Prayer Week
January 1-7, 2023
Daily Prayer Points and Devotions
For daily devotion on prayer with Pastor Brian
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Devotions taken from
Principles of Prayer by Charles G. Finney
Compiled & Edited by Louis Gifford Parkhurst, Jr.
Copyright 1980, 2001
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Excerpts taken from Finney, Charles G.. Principles of Prayer Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Prevailing or effectual prayer is the prayer that attains
the blessing it seeks. It is the prayer that effectually
moves God.The very idea of effectual prayer is
that it affects its object.
Day 1 — Sunday, January 1
Effectual Prayer
There are two kinds of means requisite to promote a revival: one to influence men, the other to influence God. The truth is employed to influence men, and prayer is employed to move God. When I speak of moving God, I do not mean that God’s mind is changed by prayer or that His disposition or character is changed. But prayer produces such a change in us as renders it consistent for God to do as it would not be consistent for Him to do otherwise. When a sinner repents, that change of life makes it proper for God to forgive him. God has always been ready to forgive on that condition so that when the sinner changes his feelings and repents, it requires no change of feeling in God to pardon him. It is the sinner’s repentance that renders His forgiveness proper and is the occasion of God’s acting as He does. So when Christians offer effectual prayer, their state of feeling renders it proper for God to answer them. He was never unwilling to bestow the blessing— on the condition that they repented, and offered the right kind of prayer.
Pray for Something Definite
Many people go away into a room alone to pray, simply because ‘‘they must say their prayers. ’’The time has come for their daily habit of going off by themselves for prayer— whether in the morning or at noon or whatever time of day it may be. But instead of having anything particular to say, any definite object before their mind, they fall on their knees and pray for whatever floats through their imagination at the time, and when they are done they can hardly tell you a word of what they have said. This is not effectual prayer… A man must have some definite objective in mind. He cannot pray effectually for a variety of things at once. The mind is so constituted that it cannot focus its desire intensely upon many things at the same time. All the instances of effectual prayer recorded in the Bible are focused on one thing. Wherever you see that the blessing sought in prayer was attained, you will find that the prayer offered was a prayer for a particular objective.
PRAYER POINTS DAY 1
2023: A Year of Transition
Personally
Corporately
Salvation, Families
The lost saved, prodigals return
Marriage, children, family unity
If you mean to pray effectually, you must pray a great deal. It was said of the apostle James that after he was dead it was found that his knees were calloused like a camel’s knees from praying so much. Ah, here was the secret of the success of those early ministers. They had calloused knees!
Divine healing and deliverance
Financial breakthrough
Spirits of mammon and poverty broken
Spirits of addiction broken
Truth, by itself, will never produce the effect without the Spirit of God, and the Spirit is given in answer to prayer. Sometimes it happens that those who are the most engaged in employing truth are not the most engaged in prayer. This is always unfortunate. For unless they have the spirit of prayer (or unless someone else has), the truth, by itself, will do nothing but harden men in impenitence. Probably in the Day of Judgment it will
be found that nothing is ever done by the truth, used ever so zealously, unless there is a spirit of prayer somewhere in connection with the presentation of the truth…
Pastors, Staff, Leadership
Life Groups, HALT, Servants of the House
Isaiah 58, Celebrate Recovery, TPM Prayer
Creative Arts, Breakout, Kingdom Kids
Friday Night Lights, Women’s Ministry
Encounters, Book Nook,
Christian Voice School of Ministry
Outreaches, Volunteers
Glory of God to be manifest
To pray for things contrary to the revealed will of God is to tempt God. There are three ways in which God’s will is revealed to men for their guidance in prayer.
It is just as plain here as if it were revealed by a voice from heaven that the Spirit of God helps the people of God to pray according to the will of God when they themselves know not what they ought to pray for. ‘‘And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will ’’ (Romans 8:27), and He leads Christians to pray for just those things ‘‘with groans that
words cannot express. ’’When neither the Word nor Providence enables them to decide, let them be ‘‘filled with the Spirit, ’’as God commands them to be. He says, ‘‘Be filled with the Spirit ’’(Ephesians 5:18). And He will lead their minds to those things God is willing to grant.
Governor, State Legislature, Mayor, City Council, County Commissioners
Effectual prayer for a particular object implies a desire for that object commensurate with its importance. If a person truly desires any blessing, his desires will bear some proportion to the greatness of the blessing. The desires of the Lord Jesus Christ for the blessing He prayed for were amazingly strong, amounting even to agony. If the desire for an object is strong, and is a benevolent desire, and the thing is not contrary to the
will and providence of God, the presumption is that it will be granted. There are two reasons for the presumption:
boldness and importunity? Not at all; instead, He granted him the very thing he prayed for.
Foreign Missions, Surge Churches
Missions: House of Hope International, Havlins
Servant Leadership Ministries, Perú, Taiwan,
Doubtless one great reason why God requires the exercise of this agonizing prayer is that it forms such a bond of union between Christ and the church. It creates such empathy between them. It is as if Christ comes and pours the overflow-ings of His own benevolent heart into His people, and leads them to sympathize and to cooperate with Him as they never do in any other way.
Lord Jesus Christ, saying, “Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me” (Isaiah 8:18. See also Hebrews 2:13).
Local Missions, Making disciples,
Harvest Long-Term Goals
New believers, Spiritual growth
• worshipping God (John 4:21-23),
• training and equipping mature, effective ministry (Ephesians 4:12-16),
• demonstrating the love of God (Matthew 22:37-40), and
• reaching our region with the Good News of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19-20).
– In a functioning New Testament Church.
– That salvation is available through a personal acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
– In a Believer’s Baptism by Immersion and partake of the Lord’s Supper.
– That the gifts of the Holy Spirit are active in the church today according to Acts 2, Mark 16:15-18 and I Cor. 12.
– In the Great Commission, that the gospel must be preached to the ends of the earth in preparation for the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Matthew 28:18-20)