Let's Talk About Prayer Part 3

Good evening. Welcome to Voice in the Wilderness. I'm Don Noble of Pure

Heart Ministries, and I welcome you today with exceedingly abundantly and overflowing joy.

The last two weeks I've been talking to you about prayer, and I'm going

to be concluding that tonight on prayer again, and I want to take a

moment just to go over and also include the scriptures and in case you weren't

able to get those jotted down, but I want to go over the different

types of prayer. And then there were two types of prayer I didn't get

an opportunity to discuss last week. I'll go over that. Then I'm going

to talk about principles of prayer, and I'm going to share some things from

a website I found that I thought is very, very good, and so

here we go. One of the most important things that I mentioned last week

was that when we do pray, we want to pray God's word that comes

out of Isaiah fifty five eleven, and it says this, So shall my

word be that goes forth from my mouth, says the Lord. It shall

not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please. And

it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. So God's word

shall accomplish and shall prosper in the thing in which we say. So.

We want to always declare God's word, pray God's word because the power is

in God's word. And because of this promise, we know that our prayer

is not going to return void. So that's a key, very very important.

Now, the different types of prayer that I talked about last week,

we went over the model prayer that's Matthew six, verses five through fifteen,

also found in Luke chapter eleven, versus two through four. We talked about

agreement prayer. If to agree is touching anything on earth, whatever we ask

in His name, it shall be done. That's Matthew eighteen nineteen. We

talked about speak to the mountain prayer that's found in Matthew twenty one Versus twenty

one through twenty two. It's also found in Mark eleven twenty two through twenty

four. Don't doubt, but believe whatever you have asked you will receive.

Speak to the mountain, speak to your problem. We talked about the prayer

of faith James five fifteen, the prayer faith shall save the sick, heal

the sick, and raise them off their sick bed James five sixteen A is

prayer for healing. Now this is not extensive healing. There are many many

other scriptures regarding healing. We're not talking about that tonight, just sharing this

one thing. Confess your trespasses, your sins to one another, and pray

for one another that you may be healed. And then the other portion,

the b portion of that same scripture James sixteen is what I call fervent prayer,

because the word says the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous person avails

much. And we concluded last week with prayer for all people, in particularly

those in authority, kings, etc. And that is First Timothy, chapter

two, verses one through three, making supplications, prayers intercessions for all men.

So let me continue that list, and I'm going to talk about continual

prayer. Now. Paul's talking to the Thessalonian church in First Thessalonians five seventeen,

and he says, pray without ceasing. Now what does that mean?

How come we possibly pray without ceasing? Well we can, and it doesn't

mean that twenty four seven you are praying but it's an attitude of prayerfulness,

and out of the attitude of prayerfulness comes the attitude of thanksgiving. So when

we get up in the morning, we have our daily devotion, we have

our time with the Lord. We're reading scripture, just praying about our upcoming

day. So we have a time of prayer then. And then if you

work, you're either driving to work, bicycling to work, taking the metro

to work, and so you have that little space of time. And I

find praying in the car to be very effective. I like praying. I

pray most of the time that I'm in the car because I have time to

think. And then I when I think of people or things or issues,

then I have an opportunity to pray. So it's a great time to pray.

Once you get to your workplace, you can still pray. If you're

seated at your desk, there may be a situation come up and you're very

stressed about and you can just take a moment and say, Lord, I

need your peace. Thank you for giving me peace. And throughout your work

day you can thank the Lord for specific little things. See, it's an

attitude of thankfulness that is also considered prayer. If you're retired, you don't

have a job. Retired people sometimes I think, are more busy than people

who actually have a full time job. But if you're retired and you're busy

doing whatever, you can always be thanking God for little things that are going

on throughout the day. You can make a quick request to the Lord.

You can lift up somebody in prayer quickly. So yes, can we pray

without ceasing? Yes we can because we are we have this attitude the moment

we arise. We have an attitude of prayer and thankfulness so that we're always

thinking about something, praying about something, thanking God for something. Do follow

me, and then in the evening turn off that crazy tube and just spend

time in prayer. There are many people I know that you have people that

need prayer in your life. There are many people that you have in your

life that are desperate for prayers. So take that time in the evening and

before you go to bed, be thankful to the Lord for the day.

You know, even if it was a really crummy day, Thank him,

thank Him, thank Him. Okay, that's continue prayer. Then there's prayer

for spiritual strength. That's Jude Verse twenty building yourselves up on your most holy

faith praying in the Holy Spirit. Now, what that's referencing is is that

if you pray in an unknown tongue, that's how you build yourself in your

most holy faith by praying in tongues, praying in the spirit, and you

will find that it will strengthen your inner man, your spirit man. That's

what you know. Tongues are important because they strengthen us. They build our

faith when we're praying in an unknown tongue to God. All right, So

these are what I call my principles of prayer. Everybody probably might have a

little different list of principles, but mine starts first with praying God's word.

We talked about that already Isaiah fifty five to eleven. And then pray in

agreement for a specific request. Next, continue to thank God for the answer.

So you have a request, you've made the request, you've found a

scripture, that is, you know exactly what your request is all about.

You have a promise that you've found in scripture. For your request, we

thank the Lord for the answer. We always pray from a place of victory,

not defeat. So when you're praying, you're praying from a from a

stance, from a position of victory. You're seated in heavenly places with Christ

Jesus, so the victory is already yours. You have God's perspective, you

have kingdom perspective. You're seated in heavenly places by faith. Amen. So

we always play pray from a place a victory, never defeat. Remember,

you do not have to beg God. I hate to hear people begging God,

Oh God, please, Oh God, Please, Oh God, Please,

oh God. Please, Really pray his word. That's what he's interested

in. I've mentioned this before, but I'm going to say it again.

When you pray God's word, you actually activate angels to accomplish the assignment,

because the scripture says that they heed the word of God. So I don't

know about you, but instead of begging God, I would rather speak his

word, activate the angels to make that come to pass, and be happy

about the victory that I already have. Amen. Then we decree and declare

God's word over the situation. Again, that's going back to look at promises

in the Bible that line up with a specific request we have. We want

to decree and declare those promises. And you know that's that's exciting because you

know what it does when you speak God's word, when you decree and declare

God's word, it builds faith in you. Faith comes by hearing and hearing

by the word. So you are you will increase your faith and you will

get a robust faith when you begin to pray God's word. Remember Second Corinthians

one twenty says, all of God's promises are yes and amen, all not

just a few. All of God's promises they are yes and amen. There's

not a no. There's not one no in any of the promises. So

we are his children and we can stand on those promises. And lastly,

a very simple prayer that you can pray and is God's word. You can

say this, Your Kingdom come, your will be done. In let's say

you're talking about salvation for an individual. I know I prayed this over my

husband. Your Kingdom come, your will be done. In Bill's life.

I prayed that of that whole summer before he got saved. Your Kingdom come,

Your will be done in Sally's life, in Mary's life, in Kevin's

life, your will be done. Your Kingdom come. All right, I

want to switch over to talk to you about these are also types of prayer

or they're just like a bigger topic, so to speak. And this comes

from a website I've found. This lady's name is Gina Pourier sounds French POI

r I e ar dot com. And I found it very good. So

if you are really a person of prayer, you might really enjoy this website.

But she talks about several types of prayer, and the first one she

talks about is reflective prayer. So in English, when we think of prayer,

we often associate it with presenting requests to God and asking him for help.

And while that's not wrong, it's really not the whole story because in

Hebrew, the word for prayer is I can't pronounce it, but I'm going

to spell it hi t p a l l e l hit palel. It

comes from a verb that means to judge oneself. So when John wrote in

First John one nine, if we confess our sins, God is faithful just

to forgive us our sins. So we are judging ourselves when we ask forgiveness

Matthew six twelve, we're asking for a pure heart. That's Psalm fifty one

ten. We want to pure heart before the Lord. So we want to

be honest about our feelings and our circumstances. And that means that, you

know, we tell the Lord whether we're angry, we're in despair, we

feel hopeless, et cetera, et cetera. But we want to talk to

God. We want to be open, and we want to judge ourselves.

That's important. Then there's prayers of praise, and as I mentioned earlier,

it's you know, prayers of praise are also prayers of thankfulness. And it

does the heart very good to simply praise God. And so we can look

at like, if you want to praise Him because of his love for you,

you would find that in Psalm fifty two eight, in Psalm one five,

verses fourth through seven, and ten thirteen, this is his goodness.

And so I'm just going to read this to you. It says one generation

shall praise your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. I

will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works.

Men shall speak of the might of your awesome acts, and I will declare

your greatness. They shall utter the memory of your greatness, and shall sing

of your righteousness. And then verse ten through thirteen, all your works will

praise you, oh Lord, and your saints shall bless you. They shall

speak of the glory of your kingdom and talk of your power to make known

to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endors throughout all generations.

So we see that the Psalmis here, this is David writing the Psalm

one forty five, and he is you know, you can just feel it

in him. He's praising God. Look God, look at what you've done,

your mighty acts, your glorious splendor, your majesty. I'm going to

speak of your awesome acts. Men's speak of your awesome acts, and we're

going to make that known to the sons of men. So you can see

how David, in this particular Psalm, and in many Psalms that David has

written, he talks about praising God. We can praise him for the things

he's done in our life and what he's done in others' lives. We can

praise him for his word and a really good psalm to grasp. That is

Psalm one nineteen. Now Someone nineteen, as you may know, is the

longest psalm in the book of Psalms of one hundred and fifty psalms, and

Someone nineteen, I'll just start with verse one. Blessed are the undefiled in

the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who

keep his testimonies, who seek him with a whole heart. And then I

dropped down, Oh that my ways were directed to keep your statutes verse ten,

with my whole heart, I have sought you. Oh, let me

not wonder from your commandments Verse forty five. I will walk at liberty,

for I seek your precepts. I will speak of your testimonies also before kings,

and will not be ashamed. And I will delight myself in your commandments,

which I love. My hands also I will lift up to your commandments

which I love. And I will meditate on your statutes. So we can

see even in this particular psalm. Throughout that psalm there's many mentions of praising

God and God's word. Gina goes on to talk about prayers of thanksgiving,

and she writes the gratitude is scientifically proven to have multiple psychological benefits. No

wonder the Bible tells us to give thanks in all circumstances. First the Selonians

five sixteen through eighteen. So we can be thankful about virtually anything, and

of course we want to be thankful. Now, I did not know that

it's been scientifically proven to have psychological benefit, but it certainly makes sense,

doesn't it. So here are some ideas of things that you can be thankful

about. Your family, relationships, your friendships. You can be thankful about

the community you live in. You can be thankfulful about your neighbor or your

neighborhood. You can be thankful, thankful about your work. Thankful for your

freedom. Fortunately we live in a country at least for now, that is

still free. Be thankful for things that make you smile, make you laugh

sometimes when you contemplate on a happy memory, that will make you thankful.

And be thankful for trials. Yes, because what do trials do? They

strengthen us and they refine us. God is pruning us. So we do

want to be thankful for the trials, because if we are not pruned,

we will not produce much. Just go out and prune one of your bushes.

That thing will be so happy and it will be so full. After

you prune it, you'll be amazed. So pruning through trials is good and

we should be thankful for them. How about requests, And she writes,

I don't know about you, but I've made some pretty silly prayer requests.

But Jesus does say, just ask, and it usually isn't hard to come

up with requests. But in case you need some prompting, she has written

a few ideas here. We can be thankful for basic needs, our craziest

dreams, to increase our faith. Thankful for wisdom. That's a good thing

to be thankful for God's wisdom. We need it, James, Chapter one,

verse five. Be thankful for spiritual strength. Be thankful that you're not

worried flipping out over some situation, that you're not anxious, fearful. So,

yeah, there are a lot of things that we can be thanking God

for in regard to requests. Praying these things and making these requests, it's

okay. And then she has prayers about the Kingdom of God. The Lord's

prayer says, and I just mentioned your kingdom, come your will be done.

And there's a lot of ways to pray that. Consider praying about your

government and its leaders, Praying about church leaders, your pastor your clergy.

Praying about local mission work that's going on in your community or worldwide missions.

Pray about you know, the homeless, poverty, racism, Pray about the

poor, the suffering, and certainly the persecuted. Pray about the church,

your local church, the ministries, and your local church, the ministries you're

part of. So those are prayers about the Kingdom of God. And then

obviously we want to pray for people in our life. Our spouse if we're

married, our marriage relationship, our children and the things that they're going to

go through their faith, the trials, their education, their relationships. A

lot. If you have children and grandchildren, you have a lot to pray

for. Pray for your parents, Pray for friends who are believers near and

far. Pray for friends who are not believers and from family members who are

not believers. Pray for co workers, Pray for neighbors, Pray for your

siblings and your local community. So I think Gina has a really interesting website.

If you get a chance, you might want to go there. It's

gi na POI r Ear dot com and you'll find that quite interesting. Now

I want to close talking about some prayers that have been given on behalf of

our nation. A friend of mine, Michael Sharman, is an attorney in

Virginia, a close friend of mine, and he's a historian also, so

he compiled all these prayers. So I want to read to you the first

proclaimed day of prayer, and which was taken from Ezra chapter eight, verses

twenty one through twenty three and thirty one B. And it says, then

I proclaimed a fast there at the river of a Hava, that we might

humble ourselves before our God to seek from him the right way for us and

our little ones and all our possessions. For I was a shamed to request

of the King an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy

on the road, because we had spoken to the King saying, the hand

of our God is upon all those for good who seek him, but his

power and his wrath are against all those who forsake him. So we fasted

and we entreated our God for this, and he answered our prayer, and

the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the

hand of the enemy and from ambush along the road. So this is out

of the Bible. This is the first proclaimed, actual day a prayer in

the book of Ezra. Now John Wycliffe, as you may know, did

the Wycliffe Translation of the Bible in thirteen eighty two, and he said the

Bible is for the government of the people, by the people, and for

the people. I thought that was interesting. This was the Pilgrims day of

prayer before leaving Leiden. This is out of William Bradford's journal sixteen nineteen and

he writes, so, being ready to depart, they had a day of

solemn humiliation their pastor John Robinson, taking his text from Ezra twenty one,

and it's that same scripture. And there at the river by Ajava, I

proclaimed to fast that we might humble ourselves before God, etc. Etc.

And then it says upon which he spent a good part of the day,

very profitably and suitable to their present occasion. The rest of the time was

spent in pouring out prayers to the Lord with great fervency mixed with abundance of

tears. Now that's before they are heading on to what we now call the

United States of America. I'm out of time. I really wanted to read

this Mayflower Compact Prayer by William Bradford in sixteen twenty diag on it. I

am out of time, but anyway, I hope you found this program helpful

to you, and I pray that you will continue to be a prayer.

So Father, I bless the listeners tonight, and I ask you to stir

their heart's Lord, make them people of prayer, make them people of continual

prayer, and that they would stand strong on your promises according and speak your

word according to Isaiah fifty five eleven in Jesus name. Amen. Well,

this is Don Nobell. You can go to www dot pureheart dot today and

listen to this podcast again. You can download the iHeartRadio app, go to

Pureheart Ministry's podcast and listen and time you prefer. And of course I would

love you to email me. That is all lowercase, all one word da

wun Dawn at pureheart dot today, Dawn at pureheart dot today. And of

course I always appreciate your prayers and desire your prayers. Speaking of prayer,

please pray for me and please pray for this ministry. I appreciate it and

if you do, how about just sending me a quick email. And of

course, if I'd love for you to financially support this ministry, you can

send a check to Pure Heart Ministries, PO Box eighty five, Valley Grove,

West Virginia, two six zh six. Oh. That's Pure Heart Ministries,

Po Box eighty five, Valley Grove, West Virginia, two six h

six. Oh. I certainly look forward to being with you next week,

so I hope you have a great week. This is Don Noble. Shalom

Shallom, peace be unto you.