Do Your Part

God has amazing things in store for you! Scripture says that the plans and thoughts He has for you are beyond anything you can think, ask or imagine! But maybe you find yourself in a place where you are asking, “God, where are you? I do not see you in my current situation. I am believing for a miracle but I am not seeing any movement. I am discouraged and becoming hopeless.” As the epileptic boy’s father said to Jesus in Mark 9, “I believe. Help my unbelief.” We must do our part. If we engage, as we worship, the atmosphere will shift. We have a certain amount of faith but we can increase our faith. We can break the barrier that separates us or holds us back from our victory. Have you been hurt? Maybe you have had a bad experience at church even. Is this holding you back from what God has for you? You can't hold someone in contempt because that person was foolish. Get to church. Enter into worship. Break through that barrier. Take hold of expectations. Expectation is the breeding ground for miracles.

As a baseball player focuses and pays attention to be able to run bases and get to home plate for a score, we need to focus. We don't need to be told how to run the bases. We just need to do it. Just run! But, as many of us have discovered, the need for miracles happens most between third base and home base. When we are closest to the score, closest to breakthrough, the enemy works harder against us, Weariness sets in. We begin to have anxiety about finishing. We may think God has forgotten us or that this victory wasn’t for us. We might begin to believe we were hoping for something that was not ours to have. Focus! Believe! Be intentional. Take time with God. Worship Him. Ask for Holy Spirit to open up Scripture to you so that you receive new levels of understanding. Then watch as God works on your behalf. Are you believing? Losing hope will keep you from running that last 90 feet between 3rd and home. Get with God and He will renew your hope. We add more faith to our existing faith through worship, learning the Word and prayer. Ask God to show you scripture that reveals His promises for you. Then speak these words, declare them, until your belief increases and you have added that extra pound of faith. Cut out those things that work against faith. Are you being critical? Are you complaining and confessing things that work against your victory? This is pollution and if we allow pollution, our faith gets diluted.

Jesus tells us to come to Him, we who are burdened, and He will give us rest. When we put our faith in Him, when we come to Him, faith will activate. God is cheering us on. Don't stop now. God is always talking to you. Are you listening? Are you looking to hear from Him more? The more you fill up with God's Word, the hungrier you will get. Faith is a muscle and for it to grow you have to stretch it and work it. Learn how to read and declare scripture so it pours out of you and affects those around you. Check out the story of Paul & Silas in Acts 16. They were praising God at midnight, in prison, in chains and their praise changed the atmosphere and broke the chains. Declare God and His Word in the middle of a storm and watch the circumstances shift. Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God. Declaring victory coupled with knowledge of scripture will shift the atmosphere.

Listen for your direction from God through His Word and in your prayer time, then keep following the instruction He gives until He tells you a new direction. Just like the player on third base, stay the course and don't quit. Sometimes we let our guard down. We allow sin to enter in. But this pollutes and dilutes our faith. If you find yourself in that place, clear out that pollution. Confess your sin and He is faithful to forgive you your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Then embrace what He is saying and be diligent to declare it. This will add to your faith. Remember to be intentional with believing for your miracle, be clear and concise about your expectations based on Scripture, and be patient during the process. God sees you on third base so don't quit now. Help others find their miracle to open your heart for your miracle. This is trust and surrender in action. Develop a hunger for God's word and get a passion for His presence. Take those scriptures that resonate with you and declare them. This increases faith. It gives God something to work with. Don't allow yourself to be desensitized, fearful, weary, or fatigued. Stop looking at the dead. Shift the atmosphere through worship, time in the Word and prayer. Declare your victory.

God is in the miracle working business but He needs your participation. This is the power of agreement. If you are working in agreement with God, there is nothing that can’t be done. You've got to have a victorious mindset and create an atmosphere of expectation. He wants to do exceedingly and abundantly more than you can ask, think or imagine. But, you must do your part.

Dynamic Prayer

Dynamic Prayer

I have been in a series of messages namedPray More. We’ve talked about praying with confidence, the tabernacle model for prayer, and praying with persistence. Today, my message is about dynamic prayer and I am using the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:9-13.

Jesus’ disciples were not foreign to prayer but even they struggled with prayer. Luke 11:1 records them asking Jesus to show them how to pray. I find it interesting that, after all they had seen Him do, the thing they specifically asked Him to teach them was how to pray. This tells us there was something special about how He prayed. 

Jesus unpacked this dynamic prayer for them. Prayer should not be ritualistic (bland). Prayer is about a loving relationship (dynamic). When I think of ritualistic prayer, someone praying in King James English comes to mind, or an expectation of rewards based on a point system. I think of feeling guilty if I don’t pray enough or handing God a list of wants. Imagine, if I woke up each morning, leaned over to Christine, and proceeded to list all the things I needed her to do that day. I would get a whole different reaction than if I wake up, lean over and tell her how much I love and appreciate her. The disciples knew ritual prayers, but Jesus knew Father God personally, He had a relationship with Him. God wants to give you answers and impart power to you. He wants to intimately share truth with you. Dynamic prayer is personal

  1. Start with God’s Personhood - His name (Our Father) and His address (in Heaven). We don’t just throw something out there hoping someone catches it. It’s a dialogue, talking to Him and listening to what He is saying. Jesus' secret was that He was talking to his father. Why does this matter? We can’t get closer to God than our concept of Him allows. In my case, I thought God was looking for what I did wrong all the time. I was always begging for forgiveness. Settle in your heart that He loves you. He is not annoyed when you approach Him. He instinctively adores you. You are precious to Him. When you’re aware of this, it’s easy to enter into prayer.
  2. Seek God's Presence (Hallowed be your name). To hallow means to honor. This is a reminder that you are addressing the One who rules and reigns. His name is holy, sacred and to be respected. Jesus Christ is not a curse word. He was the One crucified for you. When you do this, you are worshiping and your faith is activated. What is your focus? Focus on the One with all power, Who knows all, Who has all wisdom and authority. No circumstance you may find yourself in is ever overwhelming to Him. Magnify the Lord during prayer. Focus on Him knowing He is bigger than all your problems. We tend to magnify our problems but worship opens the door to His presence and empowers our prayers. 
  3. Shift to God's Priorities (Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven).  We like things our way but to surrender, we have to shift to His way. God’s Kingdom refers to God’s spiritual and eternal reign in our life. Prayer is not God moving toward us, but us moving toward Him, toward His way, toward His will in all aspects of our lives. Lack of prayer says “You’re not invited. I can handle this without You.” It will help to understand that God wants better for you than even what you want for yourself. Do you believe this? If you only knew what He has prepared for you, you wouldn’t want your own way. You would want God's way. Your life, submitted to God, is always better. It is the life you’ve always wanted. 
  4. Solicit God's Provision (Give us this day, our daily bread).  When you don’t ask, you make yourself your own provider. Will you worry or will you pray? This is a choice of peace vs. stress. Worry causes poor decision making and strife. But God won’t let you down. If a problem is big enough to worry about, it’s big enough to pray about. Believe God is loving and loves to provide for His children. If you have this mindset, you won’t hesitate to go to Him. God loves caring for His kids. Don’t rob Him of what He loves doing. 
  5. Secure God's Pardon (Forgive me as I forgive others). When we sin, the natural response is to hide from God but take your sin to God. His work covers the past, present and future.You are not what you’ve done. You are the righteousness of Christ and no longer a slave to sin. When we go to God with our sin, we are ensuring our closeness with God. Be mindful as you do ask for God to forgive you, that you need to let go of any unforgiveness. Holding resentment will restrict your relationship with God. Read this scripture again, ‘as we have forgiven.’ You are praying,‘God measure out grace to me in the same measure I use.’ God will honor this prayer. Don’t let the worst relationship of your life (the one that hurt you the most or negatively impacted you the most) ruin your best relationship (your relationship with God). When you hold onto resentment that is what happens. When you receive God’s forgiveness, know you have power to forgive others. 
  6. Stay in Step with God's Plan(Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil). This is asking God for help when temptation comes, for Him to show you the way out. One of the most important decisions you make every day is who you will take guidance from. Every day, the Holy Spirit and the enemy offer to guide you. When you pray, it is like taking the Holy Spirit’s hand so He can lead you into His direction and protection. Give the Holy Spirit permission to help you step into God's plan for your life. 

By the time to the end of this prayer, you are charged up to declare, “Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever”. This means “let it be so”. There’s certainty because the whole prayer is centered on a person, our Heavenly Father and His authority, holiness, power, wisdom, purpose, provision, forgiveness, and goodness. This whole thing shifts prayer from a rigid requirement to a rewarding relationship. When approached from your relationship with God, prayer is not an obligation. It’s an opportunity to know Him personally. Prayer based in relationship with God is dynamic and our personal prayer is the start of revival in our life, our church, our region and our nation.

Grab Hold & Don't Let Go

Today, I want to talk to you about praying - prophetically seeing, hearing and thinking what God is saying and doing in the life of your kids and household. It is important that we hear from God for our families and for our children through what the Bible says and through specific things God speaks regarding us or our family. Sometimes God reveals things to us and sometimes another person will speak things they’ve heard God say about us or our family. The thing to remember is that when God speaks, it will always be consistent with what the Bible says.

When we declare scripture or those things we believe God is saying directly to us, it not the understanding that is powerful, but it is the fact that it is spoken. Some things need to be declared. My wife and I have been declaring certain things over our son since he was still in the womb. You want to find the word of the Lord for your child and you want to speak those things over your child. The same is true for your family.

In Job 1:4-5, we see Job offering sacrifices on behalf of his children. This was an intercessory role. He prayed on their behalf, not because they did something wrong, but just in case they might have done something wrong. What an amazing posture. We should take this attitude as parents, not just to bring problems to God as they come up, but to be proactive and pray for them as they go through the process of life. We want to call out things that strengthen them for challenges ahead or events that are coming up. We want to be praying ahead of time rather than just reacting to situations and circumstances. Pray with your children every night. Pray over each of your children uniquely according to the gifts inside of them. Each one has gifts and qualities that God has given them for their life’s purpose. It is important that you are speaking into those areas and declaring God’s word over them.

When children come home with problems, help them find a purpose in those difficult times. Help them identify what they can learn from the situation. Use these moments to awaken hope and purpose for them. This is not necessarily prayer or prophecy, although this is always a good time to pray with them, but it is a good word in due season for encouragement. When you see things in your children, speak them. You see and you declare. Train them up in the way God has for them (Proverbs 22:6). We have got to learn to pay attention to the way they should go and then be there for them to support, encourage and direct when needed. Be careful that the words that we speak over them are constructive not destructive. Hard times will come and mistakes will be made, but these don’t define your child and they don’t define your family.

There are some things that we pray repeatedly because that’s the way children learn. We teach simple prayers to them and we repeat scripture, but we also need to encourage our children to hear from God themselves. Have them ask God if there’s anything that He wants them to do in their life that seems impossible. Help them see that God created them on purpose to do impossible things We also have the ability as parents to reverse words. We can openly and declaratively reject negative words that are spoken over our children. They are not identified by mistakes they’ve made. We know they’re not perfect. But we know God has great and wonderful things planned for them and this is what we hold to and declare over them. Give honor to qualities and efforts they make and brag on them.

Finally, find scriptures for your family and pray these words over them until they become yours, until they become true. Even when you’re children are adults, find, pray and declare scripture over them. Don’t stop praying when they graduate high school or college. Pray for them throughout their lives. Study and learn to hear from God for your family. Call out the gifting‘s and the personality traits for each of them. Take the things you see in them and pray them. We not only have to pray into the present but we have to pray into the future and declare what God is saying on behalf of our families.