New Hope
Continuing Education, April 2007
William
Gaultiere, Ph.D.
Intro
You and I need
prayer more than we need the air we breathe and the food
we eat. Truly. We live by prayer
and we always will – even in heaven.
Prayer is the most
intimate language in existence – it
connects us with God’s love and with one another. It’s
no wonder that 70% of Americans pray every day! And
yet many people struggle with prayer, especially when it comes
to praying out loud for others.
God has provided
us help! For thousands of years God’s
people have turned to the Psalms and other passages of Scripture
to guide their prayers. Jesus himself prayed this way.
Join me as we let
out our sails to catch the powerful wind of the Spirit and
use some beloved texts of Scripture like a rudder to steer
our boats toward Christ. I’ll
help you take a hold of the rudder in your hand so you can
sail in prayer for your self and others as we fix our eyes
on Jesus and pray the Scriptures for one another.
Def of Prayer
Prayer is "interactive conversation with God about what we
and God are thinking and doing together." DW, Renovare SF
Bible
The Power of Prayer
David Wilkerson in his best-selling book The Cross and
the Switchblade shares story of his childhood prayer
that healed his father. May God develop in us the faith
of a child…
“David,” said Grandfather, looking at me – for
once – without the suggestion of a twinkle in his eye, “the
day you learn to be publicly specific in your prayers, that is
the day you will discover power.”
I didn’t quite understand… I was just twelve
years old, and… I was instinctively afraid of the idea. To
be publicly specific, he had said. That meant saying,
in the hearing of others… It meant taking the risk that
the prayer would not be answered.
It was by accident
that I was forced, one dreadful day, to discover what Grandpap
meant. During all of my childhood
my father had been a very sick man. He had duodenal ulcers,
and for more than ten years he was not free of pain.
One day, walking
home from school, I saw an ambulance tear past, and when
I was still more than a block away from home… I
could hear my father’s screams.
A group of elders
from the church sat solemnly in the living room. The doctor wouldn’t
let me in the room where Dad was, so Mother joined me in
the hall.
“Is he going
to die, Mom?”
Mother looked me
in the eye and decided to tell me the truth. “The
doctor things he may live two more hours.”
Just then Dad gave
a particularly loud cry of pain and Mother squeezed my shoulder
and ran quickly back into the room. “Here
I am, Kenneth,” she said, shutting the door behind her. Before
the door closed, however, I saw why the doctor wouldn’t
allow me in Dad’s room. The bedclothes and floor
were drenched with blood.
At that moment I
remembered Grandfather’s promise, “The
day you learn to be publicly specific in your prayers is the
day you will discover power.” For a moment I thought
of walking in to where the men sat in the living room and announcing
that I was praying for my father to get up from his bed a healed
man. I couldn’t do it. Even in that extremity
I could not put my faith out where it might get knocked down.
Ignoring my grandfather’s words, I ran just as far away
from everyone as I could. I ran down the basement stairs,
shut myself up in the coal bin, and there I prayed, trying
to substitute volume of voice fore the belief that I lacked.
What I didn’t
realize was that I was praying into a kind of loud-speaker
system.
Our house was heated
by hot air, and the great trumpetlike pipes branched out
from the furnace, beside the coal bin, into every room of
the house. My voice was carried up those
pipes so that the men from the church, sitting in the living
room, suddenly heard a fervent voice pouring out of the walls. The
doctor upstairs heard it. My father, lying on his deathbed
heard it.
“Bring David here,” he
whispered.
So I was brought
upstairs past the staring eyes of the elders and into my
father’s room. Dad asked Dr. Brown
to wait in the hall for a moment, then he told Mother to read
aloud the 22nd verse of the 21st chapter
of Matthew…
“And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer,” she
read, “believing, ye shall receive.”
I felt a tremendous
excitement. “Mother, can’t
we take that for Dad now?”
So while my father
lay limp on his bed, Mother began to read t he same passage
over and over again… And while she
was reading I got up from my chair and walked over to Dad’s
bed and laid my hands on his forehead.
“Jesus,” I prayed, “Jesus, I believe what
You said. Make Daddy well!”
There was one more
step. I walked to the door and opened
and said, loud and clear: “Please come, Dr. Brown. I
have…” (it was hard) “I have prayed believing
that Daddy will get better.”
Dr. Brown looked
down at my twelve-year old earnestness and smiled a warm
and compassionate and totally unbelieving smile. But
that smile turned first to puzzlement and then to astonishment
as he bent to examine my father.
“Something has happened,” he said. His voice
was so low I could hardly hear. Dr. Brown picked up his
instruments with fingers that trembled, and tested Dad’s
blood pressure. “Kenneth,” he said, raising
Dad’s eyelids and then feeling his abdomen and then reading
his blood pressure again. “Kenneth, how do you
feel?”
“Like strength
is flowing into me.”
“Kenneth,” said the doctor, “I have just
witnessed a miracle.” (David Wilkerson, The Cross
and the Switchblade, p. 46-48).
Jesus promised us:
“I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not
doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but
also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into
the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will
receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matt 21:21-22).
Jesus doesn’t want there to be any limit to our understanding
of the power of prayer that ties into the reality of God’s
presence and power through faith in Christ.
Research studies
have proven that sick people who are prayed for are more
likely to get better than those who are not prayed for – even if they don’t know they’re being
prayed for. In one study prayer even worked on plants. The
garden plants that received verbal prayers of blessing did
better than those that received curses!
Our faith in Christ
is the key to effective prayer. This
is why Jesus said, “If you believe, you will receive
whatever you ask for in prayer.” Faith is trust. It’s
a relational engagement that we grow in through training with
Jesus.
Jesus explained
that to have faith in him is to pray in his name – that’s
where the power of prayer comes from:
“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that
the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me
for anything in my name, and I will do it… You did not
choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear
fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you
whatever you ask in my name” (John 14:13-14; 15:16).
We end our prayers
by saying, “in Jesus’ name.” It’s
a good custom. But what does it mean? Why do we
pray to God “in Jesus’ name”? Name
in the Bible indicates character. In the Biblical sense
to use someone’s name is immensely significant. A
name says something about the person’s character.
So when we pray
in Jesus’ name we’re praying in
the manner that he prayed, according to his character of holiness
and purity.
Practically, to
pray in Jesus’ names means two things:
- We’re praying in his power and strength – we’re
relying on him. To pray in Jesus’ name is to
be WITH Jesus.
- And we’re praying on his behalf, as his representative. To
pray in Jesus’ name is to do what we’re doing
FOR Jesus.
We can’t do anything well FOR Jesus unless we’re
doing it WITH Jesus. We need his righteousness, love,
and power to serve him well. We need to learn to fix
our thoughts on him and to keep in step with his Spirit.
The Power of
God’s Word
Today we’re specifically talking about praying the Scriptures. Not
only is there power in prayer that’s prayed in Jesus’ name,
but there’s also power in God’s Word! So
Praying the Scriptures is getting a hold of double power!
It’s very important that we understand what God’s
Word is. Of course, as Christians we believe that the
Scriptures are true; they’re inspired by God, spoken
by God, and they’re true historically and they’re
true in wisdom.
But our understanding
and faith needs to go deeper than this. The
Bible is true in a much more substantial sense than we normally
think of. We tend to think of Scriptures like Psalm 23
as a collection of nice words – words to comfort us and
help us. But God’s Word does a lot more than make
us feel better!
It's REAL! It's
the Word of God and it's an actual substance. It's
more real and lasting than the ground that's bearing your weight
at this moment! It’s really REAL! It's alive
and it's life-giving. The Word of God has created all
that is good. "What is seen has been made from what is
not seen" (Hebrews 11:3). God’s Word is heavenly
manna. It is real food, real life for our body, mind,
heart, soul, and relationships - our whole being (Mark 12:30)
- every day and in every situation. Whether we realize
it or not, we live off of God's Word, and we will do so in
eternity.
This is why Jesus,
quoting Scripture from Deuteronomy 8:3 that he himself prayed
many times, said: “Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the
mouth of God” (Matt 4:4). His teaching here illustrates
the power of God’s Word in our lives. He was in
the middle of a 40 day fast when he prayed and spoke this Scripture.
Have you ever fasted
from food for a meal or a day and prayed over and over again, “Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt
4:4)? I can tell you that if you learn to do this you
will find that God’s Word will live in your body and
soul and it will sustain you. You can feed off it and
have strength for doing all that you do in the joy of the Lord. You’ll
discover that fasting is feasting on God’s Word, his
presence; his very person will inhabit you and energize you.
This is just one
example of Jesus praying the Scriptures. He
also prayed the Shema (from Deuteronomy 6:4-5), twice daily
like all devout Jews in his day, and he expanded it into The
Greatest Commandment (Mark 12:29-30).
On the cross he
prayed Psalm 22:1 (Matt 27:46), “My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Probably
he did this as what is called a “remiz” (like if
I start singing, “God bless America…” you
could finish the song yourself) to invoke the whole Psalm,
along with Psalms 23 and 24, because the three were always
connected and most everybody knew them from memory. Think
about Jesus suffering in torture on the cross and praying Psalm
23: “The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want… Even
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will
fear no evil for you are with me…”
The Power of Praying the Scriptures for One Another
Today we’re talking about not only the power of prayer
and the power of God’s Word, but also the power of “one
another.” Our subject is “Praying the Scriptures for
One Another.” There’s power in praying
in Jesus’ name. There’s power in God’s
Word. And there’s power in us gathering as the
Body of Christ.
Jesus promised us:
“I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about
anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father
in heaven. For where two or three come together in my
name, there am I with them” (Matt 18:19-20).
Ways to Pray the Scriptures in Intercession for Others
There are many ways
for us to pray the Scriptures for one another. We’re going to spend the rest of our time
today learning and practicing eight ways of praying the Scriptures
for one another. I’m going to introduce each of
these prayer pathways to you (some of which will probably be
new to you though all are ancient practices) and then we’re
going to walk down these paths together. In other words,
we’re actually going to pray together! I can’t
imagine doing a seminar on prayer and not giving a generous
amount of time to explicitly praying.
First, let me just
mention a point of clarification about what I mean by “Praying the Scriptures for One Another.” I’m not talking
about using Bible verses like band aids that you stick on people’s
wounds to “fix” them. I’m not talking
about quoting Bible verses like a concordance to give the “right
answers.”
My point is that
you and I can become ministers of God’s
Word to others. By receiving God’s Word into your
own heart you can learn to pray its life-giving message for
others. And you don’t have to quote chapter and
verse from the Bible to pray Scripture over someone. You
may specifically quote one the passages we’re going to
discuss, but you may not.
You might not even
speak at all! Often the most important
prayers are the ones that come from our secret prayer closet
where we join Jesus and meet with our Father in heaven.
You’ve probably heard of the Serenity Prayer, “God
grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know
the difference.” Well the first type of prayer
we want to learn is based on that and it’s called the “Senility
Prayer: God grant me the senility to forget the people I never
liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones that I
do, and the eyesight to tell the difference!”
1. Personalize
a Passage for Another
We can personalize
any part of the Bible – and we should! This
is the fruit of meditation on Scripture: God’s Spirit
applying his Word to your life or to the life of someone you’re
concerned about.
To personalize a
passage of the Bible for someone you simply apply to the
person and his or her situation. You can
do this in your prayer closet, with a greeting card or e-mail,
or in a verbal prayer you offer. You’re abiding
in God’s Word for your friend, as Jesus talked about
in his teaching of the Vine and the branches.
Last year I began
an adventure personalizing Scripture for my son David. I bought a wide margin Bible for him and
I’m reading it cover to cover and writing in it my meditations
and personal prayers for him. God’s Word is forming
my thoughts and prayers for my son in this “Legacy Bible.”
Let’s try this with Psalm 23. I’ll lead
us in prayer. Notice I’m going to recite each phrase
and then apply it to our group in my own words…
>>> Now
I want to give you a few minutes to pray quietly through
Psalm 23 (or the part you remember) for a friend… “The
Lord is ________’s Shepherd, he/she shall not want…”
2. Pronounce
a Blessing
The Bible is full
of examples of people verbalizing words of blessings over
others. The most famous blessing that
ministers and others have been pronouncing for 3,500 years
is the one that the Lord gave Moses:
“May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the
lord make his face shine on you and be gracious unto you. May
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (Num
6:24-26).
Paul is doing this when writes to the Philippians:
“I thank my
God every time I remember you. In
all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because
of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until
now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work
in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ
Jesus” (Phil 1:3-6).
>>> Bless
another in intercessory prayer: “I thank my God every time I remember _______. I
pray with joy because of you ________... Being confident that
the Lord who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion
until the day of Christ Jesus.”
3. Giving Affirmations
Earlier
when we were talking about praying “in Jesus’ name” we
said that in the Bible names signified the person’s character. A
good name is an affirmation.
Again and
again in the Scriptures we see God affirming people with
names and words of encouragement. Jesus re-named
his disciple Simon with the name “Peter,” which
means “Rock.” Peter lived up to his name! He
was the first to confess Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God
and he became a rock in the establishment of Christ’s
church. (Other examples include Abraham, Sarah, Jacob,
and Paul.)
In the
Bible we also see God’s people affirming one
another. Great examples include King David affirming
Mephibosheth, the lame grandson of the deceased King Saul who
feared for his life (2 Samuel 9) and the Apostle Paul affirming
Onesimus, the runaway slave (Philemon). This is so important
in our families and our relationships. Kristi and I gave
our children their names based on a prayer and affirmation
of their character.
- “David William” means “Beloved
of God who is the Determined Guardian of the Faith and
Protector of the Needy.”
- “Jennifer Michelle” means “Pure
and Beautiful like the Lord.”
- “Briana Grace” means “Strong
in God’s Grace.”
In his New Testament
letters the Apostle Paul teaches us a lot about affirmation. Spiritual affirmations are a type
of blessing in which you encourage someone with a positive
word about who he or she is “in Christ.” 160
times in the Apostle Paul’s epistles he refers to us
as being “in Christ” and he affirms us with our
participation in the amazing blessings of his love, forgiveness,
and life that we receive by being united with our Lord.
>>> Affirm
one another with “LIFE for the Soul from God’s Word”
4. Praying
the Psalms
Praying the Psalms
is an ancient discipline that’s been
practiced daily for 3,000 years. But in recent generations
this practice has been neglected. The Psalms are the
church’s prayer book. Whatever we’re going
through there are psalms that teach us how to pray in that
situation.
Jesus prayed the
Psalms. The Psalms are prophetic and
point to Christ. Christ is in the Psalms waiting for
us, he’s there in Spirit already praying these Psalms
for us. We need to go to school in the Psalms and learn
from our Teacher.
The Psalms put words
to our struggles and they strengthen our trust in God. They do this for us and for other people
who need our intercessions. They help us to be empathic
for others who are hurting and to pray in faith for them.
Anyone here ever
felt distant from God? Or had a struggle
with him over a prayer that hasn’t been answered? I
would think that all of us would raise our hands on that. Job
did. And Hannah, David, and Paul. Even Jesus.
Psalm 13 is the
prayer we need in a time like that. David’s
prayer is easy to remember because we think of 13 as an unlucky
number. I don’t think it is. Kristi and I
got married on a Friday the 13th! When you’re
feeling unlucky because you’re going through hard times
Psalm 13 is a life line.
Consider David’s circumstances when he wrote and prayed
Psalm 13: hiding out in desert caves as King Saul and his army
hunted him, foraging for food and water, sleeping on the ground,
persecuted and abused and endangered by the one he had served
and blessed, friendless except for a band of outlaws who followed
him, 15 years of waiting for God to fulfill his promise to
him.
I memorized it so I’d have it whenever I need it – not
just for myself, but for others as well. For one pastor
I was helping it was instrumental in turning him around during
some dark days.
>>> Praying Psalm 13. I’m
going to pray Psalm 13 for us. If you’re struggling
with an unanswered prayer then this is especially for you...
5. Breath Prayers
One of my favorite ways of praying is to use Breath Prayers. This
is a simple form of centering prayer. You just use a
short phrase, often from the Bible, and you abide in prayer
with the Lord and his Word. You tune out all other distractions
and thoughts. And you breathe the words in and exhale
them out, over and over again.
- “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want”
- “For to me to live is Christ and to
die is gain”
- “Be still and know that
I am God”
- “In Christ’s
humility consider
others better than
yourselves”
Five minutes on your knees in centering prayer is a great
way to start your day with God. Then throughout the day
you can call your Breath Prayer to mind over and over. Use
it to practice the presence of God, to “pray without
ceasing”, to “keep in Step with the Spirit.” Use
your Breath Prayer to develop a habit of turning your thoughts
to God’s presence with you throughout the day.
>>> A prayer that I used
during Lent and have returned to is Jesus’ last words
on the cross: “Father into your hands I commit my spirit.”
Let’s try it. First let’s do some deep,
slow breathing… In and out…
Now breath in deep, “Fa – ther…” Hold
your breath and the Word… Release and let go, “Into
your hands I commit my spirit.”
Continue praying this prayer. You’re learning
to trust your Father in heaven…
This is one way to deal with distracting thoughts: don’t
fight them, just gently release them to God in prayer: “Father
into your hands I commit __________” (My finances, my
health, the problems I’m having at work, the conflict
we had at home, my worries about…).
Try turning your concerns for loved ones into Breath Prayers
of intercession, “Father into your hands I commit my
daughter… My mother’s health… Our neighbor
who just got divorced…”
6. Just do it!
Another type of prayer could be called, “Just do it!” Just
do what the Bible says! That’s one of the few good
uses of that slogan! To just do what the Bible
says is a good approach as long as we understand that the way
that we “just do it” and obey God must be from
our hearts (the center of our being, our will, not our
feelings). The way to obey the Lord if from our hearts
and by the Holy Spirit.
To obey the Lord in this way is prayer!
One of the things that the Bible teaches us to do is to bless
others with a special kind of prayer ministry called the “laying
on of hands.” Sometimes this includes an anointing
with oil. We can do this to pray for healing in someone’s
life or to commission and empower them for ministry.
Would someone like to be prayed for in that way today? Would
you like prayer for healing? Or prayer for God’s
anointing in your ministry as a New Hope Counselor, parent,
or other mission?
And I need a few people to join me in offering prayer…
>>> Prayer ministry
7. Become like the “Word made flesh”
This is called incarnational ministry. Jesus was God
in human flesh. We’re to share our connection to
God, his love, with others. This is why in the Bible
we’re called “Christ’s Ambassadors” and “the
Body of Christ.” This is what we do at the Crystal
Cathedral’s New Hope Counseling ministry. We listen
to hurting people with the ears of Christ. We offer compassion
with the heart of Christ. We pray for others with Jesus.
>>> Prayer partners: Pair
off to listen and offer a compassionate prayer. Take
turns sharing something that you’d like prayer for. As
the intercessor be a bridge to connect your friend with God’s
love. Listen and pray with compassion and faith.
8. Pray a Prayer Recorded in Scripture
What form of praying the Scriptures have I not yet presented? The
most obvious one… Praying one of the prayers recorded
in Scripture!
For instance, we have some of the Apostle Paul’s prayers
recorded. These are deep and powerful prayers. We
can pray these for ourselves or others.
- Ephesians 3:14-21
- Philippians 1:9-11
- Colossians 1:9-14
(For a list of 55 prayers recorded in Scripture visit www.wgbd.org/significant-prayers.html.)
Of course, the most important example of this is the prayer
that Jesus himself prayed and taught us to pray. His
disciples had been watching him pray. They saw him get
up early and go off into lonely places to be with his Father
in heaven. He was practicing the disciplines of silence
and solitude in order to pray.
What impressed the disciples was not only the way he prayed – so
disciplined, so eager, so intimate with God as his Abba – but
also the results of his prayers! For instance, nine times
the gospel of Mark records instances of Jesus withdrawing from
the crowds for prayer and after each time we see him minister
in God’s love and power! He makes major decisions
like choosing his Apostles or leaving one town to minister
in another. He walks on water, feeds thousands of people,
and heals people.
The disciples saw this and they said, “Lord, teach us
to pray!” (Luke 11:1).
The Lord’s Prayer is what he taught them. It’s
actually a collection of six different types of prayers. Each
type is a pathway for us to travel with Jesus in his school
of prayer. Along each pathway we can pray for ourselves
and others in that way.
And if we memorize the prayer then we can use the phrases
to re-focus our minds when they start to wander.
>>> Praying the Lord’s
Prayer. Go ahead and pray the Lord’s Prayer. You
may want to pray it for someone who is on your heart. You
may wish to journal your prayer. (Use the handout.)
For Additional Learning
To learn more on prayer and practicing spiritual disciplines
visit my website http://www.christiansoulcare.com/. Go
to “Bible Verses” and then “Spiritual Disciplines
for the Soul.”
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