Special, Pastor Joe Sugrue.
Friday, May 4, 2007
Prayer is a significant part of your spiritual life. Therefore there shouldn’t be any laziness, complacency, or sloppiness in your prayer life.
1. Confession: This is always first and most important. We must rebound (1Jn 1:9) so that we are filled with God the Holy Spirit.
Ps 66:18 If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear;
2. Thanksgiving: We should give thanks to our Father for all things, both good and bad, and for both the spiritual and temporal things.
1 Thess 5:18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
EPH 5:20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;
3. Intercession: Praying for others. To accomplish this every believer should have a prayer list.
EPH 6:18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,
4. Petition: Prayer for your own needs. This is for those particular needs and situations in your own circumstances that are not directly solved by the Scripture.
HEB 4:16 Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.
Matt 6:7 And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.
Prayer should be intimate and fun as you speak to your very own Father while following His mechanics.
All success in relationships requires virtue on both parties. God has covered His end, in prayer will you cover yours?
Virtue / Success means confidence and courage in prayer.
Motivational virtue = personal love for God.
Functional virtue = impersonal love for all mankind.
One of your evaluations at the Judgment Seat of Christ will be how many of your prayers were answered. (Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin)
Personal love for God is developed through faith in His word, 1Jn 4:16.
1 John 4:16 And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
The function of the faith rest drill is necessary for affective prayer.
The Lord Jesus Christ asked you to marry Him before you loved Him.
The only perfect Man asked you to marry Him and you said yes. He’s a Man who has promised to fulfill all your needs, to console all your worries, to promise eternity in His perfect home, and to never lose an ounce of His love for you.
The success of your spiritual life in time demands that you learn to love Him in return.
Our marriage and resultant devotion to Christ demands intimacy and not just activity.
Personal prayer is intimate alone time with your Father where you ask for yourself, ask for others, offer thanksgiving, and all is done without silly chatter.
Doctrinal believers can finger doctrinal beads in their prayer life by offering the same prayers in the same order day in and day out.
Personal love for God the Father is developed over years of inculcation of Bible doctrine.
The new believer who has not learned to love God as of yet still has an effective prayer life through the use of the first three PSD’s.
PSD #1: Rebound
PSD #2: Filling of the Holy Spirit
PSD #3: Faith Rest Drill.
MAT 21:22 And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.
MAR 11:24 All things for which you ask in prayer, believe that you shall receive them, and they shall be given to you.
Problem-solving device #1, Rebound – PSA 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.
Problem-solving device #2, The Filling of the Spirit – Jud 20 Pray at all times in the Spirit.
Problem-solving device #3, The Faith-Rest Drill – MAT 21:22 “All things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.”
Problem-solving device #4, Grace Orientation – HEB 4:16 Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.
Problem-solving device #5, Doctrinal Orientation – JOH 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.”
Problem-solving device #6, A Personal Sense of Destiny, – 1JO 3:22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
Problem-solving device #7, Personal Love for God the Father – PHI 1:9 In fact, I pray this, that your love [for God] may excel to the maximum
Problem-solving device #8, Impersonal Love for all mankind – MAT 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you”
Problem-solving device #9, (+H) or sharing the Happiness of God – PHI 1:4 always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,
Problem-solving device #10, Occupation with Christ – PSA 116:1-2 I love the LORD, because He hears my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live.