How Much Should We Pray?

Prayer Works !!

 

As we meet each week to pray over our city, Pastor Allan has asked me to give a short focus on prayer.  I had been thinking about Jesus and that his life was a life of communication with His Father.

Jesus often prayed in a lonely place by himself.  

Mark 1:35  Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

Matthew 14:23  After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone and spent the night praying to God.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus told his disciples to stay here and pray, while - - Luke 22:41-44  He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed,

Prior to beginning his ministry, Jesus went into a desert place and spent 40 days praying and fasting.  When He was at his weakest in body, the devil came to tempt Him, suggesting that he create food from rocks, do something dangerous and not be hurt, and promised him kingdoms with power and might - - IF - - Jesus would worship Satan.   

Satan often comes to us in our times of weakness, when we are vulnerable and suggests appealing propositions.

We are praying for our families, our neighborhood, our city and our nation.  Those we pray for are being offered exciting and desirable enticements to satisfy their flesh.  

Through Television, movies and the internet, the minds of the people are being bombarded to partake of unrighteousness living. 

Thoughts of evil and wickedness are slyly being planted in minds to take root and produce confusion and devastation. 

This is why it is important for us to guard our own minds and hearts and to pull down negative thinking.

2 Corinthians 3-5  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

How can we capture these thoughts in ourselves and in others?  What weapon did Jesus use ?? 

The weapon Jesus used was the Word of God.  He knew the scriptures, because he had read them over and over many times.   

Don’t think that just because you have read your Bible through once, that you are done.   

For others, we must use prayer by taking authority over those things that tempt them.  The devil desires to bind and destroy our citizens. 

As Christians, we have the authorization from Jesus to command and decree that Satan release his dominion over our city, family and nation.  We have been given the ‘right’ to prophesy that chains are to be broken, addictions destroyed and the appetite and thirst for sin, be removed. 

There are times it is good for us to pray alone, and other times for certain situations it is best to meet as we are doing today to pray as a group over our city, our families, and our Nation. 

Sample prayer - -

Father we thank You that it is by Your Spirit that the strongholds of the enemy are in retreat and we pray that You would use our prayers and decrees to further Your will, so that the stranglehold of the enemy in the lives of so many are weakened and torn down – for there are many that are under enemy control by his cruel tactics, and we ask that by Your Holy Spirit they may be set free of the vice-like grip of sin that ensnares and imprisons their very lives.