Those who have known GRDC know that the work that God has done has been through lots and lots of prayer. We pray with people every time we deliver a bed or a box of food or when we have encounters weekly in our other impacts with GRDC. And it is no accident that God has been teaching GRDC to be a movement
built on massive amounts of prayer. We have recently discovered that in every great revival movement where God is breaking out amdand disciples are made, there are challenging, BIG levels of prayer inside of these movements. In movements around the world, the average believer prays 2 hours/day (devotional life: includes Bible reading, etc.) and it’s common for their churches to have weekly or monthly all night prayer meetings (see Miraculous Movements by Jerry Trousdale for more info).
What does EXTRAORDINARY PRAYER look like? It is a prayer often times where the point of heaven meets earth where we seek God with desperation for what He needs to do that…(Break in our newsletter)
……we can’t do in our limited humanity. It is a level of sacrificial prayer where we just take time out of our schedule and we devote it to God. This is in seeking Him, interceding for the things of God to happen, praying over needs, people and things where know there needs to be big, little or extreme breakthroughs. This is a space that is also commonly associated with fasting. Fasting is sacrificing by going without food in seeking God such as giving up a meal or meals or a whole day of food. We seek God for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done! The levels of prayer are easily seen in this passage with the Lord’s Prayer. But I will publish this in the upcoming quarterly newsletter in October.
““When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. “And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.”
Matthew 6:5-18 NLT
1) Verse 5-6: Prayer is inmate with God and done for the right reasons. Most of my prayer life is done in secret with me spending time with my Dad, who is God the Father. This isn’t saying public prayers and group prayers are wrong, it is only wrong when someone is seeking to pray to get attention in these settings. Rather than coming and pressing into prayer with the group to move heaven to earth for the Kingdom and not so you can be seen as a special prayer person.
2) Verse 7-8: Prayer is not an empty religious babel to manipulate God into getting what we want through many vain repetitions.
3) Verse 9: We approach God the Father with love & honor for who He is as children of God! We use the intimate term of “Father” as we can rest in the unconditional love of our Daddy God as children. Many people don’t know or understand the wholeness and healing found as a child in the safe & full love of our loving Father God. Instead the sin and lack of life has run us over or already separated us in so many relationships and with Him that we are orphans in our spirit and come guarded in our relationships and with Him. Come to Father God and experience His full love and let your guard down. He receives you completely as you are even with your sin problems and all in the forgiveness and love of Christ!!
4) Verse 10: Intercession & Kingdom – We seek first the Kingdom of God above any agenda we have and we fully seek God’s will to be done on earth in our lives! May we be like John the Baptist when he said that, “he must decrease, so Christ can increase.” Intercession prayer is where we devote ourselves to sacrificial prayer for God’s Kingdom and will to be done in our lives and lives of others. As intercessors, we become the “go-between” ushering in heaven unto earth!
5) Verse 11: Petition Prayer – Give us the food we need for the day. As Christ taught us above, when we have our priorities right with Father God, His Kingdom, and His will, it is ok and he invites for us to seek Him for our needs and the needs of others! So it’s time to ask!
6) Verse 12,14-15: Forgiveness – God forgive us and we must forgive others! God can’t move or expand in our lives if we aren’t humble enough to repent and be honest about sin in our lives and seek his forgiveness for that. So while we are thankful for the forgiveness he gave us, we must forgive others or we risk being sucked back into sin and a life of darkness because of bitterness and offense. There is no place for any unforgiveness, bitterness or offense in the Kingdom of God!
7) Verse 13: Temptation & Devil – Let us be humble and keep our guard up against temptations. The reality is that there is a war going on every day between good and evil concerning the devil wanting to destroy the people of God. We need a daily relationship with God to overcome the devil, sin and temptation. If we go days without God, we can easily be disconnected from the power source who is God that gives the power to overcome. Let me repeat, WE NEED HIM EVERYDAY!!
8) Verse 16-18: Fasting. This is personal sacrifice between God and people and not to put on a show to look like a super Christian for our sacrifice.
In light of the different levels of prayer, I often find people overwhelmed with the question of “HOW CAN I DEVOTE AND PRAY LIKE THIS AND DO IT FOR MINUTES OR HOURS FOR THIS KIND OF REVIVAL?”
I am so glad you asked. Let me pass some quick points to grow as a person of EXTRAORDINARY PRAYER:
A) Pray your way and obey: I used to think I had to lock myself into a room just standing still speaking as many thoughtful words about situations in my prayers and do that for hours. First of all, I never made it to hours or even close. But I had to learn to know myself. I am personally a person who loves to move and exercise. I learned that through things like long walks, running, and/or biking has been a huge way I am able to meditate, think, pray, worship, listen to my Bible or audiobook/podcast in seeking the Lord. I believe God wants you to find your own way to enter into his presence that works for you. Don’t get religious about it. You will find quickly that your time with God will expand rapidly!
B) Pray in the Spirit(Holy Ghost):
“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.”
Ephesians 6:18 NLT
Paul talks in Romans 8 about how the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness when we don’t know what to pray for. And Paul says the spirit will make intercession through us with groaning to pray God’s own will because the mind of the spirit know comes from the Father who knows all hearts!! I learned to pray in the spirit when I was baptized in the spirit as noted that happened to the believers in the book of Acts. Actually truth be known, I would say 70-80% of my prayer time is devoted to praying in the spirit because in my natural mind, I run out of prayers in my limited human thinking like Paul says in 1 Cor 14.
C) Fasting: The best advice I can give to encourage believers to enter into a lifestyle of fasting is through “intermittent fasting”. So many new people who fast think they have to immediately do a full 1-3 days fast with no food and only water and they don’t make it. Then they feel defeated by that. Intermittent fasting is choosing to fast maybe 1-3 meals during a 24-hour period or multiple times per week. You also can fast something specific like sugar or treats or fast food or caffeine or whatever. You don’t have to go straight away to full fasting of food with only water. The point is to find a level to start and get to sacrificing believing God big in the Lord’s Prayer process for heaven to invade earth!!!
