repeating prayers, because Jesus warned against that kind of praying (Mt 6:7). Rather, it means to make prayer as natural to us as our regular breathing. Unless we are sick or smothering, we rarely think about our breathing; we just do it. Likewise with prayer—it should be the natural habit of our lives, the “atmosphere” in which we constantly live.

A LIONHEARTED WARRIOR OF PRAYER LIVES IN THE ATMOSPHERE OF PRAYER AND IT IS AS NATURAL AND CONSTANT TO HIM AS BREATHING. IT IS THE NATURAL AND CONTINUAL HABIT OF THEIR LIFE ABOVE ALL OTHER HABITS.

Romans 12:12 (NIV) Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Ludy-Prayer is the action of faith on the earth. Prayer is our way of saying: “I’ll prove that God is who He says He is, just watch.” The framework of prayer is “thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is on heaven.”

James 5:16: 16Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 17Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.18And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

Availeth-in the Greek means “granting great power for extraordinary deeds”

No limits are set to the power of prayer or the things accomplished by it.

Look at the persistence of Elijah’s prayer in I Kings 18 which is one of the greatest moments in the history of the world. It illustrates the mockery and foolishness of serving or praying to anyone but God. Elijah had the promise verse 1. He prayed and brought it from heaven to the earth. This whole amazing demonstration of the power of God was a result of time he had spent in intense prayer in his prayer closet. Prayer prepares you to face the challenges of ministry and life.

A LIONHEATED PRAYER WARRIOR MUST SPEND LOTS OF TIME IN THE PRAYER CLOSET

Matthew 6:5-8 (KJV): And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.7But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

AW Tozer-The man who would know God must spend time with Him. True prayer demands more of our lives than most are willing to give and therefore few ever taste of its power and delights. You need to be radical in your prayer life.

The Doctrine of Answered Prayer

God has promised and He cannot lie!!

You can stand on God’s Word like a solid rock; we do not waver.

God Answers Prayer According to His Promises!!

God has given us promises and they form the only proper basis for answered prayer. Prayer does not start with us; it starts with God and the promises in His Word. To take prayer seriously, we must learn what God has promised in His Word.

Answered Prayer is guaranteed when prayer is done God’s way and according to His pattern set forth in Scripture. Prayer is not based on a guess, as God for certain wants to bring His promises into manifestation on the earth. Don’t stop praying until you see the promise come to pass. Faith when it is real expresses itself through prayer. Prayer is a holy confidence, a godly certainty and an unwavering trust in God’s promise and you don’t back down. You know what God is able to do and you immediately take it to God in prayer knowing He is faithful beyond measure.

Ray Steadman in Spiritual Warfare:

We must learn to master the art of prayer. Though prayer is the simplest thing in the world-a conversation with God-it can also become the deepest and most profound experience in your life. As you grow in the practice and experience of prayer, you will find that God is utterly serious about prayer. Through this two-way communication between ourselves and God, He makes His omnipotence and omniscience available to limited human beings, to you and me, in terms of specific promises He has made to us. When you learn to pray on that basis, you will discover that exciting and unexpected things are constantly happening, that there is a quiet but mighty power at work in your life-a power on which you can rely. And as you learn to pray this way, you’ll find that a tremendous weapon, a mighty power to influence your life and the lives of others, is put at your disposal.

Hebrews 6:13-18 (NLT): For example, there was God’s promise to Abraham. Since there was no one greater to swear by, God took an oath in his own name, saying: “I will certainly bless you, and I will multiply your descendants beyond number.”Then Abraham waited patiently, and he received what God had promised.16 Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question that oath is binding. 17 God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. 18 So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie.

THE WORD OF GOD IS NOT STUTTERING ON THESE POINTS:

Ask, and it shall be given you . . . – Matthew 7:7; And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. – Matthew 21:22; But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. – John 11:22; And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. – John 14:13; If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. – John 14:14; Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. – John 15:16; Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. – John 16:23; Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. – John 16:24.

Hebrews 6:35-39 (NIV): 35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay. 38 But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.

Eric and Leslie Ludy from “Wrestling Prayer”:

The greatest threat to our prayer life isn’t the devil. It’s not some external force, some harassing demon from without. Surprisingly the greatest threat to the powerful life of prayer is none other than you–its self within. God’s destiny for you is to be transformed into the image of His son and like Jesus become a spiritual rescuer. This is what prayer is all about. It is about doing the rescue work of Jesus on the earth. Prayer in a nutshell is kingdom business. God desires to build us into his workforce and set us about the Father’s business. You see, in God’s economy, things on this Earth do not change through wishing, through positive thinking, or through good karma. They change through faith expressing itself in loving fervent prayer. God’s people are commissioned to ask, to seek, to knock and to plead the realities of heaven be made reality down here on Earth. But there is a rebel part of your being that detests prayer, that seeks to avoid it at all costs, that gets extremely tired at simply the notion of it. This is what the Bible refers to as the flesh. And this flesh is the greatest and most formidable enemy of prayer. The promises of prayer are extraordinary, but for prayer to work it must be purged of self and doubt. Doubt and unbelief are prayer killers. Your faith must be unwavering, stouthearted, persistent and unmovable. True prayer never violates the nature of God. What He is like is what our prayers should be like. True prayer has the glory of God as its aim-not the comfort of men, nor the fleshly pleasures of humanity or a selfish plea for comfort and blessing as prayer is not using God as our personal servant or an ATM machine. True prayer must be offered out of a life that is true-true to God, true to Scripture, true in heart, true in motive and true in purity.

Luke 22:28-32:You are those who have stood by me in my trials. 29And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me…31″Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you[a] as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”“Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer.” — Psalm 66:20

Eric Ludy-The Six Things that Hinder Prayers:

1. It is a Prayer that is Born of the Flesh:

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume [it] upon your lusts. – James 4:3 Flesh always after self outside of God. Flesh is always after your ends, your betterment, your wealth, your desires and your security. If we come to God praying out of the flesh, there is no guarantee that God is going to answer our prayer. Lust-intense appetite for self gratification. Lust is one of the number one prayer killers. IT IS ALL ABOUT ME-When you approach God on those terms, you are living in the wrong kingdom. In God’s kingdom, you give up self-it is no longer after self’s agenda. Most of us are nominal Christians: who live for self in bondage to the kingdom of darkness.. We are bought with a price; we are His and we should say do God whatever you want with my life-DO IT!! That is the beginning of prayer out of a soil of selflessness. Structure your prayer life after the spirit and not after the flesh. Pray God prayers. Do you ever ask God what to pray about? God has an agenda and He is looking for saints to carry the burden and make intercession in prayer. God knows exactly what needs to be done down here. God what do you want me to pray about? We feel His heart, His love, His compassion. God knows the mountains and barriers that need to be crushed. Any doubt God will answer a prayer that He has initiated and started?

2.Prayer that is Errant – not in Alignment with God’s Nature, Will, and Purpose on Earth:

And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: – 1 John 5:14. Prayer that is missing God’s bulls eye. The Bible is the revealed Word and Will of God. Understand the scriptures and you will know His will: God’s exceeding great and precious promises. This is our promised land. Go and take it. The Word of God sets the territory and boundary of prayer.

3. We Ask in Prayer Wavering and Unsure:

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. – James 1:6-7. We doubt and do not believe that God will keep His promises. Do we have complete confidence in the Word of God? We have an entire generation of Christians that are struggling with uncertainty and that are wavering and unsure. Faith must look at the certainty, integrity and faithfulness of His Word.

4. Living in Disobedience and Impurity:

And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. – 1Jo 3:22 KJV. If I had cherished sin in my heart; the Lord would not have listened. Psalm 66:18. In the Hebrew sin in the least common denominator refers specifically to an idol. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. – Isaiah 1:15. Examine your lives and see if we are living the way He asks us to live or have an idol on the throne of our hearts. What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what God can give. If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning in life, and identity, then it is an idol. If we live according to the world and the flesh then are prayers are greatly hindered. Remember my teaching on “breaches in our walls?” The book of Titus says the grace of God teaches us we should deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.

5. Lack of Heavenly Honor:

Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with [them] according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered. – 1Peter 3:7 KJV. Honor is a higher behavior, a holy mindset, a regal bearing in the midst of a polluted world. It is an absence of all perversion-a state of being untainted by the filth of this age. Honor is a selfless disposition, a servant’s posture, a sentinel’s gaze, and an intercessor’s readiness. Honor is the mark of heaven on a man. It is spiritual poise, grit and moral command where you have harnessed the old sin nature and you exercise a holy restraint on its emotions, passions and mental wanderings.

6. Lack of Abiding:

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. – John 15:7. If we are out of fellowship with God, it can greatly hinder our prayer life.

Another key prayer killer is anxiety, fear and worry which Jesus Christ taught we are not to have an ounce of in our hearts.

Philippians 4:6,7:Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Two Parables of the Requirement of the Tenacity of Persistent Prayer which is True Heart of the Lionhearted Prayer
Warrior.

Luke 18:1-8 (NIV):1Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4″For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’ ” 6And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Luke 11:5-9: Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 7″Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. 9″So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Don’t let go of your God until He has done it. One thing God requires of His children is to believe Him. You are unmovable and not pushed around on the promise.

E.M. Bounds-Nothing distinguishes the children of God so clearly and strongly as prayer. It is the one infallible mark and test of being a Christian. Christian people are prayerful, the worldly-minded, prayerless. Christians call on God; worldlings ignore God, and call not on his name. But even the Christian had need to cultivate continual prayer. Prayer must be habitual, but much more than a habit. It is duty, yet one which rises far above, and goes beyond the ordinary implications of the term. It is the expression of a relation to God, a yearning for divine communion. it is the outward and upward flow of the inward life toward its original fountain. It is an assertion of the soul’s paternity, a claiming of the sonship, which links man to the eternal. Prayer is a mighty movement of the soul toward God. It is a stirring of the deepest forces of the soul, toward the throne of heavenly grace. It is the ability to hold on, press on, and wait. It is not an incident, or a performance, but a passion of soul. It is not a want, half-needed, but a sheer necessity. It is the pressing of our desires upon God with urgency and perseverance; the praying with that tenacity and tension which neither relaxes nor ceases until its plea is heard, and its cause is won.The praying which influences God is declared to be that of the fervent, effectual outpouring of a righteous man. That is to say, it is prayer on fire, having no feeble, flickering flame, no momentary flash, but shining with a vigorous and steady glow.

PRAYING THROUGH MEANS YOU PRAY UNTIL YOU SEE IT HAPPEN. It could be days, months or years but you do not give up. It is praying without letting go; praying relentlessly in pursuit of the promise. We often blame God for not answering prayer, but what actually happened is that we stopped praying. We are in spiritual battle. You don’t see everything. Our job is to believe. Our job is to stand firm in faith until God answers. This is why it is important to know and understand God’s nature. Why is it easier to trust men and women on this earth than the God who created us? Your God is coming. You hold fast to that petition. Don’t look at your circumstances. God, you are the only one that has what I need and I won’t let go. That is faith.

Yahweh is the Coming One.

Keep a Prayer Journal and be Get Specific in Your Prayers

Specific praying is the key to building faith. It is the way Christ asks us to pray and it is the pattern of Scripture. When we are willing to go out on a limb and make a specific request to God, our faith grows as we see Him come through for us. Keep a prayer journal and write down specific prayers you are bringing before God and wrestle in prayer with them on a daily basis unto God brings it to pass. Record every answer to prayer, small or large, in your journal. You will see the faithfulness of God to prayer.

Charles Spurgeon: There is a general kind of praying which fails for lack of precision. It is as if a regiment of soldiers should all fire off their guns anywhere. Possibly somebody would be killed, but the majority of the enemy would be missed.

Martin Luther: No one can believe how powerful prayer is and what it can effect except those who have learned it by experience. Whenever I pray earnestly, I have been heard and obtained more than I prayed for. God sometimes delays, but He always comes.

Yahweh is the coming one.

Leslie Ludy: Whenever we attempt to take a step forward in our spiritual life-especially when it comes to prayer-our flesh begins to bellow loudly. “Oh, come on,” it argues, “it’s so extreme and unnecessary to spend a lot of time praying. Just pray for a few minutes. God will still hear you. And then you can watch a movie or read a book. Doesn’t that sound like a lot more fun?”

Excuses of flesh: I am too busy, I am too tired, I am too distracted, I have been working all week, and I have other things to do. This is all the flesh screaming at full volume, doing whatever it takes to keep you from moving forward spiritually by praying.

Leslie Ludy: If you want to get serious about prayer, you have to make a conscious decision to ignore all of those brilliant-sounding excuses. You have to choose to make prayer the highest priority of your life-no matter how the flesh screams in protest. Corrie Ten Boom said it well: “Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it.”
We belong to God and are His possessions. We should set ourselves apart to be dedicated to His purposes and this should be illustrated in no greater way than our prayer life.

Skip Moen in Spiritual Restoration: Sanctification is not about becoming perfect. It is about becoming perfectly His. It is about giving more and more of my life over to God for His possession. When God met Moses at the burning bush, he took off his sandals to show he had no ownership of the ground he stood on. It belonged to God. That’s what we must do-transfer ownership to Him, give up our claims and consecrate ourselves to His purposes. God is not asking for the perfect life. He is asking to set aside the life we have entirely for Him.

God needs lionhearted warriors for prayer: legendary spiritual heroes that will devote themselves to prayer so their mighty God can do exploits on the earth and bring His glorious purposes and will to pass on the earth as it is done in heaven. Are you ready to become His lionhearted man or woman of prayer! This is life how it was meant to be. Take off your shoes and set aside your life as His and wrestle in prayer as you cling to your God and love Him with everything you have.

Ephesians 3:20,21 (The Message Bible):God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.