Mentoring Men for the Master

UNLEASHING THE AWESOME POWER OF PRAYER

 “God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think”( Jer. 33:3; Ephesians 3:20) but He unleashes that power through our prayers.  No prayer, no power, little prayer, little power, much prayer, much power.

If we would unleash the power of prayer, we must do 7 things:

  1. We must PLAN to pray. – When it comes to prayer, if we fail to plan, we plan to fail
  2. We must PRACTICE PRAYING as a lifestyle.  How do we learn to pray?  The same way we learn to play the piano, work the computer, Internalize the Word of God, or public speaking.  We must pray when we feel like it, do not feel like it, until we do feel like it.  Prayer should be in our spiritual DNA as eating, sleeping, taking a shower is in our physical DNA.
    1. The most precious right the believer has is prayer, for through prayer we can enter the “throne room” of heaven and talk to the King of King’s and Lord of Lords. Illus:  In my life I have been invited to meet with 5 Presidents: Ronald Reagan, Herbert W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter.  When I moved  to Wilmington, someone informed the Star News that I had met with the presidents, and they ran my picture and a write-up, the caption of which read, “Pastor Meets With President.”  This was big news in the eyes of the world, but these meetings, compared to meeting with the Lord Himself, didn’t amount to a hill of beans.
    2. The most powerful act of a believer is prayer – James 5:16. Every Christian victory is a prayer victory, every Christian failure is a prayer failure.
  3. We must PRIZE the Precious Privilege of Prayer:
    1. Plan a definite time each day,
    2. Plan a definite place
    3. Plan a routine.
  4. (We must PROTECT our time to pray. How?  Make an “Advance Decision” to pray, and do not permit circumstances to steal that time.  Make it known to your spouse, children, kinfolk that your time to pray is HOLY and must not be violated.
  5. We must PRIOTIZE Prayer  A powerful prayer life will not just happen.  Unless it is put first in our lives, it won’t even take place most of the time.  Other duties or circumstances will keep you from praying.  So if you do nothing else any day you live, be sure you pray.  If you start with prayer, you will have a good day; if you fail to pray, you are on your own.  Alas, how sad (Luke 18:3; Ephes. 6:18).
  6. We must Persist in order to PREVAIL in prayer. (Matthew 7:7; Ephesians 6:18; 1 Thess. 5:17)  Keep on praying.   This means we must be determined never to quit praying, realizing that if we would prevail we must persist even if we see no answers.  In the event God does not answer,  don’t quit praying.  Illus:  Suppose you come to your home and the lights do not burn.  Do you decide to sit in the dark the rest of your life?  No.  You find out what is blocking the flow of electricity.  In the same way, find out why your prayers are not answered.  There are three main reasons: 
    1. You have an unprepared heart – unconfessed sin – Isaiah 59:1; Psalm 66:18.
    2. Unanswerable prayer, that is you have asked God for things He cannot and will not answer.  Example:  Little girl heard praying, “O Lord make Boston the capital of Vermont.”  Her mother heard her and asked why she would pray such a prayer.  She replied, “Because I put it that way on my test today.
    3. Untimely Prayer  God often delays answering for our good.  Isaiah 30:18, “The Lord waits that He might be gracious unto you.”

Abraham rushed God and cursed the world

Joseph did not rush God and blessed the world.

  1. Our Prayers must PROMOTE the will of Jesus and His Kingdom.  (Matth  6:9-13).