Psalm 141:2 KJV
“Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice”
Please take some time out over the next few days to read this devotion on prayer. Praying is talking to God. Did you know that Angels take our prayers up to Him? Our simple, one on one conversation, whatever the time of day or night – just you & Him communing, the majority of the time, goes up before God. Standing up, laying down, walking to your destination, in your car, at your desk or kneeling. You can sing your pray if your heart is delighting in a good matter. You can dance your prayer like David danced, as he prayed in thanksgiving to God. Prayer is you & I speaking to God without fanciful words, just the echoing of our hearts & pouring it out to Him like oil. Praying is like speaking to your closest confidant, whoever that maybe to you, the only difference is, human confidantes can only meet us so far then contact breaks, whether it’s naturally or physically. There is no time when our contact with God breaks, on His part, assuredly. We may break our contact by praying only when we are in dire straits or in need, perplexed or sick; bereaved or depressed or thanksgiving when things are going well. But when are we just talking to Our Father? Do we believe He hears us when we speak to Him? Some of you may say “I don’t know how to pray” but the answer is here, Jesus showed us the way we should approach Him in prayer & then how to pray, in the book of Matthew 6:7 “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly”. Our closet can be any private place where we shut ourselves away into the presence of God. There are times when I pray at my desk. Silent prayer, just stealing away with Jesus. There are many types of prayer; Covering prayer & the laying of hands. This is when a situation or person is covered under the Blood of Jesus & hands are physically laid upon them. In Acts 6 a delegation of disciples were chosen to go out and preach the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, to preach about baptism and to teach the people but before they were sent out on the mission field, the Apostles lay hands upon them & covered them in prayer “Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them; And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly.” When there is sick amongst us there is, at times, the need for that person to be physically touched during prayer by laying on of hands upon the sick & anointing them on “the crown of their head”, with sanctified & blessed oil, is necessary & covering them with healing prayers in the name of Jesus Christ. In the book ok James 5:14 he asked “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” Silent prayer is when we are being still, not speaking but our minds are focused on God, awaiting a word from Him through the movement of The Holy Spirit. Waiting to hear the still, small voice of God. Our hearts poured out in silent devotion & The Holy Spirit makes groanings, representations for us. Intercessory Prayer is where we intervene & pray to God on behalf of others. Standing between the Altar & porches as God commanded in the Book of Joel 2:17, approaching boldly, His Throne of Grace & mercy & plead causes on behalf of others. When we intercede on behalf of others it is a sacrifice of the times we would spend focusing on our issues. We give up our needs & pray for the causes of others & God honours this selfless act & answers our prayers. In Matthew 8:5 The Centurian Soldier’s servant was sick unto to death and when he received the message he went straight to Jesus, boldly. God can use anyone who is willing to be an Intercessor. The Centurians were Romans who were in authority at that time & they were sent to rule over the Jews but they treated them harshly. The animosity between the Jews and the Romans was obvious & blatantly displayed. The Jews hated the occupation army in return & the Romans hated the Jews. But God “can furnish a table in the wilderness” He can change a barren situation into springs of wells. He can turn a dire situation around, He can move us from a valley to a mountain top. Here we see a different type of Roman soldier—a man who seemed to know & reverence God & know about His power with authority. So believing that just the spoken word from Jesus Christ was enough to heal his servant, he approached Jesus-The God Man. He told Jesus about all of the earthly authority he had & said “if I commanded a man to go here or ordered him to do something, he had to do it” but all the earthly authority the soldier had could not equate to Jesus’s. The soldier had to go The Healer & Balm in Gilead, The Creator, The Storm Calmer, The Good Shepherd & then he repented, telling Jesus “Lord I am not worthy for You to come under my roof” he was confessing to God first admitting ‘I have sinned before almighty God’ but sin, little or big sin, sin for a season- it is still all sin but God, in His mercy, forgives us if we humbly come to Him. Before interceding on behalf of others we must confess as we approach Him in reverence because we have all committed conscious & unconscious sins therefore, we need cleansing as we approach The Throne Room of God. The Centurian Soldier continued by then exercising faith & said “but only speak the word & my servant would be healed”. The Word of God is” all powerful & it cannot return void”. His Word is Spirit & it is life. Speaking Gods word destroys yokes. Psalms 107:20states “He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”
This powerful example of intercession with faith by The Centurian, is a demonstration of how we ought to come humbly to God. It demonstrates also the access code in word of Jesus “there is indeed only one way” to God—through Jesus Christ for He alone is The Way, the Truth & The Life & if we see Him we see God. He is all powerful & He responded immediately to this Intercessor’s request that even before he returned to His home his servant was made whole, complete healing in the name of Jesus. Jesus was so moved by the soldier’s faith he declared “When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel” that is the faith to believe that Gods Word is God. It is final. It breaks chains. It builds up & delivers and pulls down strongholds. His Word Heals. When we interceed we stand in the middle in prayer & we declare Gods Word to deliver that person or situation. One song writer sang “somebody prayed for me, they went down on their knees & sacrificed their time & prayed for me, I’m so glad that somebody prayed for me” We are all intercessors & when we stand in the gap for others, God deals with the need we have presented on their behalf because He’s sees the heart & He sees the willingness in us taking other’s plight to His Throne Room. God answers all of our prayers but His answers are not always prescriptive to our request because He deals with the need in that prayer. He knows what is best for us.
Weeping Prayer; in the book of Joel 2:17 God actually instructs us to “… weep between the porches and the altar..” sometimes we are moved to tears when we pray. In the book of Samuel we read how Hannah beseeched God, crying out from the depths of her soul & her heart was bleeding as she prayed to Him, seeking the fruit of her womb as she was barren. Her husband Elkana’s other wives mocked her as they had children. Hannah endured this for many years but she took her request persistently to God. She poured out her tears as an offering to God, 1Samuel1:10 “And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.” She wept & prayed & fasted with such determination, shut away in that quiet place, just her alone, petitioning God, that when Eli the High Priest saw her, her thought she was drunk & remonstrated her “13 Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken” but she corrected him explaining that her soul was sorrowful & she was seeking God in prayer “ 15 And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord.” God received Hannah’s prayers & heard her cries & He acted upon them as He was moved by compassion from her tears. Thus He blessed her with her son Samuel, who she promised to offer back to Him in thanksgiving. He later became a Prophet in the House of The Lord. God records every tear that we shed & in Psalms 56:8 tells David writes “Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?” Nothing is hid from God not even our silent weeping. God knows the language of tears & He wept as a man when Lazarus His good friend died. The shortest scripture in the Bible is “Jesus wept” John 11:35 encapsulating the power of weeping prayer. Jesus also wept bitterly in The Garden of Gethsemene for our sins in those hours which came for Him to die on the cross. Our tears are recorded upon His Altar in His Throne Room & we see proof repeatedly, that He acts on them. Check if you will, your own life & see how He has responded to your tears, I certainly have a plethora of testimonies to this in my life. Supplication Prayer is when we petition God with our needs & lay it out before Jehovah Jirah, The Lord who provides. Jesus invited us to “ask & it shall be given, seek & we will find, knock & the door will be open” He charged us at fault that we “have not because we ask not” of the right things of Him but for the lust of the flesh. ‘Our Wants not needs’. The needs and not aimless wants. Scripture also tells us there are times when “we pray amiss” because we are not focused on what our actual request to God is in order for Him to respond. We need to be clear & speak direct on what that direct issues is. There are times that prayer said on our behalf, sometimes without us even being aware of it, comes up before God & we receive a breakthrough- the answer, provision from God. Our prayers are written in a book, just as our tears are & they ascend before God as a memorial. This is written by John in the book of Revelation 8:4 “And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.” Our prayers do go somewhere. They are recorded. They are heard & God responds to them. Prevailing or effectual Prayer is our prayer which obtains the blessing that it seeks. It is that prayer which effectually touches God to react. The very essence of effectual prayer is, that it effects our situation or that of others. James 5:16 “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” We are made righteous only through God not of our own doing. Prevailing prayers does much & it moves God to a reaction. The “persistent widow” would not move from the unjust judge until he dealt with her, much more God our Creator & Father. Jacob told The Angel of The Lord he “would not let go of Him until The Lord blessed Him”. This scripture sees Jacob wrestling with The Angel of The Lord until he receives his breakthrough. Jacob was left with a limp where the Angel struck Him. It was a mark to make every know he had met God & it was a testimony for Jacob to show everyone around that he had been in the presence of God. When we come into Gods Presence we come out change ever time there should be a Spiritual shift within us.
Collective Prayer or the call to prayer as it is also know. Jesus said in Matthew 18 “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” God Himself, enters our prayer forum in The Holy Spirit, we do not physically, need to be in the same place but we must be on one accord. “Can two walk together lest they agree?” We can be in a Church, a prayer or house meeting, maybe a text message or prayer letter, we can be online over the phone or a prayer forum across towns or across the Globe. The ‘call to pray’ can come across media platforms but the central part is the one reason & seeking God to enter in the midst of us to deliver. He promised He is in the middle to bless. As we offer our individual prayers & combine our hearts for the specific cause, God pours answers & pours His blessings on the situation. Powerful Prayer is where we declare the power & authority over a situation in the name of Jesus, we command and cover the issue in The blood of Jesus & we bind the forces of darkness as we have been given authority to do so – only – in the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus gave this rite of passage to us in Matthew 18:18” Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” We have true power and authority to bind & loose with the Holy Spirit anointing over our tongues. We must be careful what we say with our mouths ths because “there is death & life in the power of the tongue”. We again must be in agreement according to word of God & ask by faith. In Luke 10:18 Jesus informed us just how much power & authority is in HIS name which He has allowed His children to have also “And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” We are not to rejoice that by using this authority spirits are subject to us because it is the name of Jesus Christ they are subject to. Not us but the power of The Holy Spirit & the name of Jesus on us, which they are subject to & rebuked under. Jesus said do not rejoice that those evil spirits are subject to us but rather rejoice that through our inheritance & authority to use our Father Jesus’s name, “but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven“ amen! Satan has fallen with a third of the angels, “evil angels” as they are referred to in Psalms 78:49 & he has unleashed them to cause destruction throughout the earth.
Warfare Prayer is where we wade in deep & take back what the enemy has stolen by force under the authority of The Holy Spirit. The day Daniel was was praying, he was visited by an angel after three weeks of prayer & fasting. The Angel Gabriel told Daniel his prayer had been answered on the first day but there was fighting in the spirit realm where the enemy was seeking to prevent the results of Daniels prayer coming to him & reinforcement had to be sent from God as He dispatched the Arch Angel Micheal the Chief warrior angel, to fight the prince of Persia- the enemy. Daniel 10:12”Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.
13 “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.14 Now I am come (Angel Gaberial) to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.” This is a spiritual battle we fight & the enemy is relentless. Scripture tells us “The Kingdom of God suffered violence” as Satan waged war in the Spirit Realm but God cast him out & he is wroth. This is why prayer is vital in our lives. Through communication with God, He sends us reinforcement through the power of His Holy Spirit & He gives His angels charge over us & to fight for us but it is God who hears & answrs our prayers. Jesus said in Luke 10 “Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see:”
Thanksgiving Prayer is where we praise God, giving Him His due glory & thanks, praising Him in advance for all He does for us, is about to do & will do; whether we are conscious of what He is doing or His workings behind the scenes in our lives. 1Chronicles 29:13 states “Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.” Thanksgiving Praise is even more precious to God when offered to Him in the valley of our struggles because our hearts delves deep to praise Him when the soul is cast down. David encourages himself when he say “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.”Thanksgiving is when we thank Him for the situation we face or may be in, good or difficult & then we thank Him for our deliverance ahead of time, by faith. We also give thanks for His Promise for our lives, His Provision & Protection. Phillipians 4:6 tells us “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God”; Thanksgiving is true worship & honouring God, not just in words but demonstrated through our actions, the first of our fruit which we give back to God & He desires the sincerity & true praise from our hearts & mouths, testifying of the goodness of God towards that others will be encouraged & God will be glorified “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of [our] lips giving thanks to his name” Hebrews 13:15. In everything whether we feel like it or not, we must give God thanks as 1 Thessalonians 5:18 states “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
Jesus went onto to say “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking“; we do not need to always pray long prayers. God can deal with the monosyllabic prayers of our heart. Lost for words or don’t know want to say – God can handle short prayers, His pride is not dented because we have not got multiple paragraphs of prayers to reel off. He wants the sincerity of our hearts to be first & our prayers are a product of this. Don’t keep repeating a prayer out of duty, take the layers off and speak openly to the point with Him. “What is the meaning to your prayer?” Jesus is saying. Are we praying or speaking to Him because we want to or because we think it looks good or worse still, we feel forced to? God does not need to beg us to commune with Him, it benefits us to enter the Spirit realm in communication with Him. Remember always, God knows what we need before we even open our mouths, before we even utter a word “Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”
Jesus went deeper and began teaching us how to prayer with the famous The Our Father Prayer. In between this guidedance to pray is how to approach God, seeking Him first & His will that is in Heven & to be done in the earth. He shows us how to ask for daily provision as well as seeking repentance for our wrong doings so we to must forgive those who wrong us. Asking God to keep us from temptation & deliver us from evil because His is the Kingdom all the power & glory forever! Empthatic. All our words need be simple but true. Then Jesus cemented things by giving us a solution to our plethora of issues in Luke 18:1” And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.”
Jesus cemented this when He told Peter (who’s full name was Simon Peter), in Luke 22:31 “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat” but Jesus didn’t leave Peter without an answer or a solution, no, He told him clearly what He has already done for Peter; Luke 22:32 “But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted (by The in-filling of Gods Holy Spirit) , strengthen thy brethren.”
Last week we saw the National Pray for Police day on the 10th of May, which LCPF held with CPA & this event was for anyone across the world and was held in conjunction with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s ongoing prayer event “Thy Kingdom Come” to pray for the world and all that is happening within it and the world certainly needs prayer. The call of Intercessory & Collective Prayer can be see here. Praying also with power & authority against the evil which is trying to take over this earth. We should not however, stop there, we need to pray on because the tribulations we face are relentless & choices we make in this life should be in line with the wisdom of God but we can’t receive His wisdom if we are not seeking it. There is much sin & evil in this world & we have all fallen short of Gods will but God is merciful loving forgiving & kind & He has made a way out for us & it is only our obedience to His will, which will save us. The Word of God Day in the book of 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” God is listening and He will answer us. The formula set by the God of the Old Testament, the very same God of the New Testament & of today, remains the same repentance and prayer. God calls us to pray. We need to pray for the healing of our nation, for our brothers & sisters, our enemies & ourselves. Through prayer, our souls are revived & after prayer we must give God thanks for the answers to come because by doing so, we activate “mustard seed” faith.
Over the past week we have had several requests for prayer for deliverance from stress, anxiety, mental illness, emotional exhaustion, physical sickness, children who have gone missing, for deliverance from domestic abuse & housing issues from both colleagues within the force & on behalf or someone who has become an Intercessor for someone needing prayer. I want us to pray for these & in particular, please pray against the spirit of confusion, anger & violence, sent to trouble the minds & body of Gods people. Pray for obedience, restoration, healing & deliverance & for the love & peace of God to envelop those of us in this situation, praying for the peace of the world. Maybe you can find a moment, whether alone or in a group & come into one accord with us according to The Word of God & intercede on behalf of these request, pouring out your prayers & praise like oil before Our Father Jesus Christ. Take authority over this situation in the name of Jesus Christ, amen, remembering to give Him thanks for hearing us & the victory.Continue to pray for me as I & all at LCPF, pray for you.
1Thessalonians 5:25”Brethren, pray for us”
Share this verse with all you meet today, maybe you know Jesus maybe you don’t but the message is the same, there is power in praying in the name of Jesus Christ. We all need prayer & we all need deliverance??
God richly bless & keep you
Samantha ?
