I Prayed About It (But What Does That Mean) – Part 5

Review

Earlier this month, we started a series titled, “I prayed about it. (But what does that mean?)”

The objective of this series is to get you to pray. . .

• Sincerely (Put your heart in it)
• Biblically (Follow Scriptural patterns and instructions)
• Attentively (Be responsive to promptings from the Spirit and your observations)
• Regularly (Make prayer a daily practice)
• Persistently (Pray through delays and denials)

In this series, we’re covering four prayer-related topics:

• The Posture of Prayer (My attitude)
• The Content of Prayer (My words)
• The Practice of Prayer (My habits)
• The Accessories of Prayer (My help)

Last week, we covered the practice of prayer.

Today, our focus is on the accessories of prayer.

Prayer Comes With Accessories

• Mark 11:22, 24 (ESV): ²² And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. . . .²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
• 1 John 5:14–15 (ESV): ¹⁴ And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
• Hebrews 11:6 (ESV): ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
• Psalm 103:7 (ESV): ⁷ He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.
• Hebrews 12:1–2 (ESV): ¹ . . . .let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. . . .
• Philippians 4:6 (ESV): ⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
• James 4:3 (ESV): ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
• Asking to know Jesus better is the ultimate prayer request.

The Scripture

Knowing Jesus and knowing the Scripture are inseperable.

• Scripture tells us who Jesus is.
• Scripture tells us what Jesus said.
• Scriptuer tells us what Jesus wants us to believe.

The Scripture helps us develp our faith.

• Romans 10:17 (NKJV): ¹⁷ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
• Psalm 119:11 (NKJV): ¹¹Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.
• Proverbs 4:4 (ESV): ⁴ he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live.
• The only way to retain someone’s words in your heart is to revisit them through meditation.
• Psalm 1:1–3 (ESV): ¹Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; ² but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
• Joshua 1:8 (ESV): ⁸ This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
• Deuteronomy 6:6–9 (ESV): ⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
• Philippians 4:8 (ESV): ⁸ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
• Romans 12:2 (ESV): ² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
• Colossians 3:2 (ESV): ² Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

The Scripture gives us a vocabulary for prayer content.

Godly Counsel

• Proverbs 14:12 (ESV): ¹² There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
• Proverbs 12:15 (ESV): ¹⁵ The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.
• Proverbs 28:26 (ESV): ²⁶ Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.
• Proverbs 11:14 (ESV): ¹⁴ Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
• Proverbs 19:20 (ESV): ²⁰ Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.
• Proverbs 24:5–6 (ESV): ⁵ A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might, ⁶ for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.

The Holy Spirit

• John 14:16 (ESV): ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
• John 14:26 (ESV): ²⁶ But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
• John 16:13 (ESV): ¹³ When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Praying in the Spirit

• Jude 20 (ESV): ²⁰ But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, . . .
• Ephesians 6:18 (ESV): ¹⁸ praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. . . .
• Romans 8:26–27 (ESV): ²⁶ Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. ²⁷ And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Spiritual Language (Speaking in Tongues)

• “For we do not know what to pray for as we ought”
• Sometimes my mind is not equipped with the words for what my prayer need requires:
• 1 Corinthians 14:14 (ESV): ¹⁴ For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.
• 1 Corinthians 14:2 (ESV): ² For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.
• “the Spirit himself intercedes for us”
• The Holy Spirit provides the words:
• Acts 2:4 (ESV): ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in
• “the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
• 1 Corinthians 2:11 (ESV): ¹¹ For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
• John 16:13 (ESV): . ¹³ When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. . .

The purpose of praying in tongues is not to be confused but to be clear.

• 1 Corinthians 14:13 (ESV): ¹³ Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.
• 1 Corinthians 14: 6 (ESV): ⁶ Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?

Pray for the gift of speaking in toungues:

• 1 Corinthians 14:1(ESV): ¹ Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts. .
  • If spiritual gifts can be desired, then they can be prayed for
• 1 Corinthians 14:13 (ESV): ¹³ Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.
• If you can pray for the gift of interpretation, then you can pray for the gift of speaking in tongues.
• 1 Corinthians 14:39 (ESV): ³⁹ So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.
• Speaking in tongues should not prohibited (but encouraged along with the other spiritual gifts)
• Speaking in Tongues

Establish a prayer life and not just a prayer practice

The Father, The Family, The Kingdom

• We should already be facing that direction.
• Are you praying to draw close to God to begin with

While you can seek God in an emergency – harder to hear Him if you have not already been seeking him (individually and collectively)

The significance of corporate prayer – God speaks in those meetings and in response to those meetings + another way of praying the us/we/our from the Lord’s prayer

Aligning Our Heart with the heart of God

Speaking in tongues.

Setting up ourselves to hear

• Be in the Word
• Be in the community
• Spiritual gifts
• Be submitted to Wise counsel
• Which means you need to have wise counsel

The importance of praying to draw close to God

• To Remember
• Deuteronomy 8:11 (ESV): ¹¹ “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today,
• 2 Kings 22:11–13 (ESV): ¹¹ When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. ¹² And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, ¹³ “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”
• 2 Kings 23:2–3 (ESV): ² And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. ³ And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.