Use these principles of prayer from each chapter to refresh your memory and use in your daily praying.

1. If The Answer Is No (2 Corinthians 12:8-10)

1. God looks at the intention of our heart, and answers us according to the spirit of our prayers.

2. God is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or think.

3. When God says "no," we must remind ourselves that He is working out better things.

2. Praying For Unbelievers (Romans 10:1)

1. Our prayers are one means that God has ordained to use in the salvation of sinners.

3. God Comforts In Many Ways (2 Corinthians 1:3,4,10,11)

1. God provides comfort and guidance in advance.

2. We can learn from our and others afflictions how God answers prayer.

3. When we ask others to pray for us, we need to encourage them by telling them how God has heard their prayers in our times of need.

4. We need to ask God to keep us faithful in all circumstances.

4. God Has Provided Before We Pray (Matthew 6:6-8)

1. What we pray, build, say, or write might meet the needs of some unknown person or group tens or hundreds of years in the future.

5. Learning To Pray (Luke 11:1)

1. The Holy Spirit teaches us more about prayer the more we pray.

6. Praying For New Things (Deuteronomy 4:7)

1. God wants us to share all things, great and small, with Him.

7. Living By Faith (Matthew 6:24-26)

1. We need to look for instances of God's providential care and provision to build our faith.

8. Passing On Our Faith (Philemon 1:6)

1. We need to pray for the opportunity to witness, and also prepare ourselves spiritually and intellectually so as to have something real to share.

9. God Saves Through The Truth (1 Samuel 12:23)

1. Pray that we may speak the truth in love.

10. When God Moves Slowly (2 Thessalonians 3:1)

1. In praying for others we need to look beyond the immediate concern to learn why God will sometimes take longer than we expect to answer our prayers.

2. Praying for sinners and others brings about a bond of unity and love that nothing else will.

3. When God is slow in answering our prayers, we need to keep on praying, ask Him if He wants us to do more than pray, and pray that more people will be blessed through His delay.

11. God Gives More Than We Ask (Ephesians 3:20,21)

1. God answers prayers in every area of life in practical ways.

2. Sometimes God delays His answers because He has lessons to teach us and others before giving us the answers we seek.

3. God wants us to use our mind as well as our spirit in prayer--He meets the needs of our logical minds.

12. The Battle In Prayer And Satan (2 Thessalonians 3:2)

1. God uses trials and tribulations to teach us about prayer and His power to deliver.

2. God often delays an answer so we will pray fervently to show ourselves and him just how much we want the answer.

13. The Battle In Prayer And The Bible (Daniel 9:2,3)

1. God uses the Bible to teach us the things He wants us to pray about.

2. God expects us to fill our minds with His Word and read the Bible daily so He can speak to us each day.

14. Praying Through The Promises Of God (Isaiah 2:2,3)

1. When a situation changes and we are kept from doing what we intended or what we thought God wanted us to do, we need to pray for God to show us something else we can do in the new situation.

15. My Father's House (Mark 11:17)

1. God intends for our churches and homes to be places to intercede for the material and spiritual needs of others, and not places to withdraw from responsibility.

16. My Father's Plans (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

1. To pray with faith that we are praying according to the will of God demands evidence that what we are praying for is indeed according to His will.

2. Once we understand that God has plans for us, we should pray for God to reveal His plans.

3. God uses these means to reveal His will for how we should pray: the Holy Spirit, the general and specific promises in the Bible, predictions in the Bible, and providential events.

17. My Father's Provisions (Isaiah 56:6,7)

1. In answer to prayer, God can completely defeat those who try to remove His truth and influence.

2. To demonstrate God's reality requires more than praying for our needs to be met. It also includes making promises to God and remaining faithful.

3. When we study the importance of making vows to the Lord, we learn another secret of power in prayer.

18. My Father's People (Isaiah 45:20)

1. God's evident display of faithfulness should encourage us to pray and move ahead as He leads.

2. God knows what prayers to answer and when to answer them in order to have the greatest positive effect on the greatest number of people.

3. Only the Holy Spirit can give people an understanding heart, so we must make this a matter of prayer.

4. Living by faith and prayer alone takes a tremendous amount of work and requires great physical and spiritual strength.

19. Living Before Others (1 Timothy 2:8)

1. We must pray for God to work in the spiritual realm and build our Christian character.

2. Only our living with consistency day by day will help many overcome their cynicism and skepticism about the validity of the Christian faith.

3. To have much power in prayer, we need to live holy lives, not in our own strength, but in a moment by moment dependence on the Holy Spirit.

20. Hearing The Prayers Of Unbelievers (Hebrews 11:6)

1. When we love and bless our enemies our moral character is similar to the character of God and we are truly His children.

2. The way God's Son died as a human being demonstrated the extent of God's love for His enemies, and made the atonement the greatest event in human history.

3. Regarding prayer, we cannot say that God treats believers and unbelievers in exactly the same way.

4. The cries of the wicked are not the same as the prayers of the righteous, but God will sometimes hear the cries of the wicked. The Bible does not give the wicked any reason to believe that God will answer their prayers.

21. Days Of Fasting And Prayer (Luke 5:35)

1. Fasting indicates that we are willing to deny ourselves to follow Him.

2. Times of fasting and prayer are opportunities to draw near to God and prepare ourselves to receive Him when He draws near to us.

3. Fasting should indicate our absolute submission to the will of God.

22. Confidence In Prayer And Our Conscience (1 John 3:21,22)

1. Times of fasting and prayer enable God to show us the true state of hearts: do we love God for who He is, or just for what He gives?

2. Jesus expects us to ask Him to fill us with the Holy Spirit so we are empowered to overcome all temptations moment by moment.

3. When we obey God and do what pleases Him, our hearts will not condemn us and we will have confidence in prayer.

4. Our prayers must include asking God to give us a tender conscience--even in the small things.

23. Prayer And Righteousness (James 5:13-16)

1. To be powerful and effective in prayer, we must be righteous.

2. Too many people have ineffective prayer lives, because they think they can live in sin and substitute a so-called "position" in Christ for maintaining a righteous, obedient relationship with God in Christ.

24. Prayer And Self-Examination (2 Thessalonians 1:11,12)

1. We should pray and work so God will find us "worthy of His calling."

2. We should persevere in prayer and not always think that God's delays indicate we lack faith or have sinned.

25. Prayer And Hard Work (Matthew 9:36-38)

1. Many who live by faith have more than earned the gifts that people send in answer to their prayers for the needy.

2. Living by faith as a means of leisure tempts God and indicates a mistaken attitude toward work.

26. Prayer And Sacrifice (Colossians 1:10; 4:3,4)

1. Saving faith supernaturally leads us to a willingness to sacrifice for others, as God and others have sacrificed for us.

2. When we live by faith we enter a supernatural way of living, and begin to act on the basis of the character of Jesus Christ, which He is forming within us.

27. Prayer And Growth (Acts 2:42)

1. Prayer can become a state of mind and not just words.

2. Prayer for God to bless our labors does involve our willingness to always be a "small work," if that is God's will for us.

3. Success is not measured by size, but by faithfulness.

28. Asking Great Things From God (1 Chronicles 17:25)

1. God can be honored by the size of our requests.

2. We need to ask great things, expect great things, and attempt great things to glorify and honor God.

3. In answer to prayer, God may stretch us beyond human endurance and intelligence so our work will be truly His work within us and not our alone.

4. We need to rejoice and think about how much God strongly desires to work with us.

29. Our Work Or God's Work (Job 1:21,22)

1. God promises that by His grace He will give us all that we need to honor Him in an unbelieving world.

2. We need to learn that we will honor God the most when we allow His character to shine forth from our lives.

3. We can become a friend of God and be used by God as His friend by walking in the Spirit.

4. God may allow testing so we can show others that we truly believe that whatever we have achieved is really God's work or achievement and not ours.

30. Jesus' Prayer And God's Work In Us (John 17:14-18)

1. A life of prayerful obedience will lead us to confront an unbelieving world and a rebellious church with the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ.

2. The more we pray and obey, the more intense the spiritual battle can become.

31. Life After Death (Psalm 32:6)

1. By His Spirit, God often gives widows, or widowers, more opportunities to serve Him and demonstrates His power to overcome their tragic loss.

2. Love as the motive will keep our prayers from becoming legalistic.

Epilogue

1. If we measure our success and failures by the impact or size of great Christian leaders, we may always be disappointed.

2. No matter what role God wants us to take in His Kingdom, He will use enduring principles and similar procedures over and over again to teach people how to pray, to draw people close to Him, to transform their character into the image of Christ, to enable them to lead some to saving faith, and to empower them to bear fruit.

© Copyright L. G. Parkhurst, Jr. Revised Edition 2008
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