Lord, Teach Us To Pray
Series: Part 2
Developing A Personal Prayer Strategy
gtcotr/ws092006
The model prayer was given to the multitudes in Matthew 6 and to the individual disciples in Luke 11 by Jesus. This guide to prayer, if you will, reveals the pattern of prayer used by Jesus to instruct us concerning how we ought to pray.
Matthew 6 KJV
9 ¶ After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Last week, in our introduction of this series, we established a couple of things we want to keep in mind as we look to tonight’s teaching.
* Although we pray for many, we pray only to One: We pray to God.
* There is but one goal for all prayer: Prayer is made to God for His Kingdom to come and for His will to be done.
We do not pray to, nor do we pray at, other things, spirits, people, dead or living, circumstances or self.
There is a difference between:
* Our voice of prayer which we speak to God
* Our voice of confession which speaks to us and others
* Our voice of command which speaks to other things under our dominion and control. (From mountains to demons to our own thoughts and imaginations)
However, if we remember the basics - We pray to God for His will - then our prayers will be most effective and productive.
This is the foundation upon which we will build our personal strategy in prayer.
Developing A Personal Prayer Strategy
Dr Cho, pastor of the largest church in the history of Christianity thus far, is well known for the dedicated time he spends in prayer. I have had the privilege of visiting his church in Seoul, South Korea on several occasions.
In 1989 I attended a Church Growth conference at Dr Cho’s church which focused on cell groups as a method of keeping a growing church vital, unified and strong. During the conference Dr Cho met personally with a group of pastors and talked with us about his life and ministry practices.
One of the subjects he covered was his disciplined habit of prayer. In answer to a question concerning how he could keep his focus and stay meaningful for hours in prayer each day he discovered to us the prayer strategy he had been using for some time.
Dr Cho related how he sees himself on a journey, jogging in his prayer time. Since he feels personally responsible to cover the whole world in prayer, he said he begins by getting suited up each morning in prayer and putting on the whole armor of God. Afterward, he sets out on his prayer jog without ever leaving the room.
He told us how he first jogs around his city, visiting home after home of relatives, friends, employees and city officials as God directs his daily route. Then he sets out for other cities in his country and usually crosses the border into North Korea praying for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done in and between North and South Korea.
After that his spiritual jog usually takes him basically West to East visiting country after country in prayer, lifting up acquaintances, churches, leaders of nations and international concerns. Many times he finds himself praying for unknown situations only later to see events unfolding in the news concerning issues he has already covered in prayer for some time.
Dr Cho said that he especially covers in prayer those countries which need a breakthrough, speaking God’s will over the nations and peoples of that country. He commands the heavenlies to obey the Word of the Lord and fall prey to the will of God. He asks God for the salvation of numbers of souls in location after location. He builds up the churches and lay leaders, seeking God to send forth more laborers into those harvest fields he sees in his spirit as ripe for the picking.
Before finishing his prayer jog he completes his circle of the globe and finds himself back in the place he started from after literally hours have passed. Since he dedicated himself to prayer in the 1950‘s as a sickly young man in a war torn country with nothing but a relationship with God, God has shown him, in the spirit, things which He would shortly do and has blessed and promoted him from a nobody to a somebody, giving him favor with both God and man, making him the most influential Christian pastor of the 20th century. He is convinced that Prayer is essential to the Christian life.
Dr Cho knows and teaches the importance of following a disciplined pattern of prayer. He incorporates the elements of the model prayer in his daily jogs. He believes that there is something special, spiritual and powerful about spending long periods of quality time in prayer. Not only does he believe, practice and preach this, but he also provides opportunities for people all over the world to visit Prayer Mountain in South Korea.
Prayer Mountain is literally a mountain Dr Cho has purchased through his church and developed it with single prayer grottos which are about 1 meter by 2 meter dug outs into the side of the mountain where people come for a season of prayer and fasting. Miracles result from people dedicating themselves to one day, 3 days, a week or month or more in prayer here.
At any given time one can find hundreds, perhaps thousands of people locked away in one of these prayer closets interceding to the Father for His Kingdom to come and for His Will to be done. For almost three decades now I have called upon the Holy Spirit to raise up intercessors for certain needs from among those there on prayer mountain and impress them to stand in the gap and make up the hedge of prayer with me in some of my most difficult seasons of ministry.
In exchange for this I have offered myself to God to be available to pray at any moment for the kingdom or saints in need who require prayer support. Many times I have been awakened in the night and called to intercede for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done over the lives and in the situations I sense in my spirit, without ever personally knowing the people, places or outcomes of my prayers.
If there is anything we can learn from the model prayer it is that we must have a strategy in prayer. The model prayer gives us guidelines with which to insure we do not leave any base uncovered.
Let me give you some elements of a prayer strategy based on the model prayer.
Elements of The Model Prayer
We Must:
1. Embrace A Relationship With God
* Our Father
2. Acknowledge God’s Higher Perspective
* In Heaven
3. Properly Approach God In Prayer
* Hallowed Be Thy Name
note: Many teachers of the model prayer encourage prayers to stop here and spend some time remembering, respecting and revering the names of God from the Old Testament which in fact reveal God’s nature, character and His intent. Names like:
(1) Jehovah Ra’ah Psalms 23:1 God my Shepherd
(2) Jehovah Jireh Genesis 22:14 God my Provider
(3) Jehovah Nissi Exodus 17:15 God my Victory
(4) Jehovah Shalom Judges 6:24 God my Peace
(5) Jehovah Tsidqenuw Jeremiah 23:6 God my Righteousness
(6) Jehovah Shammah Ezekiel 48:35 God is Here
(7) Jehovah Rapha Exodus 15:26 God my Healer
There are other names and aspects of these same names which give us the nature of our Father and reveal His character and intent to us. Offering these to God in prayer casts relationship and builds faith.
4. Stick To The Purpose of Prayer
* Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
note: This is the meat of prayer. This is where petition begins. Do you know what God’s Kingdom is? It is righteous, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Have you ever read in the Word of God just what the Will of God is? His will is good toward men.
Many times we do know the will of God, but more times than not we do. It is with faith we pray God’s will and with faith we trust Him.
It is here that I encourage prayers to stop and begin to cover their God given responsibilities in prayer. These include:
> Self
> Family
> Friends & Co-Workers
> Spiritual Leaders
> Community Needs
> Governments
> Spiritual Impressions
I once heard a news interview featuring Billy Graham. The broadcast journalist smugly recoiled from a statement the evangelist made about it being God’s will that all mankind be saved. After the statement the newsman smarted off disrespectfully saying something to the effect, ‘now surely you can’t believe that it is God’s will that everyone become a Christian, not everyone even gets prayed for’.
To this Billy Graham replied, “Yes they do!” What, you mean that every person in the world gets prayer to God for them to become a Christian? That’s not true, the reporter said. Oh yes it is said Billy. “I personally pray for every one of them every day.” (1 Timothy 2:4)
It’s been more than 20 years since I first heard this and it has helped me set a portion of my personal prayer strategy. In the big picture, after I have prayed for everyone and everything I am responsible for or am impressed for, I break the rest of the world down into two categories: The saved and the unsaved.
I pray for them all that God’s kingdom would come in their lives and that God’s will would be done in their lives on earth as it is in heaven. I pray for their salvation, their comfort, their peace, their joy, their faith and their witness. I pray for their health and prosperity, their ministry and their future. In this way, I hope to follow the example and to insure that every single person in the world has somebody praying for them. (1 Timothy 2:1)
> All People Everywhere
5. Pray For Provision
* Daily Bread
6. Pray For Forgiveness and Grace
* Forgive us as we forgive others
7. Pray For Guidance
* Lead us not into temptation
8. Pray For Divine Deliverance
* Deliver us from the evil one
9. Give Glory To God
* Thine is …
Develop and implement a personal prayer strategy using the elements of the model prayer. It was given as a guide for your daily prayer.
