Build your War Room – Session 1
November 11, 2015
I am an amateur! I am not here to teach you how to build your war room. I am here for us to build our war rooms together. I want us to learn how to pray, fellowship, be still and know …. TOGETHER. I am so excited to see what our Awesome Father does in us, for us and with us during our transformation.
We are going to work together, we are going to actively write our prayers. Specific Strategic, Scripture based prayers based on God’s scripture.
In the book Fervent… Patricia says, if you want a book “about” prayer this one is not for you! We are not going to talk about prayer in this group either. We are going to Pray! Join the battle. Patricia says, “this is war! The fight of our lives.” She is right! Satan is on the attack. He is after our marriages, our children, our mind and emotions, our futures, our very own salvation and the salvation of those you love.
Look at your life, family, job, church, witness. Precision in prayer is key. Consider where and how you feel Satan is attacking you and yours. Write them down…
1. Does anyone want to share any of the areas they have realized, and maybe hadn’t before just now, that the Devil is waging a war directly against you in a specific area?
If you are like me: Here is my challenge. Let’s try something new TOGETHER. Let’s Pray Fervently, faithfully and with focus specifically directed at these areas where we are being attacked.
List out the following:
What frustrates you?
What worries you?
What defeats you?
What exasperates you?
What angers you?
What taunts you?
What deflates you?
What makes impossible demands on you?
I have provided each of you with a notebook. (If you are only following the Blog, you must go get your own notebook! (Go on, get it now!) My 9 year old is a little bit infatuated with this process of writing out prayers. I have already seen amazing changes in him. He prays! He does it well! He asks me to pray with him, but he prays himself too. It is a pretty amazing blessing to hear your 9 year old pray out loud for you. The first time he saw his name written down in my prayer journal, he was impressed. He said, “Mom why is my name written down there?” I told him it was there because I was praying for him. I was praying for his present, his future, his wife he would have one day, his children he would have one day. He simply said…”Wow that is cool!” He prays for his family (even his brother and sisters!). I pray that he is so much further in his walk with Christ because he’s getting to see this legacy of prayer from a young age.
I loved this so I want to say it word for word from the book….”You don’t need to learn ten-dollar words and be able to spout them with theological ease. You just need to bring your honest, transparent, available – and let’s just say it – your fed-up, over-it, stepped-on-your-last-nerve self, and be ready to become fervently relentless.”
How persistent are you in your daily life about the things that are truly important to you? Why when we are told so specifically, what prayer can do, do we sluff it off, and so rarely commit and practice it?
I personally can say that I’ve seen so many answers to my prayer, even as poorly as I have practiced it in the past. It baffles me why I have not chosen to exercise it more, just based on the answers I’ve received in the past. That’s not even counting the stories my friends and family have shared with me about their answered prayers.
Make a daily Appointment for prayer.
(Preferably in the morning, or whatever time you see as the beginning of your day)
Time:_______________________
Pick a place for your morning prayer:______________________________
a few suggestions here: comfortable, but not so comfortable you fall asleep instead of praying. Have a little room where you can write, post your prayers for easy access, and shut out the outside distractions.
Ask yourself these questions to start preparing for your own strategic prayers.
1. What are your top three biggest needs right now
2. What are the top three things you are most stressed about?
3. What are three issues in your life that would take a miracle of God to resolve?
4. What is something good and honorable that, if God provided it, would greatly benefit you, your family, and others?
5. What is something you believe God may be leading you to do, but you need His clarity and direction on it?
6. What is a need from someone you love that you’d like to start praying about?
I can’t really count the amount of time I know my Grandma spent on her knees for me and the other members of my family. I would give anything to have them written down, to read over often. To see the words and scripture my grandmother prayed over me from the time I was little. It is hard to imagine the value and love I would feel from reading them. Not to mention, the answered prayers I might see, even long after she has passed. I want to leave this for my children and their children, I want my grandchildren to know I was praying for them even before they were conceived, much less born. I want my family to know they have a legacy of prayer that has been ministering into their lives for years. I want them to be able to read my prayers and be in utter awe of the ways God has moved in their lives as answers to the many prayers I have prayed for each and every one of them.
You write your prayers so you won’t forget.
Won’t forget who the real enemy is….
Won’t forget the One in whom your hope lies…
Won’t forget what your real need and dependencies are
And later, Won’t forget the record of how God responds
You better know that Satan strategizes against you. You would be wise to design your prayer strategy to fight back. “For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies–but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”
In Ephesians 6 it says “Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers, for all Christians everywhere.”
Again to good to paraphrase…Patricia says, “We pray until our grandchildren are old enough to understand and learn and copy our example. We pray until they can one day place their hands across ours, gently rubbing our aging skin, and we smile because now they’ll never forget the things we had the good sense to record in writing for their generation. They will look back on our legacies and know we stood strong, fought the good fight, and finished a race in which we would not even think about letting the enemy have his way in our lives or the lives of those we love.”
Time permitting we are going to discuss strategy 1 – Satan attacks our passion. He seeks to dim your whole desire for prayer, dull your interest in spiritual things, and downplay the potency of your most strategic weapons (Eph 6:10-20).
More to come….But I have to post what I have prepared so far because I’m too excited not to share as I go.
Please come at 6:30 Wednesday Night at Grandview Church if any of this is sparking your interest or your desire to enhance your prayer life. Come and connect with other believers who like you want to deepen their relationship with God, or just START a relationship with Him. All are welcome: Men, Women, Couples, Singles, I can’t wait to meet you!
Heavenly Father, I come to You in Jesus’ name, asking You to draw me into a closer, more personal relationship with you. Cleanse me of my sins and prepare my heart to pray in a way that pleases You. Help me know You and love You more this week. Use all the circumstances of my life to make me more like Jesus, and teach me how to pray more strategically and effectively in Your name, according to Your will and Your Word. Use my faith, my obedience, and my payers this week for the benefit of others, for my good, and for Your glory. Amen,