DRAWING CIRCLES--- AUDACIOUS PRAYER

“Prayer is so powerful. Prayer is simply talking to God. Open up your heart. His love never fails and NEVER gives up. He will keep all of His promises for hope and a future.” Mickayla Josephine <3

I love it! Mickayla’s words are simple but so true! (And based on 1 Cor. 13, Hebrews 6:12, & Jeremiah 29:11)—This girl has the WORD in her heart- <3 Thanks for the encouragement and inspiration Mickayla!

Prayer is as simple as just talking to God. Opening up from our heart, and even deeper our soul…

Pastor Becky (ECC) said yesterday at Bible study, “Pray from your soul, not from your head”

She gave a great example of a simple grace prayer before a meal.

Head prayer: “ Dear God, please bless our food and the people who made it, amen”

VS.

SOUL Prayer: “Precious Heavenly Father, Thank you so much for who you are, Lord please bless the time we have with these people as we share a meal together, Lord bless this food and the hands who prepared it, and be glorified in our conversation and in this home always, In Jesus Name, Amen”

It’s not necessarily that one is right and one is wrong.

This is an exhortation to expand your prayer life. How many times have you just “Talked at God” ?

You see, prayer IS as simple as talking to God… But it is also much more complex.

Prayer is the most intimate contact we have with THE LIVING GOD of the Universe! … Prayer is quite amazing if you fully understand and grasp it’s power.

In the Old Testament (before Jesus came to bridge the gap) – the people couldn’t talk with God (notice I said WITH)… Oh I’m sure God could probably hear them- He’s God… but the prophets were the only ones who could hear from God… After Jesus came- He became to us, a DIRECT LINE TO THE HOLIES…. I mean- someone who will be tortured, beaten, bruised, broken, bleeding, and then die for you- That’s pretty intense! … And it comes with some equally INTENSE PRIVELAGES!

Including PRAYER…

{Prayer is our DIRECT COMMUNICATION to God…}

I want you to understand it’s vitality.

Imagine a marriage. At first, the husband and wife are crazy for each other, they can’t stop calling and texting each other during the work day, If they are apart they are talking to each other all night, falling asleep on the phone together, and they CANT HARDLY WAIT to just WAKE UP IN THE MORNING and get to talk again! They may lay awake at night or in the morning thinking of how LUCKY they are to have this special ‘perfect’ person in their lives. How could they be so blessed?

They think of all of the adventures they will go on. They can’t wait to be told how WONDERFUL the other person thinks they are and to tell them, themselves! …

After a while, it begins to fade. Soon they come and go without speaking to each other much. Just maybe a goodbye in the morning, a hello in the evening, and maybe a phone call through the day to complain about something the other didn’t do. . . They’ve become complacent. Lazy. Disinterested. And they probably blame the other person for not fulfilling everything they once did. When really they should be asking themselves when they gave up. Marriage is something worth fighting for.

And this is equally true for prayer. You see God didn’t send His only Son to DIE for you- so you could simply “go to heaven”. God intended for us to be in constant FELLOWSHIP, or RELATIONSHIP from the beginning! It’s what He created us for! To be in a constant MUTUAL, BACK AND FORTH (not just forth)… relationship WITH HIM!

You are missing the intimacy and the WONDERFUL POWER of prayer if you are simply “talking at God” … He IS speaking BACK! He IS answering! … The question is are you listening?

{**God doesn’t answer vague prayers**}

(if its vague how can you be sure He’s answered it or not?)

My prayer life has grown over time. Everybody’s evolves and grows, probably for their entire life.

Somehow, either we aren’t taught fully about prayer, or we have a skewed view from an experience or from someone else’s opinion.

{Oftentimes we think these things:}

-         Prayer is a one way street- If I’m lucky- God will hear me – and He might answer or not

-         God is too busy to hear me

-         My prayer isn’t as important as that person’s prayer

-         God doesn’t care about the little things like helping me get good grades, helping me find a job, or getting that awesome parking spot that I want.

-         I haven’t prayed long enough

-         I don’t pray “good” enough

-         God didn’t answer my last prayer- so He doesn’t care about me

-         God doesn’t answer prayers

-         I have to be good before I can ask God for anything

It could go on and on. But I must tell you that every single one of those thoughts is a LIE… It’s a FLAT OUT LIE… if you have thought any of them- CLAIM IT DEAD- AND A LIE IN JESUS NAME…

If you look in God’s WORD that’s NOT who He is! That’s NEVER what He says!

If these are some of the thoughts you have had, I pray you would get a NEW REVELATION of the LOVE that God has for you… Until you begin to understand His LOVE for you, you may never understand WHY prayer and HOW prayer can be so intimate or why you’d even want to have that relationship with God…

Jesus died for you. So that you could have LIFE AND LIFE ABUNDANTLY (John 10:10)

I can attest in my own life, that God DOES care about the little things JUST AS MUCH as the big things!

The Lord has challenged me this past year to really stretch my faith.

This may sound silly to you, but I have and DO ask God to provide for me things like, a cup of coffee.

When I ask I believe that I receive (1 John 5:14-15)  And what happened this week when I asked for coffee?

Not only (just yesterday) Did I receive a gift card from a friend equal for 2 specialty coffee’s- but I also then was taken out for coffee by another friend who insisted on paying!

God is good. And He DOES care about the seemingly “small” things.

Matthew 7:11 “ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good things to them that ask him?”

{My challenge is this:}

Pray AUDACIOUS prayers. This requires God’s divine intervention & allows Him most glory!

When I say pray AUDACIOUS- I mean to pray SPECIFICALLY… It takes WAY more COURAGE to pray specifically than it does to pray vaguely. If I pray for a cup of coffee- and I get a cup of coffee- I KNOW it’s GOD who gave it to me! (x 3 by the way! God ALWAYS multiplies! And goes ABOVE AND BEYOND what I can ask think or imagine!)  (Ephesians 3:20)

If I pray for healing from cancer I must follow what the Book of James says:

“But let him ask in FAITH, NOTHING WAVERING. For he that (continues to) waver is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed (all around). Don’t let that man think that he will receive ANYTHING of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:6-8)

** {WOAH… James didn’t mess around! I love it! Embrace it! And if you are worried about your faith read my blog about “The Mustard Seed”- Its all about faith! And I pray it will increase yours! } **

{SEEK GOD MORE THAN YOU SEEK HIS ANSWERS}

Another place we can fall short is we tend to seek God’s ANSWERS MORE than we seek GOD HIMSELF…

It’s a part of us being a fallen people. To be selfish. But again, if we are missing this, We must re-evaluate our understanding of our relationship with our Creator. It’s easy to get caught up in just wanting to see the result, wanting our prayer answered WHEN and HOW we want. And we can be very “need driven” … When we are faced with a hardship we turn to God to FIX IT… NOW! (please)…  This can be our attitude. . .

When our heart should be to seek to KNOW HIM MORE. He WANTS to be sought. God tells us to “Draw close to me and I will draw close to you”… (James 4:8)

God doesn’t FORCE His perfect love upon us. He wants to know that we care, and we WANT to know Him… He gives us a choice… and to take that step forward toward Him is the best decision you can ever make.

{THE LEGEND OF HONI}

All of my thoughts on prayer have been inspired by God and His Word and through others. Initially it was when I heard Pastor Becky talk about the book “The Circle Maker”.

I haven’t read the book yet, but I’m going to. So I will tell a very brief summary of what I’ve heard.

The legend of the circle maker came from old Rabbi stories. Honi lived the generation before Jesus came. The last of the prophets died 4 generations earlier. So no one was hearing from God at this time and there was a massive drought. . . Honi had determination to SEE GOD MOVE--- He KNEW God could still hear him--- so he became bold.

He took his 6 foot staff and drew a circle in the dirt completely around himself. He dropped to his knees and prayed by the power of the prophet Elijah and told God that he would NOT MOVE until it rained. He didn’t ask wavering. He asked with AUTHORITY not a HINT of doubt… this prayer didn’t originate from the vocal chords. It came from the soul. He asked God for rain and it began to drizzle. Honi told God he was not satisfied and asked for more rain. It began to pour. He then explained he wanted a calm rain, at which point the rain became normal.

Some may look at Honi (and did) as disrespectful to God. How could you DARE demand of God? But this is called, in the Greek, “aiteo” kind of prayer. To ask or demand… to dwell, continue and remain in constant union with …

Honi’s example should be an inspiration. Especially because we TOO have a special relationship with God because of what Jesus did. Now it is more accessible!

We must pray: Specifically, with Authority, and with Expectancy that God will answer!

Remember that God is God. And He will give you the answer that is the BEST for your life. It may not manifest how you think it should look. But do not doubt God…. He will answer.