Happy New Year! Day 29

Welcome to 2011! For some reading this, you are glad to say good-bye to 2010 and look forward to a new year with great expectation that it will be better than the last. Others are sorry to see the end of a good year and wait with trepidation to see what this next year will hold. Either way there is uncertainty and excitement at the possibilities. After having read Murray's book, The Ministry of Intercessory Prayer, I have such a hunger for prayer, like no other year, I can't wait to see how God is going to grow me in this area. We are wrapping up our final days of 30 Days of Prayer taken from Murray's book. This little nugget has challenged me to seek God. To be honest, I thought I was seeking God in all things, but now I want more. I love Him, but I want to love Him more. I love prayer but I want to make sure I am praying in the power of His Spirit. I want His daughters to seek Him for all their worries, complaints and heartaches so that his daughters might experience the freedom and joy He intended when He sent His son, Jesus, to die for us. Jesus willing gave His life so that we can be reconciled to a holy God and impact the world around us for His glory. Although lives are busier now than ever before and so many demands are made on us as women than ever before, we cannot become complacent when it comes to prayer. For those things important to us we will accomplish them. If your child has a doctors appointment you drop what you are doing and you take the child. You make it a priority. God invites us to join Him, in the power of His Spirit, to intercede for those in our sphere of influence. Can we make the time to join Him? Can we afford not to join Him? Let us not be satisfied with a mediocre prayer life, let us be intentional for 2011 to seek Him in prayer and study what it means to do so. Join voices with the saints as we seek to have His power reign here on earth as it is in heaven.


Day 29

The Ministry of Intercessory Prayer by Andrew Murray

What to Pray: For the Spirit of Intercession

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name" (John 15:16).

"Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete...In that day you will ask in my name" (John 16:24, 26).

If nothing else, our school of intercession has taught us how little we have prayed in the name of Jesus. He promised His disciples that in the day the Holy Spirit came upon them they would ask in His name. Until we know and understand the work of the Spirit in the life of the intercessor, we grieve the lack of power in prayer. First we lack motivation, then we say we have no time, then we seem to sense we are getting nowhere. But if the Holy Spirit dwells in us, intercession will be natural to us. We will learn to live in His fullness, and to yield ourselves to His intercessory work through us. The church and the world need nothing so much as a mighty Spirit of intercession to call down the power of God on earth. Then we will know His presence as never before and see true revival in our midst.

How to Pray: Abiding in Christ

"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you" (John 15:7).

Our acceptance with God and our access to Him is only possible through Christ. As we consciously abide in Him we have the freedom to ask whatever we wish-because our old nature has been put to death and our requests are in harmony with our new nature, which is in alignment with the will of God. If we remain in this fellowship, our intercession will be effective. We will not have to be concerned about whether we are being heard and whether our requests will be granted. If we are in the will of God, we can be assured of the answer.

Your Own Prayer Requests:

~Ask that His Spirit will fill you up, that the world will fade away, and your prayers will be spoken in the power of the Spirit, heard by the Father and answered in a way that demands you continue to pray.

If more of us will intercede for our family and friends, for those in our neighborhoods and schools, for missionaries impacting foreign lands for Christ, then this time next year we will look back with great joy at the answered prayers. Those answers will create a longing in us to continue to pray and encourage us to encourage others to pray. I look back and see the answered prayers and sense a hunger in my heart from God to continue to pray with tremendous fervency and encourage others to join me as we seek to impact this world for Christ.

For Ryan's mom (Day 3 & 5), who has confessed her knees are scabby from praying for her son, keep on praying. His birthday is coming up, 1/07, may 2011 be the year God writes a new chapter in his testimony of faith. May Ryan come to a crossroads and choose Jesus as his guide.

Blessings upon each of you in 2011!!