Importunity: Shamless Asking

Luke 11
5 And He said to them, "Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves;
6 for a friend has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;
7 and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door has already been shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give to you’?
8 I say to you, even if he will not get up and give to him, because he is his friend, yet on account of his persistence [importunity: steadfast; shamelessness] he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

The Church in Wichita has those who come to us from their journey. Do we have what they need to set before them? We must go to the One who does. This Friend of ours has what we need to give away, so we ask.

And we ask with shameless asking, steadfast asking, persistent asking. He is our Friend, but this is not why He gives. It seems Jesus is telling us it is simply because we ASK boldly, and we keep on asking!

What do we ask for? Bread. We ask for the Bread of Life! So we can give to our friend on the journey not just something to eat and shelter for the night, but Life itself, the stuff of eternal sustanence.

Let's go to our nearby Friend and ask on behalf of the weary traveler that is among us, that the Church may have bread to feed them.

Obedience and Answers to Prayer

How little this [obedience] is understood by Christians! How many there are who allow themselves to be misled, and rest satisfied with the thought that sin is a necessity, that one must sin every day! It would be difficult to say how great the harm is which has been done by this mistake. It is one of the chief causes why the sin of disobedience is so little recognised. 1 have myself heard Christians, speaking about the cause of darkness and weakness, say, halflaughingly: 'Yes, it is just disobedience again.' We try to get rid of a servant as speedily as possible who is habitually disobedient, but it is not regarded as anything extraordinary that a child of God should be disobedient every day. Disobedience is daily acknowledged, and yet there is no turning away from it.

Have we not here the reason why so much prayer for the power of the Holy Spirit is offered, and yet so few answers come? Do we not see from Acts 5.32 that God has given his Holy Spirit to them that obey him? Every child of God has received the Holy Spirit- If he uses the measure of the Holy Spirit which he has, with the definite purpose of being obedient to the utmost, then God can and will favour him with further manifestations of the Spirit's power. But if he permits disobedience to get the upper hand, day by day, he need not wonder if his prayer for more of the Spirit remains unanswered.

To continue this article by Andrew Murray please click here

Prayer and Character and Conduct

In the Church, we pray, at least we ought and many times assume that someone is praying. We have prayer meetings and places, we schedule it and lead it and occasionally, actually pray. But what does character have to do with praying?

Prayer is based on character. What we are with God gauges our influence with him. It was the inner character, not the outward bearing, of such men as Abraham, Job, David, Moses, and all others, who had such great influence with God in the days of old. And, today, it is not so much our words, as what we really are, which weighs with God. Conduct affects character, of course,and counts for much in our praying. At the same time the character affects conduct to a far greater extent, and has a superior influence over prayer. Our inner life not only gives color to our praying, but body, as well. Bad living means bad praying and, in the end, no praying at all. We pray feebly because we live feebly. The stream of prayer cannot rise higher than the fountain of living. The force of the inner chamber is made up of the energy which flows from the confluent streams of living. And the weakness of living grows out of the shallowness and shoddiness of character.

The character of the inner life is a condition of effectual praying. As is the life, so will the praying be. An inconsistent life obstructs praying and neutralizes what little praying we may do. Always, it is "the prayer of the righteous man which availeth much." Indeed, one may go further and assert, that it is only the prayer of the righteous which avails anything at all-at any time. To have an eye to God's glory; to be possessed by an earnest desire to please him in all our ways; to possess hands busy in his service; to have feet swift to run in the way of his commandments-these give weight and influence and power to prayer, and secure an audience with God. The worldly spirit of our lives often breaks the force of our praying, and, not infrequently, acts as a door of brass in the face of prayer.

Praying must come out of a cleansed heart and be presented and urged with the "lifting up of holy hands." It must be fortified by a life aiming, unceasingly, to obey God, to attain conformity to the divine law, and to come into submission to the divine will.

To continue this article by E.M. Bounds click here

Prayer and the Word of God

As God's house is called "the house of prayer," because prayer is the most important of its holy offices; so by the same token, the Bible may be called the book of prayer. Prayer is the great theme and content of its message to mankind.
God's Word is the basis, as it is the directory of the prayer of faith. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom," says Paul, "teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."
As this word of Christ dwelling in us richly is transmuted and assimilated, it issues in praying. Faith is constructed of the Word and the Spirit, and faith is the body and substance of prayer.
In many of its aspects, prayer is dependent upon the Word of God. Jesus says:
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
The Word of God is the fulcrum upon which the lever of prayer is placed, and by which things are mightily moved. God has committed himself, his purpose, and his promise to prayer. His Word becomes the basis, the inspiration of our praying, and there are circumstances under which, by importunate prayer, we may obtain an addition, or an enlargement of his promises. It is said of the old saints that they, "through faith obtained promises." There would seem to be in prayer the capacity for going even beyond the Word, of getting even beyond his promise, into the very presence of God, himself.

Continue this article by E.M. Bounds here

Focus on God in Prayer

In prayer, we focus our mind on God in two ways: on the Father who sits on His Throne (Rev. 4) and on God the Holy Spirit who lives in our spirit as consuming fire and the living water.

In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven… (Mt. 6:9)

Out of his heart (belly, KJV, inner most being, NAS) will flow rivers of living water. (Jn. 7:38)

Read the rest of the Mike Bickle article here

Praying with a Friend

The greatest thing anyone can do for God and man is pray. It is not the only thing; but it is the chief thing. The great people of the earth today are the people who pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time to pray. ~ S.D. Gordon

A Call for 40 Days of Fasting and Prayer

REVIVAL
THE HOPE
Despite the raging of the world that surrounds us, the Church ought to and must hold onto outrageous hope. Every day there! are new reports being sent out and new books being published that speak of the dismal nature of the Western Church. Droves of youth are leaving our churches and not returning. The statistics are certainly shocking, but we must not let our eyes dwell on statistics. We must not look with our natural eyes; instead, we must have eyes to see the victory of the Lord even in the midst of seeming darkness. Our report should be nothing less than the cry of Joshua and Caleb, "We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it" (Numbers 13:30). The Scriptures promise that "though darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples, the Lord will rise upon you and his glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising" (Isaiah 60:2-3).

THE CALLDutch Sheets, Lou Engle, Francis Frangipane, and I are calling for one million intercessors to join in 40 days of fasting beginning on MARCH 1 (Ash Wednesday) to APRIL 9 (Passover Sunday and the 100-year anniversary of the Azusa Street Outpouring that began at Bonnie Brae Street).

We are fasting and praying for Revival, for the shifting of the Supreme Court and the ending of abortion, for the Middle East crisis and the freedom of a billion souls from the vice grip of Islam, and for the security and salvation of Israel.

Get details at IHOP