INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PRAYER UNIVERSITY – MIKE BICKLE GROWING IN PRAYER (PART 1)

Session 1 The Call to Prayer I.

INTRODUCTION A.

This course will cover many topics related to prayer: its biblical foundations, practical applications, historical expressions, and significance in the generation in which Jesus returns.

As always we are not going to cover all the details that are in the notes. I have a book coming out in a month or two or three called Growing in Prayer. I am taking this course from that book. It will be out probably in November or December. We will have a lot more detail in it if anybody wants to study this in a deeper way. We are going to do part one of Growing in Prayer this fall semester. Then we are going to do part two in the spring. There is a lot of ground to cover even to get a foundational understanding of the subject of prayer. There is a whole lot that is important to keep our heart inspired and our mind focused. This course will cover a lot of topics related to prayer. We will cover the biblical foundations. We are going to put a lot of time on practical application, which is very encouraging. And we will look at the historical expressions. There have been dynamic prayer ministries through history. It may be surprising to you how many twenty-four hour prayer ministries have existed through history. It is how the Holy Spirit has emphasized prayer. Then we will spend a session or two talking about the prophetic importance of prayer in the generation the Lord returns and how many prophecies in the Bible focus on prayer. It is my opinion we are in the early days of that generation. I might not be right, but I think we are. That means, if it is true, the Holy Spirit will be emphasizing prayer second to no other time in history. If we are not in that generation, then I think it is a good chance your children and their children will be. Prayer is on the mind of the Holy Spirit. It always has been, but He is bringing this to a whole different level, which means there will be a new dimension of grace for it. That is my point. B.

My aim in this course is threefold: 1. To give practical instruction on what to do to develop a life of prayer 2. To give biblical insight to different types of prayer and the principles associated with them 3. To give a big-picture perspective of what the Holy Spirit is doing in emphasizing prayer across the earth in this hour

The goal of this course is threefold. One, I want to give practical instructions. I want to help you identify what to do when you are praying. Two, I want to give biblical understanding of the different types of prayer and the principles that are associated with them. There are many types of prayer. Three, I want to give a big picture perspective of what is happening across the earth right now. We are all a part of that grand storyline. Whether you are in this city, another city, or in another nation, the Holy Spirit is orchestrating a global, young adult worship and prayer movement. It is part of your story and part of the story of the body of Christ in this hour of history. C.

A simple definition of prayer: prayer is “talking with God.” It can take many forms, but all prayer is essentially a two-way conversation with the Lord that has life-changing results.

We will start with a very simple definition of prayer. Prayer is talking with God. That seems very obvious, but it is not that obvious to all because it is not talking to God. It is talking with God. There is a big difference. There

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is a two-way conversation. There is a two-way dialogue that is going on that transforms us and that transforms and releases blessing to others, and there are a number of dimensions to it. D.

We talk to the uncreated God of the universe; He listens attentively and with great affection. He responds by revealing His heart, giving us direction, blessing our circumstances, transforming our emotions, touching our loved ones, reviving the Church, saving the lost, releasing justice, impacting society, and so on. It is a great privilege and has many implications for our lives and the world. The results are worth whatever it takes to cultivate a strong prayer life.

Just imagine the glorious privilege of prayer. We hear the word, prayer, like, “Okay, prayer. Ho-hum.” Wait! We are talking to the uncreated God. Never ever was there a time when He was created. He is uncreated. He is eternal. He is the God of the universe, and He is listening intently to you with great affection. I have asked the Lord many times, “Why are You so interested in talking to me? I am not that interesting.” He is so attentive to you in your weakness and your brokenness. He has great affection. He is not just attentive. He responds. He responds by revealing His heart. Most of His responses are very slow and progressive. As a rule, you really cannot measure prayer by days or weeks or months. We really measure prayer, particularly for revival and for changing a nation, by decades. There are a lot of prayers that answered instantly in circumstantial blessings. In terms of transforming the heart and transforming a nation, you want to measure prayer by decades, not by weeks and months. We are building on the shoulders of the decades before us. This thing is escalating. Prayer furnaces are burning hotter and hotter. One preacher said, “Whenever God is about to do something in the earth, He sets His people to pray.” He sets His people to praying. When God is about to do something, and I am talking about a spirit of revival, we are talking about a Third Great Awakening in America, a great awakening in the nations of the world. The sign of that is the escalation of the prayer ministries that are exploding all around the earth. There are so many of them. That is for another session. I am getting ahead of myself. God responds. He reveals His heart. He gives us direction. He blesses circumstances. He transforms our emotions. He revives the church. He saves the lost. He impacts society. All of this in partnership with our weak, simple prayers. He will not do it apart from them. He will only do it in partnership with the prayers of people like you and me. There are hundreds of millions of praying believers. We are all the same. We are weak and broken people, but He insists on doing it in partnership with His people in prayer. It is a great privilege–the implications of talking to the uncreated God, God Almighty. Beloved, it is worth whatever it takes to cultivate a life of prayer. That is my point. We hear the subject prayer, and we kind of get used to it. It is worth cultivating. E.

We must make every effort to establish our prayer life, because it will not develop on its own. The Holy Spirit will help all who desire to pray more effectively.

We have to contend for it. We have to pour ourselves, our strength, into this, because our prayer life will not develop just on its own automatically. Unless you are intentional about developing your prayer life, ninety-nine percent of the time it is not going to develop. Not unless you are intentional about it. This is something that, over forty years ago, I set my heart to do. When I was about eighteen years old—I am fifty-nine now—I set my heart to grow and develop a prayer life. I did not like prayer at all. My youth leaders said I needed to grow in it. I was like, “Uhh.” The only thing I disliked more in the kingdom than prayer was fasting. Those two things I had no interest in. I have good news for you. Forty years later, I am a satisfied customer. I have much to learn and a long way to go. The Holy Spirit, I promise you He will help you. I thought I was the one guy it would not work for. I know the feeling that a number of you have, “It is not going to work for me. You have no idea of how stuck I am in about three

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things.” You have no idea how powerful the Holy Spirit is and how committed He is to you. If you will take one step, He will take ten. Even you can be transformed and grow. It will take time, but be intentional about it. F.

Our prayer life can progress from duty to discipline to delight (Larry Lea).

I remember a book that swept across America. It sold millions of copies, and was written by Larry Lee who is even in our midst these days. His book was called Can You Not Tarry with Me One Hour? It was taken from when Jesus asked the apostles in the Garden, “Can you not wait with Me, or tarry with Me, for one hour?” That book sold millions of copies around the world. It was kind of a phenomenon in 1984-1985. Everybody was reading it. The classic statement in it to me in terms of it touching me is he wrote that “our prayer life can go from duty to discipline to delight.” That was such an exciting idea, the delight part. I said, “I get the duty. I am really into the duty. The duty is wearing me out.” I had no vision it could turn into delight. That one sentence, what is that? Thirty years ago. That one sentence, the light went on and I said, “Yes. If this thing can end up enjoyable, I am in. I am in anyway, even if it is horrible; I am not backing down. Boy, if it could be delightful, that would really be something.” G.

Isaiah prophesied that the Lord would make His servants joyful in prayer. He referred to a new paradigm for prayer—joyful prayer. I call this “enjoyable prayer.” Enjoyable prayer is prayer that refreshes our heart! If prayer is not enjoyable, then it will not be sustainable. 7

“Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer.” (Isa. 56:7) In Isaiah 56:7, Isaiah talked about prayer that is delightful. He said, “I am going to make My people joyful in the house of prayer.” Joyful does not only mean they are expressing happiness in the traditional sense that they are just laughing out loud. Joyful is certainly a matter of that. Joyful has a lot more dimensions than just a momentary kind of feeling giddy and happy about something. I began to use the phrase, enjoyable prayer. I will make them joyful; I will give them a way to experience enjoyable prayer. That is prophesied in the Bible, in Isaiah 56:7. If it is not enjoyable, it will not be sustainable. If your idea of prayer was like mine for the first five or ten years—more like ten years—my prayer was more focused on duty and, if I am really going to prove I love God, I am going to pay the price and pay. For about ten years that was my idea, “I am going to pay the price and pray.” I look back now, and it is like the Lord is saying, “You are going to ‘pay the price’ to talk to ‘boring Me’–God? ‘Interesting you’ is going to sacrifice to talk to ‘boring Me?’” That is kind of what we are saying. The Lord did not say that, but I can imagine Him thinking, “You are going to get the shock of your life when you find out how interesting I am and how enjoying a conversation and relationship with Me can be.” It shifted my paradigm, and it was very, very significant. I want to give you a vision for enjoyable prayer. II.

ALL BELIEVERS ARE CALLED TO GROW IN PRAYER A.

The Lord calls every believer to a life of prayer, from new believers to seasoned saints. One of the best things any of us can do to improve our lives and our relationships is to grow in prayer.

Every believer is called to grow in prayer. You may be a brand-new believer. You may be in the Lord forty years. No matter what season of growth, you are called to grow in prayer. Everybody who loves Jesus is called to grow in prayer. That is a calling we never, ever outgrow. I have never met a believer who does not need to grow more in prayer. I certainly need to.

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The best thing that any of us can do to improve our lives and to improve our relationships is to grow in prayer. The reason I say that is because some people have the wrong idea that, if they spend a lot of time in prayer, their life will be somehow weakened or diminished and so will their relationships. Beloved, you will love people far better when you have a stronger prayer life. Then you get stronger, and then as it gets even stronger still, you will love people more. The prayer life will not get in the way of your relationships. It will actually clear the smoke out of our eyes, so to speak, and the distraction, and there will be a lot less emotional traffic on the inside, and we will love a lot better. B.

Being a person of prayer is the most important calling in one’s life; it is a higher calling than being a spouse, parent, pastor, preacher, or leader in the marketplace, and we will all become far better spouses, parents, and leaders as we take time to grow in prayer. While not every believer is called to preach, each is called to pray. Prayer is not an optional activity, as it is essential for our spiritual well-being. Are you ready to join the multitudes being sovereignly stirred by the Lord to grow in prayer and to begin a new chapter in your spiritual life? It is time to start.

This is the most important calling in anybody’s life. I know that is a big statement. It is not obvious to everybody, but it is the most important calling. Jesus lives forever to make intercession. He is still living in prayer right now at the right hand of the Father. It is a higher calling than being a parent, and I think that is like the highest calling there is, being a parent. It is not exactly the highest, but if you had to pick the top four or five, it is in that list. Being a mom or a dad discipling your children, I cannot think of too many things that have that kind of importance to a kingdom. Being a spouse, what a glorious calling! Being a pastor. I do not just mean a pastor on a church staff. Being a shepherd, a disciple-maker of people is a very high calling whether you are married or not or have children or not. Being a leader in the marketplace with a pastor’s heart is a very high calling in the Lord. You will be a better spouse, a better parent, a better disciple-maker or pastor—you can use any term—you will be a better leader in the marketplace if you grow in prayer. You will be a better mom, a better father, or a better husband. Not every believer is called to preach, but every believer is called to grow in prayer. It is not an optional activity. It is essential for our spiritual well-being. C.

Prayer involves connecting with the Spirit. Jesus made an absolute statement about our inability to walk in the fullness of our destiny in God without growing in prayer or abiding in Christ (Jn. 15:5). He said that unless we abide in Him, we can do nothing in relation to bearing fruit or maturing spiritually. 5

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (Jn. 15:5) Jesus made an absolute statement in John 15 about prayer. He said, “He that abides in Me,”—that is talking about a prayer life—“and I abide in Him.” There is that two-way dialogue. He says if we do this, “You will bear fruit.” There will be a supernatural, spiritual dimension of inspiration in your life, and it will be released through your life. There will be a supernatural inspiration touching you, motivating you to love Jesus. You will have the ability to say words and do things that motivate other people. You cannot do that by your own strength. That inspiration is beyond human ability. That is what Jesus means by bearing fruit, in a very abbreviated way. He says, in essence, “Apart from Me, without connecting with Me, you cannot do that. You cannot produce spiritual inspiration on your own heart, and you cannot produce spiritual inspiration to move somebody else.” You can give them a self-help talk, a motivational talk, but you cannot move their heart and inspire them to love Jesus and to love righteousness. You can motivate them to have courage in a difficult thing, but you cannot

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motivate them spiritually without the Holy Spirit doing it. Jesus said that you cannot do that—it will not happen to you or through you—if you do not develop a prayer life. That is what He means by “abide in Me and I in you.” That is an absolute statement. We are unable to walk out our destiny without growing in our prayer life. D.

We cannot generate spiritual life. As we abide in Christ, we experience it more. Just as it is impossible for us to jump a hundred feet however much we practice, so it is impossible for us to generate spiritual life. It is not an issue of practice—we were simply not created to jump a hundred feet! Neither were we created to have spiritual life while living independently of the Spirit.

We cannot generate—produce is another word—we cannot produce spiritual life. Meaning we cannot inspire our heart or inspire others. We cannot have Holy Spirit power. We cannot have spiritual insight. Those are all part of bearing fruit. We cannot do that by human ability, personality, and good study. It takes an invisible presence of the Holy Spirit moving on us and in us. It’s like you could be the most dedicated athlete, practicing jumping. You could jump higher than any other human being. You could practice all day, but you will never jump one hundred feet, no matter how hard you practice. It is never going to happen because it is not an issue of practice. It is impossible for somebody to jump one hundred feet high. It is never going to happen. In the same way, it is impossible for you to produce spiritual inspiration by your own personality, ability, study, or gifting. You cannot do it. Jesus said, “If you do not connect with Me—abide with Me—you cannot produce that.” It cannot be done by humans. I began to take that verse more literally and more seriously. “Lord, I am really locked in here. I really need to engage with You in just a simple way throughout the weeks and months and years.” I do not mean a dynamic, one-time encounter. I mean developing that dialogue called abiding in Christ, that dialogue with the Lord called prayer. I want that inspiration to touch me and flow through me to others. E.

The Spirit will move in a new and powerful way in your life as you take time to grow in prayer. The change may not happen overnight, but it will most certainly happen. The discipline of prayer will eventually become delight in prayer. Dryness in prayer will gradually be replaced by a vibrant dialogue with God that will change your life and result in many answered prayers.

The Spirit will touch you. He really will, over weeks and months and years. Mostly it does not happen overnight. Occasionally there is that one dramatic encounter someone has, every now or then, or once or twice in their lives. Ninety-nine percent of our spiritual life it is those very small moments where our hearts are inspired little by little. The discipline of prayer will become delight. The dryness in prayer will gradually become a vibrant dialogue with the Lord. I have had the dryness. I have had the staleness. Then I have had that alive-kind of sense of His presence. Then it got stale again. I was afraid. Then it came back. I stayed with it. I have had that sense of that greater connection in prayer and lost it a few times in forty years, where I had it for a number of years, then for some months I did not have it. Again, it made me nervous the first couple cycles. I have good news for you. Stay with it. The sense of that feeling and experiencing His presence and your heart being stirred in the Word will return. When I was twenty years old, I had not ever experienced that. If you had told me that then, I would have said, “Cool. What do you mean?” Prayer was boring. The Bible was confusing. I liked meetings. I liked going to meetings. I liked the worship music, and I liked teaching. I liked ministry trips. When it was me and God with a Bible, “Uh.” Just the two of us, or even worse, if there were five of us in a prayer room–that was bad. The other

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people were as bored as I was, and I had to listen to them, and they had to listen to me. I said, “Lord, this is a bizarre way to run the kingdom.” It did not make any sense to me. “Why are You making us do this? We could do so much more for You.” I told Him, “If You just let me loose and not make me talk to You so much, I could get more done for You.” That sounds so silly, but I thought, “Why am I taking this time? You are invisible. You do not answer very quickly. You do not answer very loudly. I have stuff to do for You. Let me loose. Let me go do stuff.” I was doing plenty. I just wanted to do more stuff and less connecting with Him. F.

Do not wait for a special spiritual experience to begin to grow in prayer. We grow in prayer by actually praying. Beginners in prayer mature by praying more.

Beloved, do not wait for a supernatural experience before you start determining to grow in prayer. You grow in prayer by praying. That is how you grow in prayer. Just the way you master playing the piano by practicing, you grow in prayer by praying. Not just studying about prayer, though that will give you a vision. Not just being around people who pray. Not just sitting in the prayer room, enjoying the music and doing email. We grow in prayer by praying. You do not have to pray loudly. You can whisper it. You do not have to pray really long hours, but I encourage people, when they are in the corporate prayer room and someone is up front, every third or forth phrase, just whisper it to God. When someone says, “Lord, release Your power and revival in Iraq,” just repeat whatever the guy or gal is saying or singing. Your heart will actually be engaged in prayer. They are providing the terminology. Whether it is a worship song or a prayer on the microphone, every few phrases just say it to the Lord when they say it. Echo it right back. That will bring you right into a place of prayer. They are the ones putting the time and energy and coming up with all the language. I love it. I love to sit in the prayer room. They are singing and they say, “Lord, You are good. Lord, send revival. Lord, touch us.” I say, “Yes, Lord, You are good.” I do not repeat every phrase. Sometimes I am locked in. Other times I am reading the Scripture in another theme or doing a Bible study. I am engaging with what is going on up front when I repeat the phrases. I say, “Boy, this is the easiest way to pray.” I still feel His presence when I do it. It is better than enjoying the music and letting your mind wander. You grow in prayer by praying. III. FROM DUTY TO DELIGHT A.

In my younger days I loved Jesus, but I dreaded spending time in prayer. I saw prayer as a necessary duty to be endured if I wanted to receive more blessing.

A little bit about my story in my early days, how prayer began as a duty. I loved Jesus, but I dreaded spending time in prayer. I was about eighteen or nineteen years old. I saw prayer as a duty to endure. If I were really going to prove to God I was serious, I would endure prayer. It was miserable, but I did not think about, “God, You are so boring, but I will stick it out if You promise to bless me.” B.

My youth leaders told me that I had to develop a prayer life if I wanted to experience the deeper things of God and enter into the fullness of my calling. I read books on prayer; especially memorable are those by Leonard Ravenhill and E. M. Bounds, who wrote some of the classics on prayer and revival. After reading their books, I was even more convinced of my need to grow in prayer, but the thought was daunting. The books inspired me, but left me feeling guilty. I felt spiritually “stuck” and desperate for a breakthrough.

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My youth leaders taught all of us, “If you do not grow in prayer, you are not going to touch the deeper things”— which is true—“and you are not going to enter into the fullness of your calling.” I really loved Jesus when I was eighteen. I was really serious. I said, “I want the deeper things, even if it means prayer. Ah, more bitter than death. That is horrible. I will do it.” They said, “You will not enter into the fullness of your calling. You will enter into some of it.” I said, “I want the fullness of my calling.” They told us different books to read on prayer. I encourage you to read books on prayer. These books inspired me. My favorites were by Leonard Ravenhill and E. M. Bounds. You can get them on the Internet. A lot of them are free. I do not know if all of them are, but I know you can get a lot of those old classics on the Internet. We have them in our bookstore as well. Leonard Ravenhill and E.M. Bounds are very inspiring and very convicting. I would read those books. I would get so convinced that without prayer I could not have all that God had for me. I said, “I am in.” It really motivated me. The thought of having a prayer life the rest of my life—I was eighteen. I thought, “For forty more years until I am fifty-eight? I will never be fifty-eight.” I am fifty-nine now. They said, “Get a vision for forty years.”—I thought, “That is a horrifying thought.” Not being fifty-eight. When I was eighteen, it probably was. The horrifying thought of praying for forty years! I thought, “Uh, there has to be a better way to do this. Give me a resurrected body, and I will be fine.” These books inspired me, but they made me feel guilty. I felt stuck. I felt spiritually stuck. I liked worship meetings. I liked Bible studies. I liked going to a group where somebody taught about it. That was kind of fun. I liked ministry trips. I began. It was 1974. I remember. It was the summer of 1974. I was going to the University of Missouri the next year. I said, “Okay. I am going to pray an hour a day, every day, 9:00 at night.” I was kind of revving up in the summer to get ready for college. It was the dreaded hour of death. I did it every night. It started at 8:45. It was like, “Fifteen more minutes till death.” Three minutes to 9:00, I would start sweating, “Oh no.” I would march into my room. We had an apartment. My roommates were all believers, and for accountability I told them I was going to do it. I knew I would die out really quickly. My pride would keep me going because I told them I would do it no matter what. I would go in there, and it was 9:00. I had till 10:00. I would say, “Lord, thank You for arms. Thank You for legs. Thank You for food. Help me score touchdowns on the football team.” I played on the college football team. “Help me get the girl and get good grades.” I did not score any touchdowns. I did get the girl. We have been married thirty-seven years. She is a really good one. I said, “Lord…” after two minutes of praying I still had fifty-eight minutes to go. I had no prayer list. I had no thought of anything. I thought, “I covered it all. I do not know what else to say.” Then I started complaining, “What is this deal? Why is this so hard? Why do You run Your kingdom like this?” I was now actually praying. I was actually praying. I did not even call it that. I said, “I do not get why You do things this way. You make it so hard on Your people.” It is like the old Puritan guy said, “Lord, the way You treat Your friends, it is no doubt You have so few.” That is an old Puritan quote. I would say, “Lord, just lighten up and make it easier.” I was actually praying when I was complaining. It took me a few years to figure that out. I needed a new perspective on what prayer is and why God insists on it.

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I needed a new perspective on prayer—on what prayer is and why the Lord insists on it. I began to see prayer as much more than a religious duty to endure. I learned that it is a place of encounter, a way to receive blessing, an expression of partnership with God, and much more.

I began to see—not when I was eighteen and nineteen; it took me a few years—I began to see it was far more than a religious duty. About ten years later it crystallized for me, in about 1984. There was a delight. When that phrase came—in about 1987 I think it was when Larry Lea wrote that book—delight, I understood it. I learned prayer was a place of encounter. It was a way to receive blessing. It was a way of active partnership with God. It was not just me in the duty of enduring this burdensome thing. There was this dynamic where I could touch God’s heart and partner with Him, not just get blessings. That is an important part of prayer as well. IV.

PRAYER IS A PLACE OF ENCOUNTER A.

At first I thought of prayer as being mostly results-oriented. I imagined that the Lord wanted me to “endure” talking to Him to prove my dedication. I saw it as paying the price, and if I endured it long enough, He would give me the blessing I asked for.

B.

First of all, prayer is about encountering God and growing in relationship with Him. It is the means by which we most feel His presence and receive love from Him as we gain understanding of what He is like. In prayer we position ourselves to receive fresh insight into His heart as new desires are formed in our hearts. Prayer positions us to be energized to love—to love God and people.

Prayer is a place of encounter. It is a place of encountering God, growing in relationship with Him. It is where we position ourselves. In that dialogue, in that very position, though you may not know it on the beginning of the journey, but you look back over some months and years, you start getting insights. Even though they are one here and one there, you get new perspectives about yourself, about God, about the kingdom. It changes your emotions. Your heart gets inspired. Not by just sitting in a prayer room, that is not what I mean. I am talking about talking to God while you are in the prayer room. You can sit in a prayer room and die spiritually. If you do not talk to the Person, you can die spiritually. You can sit in a restaurant, the best restaurant of the world, be a connoisseur of the food, study all the menus, but never eat the food and die of starvation. A lot of folks are connoisseurs of the menu. They study the menu. They do not actually eat the food. They can sit in a prayer room or go to a Bible school and actually never talk to God much at all. You can die of starvation by doing that. C.

The call to prayer is a call to participate in the love that has forever burned in God’s heart. From eternity past the Father has loved the Son with all His heart, and the Son has loved the Father with the same intensity. The primary factor in the Father’s relationships, both within the Godhead and with His people, is wholehearted love. The family dynamics among the Father, Son, and Spirit are based on and flow in this wholehearted love.

The call to prayer is the call to participate. I am going to be brief on this point because I am going to spend a whole session on it. The call to prayer is so much more than just releasing blessing. We are participating in the family dynamics within the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father’s heart burns with love for His Son. The Son burns with love for the Father. They actually have the same love for us that they have for one another. They love us—people, the people of God—like they love one another. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God’s heart burns with love. Through prayer He is inviting us into participation in that family dynamic that they enjoy. Prayer is so much more than just enduring a duty to get a blessing. We are actually participating with the most interesting person–Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God in three persons. It is the most remarkable reality.

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D.

God’s love is the bedrock of His kingdom, and we participate in the intensity of this love as we grow in prayer—we actually participate in the family dynamics of the Godhead. How do we do this? By receiving God’s love and responding in His love to the Lord and to people.

E.

God’s heart burns with love. He calls us to experience it—to enter into what I refer to as “the fellowship of the burning heart.” Salvation is an invitation to this fellowship.

I call it the fellowship of the burning heart. The Father burns for the Son. The Son and the Spirit, they burn for the Father. Their heart burns for us. The Father is saying, “Come and participate in this. Get involved in this family dynamic that you will be a part of for all of eternity.” We are not just angels who serve at a distance. We are called to participate in the family dynamics that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit participate in. V.

PRAYER IS A WAY TO RECEIVE BLESSING FOR OURSELVES AND FOR OTHERS

Prayer is also a way to receive blessing. Some folks are really into the “communion with God” part that I just mentioned. They are not into the blessing. They think, “Well, you know, I just want to love God and God love me.” That is the part I just mentioned. That is the ultimate to me. A.

We do not pray just to pray. Yes, we pray to commune with God, but we also pray so that things will change and God’s blessings will be released in us and through us. Effective prayer accomplishes much and leads to real results that release blessing. 16

The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. (Jas. 5:16, NAS)

We do not pray just to pray. Yes, we commune with God. I just made that point. That is the highest, but we also want to see His power released in us and through us. We want to see His power released in our circumstances. Some folks have this wrong idea that since they really love Jesus, they will not ask Him to change their circumstances. “I just care about Him. I do not care about my life being blessed in my circumstances.” That is a wrong idea. We do not have to choose between blessed circumstances and God using us and loving God. We can do both of them. We can do that whole thing together. Some folks only see prayer as a way to get blessed in their circumstances, to get the Lord to bless their circumstances, but they do not think of prayer as a way to commune with God. Others are just opposite. We do not need to choose one over the other. We can have both of these dimensions.

VI.

B.

Prayer is a God-ordained way of receiving His blessing in both our inner lives and our external circumstances and to release God’s justice and revival.

C.

Some think of prayer solely as communion with God, while others think of it only as the way to obtain more blessing in their circumstances. We do not need to choose one over the other; we can expect results from our prayers as we grow in communion with God.

D.

Some believers have a passive attitude toward receiving God’s blessings in their circumstances. They see this as humility, since they consider it selfish to want to receive temporal blessings in “things.” It is false humility to disregard the blessings Jesus has ordained for His people.

THE LORD WAITS TO HEAR THE PRAYERS OF HIS PEOPLE (ISA. 30:18-19) A.

The Lord longs to be gracious—He desires to release a greater measure of blessing to His people. Receiving more from God is not about convincing Him to be willing to give us more; rather, it is about God convincing His people to pray for more with confidence.

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The Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits…to have compassion on you... He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. (Isa. 30:18-19, NASB) 19

Isaiah 30:18-19 are some of my favorite verses on prayer. This is a new picture of God, a new paradigm. A paradigm means a perspective. A new perspective of God. I saw this verse some years ago. Isaiah 30:18 is one of my favorite verses on prayer, “The Lord longs to be gracious.” The Lord says, “I long to be gracious.” Verse 18, “Therefore He waits.” He is waiting to release His compassion. Verse 19, “He will surely be gracious to you, at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you.” The Lord says, “You think you are waiting on Me, and you are in a sense. I am also waiting on you. I long to be gracious. You do not have to convince Me to bless you. I am convincing you that I want to bless you.” One reason we have such a struggle in prayer is that we do not have a vision that God is, with attentiveness and with affection, leaning into the relationship, that He actually wants to bless us, to touch our hearts, to use us, to reveal Himself. The problem is He does not do it all in one hour, one day, or one weekend like we want Him to. Sometimes the miracle happens in one moment, but I am talking about the inward transformation and the national revival we have been praying for, for so many years. The Lord says, “I will do those in my timing. You will look back over the years, and you will see I really did do it.” B.

Some of God’s promises for increased blessing are not guarantees, but are invitations to partner with Him in prayer. If we fulfill the conditions—and prayer is one of the conditions—then the promises are guaranteed. Many of the promises in the Word include the conditional word “if”—if we call out to Him, then God promises to answer in specific ways. 14

If My people… will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chr. 7:14) Many of God’s blessings—this is very important—many of God’s promises for blessing are not guarantees. That is an interesting thought to some. Not of God’s promises are guarantees. They are invitations. If we do the conditions, then they are guarantees. For many of His promises He gives a condition, “I am giving you a promise, but it has a condition: if you will call on Me.” He says, “If you will do that part, then the invitation becomes a guarantee.” Many people look at the promises and conclude, “Well, they are not happening.” The Lord says, “No. I want you to call on My name. I do not mean once, or for a weekend, for a summer, or even for a year. I want you to enter into that dialogue with Me and just do it the rest of your life in this age and all of your life in the age to come.” We will relate to God through talking to Him and speaking back to Him the very things that He puts in our hearts to tell Him. Praying with faith. I am just noting this; it’s not in the notes. We are not going to talk on it right now. A lot of folks do not understand it or they neglect it. They sort of know faith is important, but they neglect it. They do not consciously and intentionally grow in faith. They just think, “Well the faith thing, whatever.” Jesus really emphasized growing in confidence—faith and confidence are synonymous—that we have confidence in what He promises, confidence in His Word. In our natural thinking, we do not see or feel the promises, so we give up on them. We need to renew our mind and speak the Word of God. Though we do not see

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and feel the promises with our five senses, we do not give up on the Word of God. We speak it. We say with perseverance and confidence. That is what faith is about. A person says, “I think I have faith.” I say, “Well, if you stay with it, you have faith. If you give up on it, you were just hoping it would work. The very proof of faith is staying with it.” That is where you can see it. Because you have confidence that, though it is in God’s timing, whatever God says He will bring to pass. VII. PRAYER IS PARTNERSHIP WITH GOD A.

The Lord wants much more from His people than for them to be His workforce. He longs to have relationship with those who love Him, and to partner with them in accomplishing His purposes.

Prayer is more than just communing with His heart, and it is more than receiving blessed circumstances or seeing a great revival touch another person’s family that you are praying for or a city or a nation or whatever. Another dimension of prayer is partnership. He does not want to rule alone. He is the supreme ruler, but in His great humility and kindness He says, “I want you to reign with Me.” Just imagine. He does not really need us to reign with Him. He has all the power, yet He calls us to reign together with Him. B.

The Lord’s leadership of His kingdom involves giving more blessing in response to the prayers of His people…. In prayer we position ourselves to receive abundant grace and blessing. We must never imagine that we earn or deserve God’s blessing because of our prayers. Rather, prayer is the place of receiving blessing in response to interacting with Him.

C.

God governs the earth in prayerful partnership with His people who reign with Him. 10

D.

“And have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.” (Rev. 5:10)

Jesus is not just our King with power; He is also our Bridegroom, with a desire for relationship. He finds great joy in our friendship and in our partnering with Him in the work of His kingdom.

Jesus is not just a King with power; He is also a Bridegroom with desire. He desires relationship. He does not just have power. Some folks are really locked into the God of power. True, He is a King with power, but they do not know He is also a Bridegroom with desire for relationship. I remember one time this struck me. In just a moment, like a flash, such a clear insight happened. It was maybe thirty years ago, somewhere in the mid-1980’s. I came home from the church offices in the middle of the afternoon. My wife and my son Luke were in the kitchen. Luke was probably about six years old then. He is thirty-five now, so about thirty years ago. He was something like six years old. He was all wet. He was helping my wife with the dishes. There was a broken plate on the floor, water everywhere, my wife’s hair was kind of sticky, and my son’s shirt was soaked. He was standing on a chair. He turned around as I walked in, and he said, “Hi Dad! I did the dishes.” I said, “Really?” I looked at the floor, the broken plate, the water, my wife’s hair all wet. She said, “Yeah, I handed him a plate. I helped him wash it. Then he put it under the water to rinse it off. He handed it back to me. Then I gave him a towel, and we dried it together. He dropped one or two of them. Slipped in the water.”

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He thought he did the dishes. If he would not have been involved, the dishes would have been done a whole lot quicker, and the kitchen would not have been nearly so messy. That he “did” the dishes–it hit me in a second. It was like, “Yes, I am building a ministry. I am working in the kingdom. God is handing me a plate. He is telling me how to rub. I am dropping half the plates. Falling in the water, getting a mess everywhere, and I think, ‘I built a ministry.’” It hit me instantly. “That is me right there.” And, that is called prayer. That is called prayer. God says, “Just tell Me what I tell you to tell Me. Stumble and fall. Do what you do, but get back up and just keep taking the dish I give you. Tell Me what I tell you to tell Me and stay with it. Yes, you helped Me build the kingdom. That is right.” In one second it hit me. I realized, “That is me. That is my prayer ministry.” It is almost like the Lord could have said, “Well, there is not much more I can have you do. You just tell Me what I tell you to tell Me and say some words I tell you to say and go bless some people, go serve them, and I will inspire it, and I will change them. We will do this thing together. It is about partnership.” E.

The essence of prayer is that we speak in agreement with God’s heart. Thus, one important aspect of prayer is telling God what He tells us to tell Him. The Word shows us what He promises or desires to release to His people, and we simply pray these things back to Him. This agreement causes us to grow in our partnership and relationship with Jesus.

VIII. THE IMPORTANCE OF ASKING A.

One foundational principle of the kingdom is that God releases more blessing if we ask for it. He could release more to us without our asking, but He wants us to be involved in the process. 2

Yet you do not have because you do not ask. (Jas. 4:2)

A lot of folks think about their requests. They even tell their friends what they need. They do not actually ask God. They think about what they need. They think, “Oh man, I need the money! I need the power. I need the transformation. I need the breakthrough. I need the alignment in relationships. I need the healing of this and the healing of that. I just need that.” Then they tell their friends, “If I do not get this breakthrough in the relationships, in my heart, in my body, in my money, my ministry, I am just going to quit and die of discouragement.” The Lord says, “Tell Me. Talk to Me. Do not just talk to others about what you need. Talk to Me.” The reason God insists on this is not because He lacks information. He does not lack the information. He is not saying, “Inform Me.” He already knows. He says, “I want the dialogue because I want the relationship. When you tell Me, you are interacting with Me, and I am touching you in ways you cannot fully measure. Then when the event actually happens, whether it is weeks or years later, when the event happens or the breakthrough you are praying for, it touches you and you look up and say, ‘The God of heaven actually heard me. Oh my goodness! This is amazing!’ I am not going to do it unless you ask Me. I am going to bring you into the dialogue, not to inform Me of anything. Not to deserve anything. I want the dialogue. I want you to be impacted by seeing the answer.” Because when the invisible God answers, it touches our heart when we see what we prayed for and it actually takes place.

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The Lord knows our needs without our asking, yet He waits to give us many things until we ask Him for them. Many think about their circumstances or problems, or talk to others about them, without actually talking to God about them. It is easy to think about our needs without verbalizing them. God insists on us asking, because the “asking” leads to a greater heart-connect with Him. 6

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. (Phil. 4:6) C.

Jesus called us to pray with perseverance for God’s help and blessing. He taught us to ask and keep on asking, to seek and keep on seeking, to knock and keep on knocking. The verbs in the Greek are in the continuous present tense, indicating that we are to do these things consistently. 7

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Mt. 7:7-8) 8

IX.

A FEW PRINCIPLES TO REMEMBER

Here are a few principles to remember as we are starting off in prayer. We are going to do two complete courses about prayer. This is just getting us in the flow of the idea of growing in prayer. A.

Our prayers are effective even when they are short, weak, and poorly worded. They are effective because of the authority we have in Jesus, which is based on His finished work on the cross.

Our prayers are effective when they are short. Our prayers are effective even when they are weak. Our prayers are effective even when they are poorly worded. B.

Short prayers—ninety-second prayers are valuable and effective. They matter and can connect our hearts to God while releasing His blessing to us. Do not put off praying until you have a full hour to pray. While you are rushing to an appointment, waiting at a stoplight, or standing in line at a store, you can offer ninety-second prayers that will make a difference in your life and the lives of others.

Short prayers, ninety-second prayers, are important. Do not wait until you have an hour. Pray through the day. Pray when you are driving. Pray when you are standing in a line. Pray as you are coming and going. Ninetysecond prayers will change your life. Through ninety-second prayers, God will release blessing to others because of your ninety-second prayers. Do not wait only until you have hours. We will tell you later what to do with an hour. I am going to break that down for you as well, how to have longer times and shorter times in prayer. Beloved, the power of abiding in Christ is in thirty- and ninety-second little “sound bites” of conversation, if that is not too weird of a way to say it. C.

Weak prayers—we must see the value of “weak” prayers. Some assume that because they do not feel anything when they pray, God must not feel anything either. The truth is that we offer our prayers in human weakness, but they ascend to God in power because of the sufficiency of Jesus’ blood, and because they are in agreement with God’s heart. Others believe that they are growing in prayer only if they feel good during their prayer times. They wrongly conclude that their prayers are meaningless when they feel spiritually dry or distracted.

See the value of weak prayers. We offer our prayers in weakness, yet they ascend in power because of the blood of Jesus. What I mean by “weak prayers” is prayers where we feel dry. We feel distracted. We feel no sense of

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inspiration. Sometimes we feel like this, and here is what we conclude: “Because I did not feel anything, then God did not feel anything.” We conclude that if it did not move me, then it did not move God. You know, what moves God is when we agree with His Word. You can have no feeling at all, but if you agree with His Word, and you come to Him by the blood of Jesus, that prayer is as powerful as when you feel a lot when you are praying it. Some folks think that if you get the music just right, and there are a couple hundred people in the room who are really excited, jumping high, and shouting, then that was a dynamic prayer meeting. I am all for that, but there is something more fundamental than if everybody is shouting in the room and the music is really cool. If you agree with God, it works. It is effective if you agree with His Word, whether you feel anything or not. That is the point I am wanting you to understand is to have confidence. Do not just wait until you have the dynamic moment, and then have confidence that the prayer is really something. I remember the experience—I love to tell the story—It was in the spring of 1988. I led the Saturday morning prayer meetings for years. I would go every Saturday morning 8:30-10:00. Maybe ten or twenty people. Quite a boring prayer time. We just did it. That morning I drove up to the prayer room. As I was walking into the foyer—we had a little foyer and about a 200-seat prayer room there—the music was so loud, and it was like Handel’s Messiah like, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” It was so loud. I thought, “Oh no!” as I was walking up to the building. I ran up because I thought the sound techs were going to blow the sound system out. It was so loud. It was unimaginable. I open the door really quickly to run in because I had seen the sound tech’s car there. I opened the door, and it was completely quiet. I thought, “How did they do that?” I walked in, and two guys were down front. There are only two people who had showed up to the prayer meeting so far. It was about ten minutes early, fifteen minutes early. I thought, “Okay, okay. What did I just hear?” I was thinking they had some little remote control, and they were going to trick me or something. I said “Hey guys! How are you doing?” The one guy had a tear in his eye, and he was praying for his mother. I thought, “What was that sound?” Well, I actually heard the angelic choir was what it was. I realized, “Oh my goodness! I heard the choirs of the angels.” It was dynamic and powerful. I said, “This is going to be the most exciting prayer meeting we ever had.” About twenty people ended up showing up. At 8:30 we started. The normal prayers, the apostolic prayers. Ninety minutes went by, and the prayer meeting was just as boring as always. Every now and then it was not. Almost always it was. We had almost no music. I think we had like fifteen minutes of someone singing a couple songs, and then we stopped the music. Then we just prayed on a microphone. It was kind of boring, like always. Everybody left. I said, “Lord, I thought this was going to be the meeting where the great breaking through of the power of God happened. I am so confused.” Why did I hear the angel choirs if in fact nothing happened? Surely this was going to be the great revival meeting where everything traced back to that meeting. I was there for about twenty or thirty minutes, just sitting in the prayer room alone. Everybody had left. I could not make sense of it. I said, “Lord, what is this?” The Lord whispered to me so clearly. He said, “Those angelic choirs, that is what happens every Saturday morning when the ten of you gather before Me in agreement with My Word. That is what happens in every prayer room around the whole world when they come in the name of Jesus and bring My Word. I just let you see what I see every Saturday morning when you gather.” That encouraged me so much. I thought, “You mean weak and boring little prayer meetings?” We offer our prayer in our human weakness, but our prayers ascend in power because of the blood of Jesus.

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Our prayers—all of them—are heard, even if we do not feel anything when we offer them. Do not measure your prayers by how you feel when you pray them, but by the extent to which they are in agreement with God’s will and Word. Our weak prayer times may not move us, but they move the heart of God. We can have confidence that our prayers are heard regardless of how we feel while we are praying. 14

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 Jn. 5:14) E.

Poorly worded prayers—the Lord values our prayers, even if we think we do not say them in the “right” way. We come to the “throne of grace” (Heb. 4:16), not the “throne of literary accuracy.”…

F.

Our private times of prayer and public prayer meetings may not move us, but they move the angels, and, more importantly, they move the heart of God. Never measure your prayers by what you feel. When we pray in agreement with God’s will, our “weak” prayers move God’s heart.

G.

While Cornelius was praying, an angel appeared to him with a message from God, telling him his prayers would be remembered forever (Acts 10:3-4). 3

…he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius!” 4And when he observed him, he was afraid, and said, “What is it, lord?” So he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.” (Acts 10:3-4) We will end with this. Cornelius got the shock of his life in Acts 10. The shock of his life. Cornelius was a Roman soldier. He had a little prayer meeting. An angel appeared to him and said, “Your prayers are being remembered. They are a memorial before God.” Meaning, “Your prayers are not just impacting heaven. They are going to be remembered forever in the presence of God.” I wondered, “Man, what kind of prayer meeting was that?” Then I started thinking. Cornelius was shocked. He was not born again. He was a leader in the Roman army. I am picturing five or six guys, Roman soldiers, sitting in a circle. They have no Holy Spirit, and none of them are born again. They have no Bible. They are Gentiles, so they cannot have a Hebrew Bible. They have no anointed music. They do not have anything to prop up their meeting. No Starbucks coffee. Nothing. Nothing that could help their meeting at all. I thought, “Boy, I would not want to go to Cornelius’ meeting, that is for sure.” Five or six guys, no Bible, no Holy Spirit, no prophetic sense, no prophetic music, no presence of God. I felt, “Ugh.” The angel says, “Cornelius, shock of your life, your prayers are remembered forever. They are a memorial.” It is not about the feeling of the prayer time, whether it is your personal prayer time or it is a corporate prayer meeting that is boring. It is not the feeling of the prayer meeting. It is the agreement with God by His Word. That is what makes prayer powerful.” H.

Prayer is a brilliant way to rule the universe. Why? Because when we speak God’s Word back to Him, it draws us into intimacy with His heart and unifies us with others who pray the same things. It humbles us and transforms us at the same time.

I.

In other words, the result of the Father’s ruling the universe through prayer is that His people are established in intimacy, community, and humility, while engaging in partnership with Jesus to change the earth.

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I said, “Lord, why are You running the whole universe through prayer?” He is doing it because He is relational. He is using prayer to establish intimacy with His people. He is bringing community because He is getting the people who pray together connected at the heart level together. He is producing humility in them because they are trusting and depending on God and His timing. They are engaging in partnership with Jesus while Jesus is using them to change the world. That is what is going on in prayer. The Father says, “I am running the universe through prayer because I am a Father and I want relationship with My people.” Amen and amen.

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