There is a great deal of confusion concerning the Word of God today. The confusion is not among those who doubt the authority or authenticity of the Bible. Instead, it is happening virtually every week among conservative, Bible believing Christians. It comes from blurring the distinction between hearing and doing the Word of God, and is, unfortunately, an easy trap for so many of us to fall into. It may begin like this: We go to church on Sunday and hear a powerful sermon bas

Here are some scriptural ways to pray with confidence and effectiveness! Why not take one a week and practice each principle so that you can learn to apply it to your life of prayer? Confess and break with all conscious and unconfessed sin so that your prayers are birthed out of righteousness and will accomplish much. Take time to confess before God and to meet with a trusted person or persons to confess to and ask for prayer:  “God has no use for the prayers of the people wh

God is doing a new thing today. If you want to be “in” on what God is doing, you must begin praying with greater passion and intensity. If you want purpose and meaning to life, and if you want your life to really count for God and to make a difference in this world…PRAY! Prayer is what God is calling His people to do today as a part of His plan for this world. God is moving all things toward completion. I don’t pretend to know when or how or any of the details that people oft

There’s a fascinating change taking place in the way the Church perceives prayer. From dusty devotions and meeting personal needs, prayer has taken center stage in our attempts to reach the lost. Prayer seems to have become the Divine Strategy for the completion of the task of world evangelization. Wherever the church is growing the most, you find the Church praying the best. The explosion of prayer evangelism is happening in Korea, in Argentina, in many places in Africa…and

When I was young I had an uncle who would come visit about once a year. He was just a mailman who worked hard–rain, sleet, snow or hail. There wasn’t anything too special about him, but he managed to endear himself to all his nephews and nieces. Every year when he came home, he would bring with him some new magic trick to impress and amaze us. Without it, we probably wouldn’t have even noticed he was back. With it he earned our excitement every time he came home. When I look

The Apostle Paul gives an interesting picture of prayer in 2 Corinthians 1:8-11. He talks to the Corinthian believers about all the hardships he has been through on the missionary trip which he and his team have taken. He says:  “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed in our hearts we felt the sentence of de

When we consider family and friends who are living outside of a relationship with Jesus, it is sometimes difficult to know how to pray effectively without giving up. Often, it is not enough to proclaim the message to those we love. There are forces of darkness working overtime to keep people from hearing and responding to the gospel. The salvation of people is a spiritual battle, but God has given us spiritual weapons with which to fight and make a way for those we love to en

Do you ever find yourself asking God to “just save all the lost people”? If you have ever wanted to have some specific, biblical ways to pray for those who are still lost in darkness, here are seven simple ways to posture yourself before the Father and ask for Him to move: Praying for Open Eyes “I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance a

Here is a simple prayer tip for a prayer room, a 24-7 season of prayer, or for families at home. One person will need to monitor the activity and keep things in order. This is easily adaptable to your own creative ideas! Materials Needed: Small clothespins or other kinds of similar clips Large corkboard, bulletin board, or really any kind of board. Sturdy twine or wire Any kind of paper or 3×5 cards Small table with instructions, cards/paper, things to write or draw with, Bib

They began having at least one or more requests every single day from neighbors. And, they have been very busy praying for each and every one of them. God has been giving the girls some new ways to relate to the neighbors as they have been praying. Here are some of the changes they recently made: The girls wanted their neighbors to know that they really are praying through the prayer requests, so they updated their sign from “How Can We Pray for You?” to “We  Are  Praying for

Two young girls, Makiah and Zalaiah who are passionate about prayer and live in Sacramento, CA, decided to offer their neighbors a unique way to be prayed for! They set up a prayer table for their neighbors taking walks or driving by to stop and leave their requests. (Note: this was started in 2020 during Covid, however this idea can obviously be done in any context.) What You Will Need: Set a table out on your front lawn or driveway with a small basket or container that has

Scripture tells us to pray without ceasing. How do you do that in a practical way? Why not try establishing some prayer triggers as reminders to pray throughout your day? This requires a bit of discipline at the beginning as you will need to determine what triggers would be most effective for you and would be easily remembered. Establishing prayer triggers is also a great way to teach kids to pray regularly. Each time you see a school, you could use it as a prayer trigger to

God loves every person on the planet and has called us to go and make disciples of everyone we can! We are also instructed by God to pray for the lost in our families, our neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, and to the ends of the earth! Here are seven scriptural ways to begin praying for lost people every day: Pray for the salvation of those who have yet to attain an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. “But don’t forget this, dear friends, that a day or a thousand years

If your home is like most, life can be hectic. You often wonder, “What did I accomplish today?” Perhaps there were constant interruptions which kept you from things you were determined to complete, and your “to do” list got longer instead of shorter. Or, it could be that you spent much of your time chasing after little ones, or driving children from activity to activity. Maybe you are determined at the end of each day that you will spend your time more wisely so that you can

One of the more disturbing verses in Scripture concerns Cain, the second man to ever live – the eldest son of Adam and Eve. After Cain killed his brother Abel, he is put under a curse that makes him a wanderer. The ground, which received his brother Abel’s blood, will no longer produce for Cain. A worker of the soil, Cain is cut off by his own actions from his means of livelihood. Following his conversation with God after Abel’s murder, comes an action that foreshadows much o

Before launching into intercession for others, corporate prayer, or even personal prayer, here are some powerful questions to utilize as a way to examine the condition of your heart so that God will hear and respond! Spend some time meditating on these scriptures as you answer the questions. Have I confessed all known sin?  Isaiah 59:1-2 says, “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your G

It happens to all of us! We see a homeless person, come upon the scene of an accident…or hear of a family in financial need. Immediately, we may think to pray in each of these situations, “Lord, please help that person. Send someone to meet that need!” What if God wants to use you and your family to be the answer to your prayer? Are you prepared to back up your prayers with action if the Lord directs? I believe that our Father wants us to learn how to be the hands and feet of

God can hear our prayers anytime, anywhere, and at any volume! He is able to hear us even when we think our prayers to Him rather than voice them. Yet, so many of us struggle and would like to be able to verbalize prayers in a group setting. Here are a few tips on how to stretch yourself a bit and grow in this area: One of the best ways to grow in praying out loud, is to practice listening to yourself reading prayers from Scripture. You could start with the Lord’s Prayer in M

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:43-45a). “But I tell you who hear Me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28). Choosing to love and pray for those who persecute or mistreat us mystifies unbelievers, and yet this is the li

Prayer is the most powerful form of evangelism, and everyone can do it!  It is my personal belief that no one comes to Christ apart from prayer.  Many of us had parents, grandparents or friends who prayed that we would know Jesus personally.  Some of us may not know who prayed for the eyes of our hearts to be opened, and may never know until we arrive in heaven.  What we do know, through Scripture, is that no one comes to the Father except through Jesus Christ (John 14:6).  A

Most church prayer ministry teams are predominantly female. There’s a reason for this. In most situations, women pray more than men. C. Peter Wagner notes that of those who have been identified as being primarily intercessors, about 80% are female. Consider why this is so, remembering that we are dealing in generalities here. Women are typically more compassionate than men, which naturally leads them into praying for others. Again, generally speaking, women are more spiritual

A pastor in California led his family to pray for yet-to-be-followers of Christ who lived in five neighboring homes. Within the first eight weeks of prayer, one of their neighbors began asking faith questions and ended up committing her life to Christ. Another neighbor wanted to give up drug dealing and asked for prayer help. A non-churched couple living next door asked the pastor to start a neighborhood Bible study. The family continued to pray. By the six-month mark the cou

It’s easy to get caught up in the frenzy of activity as we push hard to advance the Kingdom of God on earth and manage our work lives, family lives, church responsibilities, etc. If we use Jesus Christ as our example, as well we should, we see that His approach to advancing God’s agenda was first – to retreat. Retreating, not in the sense of acceptance of defeat; but rather, withdrawing from normal activity for a period in order to prepare for intense activity. Jesus began Hi

I will always remember November 11, 1997. It was a holiday, so my family and I went to Indianapolis to relax and to do some shopping. After a full day, we went to the airport to pick up some relatives and drive them back to Terre Haute. My mother’s brother was waiting there for us. He had driven to the airport to give us the news that my mother had suffered a major stroke earlier that day. Suddenly, getting back home was an urgent matter. We drove quickly home and went straig