Spiritual Breakthrough The Power of Believing Prayer
What are the questions that you have about prayer? What are some of the things that you want to understand about prayer? We want to explore why is prayer so vital to the life of the church and to the power of real spiritual breakthrough in us and through us as a body.
“If…your soul cries out to God, for the living God, and your dry and empty heart despairs of living a normal Christian life…then I ask you: Is your desire all absorbing? Is it the biggest thing in your life?…If your heart cries “Yes” to the questions you may be on your way to spiritual breakthrough that will transform your whole life.”
- A.W. Tozer, in Keys to the Deeper Life
It all starts with a holy discontent for the status quo in our lives and the realization that God has so much more for us.
We will start with a brief introduction on the ACTS of prayer which is a helpful teaching on leading us into the spiritual formation of our hearts.
Adoration
When we focus our attention on the One who can meet our needs, it takes our eyes off circumstances, our wants, our needs and places them squarely on where they need to be: His Kingdom, His presence, His will, His desires, His focus!
Matthew 6:31-33 tells us not to worry about what the world chases after. We only have to look at what consumes our Canadian culture the day after Christmas, a day of gift exchange to Boxing Day…more lines, more deals on things that we most likely don’t even need. However, that is what will get people up early in the morning, the constant chase for the latest and greatest gadget.
I have to admit that the lines catch my attention. I saw one for Coach in the Niagara Falls outlet last week and I’m thinking to myself, ‘hey, maybe some free stuff!’ Sorry, no luck there.
So, what does this have to do with adoration? Well, the worship of God in His presence reorients me to what is of absolute importance and what is of lasting value. It is His glorious presence that fills my heart and life and the realization that He loves me so much that He sent His Son to be the sacrifice for my sins so I could enter the fullness of a relationship with Him.
Psalm 18:1,2
David adores God in three ways: First, he tells God that he loves Him. Second, he praises God for who God is. Third, he praises God for what God does.
Hebrews 4:14-16 is a reminder of where we are and who is in the throne room!
Confession
Disobedience and neglect of God is like an awful virus slowly that creeps into our lives. I am realizing more and more how much I need to spend time in self-examination as a sort of scan of the soul. I need God’s presence every day to shed light on me.
Psalm 66:18; Psalm 139:23,24; 2 Chronicles 7:14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32
Thanksgiving
Ephesians 1:3-10
A heart of thankfulness begins with recognizing all the spiritual blessings we have in Christ and is the natural flow from confession because of the realization of our complete and total forgiveness as we see in 1 John 1:9.
Supplication
The word history of supplication, it refers to a bending down and indicates a bowing or kneeling in submission. 1 Kings 8:34 states, "And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven." By extension of this picture, to supplicate is to ask for humbly and earnestly. It refers most to the attitude of our prayer.
We see prayer times in connection with crying out to God in the following verses: 1 Kings 8:28; 2 Chronicles 6:19; Psalm 28:2; 30:8; 31:22
Supplication, therefore, is the attitude or spirit of prayer. We bend down to God and cry out to Him for an answer. We submit to His will and to His authority. We earnestly seek His help. In this way, we make supplication to God in our prayers. In doing so we follow the example of Jesus who "offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears" Hebrews 5:7
John 10:14-16 Supplication for me begins with learning to hear the voice of the Lord. I can start with my own ‘grocery list’ of requests or I can start by asking God who is it that Lord you want to lay on my heart? Who do I need to do battle for today? Who needs me to fight for them in my prayers. Ephesians 6 talks about prayer as part of the armour of the believer. It is the place where we need to go together with the Word of God as our sword to cut through the lies of the enemy who comes to steal, kill and destroy life in us and the lives around us.
Ephesians 6:18 also tells us to pray in the Spirit.
The best brief statement I have found of what it means to pray in the Holy Spirit goes like this: It means “so to pray that the Holy Spirit is the moving and guiding power.” The key words there are “moving” and “guiding.” In other words, when you pray in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God is “moving” you to pray. That is, he is the one who motivates and enables and energizes your prayer. And when you pray in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God is “guiding” how you pray and what you pray for. So, to pray in the Holy Spirit is to be moved and guided by the Holy Spirit in prayer. We pray by his power and according to his direction.
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