For the lonely and forgotten, for the weary and distressed, For the refugee and orphan, and for all who are oppressed, For the stranger who is pleading while insulted and despised, Will You rise? Will You rise? Rise up! Rise up! The earth will fear the Lord when You avenge the poor. May Your kingdom come . . . O rise up!
Effective praying is precision praying. Prayer is most effective when it has as its backbone reliable substance in the word of God. The Bible says that when God sends forth the rain, He aims for a precise result. The same is with the word of God, after it is sent forth, it does not return to God void. It accomplishes exactly what it was sent forth to accomplish. Scripture even assures us that God watches over his word to perform with razor precision what He intended. It is therefore imperative that when we pray, we pray with precision. When we pray we must pray God’s word. In this series, I would like to take us on a journey, an adventure to discover the power of precision praying. I will seek to show you examples of how to pray for various aspects of our lives. So today, I would like for us to begin with the privilege of parenting. Recently my status as a father was upgraded to father of not one, but two teenagers – …
“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Tim. 2:1 When it comes to our attitude about those in authority, only three things are required: Supplication Prayers Thanksgiving When our protest is louder than our prayers, our influence is reduced significantly. When it comes to how God feels about our supplication, prayers, and thanksgiving for those in authority, three things are evident: It is good It is pleasing It is desired Our disobedience to pray for those in authority is not only a mockery to him, but it also robs Him of a good and desirable pleasure. When it comes to the purpose for urging us to pray and his desired …
There is one word about prayer that makes the entire experience meaningful. It is the bedrock of what prayer is all about, firmly anchored in the character of God. Take it away and the worshiper is flooded with doubt. Take it alway and prayers hit the ceiling and bounce back. Take it away and the prayer life is sapped of all its enjoyment. This one word makes prayer possible. This one word brings the worshiper back again and again. This one word assures the worshiper that God hears and longs to answer. This one word causes prayer to soar to nights unknown This one word is the anchor for all the promises of God. #WILLINGNESS Martin Luther said it best: #prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness. — Walter Bright (@WaltBright) January 23, 2015 Everything is covered Salvation “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:32 Healing “And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to …
My Story It was December 28 2014 at about 8:15, just a week or so ago – I stood up in church and prayed a simple prayer: “Lord I need clarity and wisdom to deal with certain situations I have been dealing with. I am not asking for you to wet a fleece or dry it. I trust that you will speak in a way that I can understand. Thank you for showing me what to do, in Jesus’ name Amen!” I went home and didn’t think about it again until He spoke to me. The way he spoke was so clear I didn’t have struggle to understand what he was telling me to do. Every prayer offered in faith is answered by a faithful God. At this time of the year, all of us are faced with the challenge of decision making. Business decisions, Ministry decisions, family budgets, career change, is it the right time to buy a car or a house. Decisions, Decisions, Decisions! I would like to urge you quiet your soul, …
In the late 90s a madman named Joshua Milton Blahyi, better known by his nom de guerre General Butt Naked roamed the streets of Monrovia killing, eating human flesh and drinking human blood. initiated as a priest at an early age over an African traditional religious cult and endowed with demonic priestly powers, Joshua Milton Blahyi, better known as General Butt Naked and his men fought completely naked during the Liberian Civil War because they believed that supernatural powers were given to them through this strange ritual. Together with his men, General Butt Naked set the city on fire and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people. "Whenever God determines to do a great work, He first gets His people to #pray." -C H Spurgeon — Walter Bright (@WaltBright) September 19, 2014 Within that period a brave group of believers was praying for God to kill the General. During one of their prayer meetings, someone began to prophesy that God wanted them to change the way they were praying. Instead of praying for the death of the …
When I was 5 years old my dad made a promise to me. A promise he was going to fulfill in 24 hours. I was very passionate about soccer. I found myself skipping classes, at that early age, to go play soccer out in the fields. I guess, it was that rubber ball that we kicked around everyday that prompted ,my dad to get me a brand new and real soccer ball. I’ll never forget that morning when he whispered in my ear. That at the end of the day, I would have my own soccer ball. I was gripped with expectation. I couldn’t wait for him to come back home from work. I had it on my mind for the entire day. I always wanted one, but the likelihood of getting it that day, made my desire for it even more compelling. I waited for the car to turn into the drive way. And before he could get out of the car I was right there with arms outstretched. He didn’t fail me either. …
On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. Isaiah 62:6-7 I hate to sound judgmental especially when it comes to prayer. After all, it is something we must to pursue privately. Yes! I agree that we are to stand in concerts of prayer or hold public prayer meeting – the one held in the upper room and like the one, the apostles held when the place they stood shook after they got through praying. Unfortunately, we are not seeing that passionate pursuit both from those sitting in the pew and those standing in the pulpit. The statistics are quite heart-breaking. Prayer is not high up on our priority list. Because of our lack of prayer, we are not seeing the hand of God in and around us. Here are a few things we miss out on: The …
What if prayer had another dimension to it than what we have experienced? What if prayer is way out of the box we’ve placed it in? Sometimes, in our particular corner of Christendom we think that our particular tradition and prayer style is the only one God accepts. In fact , for us, other traditions just don’t measure up. I can say beyond the shadow of doubt that our particular way of praying isn’t the only one that has something worthwhile to say about prayer. If we could just step out of our comfort zones, lean on the Holy Spirit for guidance, we would discover a lot of valuable lessons about prayer in other Christian traditions. Today I want to challenge you to venture out of your comfort zones and try a different approach to prayer. I challenge you to try something fresh and out of the box, out of the norm. Something that will deepen and enrich your prayer life. I have been a Christian for many years now, but have only recently attempted to do a 40 day of prayer and consecration leading up …
When William Carey went to India, many a wise man would have said to him, “You may lust as well walk up to the Himalaya mountains, and order them to be removed and cast into the sea.” I would have said, “That is perfectly true; this Hinduism is as vast and as solid as those mountains; but we have faith-not much, yet we have faith as a grain of mustard seed”; and William Carey said, “I will go up to the mountain.” Lonely and weak he walked up towards the mountain, which in the eye of man seemed verily one of the summits of human things, far above all power to touch or shako it; and with his own feeble voice he began saying, “Be thou removed! be thou removed!” And the world looked on and laughed, a celebrated clergyman, looking down from his high place in the Edinburgh Review, was much amused with the spectacle of that poor man down in Bengal, thinking in his simple heart that he was going to disturb Hinduism; …
