S.D. Gordon – “The greatest thing anyone can do for God and for man is pray.  It is not the only thing; but it is the chief thing.  The great people of the earth today are the people who pray.  I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time to pray.”

Christian Prayer – Definition – “Christian prayer is a reverent, humble, and confident approach to the God of Scripture by a Spirit-empowered follower of Jesus Christ.  Such approach may be in word or thought usually involving beseeching, petition, intercession, confession, submission, commitment, praise, thanksgiving, adoration, or worship.”

Luke tells us that Jesus intended that, “we should always pray and not give up.”  (Lk. 18:1)

Prayer involves God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the believer. 

Samuel M. Zwemer: “True prayer is God the Holy Spirit talking to God the Father in the name of God the Son, and the believer’s heart is the prayer room.”

Matt. 6:6 – pray in secret                        Matt. 6:7 – pray with few words

Matt. 18:20 – corporate prayer gatherings promises Jesus’ presence

Matt. 21:22 – pray believing                        Matt. 5:5,6 – pray in simplicity

1 John 5:14 – according to the will of God

Luke 18:10-14 – in humility and repentance – Lk. 18 – tenaciously

Matt. 7:7-11 – intensity  (ASK – Ask, Seek, Knock) (Asking, Ask, etc.)

Matt. 18:19-20 – unity of believers

Prayers of Jesus:

            In secret – Lk. 5:16, Lk. 9:18

            Early in the morning – Mk. 1:35

            With others – Lk. 11:1

            On a mountain – Matt. 14:23

Goal:             “Pray until our praying and living are totally integrated.”

This is a class on spiritual formation.  Throughout this course there will be several spiritual formation principles that I will highlight in the notes.

Why did the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray??

How do you pray now?

-       Our praying and thinking are governed by our spiritual formation

-       What devotional materials do you currently use?  

Principle 1:  “Spiritual Formation is Nurturing a Relationship with God.”

Our prayers reflect our understanding of God!

Read Acts 12:1-17 – They fervently prayed for Peter’s release! 

-       They couldn’t believe Peter was actually free

-       They asked God and He provided a miracle!

-       Who do you identify with most?  Peter, Rhoda, the disciples?

“What we believe about God and what we believe about ourselves will determine how we pray and the shape of our spiritual formation.”  (p. 16)

(p. 16-17) - Four bullets about our theology – What is our prayer theology (individually)?

-       When we beg God to intervene but expect things to be exactly the same tomorrow, our prayers betray our real theology.

-       When we identify only items that we think God wants to hear, our prayers expose our understanding of God.

-       When we ask God for a specific answer to prayer and then search for evidences that the answer is en route, our prayers reveal the quality of our faith.

-       When we only hold seminars for God and never listen for His guidance, our basic beliefs not only restrict our praying but deeply affect our spiritual development.

Can you identify with any of these theologies?  Are there any other we can add?

Dan. 9:23; Dan. 10:12-13 – Our prayers are heard and answered by God!

HOMEWORK:  Get a journal (notebook of some type).  Read Matthew 5-7, The Sermon on the Mount – Note in your journal anything that stands out in your reading.  Begin to use this journal to log prayers and answers.  We will see trends forming about our prayer theology as time goes on.

Jesus’ Prayer Life – Key to His Basic Beliefs

“Abba” experience at His baptism – Mark 1:11

Quality of His relationship with God – Lazarus’ tomb – Jn. 11:41-42

Emotions: JOY – Lk. 10:21; TURMOIL – Lk. 12:27; DISTRESS: Lk. 22:44; Communion with Abba – Jn. 17

Jesus advocated: humility, persistence, expectant prayer.

Jesus prayed regularly; often early in the morning; in solitary places.

The Gospels record: Jesus tells us to pray in secret where the Father hears us.  He prayed in great crises: the temptation, choosing of the Twelve, the Galilean uprising; upon His final departure for Jerusalem, in the Garden of Gethsemane; and at the Cross.

Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer:  Read: John 17 – reflects the “Abba” experience again.

-       Section 1 - mutual glorification (v. 5) and unity of Father and Son

-       Section 2 - prayer to protect the disciples – even in future trials

Tell of a time when you prayed earnestly to God at a time of personal crisis.  (or write about this in your journal – if working on-line or as home study) 

The Garden Prayer: an integration of Jesus’ praying and believing

He prayed with “loud cries” (Heb. 5:7) – His sweat like drops of blood.  His death was close and He bore His soul to the Father.  “Is there any other way for this to be accomplished?”  In prayer – He realigns Himself to God’s will and faces the Cross!

“His prayers on the cross emphasize the coordination of praying and believing.  Who can ever forget His request of the Father to forgive those who crucified Him?  Or the prayer that the Father would receive His spirit?  Praying and thinking were so integrated that He could say, “The words that I say to you I do not say on my own” (Jn. 14:10).  In the Garden our Lord demonstrated His fundamental belief system through prayer.”  (p. 18)

The Basic Beliefs of Our Praying Lord:

Dr. William Greathouse considers the Sermon on the Mount of critical importance.  He says the Sermon “spells our in detail what it is to ‘have the mind of Christ’(‘all the mind that was in Him’) and ‘to walk as He Himself walked’ (‘not only in many or most respects, but in all things’) (1 Cor. 2:16; see 1 John 2:6).”

Anyone who can hear and do all the Jesus teaches in the Sermon will have a life that can stand up to everything.  Matt. 7:24-25 – Foundations – Jesus concludes His teaching on the Mount by saying, “Whoever hears these words of Mine and does them – is wise”

The Lord’s Prayer is the core of the Sermon on the Mount and so of great importance that we learn and do all that is contained within it.

Principle 2: “Spiritual Formation is Submission to the Lordship of Christ”

An overview of the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer:   ( Read from  - p. 19-20 )

Jesus prayed as He believed and He believed as He prayed.  This is God’s desire for us as well.

How can we be more effective in prayer?  There must be an integration of our theology and our prayer life. Why did Jesus disciples as Him, Lord teach us to pray?  They “seemed to understand that prayer is a strategic clue to how a disciple lives out the Master’s teachings.”  (p. 20)

He taught them to pray a profoundly simple prayer – only 38 words in the original Greek.  A masterpiece of simplicity that teaches us to pray “in a manner consistent with His life and message.  At the heart of all praying is the Lord’s Prayer.”  (p. 20)

All Scripture is taken from the Holy Bible – NIV – Zondervan Publishing House

Matt 6:5-8

5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Matt 18:19-20

19 "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."

Matt 21:22

22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

1 John 5:14

14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Luke 18:9-14

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men-robbers, evildoers, adulterers-or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'

13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Luke 18:1-8

18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'

4 "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!'"

6 And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

Matt 7:7-11

7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

9 "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Luke 5:16

16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Luke 9:18

18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?"

Mark 1:35

35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

Luke 11:1

11:1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.

Matt 14:23

23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,

Acts 12:1-17

12:1 It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 3 When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. 4 After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. "Quick, get up!" he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists.

8 Then the angel said to him, "Put on your clothes and sandals." And Peter did so. "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me," the angel told him. 9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

11 Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating."

12 When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. 13 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. 14 When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, "Peter is at the door!"

15 "You're out of your mind," they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, "It must be his angel."

16 But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. 17 Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. "Tell James and the brothers about this," he said, and then he left for another place.

Dan 9:23

23 As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision:

Dan 10:12-13

12 Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia

Mark 1:11

11 And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

John 11:41-42

41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."

Luke 10:21

21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

Luke 12:27

27 "Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

Luke22:44

44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

1 Cor 2:16

16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" 

But we have the mind of Christ.

1 John 2:6

6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

Matt 7:24-25

24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.