Prayer Cards - Pray In The Spirit

Ephesians 6:18

 Pray in The Spirit at all times, 

with every kind of prayer and petition.

To this end, stay alert

with all perseverance in your prayers

for all the saints.

Jude 1:20-21

But you, beloved, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in The Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God as you await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life. 

Romans 8:26

Likewise The Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but The Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 

Galatians 4:4-7

But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God sent The Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir through God.

    To pray "in The Spirit" is to have the right desires within us, which can only be put there by The Spirit. It is to pray first for one's self, that the strength of The Lord would be given us to overcome what we are battling. Second, it is to pray--intercede, stand in the gap--for other Christians who are fighting their battles, that they would stand strong against the wiles--the sneakiness--of the enemy, maintain their witness, sharpen their testimony and in so doing overcome the enemy which they are fighting against. 

    Yes, the battle does indeed belong to The Lord, but we must be fully equipped nonetheless that we might disengage ourselves from worldly principles and embrace the spiritual foundation--Jesus Christ--upon which we have built our life. This passage in Ephesians 6:10-18 discusses the armor which the Christian, the born-again believer, must always have on. And praying in The Spirit is part of that armor. 

    It must be used not only daily, but wielded in the right way. When we pray for ourselves, it is that we pray for strength to endure, wisdom to persevere, knowledge and understanding to retain The Word within us. We pray for The Spirit of Excellence (Daniel 6:3) to fill us daily, as life is lived day by day and not all at once. Sometimes we just won't know how to pray for ourselves: it is then that The Spirit of God intervenes for us and speaks to God Himself. 

    When we pray for other Christians, we pray as The Spirit leads us. Sometimes He wakes us up to pray for each other because of some tumultuous battle the other is going through. So, we get up and pray. And when the battle's over, we usually fall back asleep. Sometimes, we pray for each other at the altar, where worship takes place and The Spirit moves freely among God's people, touching first one, then another, to go and pray for this man or that woman, this daughter or that son. 

    Random strangers will cross our paths: sometimes a child of God, most of the time someone seeking God: The Spirit will lead us to pray with that person, if they are so inclined. Some will even ask for prayer. Always be ready to pray. 

    Sometimes the call for urgent prayer lasts all night long, as in Daniel 2:17-23, when the need for both dream and interpretation needed to come from God.  Another excellent example is found in John 17. Jesus praying in the night first, for Himself; then, for His disciples and third, for us who would believe what His disciples had to say concerning Himself. 

   Arm yourselves. The battle is coming and has even now commenced for many. Pray for yourselves. Pray for other Christians. Pray 

*for your families (even the generations to come) 

*for the strangers among you

*for your enemies: for the people who don't like you, who hate you and swear at you, who curse you, who make fun of you for being a Christian, 

 to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He is God's only begotten Son. Pray that they, too, would know the joy of The Lord and be filled with His Holy Spirit.  Pray that they would be ready. 

BY YOUR SPIRIT 

MY GOSPEL

    

Prayer Cards - Steadfast, Watchful Prayer

 

Colossians 4:2

Continue steadfastly in prayer, 

being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 

    We need to pay attention to what is happening around us, especially when we are praying. We cannot pretend to ignore the changes in our world and expect God to move on our behalf or someone else's. How can we pray effectively for those in authority over us, if we do not love them with the love of Christ in us first? We cannot. 

    Can we pray for each other even if we're not sure we like each other? Yes. Because God will change the heart of the one praying before He begins to change the one being prayed for. Our hearts have to be right with God; filled with His Son, His Spirit and His Amazing Love. We are all made in God's image and we need to remember that God loves all of us and died for all of us. Therefore, each of us is precious to Him. Let us remember that when we pray. 

    We must choose wisely which music we put on to worship to as we enter God's courtyard. Not every "worship" video or playlist is Christ-centric. When we listen to The Spirit of God, we learn to discern what is proper and what is not. There's a lot of fakes out there. 

    Have we set up our walls and gates for a proper sanctuary to meet God in? Some folks have a personal space to pray in, like the prayer closet. For some the closet is wherever they are sitting or laying, yet the walls and gates must still be in place that no outside interference can intrude on our times alone with our God. 

    Steadfast prayer is continuous prayer. It is to be in constant communication with our heavenly Father. And, yes, we can call God our Father because as His adopted children, He is, indeed, our Father. (Galatians 4:6)

Ephesians 6:18 "Pray in The Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints." 

    Soon and very soon, our heavenly Father will send His only begotten Son to come and collect His bride and bring her to heaven. But God's people need to be ready for that day to come. Stop playing church and start being the church. Be the people of God in Truth, not just pretension. Christians, the born again through faith in Christ Jesus as Lord, are the church. 

    Your heritage does not make you a Christian. Your denomination does not make you a Christian. Your vain and empty traditions do not make you a Christian. What makes us Christians is our obedience to God's Word. It is how closely we follow Christ that determines whether or not we are Christians; whether or not we are His beloved church. Remember, Judas followed Jesus, too, but not very closely and not all the way. 

    Matthew 24:42 "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day on which your Lord will come."

    O Lord, make us ready to receive You. Make us ready for your return. Make us perfect according to Your Word. Make us holy and get us ready to be in Your eternal presence. Continue to have Your Way in us, in the deepest reaches of our hearts, that we may be more than ever intertwined in each other and in You. You weave us into Your heart and we are made stronger each day that goes by. 

    You are our Strength, our Peace, our Healer. You are our God, our Father, our Maker. You are Mercy, Grace, Joy and Love. Such Love we cannot even begin to comprehend, but which we are so very grateful and thankful for. 

    We lift up our voices together in Your praise, bringing You glory and honor with our hearts and our tongues. Be glorified, O Lord our God and our Savior. 

In Jesus' Precious Name,

Amen. 

    Luke 21:36 "So keep watch at all times, and pray that you may have the strength to escape all that is about to happen and to stand before The Son of Man.”

Book of Ephesians in Folk

 

Prayer Cards - Prayer Closet

 

Prayer is not a public spectacle. 

Nor do we need flowery phrases

 and loud speaking voices. 
God is not deaf: He can hear our hearts speaking

 even when our tongues cannot carry words. 

God knows what we are thinking, that's why our thoughts 

need to focus on Him and His ways. 

Psalm 94:11 "..The Lord knows the thoughts of man.."

Philippians 4:8 "...think on these things.."

Jeremiah 17:10 "I, The LORD, search the heart;

 I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, 

by what his deeds deserve."

Our hearts, our thoughts and our actions need to line up 

alongside God's Word, with God's Spirit

leading us and guiding our steps, 

whether in our minds (the unseen actions),

or in our hearts (the emotional actions),

or in our daily actions/activities (the seen actions). 

Luke 11:1-4 is an example of how to pray.

  First to acknowledge Him, that He is Holy; 

that His kingdom - His Way of Life and Living -

and His Will is more important than ours. 

We pray for daily bread. Not just that food 

would be on our tables and in our bellies, 

but that The Bread of Life would be ours daily.

Which means we need to be ready to receive

what God is going to give us in His Word. 

We pray for forgiveness of our sins,

and ask God to forgive the people who have sinned against us.

We pray for the power to overcome temptation, 

that we might be delivered from evil:

evil thoughts, evil actions. 

We need the power of God's Holy Spirit 

residing in us, transforming desires of the flesh

into desires of The Spirit. A hunger for holiness

should be rising up within us. A desire 

to live a righteous and holy life/lifestyle

in accordance with God's Holy Word. 

    Only then can we begin to pray in earnest, 

in our prayer closets, for the things which lay heaviest on our hearts:

 the salvation of those who still do not know Jesus Christ 

as their personal Lord and Savior. 
We pray for healing on those who suffer.

We pray for strength of mind, body and spirit 

for those who wander; who are distressed and discouraged;

for those who are mentally unsound or drained. 

We pray for workers to be added to God's Kingdom:

planters, waterers, and reapers

of God's Word. 

We pray for whatever The Holy Spirit has laid on our hearts to pray for. 

We pray for you who read this.

And we close out our prayers in The Name of Jesus, 

because The Word of God tells us:

John 14:13 

"And whatever you ask in My Name, 

that I will do, that The Father may be glorified in The Son."

AMEN