How to pray powerful prayers

 What is a powerful prayer?

I was texting a friend, asking how they are doing. The friend said they are doing fine. Someone sent them a voice vote with a powerful prayer. Happy that my friend was okay, I wondered what makes prayer powerful.

I want to pray powerful prayers. 

I'm thinking about what makes for powerful prayer? Maybe praying loudly with passion? Or quoting Bible verses? Maybe only preachers can pray powerful prayers.

Well, I decided to search for an answer in God's manual. The Bible. There must be a lot of powerful prayers in there. I mean even Jesus' prayers were recorded in the Bible. 

To my frustration, I could not find one instance where somebody's prayer is described as powerful.

The interesting thing was that in James there was a reference to powerful prayer - the prayer of a righteous person is powerful!

That's just it, if you want to pray powerful prayers, you must be righteous.

And how do you become righteous (in right standing with God)? You accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord, and your prayers will be powerful.

The Good Shepherd

 The Lord is my Shepherd

Have you ever wondered what a shepherd is to his sheep? 

Whenever I see a picture or a video of a shepherd and his sheep, it always reminds me of how dependent sheep are on their shepherd. They go wherever he goes. If it is time to sit and rest, or stand up and go, the sheep need to do the same. And luckily for them, the shepherd knows where the water is and where the green pastures are. All that the sheep need to do is to follow their shepherd and his voice.

When David wrote in Ps 23 “The Lord is my Shepherd” he had first-hand knowledge of what it meant to be a shepherd, because he was one. He knew all the ins and outs of being a shepherd, and he most definitely knew the responsibility that comes with being a shepherd. 

The amplified Bible enlarged three aspects of being a Shepherd, and still today, I believe that this is God’s heart towards you and me - if we allow Him to be our Shepherd. It says “to feed, to guide and to shield”. 

“To feed” speaks of God’s heart to provide for our daily needs -  Jesus even taught us to pray this - “give us today our daily bread”. As a Shepherd, God’s heart is not for us to go hungry or to be in lack. 

“To guide” speaks of God’s heart to guide us through life. “He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake”. He knows the future from the beginning, and he wants to lead us into the plans and purposes He has for our lives because He created us and He knows us!

“To shield” speaks of God’s heart to protect us! To protect us against evil, to protect us against dangerous situations, and not to harm us! I don’t know if I have ever seen a shepherd standing by and looking at one of his sheep being attacked by a wolf! No, on the contrary, we read about the parable of the shepherd that will leave the 99 and go after the one that is lost.

If you feel lost today, if you experience lack, if you sense that you are being attacked, just call on Jesus - His heart was, and is, and will always be - to feed, guide and shield you! Rest in knowing that He is a Good Shepherd and He knows what you need (even before you ask). Talk to Him like a friend and tell Him what is in your heart.

He promises: I will never leave you, nor forsake you. Be encouraged, the Shepherd will look after you.

@Always.in.tune

You can receive the Holy Spirit - the power helper

Have you ever heard someone say to you: It would be to your advantage if I go away? Perhaps you feel this way about some people in your life, but usually, it is on the contrary - we miss people that go away, and their presence is obvious in the void that is left behind. 

And so it was with Jesus. He once made this comment to his disciples in John 16:7

“It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” 

Jesus would often comment on this one, that at the time does not make sense, but later on definitely...

And we are living in that “later” moment. We read of Jesus' ascension into heaven, as well as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, as was also promised in Acts 1:8 (ESV)

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  

The Holy Spirit power-outpouring changed the Peter that denied Jesus into the Peter that stood up and boldly witnessed Jesus and 3000 people came to Christ (Acts 2:41). The Holy Spirit is the one who is sent to help delivers live the God-life.

The same Holy Spirit power-outpouring is available for us today! 

It is easy to receive the Holy Spirit. First, you must believe that Jesus is the one who saves you from your sin and restores the relationship between you and God. Second, you need to ask God for the Holy Spirit, for he gives good gifts to his children. You don't need to strife for it - trust and believe that God will do what he said and be content in him.

Would you allow Him to be poured out in your heart and mind to live a life of power, victory, of witness and influence?

He is our Power Helper! 

God wants to restore

Have you ever restored something? Like an old car, an old wooden furniture piece, or even a fixer-upper piece of property? There is something satisfying in restoring an old piece! According to the dictionary, to restore means to “bring back to a former or original condition”. Old wood comes to life when it is sanded down and varnished, a coat of paint on a building dresses it up for the eye to enjoy looking at! 

And apart from the fact that we want to restore something to its original condition, it almost always will increase in value.

When something is restored in the Scriptures, it is always increased, multiplied, or improved so that its latter state is significantly better than its original state.

Joel 2:25-27 say it so beautifully:

25 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. 26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; And My people shall never be put to shame. 27 Then you shall know that I am amid Israel: I am the Lord your God And there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame. Joel 2:25-27 (NKJV)

God multiplies when He restores. And so, in His restoration work today, in your life, God wants to bring a restoration so that your days to come will be better than your days gone past! Don't give up, or give in to doubt and fear. Keep on trusting that God is a restorer and declare it over your life.

But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

Proverbs 4:18 (ESV)

@Aways.in.tune

What are you thinking?

 Do you still remember when you started to write in school? Can you remember that you had to write with a pencil, not a pen. The reason is obvious, if you made a mistake you can quickly erase it, and replace it with the right letter or word.

It reminds me of the spiritual principle: Erase to Replace….

Erase negative thoughts and replace them with godly thoughts…

Erase wrong beliefs and replace them with right beliefs…

Erase lies and replace them with the truth…

God gave us His word to do all the replacements that need to be done!

Our part is to take action, to intentionally take the eraser and wipe out the negativity, the wrong beliefs and the lies and replace it with what God says about it! To do that you need to know what God says. Read the Bible and think about it.

And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His plan and purpose for you].  Rom 12:2 (Amp) 

When that negative thought comes, deliberately think about something God says in his word about it and replace the thought with a right one.

Erase to Replace…

@Always.in.tune