MONDAY—EVANGELISTIC PRAYER
Chronological Reading: 2Samuel 7-9 + Luke 13
Monday, April 20, 2009
Luke 8:47 And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.
Dear Healing Lord and Helping Savior:
This woman was apparently misinformed. She thought power came out of you by magic, without your direct knowledge or will. And since she was a stranger to your generous character, she tried to steal a cure you were ready to give away. But how like __________ she is in her ignorance, and how like __________ in her superstition. My friends are in misery! Help them place themselves in a right spot toward your mercy.
They can likewise get saved, and then rejoice with trembling. Give them the assurance of salvation, knowing that you will never retract the blessing of forgiveness. Help them understand the fullness of your love.
My lost family and friends do not have as clear a picture of your cross as I want them to. They need to know the heights and the depths of your love to them. Little may be their knowledge, little may be their faith, but if it is real faith it can save even them, and do it immediately.
Give them faith as a grain of mustard seed and eternal life will be their possession. Like me, they may be the slowest in the slow class, but they can still be heirs of eternal life through faith and adopted into God’s family. Then no power, human or demonic, can eject or reject them from salvation.
I cannot grab you in my hands like Simeon. I cannot lean my head on your chest like John. But if I can venture into the crowd behind and just touch the hem of your garment, my faith will make me whole. Give courage to the timid ones today so they seek you and find peace. Do it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
TUESDAY— CORPORATE PRAYER MINISTRY
Chronological Reading: 2Samuel 10-12 + Luke 14
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
Giver of Grace:
WE CRY OUT TO YOU TO GIVE US MORE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. We need him to be inside us more and more mightily as the spirit of prayer, making intercession in us with groanings that cannot be uttered. We don’t want our church to miss your blessings for lack of intentionally asking for them!
WE CRY OUT TO YOU TO GIVE US MORE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. That he may be our advocate—not with God, because we have that in Jesus Christ—but with men and women! Your indwelling is the standing miracle of our lives.
Acts 4:14 And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
Make it so in our lives Lord, and in our church, so all the opposition has to admit that Jesus’ work is real, because of they see it in changed lives. We can conquer every doubt when we are in contact with you.
WE CRY OUT TO YOU TO GIVE US MORE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Because we want to see you work today just like “back in the day.” Why do we need new inventions when we have the Holy Spirit’s power? And what have we to do with old limitations—Oh Spirit of God—if you go with us?
WE CRY OUT TO YOU TO GIVE US MORE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. We need you for holiness, so make us more like Jesus! We need you for a heart of compassion that cares for the poor and loves the fallen. We need you to freeze our native unbelief. Let us not be distrustful of Jesus as we plan.
WE CRY OUT TO YOU TO GIVE US MORE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Only his anointing will do for this hour. Answer us to Jesus’ glory. Amen.
WEDNESDAY—REVIVAL PRAYING
Chronological Reading: 2Samuel 13-15 + Luke 15
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Ezra 9:6 O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.
O Lord, My Father:
You, are in heaven, but I am still on earth. My being is but yesterday and my foundation is in the dust. It is only in you that I have any purpose, and live and move and have my being. If you withhold your breath I die.
I mourn before you Lord, because of my pride and vanity of mind, the aggression of my arrogance, my earthly-mindedness and love of this world, my sensuality and indulgence of my flesh, my carnal security and unthankfulness under a cloudburst of plenteous mercies, my fretfulness and impatience, and my sinful defection in times of trial. I confess my neglect of spiritual disciplines and lack of love to you, my unbelief and hardness of heart, my slothfulness and decay in spirituality, the dishonors I have brought to your name, and all my mistakes toward my fellow creatures. How often have they been repeated—both before I knew you savingly, and even since. I committed them against much light and I have sinned against much love. After many rebukes, both through the Bible and through your providence, and after many comforts from the gospel and the Spirit of God, I have nevertheless done all these things.
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Lamentations 3:29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
I put my face on the floor to worship and plead for forgiveness, trusting in the merits of Jesus Christ my Lord. Mercy must start there. Spiritual power and life more abundant begins in that spot. Make Jesus more and more to me. Make him my all in all, and give me revival in result. Amen.
A DAILY PATTERN FOR PRAYER & BIBLE READING
Chronological Reading: 2Samuel 16-18 + Luke 16
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Luke 19:5 Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.
NOTHING between my soul and my Savior,
Naught of this world’s delusive dream;
I have renounced all sinful pleasure;
Jesus is mine, there’s nothing between.
Nothing between, like worldly pleasure;
Habits of life, though harmless they seem;
Must not my heart from Him ever sever;
He is my all, there’s nothing between.
Nothing between, like pride or station;
Self or friends shall not intervene;
Though it may cost me much tribulation,
I am resolved, there’s nothing between.
Nothing between, e’en many hard trials,
Though the whole world against me convene;
Watching with prayer and much self denial,
I’ll triumph at last, there’s nothing between.
—Charles A. Tindley, 1905
FRIDAY—FOCUS ON CHRIST’S MIRACLES
Chronological Reading: 2Samuel 19-21 + Luke 17
Friday, April 24, 2009
Mark 3:5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.
Merciful Savior:
No one wants to have a withered hand, and Lord I do not want to be spiritually lifeless or useless. But I know so many people who need healing, yet they don’t even want to be healed. I want to be saved from hell, but I want to be saved from my addictive habits and sins as well. I want to be saved from the power of evil, the love of sin, the vanity of fools, and the very ability to find pleasure in transgression. In my heart of hearts I hate myself, and long to be like Jesus! I desire to be what I am too weak to be, and to do what I am too withered to do, and yet I desire it. So I cry with Paul in agony,
Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
I want to, but I can’t. My heart feels like a stone sometimes. I want to love Christ more than I do. I am withered and dried up. I want to be holy, but sin comes-in and carries me away.
Give me the force of your command, Stretch forth thine hand! Emancipate me from the bondage of corruption! Your name is Jesus, so save me from my sins, because I am a real sinner and not just a poser. In Mark’s account you see the disapproval in the hearts of the Pharisees, so surely you are knowledgeable of my own inner condition. Say to this dead sinner:
1 Corinthians 15:34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God:
I will trust by faith in your power to rule all my passions, Lord. Amen.
SATURDAY—IN THE PSALMS
Chronological Reading: 2Samuel 22-24 + Luke 18:1-26
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Psalm 103:11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
Merciful Father:
Everything alive tastes your sparing mercy, but those who hear the gospel and receive it taste your inviting mercy. I live by your saving mercy, am preserved by your upholding mercy, am cheered-up by your comforting mercy, and will enter heaven by your infinite and everlasting mercy. Amazing grace shall always be my song of praise! Since I know I live on it, I need to glorify it more.
Do not let me harbor grudges and resentment, because your grace will not have that. Even in the hour of my most bitter injustice, I have never suffered like I deserve to. You did not determine my lot by what I had coming to me, but by undeserved lovingkindness. You looked beyond my fault and saw my need. Truly, your mercy to me cannot be measured.
Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
What a load to move! And yet you removed it so far that the distance rises to the infinite.
My sin is removed by a miracle of love. The scent, the trace, the very memory of it is taken away. That being the case, there should be no shade of fear about it ever returning. Satan himself could not retrieve it. Jesus was my Scapegoat twenty centuries ago, and now my sins cannot be found.
Nobody but you, Jesus! Only the Lord alone could remove sin at all, and you have removed all my sin. You did it in a Godlike way, taking them away. Now give me strength equal to this day to love you, to bless you, to serve you and to glorify you in it. For so I ask in Jesus’ merit and to his credit. Amen.