Our Starting Place for Prayer

EPISODE EXPANSION

Prayer often becomes one of the disciplines of Christianity instead of being one of our greatest delights. But what if prayer isn’t about trying to find an answer? What if it’s about praying with THE answer? In today’s episode, we’ll discover why our inheritance in Christ is always our starting place for prayer.

The time has come for a new way of prayer.

Paradoxically, this new method is actually an ancient way of prayer, one in which God’s faithful servants like David and Paul flourished. I call it “crafted prayer,” and the miracles I have seen as a result of it are too numerous for me to record. There is such a joy in being able to pray exactly what God wills for a person and seeing His answer unfold before your very eyes. This type of prayer can transform Christians from living in a persistent widow mindset (Luke 18:1–8) into living in joyous, bride-like intercession. Allow me to explain.

I believe God is taking many into a new season of intimate, bride-like prayer. Real warfare in the Kingdom of God is always concerned with the battle for intimacy. This is a time to come off the battlefield and enter a new place of intimate petition. Too many intercessors have become exhausted and too burned out to continue praying the way the Church has been advocating. As we learn to become conformed to God and His nature, and be transformed in our minds and personalities, He will teach us to look beyond the natural into the supernatural realm and see the Kingdom of Heaven at work in every need. It will no longer matter what life, people, or even the enemy throw at us, because we will be able to hear the conversation in Heaven and understand that God is at work all around us.

Don’t pray against the enemy, but let your delighted prayers cause the King to stir Himself.

It is time to come off the wall and rest in the throne room presence of God—in our secret place in Him. It will be difficult for some people to come out of ministry and move into the delight of resting in God, but the delight of rest must be entered; it is a time of laying down ministry to gain fresh intimacy.

Don’t pray with importunity, like the widow before the unjust judge in Luke 18, but pray with delight and favor. God’s anointing will cause you to intercede with joy so that His glory will fill the Earth. What is the glory of God? In Exodus 33:18–19, when Moses asked God to show His glory, God said He would cause His goodness to pass before him. One of the glories of God, therefore, is that He is good!

As bridal intercessors, it will be our joy and delight to pray for the goodness of God to come down so that the Church can learn that we really do overcome evil with good. The Holy Spirit will give us a new strategy for prayer and perseverance; one that contains delight and laughter, and is full of ardent and passionate love, bathed in fresh worship, and birthed out of a deeper intimacy. I believe crafted prayer is part of this shift.

As bridal intercessors, it will be our joy and delight to pray for the goodness of God to move across the earth.

The Church can learn that we really do overcome evil with good. The Holy Spirit will give us a new strategy for prayer and perseverance; one that contains delight and laughter, and is full of ardent and passionate love, bathed in fresh worship, and birthed out of a deeper intimacy. I believe crafted prayer is part of this shift.

As we come and petition the Lord out of this place of closeness, He will be pleased to speak into our hearts His favor and blessing. Not only will our prayers move His heart and heads, but the words we receive from Him will be like a balm of Gilead across the nations, and churches will rise up in fresh favor. The attention of the Church will be taken off the enemy and put on the King of kings.

Let us pray that a revelation of the Lord’s love for us would fill our hearts, that we may come into a whole new place of spiri-
tuality, a whole new place of walking with Him, where we will be convinced that God loves us, cares for us and is for us—and
that He wants us to succeed. Amen!

Want to learn more? Tune in to today’s podcast as we explore the power of praying WITH God.

P.S. Crafted Prayer is available as a book at Brilliant Book House! Find it HERE.

As always, thanks for listening!

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