1 John 5: 14 

 Luke 11: 9 – 11

 ·        Foundation: we ask…He hears

·        He hears…He answers

·        Simple, the only string attached is this: our prayers must line up with His will.

 We have been seeing God move here…we have had new people come…we have had baptisms…I am seeing people’s desire for God grow…but we have much further to go as we take Christ to our community.

 We need to be proactive…asking God to widen our vision…place dreams and goals in our hearts and minds. We can no longer approach things from a wishful thinking standpoint but from the confident fact of who we are and what our mission is.

 God loved the world…He desires all men to be saved and set free from the power of darkness.

 ·        Our Mission

o   To free the captives

o   To give sight to the blind

o   To deliver by example and proclamation the Good News!

o   To love God…love our neighbor and make disciples

 We cannot accomplish anything if we do not have a goal. How silly it would be to have a basketball court with no goals.

 Of course we know what we need to do, but in this battle we need to become more surgical in our approach. A surgeon does not just cut into someone and wander around with his scalpel…no he has already pinpointed what needs to happen and takes care of the problem directly, concisely and decidedly. He has a goal and that goal is what drives him.

 So we need to ask God for specific goals and visions of what we each need to do. We need to become militant in our approach to accomplishing the Mission.

 We do this in prayer. The first the middle and the end. It is recorded concerning Jesus that he went to pray time and time again. Before, during and after. He went alone, He went to the mountain, He took people with Him.

We can do nothing apart from prayer. We can do everything through prayer. We listen and obey.

 Colossians 4: 2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. ESV

 2 Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. NLT

 ·        Devote ourselves to prayer

o   Be strong, steadfast, firm, endure, hold out, bear the burden, be earnest towards, to persevere, be single-minded towards a course of action, persist obstinately in a task, continue to do something with intense effort, steadfastly attentive to, not to faint, constantly diligent…

§  Do you get the point?

o   Devoting ourselves to prayer does not mean that all we do is pray all day long but it does mean that one’s devotion to prayer affects everything in one’s life. Devotion implies:

§  Strong attachment

§  Allegiance to something

§  Dedication to something

§  To be devoted is to be committed and loyal

o   In spite of any and all circumstances prayer must be our go to action

§  Daniel 6: 10 But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God.

§  Passed a law, whoever prays in the next 30 days gets thrown into the lion’s den.

·        Be watchful and thankful so that through prayer our spiritual eyes will be opened to what God wants us to do

o   As watchmen on the wall (protect and take care of the city)

§  Watch for dangers

§  Watch for opportunity (caravans of supplies and needed goods)

o   By praying we will be able to see…

§  Sooner

§  Farther

o   Thankful

§  Adjusts our attitude

§  Enables us to listen clearly

§  Sets our hearts in tune with God’s

 Good intentions do not feed the bulldog.

 We need to be purposeful in how we pray. And tenacious in our prayers.

 Widow praying….

 Luke 18:1-8

 Acts 6: 4