Isaiah 55 Pray-Ers Prayer Guide

ISAIAH 55 PRAY-ERS PRAYER GUIDE

June 29 – July 12, 2015

SCRIPTURE PRAYER EXAMPLE

Scripture prayer for salvation using John 3:16:

Father, You so loved the world that You gave Your only begotten Son, and now I pray that [insert name] would believe in Jesus that he might not perish but have everlasting life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

YOUR PRAYER TIME

PRAISE: First take time to praise the Father, Son, and Spirit and bring thank offerings. Psalm 100:4 tells us to “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”

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Week 1: Read John 3:1-8. John chapter 3 may be the most familiar of all passages in the Bible, with verse 16 the most widely known. Lesser pondered is the setting and characters. This was not one of the many highly-populated teachings of Jesus taking place in broad daylight. Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a member of the Jewish ruling council, came to him under the cover of night to have this private conversation. To come by day would have been, as we call it in the business world, a CEM, a Career Ending Move. I suppose he thought to have an open dialogue, maybe a few hours of Jesus’ time in hopes of satisfying his intrigue. So with the simple address of “Rabbi” and two sentences to begin the exchange, Jesus surely stunned Nicodemus when he launched into this pointed, largely one-sided discourse.

“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God… Verily, verily, I say unto thee,

Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God…Ye must be born again…”

Nicodemus must have left in a far greater quandary than when he arrived, but two points were clear: you must be born again; and being born again is the work of the Spirit. The Spirit gives life, new birth.

The Spirit, being God’s change agent in this world, is engaged by the work of prayer. Prayer invites the work of the Spirit; prayer is the work of the Spirit. And if prayer is under-utilized, the Spirit will be under-employed.

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought:

but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. (Romans 8:26)

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit… (Ephesians 6:18)

…building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost… (Jude 1:20)

For all the sons and daughters whose names populate our I55 prayer guides, praying they will come to repentance, to Jesus, led by the Holy Spirit, to experience this new birth, keep on praying Sisters, and do not give up (Luke 18:1).

What a potent force is prayer! The saints go into their bedrooms, close the doors, kneel down, and pray. They spread out before God their petitions, and God hears… In some mysterious way not explained to us, prayer changes things. This is true in every age… prayer never reaches God in the clumsy, inept, feeble way it leaves our lips. The Holy Spirit’s energizing of our prayers and the risen Lord’s endorsement of our prayers make them a force to be reckoned with in the universe.[1]

Father, we long for the work of Your Spirit, for the resurgence of prayer, that we might win the war for this generation. Come, O Spirit. Give us victory. Show us Your power without limit. Answer us on our prayer watch.

God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. (John 3:34)

~ In Him, Anita

Holy Spirit, Francesca Battistelli

Week 2: Read John 3:14-21. I wish you could meet my friend, Jack. A long-time acquaintance, he is now my brother in Christ. At 81 years of age, he became a born-again believer on December 28, 2014 (at 12:25 PM, he will add). The love of Jesus Christ now radiates from him, and his testimony cannot be restrained. To meet Jack is to hear that Jesus saved him, and he will likely tell you how, three times, he should not have lived to see the day. In one of his brushes with death, a car accident, the doctor had zero expectation he would live. Jack recalls lying on a stretcher throughout the night hours and hearing the shock in the doctor’s voice the next morning upon learning he hadn’t died.

I wish you could see Jack, arms crisscrossed before him, rapping his hands on his chest, and saying, “I’m a Christian!” I wish you could hear the fervor in his voice as the words rise from the depths of his redeemed soul. I wish you could see the fresh beauty through his eyes. On his wife’s phone, he pointed to a picture of the mountains taken from an overlook and exclaimed, “Isn’t that beautiful!” He pointed to a fellow believer, “Isn’t she beautiful!”

The One Who had spared Jack’s life three times had now saved it eternally and given him a new set of spiritual eyes. Interestingly enough, this breakthrough came not by way of a brush with death but in being recently diagnosed with macular degeneration. When God began taking Jack’s physical sight, his spiritual eyes were finally opened.

I ran across an article this week that Anne Graham Lotz had written on the subject of macular degeneration:

Daddy [Reverend Billy Graham] has macular degeneration, a disease that blurs vision by causing a blind spot. In spite of the latest medical treatments, including frequent injections directly into his eye, he has lost the ability to focus.

I also have a form of macular degeneration. It’s a disease that has not affected my physical sight, but it has affected my spiritual vision. I have blind spots so that I have a hard time seeing my own faults…

And so I have asked God to shine His Light into the deep recesses of my heart where I rarely go. The corners and crevices where cobwebs of sin cling, and hinder the free flow of His Spirit. I have asked Him to reveal to me what He sees. Could you also be suffering from spiritual macular degeneration? … It can be comfortable to keep my eyes shut when the Light of truth reveals my blind spot, while it takes courage to open my eyes and allow the Light to penetrate the darkness and shatter the deceptive self-image I have of myself.

But that same Light also reveals…the Lamb who died for me…shedding His blood to wash away all of my sin.[2]

The light of truth, God’s Spirit, reveals to the sinner their need of a Savior and to the saved their need of surrender:

“But he that doeth truth cometh to the light,

that his deeds may be made manifest,that they are wrought in God.” (v21)

Father, may I hinder not the free flow of Your Spirit. Lead me to the place of surrender, where He has unhindered freedom, that it might be plainly seen that what has been done through me has truly been done through You!

P.S. Behind Jack’s testimony is a wife who had, over the years, enlisted an army to pray. Also behind his testimony is a mother that played the churchpiano for years, living out a life of faith before him. Surely his mother’s prayers never left God’s mind. And though she moved into God’s presence not having seen with her physical eyes the salvation of her son, she will with spiritual eyes look on him for all eternity. God forbid that we should ever give up on prayer.

In Him, Anita

Beautiful, Francesca Battistelli

THANKSGIVING: Honor God by rememberingHis blessings and recall answered prayers. “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.” Psalm 50:23

CONFESSION: Now take time to allow the Spirit to counsel your heart to prepare you to come before the throne. Isaiah 59:2 states “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” But I John 1:9 states “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

INTERCESSION: Lastly, know that the LORD delights when we come with bold prayers before His throne. He awaits our prayers. Hebrews 4:14-16.

Thank you for your faithful prayers. Revelation 5:8 – “And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.”

PRAY-ERS SCHEDULE

Remember to pray for the other motherson their prayer days.

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday:

“PRAYER DOES NOT FIT US FOR THE GREATER WORKS; PRAYER IS THE GREATER WORK.”

By: Oswald Chambers

[1]The John Phillips Commentary Series, Exploring Revelation, John Phillips, Page 118

[2]Angel Ministries Fall 2013 Newsletter, by Anne Graham Lotz, Accessed 6/20/2015 at