Your praise must of necessity make much use of Scripture as you praise the Lord. Whatever time you spend on your devotional life, surely about half will be spent reading and feeding on God's Word. (Google image, God's Word is food for the soul)
Devotional books are good, as long as they do not take the place of God's Word. If you spend most of the reading portion of your daily devotional period reading from a devotional book rather than from God's Word, yours will be a very superficial spiritual life.
Most devotional writings are skim milk as compared with the milk of the Word (1 Peter 2:2). A major reason for weak prayer lives is a neglect of God's Word.
1. God's Word is basic to a militant life of prayer. The God who hears prayer is the God of the Bible. Prayer and the Word are interrelated. Praying people love God's Word, and those who love God's Word long to pray and love to pray.
When you feed on God's Word, you will repeatedly find that your reading becomes prayer. You will be so blessed by the Word that as you read you begin to love the Lord, to thank and praise Him, to ask the Lord to apply the Word to your heart and fulfill it in your life, or to ask Him to fulfill a particular promise for you. The Word flows into prayer again and again almost before you realize it.
The more constantly you feed on the Word, the richer and deeper your life of prayer becomes. The Word of God is the food that makes you strong to pray. Jesus quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3, defeated Satan by pointing to the essential role of the Word.
"Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word
that comes from the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4).
God's Word nourishes your prayer, strengthens your prayer, and warms your heart and fires your spirit as you pray. You cannot have a strong spiritual life apart from constant feeding upon and assimilating God's Word.
Spirit growth depends upon daily spiritual food. Earnest, even forceful praying, if not nourished on God's Word, may be weak and flabby.
Prayer depends on the Word of God. It is built upon the message, truth, and power of the whole of Scripture. Prayer absorbs the power of the Word and incorporates all its vision, urgency, and force into its prevailing.
Jesus promised,
"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask
whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to
my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing
yourselves to be my disciples" (John 15:7-8).
Four truths are very evident from this passage:
(1) prayer answers are closely related to "remaining," that is really living in the Word;
(2) this abiding in the Word is the secret of having much fruit for God;
(3) this prayer fruit is what really brings glory to God; and
(4) prayer fruit is what proves your genuine discipleship.
J. Oswald Sanders testifies how his Christian life and prayer were transformed.
"A change came when I learned to use the Scriptures as a prayer book, and to turn what I read, especially in the Psalms, into prayer."(Hanes, My Path of Prayer, 31, 70)2. God's Word initiates prayer time. It is normally best to begin regular prayer time with reading God's Word, especially so when entering into a time of militant praying. There are emergencies when we must resort instantly to prayer. But when at all possible, begin with the Word.
a. Devotional reading of Scripture brings a sense of God's nearness. The more you are aware of God's presence, the more joyfully, believingly, and powerfully you can pray. The Bible can set your heart aflame.
b. Devotional reading of Scripture helps you shut out distractions. Jesus taught the necessity of closing the door on the thoughts, worries, and concerns that tend to throng into your mind when you quiet your soul for prayer. "Go into your room, close the door and pray," Jesus instructed (Matt. 6:6).
You may not be able to go into a literal room and shut the door, but somehow you must really get alone with God. Reading the Word—perhaps for a longer period of time—is one of the most effective ways to close out the world and its distractions.
c. Devotional reading prepares your heart attitude for prayer. In the Word you sense God calling you to prayer, drawing you near, and then your heart can respond to God's voice and initiative (Ps. 27:8).
The Word reinvigorates you, fires your soul, and makes you ready to meet the Lord. This preparation is very important when prayer warfare is needed. The word can help fuel and renew the spirit of spiritual militancy so essential in prayer warfare.
3. God's Word will guide your militant prayer. God's Word not only feeds your prayer and arms you for militant prayer, it guides your prayer. The Word tells you the kind of God He is, and thus it guides you in what to pray for and what to pray against.
Militant prayer is the means to advance God's kingdom and to oppose Satan's deceits, obstructions, plans and strategies. God's Word guides you in all the basics of God's holy and sovereign purposes.
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Used by permission of the author and Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., Greenwood, Indiana, (with Jean's impressions added).
Mighty Prevailing Prayer
#142 The Militant Use of the Word (1-3)
by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
(pp. 289-293) Zondervan
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| Prayer for 9/11 |
Father, we see that Your Word has an essential role in our prayer life, as our communion with You is based on and includes much time reading it.
Whatever time we spend on our devotional material, may we not neglect our feeding on Your Word. In our praising, may we allow Your Spirit to help us worship in our spirit the deep longings to praise You for Your goodness to us.
May Your Word nourish our prayers and strengthen them, firing us to pray, for we realize we cannot have a strong spiritual life apart from constantly feeding on Your Word, making it our own.
We ask for grace to apply Your Word more strenuously and faithfully so we can become more effective in our prayer warfare.
In Jesus' name I ask this. Amen.
Whatever time we spend on our devotional material, may we not neglect our feeding on Your Word. In our praising, may we allow Your Spirit to help us worship in our spirit the deep longings to praise You for Your goodness to us.
May Your Word nourish our prayers and strengthen them, firing us to pray, for we realize we cannot have a strong spiritual life apart from constantly feeding on Your Word, making it our own.
We ask for grace to apply Your Word more strenuously and faithfully so we can become more effective in our prayer warfare.
In Jesus' name I ask this. Amen.
Today's Bible verses-
Ps. 119:27 (KJV) "Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous work."
2 Cor. 12:9 a (KJV) "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness."
Today's quote-2 Cor. 12:9 a (KJV) "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness."
Michael Catt- "If we are going to have revival or see another Great Awakening in our lifetime, we have to start preparing our fields and praying for rain. We must become desperate for God. The sovereignty of God does not eliminate or negate our responsibility to get before God. It does mean we can boldly approach the throne of grace. God desires for His people to be revived more than we can imagine." (Taken from p. 161, of Prepare for RAIN.
“By the resurrection and Ascension power of Jesus, by the sentdown Holy Ghost, we can be lifted into such a relationship with the Father that we are at one with the perfect sovereign will of God by our free choice as Jesus was.
Upcoming posts-
All Eyes on the Sky
16th- Saturday's post by Ron Hutchcraft
#143 God's Word Arms with Faith for Prayer Warfare (4-6)
19th- Tuesday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
#144 Holy Pleadings and Argument Before God
21st- Thursday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
Seasons
23rd- Saturday's post by Lee Forbes
Jean's blog
(Click to see snippets of the 7 recent posts)
(Click to see snippets of the 7 recent posts)
Below, you have an opportunity to leave a comment.
So true, Jean! Nothing can replace the Word of God in our lives. Without that daily "food" I can't effectively live according to God's plan. I don't even know what his plan is apart from his Word.
ReplyDeleteWithout God's Word, we have no sure directives.
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