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The Silence of God
I reflected on this passage not too long ago, but the Lord testing me on this keeps it close. I need to HEAR! 11 The days are surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send hunger and thirst on the land; neither a hunger for bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the Lord ’s words. 12 They will wander from sea to sea,…
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Surprised by answered prayer
Luke 1 begins with the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth. They were getting along in years and had no children. It was a constant prayer, but one that by this time they offered up without much hope. Then, the answer comes. 13 The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayers have been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will give birth to…
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Praying the impossibilities into possibilities
A few days ago I was meditating on the Isaiah 2 text for the first Sunday of Advent. The challenge from the Spirit when I woke up that morning was this: pray differently. One of the texts for next Sunday is Isaiah 11:1-10. It seems I am still being stirred by the Spirit to pray differently. It is to pray the impossible prayers.…
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Daring to pray differently
I woke up this morning with text from Isaiah 2 on my heart and this challenge from the Lord: “Will you dare to pray differently?” This is what Isaiah saw. With the doom and gloom of Isaiah 1, he still saw something different (2:1). The Lord has challenged me over the past few months to ask HIM for my prayers. I have tried…
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Behind-the-scenes-power
The true power of prayer is always behind the scenes. It is the power that generates the movement of God and we often don’t have any idea of the “true events” of a revival or miracle until later. What we often find out later is God was moving someone to prayer. Mark Batterson writes in Draw the Circle: Prayer is the…
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Being the prophetic voice
There was a comedian I heard one time that said, “That person ministered in the pathetic.” Not prophetic, but pathetic. Too many times people think they have something to say and it turns out they’re saying nothing. To develop a prophetic voice, we need to develop a listening ear. To be the voice of God we need to hear the…
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What happens when we pray?
What do we EXPECT to happen? One of my favorite prayer heroes was always in a spiritual fight. The Lord invited him to pray and stuff happened. The Lord would ask him to pray for places he had never heard of, so he would fast and pray until breakthrough came, often resulting in spiritual warfare that would sometimes feel like…
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I waited patiently… okay… I didn’t
I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. (Ps. 40:1, NLT) I am not patient. There are times when the need is so severe… and so immediate… that desperation sets in and I am not patient. At all. The mistakes I make when I don’t wait are fairly numerous. It becomes the pattern of “trying to…
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Remind me of my real home
A prayer I saw on the Renovare site today: Jesus, everlasting Teacher, use my out-of-placeness to remind me again of my alien status in this world. I belong to another kingdom and live out of another reality. May I always be ultimately concerned to learn the nuances of this eternal reality so that when it becomes my permanent residence I…
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Urgent calls in prayer that seem odd
The call to “lay it on the line” is usually reserved for the hardest places in the world. Places hostile to the gospel, or at least “hard” to the gospel. We support many missionaries in areas like this who are answering the call to “live dead.” But… that doesn’t apply to us, does it? In the United States? In the…
Tag: Prayer
