Tag Archives: church

Forty Days of Praying the Word of God: Day 12

“As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow Me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed Him.”

Matthew 4:18-20

Jesus, I pray to be a fully abandoned follower, willing to abandon my current pursuits, my current way of life, to leave all I know in order to obey Your call to “come, follow Me”.

And I pray it for Your Church. May we hear Your voice call out to us to follow You into what You’re doing in the earth right now, and I pray we will be willing to drop our programs, drop our goals and plans, let it all go for You. May we drop our nets that have caught followers of ministries, followers of performances, followers of popularity. Call us again, Jesus. Call out to Your Church to drop everything and follow You, so that You can make us fishers of people for You, not us.

Make us an abandoned people, God, abandoned to obedience, abandoned to our first love, abandoned to Your Spirit. Abandon us to the Gospel, Lord, and fill us with power and a burning desire to see the lost enter into Your Kingdom, to see those You are pursuing step into eternal life.

Call us again, Jesus, bid us to follow You and be transformed again. Call us to drop everything that would keep us rooted in place, so that we can be free to truly be Your disciples.

In Your Name I pray. Amen

Forty Days of Praying the Word of God: Day 11

“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.”

Romans 8:14-15

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

Galatians 5:24-25

God I pray that we will, now more than ever, follow the leading of Your Spirit. I pray that the spirit that is leading the culture around us will not lead our thoughts, our opinions, our actions, or our words. I pray that Your people will know and follow the Holy Spirit in increasing measures.

I pray we will not fear what the world fears. I pray that You will release Your people from slavery to fear, allowing them to walk and live confidently as the children of God, led by the Spirit of God. Teach us afresh Lord, what it looks like to be crucified with You, to die to our own flesh in order to live by Your Spirit. Holy Spirit of God, I pray that we will keep in step with You, not ahead of You, not making our own way, but following Your lead in all things.

We belong to You, Father, and You call us Your children. I pray that our hearts will receive the sonship and daughtership that You have given to us, I pray that every wound that keeps us distant from the Father heart of our God will be healed in the Name of Jesus, and that we will walk in new life and new freedom as the children of the Most High God.

Thank You Lord, for taking us as Your own, bringing us into Your family, and giving us Your Holy Spirit as our advocate, our comforter, our teacher, and the One who will continue to remind us of Jesus, His Word and His ways. I ask for a fresh baptism in Your Spirit, a fresh out-pouring, fresh power, and a fresh revelation for Your Church. Come, Holy Spirit, and rest on us, bring forth new life in us.

In the Name of Jesus, amen.

Forty Days of Praying the Word of God: Day 9

“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:14-15

“They shall be Mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up My treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.”

Malachi 3:17-18

Lord God, I pray for holiness to spread through Your people. I pray for a spirit of obedience to rise up within us that will say no to our former passions, our former way of living and speaking and thinking, and say yes to Your ways that are all together different. Father, may Your Church walk in holiness as never before, drawing a holy line in the sand which we will refuse to cross. I pray You will come against every unholy relationship among us, break up our friendship with the world, and call us once again to “come out from among them”.

Your have distinguished Your people from all other people of the earth. We are covered in the blood of Christ, set free from sin, given hearts of flesh in place of hearts of stone, rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the Kingdom of Your Son. We are different, because we belong to You. I pray the distinction will become unblurred, Lord. I pray that Your Church will take up the call to be “other than”, instead of “similar to”. I pray that we will love the lost and speak truth to the lost, but that we will not lose our distinction from them.

Holy Spirit of God, we are the Lord’s treasured possession. Make us holy. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Forty Days of Praying the Word of God: Day 6

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.“

Philippians 2:3-4

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. “

1 Thessalonians 5:23

Father, do a work of humility in us! I pray that Your light will come to shine in our hearts, exposing every place of selfish ambition in us. I pray that every uneven scale of measuring value will be destroyed, in the Name of Jesus. Forgive us Lord, for valuing our own lives above others, valuing our own opinions and even our problems above those of others. Forgive us when our comfort and our own interests come first. Forgive us Father, and cleanse us, I pray.

I pray that a mighty spirit of humility will sweep across Your Church, tearing down selfishness, self-promotion, and even our self-loathing attitudes. I pray that You will root out every prideful, self-full ministry operating in Your Church and dismantle it. I pray, Holy Spirit, that You will bring low every ministry, large or small, that has exalted itself above others. Your word tells us that pride goes before a fall, so I pray that You will sound the alarm on the pride in us as individuals, and as the Body of Christ.

Lord, I pray that You will sanctify Your people through and through. I pray that our minds would be made holy and set apart only for You. Teach us God, to cast unholy thinking from us, to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. I pray that we will walk in sanctified ways Lord, doing nothing from a place of pride or self-promotion, but in all things we will put others before ourselves. May our thoughts, our will, and our bodies be wholly surrendered to You, wholly given to Your purposes.

Cleanse Your people Lord, cleanse us of ourselves. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Forty Days of Praying the Word of God: Day 5

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

1Corinthians 15:58

Thank You Father for the promise that what we do for You and for Your Kingdom will never be in vain. Thank You that You give our work for You purpose and meaning that outlives us.

I pray that You will give us a firm stance. Lord, make us unmoveable in our day. Let us not be blown about by the winds of changing opinions, or even by the persecution to come. I pray we will plant our feet firmly on Your truth, with our faces set like flint toward obedience to Your Word. Father, build up the resolve of Your Church in this hour to stand firm no matter what comes.

I pray for undivided hearts and minds to fill Your people, that we will be given fully to Your work. I pray nothing will be able to distract us or deter us from our calling and our purpose in our generation. Teach us God, to not look to the left or the right, but to keep our gaze upon You, unmoved from who You are and who we are as Your children.

May the work we do be for You and through You and unto You, Lord. I pray we will cease with the lesser works that are done for us, to build our own kingdoms. Let us not labor in vain for our own pleasures Lord, while the labor of Your Kingdom goes undone.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Forty Days Praying the Word of God: Day 3

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My loving eye on you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.

Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in Him.”

Psalm 32:8-10

Father, I lift up my family to You, and I pray that each of us will always come willingly under Your instruction and counsel. I pray that You will instruct, teach, and counsel my children and grandchildren all of their days. I thank You that, because we belong to You, Your loving eye is upon us. I come against any spirit of independence and rebellion that would attempt to lead those I love to turn from You, in the Name of Jesus.

The wicked will have their woes, but as for me and my house, we will trust You and we will be surrounded by Your unfailing love. Thank You for Your promises, Lord. Thank You for Your commitment of love to us. We can feel surrounded by many things in our world today, but I pray we will know and rest in the truth that, as we trust in You, we are surrounded on all sides by the great love of our God.

I pray also for Your Church, Lord, and I pray You will instruct us and teach us in the way we should go in this hour. Increase our understanding of our calling and our mantle. I pray that in these times of trouble, Your people will be found faithful, not fearful, fully surrendered, and unresistant to Your Spirit’s leading. I pray that it will be Your ways that we follow, and Your heart that we desire to please, above all others. May the hearts of Your people be found fully trusting in You, and fully surrounded by Your love.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Postscript: For the last two years or so, God has been calling me back to intercession. Learning to pray God’s Word back to Him in 2004 was an explosion in my prayer life, an explosion that set me on fire for prayer, and that lit up the darkness that surrounded me and my family at the time. I invite you to join me in this 40-day journey of fire, lighting up the darkness of our day.

Feel free to leave prayers of your own, or prayer requests in the comment section. I would love to pray with and for you!

Forty Days of Praying the Word of God: Day 2

“She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me”

Genesis 16:13

You are the God who sees us! Thank You, Father, that nothing in our lives goes unseen by You! Nothing is hidden from Your loving gaze. You see every detail, every tear, every insecurity we cover-up. We are seen and we are known by our Father in heaven. Forgive us Lord, when that truth does not leave us undone.

I pray for fresh encounters for Your people, God. For those who feel unseen and unknown to encounter the gaze of the One who sees them. I pray that just one glance of Your eye will kindle again the fire of our love for You.

I pray that the God who sees us will also purify us with a gaze that misses nothing. I pray that hidden sins in Your Church will come under Your holy eyes of fire and bring repentance. See us o’ God. Search our hearts and reveal every lukewarm place, every idol that is hiding within us. We invite Your gaze, Lord. We need Your gaze.

I pray that Your people will recognize You, Lord. That we will see You amidst the chaos and the fear and the darkness of our day. I pray we will be Your witnesses in the earth, as we see and believe that You are moving in the nations. I pray that we will stop being distracted by darkness, and will once again turn our eyes to heaven.

You are the God who sees us. May we be the people who see You.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen

Postscript: For the last two years or so, God has been calling me back to intercession. Learning to pray God’s Word back to Him in 2004 was an explosion in my prayer life, an explosion that set me on fire for prayer, and that lit up the darkness that surrounded me and my family at the time. I invite you to join me in this 40 day journey of fire, lighting up the darkness of our day.

Feel free to leave prayers of your own, or prayer requests in the comment section. I would love to pray with and for you!