Prayer – Divine Council

Atheism

9 Prayers for When Your Friends Don’t Want to Know God

By Guest Post April 30, 2019

by Madeline Twooney

I have been a Christian for almost 10 years; however, my friends don’t know Jesus. This hasn’t affected our friendship negatively, though it is on my heart that my friends know the joy of being in a loving relationship with our Savior.

The Great Commission instructs us to spread the gospel and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:16-20). Thus, in the past, l have given testimonies to my friends of God’s goodness or even just straight up talked to them about the Bible. However, this has only deterred them from wanting to know God. So, instead, l started to pray for my friends.

Do you too, have friends who don’t want to know God?

Here are 9 issues of faith your friends might struggle with and prayers you can pray over them:

1. “Does God even exist?”

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” (Psalm 19:1)

One afternoon, one of my oldest friends asked me this question completely out of the blue.

Convincing a friend of God’s existence is not an easy task considering that science, society, and even their own intellect try to convince them otherwise.

Prayer

Sovereign Lord,

We thank You that at the beginning You spoke into the darkness and created heaven and earth. If all creation responds to Your voice, if the winds move and the mountains shake at Your command, how can we doubt that You are the Creator, the ruler of all?

Thank you for the life of my friend. Please open his eyes, Lord, that he may see Your presence, just like You opened the eyes of Elisha’s servant and he saw the hills covered by horses and chariots of heavenly fire.

Help my friend to see what l see when l look upon Your face, precious Lord, for You are worthy to be honored.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

2. “I don’t want to be accountable to God.”

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)

I have a good friend who claims to be an atheist. In reality, she acknowledges that God exists—she just doesn’t like Him.

My friend believes that God wants to judge her lifestyle and take away the freedoms she enjoys, so she shuts down at any mention of Him.

Prayer

Precious Father,

l commit my friend into Your hands. I stand in the gap for her and ask for forgiveness on her behalf as she denies You and all that You have done for her in her life.

Lord, please help my friend to see that true freedom comes from the bond price that Your precious son Jesus Christ paid for our sins. Help her to see this truth, for the truth will set her free.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

3. “When l see proof that God exists, then l’ll believe in Him.”

“For we live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)

A former colleague of mine has traveled to many countries. He believes in the beauty of experiencing new cultures and learning new traditions because he has seen the existence and value of these things on his travels.

However, he will only believe in God once he has seen proof that He exists.

Prayer

Almighty God,

Thank you that You are faithful and that we see Your faithfulness when we step out, believing in You, Your mercy, and wonders.

Lord, l bring my friend before you. Please give him the sight to see Your goodness in the land of the living—not with physical eyes, but with eyes of faith.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

4. “I was a Christian, but l’m not anymore.”

”So, he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20)

When l first came to Christ 10 years ago, a colleague of mine guided me in my initial days as a Christian. However, a few years later, my friend stopped going to church. Additionally, any attempts l made to talk with her about God were met with disinterest. To this day, I still don’t know why.

Prayer

Merciful Lord and Savior,

We thank You that You never loosen Your hold on us, no matter what we are going through, for You are always faithful, even when we are not.

As You know Lord, my friend has decided that she doesn’t want to walk with You anymore. I pray that this change of heart is temporary and that like the prodigal son, she will make her way back home to You, where You will welcome her back with open arms.

We thank You that with You we will always find grace. And, that we will always belong to You, and You to us.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

5. “A Christian hurt me and now l don’t trust God.”

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18)

A few years ago, my friend received the information that a colleague of his, who is a Christian, had said negative things about his struggle with alcohol.

Understandably, my friend was very hurt by this news. He associated his colleague’s judgment with God’s view of him and it affected his ability to trust God.

Prayer

God of compassion,

Thank you that where we are imperfect, You are perfect. Forgive us when we don’t behave in the shadow of Your image; help us to forgive each other in such situations, as Christ forgave us.

Lord, thank you that You see my friend’s hurt and that You wipe away his tears. Help him to forgive those who have hurt him and learn to trust in You.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

6. ”God doesn’t help me with my problems; why should l follow Him?”

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Defense

5 Prayers & 15 Verses for Overcoming Satan’s Attacks

By Guest Post March 27, 2019

Psalm 18:39
Isaiah 40:31
Isaiah 54:17
Luke 10:19
John 16:33
1 John 4:4
Romans 8:31
Romans 8:37
Zechariah 4:6
Joshua 1:9
1 Corinthians10:13
2 Corinthians 10:3–5
2 Chronicles 20:15
Matthew 18:18–19
1 Pet. 5:8–9

by Cindi McMenamin

It’s true. You have an adversary who wants to attack your desires, your thoughts, even how you see and treat your body. So you and I need to be on guard against Satan’s schemes.

According to 1 Peter 5:8, “Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (NASB). But God’s Word also gives us a strategy against those attacks by telling us to “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes…” (Ephesians 6:11-18). I find it interesting that every piece of “armor” described in that passage refers to the character of Christ. In other words, put on Christ-likeness – abide in Christ – and you will fend off the attacks of the enemy.

We abide in Christ through surrender and constant communion with Him. As you suit up with the armor of God, here are five prayers to pray against Satan’s attacks on your heart, mind, emotions, mouth, and body.

1. A Prayer to Guard Your Heart

Lord God, Captain of my heart, Satan knows if I follow Your Greatest Commandment – to love You with all my heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37) – he is powerless over me. Guard my heart, Lord Jesus, so that it beats for You alone. Don’t let me grow complacent toward You or be lured to love anyone or anything more than You. Remove the idols from my heart so that You alone command my allegiance and utmost affections Help me to love and forgive others as You have forgiven me so the enemy can get no foothold through hate or bitterness on my part. Cultivate in my heart Your love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7). Finally, Lord, set my heart on things above, not on earthly things. Help me to remember that You died for me and my life is now hidden which Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-2). Increase my longing for heaven so this world holds no power over me.

2. A Prayer to Defend Your Mind

Almighty God, cover my mind with the helmet of Your salvation, reminding me constantly that I am Your child and the enemy can’t mess with me. Fix my thoughts, Lord Jesus, on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. Help me to think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise so Your peace will guard my mind (Philippians 4:8-9). Don’t let me copy the behavior and customs of this world, but transform me into a new person by changing the way I think. Then I will learn to recognize Your will for me which is good and pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:2). Saturate my mind with Your truth so I am convinced that the answers are found in Your Word, not out in the world.

3. A Prayer to Calm Your Emotions

Lord, keep the enemy at bay by calming my emotions with the peace of Your presence. Help me to follow Your command and not worry about anything, but pray about everything, with a thankful heart offering up prayers and requests to you so that You can give me that peace that no one can completely understand – a peace that will control the way I think and feel (Phil. 4:6-7). Remind me, daily, that You are the Only One who can meet my emotional needs so I don’t look to any person for my identity, validation, or for my love tank to be filled. Thank You that You are the God of peace, the God of order, the God who heals my wounds and helps me sort through and make sense of life. You are not the God of chaos or confusion. Fill me with Your Spirit so I may express to others only love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

4. A Prayer to Cover Your Mouth

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Communication

How Important Am I?

By divinecouncil February 1, 2019

by Dallas Willard

(photo: Angel Isaiah McCann)

Don’t you know that you
yourselves are God’s temple and
that God’s Spirit lives in you?

1 Corinthians 3:16

In the movie Gandhi, the young Indian lawyer and a white clergyman are walking together on a boardwalk in South Africa, contrary to its laws at the time. Some brutish-looking young white men threaten to harm them, but the ringleader’s mother calls from a window and commands him to go about his business.

When the clergyman exclaims over their good luck, Gandhi comments, “I thought you were a man of God.” The clergyman replies, “I am, but I don’t believe he plans his day around me!”
A cute point, but beneath it lie beliefs that make it difficult to take seriously the possibility of divine guidance. One of those beliefs is that we are not important to God. But we were important enough for God to give his Son’s life for us and to choose to inhabit us as living temples. Obviously, then, we are important enough for God to guide us and speak to us whenever it’s appropriate.

Pray: Consider what sort of God would create you, sacrifice enormously for you, choose to inhabit you, but refuse to speak to you? Pray, thanking God for being such a relational God, who chooses to sacrifice for you, inhabit you and have an interactive life with you.
¹

Dallas Willard and Jan Johnson, Hearing God through the Year: A 365-Day Devotional (Westmont, IL: IVP Books, 2015). ↩

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Church

Where Did All This Pentecostalism Come From?

By Guest Post January 25, 2019

By Tim Challies

It is impossible to consider the modern history or contemporary state of Christianity without accounting for the sudden rise, the explosive spread, and the worldwide impact of Pentecostalism. To that end, I’ve been reading several books on the subject, focused especially on the Azusa Street Revival, which most historians consider the setting in which Pentecostalism began. Here are a few key points I’ve learned about the Azusa Street Revival and the Azusa Street Mission that housed it.

Its roots were in the Holiness Movement. The roots of the Azusa Street Revival and the Pentecostalism it birthed are entwined with the Holiness Movement of the late nineteenth century. This was a renewing movement within the Wesleyan tradition that emphasized complete sanctification and taught that moral perfection is available to Christians. It was marked by a heavy emphasis on personal holiness, most often displayed through a close adherence to the law as a means of drawing near to God. In general, early Pentecostal theology took Wesleyan theology as its starting place, then added to it certain new elements.

It was led by William Seymour. The Azusa Street Mission was led by William J. Seymour, an African American son of former slaves who was born and raised in Louisiana. In his early twenties he traveled to Indianapolis where he had a conversion experience at a Methodist Episcopal church. He left that tradition, though, after becoming convinced of premillennialism and special revelation. He likely migrated to a group called Evening Light Saints where he was exposed to their policies of non-sectarianism, non-creedalism, and equality between races and genders, all of which he adopted and promoted. Though he felt the call to ministry, he battled it until he contracted smallpox and came to believe this was God’s chastisement for his disobedience.

It built upon a previous movement. Though it’s fair to say that the Azusa Street Mission marked the beginning of Pentecostalism, William Seymour had based much of his doctrine and certain of his practices on Charles Parham. Parham had become convinced that Christians needed to rediscover the miraculous spiritual gifts, especially that of tongues. These tongues would allow mission work to advance in foreign lands and help usher in the Lord’s return. Parham founded a Bible school in Topeka, Kansas, where in 1901 one of his students received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. Though Parham was an unabashed racist and unorthodox in many key doctrines, Seymour studied at his college for a short time—enough to absorb his view of the ongoing spiritual gifts. Seymour was soon called to a church in Los Angeles and left Parham, whom he was soon to eclipse as the father of Pentecostalism. Parham seems never to have forgiven Seymour for this.

It began near Azusa Street. The Azusa Street Revival actually began in a small house on nearby Bonnie Brae Street. On April 9, 1906, Seymour was three days into a ten-day fast with several other people (all of whom were African American), when he laid hands on one participant and prayed he would receive the Holy Spirit. That man fell to the floor, then began to speak in tongues. They hurried to the house of Richard and Ruth Asberry on Bonnie Brae Street where others were waiting. Soon many of them had a similar experience of Spirit baptism and also spoke and sang in tongues. This drew the interest of neighbors and within days the house became so packed that they were forced to move to the nearby vacant building at 312 Azusa Street. (That building has since been torn down, but the house on Bonnie Brae Street remains as a museum.)

It was distinctly egalitarian. From its very beginning, the Azusa Street Mission permitted both men and women to fill all positions of leadership, including preaching. The revival was also racially egalitarian, so that whites and minorities worshipped together in a way that many at the time considered scandalous. Some of the early critiques of the movement ooze with malicious racism as onlookers express their revulsion with black men worshipping alongside white women. The multi-ethnicity of the earliest Pentecostals contributed to what would become Pentecostal worship, which absorbed elements of various cultural traditions. (Seymour would later amend his views to allow only men to hold certain leadership positions.)

It was a revival of a particular view of sanctification

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Prayer

3 Prayer Priorities for America

By Guest Post January 24, 2019

by Ronnie Floyd

Dear Friends in Christ Who Will Pray for America,

Now is the time to pray for America. The year of 2019 before us yearns for God’s people from all over the world to pray for America. We are living in serious and critical times.

Call upon your church, friends, colleagues, and any leader in this nation: We need to pray for America.

Below are three prayer priorities I am asking you to agree upon with us at the National Day of Prayer. Please do all you can to forward and assist in this manner. Now is the time to pray for America.

Prayer Priority #1: Oh God, may You begin to raise up a Love One Another movement across America that forwards and advances Jesus’ words to us: Love One Another.

“Love one another. Just as I have loved you.” John 13:34

Jesus tells us to love one another just like He loves us. This includes every person in America as well as every person in the world.
Jesus wants us to love every person sacrificially, willfully, and unconditionally because this is the same way He loves us.
Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to empower us to do the things that only God can do through us. Therefore, call upon God to move in our nation miraculously, replacing hate with love, division with unity, and criticism of one another with love for one another.
Jesus, raise up a Love One Another movement across America.

Prayer Priority #2: Our Heavenly Father, we pray we will be used of God to build up America by blessing and adding value to each town and city in our nation.

“A city is built up by the blessing of the upright, but it is torn down by the mouth of the wicked.” Proverbs 11:11

Heavenly Father, we are Christians, the ones made right by You; therefore, as the upright, may we fulfill Proverbs 11:11 in every town and city in the United States. May we bless each town and city by adding value to it in any way we can.
Heavenly Father, Proverbs 11:11 says the wicked tear down with their words the towns and cities of our nation; but as the upright, may we choose to add value and bless them.
Heavenly Father, we ask You to raise up godly Christian men and women in their towns and cities who will run for local office and use their influence to add value by forwarding and blessing the future generations in these towns and cities.
Heavenly Father, we ask You to bless each town and city with the message and encouragement of Jesus Christ when He said, “Love one another” in John 13:34.

Prayer Priority #3: Lord, we ask You to be with the leaders in our local, state, and national governments as they work and make decisions together for the good of our nation.

Call out their specific names to God if you have them:

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Church

Dallas Willard on The Basis of Authority for Spiritual Leaders & Teachers

By divinecouncil January 2, 2019

Today’s devotional from Dallas Willard’s “Hearing God Throughout the Year” struck me as worth sharing. As the title reveals, the devotional is 365 Biblical insights into fostering a personal relationship with God. Here’s Dallas on, “Led by God”:

There is massive testimony to and widespread faith in God’s personal, guiding communication with us—far more than in blindly controlled guidance. This is not only recorded in Scripture and emblazoned upon the history of the church; it also lies at the heart of our worship services and our individualized relationships with God, and it actually serves as the basis of authority for our leaders and teachers. Only very rarely will someone profess to lead or teach the people of God on the basis of his or her education, natural talents and denominational connections alone. Credibility in any sort of spiritual leadership derives from a life in the Spirit, from the person’s personal encounter and ongoing relationship with God.¹

Meditate: Read Proverbs 3:5-6 and consider the ways you are a leader in a friendship, family, church, neighborhood or workplace. (Being a leader means that people listen to you and value your opinion regardless of whether you fill a role or hold a title.) Read the verses again and ask God to show you in what ways you need to listen for God to speak in those relationships and circumstances.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight. —Proverbs 3:5-6

Dallas Willard and Jan Johnson, Hearing God through the Year: A 365-Day Devotional (Westmont, IL: IVP Books, 2015). ↩