How to Develop a Strong Prayer Life

This past winter break has been such a blessing. The Onething conference in Kansas City has blessed me so much...Mike's teaching on prayer has changed my life. He suggested that we should write down a list of prayers on paper. It is so simple yet effective...I feel focused and consistent! I wanted to share some of Mike's notes on prayer. The Lord has been gracious enough to show me some of the fruits of my labors through prayer...He DOES hear and answer prayers!

1.) INTRO

A.)WHAT IS PRAYER?

It is talking to God. It is at the same time a great privilege, a fierce struggle, and a powerful miracle of the Spirit, who helps us in our weakness in prayer. 

B.)TYPES OF PRAYER

There are different expressions of prayer. There is(but not limited to) devotional prayer (includes prayer-reading the Word and fellowshipping with the Spirit to grow in intimacy with God), intercession for revival and justice, providing prayer covering for individuals, and praying for the sick. By praying these different ways, we can encounter God, do the works of the kingdom, and change the world.

C.)A CONSISTENT prayer life is essential-only through a lifestyle of prayer can we receive the fullness of what God has provided for us.

D.)WHY PRAY??

Why does God want us to pray? He wants us to connect with His heart in deep partnership. Therefore, asking God for everything is a foundational principle of the kingdom. We must specifically ask, and not just think about our need with frustration and desperation.


In everything by prayer...let your requests be made known to God...(Phil. 4:6)
Yet you do not have because you do not ask. (Jas. 4:2)

There are blessings that God as chosen to give, but that He withholds until we ask Him. In this way, He protects His relationship with us by not answering until we connect with Him and ask.


The Lord with wait, that He may be gracious to you...He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. ( Isa. 30:18-19)


E.) Prayer is never meant to be duty-based or merely results-oriented. Rather, it is the place of encounter with God where our spirit is energized as we grow to love Him more. It positions us to be energized to love God and people by receiving God's love as a Father and a Bridegroom. We love others better as we encounter God's heart. We have time to prayer and minister to people.

II) PRACTICAL ISSUES IN DEVELOPING A CONSISTENT PRAYER LIFE

A.) Three ways to strengthen our prayer life are: 1) Set a schedule for regular prayer times, 2) make a prayer list, and 3) have a right view of God. A schedule establishes "when" we will pray. A prayer list gives us focus on "what" to pray. A right view of God causes us to "want" to pray.

III) DEVELOPING PRAYER LISTS

A. Prayer focuses: When developing a prayer list, it is helpful to think about three prayer focuses.


1. Intimacy: Focuses on giving my love and devotion to God. This type of prayer includes worship, meditation on the Word(prayer-reading it), and fellowshipping with the Spirit.
2. Petition: Asks for God's blessing on my personal life and ministry. We pray for a real breakthrough in our inner man(heart), circumstances(physcial, financial, relational), and ministry, that God's power would be released through our hands, words and deeds.
3. Intercession: Asks for God's power or justice for others(people, places, strategic issues).
a) Prayer for people and places: Individuals in ministries, marketplace, and government, and for the destiny of ministries, cities, or nations.
b) Prayer for strategic issues in society: Government, oppression (human trafficking, abortion), natural disasters (hurricanes, droughts), diseases, etc. 


B.
Prayer themes: When developing a prayer list, it is helpful to understand three prayer themes.
1. Gifts of the Spirit: God's power and favor being released
2. Fruit of the Spirit: God's character formed in us or others
3. Wisdom of the Spirit: God's mind(the spirit of revelation) imparted to us

IV) TEN PRAYERS TO RECEIVE STRENGTH IN THE INNER MAN(HEART): "FELLOWSHIP"

To be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man...(Eph.3:16)


F- Fear of God: Father, release the spirit of the fear of God into my heart (Ps.86:11)
E-Endurance(perseverance): Strengthen my spirit with endurance to do Your will (Col. 1:11)
L-Love: Father, pour out Your love into my heart (Phil. 1:9)
L-Light of glory: Father, let me see the light of Your glory (Acts 22:6-11;Ex 33:18; Ps. 4:6)
O-One thing life focus: I choose to be a person of one thing, who sits at Your feet (Ps. 27:4)
W-Count me worthy: Strengthen me to have a worthy response to God in my life (2 Thes. 1:11)
S-Speech: Father, set a guard over my lips and free me from sinful speech (Eph. 4:29; Ps. 141:3)
H-Humility: Jesus, I want to learn from You how to walk in lowliness (Mt. 11:29)
I-Insight unto intimacy (wisdom): Give me insight into your Word, will and ways (Col. 1:9)
P-Peace and Joy: Strengthen my heart with peace and joy that overpower fear (Phil. 4:7)

Happy Birthday Jesus

This painting of Jesus makes me smile :)

We don't know when Jesus' real birthday is...but today is to celebrate the birth of the messiah Yeshua! 

May the Lamb who was slain receive his reward from his suffering.

Surrender

I surrender all, all to You my king. All of my wishes and desires, I surrender all to You. All of my hopes and dreams, I surrender all to You. All of my fears and failures, I surrender all to You. You want my undivided heart and attention, I surrender all to You. 

First Flight

I have been itching all week to write about a particular childhood experience, so here it goes ^-^


      When I look back into my childhood, I am pleasantly surprised to realize how God had opened my eyes to see some of the mysteries of life. Such as a bird's first flight. When I was young, around 7-8 years old, I came back home with my sister from school. It was just an ordinary day, but to our surprise, we saw a baby bird in a makeshift cage in the living room. It looked weak and frazzled, barely alive. I've noticed that its leg was injured, blood was seeping from the gash. My grandmother came into the room and told us she was outside of our backyard making kimchi. She said she suddenly saw something fall into our bean-shaped swimming pool. It was a poor baby sparrow. She explained how the baby sparrow was trying to fly, but fell. She then grabbed the skimmer net to save the sparrow from drowning, and cupped it into her hands. It bit her as hard as its little beak could (poor Grandma). She then cut an aloe vera leaf and placed some of the goo onto the sparrow's wound, hoping that it will heal.


     I remember looking at the sparrow, it was frantically chirping, not knowing where it was, probably looking for its mommy or daddy. Day by day, my sister and I would get our fly swatters to catch flies and feed them to the sparrow. A great source of protein! ;p Yummy. It would happily eat it and chirp for more..little Sparrow's favorite food! We gained the sparrow's trust as we would feed it and take care of its wound. Every day, the sparrow's mother would perch by our windowsill, waiting for its little one to return to her. Because of this, we placed Little Sparrow's cage by the window. The mother would not miss a day, she would wait and wait. She would chirp and cry for her baby. At times, she would wait for hours. I would walk up to the window to look at the bird, only inches away from the bird, there was just the glass between us. The mom would at times feel threatened and fly away, but it would always come back and wait. We couldn't let the sparrow go just yet, its wound was not fully healed. My grandma would let the sparrow out of its cage to roam around the house at least once a day. The sparrow would always try to fly, it would flap its wings as hard as it could. It only gained 1-2 feet of air, and would grow tired and give up.


     After two to three weeks, the sparrow's wound had fully healed, which was a miracle in itself. My grandmother knew it was time to release the sparrow back into the wild. So she placed the baby sparrow by the windowsill where the mama would wait. A couple minutes later, the mama sparrow flew and perched next to the baby. They looked so happy! They were chirping at each other, and in a matter of seconds, they both flew together. My sister, grandma, and I were stunned. The little sparrow flew! I remember seeing the little sparrow soar and glide through the sky with ease. Before, it would try so hard to flap its wings as fast as it could and still not go anywhere.


The Lord has recently shown me a message behind this experience, such as God's unconditional love. He will never leave or forsake His children (Hebrews 13:5). Also, we don't have to try so hard, but rather, just be.


 When we fall, we get back up. We jump and that is when we fly. 


Lord, teach me how to fly! Amen.

Azusa City of Miracles

The church has experienced many revivals, renewals, and reformation movements, over the past 2,000 years. One of the greatest was the Azusa Street Revival of 1906 in Los Angeles, which resulted in supernatural explosions that shook the world and ignited powerful changes in the way Christianity had been manifested in throughout the world. 


The Azusa Street Revival was attributed to many different people. The name "Azusa" was actually referred to "blessed miracle". There is a good possibility that the seeds of this revival were planted 137 years earlier through a young Indian girl named Coma Lee. According to Rick Joyner in his book "The Fire That Could Not Die," pg. 92-93, this was noted by Father Juan Crespi in 1769 while on the Portola Expedition in California. At that time, the now present day city of Azusa referred to a place of an old Indian village south of  Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Canyon. Today, not many people know of the history of the city of Azusa. The popular belief of the origins of the name is that "California has everthing from A-Z" or "A-Z USA". However, little do they know that Azusa was a young Indian who was powerfully gifted with healing by the power of the Holy Spirit.


It was in that Indian village that Coma Lee prayed and fasted for the healing of her people, and was gifted with supernatural healing power. After she prayed for a chief who was miraculously healed, the chief named her "Azusa" which means "blessed miracle". She was known in Southern California, and people would say, 

"Go to Azusa to be healed... go to Azusa"

It was her prayers and her desperation for God to move in a miraculous way among her people that God graced her with the gift to heal the sick. Before Coma Lee passed away, she wished to see revival fire come to the city of Azusa and Southern California.


The seeds of faith and love, prompted by the humility of this young girl, were planted in the soil of those Indian tribes. Could this have been the humble beginnings of the great Azusa Street Revival in 1906 that spread around the world almost four generations later? 


In a small store front in Azusa, there are youth who know the story of Coma Lee and are fasting and praying for the healing of God's people in Azusa. They are praying that this city may not only carry the name "Azusa", but in reality, be known around the world as the City of Miracles where the fire and miracle-working power of God dwells and where they can come for the healing of their hearts and bodies.


Lord, I pray for an awakening greater than what man has ever perceived or dreamed of. I thank you for the great heritage of prayer that Azusa has. Bring healing to our land and set our hearts on fire for You. May this city be known as, "Azusa-The City of Miracles". Raise up more Coma Lees who will intercede for her city. In Jesus' mighty name, Amen. 

This article was written by my friend Linda Kirby. She gave me permission to post her article on my blog and to do whatever I want with it! Thank you Linda so much!

Reflections

I am now into the 4th week of my sophomore year at Azusa Pacific University. This year has been a trip. God has been moving rapidly, I don't know where to even begin! First of all, I am eternally grateful for all the people God has placed in my life. He has been reminding me that I am not running this LIFE marathon alone :) Let's carry the torch to the finish line and end strong, together. You know who you people are! By the grace of God, I have been blessed with awesome spiritual mothers and fathers who have poured into my life. I thank you for all and I love you so much!

I can go on and on about what God has been doing, but I am afraid that this blog post will become a book. Which reminds me, I need to finish reading "The Purple Pig" book by Dick Eastman before I go to the tour...so much is going on, but life is an adventure with my friend, Holy Spirit :) 

I am happy to say that I have definitely grown to find my identity, which is found in Christ Jesus. It has been a year filled with blessings, joy, love, and memories. It has also been a year of wilderness and desert season, but despite all the hardship and blessings, despite all of this, it has led me to truly realize that:

I am a bride of Christ. 

I am a bold warrior for Christ. 

I know that I am an instrument of Christ.

I know that I am a honey-mouth for Christ.

I know that I am a beautiful daughter of Christ.

Reflecting on the beginning of this year,  I've realized that I made many mistakes and have countless failures in my life. Especially when God revived me right before my freshman year at APU started. I was a naive girl on fire for God, with little spiritual direction. I apologize for all of my foolish actions towards anyone in the past or handled certain issues in an incorrect manner. I thank the Lord for immediately providing me the guidance from my spiritual mothers and fathers :)

With that being said, I am now more confident in myself because I am confident in Him. I am learning more about His love. Sure, I know that I have SO much more to learn... it's as if I am having another "coming of age" moment, and I am strangely excited to see what the Lord has in store!

Love,

Michelle

A Revelation of Barley

I thought that I was going to epically have one blog post about the "Bride of Christ" on my blog, but I guess God has been pressing on my heart to write about barley. The biblical significance of barley is not something we read into. Let's be honest...it's a kinda random! The Lord has been consistently showing me images of fields of barley being harvested beginning from last year. At one point, I saw "golden barley". I am not sure how I am certain that it is barley and not wheat (because they look almost identical), but I knew that it was barley. Barley, barley, barley, I absolutely did not have a clue what this meant. It got to the point where I grew in frustration, I started to ask people around me what the biblical significance of barley is, but they had no clue. I turned to the Word, and there I read about Ruth and barley and the story about Jesus multiplying the 5 barley loaves and fish to feed a multitude of people. However, I was still clueless, until I finally did some research. I came across an awesome site delivering a thorough explanation of barley. I'll be reiterating and quoting some of the things that stuck out to me.

Simple Truths about Barley

• Barley is sown in November and harvested in April
• It is the first grain to ripen by Spring
• Fields of barley give hope and shows God's faithfulness in each new year's crops
• It shows a new sign of life in the Spring
• Barley was cheap, and easily accessible to everyone
• It resists disease, and is not eaten by worms, bugs, mold and fungi.

God's Special "Barley People"

The writer talks about how there are "three types of disciples".

 "This brought forth another idea: it is easy to see for

ourselves that among professing Christians there are several
distinct levels of commitment to discipleship. As one pastor
said, there are curious disciples, convicted disciples, and
committed disciples. I can see how these types can be compared to
various grains. For example. let's take rye first and compare it
to being a curious disciple. This type of 'inferior wheat,' as it
is often called, is not the find that is in great demand. It is
easily threshed, but it comes to harvest later than the other
grains, for it requires all of the 'latter rains' in order to
mature.
     Then there is wheat - the grain that is called the staff of
life. It is always threshed and ground before it can be best
used. It can take being whipped, flailed, and tossed about
without damage. It is even ground by being bruised, crushed and
reduced to powder. The wheat people make up the greater portion
of the consumed grain. They represent the convicted disciples who
are the real backbone of Christianity.
     Now comes the best for last. God has a small group of barley
people, I believe, who truly are the committed ones. Exodus 21:5
describes these bondslaves as those who love their master so much
that they want to become a volunteer permanent slave. They are
the ones who only require winnowing - being fanned, as opposed to
beaten, by a current of air to separate the chaff from the grain.
These barley people just need to be exposed to the wind of the
Holy Spirit to have the waste material fall off and be blown
away. No heavy bruising, repeated striking or grinding as in the
case of the other grains.
     The barley people have always shown superior character
qualities. They too thrive in cold climates, unfriendly
circumstances, without lots of rain, and they resist the
conditions of disease and filth in their environment. They want
to be pure, holy, righteous - yes, even perfect as is their
heavenly Father......"

Barley as Firstfruits

People considered barley as the firstfruit, as it is the first grain to ripen. During The Feast of the Passover, people offered barley as a sacrifice, because it passed as a sacrifice that is "without spot or stain". Quite literally, barley is perfectly designed to last, and not perish under harsh climates, and will not be eaten by worm or bug. It is designed to have a "near-perfect balance among nutrients". 

Remember, I reiterated the things that stuck out to me..I can't give this article any justice. I encourage you to read the whole article online. Lord, let us flow with the winds of your Spirit. Father, send us out! Let us be the Barley Generation. Amen.

Red Poppies growing in a barley field

Source: http://www.keithhunt.com/bhp.html

"All articles and studies by Keith Hunt may be copied, published,

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