Pastor John and Diana Hagee and I are calling for urgent prayer on behalf of Israel. Many Palestinians call this Sunday, May 15, “Catastrophe Day,” as they commemorate the establishment of the State of Israel. News media has shared that demonstrations will start Friday against Israel. And, the Muslim Brotherhood has called for an invasion of Israel on May 15. ( Click here to read details of the potential attack and its historical significance.)

Israel is preparing to guard its nation and people from harm. Please agree with them by praying for peace and safety for all Israeli soldiers. Pray for the protection of Israel’s borders from attack and the protection of its people from any harm. God has miraculously protected His people in the past. He can and will protect them again! Prayer for Israel

During This Time: Father God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we call upon You to intervene on behalf of Your people, Israel. It is You Lord God who sends help to those in distress; deliver Your Chosen from the wrath of the ungodly. We ask that You place Your supernatural protection over those who are preparing to guard Israel and the people against an enemy whose intent is destruction of Your Chosen. Lord God of Israel we call upon You to protect Your land which You have given to Your people as their inheritance. May the enemies of Israel be kept powerless by Your mighty hand, for You are her Rock and her Fortress and You dwell in her palaces; Your presence surrounds Israel like a shield.

We give You thanks with grateful hearts for the miracles that You will perform on behalf of the Jewish people and the land of Israel for You are her refuge and her strength and a very present help in trouble. Amen.

 

The following prayers which are also known as the “Pauline Prayers”  are taken from the Amplified Bible.

 

Romans 1:8
First we thank You, Father, through Jesus Christ for all of these for whom we pray.

Philippians 1:2-6
Grace, favor and blessing and heart peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ we speak to each one of these precious ones we are standing in the gap for. We thank God as we remember them in prayer. In every prayer we pray, and every entreaty and petition we make for them is with joy and delight.

We thank You, Lord, for their fellowship—cooperation and contributions and partnership—in advancing the Gospel. And we are convinced and sure of this very thing, that You, Lord, who began a good work in them will continue until the day of Jesus Christ right up to the time of His return, developing that good work and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in Christ.

Philippians 4:6-7
We do not fret nor have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in every prayer and petition we continue with thanksgiving to make our wants known unto You, God. Father, we pray for peace for these, that tranquil state of soul assured of its salvation in Christ, that peace which transcends all understanding, shall garrison and mount guard over our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 1:12-14
We give You thanks, Heavenly Father, Who has qualified and made us all fit to share the portion which is the inheritance of the saints of light. Thank You, Father, for delivering us and drawing us out of the control and the dominion of darkness and transferring us into the kingdom of the Son of Your love. In whom we all have our redemption through His blood, which means the forgiveness of our sins.

Colossians 4:12
We who are servants of Christ Jesus, will always strive earnestly for these in our prayers, pleading their case that they may, as persons of ripe character and clear conviction stand firm and mature (in spiritual growth), convinced and fully assured in everything willed by God.

Ephesians 1:5-23
For this reason because we have heard of these and the faith they have in the Lord Jesus Christ and their love toward all the saints, We do not cease to give thanks for them, making mention of them in our prayers. Heavenly Father, we pray that You would grant unto us a spirit of wisdom and revelation, of insight into mysteries and secrets, in the deep and intimate knowledge of Christ.

Flood the eyes of our heart with light, so that we can know and understand the hope to which You have called us and how rich is the glorious inheritance that You have in us. And so that we will know and understand what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of Your power in and for us who believe as demonstrated in the working of Your mighty strength, which You exerted in Christ when You raised Him from the dead and seated him at Your own right hand in the heavenly places.

1 Thessalonians 5:17, 23
We pray without ceasing that the very God of peace would sanctify us through and through, that is separate us from profane things, make us pure and wholly consecrated to You, God and may our whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

Ephesians 3:12, 14-21
In Christ, because of our faith in Him, we dare to have the boldness, courage and confidence of free access, an unreserved approach to You, Father God, with freedom and without fear. For this reason (seeing the greatness of Your plan by which we are built together in Christ), we bow our knees before You, heavenly Father. Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.

That, Father God, You would grant these for whom we pray out of the rich treasury of Your glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in their inner man by the Holy Spirit Himself. May Christ through our faith actually dwell, settle down, abide, make His permanent home in our hearts! May we be rooted in love and founded securely on love.

That we may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints of God, the experience of that love what is the breadth and length and height and depth of it. That we will really come to know, practically, through experience for themselves the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge without experience; that we may be filled through all our being unto all the fullness of God that is, may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself.

Now unto You, Father Who is able to carry out Your purpose and do superabundantly, far over and above all that we dare ask or think, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams according to the power that works in us.

Philippians 1:8-11
For God is our witness how we long for and pursue these with love, in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus Himself! And this we pray, that our love may abound yet more and more and extend to its fullest development in knowledge and all keen insight, that is, that our love may display itself in greater depths of acquaintance and more comprehensive discernment; So that we may surely learn to sense what is vital and approve and prize what is excellent and of real value, recognizing the highest and best, and distinguishing the moral differences; and that we may be untainted and pure and unerring and blameless, that with hearts sincere and certain and unsullied we may approach the day of Christ, not stumbling nor causing others to stumble.

May we abound in and be filled with the fruits of righteousness (of right standing with God and right doing) which come through Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, to the honor and praise of God that His glory may be both manifested and recognized.

Colossians 1:3, 9-11
We continually give thanks to You, God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah, as we are interceding for these. We will not cease to pray and make special request for us, asking that we may be filled with the full deep and clear knowledge of Your will in all spiritual wisdom (that is, in the comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God) and in understanding and discernment of spiritual things; That we may walk and live and conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to You, Lord, and desiring to please You, Lord, in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God—with fuller, deeper and clearer insight, acquaintance and recognition.

We pray that we may be invigorated and strengthened with all power, according to the might of Your glory, so that we may exercise every kind of endurance and patience (perseverance and forbearance with joy).

2 Thessalonians 3:1
Finally, we pray that the word of the Lord may have free course (speed on, spread rapidly and run its course) and be glorified, extolled and triumph in the lives of each and every one that we have named (and not named) this day before Your throne! In the Name of Jesus. Amen and so be it.

7 Thoughts on Prayer

 

This article presents seven simple thoughts on prayer, and then shares insights from different individuals. I didn’t feel that a lot of explanation or amplification was needed on these.

 

1. Prayer is not a religious ritual.

“Real prayer comes not from gritting our teeth, but from falling in love.” (Richard Foster)

“I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk about, when I lie down and when I rise up. And the answers are always coming.” (George Mueller)

“Unless I had the spirit of prayer, I could do nothing.” (Charles G. Finney)

“Beloved, it is not our long prayers but our believing God that gets the answer.” (John G. Lake)

“There is no need to get to a place of prayer; pray wherever you are.” (Oswald Chambers)

2. Prayer is not a one-way conversation.

“God must speak to us before we have any liberty to speak to him.” (John Stott)

“The true spirit of prayer is no other than God’s own Spirit dwelling in the hearts of the saints. And as this spirit comes from God, so doth it naturally tend to God in holy breathings and pantings. It naturally leads to God, to converse with him by prayer.”
(Jonathan Edwards)

Jesus said in John 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

3. Prayer is not a matter of talking an unwilling God into doing what you want Him to do.

“Prayer is not conquering God’s reluctance, but taking hold of God’s willingness.”
(Phillips Brooks)

“Prayer is not a means by which I seek to control God; it is a means of putting myself in a position where God can control me.” (Charles L. Allen)

“A sinning man will stop praying. A praying man will stop sinning.” (Leonard Ravenhill)

“I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Remember, we don’t pray to change God. Prayer allows God to change me.

4. Prayer is not a substitute for action.

“Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience.” (A.W. Tozer)

“I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.” (Frederick Douglass)

“We Christians too often substitute prayer for playing the game. Prayer is good; but when used as a substitute for obedience, it is nothing but a blatant hypocrisy, a despicable Pharisaism…To your knees, man! and to your Bible! Decide at once! Don’t hedge! Time flies! Cease your insults to God, quit consulting flesh and blood. Stop your lame, lying, and cowardly excuses. Enlist!” (C.T. Studd)

5. Prayer is not informing God about things He didn’t know.

“Prayer is not designed to inform God, but… to humble man’s heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to animate his hope, and to raise his soul from earth to heaven.” (Adam Clarke)

6. Prayer is not an exercise is hyper-technical precision.

Some get excessively concerned about technicalities when they pray. Granted, we want to pray accurately, according to the truth of Scripture, and according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. But people can get so caught up in hyper-technicalities that they get off track when it comes to simply trusting God.

• Was I binding when I should have been loosing?
• Was I interceding when I should have been supplicating?
• Was I praying to the Father when I should have been talking to Jesus?

As Corrie Ten Boom said, “Nestle, don’t wrestle.” The simplicity of David’s faith is expressed beautifully in Psalm 131:1-2 (NLT): “I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp. Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.”

7. Prayer is not a peripheral activity of the church.

“Prayer is not just getting ready for Christian service. Prayer is Christian service.”
(Adrian Rodgers)

“It is obvious that Paul did not regard prayer as supplemental, but as fundamental—not something to be added to his work but the very matrix out of which his work was born. He was a man of action because he was a man of prayer. It was probably his prayer even more than his preaching that produced the kind of leaders we meet in his letters.” (Oswald Sanders, from Dynamic Spiritual Leadership)

“I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.” (Charles Spurgeon)

“You could remove the powerful preaching from our church and it would still continue. You could remove the administration of pastoral care through the cell group system and the church would still continue. But if you remove the prayer life of our church it would collapse.” (David Yonggi Cho)

May your walk with Him will be rich and sweet!

By: Tony Cook

Often times people feel a sense of emptiness when they pray, like your prayers are not heard or you didn’t do it right. You can’t concentrate or you easily get distracted. I can help! Check this out! 

 

How To Have A Relationship With God

God has a desire for a relationship with us. It is good to focus on God’s desire for a relationship as supposed taking it from the perspective of “I am going for God, I am going after God.” I heard a great sermon form Pastor George Pearsons of Eagle Mountain International Church about how to have a relationship With God; he said that God had challenged him to look at the perspective of how much God desires to have a relationship with us. God wants us to see His side of the fellowship. That is a different point of view on how to build a relationship with God.

So often we have a perspective of God sitting on the throne in that huge authoritative way and that we are the ones  always approaching Him . We even might have a Wizard of Oz perspective on what God is all about.

Do you remember the moment when Dorothy and the Tin Man (Haley) and all the rest came up into the castle? When they went into the throne room they were looking at that fire that was came out of there and heard: “don’t come near the fire”. Of course they were standing there shaking. I think that is sometimes the perspective that people have of God, whether it is knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or subconsciously that we have that attitude towards God.

There is a place where the Lord is saying to us: “I want you to come this time from the perspective of my passion for you, my hunger for you, my desire for you.” God wants to have a sweet communion with us.

Unfortunately there is too often that sense of unworthiness. We think that we are not worthy to have that, but that’s why we are made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

The universe was created to cradle this earth. The entire universe was made in order to place this earth there. Te earth was created by God for men, for us. And we were created by God for fellowship with Him.

Do you remember the moment when Dorothy and the Tin Man (Haley) and all the rest came up into the castle, when they went into the throne room they were looking at that fire that was came out of there and heard: “don’t come near the fire”. Of course they were standing there shaking. I think that is sometimes the perspective that people have of God, whether it is knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or subconsciously that we have that perspective of God.

In our own development of our own passion that we have towards God we should learn of the passion that God has for us. The greatest thing that God has in the entire universe is fellowshipping with us. That is quite a thought isn’t it? He wants to have koinonia with us. We have been called in this close companionship, this sweet communion. He wants that intimate relationship, He wants a personal friendship.

The more we realize His passion to have a deeper relationship with us, the more we will experience our greater desire to have a deeper relationship with Him. The more you know that He wants you, the more you will want Him. The more you understand the pursuit that God has. It is the best approach on building a relationship with God.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life in psalm 23. The word “follow” here means “to chase after, to run after and to pursuit.” Surely, God in the form of goodness and mercy is after you and pursuing you. HE LIKES YOU!

Even if you don’t have a full understanding about the word “LOVE”; it might help you to define your relationship with God even more. It is really something when somebody comes up to you and says “I like you”. It builds you up and it is very encouraging. It should have the same impact when they tell you, that they love you.

You have to get that understanding down on the inside of you that God likes you! All sense of unworthiness will dissipate and disappear the more you know how much He likes you and how much He wants to spend time with you. It is really something when you know that somebody wants to spend time with you.

You know, I love to spend time with my family and even more with my husband and when I am not really sure that he wants to spend time with me for some reason; I am disappointed. But God always wants to spend time with us, always! He has so many things He wants to talk to us about. That motivates you spend time with somebody. Knowing that God longs to spend time with you is the key on how to have a relationship with God.

It’s up to our choices, we have the opportunity to choose to give our attention to Him and be with Him. Psalm 46 says Be still and know that I am God. To listen in His presence to things that He wants to tell us; one of the things is that when we tell Him how much we love Him and be still before Him to hear Him say “I love you too.”