- So, what do you do in prayer?
You come to prayer, you made it a priority
and you don't know what to say.
Or maybe you're like, "My prayer finishes in 60 seconds.
How do you keep it longer?"
Well, the point is not to keep prayer longer.
In fact, Jesus rebukes that kind of view
that sees the length of prayer as a indication of
the results of prayer.
He says, "That's how heathens do it.
I don't want you to do it like that."
But you should be able to pray good 15 even up to 30 minutes
up to an hour. How do you do that?
What do you say to God if it's like every single day
since God already knows?
Well, God wants to hear your voice, still.
God doesn't want to be informed of your problems.
He actually knows already all your problems
but He wants to have a relationship with you.
But here are few things that you can cover in prayer
and you can do that every single day.
I have another video where I go through
different prayer patterns
but in this one I'm going to go deal with just the basics
what the Bible teaches us we should pray in prayer.
The first one is thanking God.
The Bible says, "Pray without ceasing,
"in everything give thanks;
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you,"
1 Thessalonians 5:17-18.
The Scripture does not say we should thank God for everything
but in everything we should thank God.
In Psalm 100:4 it says, "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving
and into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name."
So when you enter into your room,
you come into your place, start with thanking Him.
Thank Him for protection. Thank Him for good health.
Thank Him for saving you.
Thank Him for the local church.
I mean, just go down the list. Everything that you can think of
just thank God.
The attitude of gratitude is huge to set your mood
because thanksgiving is really a releasing of your faith.
Your faith will begin to be strengthened as you thank God.
You don't realize how much effect your thanksgiving has
on your faith.
You know, when Jesus took five loaves and two fish
He didn't say, "O God, why didn't you give me enough?"
He thanked God for what He had.
So thank God for what you have.
Don't look what you don't have.
Don't count your problems, count your blessings.
And in the presence of God
the first thing you should do in your prayer room is
just thank God.
Take time to go through everything God has done
and thank God.
Number two is to praise Him.
The Scripture says, "Therefore by Him let us continually offer
"the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks to His name." Hebrews 13:15.
Praising God is slightly different than thanking Him
for what He's done.
Praising God is pretty much worshiping Him for who He is.
It's acknowledging Him.
And so this is where now your theology comes into play.
This is where you have to begin to know who He is.
He's everlasting. He's Almighty God.
He's present everywhere. He's all-knowing.
You begin to worship the Triune God.
You begin to worship the Creator.
You begin to bring closer home His redemptive Name:
The God who is my healer. The God who is my banner.
The God who is my shepherd. The God who is my peace.
The God who is my provider. The God who's my sanctifier.
The God who is with me, Emmanuel.
So you begin just to praise Him. Lord, you're Savior.
God, I praise You because You're righteous.
God, I praise You because You're holy.
I praise you because You're just.
I praise You because You're outside of time, You're eternal.
So now your gaze is from what God has done to who He is
and that is beautiful.
It lifts your soul to the Lord.
Number three, confess your sins.
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just
"to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9.
Jesus says, "And whenever you stand praying,
"if you have anything against anyone, forgive him,
"that your Father in heaven may also forgive you
"your trespasses. But if you do not forgive
neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."
Mark 11:25-26.
And so when you are at prayer,
learn to bring your sins before God.
Learn to confess your sins. Sometimes sins are obvious.
You kind of know what you did.
It's right in front of you. It's actually bugging you.
Other times you're not really mindful.
You're not even sure of what you did.
So what do you do in those moments?
I like to go through the ten commandments.
Now, we usually have two main commandments as Christians
in the New Testament
but I like to go through the ten commandments
with a New Testament view.
So in my heart I would kind of examine my heart as I'm praying:
Have I made any idols in my life?
Have I made idols out of my ministry?
Have I made idols out of my body or out of my family?
I go through, have I worshipped any images?
Have I not honored God on the Lord's day?
Have I also hated somebody? Do I hate somebody?
Do I have lustful thoughts
that I have allowed to take root in my heart?
Am I not honoring my mum and dad, and also people in authority?
I go down, do I have envy in my life?
Have I taken something that doesn't belong to me?
And so, as I kind of examine my heart, whatever surfaces,
pretty much I'm putting my heart to the light of
God's commandments.
And whatever surfaces I bring to the Lord and I say,
"Lord, cleanse me. Lord, purify me."
And the biggest one is, do I have any unforgiveness?
Do I have beef with somebody? Am I a jerk?
Am I acting in a way that doesn't glorify Jesus to somebody?
Because relationship with God is not just vertical,
it's also horizontal.
Because the first commandment is love God;
the second commandment is love your neighbor.
And so I'm examining my heart
and whatever is not right, I'm praying, "Lord, forgive me.
God, wash me." I name those things.
I'm not just saying generally,
"God forgive me for all my sins,"
meaning I'm not just saying God, I'm sorry.
but I'm saying, "God, give me the strength
"not to do that again.
"I'm changing my mind concerning this issue.
I won't do it again. I'm turning my heart toward You."
Number four, ask God for what You need.
The Scripture says in Matthew 7:7,
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you."
That tells us that God wants you to tell Him what you need.
Begin to tell God your appointments, meetings,
certain challenges that you are going to be facing
during that day or during that week.
Begin to tell God your petitions.
Sometimes we carry the burden of providing for our family
We carry the burden of what we're supposed to do
during that day, and it overwhelms us.
It takes our joy. It brings stress, anxiety.
It affects our diet. It affects our mood.
Prayer is a huge cure because in prayer you can exchange
your stress for God's strength.
And that exchange happens as you begin to vocalize
your needs to God.
In that moment you're transferring your worry to God.
And God begins to worry about your problem
and instead of worry He gives you peace.
That's why the Bible says, "Be anxious for nothing,
"but in everything by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;"
and then it says that God's peace will rule your hearts.
If you want God to give you peace
you have to give Him your problems.
And how does that happen? Through petitions.
You petition God not because you need to inform Him,
God knows your problems, God knows what you're going through.
But it's because you need to have an exchange where
you give your petition and God gives you His peace.
You give God your worry
and God begins to give you His presence.
And so that's why we need to ask God
and because we invite God into our situation.
We invite God into our appointments.
We invite God into our school.
We invite God into our work problems,
into our family challenges.
We invite God into our health crisis.
We invite His presence in our lives to supernaturally move.
Number five, speak in tongues.
Another thing that you can do in prayer is,
after you've thanked God, after you've praised God,
after you've confessed your sins,
after you've told God what's on your heart and on your mind,
what you're going through; just speak in tongues.
Paul says, "For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays
but my understanding is unfruitful." 1 Corinthians 14:14.
There is a huge benefit to praying in tongues
in your private prayer life.
Tongues is the prayer language for a believer.
It strengthens your relationship with God.
Now, praying in the spirit is not limited to praying in tongues.
There is more to praying in the Spirit than praying in tongues.
But praying in tongues is a very good habit to develop
in your private prayer.
It's done for your inner self edification
meaning you're building yourself up spiritually.
So prayer is not just letting God know of what
you're going through, prayer is also a spiritual workout.
It's a spiritual gym.
You can actually spiritually build your spiritual muscles
by praying in the Holy Spirit.
There are prayers where I honestly pray the whole prayer
from beginning till end in tongues.
I just feel the leading of the Holy Ghost
and as I pray in tongues the Holy Spirit gives me clarity
and understanding of what I'm praying for,
sometimes He doesn't;
regardless, I know that the Spirit knows what He's speaking
to the Father. And so, I'm connecting with the Holy Spirit.
I want to encourage you to take some time,
every time when you pray, pray in the Holy Ghost.
Number six is intercession.
"So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall
"and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land,
that I should not destroy it; but I found no one."
Ezekiel 22:30.
1 Timothy 2:1, "Therefore I exhort first of all that
"supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks
be made for all men."
So both Ezekiel, Timothy and others in the Bible
invite us to begin to intercede.
Now intercession has three components.
The first one is when you're interceding with someone.
You're praying with someone. They're actually next to you.
Then it's also when you're praying for someone.
And then the last facet of intercession is when
you're praying against something.
So intercession is praying with someone physically,
it's praying for someone who is not there
or it's praying against something.
Intercession is you praying for your family members
you're praying for some friends, you're praying for something
that is happening maybe on the news,
some things in your community, things in your church.
You're praying for pastors,
you're praying for believers that are being persecuted,
you're praying for your small group leaders,
you're praying for your spouse; that is part of intercession.
I think that we have to allow and we have to make room
for intercession in our prayers.
If we only go and we tell God what we need
and we just worship God, and we pray in the Holy Ghost
and get everything for ourselves,
you know, prayer is not just about you.
Prayer is about for other people.
God wants you to stand in the gap.
God wants you to intercede and pray for other people.
It's His will that you do that.
Now number seven,
the seventh facet of prayer, of what you can do in prayer is
to wait upon God.
This is one of the most forgotten aspects of prayer.
The Bible says, "But those who wait on the Lord
"shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings
"like eagles, they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint," Isaiah 40:31.
The Scripture also says, "Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage
"And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!" Psalm 27:14.
I want you to notice how in both of these verses
waiting is connected to strength.
I wonder how many times we walk in weakness
even though we have a prayer life
because in our prayer life we rush through the points
we rush through the things
and we actually don't linger in the presence of God
to just wait on Him.
What do you during waiting? You just worship.
You just fix your gaze upon Him
and you just be there.
God told Moses, "Go up to the mountain and be there."
Jesus told the disciples, "I want you to come with Me
and just sit here and watch.
I'm going to pray, you sit and watch."
Of course they fell asleep.
And that's kind of what happens with us.
The moment we're no longer asking, begging, interceding
fighting, speaking in tongues,
we kind of don't know what to do after that.
And so, develop this discipline of waiting,
of just being there. It doesn't have to be long.
It doesn't have to be an hour,
it doesn't even have to be 10 minutes.
It could just be a little bit longer
where you're just there, you're done with prayer
but maybe God is not done with you.
and just linger, why? Because God promises strength.
Come on, somebody.
Number eight, part of this waiting is listening to the Lord.
The Scripture says in John 10:27, "My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them, and they follow Me."
I believe part of this waiting will lead to hearing God's voice.
Now sometimes God will speak as you're speaking.
As you're praying, God will speak to you.
A lot of times God will speak through the Word.
But God can also speak in your spirit:
give you impressions, give you sanctified thoughts,
give you a vision, a picture, a clear imagination of
what is to come and what you should do.
And that's a beautiful part about prayer.
I would say the most rewarding part about prayer is
the voice of God.
It's not about my voice, it's about His.
That's why when Jesus was getting baptized,
and on the mountain of transfiguration
God the Father said, "This is My Son, listen to Him."
He didn’t say, "This is My Son, tell Him all that You need."
He says listen to Him because what He has to say
is way more important than what I have to say.
Listen to me very carefully, what I just said.
What God has to tell you is way more important
than what you have to tell Him.
As much as I value the importance of releasing my petitions
releasing intercession, praying in the Holy Ghost,
but the value of His voice is unmatchable.
There's nothing like it.
It can change my life. One word from God, one voice from God
"Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds," not just proceeded.
We need to know the proceeded Word
but we also need to have a proceeds, meaning God speaks now.
God brings impressions now, God leads now.
That is the reward of prayer.
And the last practical component is that
I always love to combine my devotional prayer
with devotional reading, meaning reading Scripture
as part of my devotion.
Not as a study but as a devotional reading.
That means that I'm reading it for my spiritual recreation.
I call it spiritual feeding.
I read it for spiritual insight.
I read it to feed me spiritually.
And sometimes for me it happens before I pray
sometimes it happens in the middle of prayer,
and sometimes at the end.
But I try not to divorce prayer and the Word.
They have to go together.
So part of your prayer has to be the Word
because that's where God will speak to you, through His Word.
Now how do you pray?
Do you have a process?
Do you have some kind of a breakdown?
I have another video where I go through
different plans that I pray
you should check it out, it's in the links below.
But I want to hear from you. What is your way of praying?
Like, when you usually pray what do you go through?
Do you have a particular pattern or a particular way
or just kind of like, as the Spirit directs?
Or you're kind of spending time with God
and you don't have any structure?
Do you have any structure in your prayer?
Drop that in the comments below.
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