The Prayer Warrior's Way: Strategies from Heaven for Intimate Communication with God

Introduction

There’s a conversation that has been going on from long before this universe was even created—and there is something buried in each of our hearts that tells us we were created to be part of it. It’s a dialogue built into the very fabric of our DNA. We long for it. We yearn to be in on it. But despite giving our lives to Christ and being born again in the Spirit, we still don’t know how to plug into it.

Prologue

In the revolutionary disciple’s prayer Jesus offered in this passage, He not only gave them an outline of what to pray for daily—a starting place for consistently knocking on the door of heaven—but also the means of transforming their own minds from men and women trapped in a world of doubt, oppression, and failure into a mind-set of heaven: one of faith, provision, and overcoming.

Part One—The Big Picture

1 The Great Paradigm Shift

As members of His family, we have the right to go to our Father and ask for His plans, strategies, and resources to fulfill our mission, assignments, and purpose upon the earth. Prayer is the conduit that not only reveals the will of God for our individual lives but also helps make us the people we need to be to do the impossible on the earth. It’s time to plug into that power like we never have before.

2 First Things First

When you are in boot camp, they put obstacles in your path and tell you to overcome them—if you do, they give you bigger ones; if you don’t, they send you back to the end of the line to start over again. As God recruits us and begins to work within us for our growth, there is a similar series of obstacle courses for us to overcome in prayer.

3 What Should Be

Prayer is the most powerful place of spiritual growth. Sitting in church under good teaching is a wonderful thing, and applying the principles learned there is life transforming, but if you want to get to know God, your pastor can’t do it for you. You have to take Jesus up on His invitation to come hang out. You have to spend time with your physical eyes closed and your spiritual eyes open, letting Jesus show you what He really wants for you and the plans He has for you to impact your world. These are where we are handed the keys to His kingdom.

4 Mission: Impossible

As we persevere in this prayer, as the work of prayer finds its completion, we experience the answer: the grace and authority needed to overcome the difficulty floods like morning light into our spirits and souls. The answer comes in our hearts and we know without doubt it is taken care of, even if that answer is not yet manifested in the natural world.

Part Two—Praying Heaven Down

5 Enough

If you want to check a person’s level of commitment and spirituality, the easiest place to look is in four areas: how they manage their daily calendar, their finances, their relationships, and their destiny. These four areas make up the difference between a truly rich life and a life that is in spiritual poverty.

6 Freedom for All

If we have done the full work in our most intimate relationships, it is easier for other relationships to be all the more transparent and rewarding. It is much more effective to join in purpose with others for our work, social outreaches, or spreading of God’s kingdom than to constantly be competing with each

other. This is what the kingdom of God is all about. Proactive forgiveness, in practice, after all, looks a lot like love.

7 This Day I Will

Today has a place in eternity that no other day can take. There are things God has set for you to accomplish this day, and there are things the devil has appointed for you to be distracted by. What we do with today matters, not only for ourselves but also for those God has appointed for our lives to touch. Satan, on the other hand, would like to sideline us permanently, derail the will of God, and interfere with the formation of His kingdom.

8 Victory!

Being all God has called you to be begins and ends in prayer. It is in hearing from heaven—plugging into the big conversation—that God’s will for the earth today will be communicated to His people and put into action. Are you part of the fight to manifest God’s kingdom of wholeness, freedom, and sufficiency?