Prayer Requests and Learning How to Pray

Discovering God through His Life-Giving Word

Discovering God through His Life-Giving Word

“A benefit of praying the Bible is that it makes you enter the throne of grace with new boldness, because you know that you are praying according to God’s will (1 John 5:14-15). Instead of hoping to receive answers to our prayers, we can be assured—based on the promises of God—that prayers prayed according to His will in the Bible will be answered. Your faith will be strengthened, your wisdom will become spiritual wisdom and your knowledge of God will increase.” Wesley and Stacey Campbell

Dear intercessors,

Wouldn’t you agree that most people would like an abundant, fulfilling life? People are looking for life during this Christmas season. Unfortunately most look in all the wrong places. Acquiring things will not bring us fulfillment. We are naturally attracted to that which gives life, but few people realize that there is tremendous life in the Word of God. If they believed it, they would read, study, and devour it. The primary way that God speaks to us is through His Word. He brings revelation as we pray it. Praying the Bible, together with singing it, is a powerful way to discover God in a deeper way.

Power is released on the earth as God’s Word is prayed or sung passionately into the atmosphere. 

When we pray God’s Word, divine information is internalized. It transforms us as we speak it back to God. We become bold and are filled with faith as we pray it. We are praying God’s ideas back to His heart; we are coming into agreement with His thoughts and ways. This impacts us deeply, and touches our environment with the power and life of God.

There are four Greek words that describe the function of the Word of God. It is amazing how a group of people can all read the same passage in the Bible and receive something different. These four Greek words and their definition are:

  • Graphe - The written, historical Word of God. This is where you understand the Bible as if you are reading a novel.
  • Logos - The meaning of the principles of the Bible. This is where you understand the good life principles that you are to follow.
  • Rhema - The revelation of the Word of God. This is where the Holy Spirit illuminates the “graphe” or “logos” to you.
  • Zoe - The Word of God dwelling within. This is where the Word of God becomes a creative, living part of who you are. The “rhema” becomes life-giving revelation.

As we pray we want the Word of God to become “zoe” life.We want to discover God in a deeper way with life-giving revelation. And this is what is happening as we pray and sing the Word. God’s Word becomes life! The Word of God must be at the very center of the prayer movement. It is God’s strategy for prayer in the end times. 

Praying the Word will keep us strong as the days become more difficult. It will keep us in peace when the world around us is in turmoil. It will keep us joyful when the world is living in fear and gloom. The Word is alive and active. It is sharp and it penetrates into our thoughts and hearts (Hebrews 4:12). We need God’s Word written on our hearts and flowing through our prayers. 

God’s Word can bring “zoe” life in a most amazing way! 

In Baghdad, Iraq, a 22-year-old Army Private First Class soldier named Brendan Schweigart was on a critical mission wearing a bullet proof shield for protection. You can only imagine the tension in that situation. Before going out to battle, he carefully tucked his Bible in his pocket beneath his bulletproof shield. While on a dangerous mission, he was shot with a high-powered rifle. The Bible saved his life when it shielded the bullet from his heart. He told his mother that he always carried his Bible into battle. Brendan received a Purple Heart and was soon released from the hospital. The bullet was still in the pages of his Bible, a miraculous reminder of the amazing power and protection of the Word of God.

God’s Word will protect our lives when in spiritual battle. It can bring forth life in the darkest of situations. It can save us from those fiery darts from the enemy. I wonder how many of us carry our Bibles into battle like Army Private Brendan? 

A Personal Exercise to Bring Forth Zoe Revelation

“The Word of God is a great help in prayer. If it is lodged and written in our hearts, it will form an out-flowing current of prayer, full and irresistible. Promises, stored in the heart, are to be the fuel from which prayer receives life and warmth. Just as coal, which has been stored in the earth, gives us comfort on stormy days and wintry nights, the Word of God stored in our hearts is the food by which prayer is nourished and made strong. Prayer, like man, cannot live by bread alone, 'but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'”E. M. Bounds

Try this personal exercise to help bring the Word of God to life in your own heart. Take a portion of Scripture and read it out loud. Then write the Scripture out and outline the main points. Well-known author and prophetic intercessor, Chuck Pierce, suggests the following: 

  • Ask God to activate the spirit of wisdom and revelation in you regarding that passage.
  • Ask Him to show you things that go beyond your brain; things that you do not currently distinguish or recognize.
  • Ask Him to show you things that you have not seen before.
  • Write down any and all impressions you receive as you are meditating on the Scripture. You may want to do this on more than one occasion.
  • Allow faith that God is speaking to you to arise within you.
  • When it begins to become alive, and you start seeing rhema revelation that you have not seen before, then ask God how that applies to you and your situation.
  • Ask Him to establish the rhema within you, so that it becomes ongoing, sustained zoe life.

This exercise can be done in a group setting as well. I have personally seen how praying, listening, and singing the Word of God over and over brings it into “zoe”, life-giving revelation. This is where God wants us to live on a daily basis. CDs that pray the Word of God with worship can help bring “zoe” revelation. Let the Bible become a conversation piece where you talk to God and to others using His Word. You will discover God in a deeper way.

Prayers from the Book of Revelation

When you pray the hymns of Revelation, you pray with all of heaven, going before God as He sits on His throne and joining with Him in worship. You will hear and say some of the same words the angels and elders say to God. Try praying these hymns and get to know some of what is going on in heaven, what will happen when heaven comes here, and how all of heaven and earth talk to the One on the throne and to the Lamb.

We need to realize that the book of Revelation is a prayer manual in the end times. There are seventy to eighty direct or indirect references to prayer in the book of Revelation. Some of these references are hymns, declarations, worship, supplications, altars, incense, and others. These prayers reveal the end-time events and Jesus as the conquering King of kings. They also reveal intercession as the governmental center of the Kingdom of God. The prayer movement will have a vital role in God’s plan to release the Kingdom of God on earth. 

Take some time this week to pray some of the hymns in the book of Revelation listed here. Ask God to show you things you have not seen before. Ask Him to speak to your heart and bring you into “zoe”, life-giving revelation. Ask Him to cause the Word of God to burn within you as you journey through life. We need to be like the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders in Revelation 4:8b-11 who continually marveled at the awesome holiness and glory of God:

“Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.’" 

Praying God’s Word and studying it is like a rich treasure.Approach your study of it with a spirit of love and devotion towards God. Help others to realize its life-giving power. Don’t just look at it as an intellectual pursuit. Often when we get a letter from our friends, we react in a certain way. We reread it to see what they have to say with the interest of a friend and loved one. But frequently we treat the Bible like a textbook, looking to gain intellectual knowledge. God wants your affection and love as you read and pray it.

Respond to Him as you read. Say, “Thank You” for His promises, and ask Him for strength to follow His commands. Pray for understanding when you encounter a difficult passage, and ask for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him (Ephesians 1:17-18). Pray for increased understanding and that He will guide you into all truth (John 16:13). 

Believe that God will transform you as you study, commune, and pray His Word. Develop a loving dialogue with a commitment to obey, and watch how your life changes over time. You are digging deep for gold, and you will not be disappointed. His Word in your heart, and proclaimed through your lips, is like a burning fire that will touch and transform not only your own lives, but all those you come into contact with. Remember that agreement with God in His Word changes us, it changes the spiritual atmosphere of our cities, and it releases His power in the world. 

Cherish it, love it, pray it, and appreciate it as you walk this journey of life. Remember that others are looking for life during this Christmas season. You can help them discover God through His life-giving Word.

See how the Hallelujah Chorus changed the atmosphere in this shopping mall -  Hallelujah Chorus!

“Seeking the face of God, and then gazing at it, has to begin sometime and someplace. It begins by bringing our whole person before the consuming fire who is God, reciting His words—the Bible—out loud to Him and then letting the Holy Spirit reveal Christ to us. This is why we pray the Bible. May it be that as you engage in this practice that your prayer times will have the same result as the disciples’—whose hearts burnt within as God talked with them along their journey of life. Yes, may your heart burn and your light shine.” Wesley and Stacey Campbell

*Publishing Date:12/4/2013