HOW TO PRAY …

AND GET

PRAYERS ANSWERED!

A TESTIMONY OF MY WALK WITH CHRIST

Gerald A. Dean

Copyright © 2013 by Gerald A. Dean.

No part of this publication can be reproduced, stored in a retrievable system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except by the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the Publisher.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version.  Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 978-0615878812

ISBN-10: 0615878814

Published by Dean Corp. Publications.

Gerald Dean

P.O. Box 6063

Douglasville, Ga 30154

You can reach Gerald Dean at:

Email- Geraldadean@gmail.com

Twitter-@Mr_Dean31

IG-mr_dean31

Facebook-/How to Pray and Get Prayers Answered

Closer2Christ.wordpress.com

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Antoine J. Holt, my best friend and brother.  Thank you for inspiring me to seek a deeper relationship with God.

Gone but never forgotten

June 13, 1983-April 10, 2004

Disclaimer

Certain “improper grammar mistakes” were purposely ignored because I felt as though it changed my intended delivery.  When a person reads one of my books, I want them to feel as though they are having a heart to heart talk with a friend opposed to being preached at.  If I have to sacrifice proper grammar to do so, it is a sacrifice that I am more than willing to make.

-   Gerald A. Dean

Contents

Purpose for Writing this Book

Chapter 1 –Perception

Chapter 2- How to Pray

Chapter 3- Time

Chapter 4- Learn to Listen

Chapter 5- Rest in God’s Peace

Chapter 6- My will Your Way

Chapter 7- Fasting

Chapter 8- Faith

Chapter 9- Expectation

Chapter 10- Stop Being Lazy!

Chapter 11- The Wrapping Paper

Chapter 12- Make A Decree

Chapter 13- Praise and Worship

Chapter 14- Write the Prayer Down!!

*Bonus*

“7 Steps to Victory in a Crisis Situation”

Purpose for Writing this Book

I was talking to a friend of mine when she made the comment “Why do I even bother to pray when God never answers my prayers.” I was caught off guard by the comment because it made me reflect on my own prayer life.  Before thinking, I blurted out “I wonder what you are doing wrong because God answers almost all of my prayers.” As the conversation progressed I began to realize that my friend had no idea of how to pray or certain requirements to getting prayers answered.  I then began to wonder how many others felt the same way my friend did.

I wrote this book for the purpose of teaching people how to understand and develop personal relationships with God.  I feel that understanding who your heavenly father is and how he operates through relationship is the foundation for not only praying but in getting prayers answered.   At the age of eighteen I began to have a desire to have an intimate relationship with God after witnessing my best friend pray to God and instantly get a response that I will discuss in detail in a later chapter.  I saw firsthand how alive the God we serve was and how this type of intimate relationship could be achieved with the right direction.

This book attempts to breakdown the most important aspects of communicating with God that I have personally learned over the course of thirteen years.  The funny thing about writing this book is that through the process of recalling all of my personal interactions with God, I realized that everything that I ever went through was for a reason.  I realized that before I was born, God had a plan for my life.  The first part of my life was spent in a battle with carnality and deception.  I was young and rebellious and thought I knew what would make me happy in life and honestly thought that serving God would make me miserable.  I was under a deception because I truly believed that I knew better than God.  I thought that if I chose to go God’s path, I would have a mediocre job, with a boring life, and a unattractive wife that I would only marry because this is who God chose for me and I had to be obedient.

At twenty four I realized that God had allowed me to exercise my free will, I had everything that I ever pursued, and I was miserable!  I married the wife that I chose for myself that ended in divorce five years later.  I had the business that I had dreamed of owning since high school and that ended in disaster at the age of twenty four as well.  At twenty five I realized that I no longer wanted to be the God of my own life.  God knows the future and knows if something will be a success before we even set out and all we have to do is commit our dreams to him and let him work out the details of our happiness.

This was just the beginning. When I finally told God that I no longer wanted to use my free will and all I wanted for my life is whatever he wanted me to have, I found my purpose and life began to make sense.  I felt as if through life situations and observing things around me, God was sort of training me for the purpose that I was created for.  I began to understand why I was allowed to go through certain things in life.  I felt as though God was showing me how what seemed to be a bad situation at that time had actually redirected me to the proper path that God had chosen for my life, causing future peace and happiness.  In Jeremiah 1:5(NKJV) it states “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”    In scripture God lets us know that he has already formed a plan for our lives and the only thing that is required is simple obedience.  I began to dissect this scripture from the perspective of a father.  If I was all knowing and all powerful, I would plan a life out for my child that I knew would make them fill fulfilled, successful, and fill any voids that they would have.  If I am an earthly father with this perspective, just imagine how vast God’s perfect will for our life truly is.

Perception

What is your perception of God?   From my experience when talking to people how they refer to God can tell you a lot about the type of relationship they have with God.  Some people when thinking of God view him as this enormous spiritual being hovering over the earth that enjoys playing little mental games with his creations for selfish purposes.  Or that God can careless about how much pain and suffering we experience just so long as we do not sin.

This way of thinking in my opinion is very demonic in nature because it is a complete contradiction of what God says about us in scripture and how he wants to interact with his children.  Let us begin with first defining how God really does view us.  In John 3:16 (NKJV), He says “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”  God sent his ONLY begotten son to die on the cross for our sins so that we did not have to die.  This scripture shows how much God loves us because being a father myself, I could not imagine sending my only son away to die for any reason!

In John 10:10(NKJV), it states “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.  I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.”  Here God refers to us as sheep, and himself as a shepherd.  This analogy gives us a visual perspective of how God wants to watch over and protect his kids.  At the beginning of this passage God lets us know that his will is for us to live life in abundance.  So as Christians we must realize that if we are not living a life of extreme excess, we are not in the will of God and it is time to start praying.

I have been in church my entire life and like many Christians simply going through the religious motions:  Go to church on Sundays, Wednesdays if you really want to earn some brownie points with God, try not to cuss, try not to drink, and if you make a mistake and have sex before marriage repent until the next time you do it (because God understands that you are not perfect right?) Looking back I really had a jaded view of God and how God viewed me.  My perception began to change one Wednesday night as our pastor preached from the book of Matthew.

In Matthew 7:9-11(NKJV) it states “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him.”  This very passage has changed my perspective of God forever.  As I read this passage I began to relate and contrast my desires for the life of my son with the desires of God for my life now realizing that they are one in the same.  God wants me to have a good and abundant life just like I would like my son to have and realizing this allows me to now understand God from the view point of a father.

I hear people ask questions all the time like does God want me to be poor?  Or does God really care if I find love?  I know that you are not suppose to answer a question with a question but my response is always, would you like your child to be poor?  Or would you like for your child to go through life and never find love?  After all, did God not say that “It is not good for man to be alone,” and soon after created Eve?

In prayer, we must understand that the prayer we are asking God to answer cannot be contradictory to who he is.  By reading the bible we as the children of God are made aware of what we can ask for in prayer, and what we cannot.  Let me take a moment to demonstrate what I mean.  If a person has wronged you, there is more than one way to pray this prayer but only certain ways will get answered.  If I was to say, “Oh heavenly father in the name of Jesus, please help me to get vengeance on this person that has wronged me,” it will not be answered.  You can pray, fast, or give freely for the rest of your life and God will never answer this prayer because it is contradictory to his word.  In the bible Romans 12:19(KJV) states “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath:  for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

A very common mistake that people make is to ask God for things that are contradictory to his word and in turn the prayer does not get answered.  People then walk away thinking that God just ignored them not realizing that this was indeed their own fault because God told us in 2 Timothy 2:15(KJV) “Study to shew thyself approved unto God.” It would be our job to know the word of God and know that it is a contradiction of scripture for God to help us to seek vengeance on anyone.  God is not a man that he may lie or contradict himself, so it is important for us to get to know and understand the God we are praying to for success in our prayers.

How to Pray

Let us start off with exactly what prayer is.  There are many complex definitions of what it means to pray.  In simple terms, to pray is to have a conversation with God.    The basis of our prayer relationship with God is found in Matthew 6:8-14(KJV). “Be not yet therefore like unto them:  for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done,   in earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts;  as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:  For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.  Amen.  For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:  This is also called the “Our Father Prayer.”

God knows what we need before we ask, but yet he wants us to still ask because he desires to have a relationship with his people.  What better way to form a deep relationship with someone other than talking.  When we first meet a new potential significant other we spend hours on the phone because we want to know everything about this person, and want them to know everything about us.  This is the type of relationship that God yearns for with his people, and this can be achieved through prayer.

“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”  What we want is God’s will for our lives from heaven, manifested here on earth.  We are to trust God to supply us with our food to eat and everything that we will need for that day.  God wants for his people to be totally dependant on him and not in our own resources and knowledge.

In Luke 18:1, Jesus teaches his disciples the parable of the persistent woman to teach the disciples to be persistent when they pray.  In the parable the judge avenged the woman not because he feared God nor regarded man, but because the woman’s persistence “wearied” him.  Like this woman we must also be persistent when we pray, continuously praying as if we are the persistent woman and God is the judge.  Luke 18:7-8(KJV) says “And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though he bears long with them?  I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.  Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he really find faith on earth?”  When we pray the only thing that puts limits on our prayers is what we have the faith to receive.  That is why in Mark chapter 11 Jesus instructs us to first have faith, then in verse 23-24 states “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.  Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye received them, and ye shall have them.”

When we pray to God our belief comes into question.  Whatever we truly believe after we pray will come to the forefront.  If we believe that God can and will answer this prayer, we will begin to act in a manner as if we are expecting.  The manner of expecting is the response to what we believe.  A woman that finds out that she is pregnant acts in a manner as if she already has the baby.  It is no doubt in her mind rather the doctor was lying when they said a baby was on its way.  The expecting mother then goes home and prepares a place for the child.  We must learn to be as an expecting mother after we pray.

Common failures in Prayer:

Do Not Pray with wrong Motives (James 4:3)

“When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

Stubbornness (Zechariah 7:13)

“When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen, says the Lord Almighty.”

Iniquities (Isaiah 59:2)

“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”

Cherishing Sin (Psalm 66:18)

“If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”

Disobedience (Deuteronomy 1:45)

“You came back and wept before the Lord, but he paid no attention to your weeping and turned a deaf ear to you.”

Doubt (James 1:6-7)

“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That person should not expect to receive anything from the lord.”

The last requirement in prayer is that we pray in the name of Jesus.  The bible teaches us that the only way to the father is through the son, and his name is Jesus.  John 14:13-14(NKJV) states “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the father may be glorified in the Son.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

Time

In prayer it is important to realize that God is not on our time table.  Some Christians today have the mental perception of God as their own personal genie waiting to snap his fingers and make their dreams come true in the blink of an eye.  The media and society has transformed God's people into a congregation of people that no longer understand their own God and how he operates.  Everything God does is done in his own perfect timing.   The bible tells us that “God will never put on us more than we can handle,” and I understand that this phrase is very cliché in Christian circles but most of us never actually listen to what we are really saying.  God knows what we can handle and what we cannot, so after praying for something have you ever asked yourself the question, Am I ready for what I just prayed for?

For example if someone prayed that God blessed them with a good job working in a hospital. This prayer more than likely would not happen over night because this person probably is not ready to be employed in a hospital.  There is a “preparation stage” where God has to prepare us before blessing us. Why? Because God will never put on us more than we can handle, good or bad.  So referring back to the example, God would probably open doors for this person to enroll in school to learn the skills needed to be successful in this new job.  God would then probably begin to bring the necessary people into this person's life to help them get this job.  Everything with God has a process and we are on God's time table and not the other way around.

In the “quiet seasons” of our lives when we feel that God is taking forever to answer our prayers or even ignoring us, we should instead ask God:

-         Father please show me why this prayers has not yet been answered

-         Is there anything that I am doing that is preventing my prayer from being answered?

-         Father please show me if it is in your will for this prayer to be answered in this season of my life

-         Father please help me to be patient

When we begin to talk to God in this fashion God will begin to respond to us in this fashion.  If you act as if you serve a dead God in prayer then you will have a prayer interaction as if you are praying to a dead person.  When you pray understand that you are praying to a living God and that the living speaks back, so be ready to listen!!

We as humans must remember that 2 Peter 3:8(KJV) states ”But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”  So it is not a question of rather God will answer the prayer but instead, when?  Once we begin to step into this realization, the problem we then face is becoming impatient.  If we were to dissect the story of Abraham, we can learn a lot about how God operates in reference to time.  In Genesis God promises Abraham that his wife Sarah will bear him a son.  At this time Abraham was 75 and Sarah was 65 years old, way pass child bearing years.  When dealing with God we can no longer lean on our own understanding because we as humans tend to think that we need to “help God out” if something is not happening soon enough.  We look at the direction we see things moving in and come to the conclusion that we have figured out how God is going to answer our prayer and do as Sarah did.

In her human reasoning Sarah figured that since she was past child bearing years, God must mean that he wants her to allow Abraham to lay with her maidservant so she had Hagar to do so.  Hagar did conceive and had a son named Ishmael.  If we were to fast-forward through time we would see that there is still conflict between Isaac and Ishmael’s descendants today.  Sometimes when we attempt to “help” God and speed up the process, we actually prolong things because we cause hurdles that God must work around before answering our prayers.  In the end it took God twenty-five years to fulfill his promise, twenty-five years for Abraham to receive his beloved son.  Now I am not saying that this prayer was delayed because of what Sarah did but the descendants are still paying for this decision today.  When we attempt to rush God we simply make our lives and situations harder than they have to be.

The truth of the matter is that no one really knows why God chose to wait twenty-five years to fulfill his promise to Abraham; all we know is that he did.  Our God is a God of purpose and everything he does is done for a good purpose, even if we don’t understand it.  What we can pull from this situation is that God made a promise to Abraham and fulfilled his word in his own timing.  Sarah attempted to rush the fulfillment of God’s promise and made her own life more difficult in doing so.  We also learn that Sarah and Abraham’s actions did not speed up God’s process at all.  I personally believe that God gives us promises or dreams that only he can fulfill to draw us closer to him.

For me this waiting process is the hardest part because I have full faith that God is capable of giving me anything that I ask for in his will, so why not stop toying around with me and just give me what I asked for?  And If I am not ready yet, can we do some sort of a “on the job training?”  Is there not something I can do to speed along this process?  When we begin to feel like this we must then remember Psalms 84:11(KJV) “For the Lord God is a sun and shield:  the Lord will give grace and glory:  no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”  This lets us know that if a prayer has not been answered yet, God is not just prolonging the prayer to make us suffer or “prove ourselves worthy,” so we must just stand strong in faith a little while longer because the manifestation is on its way!

We as Christians must understand that we are not physically in the spirit realm and that we can never know just exactly what is going on behind the scenes.  In Daniel 10:12-13(NKJV) it states “Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.  But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia.”

In this passage God explains to Daniel why his prayer had been delayed.  A lot of the time when we have questions in regards to God’s character or principles the answers that we seek are in the bible waiting for us to seek and find.  When we became Christians we enlisted in God’s army so we must now begin to think as soldiers.  We must understand our enemy, Ephesians 6:12(NKJV) tells us “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”  We must understand that we as believers fight against these forces using prayer and the word of God, this is also called Spiritual Warfare.  Warfare is a battle, the enemy attacks us with a sickness, God’s word tells us that this sickness is unmerited so we resist and pray for our healing, no matter what symptoms we see our faith is in the word of God and if he says we are healed then we are healed, the fights goes back and forth and we eventually win!  So we must learn to be patient.

Learn to Listen

Back in 2000, my best friend at the time was attending Georgia State University and was living in an apartment in downtown Atlanta.  My friend was going through something at the time and asked me to come over and talk.  When I arrived, we began to walk and talk as he vented about the situation that had him troubled.  As we walked and talked, we eventually ended up in the glass hallway at the top floor of the building.  This building was at least a few stories high.  As my friend and I finished the conversation he asked me to pray with him about the situation before leaving.

As my friend prayed, I remember him specifically asking for God to give him a sign so that he can know what direction to go in the decision he needed to make.  After the prayer, I began to walk off and started a new conversation not realizing that I was walking and talking alone.   As I got to the elevator I turned around and noticed that my friend had not left the spot that he stood in when we prayed moments ago.  I then began to laugh as I walked back towards him thinking that he was just being silly and playing a practical joke as we often did.  I asked “Why are you still standing here?” Not realizing that his answer would change my life forever.  My friend then smiled and responded “I’m waiting on God to answer me.”

No sooner than he said this there was a very loud knock on one of the glass windows in the hall as we stood their hundreds of feet in the air.  As I heard the loud noise, I quickly dropped down to the floor covering my head, mistaking the knock for gun shots because it was just that loud!   I waited a few moments then uncovered my head as a saw my friend still standing in the very same spot just as calm as ever, now with a smirk on his face.  I then asked, “What in the world was that?”    My friend then said “That was God sending me my sign I asked for, that’s how he talks to me, now I know what I have to do.” The walk back to his apartment was very awkward for me because I felt like I was walking next to Moses or somebody because I had never seen someone with such a close and intimate relationship with God before.

As I drove home, it really began to bother me how my best-friend and I could be so equal on all other levels but how his prayer life could have been so far advanced than mine. I then began to question rather any of my jokes really had any truth to them, was he an angel or prophet?  My friend was only seventeen at the time, why would God take the time out of his busy schedule to come and knock on a window as a sign to my friend?  Then my friend responded, “That was God sending my sign, that’s how God talks to me,” showing that God communicated with him in this fashion on a regular basis.

I was only eighteen at the time but watching someone communicate with God on this level forever changed my life. I began to have almost a jealous desire for God to communicate with me the same way that he had done before with my friend. I remember being frustrated with God in prayer asking him to speak to me, tell me something.  For years after me witnessing what God did for my friend I desired to have a close and intimate relationship with God as well.  What I began to notice was that the more I talked to God and committed situations in my life unto him, they would all work out.  It then began to be a form of venting for me to just talk to God about my problems in life while driving to work and coming home.  Although God never responded back to me like he did with my friend, I would just get this overwhelming peace come over me after I was done talking to God.

Overtime, when I would get into my vehicle before I would even start driving, I would get a feeling come over me as though God was already there waiting on me.  I would relate this feeling to a place where two people in love would occasionally meet to understand how intimate this feeling was.  My relationship with God over the next few years would go from hot to cold, cold to warm, and once again hot whenever I would find myself in a situation that I could not get out of alone.  It is my personal belief that God allows us as Christians to go through certain things that we cannot get out of alone so that we do draw near to him.  In December of 2007 my prayer life began to develop at an extremely fast pace.  In December 2007 I was completely broken.  For my whole adult life I had always been in a dominant position, viewed by my friends and close-ones as a person that “always had it together.” Until now I had always been really good at controlling my emotions in public and secretly dealing with my problems alone behind closed doors.  In 2007 I had reached my boiling point; in 2005 there was an attempt on my life that I only made it through by the will of God.  Through this time I went through a stage of depression where I saw the world through the eyes of a person that no longer saw good in this world.  I saw how active the enemy is in our daily lives and began to pray more heating up my “lukewarm” relationship with God.  I began driving tractor trailers across country so for many hours a day for about three years, I would just drive and talk to God.  As I drove I would tell God about whatever was on my heart that day, relationship issues, finances, issues I was having with my son and anything else that crossed my mind.

The first few months I would pray for a few hours then I would get on the phone and talk to friends or listen to the radio.  I would get a peace come over me after praying so I knew that God heard the prayers and was working on them but I still felt as though my conversations with God were one sided.  One day in prayer I just got frustrated, I said “God i am starting to feel stupid, I pray to you all the time and you never respond back to me, I feel like i am talking to myself.” I then said “If you don’t want to talk to me then I’ll just be a good servant, not break your ten commandments so you know I love you and just stop bothering you.”  After saying this, God had me to remember the situation with my friend and how after prayer how he stood there quiet and waited for God to respond.  It was a revelation; God began to show me that what I was doing was the same thing as if I asked someone a question and then walked away without giving them time to answer it.  For the past few months immediately after I was done praying I would began calling friends or turning on the radio not allowing God time to respond back to me.  I began to think about our society and how there is always something creating noise from iPods; radios, television and other distractions and we wonder why we never hear from God.

I realized that one of the keys to hearing God is to simply get in a quiet place and just listen. I believe that God wants to and attempts to speak to his people on a regular basis but most do not know how to hear the voice of God.  John 10:27 states “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

-          Sometimes God speaks to us in random thoughts where an idea may just pop into our heads and we don’t know where it came from.  An example would be if we are driving down the road trying to decide what to cook for dinner and a solution to a problem we prayed about earlier just pops into our head.  This can be God speaking to you.

-          Sometimes God speaks to us through scripture because this is the actual word of God.  There have been times when I would ask God a question on how to deal with a situation and I would just hear a scripture from the bible and know that this is God speaking to me.  Sometimes we ask God questions and wonder why he has not answered……could this be because the answer is already in his word?  The bible also tells us that “my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” in Hosea 4:6.  Speaking from experience, when seeking God about a situation the first place to look is in scripture.  Many issues that we go through in life God has already given the solution to us in scripture but if we do not seek, we will not find.  We as Christians cannot be lazy in our pursuit for answers when asking God questions.  We must know that he will send the answer and so we seek with expectation because this is active faith.

-          God sometimes speaks to his people through our instincts.  Have you ever been about to go into a store and got a gut feeling that something just was not right so you left only to find out later that the store was robbed?  When situations like this happen we must remember that God is the author of peace and when we are troubled about something where the situation just “doesn’t feel right,” this may be God sending you a warning sign because he is our savior but also protector.

-          God sometimes speaks to his people through observation of patterns.  Some years ago I was dating this young lady and I prayed and asked God to tell me if this was the woman he had for me.  I was expecting for God to tell my pastor or a close friend to give me a yes or no, then confirm it with a dream of us breaking up or getting married…..but this never happened.  What did happen was that I began to see a few bad characteristics in her that I could not live with.  We would fight breakup then get back together again and this process was repeated for quite some time.  Every time we would give the relationship another try I would say the same prayer and those bad characteristics would resurface and the pattern continued.  After years of praying about this situation, I began a three day fast to hear clearly from God about what to do about this situation.  The second night of this fast I had a dream where me and this woman was living together and I saw these bad characteristics again but I was now trapped in this situation living with this woman.  When I woke up I heard God say “Is this you want?”  I now realized what God had been trying to show me for the last few years.  I asked him if this was the woman he had for me?  God decided to answer me this time through observation of patterns in my life.  There are times in our lives when the answer we seek is right in front of us if we just pay attention.

-          God sometimes speaks to us from within.  The spirit of God dwells on the inside of us so God also speaks from within us. (What God says to us will also always be supported by scripture).

-          God sometimes speaks to his people in dreams.  There are certain occasions that happened in the bible where God chose to speak to his people in dreams.

-          In Genesis 20:3 God came to Abimelek in a dream and warned him that he had taken another man’s wife

-          In Matthew 2:12 God warned the three wise men that they should not return to Herod

-          In Genesis 37:5 Joseph had a dream of his future

-          In Daniel chapter 7, God gives Daniel a vision of the future

It can be debated rather God still speaks to his people in dreams only by those God has never spoke to in this fashion.  I tend to stay out of religious debates and only speak on what I have seen or experienced firsthand.  The only times God has spoke to me in dreams is when I was fasting and praying hard seeking God on my purpose in life, and when God was showing me some major changes that were about to start taking place in my life, sort of like a warning.  From my experience, God only spoke to me in this fashion when it was extremely important.

-          God sometimes uses other people to speak to us.  Matthew 9:37-38(KJV) states then he said to his disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” When we give our lives to God to use as he pleases, we become “laborers” in God’s harvest.

I remember a few years back while visiting my sister in California there was a man and his wife that had run out of gas at a gas station where we stopped off.  The man asked if I could help so I gave him $40 and walked away.  My sister and I decided to get lunch at this very same spot since we were already stopped.  An hour later the man that I gave the $40 to was still in the parking lot asking others for help so I began to feel as though he was running a scam and was not really trying to get gas money to get home.  I got angry and said to my sister “I am never helping anyone again because there are no good people left in this world.”

About five months passed, on a Friday afternoon I was driving to Louisiana for a weekend vacation when my low battery light came on and I began to lose battery power in my car.  I was able to make it off the expressway and into a gas station right outside of Birmingham Alabama.  I got out of the car, popped my hood and began to check to see what was wrong with my car.  There was a man with his family in the car next to me that got out and asked if I needed help.  He said that he was a mechanic and after looking over the car told me that my alternator was bad.  I was scared at this point because I was in the middle of Alabama on a late Friday evening alone, car broken, and didn’t know anyone that stayed remotely close to where I was.  I asked the man since he was a mechanic if I could pay him to fix my car?  He agreed to do so and in the back of my mind I was thinking that this is about to be the biggest repair bill anyone has ever seen!  He took off the old alternator and asked where I bought the last one from because it may have been still under warranty.  The part store was twenty minutes away so he asked me to ride with him and his family to the parts store.  We arrived at the parts store, my alternator was still under warranty so I did not have to spend out any money on parts.  We got back to the car; the man installed the new alternator and got my car to running again while his family patiently waited.  When he was done I thanked him and asked, so how much do I owe you expecting to pay at least $250?  The man then said, “You don’t owe me anything, just help the next person,” and began to get back into his vehicle.  I said “But wait!  You just spent the last few hours driving me around to part stores and fixing my car while your family waited, I have to give you something!”  The man then smiled and replied, I don’t want your money son, there are still some good people left in this world.”  As I got back into my car God began to replay what I said in California back to me “I am never going to help anybody again because there are no good people left in this world.”  I felt so ashamed of myself and began to repent and ask God to forgive me for being so petty.

In this situation God was teaching me that his church is not some big fancy building that we go to on Sunday mornings to sing and be entertained.  God’s church is not the building but the people that come to this building.  We are the laborers of Christ and in our jobs and daily lives if God wants us to aid in the harvest we must be available to be used by God like the mechanic in my testimony.  If we skim through the bible we can find many situations where God used people to speak on his behalf, like the story of Moses or when Nathan the prophet spoke to King David on God’s behalf.  Whenever we are seeking God for an answer or a need, it is very possible that God will send another person or (laborer) to fill the need or answer the question on his behalf.  In the biblical story of Job, his friends are attempting to give him spiritual advice, but their advice is wrong.  What we must learn from this example is that just because a person uses the word God or Jesus in their advice, this does not necessarily mean that this is the answer that you have been seeking God for.  The first question that you must ask yourself is, Does what this person say conflict with scripture?  God will never send someone to tell you something that conflicts with his word because that would make him a liar and God is not a man that he should lie.  If you have prayed and asked God for the answer to a problem and someone provides an answer but you are uncertain if this is from God, ask for a confirmation.  2 Corinthians 13:1 (NKJV) states “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.”   If the answer really was from God, he will then send you a confirmation so don’t be afraid to ask for one.

Rest in God’s Peace

Philippians 4:6-7(KJV) “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.   And peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”  Most people I come in contact with that have a personal relationship with God have no problem casting their burdens on God.  However, a common mistake I see the same people do is to still worry about the outcome of the situation.  A woman that I looked up to in my early adult years would always say “If you are going to pray, why worry?  And if you are going to worry, why pray.”  She said this so much that when I found myself in situations like this and would be tempted to worry; I would begin to hear her voice in my head.

I understand that this is easier said than done, but we as Christians must condition our minds and emotions to “let go” of something after we have committed it to God.  If we have committed the situation to God, it is no longer ours to deal with.  In some cases I believe that this problem derives from a lack of faith.  Do we really think that God can fix this situation? Or do we think that God will move on this situation?  We have to be careful in situations such as these because we risk the chance of becoming “double minded,” and the bible tells us that a double minded man is unstable in all his ways and will receive nothing from the lord.  Since this is God’s word and he is not a man that he should lie, as long as you go back and forth on what you believe, you are now hindering your own prayer from being answered.  Your works will show not only what you believe but what you are expecting to happen as well.

The bible tells us in Hebrews 11:6 (KJV) that “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”  On the same token, without faith it is impossible to rest in peace with God.  We may not know how God will fix a certain situation; we just know that he will fix it.  This is the mentality that we must develop in order to rest in peace with God.  Our minds want to know how or when something is going to happen but this probably stems from doubt, and should be a clear sign that we are on the verge of becoming double minded.

After we commit a situation unto the lord and do all that we were responsible for in that situation, the outcome is then God’s will.  We pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven for a reason.  Only God knows his will for our lives unless he chooses to reveal it to us.  Because we do not know the end result, we cannot determine rather the things taking place in our lives are positive or negative.  If we have prayed about a situation and did our part, we must accept the outcome as God’s will moving us into purpose.  In Exodus 33:14(NKJV) God tells Moses “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”  Because of God’s presence we are able to find rest and peace.

My Will Your Way

My will your way is simply telling God that I understand that I have a free will, but instead of exercising this free will, I choose to go your way.  I believe that one of the hardest things for us as human beings to do is to believe that someone else knows what we need better than we do.  In my Christian walk with God, one of the hardest things for me to do was to trust God and simply believe that he had my best interests in mind. I had to believe that whatever happened in a situation, good or bad, it would all work out for my benefit.  Looking back at this situation I now see that my true issue stemmed from two problems, I did not trust God, and I had a problem with obedience.

Romans 12:2(KJV) states “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. There will be a time in every Christian’s life where God will work with us in sort of like a training process to change our minds from what the world has taught us to believe, to what is scripturally true, this is the “renewing” stage.   There was a spirit of deception at work in my life because I truly felt as though I knew exactly how to fix my own problems and create my own happiness if God would only do what I ask him to do when I asked.  At this stage of my life there was no room for God because I had become my own God.  It was only a matter of time before problems began to arise in every aspect of my life.  Everything that I put trust into eventually disappointed me, and I found myself on my knees in repentance begging for God’s help.  I remember telling God, “I don’t want to be in control of my life any more, I am not good at it,” I then said “Father please tell me what to do, how to fix the problems in my life, whatever you tell me to do I will do, and in the end all I ask is that you make sure that I am happy.”

After saying this prayer I began to see a “shifting and moving” take place in my life. Friends I have known for years were taken out of my life and new people were introduced.  Some doors along my path were closed while others were opened.  God began to align my life with his will freely because I had submitted my life to his will giving him free reign as a servant for Christ.  I will admit that I was not always happy with some of the things that God decided to remove from my life but I remembered Psalms 84:11(KJV) “For the Lord God is a sun and shield:  the Lord will give grace and glory:  no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”  I understood that if God was removing something from my life it was for my benefit and not his own.  When I first decided to do life God’s way, he began to show me the plan he had for my life, but only the end result.  When God shows us a vision I believe that he does not show the details to achieve this vision to counter act the impatience of human nature.  As we take a step forward and begin to act on what God has already revealed to us, the next steps are then revealed in God’s own timing.  There is no way to tell how long a certain situation is suppose to last or when God will move on that special prayer that we  have been believing for.  We must just believe that when God chooses to do so, it is the right time and his timing is always perfect.

We should always aim to be inside the will of God in everything we do.  This is easier said than done because the flesh demands to be satisfied and must be brought under subjection on a regular basis.  In general I believe that we as people are self serving and before we were ever created there was a plan for our life set in motion.  During our life we can exercise our freewill and either choose our own path in life or we can submit to God’s will for our life.

In Luke 22:42(NKJV) Jesus said “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from me; nevertheless not My will, but yours, be done.”  This is the perfect example of obedience.  At this time in Jesus life God had already revealed to him that he would be crucified in order to fulfill the scriptures. However Jesus understood the pain that he would have to endure in order to be obedient and prayed to God to please find another way.  If Jesus had decided not to obey God and lay down his life on the cross, we would all have to pay the cost for our own sins today.  We as Christians must get to the point where we are simply obedient to what God asks us to do denying our own personal desires.  God does not always tell us forehand why he wants us to do what is asked of us, but our God is a God of purpose and everything asked of us, is for a good purpose.

Fasting

There will be times in our walk with Christ when we will need to get a clear answer from God on what to do in a situation or what choice to make.  One of the purposes of fasting is to draw closer to God.  In Matthew 9:14-15(NKJV), the disciples of John and the Pharisees questioned Jesus as to why they were made to fast but his disciples were not.  Jesus then answered “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”  Since the bridegroom (Jesus Christ) is presently not here with us in the flesh, we must fast to draw closer to him. When I was younger I wrote poetry as a way of expressing what I was going though at the time.  One of the first revelations I think I ever received was when I wrote that “I am inside my flesh but constantly at war with my flesh, so how can I ever rest.”  For me, there has always been a battle between what I know is right to do, and what my flesh wants to do.  My mind knows what I should do in a situation but my body wants to be satisfied.  With fornication, you know that the bible says it is wrong, but your flesh wants to be satisfied and convinces you to satisfy the flesh instead of doing what is spiritually right. If someone disrespected me I would want to lash out and “put them in their place,” let them know what I really thought about what they did, not because I should but because it would make my flesh feel good!  I realized that I had become a slave to my flesh.  The spirit and the flesh are at constant war and my flesh was winning.  God begin to speak to me about fasting in this situation as a way of bringing my flesh under control.  The way God showed it to me was that it was two sides at war in my life and whatever side I fed the most would be the stronger side.  God showed me that when I prayed and fasted, it “starved the flesh,” bringing it under subjection making it easier to resist temptation and not let the enemy get a “foot hold” in my life.  I would see by the fruit of my actions which side had been fed more, the flesh or the spirit.  Although this was the first time in my spiritual walk with God that I was led to fast, there are many other reasons to fast.  In Isaiah 58:6 it gives some reasons to fast which are:  to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.   In Mark chapter 9 where Jesus disciples are not able to cast out the mute spirit, is gives us a little insight on prayer and fasting.  When Jesus asked the man with the mute spirit’s father how long has this been happening to him?  He replied “From childhood.” Jesus then rebuked the unclean spirit and commanded it to come out and to enter him no more.  The disciples later asked Jesus in private, why they could not cast out the mute spirit?  And Jesus then replied, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.” One of the reasons why this mute spirit was so strong was because it had been in this man since childhood.  There are addictions, generational curses, and demonic strong holds in some of our lives that we have been praying for, for years that can only be broken through prayer and fasting.

Throughout the bible, people used fasting for other purposes as well:

-          Jehoshaphat fasted in (2 Chronicles 20:3-4) when he and the nation of Israel were in need of Help and Guidance from God.

-          Ezra fasted for Protection in (Ezra 8:21-23).

-          Jesus fasted and spoke the word of God to Overcome Satan in (Matthew 4:1-10).

-          Jesus fasted before he began his public Ministry (Luke 4:14).

I am going to suggest that you do a more in depth study on fasting because there are still aspects of fasting not covered in this chapter.  There are many different fasts that a person can do, and there are certain precautions to take while doing so.  This chapter on fasting is only an introduction to show its importance and further study is required as you incorporate this powerful tool into your spiritual warfare arsenal.

Faith

What is faith and why is it so important.  Hebrews 11:1(NKJV) states “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” As we read our bibles, there are lots of promises that God makes that can only be received through faith.  The belief is that if God said it, than it is true because God is not a man that he should lie.  Let me now give an example, Philippians 4:19(KJV) states “But my God shall supply all you needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” This is the word of God, a promise by God that he shall supply all of our needs.  When we read this scripture and hear the promise of God, we can have faith that God will stand on his word and fulfill his promises to us because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17).

The bible tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God.  I believe this is so because our actions will show what we believe.  A person can say one thing with their mouth but if their actions do not follow their words it is a contradiction.  A person that is expecting something from God will act as if they are expecting something from God and will have works to prove it.   This is why the bible tells us in James 2:17 that faith without works is dead.  The faith is dead because it is the works that actually brings life to the faith.  If you believe, then show God what you believe!!  In the bible during the time of Jesus ministry here on earth, Jesus was moved by faith.  The power of God was activated when people exercised their faith and actually put works behind their words!  In Mark chapter 5, the bible speaks of the woman with the issue of blood that was healed by her faith.  Reading from verse 27 it says “When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment.  For she said, If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”  Jesus responded to her “Daughter, your faith has made you well.”  The woman with the issue of blood first HEARD about Jesus, then exercised that she believed what she heard by touching his garment and was immediately healed of the affliction.  Faith plus works equals manifestation of the power of God.

True faith is not when we pray and the prayer is instantly answered, true faith takes place when days, months, even years go by and the prayer is still not answered.  Faith is what we believe when the circumstances seems like the prayer will never be answered.  There are people that can stand in faith for years without wavering while others will break at the first sign of turmoil. For some the gift of faith comes natural, but to most of us our faith must be developed as we would develop the muscles on our body through pain and perseverance.  Our faith is strengthened as we mature and persevere through trials and develop patience, experience and hope.  Romans 5: 1-5(KJV) states “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also:  knowing that tribulation worketh patience;  And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”  From my experience after I pray and ask God for something, I always see the opposite first.  I begin to immediately see every reason why the prayer cannot and will not be answered.  At this point I must make a decision.  Will I believe the circumstances and what I see with my eyes or feel with my emotions, or will I believe truth?  In times like these, we must understand that the only thing that we can truly believe is the word of God because circumstances can lie, people can lie, but God cannot.  The faith is truly tested when circumstances that are facts according to men conflict with the word of God and we have a choice to believe the word of God or the facts of man.  We must teach ourselves to ignore and even block out thoughts or ideals that will cause our faith to waiver making us double minded.  The plan of the enemy in many situations is not always to crush your faith.  If the enemy can just cause your faith to waiver, make you question if God will answer your prayer or can God even answer your prayer, he has you!  You are now double minded and the bible tells us that a double minded man is unstable in all his ways and will receive nothing from the lord.  Overtime I have learned to become single minded as I stand in faith waiting on the promise of God.  When situations cross my path that are contrary to what I am believing God for, I simply view them as illusions.  I refer to them as illusions because yes I see these situations in front of me, but I know what I am believing God for, and I know that when my prayer is answered these situations at that time will disappear. We must develop a mindset of “I don’t know how or when God will answer my prayer,   I just know that he will.”  We must then condition our mind and heart to reject anything that conflicts with what we are believing God for.

Expectation

Let us take a moment to talk about expectation.  As previously covered, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. After you pray, what are you hoping for?  What God can do for one man is not always the same as he can do for the next because of their expectation.  Mark 9:23(KJV) states “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”  Another way of looking at this scripture is that what is possible to be manifested in our lives is tied into what we can believe God for, so what is your expectation of God?    A person that cannot believe that God is a healer may never witness the healing power of God because the healing power of God is not possible in their mind.  In contrast, a person that has once before witnessed or experienced the healing power of God has an expectation to be healed because they know and understand that with God healing is possible.  Our minds must consistently be renewed with truth because left alone with our thoughts, we will put false limitations on God.  Just because you have never previously seen God work in a situation the way you are praying for him to currently, does not mean that he will not.  Before parting the Red Sea, God had never moved this way before.  Before the first person was resurrected from the dead, it was not a popular belief that it was even possible for a person to be resurrected from the dead.  I believe that it excites God when one of his children come into understand of what he is actually capable of and we become bold enough to ask for it in prayer!  The bible tells us that in Joshua chapter 10, Joshua was bold enough to ask God to make the sun standstill, and this prayer was answered.  Joshua had the faith to believe God for such a miracle and his expectation was indeed manifested into reality.

Stop Being Lazy!

My people have not because they ask not…….so how do you know what you can ask for or what you are entitled to?  Learn the word of God then apply it to your life.  2 Timothy 2:15(KJV) states “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Everyone wants to receive the blessings and manifestation of prayer but very few want to lay the ground work.   When you read the word of God for yourself and begin to memorize what the word of God says, you create a foundation for God to build on.  In prayer you are not quoting “hear say” back to God, you are reciting his own words back to him and being a God that cannot lie, he must stand on his word to perfection.

The Wrapping Paper

When we pray for things a lot of times we have an image in our heads of what the manifestation of this prayer looks like.  Unfortunately God’s image and our image can sometimes look different.  I have friends on more than one occasion that were praying for God to send them a spouse with a similar story.  Both individuals had their own “lists” of what their dream husband or wife would look like.  However God knows us better than we know ourselves, both friends got a spouse that they are more than pleased with, but the spouse is not the one that they would have chose for themselves.  Both friends married people with qualities that they never even requested in prayer because they never realized that they wanted these qualities until they met someone who possessed them.  When we ask God for something and our hearts are in the right place, God has a way of always going above and beyond what we could have asked for.

In my experience, if something is less than you could have expected and you feel as though you are settling, you should immediately begin a fast and seek God on this matter because God is a God of abundance and asking us to settle is not a characteristic of his.  My experiences with God has always shown me that I can never figure out his plan because his plan is always more complex than I initially perceive it to be.  God’s plan to bless me is more than I would even imagine being blessed, therefore I would overlook avenues that God has strategically aligned to add blessings to my life.

One thing about God is that he knows what we need before we even pray for it.  After we pray for something, we must condition ourselves to open up our mind to the millions of ways God can answer our prayer.  God is not closed off by the limits of our imagination when he chooses to answer our prayers.  I personally believe that God sometimes purposely does not answer the prayer the way we think he should because he wants to expand us in relationship with him showing us the depth of his power while at the same time teaching us to not put limits on him.  The bible teaches us that “when you pray, believe that you have received and it shall be done unto you.” However, the bible does not tell us how or when this prayer will be answered so we must be open.  When we pray for things we must realize that once we have asked for something and it is in God’s will, he places it on our path.  We must now learn to discern if the things crossing our path are the promise of God or not.  The same way that God puts things on our path the enemy can place things on our path as well.

The bible teaches us that the enemy comes to steal, kill, and to destroy so the things that the enemy sends us are for that purpose.  There were times in my walk with God that I had prayed for something and praised God because I thought that he answered the prayer almost immediately.  Soon after however, the same thing that I had once perceived as a gift became a curse.  The thing that initially brought joy soon began to bring pain and heartache.   I realized at this point that I had not discerned properly where this “gift” had come from because we will know a tree by its fruit, and the fruit of this tree was sour!  I then began to hear James 1:17 as clear as day “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

Regardless of the way the package is wrapped, we must use discernment to decide where this package came from.  If the package is perfect, simply put “perfect for you,” than this gift can possibly be from God.  Does this gift bring joy or pain on a regular basis?  If what is perceived to be a gift, STEALS your peace of mind, KILLS your joy, and attempts to DESTROY God’s purpose for your life, than you know where that gift came from.

For this reason it is also important to be very specific when we ask for things.  If we pray general prayers than there are millions of ways God can answer a prayer making it extremely difficult at times to discern when God answers the prayer.  Being specific when we pray allows us to stand in faith single minded, because we have somewhat of a vision of what we are expecting from God to take place.

Make a Decree

Are your prayers and your mouth playing “tug a war” with your life?  People pray one thing but confess contrary things into their lives and it goes back and forth, their prayers push them forward but their mouth puts them in reverse bringing them back to the starting point.   People then question God and wonder why they never get ahead.  The bible tells us that we have the power to speak things into existence.    Job 22:28(NKJV) says “You will also decree a thing, And it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways.”

To decree a thing is to make an order.  To declare something means to announce it officially.  So when you say “I will never get married” or “I will never find love,” then you come back months or years later asking God why has he not blessed you with that spouse that you asked for?  After you prayed for this spouse, you soon after got frustrated and spoke negative things into existence that were then established and this is possibly why the prayer has not yet been answered.

I believe that one reason why some people never accomplish their goals is because of what they decree and declare into their lives. A good analogy is that you are walking down a street headed north.  Every time you speak something into your life it has the power to change the direction of where you are headed.  I believe that because of this, a lot of people waste valuable time and energy in their lives walking in circles.  Matthew 16:19(KJV) states “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven:  and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven:  and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  Our mouths not only have the power to give orders on earth, we also have the power and authority as Christians to make decrees in heaven so we must be mindful of what we say.  The other day I was at home in the living room watching television and my son came down stairs holding his stomach.  I asked what was wrong and he responded “Daddy my stomach is killing me.”  As my son said this, my mind immediately began to think about my grandfather that died of stomach cancer about 7 years prior.  I immediately rebuked the decree he made into his life and had him to pray and ask God to uproot the negative seed he had just planted into his future.  At this point I began to realize how important it is to pay attention to the decrees that we are making into our lives and the lives of our loved ones.  In prayer, do not be afraid to decree and declare the things that God has already said you can have into existence.

Praise and Worship

I have been attending church my whole life and can honestly say that until recently, I hated the praise and worship part of the church service.  I would see some members singing and dancing with so much enjoyment as though they were celebrating something that I knew nothing about.  The other members would be as I was, simply going through the motions clapping their hands hoping that the pastor would just quickly get to the message.  I just saw the singing before the pastor preached “the good stuff” as a religious tradition that I had to just learn to deal with.  There were even times that I would come to church thirty minutes late purposely to avoid the singing and dancing but just in time to hear the message.

This went on for years until I had an experience that would change my life forever.  I went to Florida to visit a favorite pastor of mines church that was hosting a three day conference.  I was only able to stay for the first day but I had been wanting to hear this pastor speak in person for a while and for some reason ever since I had seen the conference being advertised, there was a “pulling on my spirit” to come to Florida to attend this conference.  Upon arriving, I was excited and did not understand why I was being led to attend this conference but I was simply acting out of obedience.  As the service started, the leader of the praise team thanked everyone for coming, the praise and worship began, and something strange began to happen.

As the praise team began to sang, I started to sang with them and for the first time in my spiritual walk I began to really enjoy it.  The funny thing about it was that the more I sang and the more I let loose and enjoyed singing to God, I began to feel his presence fill the building.  To describe the feeling it was pure euphoria.  I did not have a care in the world, my life was not perfect at the time but I knew deep down in my spirit that everything was going to be ok and a break thru was on its way.  It was one of those feelings where you don’t know how you know, but you know.  I was hundreds of miles from home, I did not know anyone there and they did not know me so I was no longer embarrassed to stretch out my hands to heaven and just thank God for being so good to me over the years.  I thanked God for not only what I could see him doing, but also for what he was doing behind the scenes that had not yet manifested.  As the praise reached its peak and everyone in the building began to scream and praise God as loud as they could something strange began to happen.  I began to feel my spirit inside of me going crazy as if it wanted to jump out of my stomach and my whole body began to shake.  Now awhile ago I prayed for God to cause me to be extremely sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and I would feel when the Holy Spirit was at work in some situations but it was never to this extreme!

I asked God what was that, what was he trying to tell me?  I did not receive an immediate answer this time, and the praise and worship ended and the pastor came out to deliver the message.  As the pastor spoke and I listened to the message there were two questions that were consistently on my mind.  The first question was, why did I feel as though I was being pulled to Florida for this conference? And the second was, why was my spirit going crazy like that a moment ago?  The message the pastor spoke on was “breaking chains in our lives and deliverance.” At the end of the message, the pastor first called the praise team back on stage and the sanctuary began to once again sing and worship.  The pastor then called all visiting pastors to the stage, anointed them with oil and they all began to pray for the congregation for all strongholds and chains of bondage to be broken in their lives.  The pastor asked the entire congregation to come to the alter for prayer.  As I began to walk to the alter I went from singing to now praying in the spirit with my hands stretched to heaven and it began to happen again.  The closer I got to the altar, I felt my spirit stirring on the inside of my body so strong that I began to shake.  I could feel the presence of God in the building, and until this point I had never felt the presence of God this strong before in my life.

As the service ended, I walked out of the building confused but in total peace.  I knew deep down in my spirit that all of the issues I was dealing with back home would be ok when I returned but I was still confused.  The way I was being pulled to Florida for this conference, I was expecting to witness a miracle or something but instead I left with more questions than I initially had.  Why was my spirit so stirred up tonight? And what was so special about tonight because I had actually felt the presence of God in the building?  Weeks went by and it continuously bothered me that I could not figure out what was so special about that night in Florida, I wanted to know why did I feel so connected to God that night more than others?  It wasn’t until one night as I was studying the word that it all made sense.  Psalms 100:4(KJV) tells us that we can “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”  It now all made sense.  That night in Florida as I took joy in praising God and verbally thanking him for being so good and wonderful, I had mistakenly entered into his presence!   The only way to enter into God’s presence is through praise.  Psalms 22:3(KJV) states “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”  So simply stated, God lives in the praise of his people!  God promises us that if we draw nigh to him he will draw nigh to us and one way that we draw nigh to him is by praising him.

Ok so now the first questions are, what is praise? And what is worship?   Psalms 44:8(NKJV) states “In God we boast all day long, and praise your name forever.” One way to simply describe praise is to boast about God’s greatness.  Isaiah 12:4(NKJV) states “And in that day you will say:  “Praise the lord, call upon His name; Declare His deeds among the peoples, Make mention that His name is exalted.”  Another way to simply describe praise is to exalt the name of God.  Something powerful happens when we begin to praise God.  Chains are broken, generational curses are broken, and breakthroughs are received because him that inhabits the praises of his people is invited into our situation.  There have been instances in the bible where praise was done and a breakthrough followed.  In Acts chapter 16, when Paul and Silas were imprisoned by the magistrates, they began praying and singing hymns to God.  The bible says that there was a sudden earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors open and everyone’s chains were loosed.

In 2 Chronicles chapter 20, Jehoshaphat, Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem’s praise caused God to fight on their behalf and deliver them from their enemies. 2 Chronicles 20:21(NKJV) states “Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.  For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them.  And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.” So what does it really mean to praise God?  Psalms 34:1(NKJV) states “I will bless the Lord at all times:  his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”  One of the key words in this scripture is “all”.  I will praise the lord at all times, not just when things are going well, but also in hard times.  In fact, true praise is done not when things are going well but when our lives are completely falling apart and we do not even want to pray because we are so angry and disappointed that we have to go through the situation to begin with.  At this point the praise is a sacrifice.  We are going against our natural tendency to get angry, throw our hands up, or curse God.  Instead through praise our faith is now activated and this is why it is called a sacrifice.  I can think of every reason why I can be mad, but instead lord I choose to thank you for the good in my life instead.  I may not have the money to take my family to a five star restaurant, lord but I praise you because we have never gone hungry.  I may not have that new luxury car that I want, but lord I praise you that I do have transportation.  I may have a headache today, but lord I praise you because this headache will pass and my health will be restored in Jesus name!  In every situation praise should always be in our mouths because there is something good to praise God for in whatever happens because things could always be worst.

Praise is a response to faith.  Praise is an understanding.  We praise God because we understand that no matter what situation we are in, God has a plan for our lives.  Before we were even born God had a purpose for our lives so no matter what happens in life, God has already made preparations for us in that moment of our life.  So we praise god not because we are happy about the current situation that we find our self in.  We praise God because we know that regardless of the situation, our God the God of heaven and earth has made provisions for us in that season of our lives.  When we praise God we show God that we trust him.  All hell can be breaking loosing in our lives but yet we still trust and praise God.  What does that show God?  Faith without works is dead.  So we exercise our faith when we praise God in the mist of turmoil.  Our praise is telling God that although my life is in turmoil, I trust you God, I know that you have my back.  When we praise, we bring God into our situation and God rectifies the situation by showing us the provisions that he had already preordained to get us out of whatever turmoil that we may be in.  There are situations that linger on in our lives for years and it is not until we sometimes in church accidentally get caught up in the moment and praise God and we realize once the service has ended that we received a breakthrough and never connect the two.  A lot of times we do not realize that the reason for the breakthrough happened when we stopped complaining and started praising because at that point we actually invited God into the situation.

Worship is described in 2 Chronicles 20:18, as the bowing of the head and face to the ground.  Another way to describe worship is to see the glory of something or someone and surrender yourself to it.  The bowing down is a sign of total surrender.  In the book of Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah worshiped God once he witnessed his glory. The proper response to God’s glory is worship.  My personal belief is that we were all made to worship, we have a deep down desire to worship and that is the very same reason why we have a habit of creating idols.  We go to football and basketball games in search of glory, wanting to be in the mist of glory, and when we witness that glory, we worship.  Unfortunately this happens to be a human that is undeserving of our worship.  But we still worship the superstar athlete because of how amazing it is to see them perform.  We skip church on Sundays to catch a football game because to witness the skill of this superstar player is more glorious than to come to church and experience the glory of God.

We see the glory of God and we bow down or surrender ourselves to him.  We then praise him bringing him into our situation and giving us a breakthrough.  Worship is focused on who God is while praise is focused on what God does.   Praise and worship are tools for spiritual ware that should not be taken lightly because when applied to a situation, they give us a fighting edge over the enemy.

Write the Prayer Down!!

There has been times when my prayers were answered but I did not even realize that the prayers had been answered. Most of us have an out of sight out of mind mentality and when there is no longer a threat, we forget to give thanks to the one responsible for giving us victory in the situation.  Keep track of your prayers and the amount of them that are actually answered.  As you begin to keep track of your prayers it will probably not only amaze you, but begin to show you just how active God is in your life.

7 Steps to Victory in a Crisis Situation

2 Chronicles gives us a very in-depth look at the 7 steps of prayer that has been over looked for years:

Situation:  Jehoshaphat learned that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and Mount Seir was headed his way for battle.

Step 1(Begin to seek God and start a fast)- His response was that he immediately began to seek God and proclaimed a fast.

Step 2(Pray)- Jehoshaphat prayed, 2 Chronicles 20:6-10 (NKJV), “O lord God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven, and do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand you?  Are you not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever?  And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying, If disaster comes upon us-sword,judgement,pestilence,or famine-we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.”

Step 3(Be able to hear the voice of God)- 2 Chronicles 20:14-15 (NKJV),  Then the spirit of the lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph,  in the midst of the assembly.  And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you:  Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”  2 Chronicles 20:17 (NKJV),“You will not need to fight in this battle.  Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!  Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.”

Step 4(Worship)- 2 Chronicles 20:18 (NKJV), “And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshipping the Lord.”

Step 5(Praise)-2 Chronicles 20:19 (NKJV), “Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the lord God of Israel with voices loud and high.”

Step 6(Walk out in faith)- 2 Chronicles 20:20 (NKJV), “So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem:  believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.”

Step 7(Give God his Glory)- 2 Chronicles 20:26 (NKJV), “And on the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berachah, for there they blessed the Lord;

Scriptures Used

Matthew 7:9-11 (NKJV)

“Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

John 10:10-11 (NKJV)

“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.  I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.”

John 3:16 (NKJV)

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

2 Peter 3:8 (KJV)

“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

Psalms 84:11 (KJV)

“For the Lord God is a sun and shield:  the Lord will give grace and glory:  no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

Daniel 10:12-13 (NKJV)

“Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.  13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia.”

Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV)

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

John 10:27 (KJV)

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me”.

Hosea 4:6 (NKJV)

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”

2 Corinthians 13:1 (NKJV)

“By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.”

Jeremiah 1:5 (NKJV)

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

Romans 12:2 (KJV)

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Luke 22:42 (NKJV)

“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from me; nevertheless not My will, but yours, be done.”

Matthew 9:15 (NKJV)

“Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Matthew 6:8-14. (KJV)

“Be not ye therefore like unto them:  for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done,   in earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts;  as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:  For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.  Amen.  For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Philippians 4:19 (KJV)

“But my God shall supply all you needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus”.

Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”

Romans 5: 1-5 (KJV)

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:  By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also:  knowing that tribulation worketh patience;  And patience, experience; and experience, hope: :  And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”

Mark 9:23 (KJV)

“if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Exodus 33:14 (NKJV)

“My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Hebrews 11:6 (KJV)

“Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. ”

James 1:17 (NKJV)

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Psalms 100:4 (KJV)

“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”

Psalms 22:3 (KJV)

“But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”

2 Chronicles 20:6-10 (NKJV)

“O lord God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven, and do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand you?  Are you not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever?  And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying, If disaster comes upon us-sword, judgment ,pestilence, or famine-we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.”

2 Chronicles 20:15 (NKJV)

“Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you:  Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”

2 Chronicles 20:17 (NKJV)

“You will not need to fight in this battle.  Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!  Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.”

2 Chronicles 20:18 (NKJV)

“And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshipping the Lord.”

2 Chronicles 20:19 (NKJV)

“Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the lord God of Israel with voices loud and high.”

2 Chronicles 20:20 (NKJV)

“So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem:  believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.”

2 Chronicles 20:26 (NKJV)

“And on the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berachah, for there they blessed the Lord;

2 Chronicles 20:22 (NKJV)

“Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.  For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them.  And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.”

Psalms 34:1 (NKJV)

“I will bless the Lord at all times:  his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”

Isaiah 59:1-2 (NKJV)

“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.  But your iniquities have separated you from your God;  And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.”

Isaiah 1:15-16 (NKJV)

“When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear.  Your hands are full of blood.  Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.  Cease to do evil.”

.    Job 22:28 (NKJV)

“You will also decree a thing, And it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways.”

Luke 18:7-8(KJV)

“And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though he bears long with them?  I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.  Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he really find faith on earth?”

John 14:13-14(NKJV)

“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the father may be glorified in the Son.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

Matthew 9:37-38(KJV)

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Philippians 4:6-7(KJV)

“Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.   And peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Matthew 16:19(KJV)

“And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven:  and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven:  and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Psalms 44:8(NKJV)

“In God we boast all day long, and praise your name forever.”

Isaiah 12:4(NKJV)

“And in that day you will say:  “Praise the lord, call upon His name; Declare His deeds among the peoples, Make mention that His name is exalted.”