Prayer is Your Place of Safety (Part 5)

Different Kinds of Prayer

2.9.2020

Review

In this series, we are addressing the importance of prayer in 2020, and how your prayer life can become the most important part of your day.

Week 1, we saw that Jesus lived out of His prayer life, and that He spent a lot of time praying before ministry.

We talked about the importance of our praying about everything, and how prayer can prepare us for the things that are in our future.

Weeks 2 through 4, we talked about why we must pray.

The last 3 weeks, I’ve talked about why we must pray. God created the earth, placed man here, and set it up in a way that He chooses to go through man before He does anything.

Adam committed a treasonous act and gave the authority given to Him by God to God’s arch-enemy Satan.

Jesus restored man’s original authority, but Satan has a lease on earth that will not expire until Christ’s return.

God cannot legally do anything unless He gets cooperation through His people.

***The dynamic here is that God must go through a man to do things legally here on earth. He cannot just run over Satan.

Today:

Different Kinds of Prayer

Ephesians 6:18 (NIV)

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Ephesians 6:18 (PHILLIPS)

Pray at all times with every kind of spiritual prayer, keeping alert and persistent as you pray for all Christ’s men and women.

Ephesians 6:18 (GW)

Pray in the Spirit in every situation. Use every kind of prayer and request there is. For the same reason be alert. Use every kind of effort and make every kind of request for all of God’s people.

Ephesians 6:18 (AMPC)

Pray at all times (on every occasion, in every season) in the Spirit, with all [manner of] prayer and entreaty. To that end keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance, interceding in behalf of all the saints (God’s consecrated people).

Ephesians 6:18 (TPT)

Pray passionately in the Spirit, as you constantly intercede with every form of prayer at all times. Pray the blessings of God upon all his believers.

There are at least 7 different kinds of prayer:

1. The prayer of faith

2. The prayer of consecration

3. The prayer of supplication and intercession

4. The prayer of agreement

5. The prayer of worship

6. United praying

7. Praying in the spirit

I’m going to take some time to look at each one individually.

Understand that each kind of prayer has some rules, some guidelines that go with it. Spiritual things and natural things sometimes parallel. There are rules in the spiritual realm just like we have rules and laws that govern natural life.

A good illustration would be sports. There’s basketball, football, baseball, tennis, bowling, etc.

It would be crazy to place basketball with football rules, or tennis with baseball rules. Yet, that is what we often do with praying.

For this reason, let’s look at the different kinds of praying and how we can enter into them and receive help from the Lord.

1. The prayer of faith.

The prayer of faith is a powerful way of praying. Some people have the mistaken idea that the more people you have praying, the more chances you have of getting an answer.

Sure, when it comes to praying for our nation or world events, we ALL should pray about those things, and sure MORE can make a difference. But when it comes to your personal stuff, it would be better to find a person who can agree with you! We all need to learn to pray the prayer of faith for ourselves!

Smith Wigglesworth:

There’s something about believing God that will cause Him to pass over a million people to get to you.

This a prayer we primarily pray for ourselves. We may need finances, healing, an intervention in a circumstance, or we may need to give our worries and concerns to God. We do this with the prayer of faith.

Scripture:

Matthew 21:22 (MEV)

And whatever you ask in prayer, if you believe, you will receive.

Mark 11:24 (NKJV)

Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

Mark 11:24 (GW)

That’s why I tell you to have faith that you have already received whatever you pray for, and it will be yours.

With this kind of prayer, you pray one time, and then act as though you have received the answer before you see it.

Your thoughts, actions, and words should show that you believe you have the answer.

Again, you primarily pray this for yourself.

Sometimes, you can pray this for a new believer or for those who know nothing about Bible faith. But, they must agree with you and not speak negatively or they will cancel the prayer!

Praise and worship God as if you had the answer. Speak as though you had the answer.

Example: 7 years ago, we purchased our building. It was a tremendous faith challenge to get the financing…

When you are worried, this is the prayer to use when casting your worries on the Lord.

1 Peter 5:7 (PHILLIPS)

You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon him, for you are his personal concern.

1 Peter 5:7 (NLT)

Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.

Philippians 4:6 (NIV)

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Philippians 4:6-7 (PHILLIPS)

Don’t worry over anything whatever; tell God every detail of your needs in earnest and thankful prayer, and the peace of God which transcends human understanding, will keep constant guard over your hearts and minds as they rest in Christ Jesus.

Psalms 55:22 (AMPC)

Cast your burden on the Lord [releasing the weight of it] and He will sustain you; He will never allow the [consistently] righteous to be moved (made to slip, fall, or fail).

Example:

When worry comes, tell God exactly what you think and what bothers you. Then, ask Him to work out the details of what you are worrying about, and then every time it comes to mind, Thank God for answering your requests.

Long-haul missions trips. I’ve been on 40 or so of them. At the beginning I was so fearful and worried because I am obsessive and compulsive about things, and want everything just right. ALL of these trips were a challenge to me to begin with.

Keep your faith built up in answered prayer!

I regularly meditate on these scriptures to keep my faith strong…

Numbers 23:19

God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

 

Psalm 89:34

My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.

 

Psalm 119:89

Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven.

 

Psalm 138:2

I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name For Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.

 

Isaiah 40:8

The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”

 

Isaiah 55:11

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

 

Jeremiah 1:12

Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word.”

 

Matthew 24:35

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

 

Matthew 21:22

And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

 

Mark 11:24

Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

John 15:7

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

 

John 16:23-24

And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. (24) Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

 

1 John 3:22

And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

 

1 John 5:14-15

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (15) And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

Action points:

1. How many of the different kinds of prayer do you use?

2. Are you actively praying the prayer of faith?

3. Do you keep your faith in answered prayer built up by meditating?