“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need” Matthew 6:33 (NLT)
“But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul”. Deuteronomy 4:29 (NIV)
Prayer must Come Before any other thing for the believer. Prayer must be a priority to the Christ follower. It must come above all else. But Prayer must be planned, must be patterned, strategic and intentionally executed. The Bible and church history reveal different models or patterns of prayer that Christians over the years have used to deepen their intimacy with God. Every believer can pray, every believer must know how to pray, all Christians ought to pray always and every Christian, like Christ, must have a unique pattern for prayer. Remember, prayer is talking to God, listening to God, God talking to you and both of you loving on each other.
Dear believers, God wants to dwell among His people. God delights in inhabiting the praise of His people. God wants His people to experience His presence, encounter Him at a personal level, enjoy and operate in the anointing He gives. This encounter does not and will not just happen. There are divine patterns to follow. God, for example, gave Moses a pattern. God told Moses to build the Tabernacle according to the pattern shown him. We shall consider the Tabernacle model of prayer in the future.
Out of the varied models’ people have used we will consider a few that we can practice in aiding us in our quest for more of God.
Do you desire to be used by God? Do you want to know how to pray? Is prayer and praying a difficult discipline for you to follow? How can we measure up to Jesus’ expectation for us to pray for at least one hour? Jesus asked His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane “So could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” Matthew 26:40, 41 ESV. Our first model is the ACTS-L prayer model. With this prayer model, if you allocate 12 minutes to each part, you can pray for an hour easily.
ACTS-L Prayer (12 minutes each)
The “ACTS-L” prayer model is a simple prayer that we can implement in our daily walk with God. I can attest to the fact that this has helped me develop my personal prayer life since age 13, when I gave my life to Christ as my personal Lord, Saviour, Baptizer and soon coming King. The only way to pray is to pray. The best way to best pray is to pray. Arise and Pray:
Start with:
A—Adoration (2 Chronicles 20:21-22). Adore God, Call him by his sovereign names; Creator of the Universe, Almighty Father, etc. Spend time here to worship God in truth, in songs, and in the spirit.
Continue with:
C—Confession (1 John 1: 9, Psalm 103:1-5). Confess, from the bottom of our heart, the sinner lifestyle you will shed and in exchange pick up a new robe of righteousness. Be open, honest and truthful before your God.
Do Not Neglect Gratitude:
T—Thanksgiving (Ephesians 5:20). Give thanks to the Almighty Father for everything and anything He has done. Think about His goodness, kindness, mercy and grace. Thank God!
Consider Others too:
S—Supplication (Philippians 4:6). Ask God for ideas, gifts, fruits of the Spirit, needs’, and others’ needs, that can only come from Him. Think about your family, friends, church, country, missionaries and the lost. Pray for others!
God loves to speak too:
L—Listen to God Take time to be attentive and patient for the Lord to speak to you. It will be great to write what God tells you down and go out there and live it out.
Be inspired by the following scriptures to pray
1 Peter 1:3:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Ephesians 1:16-17:
“I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.”
Romans 15:30-32:
“I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.”
Romans 12:12:
“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”
Colossians 4:2:
“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
Thank you for praying through the ACTS-L prayer model. God bless you for reading and praying.
Leave a Reply