From the desk of Steve Shultz:
Tomorrow is the 58th Annual "National Day of Prayer." The theme for this year, according to the National Day of Prayer's official website, is "Prayer... America's Hope" and is based on the verse from Psalm 33:22 which states: "May Your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You." For more information please visit their website at ndptf.org.
On the eve of this annual event, we thought it apropos to post an article by John Mark Pool titled "Prayers That Avail Much!" John Mark shares some great points on prayer here...and I encourage you to participate tomorrow with many Christians across this nation to pray.
Here are also a couple of resources that will help you in your daily prayer life:
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Blessings,
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Steve Shultz
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John Mark Pool:
"Prayers that Avail Much!"
"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."?James 5:16 (emphasis added)
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We need now, more than ever, prayers that avail much! God provided us with a Biblical guide, and we must unite together to see our nation turn from sin and back to our roots?Almighty God, our Father! We need the power of the prayers of others. Confession and intercession are the responsibilities of all Christians. When the prayers go forward in God's pattern, it always involves first honoring God for who He is, repentance and forgiveness...and then a person praying according to the will of God will be, without a doubt, most effective.
We can confess our sins one to another so that we may pray more intelligently for each other?never to gossip one to another. It is a prerequisite to being regularly clean and successful in our prayer life! Christians should pray for one another's known sins. This passage does not give license to share publicly that which might do harm to innocent people, but it does require that Christians be open in areas of need for prayer. We are commanded not to judge (see Matthew 7:1), while at the same time we are to pray for the weaknesses of our fellow Christians.
Also, we must pray for those in the world so that their hearts will be seasoned by God, to be drawn by the Holy Spirit to a point of confession of sin, and receive the Lord as their personal Savior. Is there not a cause? Prayer takes the cause from man's plan and places it into the Holy Spirit's function to draw all people unto the Father! Let us release the Father's will, for the Holy Spirit's action, through prayer. Now this is the effectiveness of God's prayer patterns with His saints.
How to Pray with a Pure Heart
As we go before the Lord and ask Him to reveal our hearts, be on notice that He will do what we ask. If we know then that we have something against anyone, we can allow the proper process the Lord provided for us to remove the spiritual infection from our lives.
"So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple (to God) and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God. When you are on the way to court with your adversary, settle your differences quickly. Otherwise, your accuser may hand you over to the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, and you will be thrown into prison."?Matthew 5:23-25 (emphasis added)
When we are honest before God and ourselves, we cannot deceive ourselves or anyone else that "all is well with our souls" unless we come through the bathing of the altar of identifying our sins, asking forgiveness for them, and then settling the account as much as possible with those whom we have any disagreement. We must adopt this heart to love the unlovable, which can only come through pure hearts.
Pure hearts are those who reside daily in the prayer patterns, that love on God, admit mistakes and motives (right or wrong), and then repent for any offense to others and to Father God. This is why Jesus taught us the single most important prayer pattern, which includes all the godly-ordered models for a whole spiritual life:
"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."?Matthew 6:9-15 (emphases added)
We must follow our Lord's Prayer by Jesus as the model prayer that both directs and teaches Christians how to pray correctly and effectively. The Lord's Prayer contains six petitions, divided equally. The first three (verses 9-10) concern honoring God both through God's holiness and purposes; the second group (verses 11-13) contain three personal requests.
Both types are valid requests, but God's honor and Kingdom must take precedence. Those who regularly follow this prayer pattern established from the Father through His Son Jesus to us, will then become clean and live prosperously according to God's standards?not human ideologies. Our wills are then His plans accomplished through directed, powerful, connected prayer.
Who Can Go Up Higher with God? Those Who Have Clean Hands and a Pure Heart!
"Who may go up the Lord's mountain? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart and does not long for what is false or lie when he is under oath. This person will receive a blessing from the LORD and righteousness from God, his Savior. This is the person who seeks Him, who searches for the face of the God of Jacob. Selah."?Psalm 24:3-5
This is a time in our nation and the world that Believers in Christ must live as Christ did?who loved the world, yet abhorred sin. We cannot keep this balance by our human logic in and through ourselves. We may have great plans, yet we must offer them to God in prayer so that His must be done?through the proper prayer channels, time in our secret place before the Lord, and then through the precious cleansing Blood of Jesus.
As we draw closer to the Lord during a time where the backdrop appears to be a very godless nation, we can be the genuine hope of God through Jesus in us to a very hurting people desperate for the lasting answers. As we do, know that when we sing these words from that old hymn, they really matter in the days we now live:
"What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the Blood of Jesus!"
As we live in His pattern, this will make an eternal difference for all those we meet. Then, as we carry them in prayer before the "Throne of Grace," those prayers will go up as pure incense onto the altar of God! It is the Christ in us that is the hope of glory to the world.
"...to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."?Colossians 1:27 (emphasis added)
Today, let us offer prayers from vessels that are free from all obstructions that would block success for God's Kingdom. We have the instructions from our Savior and now we can definitely have "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous (person that) availeth much."
Now and always pray the Prayers that Avail Much!
Always a Voice for God,
John Mark & Sandy Pool
Word to the World Ministries
Email: MarkandSandyPool@aol.com
May 10, 2009 (10am service)
City of Refuge Christian Fellowship
1201 Austin Hwy-Suite 116, San Antonio, TX
Contact: 210-829-1792 or Sylvia@thecityofrefuge.org
May 17-24, 2009
Unprecedented Times Ministry Cruise
Matt Sorger, John Mark Pool & Steve Swanson
Port near Orlando Intl Airport, FL
Contact: 209-588-9565 or egpministry@gmail.com
July 10-12, 2009
East Gate Ministries Hosts at Little White Church
Big White Tent Revival in the Cow Pasture
1010 Barker-Clodine Rd, Katy, TX
Contact: casissom@comcast.net
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Germaine Copeland |
Discover God's will and ways?every day in every situation!
Do you want more intimate time with God? Want to feel more connected in your prayer life? Are you seeking direction for your everyday personal and family situations? Germaine Copeland, author of the Prayers That Avail Much series, which has sold more than four million copies, helps your walk with God through the practical application of His Word every day.
Prayers That Avail Much for Daily Living will:
? Teach you how to pray with others
? Explain conditions to answered prayer and hindrances to prayer
? Reveal how to pray for our nation
? Clarify the role of the intercessor
? Show you how to know God's will through prayer
Featuring suggested Scriptures, this twenty-six-week, five-days-a-week devotional explains how to commune with God and listen for His voice, while showing you how to walk in faith rather than your feelings.
.... (more)
You May Also Call Us With Your Order- 8am to 4pm- Pacific Time, Monday-Friday
1-866-354-5245 (USA) -OR- 1-541-926-3250
(Outside the USA) |
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James W. Goll |
Designed for daily inspirations, this 15-minute daily devotional and journal empowers you to trust your life to Him for a daily experience with the Lord Jesus!
The author's own journey into God's presence has brought him face-to-face with angels and the Lord. When His people send up the incense of prayer and worship, God sends down supernatural power, anointing, and acts of intervention.
Author James W. Goll shares his insights about prayer and its power to see you through each and every day's troubles and triumphs.
.... (more)
You May Also Call Us With Your Order- 8am to 4pm- Pacific Time, Monday-Friday
1-866-354-5245 (USA) -OR- 1-541-926-3250
(Outside the USA) |
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