Book: Prayer, God’s Secret Weapon (Vol. 1)

“Prayer, both corporate and private, have become the second-class citizens of the spiritual world in our generation. People don’t pray as they ought, and those who do often admit in private they don’t really know how and don’t really expect answers.”

“Why do the prayer requests churches receive indicate that often people don’t really know what to ask for when they ask for prayer? Why is prayer only casually referred to in stirring messages and doctrinally correct Sunday School classes, but nobody teaches us how to pray, and nobody gives us time to pray?“

“(1) We don’t understand the depth of the conflict. (2) We don’t understand the spiritual warfare involved. (3) We don’t understand that prayer is hard work.”

1- What are some reasons we give for not praying more?

2- Why do you think Jesus chose to take Peter, James, and John with him to pray? Why do you think they were not able to stay awake?

3- Have you ever prayed for or with a friend? How does your relationship with that person grow because of a shared prayer? How do you think Jesus felt when he came back to find his friends asleep? Has someone ever asked you to pray for them and you have “fallen asleep”?

4- How is spiritual warfare linked to prayer?

“We all think prayer is important, but the problem in the Christian life we’ve found is it isn’t so much what we know that counts it’s whether or not we are doing what we know. Do you pray. Do you pray effectively? Do you pray compassionately? Do you pray obediently? Do you know how to pray?”

“The devil isn’t overwhelmed by all the jobs you have at the church or even by the prestige that accompanies them. He is overjoyed, in fact, if those activities so consume you or so elevate your spiritual opinion of yourself that you never have time to pray as you ought. That’s a good trade, in his estimation. But not in God’s. God sees prayer as an opportunity afforded the believer by grace and grace alone to actually enter into a kind of fellowship with God.”

“Of course, you aren’t worthy. That isn’t the issue. He is worthy. That’s the issue. And because He is; and because He has transferred His righteousness to your account and taken your sins as His own, there will never be a time when you cannot come into His presence and immediately have an audience. Never.“

“Remember when you read passages on prayer: God is already assuming that you understand how vital prayer is, how intense prayer should be, and how crucial to the kingdom your faithfulness in this area is.”

“What intimate fellowship Jesus maintained with His Father. And because that fellowship was never broken, He could know His Father’s heart and agree with His Father’s will and intercede at his Father’s throne with perfect power. That power was not reserved only for Him. He sent His Spirit to live in us that we might have the same access to the same insights and to the same authority as He.”

“[Jesus] knew, and He wanted us to know, that as God in human form, He needed to maintain that perfect relationship with the Father, second by second, day by day. He could not presume upon the power or the wisdom or the fellowship of the day before. He had to maintain that relationship using the incredible vehicle His Father had provided for all men since the beginning. He called it prayer.”

“We must pray because without that level of fellowship with our God we will wither spiritually, and our love for the Savior will diminish and die.”

1- What are we actually doing when we pray? When you pray, do you picture yourself coming into the presence of God? How has our lack of understanding of prayer contributed to our inability to pray?

2- Why do you think Jesus needed to pray? Why did He usually go away by Himself to pray?

3- What was the disciples’ response to Jesus’ command to “watch and pray”? Why do you think they could not stay awake and pray with Jesus? What causes you to not pray?

4- What happens when we fail to spend time with God?

“Don’t rush into God’s presence and simply begin to throw your problems at Him. Come first and honor Him. First, acknowledge who He is and what place He plays in the scheme of things. He is God. He is omnipotent. There is nothing He cannot do. He is omniscient. There is nothing He does not know. He is God.”

“Before you approach what appears to be impossible, remind yourself and worship God that the impossible is God’s greatest joy. No one can share His glory when He parts seas, brings water out of rocks, or sends down fire from Heaven. The more difficult your situation, the more delighted God would be to intervene. So before you ask, acknowledge Who it is you are asking.”

“Many times we pray about something once and a peace settles on our hearts, and we know that God has heard us and that the issue is settled. But many other times, God … remains silent to test our faith. And the deeper the trial, often the longer He waits.”

“Afraid to become vulnerable, we shrink back from praying aright. Either we demand that God do it our way, or we assume that fatalistic posture of “What difference does it make if I pray?” And sure enough, nothing happens. What we want doesn’t happen, nor do we get changed in the process. Our understanding of answered prayer is that God has answered if what we asked for is the answer. That makes prayer a one-way instructional dialogue between us and God with us doing the instructing. God help us. No wonder there is so little answered prayer in our day. We aren’t seeking to bring our wills into harmony with God’s; we are seeking to bring God’s will into harmony with ours.”

“Prayer is not badgering God to do things your way. Prayer is becoming so intimately acquainted with God’s heart that the only way is His way. It is the process of communicating heart-to-heart with your God until His heart becomes yours. In the process, you become so enamored with His love that you know His plan is best. You may suggest alternatives. You may even plead with Him to consider them, but never do you demand your way at the expense of His higher ways. That would rob Him of His glory and rob you of the work He wants to do in your life.”

“Prayer is staying on your face before God until His glory overtakes you and His love overpowers you until the only thing that matters to you is what matters to Him. You may well cry out, “Lord, if it be possible”. But then with a sigh, not just of resignation, but rather of victory, “But Lord, if not… whatever it takes…””

1- When you come before God in prayer, do you already have in mind what the answer to your prayer should be? Why is it important to come before God without an agenda, but that of seeking God’s will? How did Jesus’ praying, in itself, help prepare Him for what He was about to face?

2- Why is it important to have someone you can share your burdens with, who will commit to pray for you? Why do you think Jesus asked the three disciples to come pray with him—why not all of them? Why do you think Jesus came to the disciples three different times?

3- What is the importance of beginning prayer with an attitude of worship?

4- How can entering God’s will be a blessing even if God’s will means oppression, death, illness, or some other tragic circumstance?

5- Why did Jesus ask three times to take the cross from Him? Wouldn’t once be sufficient? Why should we continue in prayer?

“Why is it, then, so few of us ever seem to come to realize just how special prayer can be? So few of us, it seems, seem to care. Oh, many of us are willing to “pray”, as we call it, superficially. But this process of entering into God’s secret chamber, falling down on our faces before His incredible throne, and allowing our hearts to become one with His heart: that’s not what most of us call prayer.”

“Your giving, your praying, and your fasting, according to Jesus, are to be done “in secret”. So secretly — this is the key — that in the case of giving, your left hand doesn’t know what your right hand gave.”

“Prayer doesn’t ever call attention to itself or yourself. It is a “secret” discipline. It is something that is designed to be known only to you and God. When someone else is made aware of it, it ceases to have the same power, and it ceases to produce the same reward. And when you intentionally or knowingly pray in such a way that others will know you’re praying, you’re demonstrating a kind of hypocrisy that not only robs you of your reward, but it assures you of divine discipline, because God said, “Don’t do that.””

“It’s so important that when you pray, you go into [your prayer] closet and shut the door. You don’t call attention to you, and you don’t call attention to the fact that you’re praying. God wants to do something by having you alone in His presence.”

“When you spend the quality of time and the quantity of time in the presence of God that He desires, you literally have your countenance changed. It’s not something you do. You’re not even aware it’s happened. People are drawn to you. People are moved by your discernment, even by your rebuke. But you’re unaware. God is so dominant in your life, and you’re so transparent in your walk that miracles are taking place, lives are being changed, and you don’t even know it.”

1- If we are to pray in secret, what then is the purpose of public prayer? In what instances did Jesus pray in public and for what reason? Jesus took three of His disciples with Him to pray, yet prayed in a quiet place by Himself when He went to the garden. Why did He take them with Him?

2- What is the difference, if any, between how you pray in secret and how you pray in public? Do you find it harder to pray in public? Why?

3- Do you find that there are certain times and places when you come to God and feel more in touch with God? Are there certain surroundings in which you feel distracted?

4- What is it that keeps you from spending quality time in prayer on a regular basis? Do you think the church should have regular times that it sets aside for prayer, or do you think it should set aside places for people to pray who want a special place to be alone with the Lord?

“The principle of vain repetitions has to do with three things: (1) Putting the focus of the prayer on its length or intensity or wordiness rather than on the purity of the heart. (2) Thinking that God doesn’t understand the issues and we need to repeat it over and over until He gets it. (3) The possibility that God did not hear us the first or second time we prayed, so if we keep at it, we won’t get a busy signal.”

“If we assume God already knows so why bother to pray, we miss the meaning and purpose of prayer. If we place all the emphasis on our asking, we take the focus off of Who God is and place it on what we can do to bend His heart. Both extremes are wrong. The truth is God is omniscient. There is nothing He does not know. He knows our needs before we ask.”

“He wants you to talk to Him about [your problems]. He even wants you to ask Him to enter into a problem and either remove it, or solve it, or give you the grace to endure it, whichever of those solutions would most honor His name. But as you approach Him, remember, He already knows about it. And He already knows how you have responded to it.”

“He knows your needs. He knows your burdens. He knows your hurts. He knows your fears. God knows. But even though He knows, we are told to ask. Why?  (1) When we ask, we bring Him glory; (2) Asking makes us dependent; (3) Asking produces wisdom (the Mind of Christ); (4) Asking produces faith; (5) Asking produces joy; (6) Asking motivates us to holiness; (7) Asking motivates us to know His will.”

“If we don’t confess [our sins] immediately, four things are likely to happen: (1) We will let them slide; (2) We will fall prey to the sins which follow those sins; (3) We will simply forget about them; (4) We will try to ask God to forgive us by categories. [Example:] “Lord, if I was short-tempered yesterday, forgive me.” … Confession of sin is to be specific. The only way to deal with it and solve all four of these problems is confess those sins the moment they happen.”

“Learn to practice continual confession. And rather than justifying sin, allowing greater sins to go unchecked tomorrow than you did today, learn to increase your sensitivity to sin so that the things you accepted today, you simply cannot tolerate tomorrow.“

1- In Oswald Chambers’ “My Utmost for His Highest”, he observed that contempt for others is produced in our lives by our attempts to impress people with our spirituality, and that this is a sure sign of spiritual pride. (a) How do you think his observation might apply to praying “vain repetitions”? (b) Could it affect how you view others in the body of Christ who practice differing corporate modes of worship than what we experience?

2- We were reminded us last week that God never learned anything. Russell challenges us to answer someone’s question about “What does God know?” in one sentence. What could be simply explained to another person about omniscience?

3- From memory, without referring to your notes, what are three of the reasons God told us to ask, even though He already knows?

4- Many of us have trouble thinking of specific sins to confess when we go before God. What do you think are the causes for that and what are the consequences?

“Again and again, Jesus demonstrated the balance between dignity and relationship. He never left any doubt about how close He and His Father were. There was nothing they could not discuss. He treasured His Father’s will and His words above everything else. They were so close their conversations were like intimate discussions between two best friends. Yet Jesus never made light of His Father’s position or authority. While they were best friends, His Father was still… His Father.”

“The reason Jesus wants us to begin our prayer with “Our Father” is because we are to get rid of that [denominational] pettiness and divisiveness, because through our relationship with one another the world might know and believe that the Father sent the Son. Do you think that’s what the world knows when they look at the church today? Do you think that’s what the world knows when they listen to the words we speak about other groups and other denominations and other believers who don’t think exactly the way we do? We are to learn to pray, “Our Father,” to remind us that He is not just my Father and your Father, He is the Father of all of those in the world today who have come to God on His terms.”

“The rich and the poor are one in Christ. The races are one in Christ. Male and female, bond and free. One in Christ. Democrats and Republicans. One in Christ. Liberals and conservatives. One in Christ. Whenever we start to pray, we ought to bow in humility and submission and lay aside every ounce of prejudice and every source of division and come in the Spirit of oneness that is ours in Him. He is “our” Father. The petty exclusiveness that is a sign of virtually all the cults has made its way into the body of Christ at large and is of Satan.”

“If you have been born again by the blood of Christ, you can call Him “Father”. Otherwise, you are simply saying words. Would you walk up to someone on the street who is a total stranger to you, and call him, “Father”? Would your simply calling him that make it so? Of course not. Your coming to God and calling Him “Father” does not make Him your Father. He created this world and He created you, but that is in the physical sense. For Him to be your Heavenly Father, He has to have been a part of the process of your spiritual birth; you must have been “born again”.”

“That is why you begin your prayers by acknowledging your relationship with God. He is more than Creator to you. He is your Father. He gave you life when you had none. The very mention of that title ought to cause your heart to bow in humble submission and go back to that cross 2,000 years ago, fall on your face and say, “Oh, praise God, You adopted me into Your family. You paid the price. You are my Father.” … It isn’t because the word “Father” has some magical meaning. It’s because in your heart it ought to surface anthems of praise in remembrance of your salvation.”

“When you pray to the Lord “Our Father Who art in Heaven,” remember, Beloved, that God is omnipotent. And when the time is right (not before), when He has had enough, when the enemies of God’s children have been allowed to unleash their power toward God’s own for a season, He will speak and the nations will crumble. He will speak to your heart and the enemy will have no effect.”

“Do not rush into His presence without first acknowledging that the God Who lives in us and Who is available to us is the same God Who waits for us and intercedes for us – in heaven. That ought to set our minds at ease, Beloved. And that ought to cause us to worship, for truly our God is in the heavens, and our God is in our hearts. We are invincible, because He is invincible.”

1- Who can call God Father? Why can’t God be the “Father” of all faiths? What is the difference between being the Father and the Creator? What is special about the term, “Father”?

2- What comes to your mind when you think of heaven? Because God is a God Who reigns in heaven and is not bound by the limitations of having an earthly body, what attributes does He possess? What is the significance of addressing God as “Our Father, Who art in Heaven”?

3- How does recognizing Who God is as we begin in prayer help establish a proper perspective as we share our problems with Him? Is He being selfish when He tells us to worship Him first? Explain.

“God’s name is, by far, the most important name of all. We simply must come to understand what it means, for when we begin to pray, we are to begin by worshiping Him for His precious, wonderful, mighty name.”

“We must address Him accordingly. Otherwise, we will forget as we pray that we are not coming to instruct Him, but to worship Him. We are not coming to chastise Him, but to submit to Him. We are not coming to influence Him, but rather to have ever fiber of His precious will, which will often be in direct opposition to ours, take the place of our thoughts, our plans, and our goals. He is everything. We are coming to appropriate His life. So when we pray “Hallowed be Thy name”, we are, if our hearts are in tune, dying to self and acknowledging that we stand before the King of Kings, falling down before Him to receive His instructions and to worship His name.”

“The word “hallowed” means to be set apart. It means that which sets God apart from everyone and everything else. His name does that because His name is the reflector which, in essence, tells us Who He really is. Until you learn to worship Him for His name and praise Him for His name, you do not really have a handle on praying. It’s why we pray, “In Jesus’ name”. We are beseeching the Father to hear us based on Who His Son is and on what His Son has done. He will.”

“Having magnified His Name as the Wondrous One, having gratefully acknowledged Him as your personal counselor, having faced the enemy knowing He is the Mighty God, and having refocused the lens of your heart to eternal standard time because that is the clock the everlasting Father uses, you can quietly rest at His feet in prayer. He is; therefore, nothing else matters. He can handle any problem you bring to Him, and He can handle it however He chooses. Your job is to bring it to Him… and rest.”

“Let us always approach His precious, priceless throne by first worshiping Him for some aspect of His marvelous name. Take time to study the names of God. And for the rest of your life, each time you begin to pray, pray “Hallowed be thy name” and mean it.”

1- What is the significance of a name? Why is verbalizing His name an important part in how we begin our prayers?

2- Do you know the meaning of your name? How has God used circumstances in your life to display the character quality of the name you have been given?

3- Think of as many names of God as you can and define them in your own words.

4- Take a few moments and worship God for Who He is. After studying His name, what does the word “hallowed” mean to you?

“This lesson is about a kingdom of the heart. It’s about a kingdom that is spiritual in nature, but that one day will actually have an actual king and will be in an actual kingdom. This lesson is about the kingdom of God. And it’s about a people, a people you and I see every time we look in the mirror, who are so oblivious to the fact that there’s a war going on and that the big war is about to break out, that we’re wandering around buying and selling, enjoying and complaining in general, pretending all is right with the world.”

“”Thy Kingdom Come.” What a wonderful, yet incredibly dangerous prayer to pray. It literally means, “Father, we live in two worlds at the same time.” That’s what you’re saying when you pray that. One is this physical world where our bodies ache, things break, people take, and emotions quake. The other is the world of the spirit, the world within in the world to come. It’s within the believer’s heart now; it’ll be in the believer’s world in the age to come. Everything about it is spiritual. Its goals as principles and its rewards are all spiritual.”

“When we ask for the kingdom to come, we’re asking God for two things: (1) We are asking God for something spiritually rewarding to come out of every situation we pray for; (2) We are asking God to do whatever it takes to hasten that day when the King will come, and life as we know it will fade into the recesses of eternity, and a whole new life will be ours in heaven. … When you pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done”, you’re asking God to forego the temporal blessings for spiritual fruit.”

“When we ask God for His kingdom to come, what are we asking Him?  (1) We are asking God to bring us to repentance; (2) For the kingdom to come, pride must be seen for what it is; (3) For the kingdom to come, this world must lose its appeal, and things must lose their attraction; (4) For the kingdom to come, the gospel must be preached; (5) For the kingdom to come, the bride must be ready. … So you see, my friends, praying for the kingdom to come is more than just saying words. It’s an open invitation for God to do anything He wants in your life, whatever the cost. You’re living for one thing, for the kingdom to come on Earth as it is in heaven.”

1- How would you define the kingdom of God? At what point do you think the disciples understood what the kingdom of God was? At what point in your life did you understand what is meant by the kingdom of God? Did it make a difference in your life?

2- If building a kingdom is of the utmost importance to God, why are our hearts not devoted to that pursuit? Do we pray with an earnest desire to see God’s kingdom come? Can we discern what is best for God’s kingdom? Why or why not?

3- What part does repentance play in establishing the kingdom of God? Why is pride the great enemy of the kingdom? Why is not only repentance toward God, but repenting of wrongs toward others necessary to the kingdom?

4- Why is it important for every believer to be mission-oriented in his thinking? What is missions and how can every believer, regardless of his gifts or talents, take part?

5- What does it mean to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness”? How does God then take care of the “all these things” that consume us?

“Four principles in: “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Mt 6:9-11): (1)  “Give” = Total dependence; (2) “Give us… our” = The oneness of the body of Christ; (3) “Give us this day” = Living and asking one day at a time; (4) “Give us this day our daily bread.” = Praying daily because we have daily needs, and need to focus on one day’s needs and one day’s problems.”

“When you ask God to “give us this day our daily bread”, you’re asking Him to open His storehouse of grace and provide something that we do not deserve out of His treasury of love. We don’t demand it because we deserve it — we ask God to give us something He’s already promised us, that He wants to give us. And if we ask in humility, then we’re on good ground. “Apart from You, Father, I have nothing.” That’s what you’re saying. “God, please meet my needs today in Jesus. We do not so much as deserve the breath we breathe, but Lord, You have granted to us life as a gift. So, as You promised, give…”. That’s principle number one. How you approach Him, asking Him to give is the second.”

“Our needs are but a very tiny part of what the needs are of the whole body of Christ. When we’re praying, all we think about is us, and our world may expand to our family, even to people in our church. The truth of the matter is the “us” stands for the body of Christ — the whole body of Christ. When you pray “give us… our…”, that’s what you mean — all of the body of Christ.”

“[God] decided to carve life up into neat little 24-hour packages, and He said to us they’ll never vary. No day will ever have more or less than twenty-four hours. Every time the sun comes up, God renews His covenant, reaffirms His faithfulness, and demonstrates His mercy. … God is reminding us He designed life in these workable segments so we can grasp His love and appropriate His mercy.”

“Man still needed to understand what the life of faith was all about. He needed to understand that he couldn’t borrow trouble from the future. He needed to understand that worry would become the cardinal stumbling block, the cardinal absence of trust in the Christian life. We’re to focus on one day’s needs and one day’s problems, because that’s the scope of time God designed us to focus on. That way we can appropriate God’s mercies, which are new every morning; we can confess our sins and reestablish our fellowship, if we have not done so. We can place the total weight of our trust in Him for a period of time we have the capacity to trust Him for.”

“Does that mean you don’t plan for the future? Of course not. but it does mean you don’t presume on the future. And secondly, it does mean you never worry about the future.”

“I think the great missing factor in most of our prayer lives is a really grateful heart. We’ve got a lot of “Dear God, please gimme’s”. Most of us don’t have nearly as many “Oh God, thank You for’s”. And I believe one reason we’re to pray one day at a time, is because we have such short memories. We pray for long-term blessings and we forget when they come that we ever prayed for them.”

1- Why is it important to come to God daily? Why not just ask God to give us all we need for a year or the rest of our lives? What difference does it make between asking God to give us our daily bread and asking Him to help us earn it?

2- Is there a contradiction between making plans for the future and asking for God to provide for us daily? Why or why not? In terms of time, what has God given to us? What part of time are our worries usually based upon – the past, present or future? How many of our worries would you say never come to fruition?

3- Take a moment to name all the countries that you can think of in which the people literally don’t know where their next meal is coming from. As we pray for “our” daily bread who do we usually think of? Who do think Christ meant to include when he said, “Give us this day our daily bread”? What happens when we begin to pray for the needs of Christians around the world?

4- How will a thankful heart for the gifts of grace God has given us help us to pray even more fervently?

“[Jesus] began to couple this discipline called prayer with something called forgiveness. And then He did the unthinkable. He took this miracle of God’s saving grace, His saving forgiveness, this balm that sets us free, and He coupled it with another kind of forgiveness. It was not the initial act of forgiveness that would save us from the penalty of sin; it was the forgiveness that would set us free from the pressure of sin, and give us a daily, continual, unbroken fellowship with God. This was to be the cornerstone of our walk with God – constant forgiveness of sins. But this was also to be the challenge of our walk with God – constant forgiveness of others. And He chose to link the two of them together, so that the one (an act of divine grace) was predicated on the other (a choice of the will).”

“Forgiveness equals freedom. It has the connotation of someone being in prison with no hope of release, and suddenly the doors swing open, the guard comes in from out of the blue and says, “Bye! You’re free!” God, Who is rich in mercy, decided to stay the execution, re-hear the case, and when He did, He found you guilty again as charged. So He paid the penalty Himself. His Son died in your place, and you were set free. Not because you were not guilty but because you were. Forgiven means “to send away, to dismiss, to pardon”.”

“You can’t earn God’s forgiveness – it’s free and undeserved, but now because His Spirit lives in you, you have a responsibility to do two things to invoke that gift of forgiveness: (1) If you want to be forgiven, you have to ask. Every time you sin you have to ask God to forgive you. Not because He can’t do it without that, but because you would never appreciate it if He did. (2) The promise to forgive us is excluded unless we forgive others. It’s a reminder that unless we have forgiven those who have sinned against us, or we think have sinned against us, we can ask all we want; God says He will not forgive. Now, I know that’s tough. This has nothing to do with your salvation, Beloved. But in order to enjoy your freedom and please the heart of the Judge who set you free, you have to forgive everybody, everybody, everybody, who has ever hurt you, or wounded you, or displeased you, or not appreciated you, or even abused you.”

“We want God to forgive us – we depend on it, we glory in it, we talk about it. But, Beloved, if you have somebody whose name still stirs up anger, hostility, or a vindictive spirit in your heart, and your prayer life seems shallow, your ability to have victory over besetting sins is weak, and your ability to love other people seems hindered, God may be speaking to you saying, “You owe everyone who has sinned against you the very same level of forgiveness, the same frequency of forgiveness, even the same graciousness of forgiveness [that I give you].””

1- How do you feel when someone has forgiven you for a wrongdoing? How do you feel when you finally forgive someone for something they have done against you? Is it harder to forgive or to accept forgiveness, since both of you are in bondage?

2- What does it mean for God to forgive us? Do we have to prove ourselves to God? Do we expect people to prove themselves to us before we are willing to forgive them? Is it necessary for someone to say they are sorry for us to forgive them? How can we forgive those who have hurt us in the past, but who are no longer with us?

3- How does our lack of forgiveness hold us in bondage and hurt us as well as those around us? Can you share a time in which you forgave another and found freedom in your life?

4- Why is forgiveness with just words not enough? How can you begin to forgive with your heart? Is it something you can do, or does God empower you to be able to do it? Should forgiveness be equated with friendship?

5- By withholding forgiveness, what are we really saying to God, in our hearts, about this person? Why is withholding forgiveness detrimental to our prayer life?

God will not lead us into temptation, but He will indeed lead us through trials. The word lead” is a word that might well be used of a shepherd. It does not simply portray one who is at the front of the pack with everyone following; it has to do with the concept of gently guiding and overseeing. In fact, many concordances add the phrase “to bear or to carry” to their definition of “to lead”. So you see, the prayer is not for God NOT to drive us into the devil’s camp; the prayer is asking God, as He is gently carrying us through life’s storms, not to let the devil have the upper hand. The difference is not slight; it is enormous.”

“Temptation actually means “to put to the test in order to ascertain character.” When it is used of Satan putting man to the test to cause him to fail or to do evil, it would be accurately translated “temptation”. But when used of God’s dealings with His children, it always means “to be tested for the purpose of determining character”. Hence, the same incident might be a temptation from Satan and a test from God at the same time. The difference would be in objectives.”

“”Deliver us” can be best defined as “to snatch or draw one from evil”. The picture is one of someone suddenly realizing that he is about to fall into a mire of quicksand, so he calls out for help, and someone reaches out, grabs him by the arm and “delivers” him. Sin could only be dealt with through suffering and death. God delivered Jesus by letting Jesus pass the test. Physically, the results indicated total failure. Spiritually, they represented total victory. The Father delivered the Son from the evil one. He did so by letting the evil one do what Satan thought would lead to defeat.”

“God is faithful. He will not let the test exceed your capacity to bear the test and to pass the test successfully. His objective is to provide a way for you to stand up under the test — for you to bear the test. Now what is the way of escape? The way of escape is the Word of God. It is man’s way out of Satan’s arms. It will not deliver us from the test, but it will “bear us up” in the test.”

“The enemy will attack. The conflict will continue to rage. God can remove the conflict, and God can remove us from the conflict. Usually, He does neither. He has a higher goal: He wants us to be tested that we might come forth as gold. His desire is that we pass through the fires and emerge more than conquerors. As in that flaming furnace of old, God desires that the world around us see us go through the fire. They need to see us go through the fire so they can see our God in the fire with us, delivering us from the evil one.”

1- Who is the one who tempts us? Why is resting a necessary prerequisite of being led? What is there about God’s character that causes us to place our trust in Him?

2- How did God deliver Jesus from the cross? How is God’s deliverance sometime different from our thoughts of deliverance?

3- What do you consider to be evil? What things does the Bible declare to be evil? What will be God’s ultimate deliverance?

“Jesus wanted [the disciples] to understand more than what was going to happen to Him; He wanted them to understand what was going to happen to them as a result of what was going to happen to Him. In order to do that, He had to teach them a principle called “The Name”. He had to make them understand that once He went back to the Father and the Holy Spirit came to dwell in them, they could experience the very same intimacy in the Father’s presence that He experienced, provided they came in His name.”

“[Jesus] is saying that we can come to God the same way He did, directly, and God will hear us, not because the Son has intercepted the prayer and taken it to the Father, but because the Father has come to love us exactly as He loves His Son, because we have trusted in His Son as our Savior. When it came to praying, the Spirit would interpret our hearts and the heart of the Father and tell us how to pray, and the Word of God would be our textbook so we could be sure that it is the Spirit leading us (for He will never lead contrary to that Word). Then, according to the Master, Jehovah God would hear us in the same way He heard Jesus, so long as we came in Jesus’ name.”

“Oh, to fully grasp the power in that Name. Oh, to fully understand the majesty that accompanies that Name. Oh, to fully enter into the freedom that comes when you bring that Name aright to the Father. But tacking on those words at the end of a prayer without understanding what you are saying produces nothing, and doing so repeatedly without seeking to find what it really means may be akin to blasphemy.”

“In the Bank of Eternity, there are unlimited resources, but it’s all in one account. It’s all in the name of Jesus. Your own account is overdrawn. Big time. But wait a minute… If you have been adopted into the Royal family, you are no longer a pauper. You are a joint-heir with Christ. A joint-heir owns not half or part of the inheritance; everything each owns, all own. So you can draw on the entire balance. But when you come to withdraw, you must come in your new family name. God did not simply transfer some righteousness into your account. That would be a miracle, indeed. No, God did much more than that. He added your name to His account. Whatever He has, you have.”

“Here are seven things we must remember as we come in Jesus’ name: (1) We must be truly His; (2) We must come in utter humility; (3) We must use our credentials (the Name); (4) We must have a thankful heart; (5) We must ask for His nature at whatever the cost; (6) We must ask according to His will, not ours; (7) If we are honestly seeking God’s will, we come boldly. Boldness does not mean presumption. Boldness does not indicate pride. Our boldness is based upon the Name. We don’t come boldly because of who we are. We come boldly because of Who He is.”

1- Why do you think we are told to pray in Jesus’ name rather than in the name of the Father or the Holy Spirit?

2- What does the name of Jesus represent? What are some of the names given Jesus in the Bible? How does just the mention of these names change your perspective on things you may be facing?

3- Why must we be so careful to have a thankful heart as we come before God’s throne?

4- Why does God not necessarily give us what we ask for, if we ask in His name? When we ask something from God, why is it important to leave it in His hands? How would you respond to someone who says, “Prayer just doesn’t seem to work for me. God just doesn’t seem to listen to my prayers.”?