Prayer of the New Testament Church

Message Date: December 19, 2018
Bible

Stan Roberts

 

The success of prayer in our life is when we don’t just have a prayer ‘list’ but a prayer ‘life’!

Ephesians 6:18 GW

18 Pray in the Spirit in every situation. Use every kind of prayer and request there is. For the same reason be alert. Use every kind of effort and make every kind of request for all of God’s people.

Prayers that:

Changed history

Teach us how to pray

Build our hope

Activate our faith

Stretch our belief

Touch heaven and change earth!

James 5:16 NKJV

16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

James 5:16 NLT

… The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”

James 5:16 AMPC

… The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available dynamic in its working.”

My life and those around me NEED THIS!

Acts 12:1-18 NIV

It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the 1 church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.

3 When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. 4 After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance.

7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

8 Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him.

9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.

10 They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”

12 When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying.

13 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door.

14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

15 “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”

16 But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

17 Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.

18 In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter.” NIV 18-12:5 ctsA

Thank God that our doubt does not disqualify the deliverance of God that can happen in our life!

Freedom can happen in someone’s life TODAY because YOU LEARN HOW TO PRAY!

Learn how to pray through a PROBLEM,

how to pray through BROKENNESS,

how to pray through DEFEAT, LOSS,

FEELINGS & DOUBTS

OTHER PEOPLE’S CHALLENGES AND INFLUENCES, etc!

We can ALL LEARN how to pray through different situations!

5 ingredients of prayers that work:

1. Where there is pressure or pain.

Psalm 18:6 NIV

6 In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.

Could it be that the chaos is what drives me to God!

1Thessalonians 5:18 KJV

2. With Passion.

Hebrews 9-5:7 NIV

7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered

9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him

3. With persistence.

Jonah 2:1 NIV

“From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.”

4. In PARTNERSHIP with others.

Matthew 18:19 NIV

19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

The is a POWER in AGREEMENT!

It’s POWERFUL when you find someone to AGREE WITH YOU.

Be that voice of faith that others can agree with..

5. Focus on the person of Jesus Christ!

John 14:13-14 NIV

13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

There is Power and healing in that name!

That name to me means…

Light

Healing

Deliverance

Freedom

Love