Mentoring Men for the Master

THE SIAMESE TWINS OF MENTORING

THE SIAMESE TWINS OF MENTORING

1 John 5:14-15

Listen Music – Listen Audio – 04/19/14 Specific Prayer

If we seriously examine the 12 “I’s” we see that these 12 are God-given disciplines designed to impart intimacy with Jesus, and they speak to the fundamental needs and responsibilities for every child of God:

  1. Internalizing – The Supremacy of God’s Word
  2. The Necessity for the Infilling of the Holy Spirit,
  3. Precious Intimacy with God daily,
  4. Involvement in the World Mission of Christ -Making Witnessing our life-style,
  5. Interrelating with others – Sharing our lives with others
  6. Investing all our money redemptively
  7. Identification – Serving Jesus in local churches,
  8. Intense devotion to our families, especially one’s spouse,
  9. Intentional Disciplining the temple of the Holy Spirit, our bodies,
  10. Insulating ourselves from every form of sexual immorality,
  11. Informed to discharge our civic responsibilities.
  12. Instant – Confessing and turning (repentance) from all known sin,

However, the foundation of all the 12 “I’s”  is INTERNALIZING THE WORD OF GOD AND INTIMACY WITH OUR HEAVENLY FATHER THROUGH PRAYER.

The Holy Spirit pointed me to two verses of Scriptures which show how Internalizing the Word and Prayer are Siamese Twins.  These verses read, “THIS IS THE CONFIDENCE THAT WE HAVE IN HIM, THAT IF WE ASK ANYTHING ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, HE HEARS US, AND IF WE KNOW THAT HE HEARS US,  WHATEVER WE ASK, WE KNOW THAT WE HAVE THE PETITIONS THAT WE HAVE ASKED OF HIM” (1 John 5:14-15).

What does this verse promise?  Simply this, we are to approach God with SPECIFIC petitions when we pray.  The  word “petition” is from the Greek word, AITEMA, and it describes a specific, exact, explicit, precise request.

Question:  Have you learned the secret of getting SPECIFIC about the things you request of God?  That is,

  • When you pray, are you specific about what you want God to do for you?  Example:  If someone else asked you the same thing you’ve been asking God, would you understand clearly what he was asking you to do?  Can you express in clear and unambiguous terms what you want from God?   Are you so clear on the request you make  that you could write it on a piece of paper and submit it to God as a specific “petition”?

There are many people, even older adults, who have known the Lord for years, but when they pray they pray like a little child – Lord, bless me, my parents, and everybody, and since many Christians have never learned to be specific with God in prayer, they have little or no experience in seeing God move mightily to answer specific requests.

The real question then is, how can we know the will of God?  By knowing God’s Word, and how do we know God’s Word?  By simply internalizing the Word of God, and when we know His Word, we know His will, and when we pray His will, God will answer it, based on His Word.  “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7).

I share this revelation with you simply to encourage you to Internalize the Word all the time.  So when you pray you will know His will and when we know His Word, we know His will and we’ll get our prayers answered.  If we continue to requesting  generalities, our prayers for the most part will go unanswered or we’ll not know if they are answered.

Practical Application:

  1. If you are asking God for finances in time of need, have you internalized a verse you can claim for finances?  (Phil. 4:19).
  2. If you need your broken heart healed, have you internalized a verse to claim this blessing?  (luke 4:18).
  3. If the devil makes you doubt your salvation, can you answer with a specific word from the Bible?  (John 1:12).
  4. If you are asking God to save someone, can you recall a verse to claim his salvation? (Acts 16:15).
  5. If you’ve lost your wife, etc. and feel lonely, can you quote God’s answer?  (Psalm 119:92, 148; Isaiah 41:10,13.

Very Sad Statistic:  Some years past a survey revealed that many persons who once prayed admitted they had quit praying. When asked why? They said because their prayers were not being answered.  Why?  In all probability they have been praying generic prayers.

My Empathetic Recommendation to Every Person in Mentoring Men for the Master, Int’l:

When you make your request to God, you need to understand that God promises to answer your requests if your request is specifically stated and in God’s will according to His Word in the Bible.  So I suggest that you think through what you desire.  Then take a piece of paper and write it down and then submit it as a specific “petition” to God.  As you do this, you will discover most times that you aren’t clear yourself about what you want. So work on making your request specific and clear.

Perhaps you might wonder, “Doesn’t God already know what I need?  Of course, God knows what you need even before we ask.  Yet over and over in the gospels, Jesus asks that we “ask the Father in His Name,” and the Apostle John teaches us that our requests should be specific. Furthermore, the Bible says “You have not because you ask not,” (James 4:2) and it also teaches that you should ask specifically.

Someone has said, “Most of our praying is so general – God’s bless me, my wife, my pastor,  watch over me, help me – that even if God answered we would not know it, and if God asked us what we had in mind, we could not tell him.

Bottom Line:  “ASKING OF GOD, or making our requests known to Him very clearly and specifically, is CRUCIAL to our ability to receive from Him.  When you are specific in your praying, you give God an opportunity to do something specific for you.  Praying like that will give Him great glory, and it will give you a testimony that will change your life.” (Rick Renner, letter to MMM, April 14, 2014).