Day 14 - August 15, 2020 Three disciplines of prayer we can develop:

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NLT)

24 Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

I am thankful for Christ coming into my life as Lord and Savior 45 years ago and for Him being with me every day since.

We’re in this race.. It’s a marathon .. 45 years for me… 

So for that race, we need to discipline our bodies, our habit, our thoughts.  May we grow in spiritual disciplines.

Here are 3 disciplines of prayer we can develop:

Revelation 2:3-5 (NLT)   3 You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.

4 “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first![a] 5 Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.

1.We need to remember.  Remember what it was like to be lost? To be hopeless?

I too well remember that feeling how I was heading the wrong way and hopeless.

Thank you Jesus that I’m not hopeless but rather with greater discipline to finish, to win this race!

Galatians 2:20 (NLT) 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ.[a] It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

2. We need to repent.  Which means to turn. To crucify my will, my opinions, my flesh, my desires to turn in the direction for where He wants to take me and allow Him to align me with His directions, His plans and His ideas.

3. Renew it all!  Renew our faith!  Be filled with the Holy Spirit again and every day.  Lord I want all you have for me. Renew my desire for spiritual gifts, but Father, I want more of you. Renew your commitment and availability to God.  Renew your zeal and your vigor.  God’s not interested in our abilities unless it’s our availability.  Renew your disciplines before the Lord!

21 Days In Prayer - Day 13 - August 14, 2020 There Is Power In Our Pause

The Bible says we should guard our hearts, out of it is a well spring of life. It’s a haven, to be protected.

God wants to flow through His love through our hearts.

Matthew 14:23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone,

Jesus gives an incredible example. At night he would be in a place of solitude.  There is incredible power in intimacy with God the Father.

When they discovered the source of Jesus’ power, they asked Him how to pray (not how to heal others).

Find the time to be alone with God. There’s a difference between isolation and solitude. 

Isolation is being cut off and running away.

Solitude is about being running toward God, in a quiet place and say “there’s nothing in me that I will hide from you.”  

You must decide to pause to be with God. Selah.. To pause, to ponder and to pray.

Your pause holds power. The most dynamic thing you can do in your life is to simply pause.

Sometimes when we’ve experienced a great holy moment, the best thing to do is to pause, reflect and to pray.

How do you do this?  Nothing will ever happen unless you make a plan.

During 21 days of prayer this is a perfect time to put together a plan of solitude with God.

Put it on your calendar.  God takes time to plan our steps; why don’t we take time to plan our time with God.

God’s plan will only be revealed to you when you have a solitary focus on Him. 

Many people have a fear of “missing out” on what everyone else; but we need to have a holy fear of missing out on what God is doing in our life.  We need to have a fear of missing out on the  revelation or the story that God wants to do in your life.

Let’s awaken to the supernatural opportunities from heaven.

As you plan, you also need to choose to press in.

The moment you decide to have a solitary focus, the pressures of life will come in. So we need the Holy Spirit to help us press in and then choose to listen.

For some pressing in is reading aloud; some read audio, some read/take notes.

You also need to reflect and take inventory of what God is revealing and write it down. These are ways to press in for God to meet you and fill you.

Isaiah 40:31  but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;  they will run and not grow weary,

    they will walk and not be faint.

There is power in your pause.

*teaching by DawnChere Wilkerson

Day 12 - August 13, 2020 The Right Prayer Perspective.

When your prayer life improves, your worship improves.

Today we ‘ll look at having The Right Prayer Perspective.

It’s easy to get caught up with our goals and projects and not having the right perspective.

Let’s move through something looking through our eyes and then through God’s eyes.

Illustration of the beauty of a picture like Pike’s Peak (show picture)

A perspective of the what the life God has called us to can look like.

The beauty is something looking at the mountain, but the trail up the mountain can be difficult.  So many times we live with that view of our life.

The mountain of life from our perspective as we climb or go through life.

But when we get to the top, the perspective changes - Picture 3.

But this is the view from God’s perspective

Romans 8:31-39 (NIV)

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;  we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[a]

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Three thoughts from this passage.

1 - God loves you!  Sometimes you need to hear that. He chose you. You were made for this moment in time and place.  Whatever you’re facing, know you were made for this moment. He chose you! He loves you!

2 - Jesus intercedes for you!  The king of heaven and earth is having a conversation with the Father. He sees you, and then asks the Father for what He can do.

3 - Nothing can separate you from His love. No matter the hardships of life, no matter the attacks of the enemy, there is nothing that can separate you from God’s love.

Action points:

Revelation 12:11They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much  as to shrink from death.

They triumphed (are those in the future including us as well), by the blood.

1 - Let’s pray from the perspective of he finished work of the cross.

We pray with confidence of Jesus’ finished and complete work.

2 - Pray with the perspective of what God is doing in your life.

He is doing a redemptive work in your life. He is doing Kingdom work in you!

3 - Pray from the perspective of complete surrender.  

They did not love their lives so much as to surrender their life. (see Rev. 12:11)

When you are going up the mountain and having difficulty, know the view that God has for you no matter how difficult it might be for the moment.