Lesson 7
Step 1 - Pray
Jesus clearly stated that what we speak is directly related
to what we have first prayed. If we do not know how to petition
God, make our requests known unto Him, then we are going to have
trouble following up with what we confess. So our first step is
prayer.
The commonly used word for prayer in the New Testament comes
from two words. In a manner of speaking, the first word could be
interpreted as "toward" as in praying toward someone. We know
who that is. Another way of saying it, would be upon that which
we are focused or upon Whom we are focused. This seems obvious,
I suppose, but the trouble is, we often complain, criticize,
gripe, argue, mutter, murmur, protest, wish, hope, threaten,
push, and do everything other than practicing focusing on exactly
what we want from God. Prayer, on the other hand, is exactly
that. We focus on exactly what we want God to know concerning
our request.
Illustration #8
Before I lost my sight, I borrowed my uncle's binoculars,
went out into the front yard one night, turning off the porch
light as I walked outside the house, and on my back, I lay in the
grass and propped the binoculars up in front of my eyes by
placing my elbows on the ground. As I fitted my eyes into the
binoculars, the stars flared into magnificent brilliance. I
could not believe how beautiful they were.
At first, I thought I was imagining things. The stars were
twinkling blue, green, and red. Pulling the binoculars from my
eyes, I looked up into the darkened night sky. All the stars
were white as if it were grains of salt sprinkled across a black
velvety table cloth. I returned the binoculars to my eyes and
the stars flashed their twinkling colors once again. Not every
star, I noticed, had the green, blue, or red colors. It would be
years later, after going blind, that I read an astronomy book
which said the star colors were in relationship to their motion
in space, that is, coming closer, going away from earth, or, as
it were, standing still.
Playing around a little more with the binoculars, I turned
them around and looked through them from the reversed end. All
the stars became super tiny and hard as if they were fractured
chips of tiny grains of glass on a black curtain. Reversing the
binoculars, I gazed through them normally. All the stars sprang
back into larger than life illumination with all their twinkling
colors.
In later years, as I studied the Scriptures and meditated on
prayer, I realized that's how I had been praying. My prayers
often minimized God's ability to meet the need I had or for which
I was making request. In fact, I magnified the problem, thinking
of all the possibilities which would make it impossible for God
to answer my request. In essence, I minimized God and maximized
the problem. Before long, God was so small in my mind, He
couldn't handle my problems at all. No wonder we rarely get our
prayers answered. Learning how to pray, make request of God, and
how to worship are extremely important when it comes to getting
prayers answered. Quite simply, prayer, even during petitionary
prayer, is making God larger than life. He is, too, you know?
Don't feel bad. I forget that sometimes, too, and make my
circumstances way bigger than God. When it happens, all we have
to do is turn the magnifier around, that is, our prayers. That
way we will begin agreeing with God again. It also allows us to
see much further and it allows us to see what God sees. That's
how faith works.
Petitionary prayer, making request of God, is simply
stating, or asking, the Lord. Remember? "And this is the
confidence, openness, liberty, freedom, and boldness," we have in
Him. That if we *ask). You are going to have to learn getting
used to asking God if you ever want any of your prayers answered.
It isn't difficult. Just open your mouth and ask just as if you
were a child asking your father for something. Sounds natural
that way, doesn't it?
Step 2 - Supplication
I call "supplication" agreement with God. Yes, I know you
likely have heard it taught, or preached, that supplication is
begging God. The Greek root word for "supplication" does in fact
mean (to beg). It also means (to beceech, make request, entreat,
to reveal one's need or lack)), and simply (to ask). If you
start out thinking you are going to have to beg God, how are you
going to know when to stop? One way of solving this
interpretation is finding examples in the Bible.
"17 Elijah 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.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth
brought forth her fruit," (James 5:17-18).
Elijah has always been one of my favorite Old Testament
characters. Probably because he acted so human in his
relationship with the Lord. One minute he is living in victory,
calling down fire from Heaven, killing hundreds of false prophets
like flies, and the next minute he is running for his life and
hiding out in a cave. The thing that really impresses me about
Elijah is that he was still, in spite of everything, a man of
prayer.
1 Kings 17 says that Elijah walks on to the scene, and
right up into the face of King Ahab, pointing his bony finger,
and says, "It isn't going to rain around here until I say so,"
and walks away. Of course, since Ahab is the king, he pays him
no never mind but it dawns on old Ahab a little later that it
hasn't been raining. In fact, there has not been a cloud in the
sky for weeks. There hasn't even been any dew in the mornings.
King Ahab isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer but it doesn't
take him long to figure out he has a problem.
The fascinating aspect of this story is what I used to
think. Somehow, and I don't know how I got this idea, but I
always thought that the Lord spoke to Elijah one day, maybe when
he was sawing logs for his fireplace, herding sheep, fishing,
flying his favorite kite, decorating the Christmas tree, or
something like that and said, "Elijah? This here is God. Get on
down to the palace and tell that wicked old reprobate of a king
that I said it isn't going to rain for three and a half years
because I say so, and then walk out." If you read chapter 17 of
1 Kings carefully, no such thing was said by God. In verse 1 of
chapter 18, on the other hand, God does speak to Elijah, much
later, and tells him to present himself to King Ahab to inform
him it is going to rain. Otherwise, Elijah, in 1 Kings 17:1,
shows up to speak with the king as a solo and announces it isn't
going to rain until he, Elijah, says so. Amazing, isn't it?
There is also no direct reference to three years and six months
except in chapter 18 when it says God spoke to Elijah in the
"third" year. I'm assuming this means in the third year of the
drought. Regardless, there is no reference in the Old Testament,
that I can find anywhere, that it was a drought of three years
and six months according to James. Interesting point. Yet James
knew. How did James know? Through the Holy Spirit would be my
first and only guess.
Prayed Earnestly
I know it is getting old, but keep in mind we are talking
about petitionary prayer. As previously stated, likely more than
once, and this won't be the last either, petitionary prayer is
asking God. Quite simply, it is the stating, in no uncertain
terms, identifying, if you please, the thing for which you are
asking the Lord. Yes, it can be anything. No, don't ask for
grandma or grandpa, who have been dead 50 years, to be
resurrected. It is like the old preacher said. "If you have
common horse sense, you'll always be stable." Try and keep that
in mind when making a request of God. He'll appreciate it
because He doesn't enjoy saying, "No!"
The first word for "prayer" as in "prayed earnestly," is
nothing more than a commonly used word to refer to asking God,
making petition, or making a request of God. It means,
basically, direction, that is, directing your request to God. I
know that sounds simple but I find many who don't seem to
understand to whom they are praying when they pray. Plus, if you
are like me, I always seem to make it more complicated and
confusing than it really is. Thus, "Lord, if it be your will,"
prayers to which the Lord is most likely to reply, is, "What do
you want me to do?" is not praying with forward and upward
direction, knowledge, agreement, or specificity. It generally
let's us off the hook, too, when we don't get an answer. This
means, "Well, I didn't expect Him to answer me anyhow." A poor
spiritual attitude to have when it comes to making request of
God. This is nothing more than an indicator that we don't know.
It is like baseball. Don't swing at everything that comes across
the plate. If you do, you will be operating without awareness.
Praying what I call, on the other hand, as previously mentioned,
"Will of God prayers," or requests, according to 1 John 5:14-15,
are prayers based upon Gods terms for asking. If you pray
according to God's terms, you will be praying. If you don't, you
won't, be praying that is.
The word for "earnest," believe it or not, comes from the
first word, or "prayed." The word for "earnest" means, more or
less, a designated place. This means that Elijah had a place
mapped out where he went on a regular bases to make his request,
that it might not rain in Israel for 3 and a half months, and he
did it until he received confirmation from God. So that answers
the question, "How long should I pray?" Answer, "Until you get
an answer." In short, Elijah prayed, and prayed, and prayed, and
prayed, and prayed, until he heard from God. This does not
necessarily mean, of course, he just kept repeating the same
prayer over and over until he got what he wanted from God. It
means, after he made his request known, Elijah communed with God
until he knew he had the answer for which he sought. He also
prayed knowing God would answer. "Oh really?" Yes. I'll prove
it momentarily.
I might point out that this need not be a physical location,
such as a church, where one prays. In your mind is the best
place to focus your thoughts on God and your request. After all,
we have been made a "new creation" in Christ according to 2
Corinthians 5:17 and God has made his people a "little sanctuary"
according to Ezekiel 11:16. Besides, if you learn to pray, and
to hear God in your thoughts, prayer will become natural and you
can do it anywhere at any time and regardless of what you are
doing.
How long do you intend to praying? Like the old preacher I
heard once say, "When you start praying, decide you are going to
pray until you get an answer. That way, it won't take so long to
get the answer." This same preacher, and I personally have
experienced this many times, also said, "Pray until you receive a
note of praise. then you'll know God has answered your request
or petition."
About this time, I hear somebody saying, "I have never had
that happen, a note a praise, I mean, when I have been praying
about something." Then it is simple; you don't know how to pray.
How do you learn to pray this way?
I remember when I first met my wife. We talked on the phone
for 4 hours that first night and about that long the next night
and I lost track after that. You want to get to know somebody?
Talk to them. You want to get to know God? Pray, which is
another way of saying, talk to Him. He'll teach you.
Eventually, it won't take so long and you'll experience that
"note of praise" the old preacher, now gone home to be with the
Lord, was talking about.
As you likely have noticed, I called Step 2 Supplication,
agreement with God and spiritual conception in God. this is
because I consider petitionary prayer, first of all, spiritual
conception. this means birthing a request in the spiritual
realm. Of course, we are functioning in the physical realm but
when we pray, our newly recreated spirit, where the Holy Spirit
has come to dwell, is also making intercession with God
concerning the will of God in our behalf. (See Romans 8:26-27).
Secondly, as we pray, make request of God, we should be
verbalizing our Scriptural agreement. This is why you need to
know God's Word, or literally, God's promises relating to your
request. If you ask the Lord for a financial need and don't know
the Scriptures relating to God's financial provision, then you
are wasting a lot of spiritual energy. The same is true for
healing, the salvation of a loved one, or anything else you can
think of relating to your petitionary prayers. Refer to my
little book, which is also online to read for free, "God's Three
Steps To Answered Prayer." In that booklet, I have multiple
categories with complete Scriptural references which will be
passages to which you can refer as rhema promises from God's Word
that directly relate to your petitions.
I said I would prove how I know that Elijah prayed with the
attitude of knowing that God would answer His prayer. First, and
foremost, Elijah knew this because he had prayed enough, that
when God spoke, he heard Him. I wonder if you do? If not, you
don't know God well enough. Plus, there is the danger of hearing
another voice which you might very easily mistaken for God's.
Then there is Elijah's behavior.
As you read 1 and 2 Kings, you'll discover Elijah's good and
bad points. Sounds like God to me. Plus, James commented on
this when he said, "Elijah was a man subject to like passions as
we are, and he prayed." At least we know now we are in the same
category. Like another old preacher I heard say once, "The
ground at the foot of the cross is level." We forget this is
true even in the Body of Christ, that is, the church, but perhaps
I digress.
When it was time to rain, God, this time, told Elijah. Did
he just awaken him one night and speak to him? We aren't told.
It sounds like, however, if Elijah is like us, he most likely
heard the voice of the Lord during prayer since we are told he,
Elijah, prayed earnestly. He also prayed specifically that it
might not rain for 3 and a half years. Did you notice that? It
was not a "will of God" prayer. He prayed with a specific answer
in mind and he didn't give up until he got exactly what he asked
God to do. Elijah fully intended, after three years and six
months, that it was going to rain but only after he prayed and
not before.
So, when it was time to rain, Elijah goes and tells the
king, just like he did the first time, that it wasn't going to
rain. Boy, you best know you are hearing from God both times if
you are going to be making such pronouncements. Yes, I have had
that happen to me before and I have spoken what the Lord has
said. Yes, it came to pass exactly as I heard it in my thoughts,
that is, as the Holy Spirit communicated it to me. Was I nervous
about speaking up and saying out loud what I had just heard from
the Lord? Of course. I still obeyed God's Word and it still
came to pass. You best get over this thing about your flesh
sooner rather than later. You also best be watching what you
say. The last time I opened my big mouth, I ended up with a new
grandson, whom the doctors said could never be born. I guess
they just didn't know God very well. Every time I hold him,
which is every day since my wife watches him each day for his
mom, I think of how wrong the Enemy was when he said it wasn't
possible. He even had doctors believing what he said. Of
course, Satan never listened to God much anyhow.
Elijah and one of his servants, a fellow brother in the Lord
who was learning to be a prophet, went up and faced the
Mediterranean Sea. Elijah was going to pray and he gave his
servant instructions concerning what he wanted him to do. The
Bible clearly states that Elijah said for his servant to go to
the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. He told him to
go, it would appear, 7 times. We are told that on the 7th time,
the servant said that he saw a tiny cloud, way out over the sea,
which appeared at the time to be about the size of a man's hand
but otherwise, he saw nothing else. Elijah knew this was the
answer to his prayer and that it was going to rain and soon.
It is the number "7" I find interesting. If you have done
any studying of numbers, or numerology, as it is sometimes
called, in the Bible, that now will ring a bell. Biblical
numerology isn't theological or doctrinal in any way but the
numbers do appear as unique times in Bible history. Thus,
information can be derived from their presence in Scripture. The
number "3," for example, often refers to the Trinity, or
certainly the perfect nature of God. The number "4" is often
equated to God's government verses man's. The number "5" has
many references relating to God's grace. The number "6" is often
associated with man. The number "10" seems focused on judgment
or testing. The number "12" seems to be related to finality or
God's chosen in some way or another. The number "7" is often
said to be related to that which is perfect or complete.
There is yet another application of the number "7" and that
is finality or that which is continuous. For example, we are
told that God rested on the 7th day of the week of creation. Oh,
really? It wore God out, did it? I don't think so. It was a
statement by God as if to say, which I have said before, it is
finished. Whatever He had done during those 6 days was finished.
His day of rest indicated the continuity of what He had created.
In other words, it would not stop until time was no more.
With this in mind, think of Elijah and his servant up on the
cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean. You could see for miles.
How did Elijah know the rain would come from over the Sea? He
didn't. He asked God, of course, and as he prayed, the number 7
simply means that he was prepared to pray, no matter how long it
took, for the rain he knew God would bring. How long did it
take? We are not told. It could have been all day. It makes no
difference but it does make a difference concerning the attitude
Elijah had. He had the attitude of 7, that is, the attitude of
not giving up, and he planned on praying until it rained. It
did. Do you see it? How long are we willing to pray? If your
God is a "will of God" type of God, you might be praying your
whole life about the same thing which never comes to fruition.
If you are praying with the knowledge that God hears and answers
our prayers, it won't take as long. How did you get saved or
Born Again? Did you pray a thousand times, begging God to saved
you and to forgive your sins, or did you pray once? Yes, it
absolutely works the same way with petitionary prayer. If you
believe otherwise, prayer is going to become mentally and
emotionally laborious, fleshly exhausting, and filled with a
great deal of doubt and unbelief.
There isn't a day that passes that I don't speak with some
Christian doubting their salvation. They have prayed perhaps
thousands of times that God might forgive their sins. He did the
firs time. Then why do they doubt? Because the Enemy is a liar.
We pray whatever we believe. If we believe a lie, we will speak
what we believe. If you know the truth, it will set you free,
according to what Jesus said in John 8:32 but you'll have to
decide whom you will believe on your own. Can you see now why
Jesus taught on the importance of what we say? We say what we
believe and we believe what we say. "What if I can't say it
myself?" If you cannot confess it for yourself, regardless of
the reason, you better find someone with whom you can agree.
Otherwise, the Enemy will rob you of all that Jesus wants you to
have, that is, all for which He gave His life.
I said all of that to say this. Supplication is agreement
with God. I was praying one time about something I really wanted
the Lord to do for me. He finally invaded my thought, trying to
get a word in edgewise, and said, "That's fine but what if that
isn't what I want?" It blew me away. I began praying in
agreement instead of my own fleshly selfishness. We learn to
pray with His terms by knowing His Word and His promises. In
short, these are the rhema promises, of which there are
thousands, throughout God's Word. We don't use them to beat Him
over the head as we pray, hoping He will hear us, but we use
them, the promises of God, to show we are identifying ourselves
with Him in agreement. this is supplication.
Step 3 Thanksgiving
I have also called this aspect of petitionary prayer
"appreciation" and "contentment." This is not giving thanks to
God for what He has already done but giving thanks for who He is
and what He can do. This is especially true if He hasn't done it
yet. Then, of course, on the other hand, maybe He has. For
example, If you are praying for a loved one to come to Christ,
thanksgiving, when applied, is praising God for saving that
person. Why? Because He has already done His part. they
haven't done their's yet but we know Jesus died for their sins,
shedding His blood that they might be saved, so we are praising
and thanking God for what He has already done. This is your
faith speaking.
What I often hear concerning this type of spiritual
attitude, and action, is that it doesn't feel right for some
reason. That's understandable because, as we have seen before,
our flesh isn't born again yet, that is, we are not glorified in
body, soul, and spirit. Our flesh and mind doesn't like thanking
in advance because it doesn't feel natural. Well, it isn't
natural in the first place because our action of thanksgiving is
supernatural. No wonder it feels weird. Learn to be a weird
Christian, therefore, and find out how much easier it is for your
prayers to be answered.
Worship
Frankly, an attitude of thanksgiving until the prayer request is
fulfilled, is worship. I could spend a book on worship alone but
first, and foremost, worship is spiritual awareness of who God
is. If you do not believe He is willing and wanting to answer
your prayers, worshiping the Lord with thanksgiving is going to
be mighty stressful. Jesus, on the other hand, is aware of you
always. Thus it is we should become aware of Him through prayer
and thanksgiving. It isn't complicated. If it is, you are
working too hard at worship. Worship is nothing more than God
awareness.
There was a movie many years ago, two of them in fact,
concerning God. The first one wasn't worth watching, in my
opinion, but the second production proved a good point. The
movies were called "Oh God I" and Oh god II." In the second
movie, God revealed himself to a little girl and assigned her to
make the world aware of His existence. To cut to the meat of the
story, she came up with a slogan which simply said, "Think God."
It became bumper stickers, signs, billboards, magazine and
newspaper advertisements, and every form of advertising known to
man. Thus, it made the world aware of God. What the movie
lacked in theology, it made up for in content. "Think God" is
worship. Read the Psalms if you have trouble doing this. King
David and his son, Solomon, saw God in everything, including
nature, and thus they worshiped Him.
I was watching a program on the National Geographic channel
the other day and they were describing, and showing, these birds,
I forget what they were called, but they have stubby short wings
and can't fly. This particular species of bird live on two tiny
islands in the South Pacific in the Galapagos Islands. They live
absolutely no other place on earth. They are the only bird of
its species that can't fly. So they inhabit the shoreline and
literally dive into the ocean waters to catch small fish,
octopus, and other marine life in order to feed. With sharks in
the area, and other predators, they live, of course, a dangerous
life.
As I watched the program and considered the remoteness of
their habitat and the uniqueness of their existence, the passage
of Scripture in Matthew 10:29-31 flashed into my mind where Jesus
said that the Heavenly Father is aware of a single sparrow that
dies and falls to the ground. I was instantly aware that God
knew these birds and watched over them. Simple? Yes, very
simple and on the surface, it doesn't sound like a very deep
theological concept. Regardless, I realized who God was in the
second of time and knew my spirit, along with my thoughts and my
emotions, were worshiping the Creator of all things. It felt
good. You don't need to learn to worship as much as you learn
you are worshiping.
Meditation
Perhaps the easiest way of worshiping God is learning to
meditate. No, I am not talking about eastern meditational
methodology where you sit in the lotus position for hours at a
time and clear your mind of all thought by humming to yourself.
I'm talking about something a lot easier than that. I am talking
about thinking about God. Frankly, it is so simple, you won't
believe it because it isn't long before your mind realizes your
mind cannot comprehend God so it reverts to Jesus with whom we
can identify. That is worship in the first place. I sometimes
use Scripture or sometimes I just become aware of all that is
around me. I thank God for what He has made, a table, a chair, a
desk, my house, family and friends, and before too long, my mind
is stretched by the limitless of God. Sometimes I feel like
praising Him, or thanking Him, while other times I just think of
who He is. No, I don't go into a trance. No, I don't visualize
images. I do become amazed at who God is and that He sent His
Son in the likeness of men to be my Lord and Savior. Talk about
love. Meditation, as a form of worship, which is also giving
thanks, enriches and deepens your relationship with God. by the
way, this is also a form of prayer so at the same time we are
giving thanks, or worshiping, or appreciating God, we are
praying. As I always say, if it is complicated, it isn't God.
Yes, many years ago, when I didn't know any better, I meditated
and used eastern religious techniques such as TM, or
Transcendental Meditation. I wanted to be the best Christian I
could be and I thought that might be a way to God. I was wrong
and it did nothing to help me. It won't help you either other
than to be deceived. Knowing God, however, through worship,
awareness, appreciation, and thanksgiving, will change your life
for ever.
end Of Lesson 7
|
