Among my favorite teachers on the skills, knowhow and effects of fasting is a guy by the name of Franklin Hall. I have one of his books HERE that you can read or even print off if you’d like It’s called “Fasting: God’s Atomic Power!” Hall worked with a number of the healing evangelists in [...]
Among my favorite teachers on the skills, knowhow and effects of fasting is a guy by the name of Franklin Hall.
I have one of his books HERE that you can read or even print off if you’d like
It’s called “Fasting: God’s Atomic Power!”
Hall worked with a number of the healing evangelists in the mid twentieth century and seemed to be respected by them all.
I read this book and another one that I have every once in a while and find myself fasting because it is anointed…
Having read the preceding parts of “Prayer That Will Change The World,” we now should discuss the “importune prayer” that Jesus taught his disciples about in Luke chapter eleven. (Luke 11:5 – 9 NKJV) And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to [...]
Having read the preceding parts of “Prayer That Will Change The World,” we now should discuss the “importune prayer” that Jesus taught his disciples about in Luke chapter eleven.
(Luke 11:5 – 9 NKJV) And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’?
“I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.”
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
“For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
The issue of the effects of prayer are much that same here as in the parable of the unrighteous judge. A key word is however mistranslated from the King James and in most English versions. This word “persistence” is more literally defined from the Greek text as “shamelessness.” The original Biblical Greek word from which it is rendered, has to do with the “face of shame” with the prefix reversing its actual meaning. In other words, this should be translated as “face without shame.”
Because of the grace of God that has been given unto the believer through believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, we are herein required to “face” this great and glorious throne of grace without shame, believing that He will give to you what you are asking.
The culture from which Jesus spoke was also of great influence in the listeners understanding at the time. Friends did not come to visit without receiving the best hospitality possible and one would beg or borrow anything needed to make one’s guests know hospitality. The greater shame would be to not be hospitable.
It is never too late an hour for God. He has not ever shut up the heavens from you. You may knock on that great gate of heaven and it will be opened unto you as you face it without shame. Unbelief is the shame of the Christian. Faith is our boldness. Faith in Jesus Christ and the fact that He has done all of the work for us in order that we can come to God without hindrance, without rejection.
Apostolic Direction For Prayer:
(1 Tim 2:1 – 8 NKJV) ”Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle; I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying; a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.”
There is an apostolic command that becomes a spiritual strategy for a city, community or nation.
Supplications are an intercessory work; the pleading of someone’s case before the Judge. Presenting the facts of the case. Letting the Judge hear and see the testimony of the evidence. This is the first and most important step of spirit intercession.
Approaching The Lord With Your Need Face Up!
“And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, ‘Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.’ Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, ‘See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’” (Matthew 8:2 – 4 NKJV)
Once again, Jesus has healed a leper. This time the leper comes with a different approach to Him of his healing. What the leper does not do is ask Him if it is His “WILL.” The word “will” in its original text means, passion and desire. The statement, which the leper makes unto Jesus, is a loving idiom, saying, “You can heal me if you’d like to!” Jesus replies, “I’d love to!”
Because this act of heaven touching earth was between Jesus and the man who was cleansed, Jesus asked the man to go give a proper testimony of his healing and deliverance an obey the word of God!
In the same way, Jesus desires to heal you! Come to Him with the same kind of humility that this leper did and He will do the same for you that He did for him! Be sure that you account for your miracle and give testimony!
There is an old saying that is thought provoking in itself: “We are never so high as when we are on our knees.”
In Luke Eleven, Jesus was “praying in a certain place…” We need to enter into that place daily just as He did, and learn how to pray. His effectiveness in prayer was obvious to His disciples. So much so that they asked him to teach them how to pray.
On several occasions in both the gospels and the epistles we are given apostolic instructions concerning prayer.
I believe that following lines of prayer are apostolically important to this time and I seen them as biblical orders for apostolic prayer that will bring reviving life to any region!
1. Pray and ask believing! Without faith it is impossible to please God!
“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.’” (Mark 11:23 – 24 NKJV)
2. Pray that you enter not into temptation!
“When He came to the place, He said to them, ‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’” (Luke 22:40 NKJV)
3. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you!
“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,” (Matthew 5:44 NKJV)
This does not mean that we are to get out the “Killer Psalms” to pray for them, but rather speak blessings into their lives just as you would those who are dear to you. Stop cursing and start prophesying.
4. Pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into His harvest field!
“Then He said to them, ‘The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’” (Luke 10:2 NKJV) also found in Matthew 9:36,
5. Pray for boldness! To speak his word with confidence!
“‘Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.’ And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:29 – 31 NKJV)
“Our prayers will pull down false leaders and raise up the true ones. We open closed doors and bring light into dark places. We close doors of immoral businesses and clear the path for righteous business!”
If you have now read the preceding part of “Prayer That Will Change The World” you will know that we are on a quest to build notable and even measurable skills in prayer so that we are not religiously exercising some unknown discipline but we are actually partnering with God to see the will of the Father being done upon the Earth today.
As people of prayer we reign with the Lord Jesus being “seated together” with Him as He is seated at the right hand of majesty. He shares His throne of regal rule with us in united prayer. We are gathered together with Him!
The Lord hears the righteous. His judgments are just and true. If we seat ourselves with Him (by praying) we execute judgment upon the nations (Psalm 149) and this is an honor that He bestows upon us.
“Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand, To execute vengeance on the nations, And punishments on the peoples; To bind their kings with chains, And their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute on them the written judgment; This honor have all His saints. Praise the LORD!” (Psalms 149:6 – 9 NKJV)
We do not look at the work of the devil. We look down upon his strongholds. We thwart his strategic maneuvers. We break the bonds of his captives. We release his prisoners from the prisons that he has placed them in.
Our prayers will pull down false leaders and raise up the true ones. We open closed doors and bring light into dark places. We close doors of immoral businesses and clear the path for righteous business!
We pray and resistant people become receptive or they flee.
By prayer the Church is mobilized. ”As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’” (Acts 13:2 NKJV)
Laborers of the harvest are sent to the fields and prayer will empower His workers to do signs, wonders and miracles in His name.
Jesus told the seventy as He sent them out, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest . . . and heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” (Luke 10:2 & 9 NKJV)
Prayer will reveal the apostles and prophets, the evangelists, shepherds and teachers that are not yet represented at His throne. They are delivered out from their places in the darkness of the world and placed into their dwelling places with the Father.
It is no wonder that Satan will distract us from our places of prayer and intercession. Yet we must become history makers. We must change the course of the generation and its destiny – direct its future by the will of God!
In the state of prayer we are kingdom shaking, nation taking, revival pouring, miracle working, light emitting, bondage breaking, devil stomping, etc. etc.
May the fire from the altar of heaven fall on every place, every people and every government and every business that you name! As you stand with your High King and annunciate the holy Father’s will.
There is no doubt in any Christian’s mind that prayer is important to the Christ filled life style. But too often in the general populace of the Church there is little regard for that important conversation with God and its insert into the busy lifestyle of the individual. “So much to do – so little [...]
There is no doubt in any Christian’s mind that prayer is important to the Christ filled life style. But too often in the general populace of the Church there is little regard for that important conversation with God and its insert into the busy lifestyle of the individual.
“So much to do – so little time!” is what we say. Time being our most important commodity of the day brings about judgments as to how we will actually spend each second of our allotment from sun to sun. Perhaps if prayer were more effective than formerly experienced we would place it as a higher priority and even see that with prayer we could actually get more done and therefore have more time.
Let us define prayer and then see its importance and effectiveness in our lives. Is prayer simply the articulation of our heart and mind to a Sovereign God that will hopefully curry His favor and get Him to act on our behalf? Is prayer an act of our obedience whereby an account is being kept in heaven to the measure of amounts of time or intensity? Do we get more “points” for doing it and less for forgetting? These questions reveal varying degrees of misconception within the Church.
Unless we are convinced of the efficiency of prayer, and unless we give great importance to the works of faith we do through prayer, then as long as we are upon this planet we will accomplish very little in comparison to that great gift of life that the Father has given unto us.
Prayer is fundamental and is that central fiber of the Kingdom of God. Prayer is not optional in our relationship with the Lord. Neither should prayer ever be considered as our “last resort” after all of our other efforts have miserably failed. If we think about it, when we say, “All we can do is pray,” we are stating that the priority of prayer is on the bottom of the list. This mentality dismisses the effectiveness and efficiency of prayer and is costing us valuable time, as well as competency of the labors that we do.
Prayer is our central ministry without argument.
In all of this, I do not suggest that we ought to live in condemnation by missing our “morning prayer” or subliminally considering the ineffectiveness of prayer in any way. Although the Old Testament considers the lack of prayer a sin (1 Samuel 12:23) the New Covenant states that our sins are forgiven. (1 John 1:8)
Instead, I am suggesting that if we were to enter the “school of prayer” we would find that the most efficient use of our time is to pray the day through. We do not simply pray because it is our work. We pray and prayer does the work. There is a realm above the natural that is moved by our faith in Christ – when we articulate our heart’s faith the authority of the heavenly realm takes action. I once heard someone say, “When man works, man works. When man prays, heaven works on his behalf.”
In 1957, while in his mid forties, golf great Ben Hogan wrote, “In fact, once you are on the right track in golf, doing things the right way takes a lot less effort than the wrong way does.”
The same is obviously true when we learn to pray the “correct way.” The “school of prayer” then, is a place of gained efficiency whereby we learn to live smarter and not harder.
We are co-laborers with the Lord and with the angels when our faith arises and we declare His great promises and unite our hearts to His. The ability to intercede is given unto us as a great privilege and not a task list to a slave.
In Luke eleven Jesus was praying in a certain place. Because He was so extremely efficient in His ability to pray and see the will of His Father being done, His disciples ask Him to teach them how to pray. Not only did He give them what is commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer,” but also listed three simplified, yet powerful, forms of prayer.
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Luke 11:9 & 10 NKJV)
These three forms I call:
- Petitioning Prayer – Ask
- Envisioning Prayer – Seek
- Proclamation Prayer – Knock
Without relevant eschatology, we find in Revelation chapter five through eight the mystery of the seven seals being revealed.
Jesus is at the helm of this universe and its great destiny. In Revelation six and seven the Lord releases some amazing forces upon this world. The darkness of Satan has become the theatre for the light of Christ and only enhances His glory by the contrast it provides.
Today there are wars and rumors of them. There is terrorism, pestilence, new diseases and persistent bondages. There are famines earthquakes and cataclysmic disturbances, making record numbers of widows, orphans and homeless. The prayers of the saints are empowered by lightnings, thunder and fire!
But God is a just and loving God. Once prayer arrives at the throne the answer is fire. Fire comes in answer to the prayer of God’s people.
- The fire of judgment.
- The fire of passion.
- The fire of cleansing.
Fire comes from the altar in heaven. Incense is the intercession of the saints. The works of darkness are the target of the Lamb of God and the prayers of the saints, yet the will of God is preeminent to all who are workers in the light. Only one is worthy to break the seals of the great book. His will is prayed by the saints and He does the will of God upon the earth. Come Kingdom of God! The Spirit of the Bride say Come!
Because of the “big plan” of God let us not be too conscience of the enemies plans.
For, Satan is not:
- Omnipresent: Present everywhere simultaneously
- Omnipotent: Having unlimited or universal power, authority, or force; all-powerful
- Omniscient: Having total knowledge; knowing everything
- Omnificent: (adj.) om·nif·i·cent 1. creating all things; having unlimited powers of creation
- All-seeing: Seeing everything at one time
The devil requires that his kingdom be operated by evil and deceiving spirits, that cannot be trusted by even himself. Therefore, he and the kingdom of darkness are in constant turmoil. That kingdom is crumbling at this very moment.
“You are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”
(John 8:44 NKJV)
There is a direct truth that includes faith, humility & mercy. These completely undo all of the works of the devil.
- Faith in His promises
- Yielding to His present power
- Believing in His mercy
Jesus said, “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matthew 9:13 NKJV)
Let us be God conscious in our praying, saying, “Come Kingdom of God; be done will of God, on earth as it is in heaven!”
Our prayers ought to be to God about His “big plan” and not talking to the devil all the time! We can laugh long and hard because of the victorious plan of our triumphant King!
With the results of our prayers being fire we have awesome authority in the workings of this universe. Adam only gave names to all the animals, whereby we give fire from the heart of God.
I believe that it’s possible that there was silence in heaven wile God awaited the prayer of the saints. This was an act of His will. He desired to work in partnership with His children rather than in sovereign rule over them.
Once God gets partnering agreement His involvement, by His love for His people, is in tact and He answers with His fire!
Now, revival also comes by fire. (See Acts 1:4; 2:1 – 
James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven upon some Samaritans. Jesus did not deny their abilities or their authority to call fire down. He questioned only the motive and condition of their hearts. “And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?’ But He turned and rebuked them, and said, ‘You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.’” (Luke 9:54 & 55 NKJV)
Jesus longed to kindle the fire! “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49 NKJV)
To call down fire is an awesome authority and responsibility! Let us pray with fire!
