The joy of always getting your prayers answered.
The time has come for a new way of prayer. Paradoxically, this new method is an ancient way of prayer, one in which God’s faithful servants like David and Paul succeeded.
I have tried all kinds of ways of praying, even ascending into the courts of heaven. But I have found one way of praying that always works.
1John 5: 14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15 And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we desired of him.
I call it skilled prayer, and we need to learn how to make it a part of our life.
There is such a joy in being able to pray exactly what God wills for a person, and seeing His answer unfold before your very eyes. This type of prayer can transform Christians from living in a persistent widow mindset (Luke 18:1–8) into living in joyous, bride-like intercession.
I believe God is taking many into a new season of intimate, bride-like prayer. Real warfare in the Kingdom of God is always concerned with the battle for intimacy.
This is a time to come off the battlefield and enter a new place of intimate petition. Too many intercessors have become exhausted and too burned out to continue praying the way the Church has been encouraging.
As we learn to become conformed to God and His nature, and be transformed in our minds and personalities, He will teach us to look beyond the natural into the spiritual realm and see the Kingdom of Heaven at work in every need.
It will no longer matter what life, people, or even the enemy throw at us, because we will be able to hear the conversation in Heaven and understand that God is at work all around us.
I believe God is raising up an army of Esther’s, an army of bridal intercessors, and it is a time to come off the wall and rest in the throne room presence of God – in our secret place in Him.
It will be difficult for some people to come out of ministry and move into the discipline of resting in God, but the discipline of rest must be entered; it is a time of laying down ministry to gain fresh intimacy.
Don’t pray with importunity, like the widow before the unjust judge in Luke 18 but pray with delight and favor.
Don’t pray against the enemy, but let your delighted prayers manifest in the natural realm.
God’s anointing will cause you to intercede with joy so that His glory will fill the earth. What is the glory of God? In Exodus 33:18–19, when Moses asked God to show His glory, God said He would cause His goodness to pass before him.
One of the glories of God, therefore, is that He is good! As bridal intercessors, it will be our joy and delight to pray for the goodness of God to come down so that the Church can learn that we really do overcome evil with good.
NEW STRATEGY
The Holy Spirit will give us a new strategy for prayer and perseverance; one that contains delight and laughter, and is full of enthusiastic and passionate love, bathed in fresh worship, and birthed out of a deeper intimacy.
I believe skilled prayer is part of this shift. As we come and petition the Lord out of this place of closeness, He will be pleased to speak into our hearts His favor and blessing.
Not only will our prayers move His heart and hands, but the words we receive from Him will be like a balm of Gilead across the nations, and churches will rise in fresh favor. The attention of the Church will be taken off the enemy and put on the King of kings.
Let us pray that a revelation of the Lord’s love for us would fill our hearts that we may come into a whole new place of spirituality, a whole new place of walking with Him, where we will be convinced that God loves us, cares for us and is for us – and that He wants us to succeed.
‘‘And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive,’’ Jesus preached in Matthew 21:22. Why, then, do we seemingly receive so few answers to prayer today? Was Jesus lying to us? Of course not!
The issue, then, must be our own – we must not believe what we are praying. Prayer, as it is taught today in most churches, doesn’t work.
Most of us have been brought up in a tradition that when something bad happens, prayer must begin immediately. This seems reasonable and even righteous, but on a deeper level, it hinders the power of God to work on our behalf.
When we pray too soon, we usually pray in unbelief. We find ourselves praying out of the shock or trauma of the situation itself, and we pray out of our panic, our worry, our anxiety, and our concern.
For example, a church member is diagnosed with a serious illness. Immediately, our compassion rises, and we burst into prayer. We use a shotgun approach, spraying heaven with every imaginable request. ‘‘Well, Father, I pray this,’’ we start. Then another thought enters our mind, so we switch ways: ‘‘Oh, Father, I pray that.’’ Doubt attacks us and our prayer shifts again. ‘‘Well, Lord, if it be Your will, I pray this,’’ and ‘‘Father, I pray that you would do that.’’
Our love for the person involved prompts us to remind God of how valuable he or she is to Him: ‘‘Well, Lord, you know he is a faithful servant.’’
God now has to sift through a blizzard of prayer thrown up within a few minutes ‘‘what is this, Multiple choice?’’ Sadly, our prayers have stopped being about the person in need and have become our effort to try and persuade God.
We have forgotten to pray what God wants to do and have begun our own search for Him. We shouldn’t be using prayer to find God; that’s what thanksgiving is for.
The Bible is clear: it’s not with prayer that we enter His gates, it’s with thanksgiving. ‘‘Rejoice always,’’ Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians5:16–18, ‘‘pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.’’
‘‘Don’t pray to escape trouble. Don’t pray to be comfortable in your emotions. Pray to do the will of God in every situation. Nothing else is worth praying for.’’
PRAYER STARTS BY LISTENING
Prayer, in the initial stage, is not about speaking. It’s about listening. It’s about thanking God. Because, of the billions of people who walk the earth, Christians are supposed to be the most relaxed and the most grateful.
We are called to be the happiest people on earth. Even on the toughest days, the joy of the Lord is a force of strength for us.
If we are filled with the fullness of God, we behave in ways unlike the world around us. There is no place for worry or panic in a Christian’s life. Faith and anxiety cannot exist in the same space at the same time. One of them must go, and you have the power to choose which.
We must come before God with thanksgiving. What we’re thanking God for is the reality of His presence. ‘‘I will never leave you or forsake you,’’ God promised.
We can thank God first, in every situation, because every problem we encounter comes with a promise and His provision attached to it. God has a plan and a purpose for us; He says that everything works together for those who love Him. That promise is a deep well of provision for us. Whatever calamity life throws at us, God can use it for our blessing and our benefit. ‘‘And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose,’’ – Romans 8:28.
It is that attribute of God’s nature that makes it so critical for us to come to a place of thanksgiving. By entering His presence in the midst of our problem, He can act on our behalf. Our heart may be all over the place, but there is a central place of truth where we gather – in the goodness of God.
‘‘Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms,’’ – Psalm 95:2. At all times, we need to rejoice, praying something like this: ‘‘Thank You that You are with me in this. I don’t know how You’re going to work it out, but I know that You’re with me because You said You would be, and that’s enough for me. I don’t have to feel your presence, your word is enough, Thank You.’’
GRATITUDE
Gratitude is the bedrock of our life and worship. Often, we fail to worship during the week, thinking Sundays or conferences are our times to worship. But worship is a part of everyday life. When we come before God, we must be thankful.
‘‘Sometimes we make praise a prisoner to our emotions rather than a way of releasing our inner self to God.’’
We need to practice being grateful a lot more than we do. What are Christians supposed to sound like on the earth? Our voices should be heard, at all times, worshiping God.
If our worship is built on a foundation of thankfulness, we must have a vision and a passion to be grateful. We also need a plan, for vision without strategy is just wishful thinking. We need to plan to enter God’s presence with our thanksgiving, not our prayer. ‘‘Thank You Lord. I don’t know how you’re going to work this thing out, but I know you will. I praise you. I worship you.’’
‘‘It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men and women.’’
And once we’ve come into His presence, we need to be still and listen to the heart of God. Being still opens a channel of communication between us and Heaven.
All of us have a background conversation going on in our minds. Head noise, is an internal voice, a soundtrack for our lives. It’s similar to a special feature on a DVD: an ongoing, one-way, stream of consciousness conversation, commenting on our life as it unfolds. Stillness is not about getting somewhere quiet, although that often helps, but about stilling that voice in your head. It takes discipline to quiet that voice, but you must do it. And you can do it because God is with you.
It is this initial head noise that we convert into ‘‘prayers’’ when we rush too quickly into intercession. Because we have not stilled ourselves, we pray in our own strength, and we come to God’s throne under the weight and panic of the circumstances facing us.
We speak often and are rarely still – in fact, we are the opposite of God. God is always still, and He rarely speaks. So, there is a difference between the Lord speaking in us, and the Lord speaking to us.
When we say, ‘‘Oh, God spoke to me,’’ what has normally happened is that out of the storehouse of words, thoughts, meditations, conversations, and Scripture we carry in our spirit, God has selected something previously said to you and brought it back into your consciousness.
Like a computer user loading a file, God pulls up the treasure He has already saved in us. ‘‘Oh yeah,’’ we think. ‘‘That makes sense. That’s the Lord speaking.’’
God punctuates His silence with words, and when God speaks, it’s an event. When He speaks to you, something is imparted. His presence is profound.
He spoke once, and the whole earth was created. When God speaks, something happens, something is shaken, something is created and produced.
When the Lord speaks to us, there is always a dynamic residue of His presence which remains with us – it is a signature moment!
In Psalm 46:10, God told David, ‘‘be still, and know that I am God.’’ It was a word that brought a profound sense of the presence of God to David in what were difficult circumstances.
It’s interesting that Psalm 46 began with an earthquake and finished with ‘‘be still.’’ Only God can talk about stillness in the midst of an earthquake.
When the whole landscape of your life is shifting beneath your feet, only God can say, ‘‘be still, and know that I am God.’’
Knowledge of God comes through peace and stillness. God wants to send us into battle, but if we don’t find stillness beforehand, how will we ever find peace in the fight?
‘‘Peace is the soil of revelation.’’
Rest is our best weapon against the enemy, because rest allows us to hide in our secret place in God.
The devil hates you with a malevolence and malignancy that is unimaginable, but he’s not stupid: he won’t chase you into the holy of holies – the very presence of God – because he knows who he’s going to meet there.
We need to learn how to use God as our refuge, as our fortress, as our high place, as our secret place where the enemy cannot touch us. If the enemy cannot find you, he cannot hurt you. God has provided a secret place in Him for you.
When you’re in your secret place, there’s nothing from the enemy that can touch you. He doesn’t even know how to locate you. He can run right at you and not even see you.’’
Our secret place is like a Star Trek cloaking device; it renders us invisible to the enemy’s sensors and attacks.
We are never going to be anxious again if we learn how to step into that secret place and learn to live there.
You must lose your ability to panic if you’re going to walk with God. You must lose your ability to worry and be anxious if you’re going to walk with God.
There is a secret place set aside for each one of us. God is love and in His love, He has set aside a place where you can live in Him no matter what.
He loves to teach people where that place is, because when His children get into their secret place, they can fully enjoy life. It doesn’t matter what comes against them– they rise to the challenge.
Without stillness, our experience of God is limited. Stillness is the predecessor to rest in the Lord; a spiritual discipline drawing us into a continual experience of His presence.
It is this rest, this stillness, this secret place of God, which releases unbroken communion with Him; it releases what the Bible calls unceasing prayer.
HOW TO GET ANSWERS TO PRAYER
Before we pray, we need to meditate. Prayer, in its simplest form, is finding out what God wants to do and then asking Him to do it. One of the best ways to get a fix on God’s heart for us is to read His Scripture. John wrote in 1 John 5:14–15,
‘‘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.’’
To see your prayers answered, enter God’s presence with thanksgiving and worship.
Then rest in your secret place and meditate on His Scripture and words to you. Ask the Lord this question: ‘‘what is it that you want to do in these circumstances?’’ Then listen and wait until the Lord answers and directs you how to pray.
Prayer is finding out what God wants to do and asking Him to do it!
We find this principle in Romans 8:26–39:‘‘Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’’
The Holy Spirit helps us to pray in our weakness yet, traditionally, we haven’t been very concerned with what He is praying. Suppose I said to you, ‘‘The Lord has given me a brilliant prophetic word for you,’ and then I turned around and left the room. Likely, you would chase me: ‘‘what? What’s the word?’’ Of course, you would want to know the word, its human nature.
If I was to say to you that, right now, the Holy Spirit is interceding for you according to God’s will, what would your question be? ‘‘What’s He praying?’’ of course.
And if I added, ‘‘By the way, Jesus is at the right hand of the Father right now, and He’s praying for you, too,’’ you would ask, ‘‘what’s He praying?’’ and ‘‘Do He and the Holy Spirit agree?’’
Paul’s words are powerful: ‘‘for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us.’’
The Father says to the Holy Spirit, ‘this is what I want for this person. Ask Me to do it.’’ So, He prays for me in the will of God, while I walk about the earth, not sure of how to pray for myself.
Who is my friend at this point in time? Who is my tutor? Who is my comforter? What’s His name? The Holy Spirit! Only He can help me with my weakness in prayer. Now that you know you have a Person dedicated to improving your prayer life, don’t you want to work with Him?
The Spirit helps us to pray by revealing the will of God. When we pray in line with what the Holy Spirit is doing, what are we doing? We are not praying, trying to find an answer, but praying with the answer. For too long, we have been satisfied to use prayer to try and find God. That is not what prayer is for. Prayer is asking God to do the very thing He’s telling you He wants to do.
It comes with a confidence in our heart that because we’ve heard the will of God, we know we’re praying what He wants, and that He will answer.
Sometimes we have no freedom to prophesy to certain people; only permission to intercede for them. There are times in the prophetic ministry when words we receive for others must stay in the throne room.
We intercede before the Lord until the burden lifts. We must learn to pray until God says, ‘‘Enough!’’
Consider Acts 20:22–23:‘‘God allows in His wisdom what He could easily prevent by His power.’’ ‘‘And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.’’
On one hand, the Lord revealed and confirmed to Paul the dangers awaiting him. On the other, he has no clue about what the end result would be. Interestingly enough, no one felt compelled to exercise authority over the situation. Paul, however, knows the will of God for his time in Jerusalem . He definitely knew that the peace of God, which passes all understanding, would prevent anxiety and guard his heart (Philippians 4:6–7).
The other scriptural insight that is compatible with this type of situation is found in Luke 22:31–32:‘‘And the Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith‘‘. . . key ministries do not rescue God’s people from legitimate struggle.’’ should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.’ ’’
Jesus could have simply taken authority over the enemy and prevented the situation from actually happening. However, He recognized that it was important for Simon Peter to struggle through to a deeper place of faith and relationship. Simon had to discover something profound about himself and also the love of God for him.
God wants us to know what He is praying. Jesus went to Simon Peter and explained that Satan wanted to sift the disciple like wheat. ‘‘But I have prayed for you,’’ Jesus said. In what might have been the most significant moment of Peter’s life, Jesus told him what He was praying for: ‘‘That your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.’’
Peter got to live, be significant, and know that this attack of the enemy wasn’t going to stop him. In fact, it was going to make him strong enough to be a help to his brothers. Satan wanted to beat him, but, in Heaven, there was a different plan and conversation unfolding.
THE CONFERENCE TABLE
The Trinity: three equals, sitting at a conference table, talking. If Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father, interceding, and the Holy Spirit is there, praying according to the will of God, then there must be a conversation amongst the three going on.
Don’t you wonder what they are saying about you in any given situation? What’s the conversation in Heaven over your life right now?
By exploring and seeking out this heavenly dialogue, we can learn what God’s will is for a situation and, by extension, what we should be praying. By seeking the conversation in Heaven for ourselves, we embark on a great spiritual adventure, where we are conformed to the will of God.
It’s a fascinating way to live, because it allows us to rise above our circumstances and pray in line with a God who adores us and wants us to be supremely confident in doing His will. He wants us to find joy in our situation, and to understand that there’s nothing out there that can beat us, because of who He is in us.
By listening in to the conversation in Heaven, we learn that a single situation can have massive repercussions on a number of people. Isaiah listened to the conversation in Heaven and discovered the will of God for himself (see Isaiah 6).
‘‘There will be no peace as long if God is unseated at the conference table.’’
We become a prophetic voice in that circle, proclaiming and declaring God’s will, and praying it out. ‘‘What else are you up to?’’ we ask God. ‘‘I know you . . . You can’t just do one thing!’’ God is always doing fifteen or twenty things around our lives, and by seeking out His will before we pray, He shows us His works-in-progress.
Amazingly, we will find that God is working in the most unlikely people and the most difficult situations.
As we prove ourselves faithful in the little prayers and issues, God gives us greater favor to pray out His will.
We look at Uncle Peter or Aunt Jean and God gives us a prayer for them – not just for the single issue they’re facing, but a complete, whole prayer. Suddenly, our prayer lives are electric with excitement and we enjoy intercession!
‘‘You need to rejoice, and then pray without ceasing,” Paul told the Thessalonians. Unceasing prayer comes when a person has found the will of God and prays until the situation reflects what He wants to do.
An intercessor like that already knows the outcome of the time he or she has invested in prayer, so they pray with joy and excitement. It doesn’t matter how long it takes for the situation to resolve itself, our prayer is about all of the other stuff God is doing while He’s waiting for that moment to come. We just pray without ceasing.
How do we listen in on that conversation in Heaven? First, we enter God’s presence with thanksgiving. Then we still ourselves, finding and resting in that secret place He has set aside for us.
God will reveal Himself to us in a number of ways. We have Scripture because it tells us what the heart and mind of God is in certain situations. It’s like a Heavenly cheat sheet. God has given you a book full of His words, and the Holy Spirit will lead you to a particular passage. ‘‘Hmmm,’’ you’ll say as you read it. ‘‘Yes,’’ God will reply. ‘‘Use that as a base because my heart’s in that for you right now.’’
The answer may come in another way, in a dream or an impression. I suggest looking back through your journal or considering prophetic words that have already been given to you.
Sometimes we ask God to say something He has already said. We can use parts from older prophetic words in our prayer.
God is very generous and the kindest Person I have ever met. He wants us to know what His will is. He longs to release His children from worry and fear. He desires to show us what He’s doing in a situation and in our lives. He hungers for us to pray what He is praying.
My child, the weapons of your warfare are more than a match for the enemy. Whatever has made you feel small can be turned around with the right weapon.
Child, this is not an equal fight! Every small thing I give you is a significant weapon against your adversary. The odds are always in your favor.
Remain childlike and simple in your walk with me. I want you to enjoy these experiences I send to you. Through them I will teach you to smile, to laugh and to enjoy the power of your Sovereign Lord.
This next season, everything will start to fall into place for you. Only look at everything through the eyes and a heart of a trusting child.
You are my special treasure, my precious one. I have set this next phase of your journey aside for the purpose of you walking in simplicity and adoration of me . . . enjoy!
Prayer is not meant to be used like a fisherman’s net to search for the will of God. Instead, we use prayer to pray the will of God, and that brings us into a place of faith and confession.
We grow in confidence in the will of God, as our prayers change us to be more like Him. We have decided to follow the process that God has ordained in the circumstances He has allowed to unfold. ‘‘For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,’’ Romans 8:29.
In every situation, there is a pathway that enables you to become more like Jesus. A part of your prayer initiative is to find what it is that God wants you to do to become more like Him.
There is always an area of our life where we need to become more like Christ, and the Lord is saying to us: ‘‘If you will follow the way that I want you to pray, you will not only have the answer to that prayer, but you will grow in Me.
‘‘I know the plans I have for you . . . to give you a future and a hope.’’
There is a predestined, predetermined thing I want you to become in every situation. I want to give you more of myself.’’
Every obstacle, every problem, every attack is allowed and designed to teach you to become more like Jesus. That’s why every problem comes with a promise and provision attached to it.
As Christians, we must stand in the midst of the problem, knowing God’s promise, and expect a provision. All things work together for good in the economy of God. There are no Great Depressions or stock market crashes. ‘‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?’’ Romans 8:35. Nothing, he answers a few verses later: ‘‘Neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’’
I am convinced, in fact, that all of the things Paul mentioned are actually designed to reveal God’s love for us.
When we pray His will, our crisis becomes an opportunity for God to work. Everything is useful to our growth in the spirit because God is for us in every situation.
Look at the list of what cannot separate us from the love of God: accusation, condemnation, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, exposure, peril, the sword, death, life, angels, principalities, things present, things to come, height, and depth. It doesn’t matter how big and powerful the thing against us is – God has made us more than conquerors.
Prayer is about certainty. There should be boldness in our hearts when we pray. Heaven is listening to our prayers. Everything in God’s heart wants to tell you, ‘‘this is what I want to do. Pray like this.’
Jesus said in Mark 11:24‘‘Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.’’ When we pray in the will of God, whatever we ask will be given.
There is no difference between an anointed prayer and an unanointed prayer. Prayer is prayer to God.
Sometimes our emotions are present with our faith; other times, they’re not. Fortunately, God is so good that He will look at us, even when we’re so lost we cannot put a prayer into words, and say, ‘‘just groan, I’ll understand what you mean. I promise.’’ God can and does interpret our groans.
Skillful prayer is a wonderful tool. We can look at our situation, take time to study the Word, take time for thanksgiving, and bring our heart into line with what God wants to do. Then we pray a prayer that covers the whole issue.
Write your prayers out, over and over, until you feel it seep into your heart. Write them with your friends, helping one another, learning from one another, and inspiring one another. Then commit yourself to praying the written prayer.
The whole point of custom built prayer is that it releases God’s greatness in you, making you great.
What is the glory of His inheritance? The glory of Israel going into the Promised Land was that God’s presence went with them. No one could stand against God’s greatness in them. This is who we are.
We must get our hearts and minds out of a poverty mindset of spirituality and into a place where we understand that the majesty of God and the majesty of His Church is the same thing.
We are the people of God, and nothing can come against us. We must be a confident people and know that God is for us. It’s our identity, our destiny, our inheritance. No weapon fashioned against the Church will prosper! God’s power is here. ‘‘Every place where the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you,’’ God said. The Church is destined to victory!
It’s time to use prayer to turn the tables on the enemy. We can make the devil tired, weary, depressed, discouraged, exhausted, and in need of psychiatric care.
In fact, we can wear him out exactly as he has worn out the Church. This is the place of vengeance and favor that Jesus spoke about when He read His inheritance word, Isaiah 61?
You have favor with God and man, and your vengeance is that every attack the enemy throws at you will be turned around by God and used to bless you.
It’s a promise that is found in Ephesians 3:14–21:‘‘For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.’’
God wants you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit. He dreams of you being confident, bold, and joyful, because you walk with Him who knows and sees and knows how to do everything.
Your understanding of who God is for you will grow until you’re filled by it, and you have more confidence than you know what to do with.
In fact, you can be so full of God that no one around will be able to stand in unbelief. In our little bodies of believers, there can be the confidence and anointing to take an entire community for God.
One person with the Lord is always on the right side with the power and the victory. Who would you rather have on your side – a thousand people who can’t kill one, or one person who can kill a thousand?
We are too used to mediocrity, to thinking in small things, but we are called to more than that. We have met Jesus, a Man who is incredibly powerful, deeply intentional, and overwhelmingly confident. Nothing fazes Him, nothing worries Him. He is so full of joy that He even sings over His people. He looks at the enemy and laughs. ‘‘Is that all you’ve got?’’ He says. ‘‘Just bring it on!’’
We have made allowances for losing, but a good fight is one that we win. If we could just learn to walk with God in the way that He wants, we would be victorious, again and again.
Ephesians 3:14–21 is a prayer about identifying with the Father and being strengthened by Him on the inside. God’s will is that Christ would dwell within you, rooting you in His love. His children are supposed to be eagles, soaring on the wind, but we’re all too content to be chickens.
Fullness is our destiny, but emptiness is our crutch. We must shake this weakness off, once and for all. In Christ, we are God’s champions, born to proclaim and declare His greatness and His goodness. We are meant to be inspired people who live in confidence. We’re not arrogant or overbearing, but cheerful and confident in God’s provision for us. The joy of the Lord truly is our strength.
Skillful prayer brings us to a confident focus on God so that the enemy cannot trap us in fear and doubt. The enemy always uses the same line first: ‘‘Has God said?’’ With a skillful prayer, we can flip over a piece of paper and shoot back, ‘‘Well, God has said it, thank you very much. Here is His prayer right here!’’
I love skillful prayer and the comfort the Holy Spirit packages with it. I love that faith remains in me when I pray the things God has told me I can pray. I love persevering in prayer; it has become a pleasure, not a chore.
DAVIDS JOURNAL
Prayer was a similar pleasure for David, as we can see in his journal, which we refer to today as the book of Psalms. Many of his psalms are skillful prayers.
Take Psalm 51, for example, a passage David wrote after the prophet Nathan came to him and exposed his adultery with Bathsheba and his hand in the murder of Uriah the Hittite.
Imagine for a moment the conversation that was going on in Heaven over this situation. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are seated at a confrence table, looking at David, who is feeling ashamed and condemned. David is humiliated and feels about an inch high. His heart is broken, and he is worried that God is going to remove the Holy Spirit from him. He wants to be cleansed.
Imagine the conversation the Trinity is having. ‘‘Well, you know, he needs to understand My grace. He needs to learn about loving kindness. He needs to know that I have compassion for him. He needs to be washed, cleansed and purified. He needs to learn that there’s truth in the inner man. He needs wisdom from here on high. He needs to be restored, and he definitely needs the joy of his salvation restored.’’ It goes on. ‘‘He needs to know that I’m going to blot out his transgressions. I can give him a clean heart, a steadfast spirit, and I’m not going to take the Holy Spirit away from him.’’
That’s the conversation in Heaven. David, broken, sat down and began to write his prayer, listening to what God wants him to pray: Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight –That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Do you see how all of the key words from the conversation in Heaven have found themselves in David’s psalm? There is symmetry between what God wants to do and what David prayed.
As Jesus prayed, ‘‘Let it be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.’’ Eventually, David received an answer to his prayer and was set free from his sin.
We see another of David’s skillful prayers in Psalm 57. At the time, David was not yet king. He had been anointed king by Samuel many years before, but Saul was still chasing him around the wilderness, trying to kill him. David is hiding in caves, rarely sleeping in the same place twice. He’s leading a rag tag band of mercenaries, some of whom would love to turn him in and collect Saul’s reward offer. Throughout the countryside, others are watching for him, also looking to gain favor to King Saul.
Who can David trust? Why is it so hard to become king when Samuel himself prophesied it would happen? What is the conversation in Heaven over this issue?
Again, the Trinity is sitting at their table, talking. ‘‘David needs to know that I am his refuge. He’s hanging out in caves, and using that as a refuge, but he needs to truly know that I want to be his protection and his refuge. There is mercy for him. He needs to know that if he calls out to Us, I will save him. I am with him and I am against his enemies. I want to give him a steadfast heart.
He needs to learn how to use his circumstances to awaken praise and worship in his life, because that will bring him confidence. Let’s teach him how to use these circumstances to bring himself to a place of exaltation.’’ That was the conversation in Heaven.
Now read this skillful prayer of David, and see if you can spot the exact moment the prayer turns into a skillful psalm of thanksgiving. That’s what skillful prayers do when they are prayed in confidence. You cannot pray in the will of God with confidence and not have your heart turned towards praise.
Psalm 57 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until these calamities have passed by. I will cry out to God Most High, To God who performs all things for me. He shall send from heaven and save me; He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. God shall send forth His mercy and His truth. My soul is among lions; I lie among the sons of men who are set on fire, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; Let Your glory be above all the earth. They have prepared a net for my steps; My soul is bowed down; They have dug a pit before me; Into the midst of it they themselves have fallen. My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise. Awake, my glory! Awake, lute and harp! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing to You among the nations. For Your mercy reaches unto the heavens, And Your truth unto the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; Let Your glory be above all the earth.
The psalm takes its turn into thanksgiving at the line, ‘‘My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast.’’
It is the destiny of every Christian to have their prayers answered. It is part of our inheritance to be, above all, secure and confident in the will of God.
The first question we must ask in any skillful prayer is what God’s plan is. ‘‘Is this life or is this death?’’ We must first understand His will, even if we don’t initially agree with it. We must ask tough questions; we cannot write a skillful prayer out of presumption.
There will be times when it will be difficult to write a skillful prayer. Our natural inclination will be to pray for what we think is best. We must resist that presumption and discover what God’s will is.
Sometimes it is in the will of God for a person to have an awesome death, so we do not pray for healing.
skillful prayer didn’t just work in David’s time; it works today.
Some prayer meetings are full of confusion, everybody is praying something different. ‘‘They don’t know what the Lord wants to do. But some might be there waiting and listening, by faith, and will discern the will of God.
‘‘When you’re learning how to hear the Lord, He doesn’t speak to you in whole sentences, but in key words and phrases. Just be still before the Lord and let God breathe on you. Whatever comes into your conscious mind, write it down.’’
This is very important: there is one thing to pray for – and one thing only.
What happens with most of us is that we start off praying in our fear and panic and we give God so many choices that the situation overwhelms us. We end up losing heart and quit praying at all.
Once we discern the will of God, we have to pray it with whatever faith, passion, intensity and power that we possess.
Our circumstances are not just about the situation being resolved. It is also about us being changed!
We are learning to have increased confidence that things will work out for good (see Romans 8:28). It is not just about my personal good but about people around me seeing something of God in my circumstances.
When we know what God wants to do for us, we can then turn our attention to what God wants to do in us and around us to others.
Now, with skillful prayer taking care of the problem, we are free to pursue the wider purposes of God in our situation.
This is where we can start to become prophetic. Romans 8:28–31 tells us that in every set of circumstances there is a pre-determined path for us to follow that is guaranteed to make us more like Christ:
‘‘And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.’’ We are ‘‘predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son’’ in this current set of circumstances. This passage talks about the here and now, not some future heavenly state (when we’re all going to be changed in a twinkling of an eye, anyhow!).
A skillful prayer is not a magic formula. It will take a process, over time, to be answered. We are now free to be conformed to the image of Jesus. We are free from the stress of the situation to begin to interact with God personally to increase our intimacy and devotional walk.
The questions we must ask as the situation unfolds are, ‘‘What is it that God wants to be for me now that He could not be at any other time? What is God doing in me to make me more like Jesus? What else is God doing through me to the people around me as I go through these circumstances?’’
We must begin to see the wider purposes of God at work. These are the ‘all things’’ of Romans 8:28 that we have typically missed in past situations. If we pray, in confidence, and the situation does not change as quickly as we would like, we must not get disheartened. You are praying God’s will, so learn to persevere, to pray with joy; the answer will come.
Often the reason for the wait regarding the answer is because we are learning to wait on Him. We are learning how much the Father is for us, according to Romans 8:31.
What are the things that the Father wants to freely give us? There may be more for us to inherit in this present crisis than we realize.
‘‘A prayer may not be answered until all of God’s wider objectives have been achieved.’’ This becomes an even greater opportunity to see the majesty of God.
People don’t read the Bible, they read the people of God. We must not be double-minded (see James 1:5–8) but have a confident conviction of God’s nature to us.
Skillful prayers develop our character There are prayers that God has given me in my life that have absolutely saved me.
We should have a joyful, but disciplined, approach to God because it produces faithfulness in us.
How do we pray skillfully?
Jesus was the One who taught us the most about prayer. ‘‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you,’’ He said
in Matthew 7:7. He guaranteed that our prayers would be answered. Prayer is not rocket science.
God wants us to be confident in prayer. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:4–7, ‘‘Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to
God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’’
We must combine our supplication, our need to know how to pray for a specific situation, with thanksgiving. When we don’t know how to pray, we should enter God’s presence with thanksgiving, and then ask Him questions:
” ‘‘So, what are You up to?’’
” ‘‘What’s happening here?’’
” ‘‘What is it You want to do?’’
” ‘‘I know You, You’re up to something . . .
what is it?’’
” ‘‘What does that look like?’’
” ‘‘What’s the plan, Father?’’
” ‘‘What do You want to do?’’
My supplication looks like this: ‘‘Father, I praise You for this situation. I know You have a plan and a purpose for me. I give You thanks that You are with me and that You are for me. I ask You to show me Your ways, teach me Your paths, show me Your will, oh Lord, that I may become conformed to the image of Jesus in this situation. Show me Your will that I may confidently and joyfully co-operate with You.’’
And then I’m simply still. And I listen. And I meditate on God, waiting for Him to speak. He will give you key words and phrases and a sense of His objective. Then He might add that with Scripture or pictures.
Write everything down when it comes to you. As you do, peace will fill you, and a confidence will begin to rise in your spirit. Prayer should be a joyful experience.
Paul wrote in Philippians 1:3–4,‘‘I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy.’’ When we know how God is going to answer our prayer, happiness fills our heart.
When a person knows, what God is going to do, they can’t wipe the smile off their face.
The church knows how to pray with depression all too well, but prayer with joy is the experience we are destined to have. For too long, we have prayed with anxiety, with fear, with nervousness, with unbelief, with doubt.
It’s time for joy to return to our prayer life. Prayer is a paradox – two apparently conflicting ideas contained in the same truth. Yes, God wants us to be spontaneous and move freely in His will; but He also wants us to be planned, purposeful, intentional, and rehearsed.
The Bible is a great example of that dedication to order, a Book which took centuries of divine planning and purpose.
Spontaneity has become an unnecessary crutch for the Spirit-filled Church. We have relied solely on being spontaneous, as if God abhors planning.
Yet it is when we are planned, purposeful, rehearsed and have written our revelation down that we are released too truly be spontaneous.
If all we have is spontaneous spirituality, we will never mature in our faith. In fact, this spontaneity makes us inflexible to the Spirit.
How do we pray when our heart gives out? ‘‘Call to Me and I will show you great and mighty things which you do not know.’’ God said, through Jeremiah.
True spontaneous spirituality arises out of a heart that is soaked and prepared by a relationship with the Holy Spirit. Knowing that God is intentional, I can be sure that I am not quenching the Holy Spirit when I use skillful prayers.
God is prepared and well-planned; we must return the compliment.
Simplifying our faith is also helpful in prayer. I try to be childlike in my confession of faith: ‘‘God said, I believe it, that settles it.’’
Jesus did the same thing in Matthew 22:37–40: ‘‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.’’
Jesus was telling His disciples that when their faith was tested and their hearts began to fail, there were just two simple commands to follow: Love Me and love the person next to you.
Skillful prayer works especially well in families and small groups, as intercessors can encourage one another, compare notes, and seek answers together.
As Jesus said in Matthew 18:19–20, ‘‘Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.’’
Together, we can discover and pray into what God wants to do through every situation.
What is an effective prayer? Very simply, it’s a prayer that God gives you permission to pray, prayed fervently, full of passion and power.
These are P.U.S.H. prayers – Pray Until Something Happens. Skillful prayer is about intention, aligning our request to God’s will.
There are prayers that you need to write about your current circumstance. There are prayers you need to write about your family and your friends.
These prayers will be sustenance for your prayer life and provide marvelous answers and strength in your time of need.
Learning to stand
My child, in this next season I am going to radically change your perspective. You will begin to understand both the Power that is behind you and the Power that is within you.
I will teach you how to stand on the word of your God. Know that as you stand on My word, so at the same moment you stand on the evil one. I have put a sword in your hand and confession and proclamation upon your lips.
You are learning to stand in the Presence of God and those I send to assist you. Know that you are being watched over and protected.
Therefore, I say to you . . . stand up, stand upon, and stand again stand you shall prevail.
Prayer, done correctly, will stir up a spirit of boldness in our lives. Before we know it, we’ll have slipped into proclaiming the greatness and wisdom of God.
There is nothing like the rush of faith and adrenaline that happens when a person is praying and suddenly shifts gears into proclamation.
It’s as if they have hit the mother lode and have begun to prophetically proclaim God’s will for the situation they are praying for.
This spirit of proclamation is part of our DNA as a Christian. When we know God’s will, we enter a certainty of the outcome. The confidence of the Holy Spirit fills us, and we become God’s voice in a specific situation.
Wonderfully, we’re not praying to get an answer, we’re praying with the answer. Because we know what God wants to do, we are free to follow the process God has ordained for us in the circumstances that He has allowed.
It is time to use prayer as a weapon – we must grow up in our intercession, becoming the joyful, confident men and women God has destined us to be.
Our prayer lives can be the most richly rewarding part of our walk with God if we just take the time to enter His presence with thanksgiving and to still ourselves until we know God’s thoughts. The rest are details.’’
We can rest in His secret place. Then we can ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us what the conversation in Heaven is over our situation, and we can write a prayer which will be answered.