What is the power of prayer?

It is an assault weapon in our spiritual battle. Paul tells us that it is a moving force. Eph 6:12-18 Put on the whole armor of God… praying always with all prayer and supplication.

While sitting bound in prison, he said, “Pray for me that I may speak with boldness the message given to me. Here he was in prison speaking as though he were free to preach to the people. Why such boldness? He knew that the power of prayer was available to him. Prayer is the avenue whereby God makes his power available to us in the challenges we face. Paul wanted to make sure the church understood this.

Prayer Is an Avenue of Peace. We can and do exchange our burdens and worries for peace as we pray. Prayer is always present in us. Even though the day seems dark, we are never out of range of prayer for God to hear our cry. In trouble and fear, peace can be found in prayer because we are in touch with Prince of Peace.

Prayer Is a Means of Receiving Counsel. Prayer is like a good counseling session. We walk out of a good prayer session with renewed hope that we can make it in and through our trials. Prayer infuses all our plans with God’s ability.

Power in prayer means hope, help, and relief. Paul tells us to pray always because the power of prayer ensures we have a spiritual weapon.

Prayer brings solution to problems. Remember Elijah prayed for rain and rain came refreshing the earth and bringing new crops to the hungry people.

Prayer gets the power of God involved. Remember Moses parted the Red Sea at God’s command when it seemed that all was lost and the enemy would win.

Prayer brings peace. The disciples were in a storm tossed boat and knew they would perish until Jesus said peace be still.

Prayer brings good counsel. David asked God if he should go after raiders who had stolen goods and taken his family hostage.God told him to go after them and he would win the day.

Prayer is and means for us peace, hope, help, and relief. Prayer is Power. Learn to pray and use this power God intends for you to have.

~Cheryl Craft

We are in the process of a major move. Our life has been interrupted for several months as we packed up the house and moved to a new location. We now have to unpack all the boxes and find a place for everything.

Nothing fits like it did in the former house. We find we packed things we should have left and sold or gave away things we should have kept.

New habits and routines must be established. In the meantime all the things that don’t have a place are sitting in boxes or filling the corners of unused rooms.

It is a mess….clutter everywhere.

Our lives are disrupted. We will get it all straightened out in time, but until then we must endure the clutter.

In the spiritual life, the mind can also be cluttered.

I don’t know of anything that can disrupt a prayer life more than a cluttered mind. When we enter our place of prayer, we bring boxes of stuff that we have been worried about, troubles and fears interfere with our interaction with God. What to do?

Remove the clutter!

Write down the fears, worries, concerns and leave them on the paper. Give it all to God. Then with a quiet heart and mind continue in prayer until he speaks.

You will find that some worries are not as big as they seem, or that God has an answer for you. Learn to give it all to Jesus and trust him to give you wisdom and direction.

I have learned to embrace this text from Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and He will direct your paths.”

As you look on God and His beauty in prayer the worries, fears, and concerns will fade away when He reminds you that He will never leave you nor forsake you.

The clutter dissipates and you find the peace that only God can give.

Book Suggestion: The Reality of Prayer by E.M. Bounds

~Cheryl Craft

We live in perilous times. The spirit of murder, strife and tumult is rife throughout the world. We see it especially in our nation. The anti-Christ spirit is working overtime. Christian code, morals, and principles are under attack. Prayer is mocked, Christ is scorned, and the Word of God is ignored and spurned. What to do?

Pray!! Prayer is more vitally needed than ever before. Along with prayer we must take the battle against all this wickedness. When we leave the prayer closet, our actions reveal what we received in prayer. When multitudes of enemies launched war against Israel, God said: “Don’t be afraid. I will deliver them slain into your hand. You shall destroy their horses and chariots.”

We don’t have to fear the enemies of Christ. He stands with us to deliver them into our hands. God gave Joshua and Israel the battle (Joshua 11). However, they had to get out and fight it. They didn’t sit in their tents drinking tea.

How do we fight the enemy? We fight with prayer and actions. We don’t fight with weapons of warfare for we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but we fight these wicked spirits of the spiritual realm in our prayer closets. We also fight when we speak out and share the Word of God to friends at school or colleagues at work. Ask God for opportunities to speak out for righteousness. The devil is bold so how much more should be bold for the cause of Christ.

Pray then act on the power you receive from God. More than ever, God needs men and women who will seek Him, and then move out into the world empowered to be warriors for His sake in the earth.

Book Suggestion: The Prayer Dare by Ron Kincaid

~Cheryl Craft

I recall in the early days of my youth trying to pray an hour. I thought prayer was simply praying for urgent needs. I would pray for the requests I heard mentioned at church. I prayed for Sis Sue’s nephew who had had an accident or Grandma Grace who was going in for surgery. After a while I would run out of requests pray for. As time went by and I grew in prayer, I realized that prayer was much more than asking. Prayer is for worship, communion with God, and receiving wisdom and understanding from Him.

Prayer includes worship. David wrote: “One thing have I desired of the Lord and that will I seek after. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord” (Psalm 27:4). The Hebrew word beauty means pleasantness, splendor, grace and favor. David referred to the beauty of God’s character as it was shown in the worship of God. In worshipping God in his sanctuary the character of God is seen as it is not seen elsewhere.

Our worship in prayer is adapted to set forth His greatness, glory, and grace. Great truths are brought to mind that lifts your spirit into the presence of God. You receive strength that sustains you in the trials of life. Begin your time of prayer with worship and you get God’s attention.
Prayer is communion with God. You find a great blessedness in prayer as you sense that shift in your spirit that allows you to know that He is listening. You have His ear to ask and receive answers. In this time you receive strength that stays with you. You go about your work and feel that strength of your time of communion with God all through your day.

Prayer is a time to receive wisdom and understanding from God. Wisdom says: “Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the Lord” (Pro. 8:34-36). James writes that if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. (1:5). In prayer we receive wisdom and understanding in making life decisions. During our intercession we can ask God for wisdom to discern what the real need is in the lives of people for whom we pray.

Prayer has many aspects. Intercession is just one facet of prayer. Learn to worship, to wait on God in communion and to seek Him for wisdom. Then your time of prayer will become more rewarding as you praise and adore Him for who He is. Since my early days of learning to pray, I have found the joy and worth of worship, communion and seeking God’s wisdom. I have not been disappointed in this dimension of prayer. I believe you will find this to be true in your life.

BOOK SUGGESTION: Mighty Prevailing Prayer by Wesley Duewell

~Cheryl Craft

TO THE EME REGION

Greetings in the name of Jesus–the Prince of Peace!

The Prayer Commission, working together with Bro. and Sis. Tuttle, would like to take this opportunity to urge each nation to set up some kind of special prayer and fasting during this time of crisis. We are truly living in unparalleled times and we hope this precipitates the coming of our Lord. It is probably safe to say that all of us are facing lifestyle changes in one way or another.

Below are some prayer points that you might want to distribute. Please feel free to translate them, as needed.

1. Pray that the worldwide Body of Christ will rise to the occasion and be a shining light to people and societies that are filled with fear. Pray that, in the midst of the fear, people will get desperate and turn to God and Truth.

2. Pray for backsliders to return to the fold.

3. It would be a tool of the enemy that as our churches go to online services, people would get lazy spiritually. We must exhort our people to guard against this. This is the time when their own personal walk with God will prove its value. Pray that any lack of personal spirituality will diminish and that saints will draw closer to God than ever before.

4. It is vitally important that ALL of us endeavour to stay connected–one way or another. We are not just talking about a social connection that can breed idle talk, fear and false reports, but a spiritual connection. Pray and work towards staying connected on a spiritual level with everyone in your circle of influence. If we ever needed to “lift one another’s hands”, it is now.

Our prayer is that there will be a massive harvest and that the rapture will then take place. In the meantime, may the church of the living God be all that it is meant to be–a beacon of light, hope and truth to a desperate world!

APRIL 2-3 are the dates set for our REGIONAL DAYS OF PRAYER. Can we ask EVERY nation to participate in this joint time of intercession? It’s time to bombard heaven with prayer from this region–from the east to the west and the north to the south! UNITY! UNITY! UNITY is our cry and prayer!

TOGETHER in Jesus Name,

EME PRAYER COMMISSION

visit: www.emeprayer.com

Facebook: EME Prayer Force

Struggling through the crowd, a woman reached out to touch Jesus.  Many people were pressing around him, and being weak she had to press her way in to get close to him. Other people and their problems hindered her way, keeping her from what she needed. Perhaps she had heard about others being healed by touching Jesus. Her need was great, and all she had was her faith and determination. She may have even had to get down on her hands and knees to crawl through the crowd; but she did not let the press of the crowd keep her from what she needed. Whatever she had to do, she did it.

This story mirrors what we often have to do in prayer.  When we enter our time of prayer, needs, fears, people, or worries prey on our minds and try to keep us from touching Jesus.  The crowd always tries to keep you from Him. This is the time to use your faith and determination to press through the crowd until you touch Him.

Verbally lay down the needs, people, and worries that trouble you.  Turn your mind over to the auspices of the Holy Spirit. Ask him to be active in your heart and mind.  Give yourself to worship. Read one or two choice scriptures that will bring quiet and faith to your mind.  Pray until you touch the hem of his garment that enshrines his prayer life, his love, and his healing power.  Whatever you need, you find it in Jesus when you touch him in prayer.

Let this year become the time that you persist and touch the hem of his garment in prayer to receive all you need from Him.

BOOK SUGGESTION:  My Daily Pursuit by A.W. Tozer

(Devotions for Every Day)

~Cheryl Craft