Day 5 The Perspective and Position We Have In Prayer

Leviticus 25:42  For they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves.

Galatians 4:7   Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir [a]of God through Christ.

Revelation 19:7    Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”

What if God’s biggest challenge with your prayer isn’t your problems but your perspective?

We may approach God with fears that we have (for the variety of fears we encounter in life). 

Fear can surround us but once you know your position with God, there’s nothing that you cannot pray through.  You have more access that you recognize and more authority that you utilize.

Our access and authority is limited to our perspective of what God can do through us.

In the Old Testament, God saw us as servants. The biggest benefit of knowing this is knowing that God is always there for us.  The limitation with a servant perspective is often they do not believe they have such access and authority.  Most only request to the degree they have access.

In the New Testament, the second posture or perspective is how we are viewed. No longer are you servants but God sees you as Sons.  If the Father possesses it, we can access it.

Though the  pandemic may worry me, I have access to his peace. I have access to his power. To His power. To His joy.  You are a child of God and He has given us access to the Kingdom.

But another perspective is that during the end times God sees us as a spouse (the church, the Bride of Christ). A spouse has full access to all of the benefits that He has for us. Husbands say to wives, what’s mine is yours. One flesh. A shared account. Full access. God has given us complete access and full authority, therefore pray like you have a groom that has given you full access.   His peace, power, victory, healing, is yours.

So today let us pray “spouse perspective prayers” knowing we have full access and complete authority. 

21 Days of Prayer - Day 4 - How To Hear God Speak Through His Word - Lisa TerKeurst

Day 4  How You Can Hear God Speak Through His Word

Know this, God loves to develop our character to match our calling.

God speaks to us often through His Word.  Listen as you read. Write down anything you feel is like a message from God. Perhaps ask a few questions as you read:

• Am I making progress with this passage?

• Am I regressing, that is am I going backwards?

• Am I digressing, am I in some sort of full blown rebellion with this teaching?

• Is there anything that this verse is prompting me to confess?

• Is there someone that has violated this verse with me and I need to practice forgiveness

Once you make confess and you practice forgiveness, you make progress.  

Perhaps remember this tool then: progress, regress, digress, confess and forgiveness.

As we pray and fast, there may be some things in our lives in which we need to extend forgiveness to others. Perhaps we have hurt others or possibly they have hurt us.

Luke 11:2

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say:“‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread.4 Forgive us our sins,     for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’”

How do we pray?

Jesus put so much emphasis on confession and forgiveness.

When Jesus says “give us today our daily bread”, this is something we do every day.

When we pray, what do you do when you get up from your prayer?  I would say live with great expectation. Listen and look for his activity and prompting.

His answers to our prayer may not look like what we think it will be, so look with expectation on how God will provide, bless and act.

How many times have I looked for a loaf of bread, walking through fields of mana wondering when God might provide.

So go, listen, and with great expectation watch Him move.

*Today’s teaching by Lisa TerKeurst 

21 Days of Prayer - Day 3 Praying For Times of Refreshment - Acts 3

Day 3

Acts 3:19 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,

How great it is that Jesus gave His life for us, that when we turn to God we can repent and receive times of refreshing from the Lord.

What a great hope that in the difficult and hard times we live in, God can change it to times of refreshing in our lives.

The nation of Israel experienced barren, broken and hard times and looked to God for refreshment and restoration.

We have days like this. We feel dry and then even a dryer day comes.

Yet God responds in Psalm 107.

Psalm 107:35 He turned the desert into pools of water  and the parched ground into flowing springs;

God can turn our desert not just into a damp place, but into a pool of water, a flowing spring.

We live in a world that is so dehydrated and I believe God will turn that around and bring in a flowing spring.

We may be living in the last days, but I believe that God in the last days will pour out His spirit and bring times of refreshing for people.

So during these times we walk in faith and pray in agreement.

Let’s be like a sponge. Just waiting to receive and once we do, we then release back out the water and flow of God’s blessing.

So let’s be like that sponge, expectant.  We may feel the dryness of our culture right now, but there’s rain in the forecast. The rain of God’s blessing  and refreshment. Let’s have our umbrellas of faith ready, because while many think it dry,  there’s rain in the forecast.