A 4 point Test for Your Prayers

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Stephen Nielsen

Here’s a test to see if you are praying in his name.

 1.  If you are praying in His name you will receive regular answers to prayer.

2.  If you think you are praying in His name and you are not living according to His will then you are not really praying in His name.

3.  If you pray for a certain thing “in Jesus name,” and as you are praying your prayer seems to die on your lips, then do not continue; for it is not in His name.  As Duewel writes, “Any prayer that is selfish, vindictive, or with wrong motives dies on your lips when you take His name.”

4.  Ask yourself this question:  “Can I stay focused on God while I pray for the things I desire?”  If you cannot, that is, if you hold those things up, in your mind, next to the glory of God and you find that you are naturally more focused and affectionately drawn toward those things and less focused on the glory of God, then what you are asking for in prayer is not in His name.  It is an idol.

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4 Daily Prayer Requests

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Stephen Nielsen

When we pray in Jesus’ name we have confidence in God (God gives it to us) that we will receive whatever we ask for (1 Jn. 5:14-15).  And what we receive will always be just what we need—not for selfish interests, but for carrying on His purposes.  Indeed, the whole reason why we pray in His name, or why we pray at all, is so that we may receive all of the necessary resources for carrying on the work of God.  And all those resources are in Christ.  As Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “God…has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3)… in order that we as his workmanship may do good works” (Eph. 2:10).  A prayer then that is truly in His name draws out from God’s storehouse all that is needed to carry out His will.

Here, from Matthew 6:9-15, are four basic areas of daily prayer need–from my book Purpose of Prayer

 

 

1.  Daily worship (vv. 9-10).  Daily worship is the daily need each believer has to call God his Father and to bow down to Him in recognition of His holiness.  It is the need to surrender our wills to Him in order that He might reveal His will to us and strengthen us for His work.  Above all our basic needs this is the most vital because it takes us to the throne and gives us a true picture of where we stand with God.  He is our Father and He cares for us.  He is holy and righteous and He wants to make us holy too.  He will prepare us for the work of His kingdom.  He has given us His Son to rule in our heart in order that all His work be done according to His will.

 

2.  Daily bread (v. 11).  Our daily bread refers to those things that are absolutely necessary for our survival and which will keep us going and doing His will. In order to be useful to God in His work we need to keep up our physical strength.  We should pray daily that God would keep us healthy and fit for His use.  You will be no good in doing God’s work if you are sick or weak.

 

3.  Daily forgiveness and cleansing (v. 12).  This area of need must not be overlooked; however, much of the time it is sadly forgotten.  While we pray for physical healing, for new church buildings, and for financial support, we so often forget to pray for spiritual cleansing. God cannot and will not prosper your work for Him if you continue in sin.  In order to do the work of God we must have a clean heart.  This need for forgiveness and cleansing will come only as we acquire a humble spirit.  So let us pray every day that God would help us to humble ourselves before Him as we seek His forgiveness and cleansing.  Let us pray also that He would give us the strength we need to ask our brother or sister for forgiveness.  Then when we have made things right with them He has promised that He will forgive us and cleanse us (Matt. 6:14), making us fit for His service.

 

4.   Daily protection (v. 13).  The third area of need is for protection from the enemy.  It is a prayer for the spiritual armor we need.  For we can’t do His work without being protected from the one who constantly tries to discourage us.  In Christ we find all the protection we need.  He is our full armor.  In Him we are able to stand firm against all the schemes of the devil.  He is our truth.  He is our righteousness.  He is our peace.  He is our shield of faith.  He is our helmet of salvation.  He is our sword, which is the Word of God (Eph. 6:10-17).

 

 

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Three Ways to Illustrate How to Ask and Receive in His Name

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Stephen Nielsen

Esther approaching 1. Illustrated by marriage.  When a woman marries a man she gives up her name and takes on his name.  And since she has his name she takes possession of everything that is his.  They no longer own things separately, as in—this is yours and this is mine, but they now own things together.  What’s hers is his and what’s his is hers.  This is also true in our marriage with Christ.  What’s Christ’s is ours and what’s ours is Christ’s.  And so when we pray to the Father for a thing in the name of Christ, there is no question that God will give it to us, because we belong to Him; and all that is His we may claim as ours.

 

2. Illustrated by a check.  Asking for something from God in Jesus’ name is like asking a banker to cash a check signed by the largest depositor in the bank.  You will surely get the cash because the banker knows that the check is covered.  Now in this illustration God is the banker and Jesus is the largest depositor in the bank.  When I hand God the check and He sees the name of Jesus Christ signed on the check He will ask no questions and will give me as much cash as I have asked for, not because of who I am, but because of the name signed on the check.  When we pray in Jesus name we ask according to who He is and what He has.  And believe me, He has it all!

 

3. Illustrated by a signet ring.  A signet ring is an instrument used, especially in Old Testament times, to stamp a document, giving it the same legal validity as an actual signature.  We may see this illustration lived out from the book of Esther.

In this dramatic story, on two different occasions, the king gave out his signet ring.  The first time was to Hamon, who was at the time the king’s Prime Minister.  Hamon was quite a power hungry scoundrel; and as it happened, when Mordicah, a cousin of Queen Esther, refused to bow down to him, Hamon became furious and intended to kill not only Mordicah but also all the Jews.

So Hamon came to the king and said, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of all other people, and they do not observe the king’s laws, so it is not in the king’s interest to let them remain.  If it is pleasing to the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed…” (Esther 3:8,9).

And so king Ahasuerus, not knowing who exactly the Jews were and that Queen Esther herself was a Jew, took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Hamon to do with the people as he pleased.

Hamon then gave the command that all Jews would be destroyed, sending a script to that effect to each province.

Now in this true story, if the document had not the seal of the king by the signet ring, it would have been invalid.  But since the seal was quite evident on the document, all the Jews knew that it had as much authority as if the king Himself had signed it; and the command could not be revoked (Esther 3:10-12).

Shortly after the decree was made Queen Esther came before the king and pleaded for her life and for the lives of all the Jews, and thus also bringing to light the scandalous plot of Hamon (Esther 5-7).

The king then, being enraged, had Hamon hanged on the very gallows which Hamon had prepared for Mordecai.  And he took away his signet ring from Hamon and gave it instead to Mordecai, instructing him to write letters to all the Jews in the king’s name and to seal them with the king’s signet ring (Esther 7:9-10, 8:2,8).

In the letters, the king granted the Jews who were in each and every city the right to assemble and to defend their lives; thus, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate the entire army of any people or province that might attack them, including women and children, and to plunder their spoil.  Hence the Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying; and so they “did what they pleased to those who hated them” (Esther 8:11, 9:5).

Now the whole point that I want to make from this story is that we in our prayers have the same authority when we pray in Jesus name that these two characters Hamon and Mordecai had having the king’s signet ring.  Just as they could make commands by the king’s authority, we too can make certain commands to people, to demons, and even to God.

But unlike Hamon who underhandedly sought to do what was not pleasing to the king, we cannot bring prayers or make any demands for anything in the name of Jesus or God that is against the will of God.  We have the authority to act and to pray in Jesus name only if our actions and prayers are truly in His name, that is, according to His will.

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Praying In Jesus’ Name Is Claiming All That He Is and All That He Has

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Stephen Nielsen

When we receive Jesus’ name and pray in His name we are claiming who He is, because a person’s name always stands for the person.  And so when we pray, saying, “in Jesus name,” we must have in our mind a picture or an idea of what He is like; His personality, His character, His ideas, His work, etc.

It is quite obvious in scripture that when “name” is used for God or Jesus it means His person.  Here are a few examples:

Psalms 8:1         “How majestic is thy name…”

Psalms 72:17     “May His name endure forever…”

Psalms 102:15   “…the nations will fear the name of the Lord.”

John 1:12           “…even to those who believe in His name.”

And so when we are reading along in the bible and we read, “How majestic is Thy name,” we should not think of how nice the name of God sounds, etc., but we should think of how great and majestic the person and the character of God is.  And when we read of how His name endures forever, of course it means that God Himself is eternal.

I don’t mean to say that a name means nothing, but what I am saying is that a person’s name is a title to who the person is.  The more I know the person the more value and meaning the name has to me.  The name of Jesus is so sweet not because of all the sweet sounding letters of His name, but because of how sweet He is as a person.

And the more I live for Him and obey Him and serve Him the more I will see of His power and strength as I pray in His name.  Yes, for the obedient Christian, the demons will flee at the sound of His name; for behind that name is a powerful awesome God in the person of Jesus Christ.

When we pray in His name we not only claim who He is, but we claim what He has.  In other words, we come with the expectation that all of the resources of God are ours.  We only need name what we want at the time and it is ours to have.  And we can make this bold claim not because of any degree of wishful thinking or of trying to boost up my faith, but because of the very nature of true prayer and of the love of God.  For He has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3).  In Christ we have everything.  Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 3:22-23, “All things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.”  So all of us in the family of God have it all!  And it comes to us as we pray in His name.

In my next post I will illustrate in three different ways how we may ask in His name and receive all that we ask for.

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Christmas Angels

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Stephen Nielsen

AN ANGEL APPEARED TO JOSEPH, MATTHEW 1:20-25

 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”

24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

NIV

 

GABRIEL APPEARED TO MARY, LUKE 1:26-38

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God.”

38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.

NIV

 

FROM LUKE 2:7-20

And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

NIV

 

COMMENTARY FROM SPURGEON ON LUKE 2:10-12:

 The joy which this first gospel preacher spoke of was no mean one, for he said, “I bring you good tidings”-that alone were joy: and not good tidings of joy only, but “good tidings of great joy.” Every word is emphatic, as if to show that the gospel is above all things intended to promote, and will most abundantly create the greatest possible joy in the human heart wherever it is received. Man is like a harp unstrung, and the music of his soul’s living strings is discordant, his whole nature wails with sorrow; but the son of David, that mighty harper, has come to restore the harmony of humanity, and where his gracious fingers move among the strings, the touch of the fingers of an incarnate God brings forth music sweet as that of the spheres, and melody rich as a seraph’s canticle. Would God that all men felt that divine hand.

 

MY COMMENTS ON JOY:

Real  Christian joy, the kind that is described as fullness of joy, great joy, and everlasting joy is a joy that we have in God the Father, Jesus His Son, and  in the fellowship of believers (1 Jn. 1:2-4).

 This Christian joy is produced and sustained according to the degree that we abide in Christ.  And we abide in Him by keeping His commandments, especially the command to love one another.  John 15: 10-12 says,

 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.  12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

 Trying to describe pure joy is trying to describe heaven, being always in the presence of God.  What will that be like?

 Psalms 16: 11 says,

You will show me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

 

I think we’ll be forever opening presents and being surprised.  We’ll never be bored.  There will be new exciting adventures at every corner of life.  All our senses will be enhances. Smell, taste, touch, hearing, seeing.  Our brains will be new and working better than ever.

Think of some timeless, unhurried moments.  Where time was not an issue.  Being carefree.  Think of times when there was pure enjoyment: with a good friend, an adventure, a vacation, with nothing to do but enjoy.  Think of the most enjoyable thing you ever did. Think about a gift you would like to receive and picture yourself opening it and being surprised that it was more than you expected.  Heaven will be like continually openings gifts and being surprised, and like giving gifts and seeing others are surprised.

And the greatest gift we will have is Jesus, to look on His face and enjoy His presence.

He will do for us exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think (Eph. 3:20).  This will happen because He will strengthen us through His Spirit in our inner man, and we will be rooted and grounded in His love, so much so that  we will be able to comprehend with all the saints how very vast (width, length, depth, height) His love is.  We will never be able to fully understand it, but we will experience it more and more each day, and it will be wonderful.  Imagine, experiencing God, being full of the fullness of God always.  It’s more that we can imagine.

 

 WHAT ARE THE ANGEL’S PERSPECTIVES?

They are quite familiar with joy because they live in heaven and haven’t experienced sin, which takes away joy.

They want us to experience the same joy, they long for us to experience it.

Angels have not sinned, so they are innocent.  Their eyes have not been opened to know evil; they do not understand the full significance of the gospel.  Therefore, I think we will appreciate the joy of heaven more then they do.

 

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What it Means to Pray in Jesus’ Name

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Stephen Nielsen

Just before the end of Jesus’ life on earth He began teaching His disciples to pray in His name.  Before this time the concept was unheard of.  Prayer was always to the Father but never in Jesus’ name.  But all that changed.  And it was not a teaching that was taught nonchalantly or casually. In fact, He repeated the teaching over and over again, as to emphasize its importance.  Six times, recorded in the gospel of John, He taught the disciples to pray in His name.  And each time the teaching was with the promise that they could pray for anything, or for whatever they wished, and their prayer would be answered (Jn. 14:13,14; 15:16; 16:23,24,26).  If this was true then, and is still true today (which it is), then there is great power in the right use of His name.  We certainly need to know how to pray in His name.

 

Praying in Jesus’ name means to set aside my own name and receive His name 

When the Lord Jesus returned bodily to His Father in heaven, the Spirit of Christ, embodied in the Holy Spirit came to the earth to dwell with all believers.  Since that day of Pentecost, the beginning of the Church age, we may say that all believers, in a general sense, pray in Jesus name by virtue of the fact that they have a new life in Christ.

Yes, when we became Christians we gave up our old life with our old identity—self.  And we took on a new life with a new identity—Christ.  Moreover, when we as new believers were adopted into the family of God, having a new Father and a new family, we received a new name, the name of Christ.  Hence, now we have a new identity.

With that new identity, I am connected ever so closely to the person of Christ like a branch is connected to its vine.  He has purchased me with His blood.  I am His possession.  And so I take His name as my name.

Now, I don’t, nor should you ever call yourself “Christ.”  For He is the only Messiah and the only savior of the world.  In contrast, we are sinners and could not save anyone.  However, what I am saying is that He lives in me, and thus I identify myself with Him.  Moreover, I can draw on all of His Power, His goodness, and His faith—and all that He has.  I am not Christ but I represent Christ.  And so I take on the name of Christ.  The closest title to Christ that I can give myself is that I am “a Christian,” which is a believer and a follower of Christ.  I love to be called a Christian because that title tells the world that I am His.

Now then, when you set aside your own name and identity and receive His name and identity, there are so many blessings and certain responsibilities that we inherit.  Listen to what Duewel says about those who have taken His name and who pray in His name: “His name identifies you as having been redeemed by Christ…His name empowers your plea with His shed blood…it identifies you with His resurrected lordship.  It unites your prayer with His prevailing meditation and intercession at the right hand of the Father.”

Here is more to ponder: I am not only a child of God (John 1:12), but I am a part of the church and am the bride of Christ (Rev. 19:7; 21:2, 9; 22:17).  Now when a woman marries a man what is one of the first things that she does after the marriage ceremony?  She puts aside her own name; she disregards it and forgets it; and she receives her husband’s name and all the rights that are associated with it.

We have been married to Christ and have taken His name.  He purchased us with His blood; He brought us to Himself as His bride; and He gave us His name.  And now, having His name, we have the right to receive everything belonging to Him.  Hence, with the correct use of His name when we pray, we may receive anything we ask for.  Why?  Because we are Christ’s bride and He and His father will not deny us the things we need.

As a child of God and as the Bride of Christ we are His representatives. This is the responsibility part.  We represent His name, which is who He is.  We carry His name in our person since Christ dwells in us.  All that we do and all that we say is a reflection to the world of who Christ is.  Paul says, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were bringing to the world the message of Christ through us (2 Cor. 5:20).  But we not only represent Christ to lost people, we carry His name within us to the angels, to demons, to creatures, to our Christian friends, and also to the Father as we pray.

As Christ’s ambassador or representative we do not represent ourselves, but we represent the interests and the good name of Christ; and so we must set aside our own name (which really means to set aside our personal interests and ideas) and carry on His.  We represent Him only.  Hence when we come to the Father in prayer we must bring to Him nothing of ourselves, only of Him, nothing of our name, only of His name, since He is the one we represent.  Having this mindset in prayer we can be absolutely certain that He will hear us and give us whatever we ask for (1 Jn. 5:14, 15).

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Four Ways Intercession Will Bless You

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Stephen Nielsen

“And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold” (Job 42:10).  Spurgeon comments, “Intercessory prayer was the sign of Job’s returning greatness…When Job’s soul begun to expand itself in holy and loving prayer for his erring brethren, the heart of God showed itself to him by returning his prosperity and cheering his soul within.”  What a marvelous example this is of how God rewards those who please Him by extending themselves in faith to pray for others (Heb. 11:6).  If anyone had a good excuse not to intercede for others, it was Job.  But in the end, God got a hold of his heart.  He melted down his pride so that he repented in dust and ashes (Job 42:6).  When we do the same—when we look away from ourselves, from our burdens and sorrows—then God will show us the burdens of others and how He wants us to reach out in prayer for them.  What great joy awaits us then.  For God is the great rewarder of all those who seek to please Him in doing His will.

 Four Ways Intercession Will Bless You

1.  If you should decide to commit yourself to a ministry of intercession, while you are on your intercession journey, soon you will discover and be blessed by the fact that you are joined with others in the Spirit of Christ, and that you are partakers of the same grace with them.  This realization will become such a blessing to you; it will tend to remove any feeling of aloneness.

2.  When you make it your habit to intercede for your enemies you will find that it is very hard to harbor enmity toward them.  In fact, you won’t be able to not love them; for intercession is an act of love.  And so, as you pray for those who have wronged you, you will find that you soon will overlook how they have treated you, knowing that you also have the same tendencies to sin.

3.  When you pray for those who are preaching the gospel and leading people to Christ, you will become partakers with them in their ministry.  In fact, you will receive with them the blessing of the fruit of their ministry.  Just think, if you are regularly interceding for Billy Graham or for your pastor, or for any other such godly men, you will receive the same blessings that they receive because you have helped them along by praying for them.

4.  When Paul wrote to the Corinthians he wanted them to know that their prayers were a great help to him and Timothy as they traveled and were in great danger (2 Cor. 1:8-11).  As you pray for others, and God answers your prayers, you will be greatly blessed as God gives you the knowledge that your prayers are really having an impact on someone’s life.  Your praying then will become more than just a religious duty; it will be as a lifeline to one who is drowning, or in despair.  In fact, your prayers can be used to bring someone all the help they need, even to bring them the very presence of God.

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Tim Tebow: Should he feel insulted that people are attributing his success to God?

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Stephen Nielsen

 

On Reussee and Mackey on 1500 ESPN radio today there was some things said about Tim Tebow that bothered me.  I think it was Mackey that said that Tebow should regard it as an insult that his wins have been attributed to God.  Apparently, they were saying that by depending on God’s help that would somehow make him weaker, less capable.

 I disagree.  I don’t think any person who trusts in God and depends on His help is any less capable or any less anything.  In fact, a believer in God has a moral strength and a courage that non-believers don’t have. It takes courage to stand up in front of a non-believing world and say I trust in God.  I give him credit for doing whats right.  It’s always right to attribute God for our success.  Because he is our maker.  Every good thing we do is from him. 

It was also suggested that Tebow has a power of the mind, a power of positive thinking, a self-confidence.  And that’s what makes him win.  Well, it may be true that he has confidence, but he receives it from God—and I think he is well aware of it.

 Go Tim Tebo!  Keep trusting in God and He will continue to give you everything it takes to win!

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How to Carry Out Your Responsibility to Intercede

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Stephen Nielsen

If you want to be a faithful priest to God in this area of intercession, you must first acknowledge your total inadequacy.  Hence, you must be totally dependent on Christ and the Holy Spirit to do this great work of God.

when you get this feeling of inadequacy, thank God!  This feeling is good. For it is God’s designed way of bringing us to Him so that we may receive the necessary resources in order to intercede for others.  Just as with the man in the story who felt desperate to supply the need of his friend who had come on a long journey, in which case God did help him to seek Him and supply that need, we too may benefit from times when we feel that we desperately need His help.  For He has planned all along for us to feel inadequate and desperate so that we will come to Him desperately, quickly, and boldly.  For He has all the power, all the money, all the wisdom, all the love, and all the comfort we will ever need  He has all that we lack, and we can take it all and give it all to others by our intercession.

Now, after you have received this feeling of inadequacy, and you have humbly sought God’s help in how to intercede, look to Jesus first before all others who will teach on this subject.  For prevailing intercession has always been Christ’s great priority.  Even when He was on the cross He did not forget that He was an intercessor, as He prayed, “Father forgive them; for they know not what they do.”  With such an example as this in our thoughts we can’t go wrong.

We can also look to our Lord’s example in John 17.  Here in this eminent prayer He has demonstrated for us the very best method of intercession.

 

The best method of intercession.  Here, in John 17, Jesus first prays for Himself (verses 1-5), then for His disciples (verses 6-19), and last for all people of all ages who are and will become believers (verses 20-26).  And so as we begin our time of intercession it is preferred to begin praying for ourselves, then for those closest to us, then for those not so close, and continue our praying in wider and wider spirals until our prayers reach out to the farthest corners of the earth.

As we begin in prayer for ourselves it is not with the intent of self-satisfaction and glorification, but rather for the single purpose of the Fathers glory.  We see this in the prayer of Jesus as He prayed, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You” (John 17:1).  So as we begin praying for ourselves, pray that Christ would be glorified in us in order that the Father would be glorified.

Corresponding with our Lords prayer for Himself in verses 1-5, your prayer should sound something like this:

“Father, I have given myself to finish Your work; and with Your help I will continue to do Your will.  I pray that Your Son Jesus would shine forth and be glorified in me, in order that You also will be glorified.  Amen.”

That is a very short version of what our prayers for ourselves should sound like.  Another thing that we may want to do is to pray through the outline of the Lords Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13.  In this prayer we will find all of the ingredients that our prayers should contain.  Corresponding then with this prayer we would pray something like this:

“Father, let Your holy name be hallowed in me.  Let all that is true of You be seen in me – Your purity, Your love, and Your goodness.  May Your kingdom be established in my heart.  May I desire only to do Your will and not my own will; because I know that Your will is best in all matters.  Lord I surrender my will to You and will wait patiently as You reveal Your will to me.  Please show me Your will and give me the strength and courage to do it.  Father, I am entirely dependent on You for all my needs: for my daily bread; for forgiveness, which comes by the washing and cleansing of Your precious blood; and for protection from all the evils in the world.  Lord please place a guard over my heart and my life; for I am prone to sin.  I depend entirely on You for all my needs.  Father, you are the King who rules with power and glory forever.  Amen.”

As we see from both prayers, the main idea is that the Son would be glorified in us so that the Father would be glorified.

Now, after we have spent sufficient time in prayer for ourselves—enough to get our relationship with the Father straightened out, then and only then will He give us the power and the motivation to intercede for others.

First, as Christ did, we should pray for our disciples—those whom the Father has given to us, whom we have witnessed to and spoken Gods Word to.  Our first prayer for them should be that they would receive God’s Word that we have given to them.  Secondly, we should pray that they would be kept from the evil one.  And third, that they would be sanctified by the Word (John 17:6-19).  There are many other things that we could pray for them, which I have already outlined earlier in this chapter.

After we have prayed for our own disciples we must also pray for those we don’t know as well, and even for those we don’t know at all.  I think that the main thrust of our intercession should be for believers; however, we must also pray for the unbeliever, that they would be saved.

As we approach this enormous task of praying for so many people, we may get frustrated and want to cut our prayer time short.  But we must keep at it and ask God to strengthen us for the task.  I suggest that before you get started at the work of intercession that you prayerfully make a list of all the people you think God would want you to pray for.  Plan ahead for this enormous task.

Here are some possible headings to get you started:

  • For secular leaders
  • For military troops
  • For spiritual leaders
  • For people and ministries in my church
  • For administrative needs in my church
  • For believers in other lands
  • For para-church groups
  • For missionaries
  • For non-believers
  • For my family and relatives
  • For my friends
  • For non-believers I have a chance to witness to
  • For people with special needs: the  handicapped, the homeless, abused victims, persecuted Christians, and for those who are in bondage to certain addictions

See how big of a list you can make under each heading.  But don’t make it so big that it is impossible to pray for them all.  Only list those people, groups and items you feel God wants you to pray over.  But you don’t have to pray over every item and every person every day.  Pray for as many as you can and save the rest for the next few days.  Perhaps you will want to spread your list over a period of a week’s time so you can be sure you get every item prayed for at least once a week.  I suggest also that for those items that you think are more important, pray for those every day, and then for the other items pray for those once a week. Have fun with your prayer chart.  Design it however you want to.  But make sure you use it.  Prayer is a lot of work and requires a lot of endurance.  Keep at it and God will bless you.

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Our Great Responsibility to Intercede for Others

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Stephen Nielsen

 It is certainly clear from scripture that we have a great job ahead of us—to pray for all men.  But why must we do it? And if we must do it, how do we get motivated to do it?

 Why do we have a responsibility to intercede for people?  The answer is that God has made us responsible by making us His priests.  As priests He has commissioned us and called us to intercede for all men.

With this calling He has given us a desire deep inside us to intercede.  And so, even though we may at times regret the hard work of intercession, deep inside our soul we secretly love it.  Yes, we love to be involved with Christ in His work.  For as His interceding priests we have the glorious privilege of ruling with Him and extending His rule.  Hence, in no other way can we do more to advance Christ’s kingdom and bring glory to the name of Jesus then to intercede.  It is our supreme service and the most Christ-like of all labors while we are on this earth.

He has not only given us a desire to intercede for all men (in a general sense), but He has also channeled that desire for us, so that we have a desire to pray for specific individuals.  And so He brings certain people to us, people that He wants us to pray for. He may bring them to us much like He brought the man on a long journey to the man in the house (Read Luke 11:5-13). Like this man we will feel a great responsibility for the one God sends our way.  We must then go boldly, even if at midnight, asking God to supply their need.

Probably the greatest sense of responsibility we feel in prayer is toward our own children.  We feel this way because they are part of us, and we love them and feel their needs. We also feel this responsibility because we have a sense deep within us (whether we will admit it or not) that they have been given to us by God as a trust.  And so this is why we have such a strong desire to regularly pray for them.

God has also placed other people, besides our children, around us, and in our minds that we have a responsibility to intercede for.  Everyone you meet or think about during your day you have some degree of responsibility for.

Moreover, as God’s priests, since He has called us and given us a desire to intercede for people, we can be sure that intercession is our solemn duty, our job.  Yes, according to 2 Cor. 5:20, God has made us ambassadors for Christ, in which intercession is always included.

 How to gain a sense of your responsibility to intercede.  If we don’t sense this great responsibility, this duty, what do we do?  I can think of three things to do.  One, we can always pray for it.  Pray that God would help you to feel this great responsibility to intercede for others.  Two, you can seek God’s will on it.  Read book and passages in the Bible on prayer and intercession.  Last—and I think this will be most helpful—obey the Lord always.  When He tells you to pray for someone, pray, whether you feel like it or not.  Soon you will get that deep-down desire that was there all the time.

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