Strategic Prayer

In this final week of our prayer course, we talk about how to pray strategic prayers.

The 8-weeks of teaching were a part of our NSU’s “The Battle Plan for Prayer” course.  I taught it once in the Fall and once in the Spring.

I changed the way I taught it in the Spring and liked it so much better that I feel like I gipped the previous group!

I did record the audio from the Spring semester for anyone wanting to hear the teaching (or even the group from the Fall semester).  You can access it here.

The course is designed to be used best in a small group format.  We had to adjust it for our purposes.  So I taught for about 30-40 minutes on the topic, and then we watched the video portion from Stephen and Alex Kendrick that goes along with the curriculum.  After that, participants answered the questions in the workbooks and did daily devotions throughout the week.

In this final section of my portion, I taught from Samuel’s example concerning prayer found in 1 Samuel 12.

Audio

Key Points

  1. Before Samuel issues a challenge, he establishes his credibility (1 Sam. 12:1-5).
  2. There is no escaping the fact that our credibility affects our prayers (James 5:16; Prov. 15:29).
  3. God’s faithfulness will not be completely deterred by our unfaithfulness (1 Sam. 12:6-15).
  4. Life doesn’t have to be chaotic.  Obey the LORD and “it will be well” (1 Sam. 12:14).
  5. Answered prayers awaken silenced intercessors (1 Sam. 12:16-19).
  6. When this prayer was answered before their eyes, it woke the people up to whom they were praying.
  7. We aren’t doing “everything” for someone if we neglect praying for him or her (1 Sam. 12:20-25).
  8. Don’t sin by ceasing to pray for those you are called to serve!