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Posts Tagged ‘learn to pray’

WOULD YOU PRAY IF EVERY PRAYER WAS ANSWERED?

Posted in Church, Equip the Saints, Preaching messages, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »

TUNED IN # 3 AM.   Preaching 21 July 2013  am.Tuned In 2Meme prayer 1

Prayer grows out of relationship. If there is relationship there is communication.

STORY – During the time I was away in the Solomon Islands last week I communicated with my wife, Chris via Facebook messaging. It was great to be able to chat all day long between tasks, and I felt like I was connected to her. About 20 years ago I was away in Russia in 91-93 for 3 weeks and had virtually no communication with Chris. That was difficult, you just don’t know what’s going on and you don’t feel the reassurance that this person is doing fine. Prayer is just like that.

Deep inside you there is a deep passion to commune with God, to hear His voice, to share in His presence. My goal this morning is to unlock that desire. To help you overcome some obstacles to fellowship with God.

MY STORY

After getting saved, I was in the habit of praying at night, spending time in conversation with God. Later when I got married I changed to being a morning pray-er and used to get up early and spend time with God in prayer and bible reading.

How much would you pray if every prayer you prayed was answered?

Here’s what God says about your expectations of prayer.MORPHEUS MEME PRAYER

Mat 7:7  Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you.

Mat 7:8  For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened.

Yet prayer is more than just seeking an answer, it’s conversation. Chris and I talked over Facebook while I was away. It wasn’t all about either of us asking for things. It was doing life together.

Could it be that you stopped praying just before the answer came?

Luk 18:1  ALSO [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to turn coward (faint, lose heart, and give up).

Daniel Prayed.

Dan 10:11  And [the angel] said to me, O Daniel, you greatly beloved man, understand the words that I speak to you and stand upright, for to you I am now sent. And while he was saying this word to me, I stood up trembling.

Dan 10:12  Then he said to me, Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your mind and heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come as a consequence of [and in response to] your words.

Dan 10:13  But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me for twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief [of the celestial] princes, came to help me, for I remained there with the kings of Persia.

Dan 10:14  Now I have come to make you understand what is to befall your people in the latter days, for the vision is for [many] days yet to come.

Every time you pray God hears you.

Psa 34:15  The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry.

We measure our results by the leading of the Holy Spirit not by what we see.

2Co 5:7  for we walk by faith, not by sight;

Example: My back healing 18 months.

We are linked into God to change the world. God is totally confident that He can change the world through you.

Mat 28:18  Jesus approached and, breaking the silence, said to them, All authority (all power of rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.

Mat 28:19  Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

1Co 3:9  For we are fellow workmen (joint promoters, labourers together) with and for God; you are God’s garden and vineyard and field under cultivation, [you are] God’s building. [Isa. 61:3.]

Daniel prayed and God showed him and all of us the future of the world till the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Joseph prayed and a prisoner went from gaol; to Prime minister and feed the entire known world for 7 years during the worst famine on record.

PRACTICAL RESPONSE

  1. Learn to pray. – join us week day mornings 6-7am
  2. Pre-service prayer rallies 9.30-9.55am
  3. HUB once a month, second Wednesday
  4. Pray in your Urban Connect group.
  5. Join prayer email link & Facebook.

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The violence of prayer

Posted in Church, Equip the Saints, Preaching messages, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 13, 2013| 2 Comments »

BOOT CAMP 2 – THE POWER OF PRAYER PMufc-logo

This month we are holding boot camp. It’s a time for spiritual fitness training. Last week we learned about the value of fasting. This week we are tuning up the prayer muscles. How many prayer push-ups can you do? How long are your prayer runs. What’s your spiritual pulse rate in prayer?

There are two very important messages in the New Testament that Jesus gives His disciples about prayer.

  1. God answers prayers – just ask
  2. It’s important that you are persistent
  • Joh 15:7  If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.

Joh 16:23  In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

  • Luk 11:1  THEN HE was praying in a certain place; and when He stopped, one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray, [just] as John taught his disciples.

Luk 11:2  And He said to them, When you pray, say: Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come. Your will be done [held holy and revered] on earth as it is in heaven.

Luk 11:3  Give us daily our bread [food for the morrow].

Luk 11:4  And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us [who has offended us or done us wrong]. And bring us not into temptation but rescue us from evil.

Luk 11:5  And He said to them, Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and will say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves [of bread],

Luk 11:6  For a friend of mine who is on a journey has just come, and I have nothing to put before him;

Luk 11:7  And he from within will answer, Do not disturb me; the door is now closed, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and supply you [with anything]?

Luk 11:8  I tell you, although he will not get up and supply him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his shameless persistence and insistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

Luk 11:9  So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you.

Luk 11:10  For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened.

 Violence is part of our world.

There’s a fascination for violence – until you experience it yourself.

People watch UFC on television, it’s called as entertainment to watch men kick, punch stamp on each other and throw each other around. How much pain can a person endure? Our heroes are the strong, muscular, violent men who can endure anything and always overcome their opponents.

There is more violence in our own community than ever before.

In a negative way violence in many nations creates endless pain brutality; of lives lost and torture. We see on our TVs and on social media graphic depictions of horrific violence. I received an email this week that I cannot show you because it is too horrific for a public venue. It is a picture of about 150 human bodies burnt to death. They were Christians who were torched in northern Nigeria. Martyred for their faith.

This violence is physical, it’s in the natural world; but it begins in the spiritual world.

The bible says Eph 2:1  AND YOU [He made alive], when you were dead (slain) by [your] trespasses and sins

Eph 2:2  In which at one time you walked [habitually]. You were following the course and fashion of this world [were under the sway of the tendency of this present age], following the prince of the power of the air. [You were obedient to and under the control of] the [demon] spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience [the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God].

Eph 2:3  Among these we as well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in the passions of our flesh [our behaviour governed by our corrupt and sensual nature], obeying the impulses of the flesh and the thoughts of the mind [our cravings dictated by our senses and our dark imaginings]. We were then by nature children of [God’s] wrath and heirs of [His] indignation, like the rest of mankind.

These verses clearly show that godless people follow the prince of the power of the air; that is satan. They are under the control of an evil spirit that is still constantly at work in the children of disobedience.

The truth is the spirit world is influencing us all the time. As Christians we are to be violent in a spiritual sense and harmless in a physical sense.

Mat 11:12  And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize–a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion].

 When we pray we are at war spiritually.

Mat 12:29  Or how can a person go into a strong man’s house and carry off his goods (the entire equipment of his house) without first binding the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.

Mat 16:19  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind (declare to be improper and unlawful) on earth must be what is already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose (declare lawful) on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven. [Isa. 22:22.]

Eph 6:12  For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.

At our prayer times this next two weeks we will be training you how to become strong in prayer. We will train you how to know your weapons and how to use them to overcome satan.

As a Christians we are called to overcome, to bind the works of the enemy and take back what was stolen. You are called to be an overcomer, Are you ready to fight in the spirit?

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