Bishop Guns - Prayer: Proactive - Not Reactive

This week's service can be watched at
http://www.kbmlive.tv/

---

Exodus 17:4 – 'Moses prayed earnestly to the Lord.'

Prayer is not something you do to get your stuff. Prayer is a lifestyle! Choosing not to pray is like choosing not to breathe. Bad idea!

Richard Foster – 'The Celebration of Discipline'

You rarely find Jesus praising, but He is always found praying! Our churches have lost this basic tenant of the faith.  In today's churches, praise has become like novocaine and prayer simply becomes a solution.

For some reason, praise can create the illusion of intimacy with God.  We love to sing in church and pull on the anointing of the Worship team.  We get what appears to be a spiritual fix from praise and we make the immature assumption that this time of praise will empower us to have the victory.  But years of doing this hasn't seemed to bring the revelation that it isn't working!  You can never be the person of God you are called to be without a lifestyle of prayer.  We need to go from feeling God to knowing God; beyond a good time in church to brokenness before God.

Prayer can never be negotiated.  If you’re not praying, you’re not connected.  It is then that your life then becomes experimental as you do things day in and day out without specific direction or instruction from God.  Prayer is what you do to know the mind of God… everything else will come together following prayer.

Prayer is about intimacy with God. Your closet is where you discover God’s will for your life.  Not while driving to work; not while you are getting ready for your day; not just when all hell breaks loose.  Effective prayer is proactive, not reactive.  We pray before we act and then we do the right things.  Any other type of prayer is reactive and will end up as a 'bail-out' or a 'rescue' prayer.

Consider Moses – his time with God helped him navigate.  The people of Israel were out of Egypt but they were still mentally connected to the system of Pharaoh.  The Lord led Moses through the desert and the people followed Moses.  God gives every believer a Moses.  The Lord will lead your Moses and you are to follow him.  All the Israelites ever depended on for their provision was Pharaoh.  God has to put you in a place where you can’t depend on anything or anyone but God.  Just like the Israelites, in order to set you free, He has to take you to a dry place and dry up everything you are depending on that is not God.  You may have been set free from your Egypt, but it is imperative that you face your wilderness to learn to rely on God and follow His delegated authority.

You need to remind yourself daily in prayer that God is your source… nothing or no one else but God.

“And Moses prayed.” - What was birthed out of his prayer?

3 Things You Need To Know About Prayer:

1. God will release instruction coupled with reassurance.
   
   1. When you pray, God talks to you.
   2. When you praise you can’t hear Him!
   3. You may not have all the theological training, but you have evidence in your own life that demands a verdict!
   4. You don’t have time to try stuff. You need the inside track God provides only through prayer.

Rods don’t survive hitting rocks. You need to make sure you are at the right rock.  God stood on the rock so Moses didn’t have to guess.  God is trying to get you out of the place where you are hoping you made the right decision.

2. Reaffirmation of His place in your life
   
   1. Moses struggled with his place with the people.
   2. God always calls you to a place where you are weakest in the natural.
   3. You don’t know who you are until He tells you.
   4. If you ever figure out who you are, all the stuff the enemy is doing in your life will be gone!
   5. God has to confirm you.  You need to know who you are and God will confirm your identity.

You need the right key to access what God has provided.  Make sure you are using the right key.  Don’t decide that it wasn’t God until you know you have the right key.

3. When you pray, God gives you the ability to re-write your outcome.
   
   1. The people said to Moses, ‘We are going to die’ (vs.3); Moses prayed (vs.4); Water came (vs.6&7)
   2. Don’t accept the outcome based on what everyone else has experienced in your circumstances historically
   3. Prayer releases the water so you don’t have to die of thirst in the midst of the situation.

Praise is not designed to change anything – it is designed to honour God; it is a compliment with no motive.  Praise follows prayer!  After you pray, you praise… because you know it’s already done!

Closing:

• We have been waning in prayer;
• We have been non-intentional and distant;
• We have been driven to be successful… but have not been submissive;
• Repent and commit to pray daily

---

I MISS MY TIME WITH YOU
(Larnelle Harris)

There he was just waiting in our old familiar place;
An empty spot beside him, where once I used to wait;
To be filled with strength and wisdom for the battles of the day;
I would have passed him by again but I clearly heard him say;

I miss my time with you - those moments together
I need to be with you each day - and it hurt's me when you say, ‘you're too busy’
Busy trying to serve me, but how can you serve me - when your spirit is empty?
There's a longing in my heart, wanting more than just a part of you
It's true - I miss my time with you.

What do I have to offer? - How can I truly care?
My efforts have no meaning when your presence isn’t there
Oh, but you’ll provide the power if I take time to pray
I'll stay right here beside you Lord and you will never have to say…

I miss my time with you - those moments together
I need to be with you each day - and it hurt's me when you say, ‘you're too busy’
Busy trying to serve me, but how can you serve me - when your spirit is empty?
There's a longing in my heart, wanting more than just a part of you
It's true - I miss my time with you.

---

CHALLENGE: It's time to Accelerate into your destiny!  Begin each day in the presence of the Lord.  Daily pray to your God who knows all and has the game plan for every day of your life.  No more spinning your wheels and experimenting, wasting valuable time and resources!  It's your time to move into your destiny and bear much fruit that remains and grows.  The harvest will come running when they see God moving in your life because you made a choice to walk in the spirit, seek the face of God every day from now on!

---

Please log your comments on how this week's message has been a blessing to you!  Simply click on the comments link immediately below this week's blog. Any comments already submitted will appear and you can comment below them.
(All comments are reviewed before publishing.) 

---

NOTE:
The Blogger Navbar includes a button called "Share". When blog readers visit the 'HWC Sunday Message' blog, they can click "Share" to post the blog's URL to Twitter, Facebook, or Google Reader. If they navigate directly to an individual blog post, clicking "Share" in the navbar also lets them share the post by email. Once you have left your comment, please share this post on Facebook. This will allow many others the opportunity to visit the 'HWC Sunday Message' blog and be blessed by the message.  You can also subscribe to the blog with RSS feeds.  CLICK HERE to subscribe to HWC Sunday Messages with RSS. 

---

Thanks for visiting!