Blog Archives

PRINCIPLES OF PRAYER

2/25/2015

Tried and True…Principles of Prayer

by Carolyn Miller, UPT Coordinator (for the 2015 CFO Worldwide Publication)

   Today when I picked up the phone in the UPT office, a person sang to me two beautiful hymns. She said, “Singing these hymns is my thanks for UPT and the fruit of your labor of prayer.” We give thanks from our hearts that Jesus has chosen each one of us to labor with Him in prayer. UPT appreciates every Prayer Partner in the whole wide world! Jesus taught His disciples to pray. After Pentecost and in the rest of the book of Acts, we read about their ‘Holy Spirit blessed’ life of prayer. We are promised that same ‘Holy Spirit blessed’ life of prayer!

   A MINI REFRESHER ON THE PRINCIPLES OF PRAYER: for personal prayer times & for prayer groups.

   The combination of these principles is to prepare us to become strong “Athletes of the Spirit” in intercessory prayer.

LOVE: (John 13:34-35) “A new commandment I give to you…love one another as I have loved you…”

REPENTENCE; HUMILITY: (2 Chron. 7:14) “If my people…called by my name…will humble themselves…pray…seek my face…turn from wicked ways…then will I hear from heaven…forgive their sin…heal their land.”

GRATITUDE: (Philippians 4:6-7) “In everything by prayer…with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

BELIEVE: (Mark 9:24) “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.”

FORGIVENESS: (Mark 11:25) “When you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

ASK; SEEK: (Matthew 7:7) “Ask…it shall be given you; Seek…you shall find; Knock…it shall be opened to you.” Receiving is the result of seeking first the kingdom & his righteousness.

FAITH: (Matthew 17:20) “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Mustard seed is as fine as dust and can produce a tree. It is not quantity. It is quality.

OBEDIENCE: (John 14:15) “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

AGREEMENT: (Matthew 18:19-20) “If two of you shall agree about anything you ask for, it shall be done for you by my Father in heaven.” Agreement must be heart agreement.

ABIDING: (John 15:7) “If you abide in me…and my words abide in you…ask what you will and it shall be done to you.” For without me you can do nothing.

RELINQUISHMENT: (John 12:24) “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed…if it dies it will bring forth much fruit.” Let go and let God!

Watchman Nee on Prayer

2/8/2015

Matt 18:19-20 (NLT) "I also tell you this: If two of you agree down here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together because they are mine, I am there among them."

Watchman Nee (1903-1972)

In about 1940, Watchman Nee delivered a talk on The Prayer Ministry of the Church. It was translated into English and published in 1973. The other day, I decided to read it again. I was stopped in my tracks with the realization that I had forgotten something very important about prayer. As CFO'ers, it is something we have learned but need to remember.

Watchman Nee described three kinds of prayer, all important: (1) Devotional prayer that is full of worship of God, (2) Personal prayer in which we seek God's answers for our own needs, and (3) the Prayer Ministry of the Church. This third kind of prayer is presented in Matt. 18:15-20, in which the key verses are given above. There is much in his presentation worth careful study, but the point I want to relay here, the point that stopped me in my tracks, is a correction in my own thinking and speaking. I have been saying for years now, that if you haven't prayed about a matter, that is the next thing to do. But Watchman Nee said, and I see now that Glenn Clark would agree, that praying is not the first thing to do in this kind of prayer to change the church and the world. The first thing to do is to seek harmony with our fellow pray-ers. To pray with power for the action of God to be manifest here and now requires that we agree with one another, that we are in harmony. Watchman Nee made it clear that this means that we have laid down our own agendas and ideas about what God should do. Before we pray, we should seek agreement about how God would have us pray in unified harmony. So, may God give us the humility together to seek His purposes and ways, and not our own. Amen.

PRINCIPLES OF PRAYER

Watchman Nee on Prayer

Author

Archives

Categories