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- Write scripture on a card that you can carry through the week
with you. Reflect on it often, asking the Spirit to illuminate your
understanding of the statements and to open your mind and heart
to how it can enrich the way you pray. Consider committing it to
memory, so that it can prompt you whenever you spend time in prayer.
(Two suggestions would be John 15:7 and James 4:3)
- Set aside five to ten minutes each day to practice listening for
guidance as a prelude to intercessory prayer. Ask God to guide your
thoughts and desires toward the people and concerns the Spirit wants
you to pray about.
- Ask God to direct your imagination toward a particular person
or context in need of healing, envisioning the restoration that
God can bring about. Use this imagery to help guide your prayer.
- Practice “flash prayers” as you notice the needs of
those around you.
- Select one or more Scripture passages that enrich your understanding
of prayer, motivate you to pray, or present models or forms of prayer
that you want to incorporate. Review them frequently, commit them
to memory, and pray that the Spirit would illuminate your heart
and mind with their truth. During time that you set aside for prayer,
use them to usher yourself into prayer or to shape and inform the
way that you pray.
- Choose a good book on prayer to refresh and stimulate your practice.
Read slowly and reflectively, one portion at a time, while concurrently
spending as much or more time actually praying. Do not let reading
become a substitute for praying.
- Deepen your practice of intercessory prayer by choosing a few
individuals or groups for whom you will pray in an intensified way
in coming weeks and months. Establish a schedule of prayer times,
and write down very specific requests, changing or adjusting those
requests as is appropriate during the duration of your intensified
intercession for them. During these prayer times, seek God’s
leading by listening for divine guidance regarding the nature of
the prayer you are about offer, perhaps in the form of a mental
picture of what the Spirit desires to do in this person’s
life.
- Repeat the practice of “flash prayers” often enough
that it begins to characterize your spontaneous response to people
and circumstances around you-whether you encounter them personally,
indirectly through others’ conversations, or by way of print
or broadcast media. Practice this instant intercession in a variety
of contexts: waiting at a red light; in line at the bank or grocery
store; commuting to work; during and after telephone calls; while
reading the newspaper, listening to the radio, or watching TV news;
chance meetings or encounters. The possibilities are endless.
Models of intercession:
* 1 Samuel 2:1-10 and Luke 1:46-55 (praise and thanksgiving for
the miraculous work of God in human history)
* Ephesians 1:16-19 (for growth in spiritual depth and wisdom)
* Philippians 1:3-6 (for partners in ministry)
* 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 (remembrance of fellow believers)
Results of prayer:
* Isaiah 30:19-22 (God’s responsiveness to us: divine
guidance
* Jeremiah 29:12-13 (God’s responsiveness to us)
* Matthew 18:19-20 (what happens when we pray in
community)
* 1 John 1:9 (the prayer of confession)
“How-to” passages on prayer:
* Psalm 62:8 (how to honest in prayer)
* Psalm 136:1-3, 26 (how to pray)
* Matthew 6:5-14 (how and what to pray)
* John 15:7 (the proper context for expecting
answers to prayers)
* Ephesians 6:18 (when and how to pray)
* Philippians 4:4-7 (how to experience joy and
peace through prayer)
* Hebrews 4:14-16 (how to approach God in
prayer)
* James 1:5-8 (how to approach God in prayer)
* James 4:3 (how not to pray, and an explanation
unanswered prayer)
* 1 John 3:19-24 (how to be confident in prayer)
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