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“Now 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.”
I John 5:14-15 NKJV
It seems that often the children of God find it difficult or challenging to know what to pray. I want to share with you a process that can make it easy for you to never run out of prayer points.
Here are a few suggested steps:
1). Begin by praising and worshiping the Lord who knows the prayers / petitions He wants you to bring before Him. In the praise and acknowledgement of God, His attention and presence is received. God inhabits the praises of His people - (Psalm 22:3 ).
2). Ask that the Holy Spirit will interpret God’s words into your heart and give you revelations through the WORD (1 Cor. 2:9-12).
3). Open the word of God, your Bible, and begin to read, knowing that His word is His will. When you pray according to His will, He answers (1 John 5:14-15).
4). As you begin to read, the Holy Spirit will now begin to draw lessons and prayer points into your heart. Now, by faith, begin to write down and or pray those points that you are receiving as you read. By so doing, you are praying according to the will and mind of God. Remember that one of the Holy Spirit’s job is to help us to pray (Rom. 8:26-27).
5). It may be best to wait and finish an entire passage before you begin to draw conclusions, but I suggest that if the Lord is giving you some points as you are reading, you may jot them down immediately or pause to pray them, so that they are not lost.
These are the prayers that get God’s attention.
Let us now practice with a scripture which just happens to be the area of the Bible that I got to in my daily bible devotions. It is 1 Kgs 13. These same steps can always be followed regardless of which scripture you are reading. The point here is that you can always come up with your own prayer points without anybody giving them to you. The only person you need is the Holy Spirit.
Let’s now draw out some prayer points from 1 Kgs 13. Listed here are some points that the Lord drew my attention to while my wife and we’re doing our devotion recently. I am sure that as I now do this exercise with you, God will open your mind to more prayer points than these ones that I have come up with.
1). Lord give me the boldness to declare your words as you put them in my mouth. The man of God from Judah was not afraid to prophesy as the Lord sent him (1 Kgs. 13:1-3). Here we learn that only God should be feared when He sends us on errand.
2). Lord give authority to your words in my mouth. The words of the man of God came to pass immediately he spoke to Jeroboam (1 Kgs. 13:5). Here we learn that God can take one to the level where one’s words do not go unfulfilled, so far those words are from God.
3). Any hand that is raised to hinder or shut me up from delivering your message must wither, as the hands of Jeroboam withered (1 Kgs. 13:4). Here we learn that powerful people often reject the word of God, but a god always defends His own.
4). Lord disgrace every power that wants to disgrace me because of your message in my mouth. Jeroboam wanted to publicly disgrace the man of God by arresting him, but the king himself was the one disgraced publicly by his hand being withered (1 Kgs. 13:6). Here we learn that God does not allow His own people to be disgraced.
5). Lord give me control of my tongues, that I do not divulge what you have not sent me to. That man of God did not need to tell the king about the reason for not eating or the route he was intending to take back home (1 Kgs. 13:1-2). Here we learn that one could become one’s own enemy by saying what he or she is not supposed to say in public.
6). Lord, shut all the ears that will hear my weakness and report to a destroyer. The sons of the prophet went to report what the man of God said, and their father deceived the man of God into eating (1 Kgs. 13:7-19). Here we learn that other people could also be the carrier of messages that no one sent them.
7). Every one, prophet or not, who is jealous of God’s calling over my life or has any ulterior motive against my success and wants to see me sin against God, shall be destroyed. The Bible records that the old prophet was lying (1 Kgs. 13:18). Here we learn that there are people who take pleasure in intentionally deceiving people.
8). Lord give me discerning spirit to be able to reject all false prophecies, that I may avoid calamity. Unfortunately, the man of God from Judah could not discern that the elderly Prophet was just deceiving him into eating (1 Kgs. 13:19-25). Here we learn that the gift of discernment is an essential one that you and I cannot do without.
9). Lord, do not allow me to lead your people into false / idol worships or doing what God told them not to do, making them to sin against you. Unfortunately, the old prophet now is concerned about burial rites after leading the younger to sin. What a waste (1 Kgs. 13:26-32). Here we learn that there are people who have hands in one’s calamity, yet they put up meaningless cry when evil besets one.
Now go ahead to practice this, you will then be strong in developing prayer points and praying according to the will of God.
May the Holy Spirit always be present with you in in this endeavor.
