Pray Network Forum

PRAYER (426)

Jesus' Praying Life

Posted by Jennifer Kennedy Dean on August 4, 2010 at 14:52

The first breakthrough understanding about prayer is that there is no recipe to follow, no “ten easy steps” to power in prayer. Power praying does not require that you master a skill, but that you pursue a present-tense relationship with the living and indwelling Jesus.

Prayer marked Jesus’ life. Long, extended times of prayer. Spontaneous eruptions of prayer. Prayer in public, and with His disciples. Certainly Jesus, who only did and spoke what the Father showed Him, did not use prayer to argue, or beg, or try to change God’s mind. Then why did Jesus pray? Why was prayer such a hallmark of His life that His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray like He prayed? If He wasn’t giving God instructions, what was He doing when He rose up early to pray or spent all night in prayer?

I think we might get a hint from His time in Gethsemane, where some of His words are recorded and so we get a glimpse into the tenor of His interchange with the Father. We see Him synchronizing His heart with the Father’s heart.

I think it works like this: I have many mobile electronic devices that I use to accomplish my daily tasks, or to entertain myself, or to stay in touch with others. I do most of my work on my main desktop computer, but then I need to transfer the work I’ve done, or the information I’ve added, or the files I’ve edited from my main computer to my mobile devices. How do I accomplish that? How do I get what is on the hard drive of my computer downloaded onto my mobile devices? I link the mobile device to the computer and a program is activated that automatically syncs my mobile device to my computer. What is on my computer is reproduced on my mobile device.

In His all-night prayer in Gethsemane, we see Jesus linking His heart to the Father’s. Let me summarize the content of His recorded prayer in some new words. “Father, download Your will into my heart so that it overwrites any other desire. Download courageous faith that deletes fear. Synchronize My heart’s desire to Yours.”

What came from that heart-to-heart transaction? Observe the Jesus who emerges from His hours of agony. Courageous, forceful, marching out to meet His enemy rather than waiting to be taken. Handing Himself over to the purposes of the Father without reservation.

“The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” (Mark 14:41–42).

From Live a Praying Life, Anniversary Edition.

Read more…

Prayer - Care - Share Audio Clips Focus a Prayer Session or Segment

Posted by Reimagine Curator on July 1, 2010 at 14:47

The Lighthouse Report



 JULY CD Track Listing ZIP FILE - 1 MIN zip ZIP FILE - 2 MIN * JULY'S PROMOS

StephanieNewton06-29 * MP3 1-MIN 2-MIN *
DEALING WITH DEPRESSION/ Stephanie Newton
It’s hard to describe depression, isn’t it. Maybe you can relate. RandySchoofToday on the Lighthouse Report, Stephanie Newton (left) conveys her experience.

06-30 * MP3 1-MIN 2-MIN *
CREATIVE CHANGE/ Randy Schoof
Plan community-wide events. It’s a great way to build relationships! Pastor Randy Schoof (right) gives a unique example on today’s Lighthouse Report.




More>>>










Read more…

A Team Effort

Posted by Jennifer Weed on April 2, 2010 at 12:21
Kevin's comment to my last post touched on a point that I meant to include. This has to be a team effort of all the intercessors who are called to support the pastor in prayer. It cannot and should not be just about the team leader (I actually prefer the term point person) praying for the pastor. Our team is an invaluable asset to me, as well. I know that the requests I present to them on Kevin's behalf are faithfully lifted before the Lord on a regular basis.

Because we are a team connected primarily through email, it was sometimes easy to feel like I was the only one praying for the requests, after all, the lie of isolation is one of the key lies the enemy uses to discourage intercessors. Kevin is the one who suggested that they start hitting the "reply" button to the emails once they had received and prayed through the requests, and that has been such an encouragement to me - to know that my fellow prayer warriors are standing in the gap with me for Kevin and his family and ministries.

God has really knit my heart to this team. I am hoping to work out a way for us to meet in person to pray for this ministry on a regular basis - hopefully once a month or every other month. I love knowing we're praying in our prayer closets "together", but it would be such a joy to be able to pray together face to face, for God's glory.
Read more…

More on Pastoral Prayer Support Teams

Posted by Jennifer Weed on April 1, 2010 at 23:45
One of the things I shared in my last post was about how the success of the prayer support team depended on a relationship between the pastor and the point person, or leader, of the prayer team. I feel the need to elaborate on that a bit. I'm going to share my personal experience, not because it's necessarily the right or best way, but because it's the way God showed me, and I hope something in it helps or encourages you if you are an intercessor trying to start a prayer support team, or if you are a pastor wanting this for your ministry.

First, the relationship does not nor cannot happen spontaneously, nor does the leader have to already be friends with the pastor. Like any relationship, it takes time to build. When I took on the role of team leader for our worship pastor, we were acquaintances at best. When we first started, getting prayer requests from him was rather difficult. I had to try and catch him before or after worship rehearsal, or try to get him to email me his requests (that didn't work at all). The time was always rushed and in the middle of everyone either getting ready for, or leaving from rehearsal, which made it hectic. The requests were mostly about the ministry, and it just felt...awkward. (Kevin, if you read this, sorry about that.)

However, I knew that this was something God had called me to do, and I prayed and sought ways to make this a better experience for both of us. Over the course of time, God led us to the method that works for both of us, but more importantly, God has knit our hearts together in friendship. It has made it easier for both of us, because I can ask him things that help prompt him to think of the things he needs prayer for, and it helps him to know he can trust me with the ministry AND family/personal requests, whether it's how to word a request the "right way" or whether it's to keep a specific request unspoken for a time.

Even though the prayer support works best in the context of a relationship, it is crucial that that relationship is clearly defined and boundaries are put in place. The relationship is not just a friendship, because the boundaries of a friendship can too easily get blurry. It is that of a brother and sister in Christ, if we are talking about the male pastor and female prayer team leader, which is my frame of reference. A vital component is accountability. My husband is aware of every time I meet with the worship pastor, and is fully supportive of my ministry for him and his family and ministries, and I do my best to stay lined up under my husband's righteous authority. Even though Kevin and I meet in his office now, the door is always open. I have a couple of prayer partners that I stay accountable to in regard to my thought life, my walk with God, and how my husband and I are doing. I cannot speak specifically to how Kevin stays accountable, but I do know that our pastoral staff is all about accountability, and so there is a system in place for that.

The relationship cannot be an exclusive one, even though it is a unique relationship. It has to include bothspouses. My goal from the beginning was to build a relationship with Kevin and his family, and for our team's intercession to minister to the entire family. Like I said in my last post, if at any point it becomes a burden to the pastor or his wife/family, then something is not working. It's a bit of a challenge simply because our 2 families don't move in the same circles because their youngest child is several years older than our oldest child. So meeting outside of church activities is important, I think. We have their family in our home for dinner from time to time to continue building on that relationship between our families.

I hope that helps any of you reading this. Being a part of this prayer team for our worship pastor is one of my favorite ministries that God has let me be a part of. It is such an honor to stand in the gap for him and his family, and it has been a delight to see the hand of God move on their behalf in relation to the prayers He prompts us to pray.
Read more…

Prayer prompts

Posted by Joan Hershberger on April 12, 2010 at 8:11
Several years ago when God began calling me to increase my prayers, I struggled to know how or what to pray. I have found the prayer prompts definitely help. I wanted to go beyond just "bless me and giveme"

Having come from a non-liturgical church background, we scorned the use of prayer books and written prayers. Not spontaneous. It ounded weird use prayer prompts,

But I found that I never had the same feelings about from conversation prompts I found in books or with the cards from the old game UNO. In fact I used them a great deal to stimulate family conversations and to move onto deeper subjects. The prompts give me questions to ask and discuss. I am pleasantly surprised at the insights I receive from those conversations.

With the increased call to pray, I wanted to have prayer books. I sought them out. I even bought one on ebay,just to have a prayer books. As I read through some of the prayers I was impressed with how much they reflected and incorporated scripture.

As the pastor talked, I noted when he mentioned patterns of prayer and through PRAY! magazine I discovered prayer cards that Ialso use to direct my prayers on specific issues.

I do not use the lists like a robot or a prayer wheel. I use them because there is no need tore-invent the wheel. The patterns, thoughts and examples exist and abound. Christ Himself gave us the Lord's Prayer, and I have discovered and enjoyed the thoughts of others on how they use that prayer as a pattern to one's prayer time.

Recently I S-L-O-W-L-Y read the Psalms and realized, oh ... is that how one praisesGod! I actually found myself writing out some praises of my own echoingthe Psalms. Praise that simply flowed.Astounding. Me flowing with praise in words. Yes, I always appreciated and wondered at God's abundance, but not that way.

I have always wondered HOW Daniel could pray three times a day. But as I write this I realize, with God's blessings, Daniel had plenty for which to praise God, and of course as a leader, plenty of topics on which to seek His wisdom. Now I guess need to sit down and study whatever in recorded of Daniel's prayers to gain insight into the patterns and prompts his prayers provide.

God does not leave us without resources or the means to do what He commands, I just need to look around and see what He had provided.
Read more…