Celebrate with Beth Moore

God has been teaching me more and more about Himself through prayer in the last few months. More than anything, the Holy Spirit has used the words of Andrew Murray to bring the hammer down in my life and reveal my responsibility in the relationship. Andrew Murray prayed for 5 hours each day. He believed that what was accomplished in the spiritual realm was the only thing effective and nothing he could do in the physical realm could accomplish what merely asking God could do. He said, " If you want the power of Heaven called down on earth, You have to call it down." That is your blessed ability. We seldom choose it.

On Monday I was telling Denbigh that I felt like God was wanting me to focus specifically on prayer during the next couple months and ask Him to do some specific things. As I showed up to hear Beth Moore speak on Tuesday, you will never guess what she was talking about. Yes, prayer. Specifically, she issued an 8 week prayer challenge to us. Don't you love God's subtle nudgings. 8 weeks. That's a couple months, right?

Here are my notes:

"My Father will give you anything you ask in my name." - John 16:12
"In my name" is not a spiritual formula for answer. God is saying to call on the power of all the He represents, all the power He has, all things He has created. The Name is a summation of all that He is.
"Until now you have not, . . .but you're about to."

We have to come to celebrate complete joy in answered prayer.
*Shake up your prayer life! We are to be experiencing profoundly productive prayer lives.
Phil. 4:6

8 Week Challenge

1. We could use a change in our approach to prayer.
( Grant us a fresh infusion of Holy Spirit power and insight in our lives)

We have to get over approaching prayer as a discipline. We put it in the 'should do' category. We should clean the garage. We should eat better. We should pray. "We shoulds" rarely happen.

The biggest lie is that when we choose God that the fun is over. That this is a purely sacrificial, martyr like pose. When we choose to do the thing and go entirely over, it will be the ride of our lives.

2. We could use a change in our approach to God. John 11:41
Adopt this phrase. "I know that you hear me."
The disciples asked to teach them to pray like that. The thing that made Christ's prayers so different was that He Knew the one who was listening. There is a God and you know Him!

Second thing to adopt: Exodus 15:11 " Who is like you, O Lord, majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?"

3. We could use a change in our approach to Scripture.
John 15:7 and 1 John 5:14-15
wish in John is the Greek word Thelo. Will in 1 John is the word Thelema. They are from the same root word. How does our wish become His will? The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to shape the will of God in our minds. Interact with the Word.
The 'ma' at the end of thelema is result oriented. Once our wish is in God's will it brings about result.

4. We could use a change in our approach to a divine 'no.'

We have to keep praying even if we are afraid that the answer we get will not be the one we want to hear.

Part of the joy of giving is seeing the recipient react. We rarely react or even notice when God answers us. We should act like we do when we receive gifts from people. If God takes an action, He is looking for a reaction.

Why do we, as living, breathing miracles of God who have been restored from the deepest pits act like we are over it. We should still be praising Him!!

Isaiah 40 We should gain strength in the wait. The problem is that we generally focus so much on the wait that we lose strength.
The reason God does not grow tired and weary is because He has complete understanding. He is building up spiritual strength for you when the wait is over.

** I hope I can explain this part correctly:

Matthew 16:19 (NIV)

"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

better translated as

Matthew 16:19 (Amplified Bible)

"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind (declare to be improper and unlawful) on earth must be what is already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose (declare lawful) on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven."

We tend to look at this verse like witches casting spells. (She said if she could bind and lose that she would have been married in 6th grade:)
~ The way the Greek is best translated is to say "Whatever is loosed on earth has already been loosed on Heaven." This is saying that there are storehouses of things waiting for us. There is more than we can ever think of to ask.

Psalm 31:19 The key of this storehouse is the fear of the Lord. The way God's will in Heaven will be on earth is by prayer. Ask and keep asking. Relationship takes place. God's commands are written on the tablets of human hearts. God has no bigger concern than what happens inside you.

5.) We could use a change in our approach to our anointing.
1 John 3:18
Antichrist in Greek is antichristo. Anti means against. Christo is the anointed one. Satan is against the Anointed One. The enemy is after your anointing. It is where your power is.
Our anointing is the word chrisma. The enemy wants to take your effectiveness from you.
Your life is profoundly effective. It is real and not counterfeit. You have what it takes. It is in you.

"Ask in My name with the power of all I have done and am."

Ask.