Prayer Summary for August 27

Shared…

The following excerpt is taken from Born for Battle by R. Arthur Mathews:

The Cutting Edge

Prayer is a weapon, a mighty weapon in a terrible conflict.
Our prayers are to be a continual, conscious,
earnest effort for battle, the battle against
whatever is not God’s will.
P. T. Forsyth

In a day when new and exciting cutting edge are being recommended, the tendency is to be carried away with new ideas and relegate the traditional trusty weapons to a place of less significance, or to throw them away altogether.

The  concept that treats prayer as if it were merely a supplemental booster in getting some project off the ground makes the project primary and the prayer secondary. Prayer was never meant to be incidental to the work of God. It is the work.

The impression that one often gets at prayer meetings is that petition is the pivot upon which prayer turns and that the main function of prayer is to handle life’s emergencies. Dr. Forsyth declares, “So many of us pray because we are driven by need rather than kindled by grace. Our prayer is a cry rather than a hymn. It is a quest rather than a tryst. It trembles more than it triumphs. It asks for strength rather than exerts it.”

If prayer is fostered only by emergencies and is only and always just petition, then it seems to me that some very important aspects of prayer are being ignored. Prayer is more than the church’s ambulance, called out to deal with various crises after the damage has already been done. To use it only in this way is to cheapen and act despitefully toward the deeper significance of prayer that God teaches in the Bible.

To pray in an emergency is altogether right. But to pray only in an emergency cannot be right because this limits prayer to the area of our own self-awareness in the events of life. It makes prayer a convenience, something to which we are driven by our human perspective on the crisis, not something in which we are drawn and energized by the Holy Spirit.

…Prayer must start at God’s end, for isn’t that the control center of all that happens? Therefore our relationship with him and our attitude towards the things he allows to disturb our lives is more important than passing on information to him.

Because of this, our first duty is to make sure we are really in that lofty place by his side with the right attitude and with nothing in us to prevent him from hearing us or to prevent us from hearing his still, small voice. It is only from that place of closest intimacy that we may learn what the will is that we are to pray will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Prayed…

Lord, You are everything to us!
We worship and magnify You!
Our eyes and hearts are looking upward to heaven
Conditions being adjusted right now for the Church to go in the right way
No more man’s ideas!
We yield more to You, Lord!
Every day, we must stay connected and lined up in the body of Christ
In everything we do, Lord, turn, change, and tweak us that we may fully walk in Your way!
Praying over the feet of the body of Christ, that they begin to move in the right direction
So that the finish can be complete!
Calling things that are not as though they were!
Enough is enough, we will not tolerate that any longer!
We take our seat of authority and call for alignment!
Those adjustments are taking place today!
Some lines must be bent and some lines must be straightened out
Calling for the oil of the Holy Ghost
There must be passion and compassion in the church of God!
Eyes full with fire and desire fixed on the one and only God!
We will not compromise the Word but will give it our full attention
Hearing and obeying the instructions from heaven
Father, grant boldness and courage to those who are called to the front lines
We send a supply of the Spirit to them that they may finish their race!
Applying the blood over all of the companies!
There is a call going forth
We desire to be in the secret place!

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